conflict that broke out between Alexander's successors after his death in 323 BC and throughout the Hellenistic Age that followed, Ionia was a contested territory, divided between the Antigonid, Seleucid, and Ptolemaic kingdoms. Cities were regularly forced to switch allegiance from one monarch to another, but they were also able to play the kings off against one another in order to get better terms for themselves. Despite the political situation, the Ionian League continued to operate throughout the period. Following their victory in the War with Antiochus in 189 BC, the Romans placed Ionia under the control of the Attalid Kingdom, which retained the region until it was annexed by Rome in 133 BC. One of the major theatrical associations of the Hellenistic period was the Synod of the Dionysiac Artists of Ionia and the Hellespont, which was established around 250 BC and had its headquarters successively in Teos, Ephesus, Myonnesus, and Lebedus. Roman empire Ionia became part of the Roman province of Asia in 133 BC, which had its capital at the Ionian city of Ephesus. Ionia had no formal place in the Roman administration of the province, which was divided into conventus districts that were totally distinct from the traditional ethnic divisions of the region. However, the Ionian League continued to function in this period. The geographer Strabo treats Ionia as the narrow coastal strip from the Hermus river in the north to the Maeander river in the south (though noting that other authorities included the plain south of the river). He treats Ephesus as its most important city and presents an unbroken tradition of intellectual culture in the region stretching from the Archaic philosophers down to his own day - in contrast to the intellectual life of mainland Greece, which he presents as a thing of the past. Other authors sometimes use "Ionia" as a metonym for the whole province of Asia. Decreased political agency for the Greek cities under Rome, led to increased focus on cultural identity as a source of civic prestige. In the fierce rivalries that raged between the cities of the Province of Asia in the Roman Imperial period, Ionian cities emphasised their Ionian identity as "one of the purest, 'primordial' forms of Greekness," while their rivals denounced Ionians as overly influenced by oriental luxury and recalled their support for the Persians in the late fifth and early fourth centuries BC. Most sources