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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, e.g. 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, e.g., 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.
