Ionia (Ancient Greek Ἰωνία or Ἰωνίη) was an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-ay Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was eponymously named after the Ionian tribe who in the Archaic Period occupied mainly the shores and islands of the Aegean Sea. Ionian states were identified by tradition and by their use of Eastern Greek. Among them was the city of Athens and its territory, Attica.