Asia
In the poets Asis, one of the three great divisions which the ancients made of the known world. It was first used by the Greeks for the western part of Asia Minor, especially the plains watered by the river Caÿster, where the Ionian colonists first settled; and thence, as their geographical knowledge advanced, they extended it to the whole country. The southern part of the continent was supposed to extend much farther to the east than it really does, while to the north and northeast parts, which were quite unknown, much too small an extent was assigned.