Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/318

 302 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. CHAPTER III. CARIA. HISTORY OF THE CARIANS. THE name of Caria was applied in antiquity to a hilly district, southward of Asia Minor, which stretches between the mouth of the Mseander and the impetuous stream called the Indos (Dolo- man Tshai). The latter descends from Cibyratides and falls into the sea opposite Rhodes. It is a country bounded by the mountain chains of the Messogis, the Cadmos, and the Salbacos, which serve to separate it from Lydia on the north, and Southern Phrygia on the east ; whilst the lofty mountains of Lycia oppose a formid- able barrier on the south-east. 1 Caria belongs almost entirely to the Mseander basin ; its shores are broken up throughout into very salient peninsulas and deep gulfs ; but whilst the maritime frontage of Lydia and Mysia fell into the hands of the Ionian and Mysian Greeks, the Carian population managed to retain most of their coast line. The province counted little more than three important Greek centres, of which two rose at the extremity of long promontories in touch with the continent by a narrow tongue. These, to take them in their order from north to south, were potent Miletus, the acknowledged queen of Ionia until the day when her well-sheltered roadstead, which served her as harbour, was silted up by the deposits of the Mseander ; next came Hali- carnassus and Dorian Cnidus. Veritable ships riding at anchor, these cities derived their main resources from maritime enter- prise ; hence they were content with suburbs of no great extent, and, except in their immediate neighbourhood, all the rest, dominated by the crested heights of Latmos, was occupied as of 1 Strabo, XIV. ii. i.