The Ionians were one of the four major tribes into which the Greeks considered themselves to have been divided in the ancient period (Achaeans was a colloquial name for Mycenaeans). The Ionian dialect was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the Hellenic world, together with the Dorian and Aeolian. “Ionian” with reference to populations had several senses in Classical Greece. In the narrowest sense, it was used of the region of Ionia in Asia Minor.
