Milyas

Milyas (Ancient Greek: Μιλυάς) was a mountainous country in ancient south-west Anatolia (modern Turkey). However, it is generally described as being mostly in the northern part of the successor kingdom of Lycia, as well as southern Pisidia, and part of eastern Phrygia.^[1] According to Herodotus, the boundaries of Milyas were never fixed.^[2]

Its inhabitants used the endonym Milyae (Μιλύαι),^[3] or Milyans. However, the oldest known name for inhabitants of the area is Sólymoi (Σόλυμοι), Solymi and Solymians – names that are probably derived from the nearby Mount Solymus. Louis Feldman suggested that the Solymoi originally spoke an unattested Semitic language (this opinion is not commonly supported),^[4] whereas the Milyan language was an Indo-European language.

^ Strab. xii. p. 573.
^ Herod. i. 173; Arrian, Anab. i. 25.
^ Herod. vii. 77 ; Strab. xiv. p. 667; Plin. v. 25, 42.
^ Louis H. Feldman, 1996, Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian. Princeton, Princeton University Press, pp. 190–1; 519–21.

[1] Strab. xii. p. 573.

[2] Herod. i. 173; Arrian, Anab. i. 25.

[3] Herod. vii. 77 ; Strab. xiv. p. 667; Plin. v. 25, 42.

[4] Louis H. Feldman, 1996, Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian. Princeton, Princeton University Press, pp. 190–1; 519–21.

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