Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/239

 LYCASTUS. of all the other nations of Asia Minor, being succes- sively under the rule of Alexander the Great, the Seleucidae, Antiochus, Eumenes of Pergamus, and finally under the Romans. (Liv. xxvii. 54, xxxviii. 39, 56.) Under this change of rulers, the character of the people remained the same: daring and in- tractable, they still continued their wild and lawless habits, though in the course of time many Greek settlers must have taken up their abode in the Lycaonian towns. Under their chief Amyntas, how- ever, whom Strabo even calls king, and who was his own contemporary, the country acquired a greater political consistency. _Dict. of Biogr. under Ajiyn- TAs, Vol. I. p. 156.] After the death of Amyntas, his whole kingdom, which he had greatly extended, fell into the bands of the Romans, who constituted the greater part of Lycaonia as a part of their pro- vince of Cappadocia. We may add, that Strabo regards Isauria as a part of Lycaonia. [Isauria.] [L.S.] LYCASTUS (AivKao-Tos : Etii. AvKaarios), a town of Crete, mentioned in the Homeric catalogue (//. ii. 647 ; comp. Pomp. Mela, ii. 7. § 13; Plin. iv. 12). Strabo- (x. p. 479) says that it had entirely disa[)peared, having been conquered and destroyed by the Cnossians. According to Polybius (xxiii. 15) the Lycastian district was afterwards wrested from Cnossus by the Gortynians, who gave it to the neiglibouring town of Rhaucus. In Mr. Pashley's map the site is fixed at Kaenuria. (Hlick, Kreta, vol. i. pp. 15, 414.) [E. B. J.] LYCASTUS or LYCASTUM (Awaaros), a very ancient town in Pontus, on a river bearing the same name. It was situated 20 stadia south-east of Amisus. (Scyl. Peripl. p. 33; Marcian, p. 74; Pe- ripl. Pont. Eux. p. 10; Steph. B. s. v. XaSicia; Plin. vi. 3; Jlela, i. 19, who calls it Lycasto.) Pherecydes {ap. Schol. ad Ajioll. Rhod. ii. 373, comp. ad ii. 1001) spoke of a town of Lycastia, inhabited by Amazons, and situated between Themiscyra and Chalybia. The river Lycastus was but a small stream, which after a short course emptied itself into the Euxine close by the town of Lycastus. (Scyl., Marcian., Plin., II. cc.') [L. S.] LYCEIUM. [Athenae, p. 303, b.] LYCHNIDUS {vxviUs : Eth. Ai/xi'i5io<r, hv- XVLTTis, Steph. B.; Ptol. iii. 13. § 32), the chief town of the Dassaretae in Illyricum. From its position on the frontier it was ahvays a place of considerable importance, and the name frequently occurs in the wars of the Romans with Philippus V. and Perseus, kings of Maccdon. (Liv. xxvii. 32, xxxiii. 34, xliii. 9, 10, 21; Avxvls, Polyb. xviii. 30.) After- wards it continued to be, as on the Cmdavian way described by Polybius {Avxvi^iov, xxxiv. 12), one of the principal points on the Egnatian road. (Strab. vii. p.323 ; Itin.Anton.; Peut.Tah.; Itm.HierosoL: in the Jerasalem Itinerary the original reads Cledo.) Under the Byzantine empire it appears to have been a large and populous town, hut was nearly destroyed i)y an earthquake during tlie reign of Justinian. (Procop. Hist. Arc. 18; Malch. Excerpt, p. 250, ed. Bonn ; Niceph. Callist. xvii. 3.) Lychnidus, which from the data of the Itineraries must be placed near the S. extremity of the Lake Lychnitis, on its E. shores (Leake, North. Greece, vol. iii. p. 281), was afterwards replaced by the more northerly AcHRiDA {cnriv "AxpiSa, "OxpiSa, "Axpts, of the Byzantine writers; Anna Coinn. xiii. p. 371; Ce- dren. vol. ii. p. 468, ed. Bonn Cantacuzen. ii. 21), the capital of the Bulgarian empire. Some geo- LYCIA. 223 graphers have supposed that Achrida is the same as Justiniana; this identification, which is a mis- take, has arisen from the circumstance that the metropolitans of Achrida called themselves after the emperor Justinian. Justiniana Prima is the modern town of Kostendil. (Schafarik, Slav. Alt. vol. ii. p. 227.) The Slavonic name survives in the modern AhrkUia, on the NE. shores of the lake. [E. B. J.] LYCHNI'TIS. 1. (AuxJ'iVis, t] AvxvtSia f^ifjii'-n, Polyb. V. 108), a lake of Illyricum, first mentioned by Scymnus of Chios (429). Phihp pushed his conquests over the Illyrian tribes as far as this lake (Diod. xvi. 8). The lake of Akridha or Okridka, which abounds in fish (comp. Strab. vii. p. 327), represents Lychnitis. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 328, vol.' iii. pp. 280, 328.) 2. (^Avxi^'trts • comp. Steph. B. s. v. Avxvi- 5({s), a lake of the Greater Armenia, which Ptolemy (v. 13. § 8) places in long. 78° and lat. 43° 15'. It has been identified with the lake Gokdje De.niz, or Sevanga to the NW. of Erivan, the true position of which is lat. 40° 37'. The river Zengue, which flows out of the lake and comnmni- cates with the Araxes, is not mentioned by Ptolemy. (Dubois de Montpereux, Voyage Autour dii Caticase, Atlas, pt. i. pi. vii. vol. iii. pjj. 299— 311; St. Martin, Mem. sur VArmenie, vol. i. p. 61 ; Journ. Geog. Soc. vol. iii. pp. 40 — 43 ; Eitter, Erdkunde, vol. ix. p. 78G.) ^ [E. B.J.] LY'CIA (AuKi'a : Eth. Amios'), a country on the south coast of Asia IIinor, forming part of the region now called Tekeh. It is bounded on the west by Caria, on the north by Phrygia and Pisidia, and on the north-east by Pamphylia, while the whole of the south is washed by the part of the Medi- terranean called the Lycian sea. The western frontier is formed by the river Glaucus and Mount Daedala (Strab. xiv. p. 664), the northern by the range of Mount Taurus, and the eastern one by Mount Climax. The whole extent of the country, from east to west, amounts, according to Strabo, to 1720 stadia; this measurement, however, must have been made along the line of coast, for a straight line from east to west does not amount to more than one- half that distance. Its extent from the sea to the northern boundary is different in the different parts, but is everywhere smaller than that from east to west. Until very recently, Lycia, with its rich remains of antiquity, was almost a tei-ra incognita, — having never been visited by European travellers, until Sir Charles Fellows, in 1838, and a second time in 1840, travelled the country; since which time it has been exjjored and described by several other men of learning and science, whose works will be noticed below. 1 . N'ame of the Country. — The name Lycia and Lycians is perfectly familiar to Homer, and the poet appears to have been better acquainted with Lycia than with some other parts of Asia Minor, for he knew the river Xanthus and Cape Chimaera. (/?. vi. 171, &c., X. 430, xii. 312, &c., Od.y. 282, and elsewhere.) But, according to Herodotus (i. 173), the ancient name of the country had been Milyas (^ MiXvds), and that of the inhabitants Solymi (2JAujUoi), and Tremilae or Temiilae (Tpf- fii^ai or Tep^i'Aai). These latter are said to have been conquered, and expelled from the coast districts by Sarpedon, the brother of Mino.s, who, with a band of Cretans, invaded the country and conquered it, but without changing either its name or that of the people. But in his reign. Lycus, the