Ancient district, southern Anatolia.
It was one of the most thoroughly Hellenized districts in ancient Anatolia; its territory included Greek cities along the shore of the Aegean Sea and a mountainous interior bounded by Lydia , Phrygia , and Lycia . Absorbed first by Lydia, it later was annexed (4th century BC) by the Persian Achaemenian Empire, one of whose governors, Mausolus , transferred its capital from Mylasa to Halicarnassus . Taken from Persia in 334 BC by Alexander the Great , it was incorporated into the Roman province of Asia in 129 BC.