The Greek term Arianē, a term found in Iranian AvestanAiriiana-. The modern name Iran represents a different form of the ancient name Ariana which derived from Airyanem Vaejah and implies that Iran is “the” Ariana itself – a word found in Old Persian – a view supported by the traditions of the country preserved in the Muslim writers of the ninth and tenth centuries. The Greeks also referred to Haroyum/Haraiva as 'Aria', which is one of the many provinces found in Ariana. The names Ariana and Aria, and many other ancient titles of which Aria is a component element, are connected with the Avestan term Airya-, and the Old Persian term Ariya-, a self designation of the peoples of Ancient India and Ancient Iran, meaning "noble", "excellent" and "honourable".
Extent of Ariana
The exact limits of Ariana are laid down with little accuracy in classical sources. It seems to have been often confused with the small province of Aria. As a geographical term, Ariana was introduced by the Greek geographer, Eratosthenes, and was fully described by the Greek geographer Strabo. Per Eratosthenes' definition, the borders of Ariana were defined by the Indus River in the east, the sea in the south, a line from Carmania to the Caspian Gates in the west, and the so-called Taurus Mountains in the north. This large region included almost all of the countries east of Media and ancient Persia, including south of the great mountain ranges up to the deserts of Gedrosia and Carmania, i.e. the provinces of Carmania, Gedrosia, Drangiana, Arachosia, Aria, the Paropamisadae; also Bactria was reckoned to Ariana and was called "the ornament of Ariana as a whole" by Apollodorus of Artemita. After having described the boundaries of Ariana, Strabo writes that the name Αρειανή could also be extended to part of the Persians and the Medes and also to the northwards Bactrians and the Sogdians. A detailed description of that region is to be found in Strabo's Geographica, . By Herodotus Ariana is not mentioned, nor is it included in the geographical description of Stephanus of Byzantium and Ptolemy, or in the narrative of Arrian.
Inhabitants of Ariana
The peoples by whom Ariana was inhabited, as enumerated by Strabo were:
Pliny says that some add to India four satrapies to the west of the river, – the Gedrosii, Arachosii, Arii, and Paropamisadae, as far as the river Cophes. Pliny therefore agrees on the whole with Strabo. Dionysius Periegetes agrees with Strabo in extending the northern boundary of the Ariani to the Paropamisus, and speaks of them as inhabiting the shores of the Erythraean Sea. It is probable, from Strabo, that the term was extended to include the east Persians, Bactrians, and Sogdians, with the people of Ariana below the mountains, because they were for the most part of one speech. Rüdiger Schmitt, the German scholar of Iranian Studies, also believes that Ariana should have included other Iranian people. He writes in the Encyclopædia Iranica:
