Ionia
Ionia names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Ionia in ancient geography
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in ancient geography, the most flourishing district of Asia Minor, where a colony from Attica settled about 1050 b. c. This beautiful country extended from the Hermus along the shore of the Ægean Sea to Miletus and the of Posideum. It promontory was bounded on the N. by Æolia, S. by Caria, E. by Lydia and part of Caria, and on the W. by the Icarian and Ægean seas, and lay between lat. 37° and 40° N.; its longitude has never been accurately defined. This country is said to have been peopled by Greek colonists about 1045 B. C. After founding Colophon, Ephesus, Miletus, and other important cities, the Ionians obtained possession of Smyrna about 688 b. c., and the country soon attained a high degree of prosperity. At the commencement of the reign of Cresus, 560 b. c., it was subject to the Lydians, and it was conquered by Cyrus 557 b. c. On the overthrow of the Persian empire by Alexander III., Ionia became subject to Macedonia, and it afterward formed part of the Roman empire 64 b. c.
Ionia a city and county-seat of Ionia co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and county-seat of Ionia co., Mich.; on the Grand river, and the Pere Marquette and the Grand Trunk railroads; 35 miles E. of Grand Rapids. It contains the State House of Correction, the State Asylum for the Dangerous and Criminal Insane, large railroad rei pair shops, and manufactories of pottery, furniture, machinery, edged tools, and clothing. The industrial interests are greatly promoted by excellent power furnished by the river. The city has a public high school, library, several daily and weekly periodicals. Pop. (1910) 5,030; (1920) 6,935.
Ionia A district on the west coast of Asią Minor
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A district on the west coast of Asią Minor, so called from the Ionian Greeks who colonized it at a time earlier than any distinct historical records.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 that Ionia had been Greek since colonists came from Attica about 1045 B.C.; within two years that continuity ended, as Smyrna burned in September 1922 and the 1923 Greek-Turkish population exchange removed the region's Greek inhabitants. The district is now western Turkey, and its ancient cities have been dug rather than merely described: German excavation of Miletus and Austrian work at Ephesus, and from 1948 the digs at Bayrakli that uncovered Old Smyrna. Hittite texts, read since the accounts above, also give the cities pre-Greek names such as Millawanda for Miletus, and most scholars now treat the neat Attic foundation date as legend covering a slower, mixed migration around 1050-900 B.C. The Michigan city of the same name has grown from Collier's 6,935 to about 13,000, and its state asylum for the criminally insane is gone, though Ionia remains a prison town.
Written for this edition, 2026.