Everything about Aria Satrapy totally explained
Aria (
Greek Areia/Aria,
Latin Aria, representing
Old Persian.
Haraiva,
Avestan Haraeuua), name of a region in the eastern part of the
Persian empire, several times confused with
Ariane in the classical sources. Aria was an Old Persian
satrapy, which enclosed chiefly the valley of the
Hari River (Greek Areios, this being eponymous to the whole land according to
Arrian (
Anabasis 4.6.6) and which in antiquity was considered as particularly fertile and, above all, rich in
wine; its capital was Alexandria (probably since
330 BC), the modern
Herat (northwest
Afghanistan). The land south of
Margiana and
Bactria, in the east of
Parthia and the
Carmanian desert, north of
Drangiana and in the west of the
Paropamisadae is described in a very detailed manner by
Ptolemy (6.17; cf.
Strabo 11.10.1) and corresponds, according to that, almost to the
province Herat of today's Afghanistan. In this sense the term is used correctly by some writers, for example
Herodotus (3.93.3, where the
Areioi are mentioned together with the
Parthians, Chorasmians, and
Sogdians);
Diodorus (17.105.7; 18.39.6); Strabo (2.1.14; 11.10.1, cf. also 11.8.1 and 8; 15.2.8 and 9); Arrian (Anabasis 3.25.1);
Pomponius Mela (1.12, where we read that “nearest to
India is Ariane, then Aria”).
The Persian
Achaemenid district of Aria is mentioned in the provincial lists that are included in various royal inscriptions, for instance, in the
Behistun inscription of
Darius I (ca.
520 BC). Representatives from the district are depicted in reliefs, for example, at the royal Achaemenid tombs of
Naqsh-e Rustam and
Persepolis. They are wearing
Scythian-style dress (with a tunic and trousers tucked into high boots) and a twisted turban around the head.
At the time of Alexander the Great, Aria was obviously an important district. It was administered by a satrap, called
Satibarzanes, who was one of the three main Persian officials in the East of the Empire, together with the satrap
Bessus of Bactria and
Barsaentes of Arachosia. In late
330 BC Alexander the Great, captured the Arian capital that was called Artacoana. The town was rebuilt and the citadel was constructed. It was part of the
Seleucid Empire but was captured by others on various occasions and became part of the
Parthian Empire in
167 BC. Aria later on became a province of the
Sassanid Empire.
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