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Ariana was a general geographical term used by some Greek and Roman authors of the ancient period for a district of wide extent between Central Asia and the Indus River, comprising the eastern provinces of the Achaemenid Empire that covered the whole of modern-day Afghanistan, as well as the easternmost part of Iran and up to the Indus River in Pakistan. Ariana is the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek Ἀρ(ε)ιανή Ar(e)ianē (inhabitants: Ariani; Ἀρ(ε)ιανοί Ar(e)ianoi), originating from the Old Persian word Ariyanem (Ariana) meaning 'the Land of the Aryans', similar to the use of Āryāvarta. At various times, various parts of the region were governed by the Persians (the Achaemenids from 550 to 330 BC, the Sasanians from 275 to 650 AD and the Kushano-Sasanians from 345 to 450 AD), the Macedonians, the Seleucids from 330 to 305 BC, the Maurya Empire from 305 BC to 184 BC, then the Greco-Bactrians from and the Indo-Greeks from 155 to 90 BC), the Indo-Scythians from 90...