Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/243

 LYCURIA. ponnes, p. 87; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. i. p. 295.) LYCTUS, LYTTUS {Mktos, Auttos : Eth. AvKTtos, AvTTios, Ptol. ill. 17. § 10), one of the most considerable cities in Crete, which appears in the Homeric catalogue. {II. ii. 647, xvii. 611.) According to the Hesiodic Theogony {Theoff. 477), Ehea gave birth to Zeus in a cave of Mt. Aegaeon, near Lyctus. The inhabitants of this ancient Doric city called themselves colonists of Sparta (Arist. Pol. ii. 7), and the vrorship of Apollo appears to have prevailed there. (Callim. Ili/inn. Apoll. 33 ; comp. Miiller, Dorians, vol. i. pp. 141, 227, trans.) In B. c. 344, Phalaecus the Phociau assisted the Cnossians against their neighbours the Lyctians, and took the city of Lyctus, from ■which he was driven out by Archidamus, king of Spai'ta. (Diod. svi. 62.) The Lyctians, at a still later period, were engaged in frequent hostilities with Cnossus, and succeeded in creating a formidable party in the island against that city. The Cnossians, taking advantage of their absence on a distant expedition, surprised Lyctus, and utterly destroyed it. The citizens, on their return, abandoned it, and found refuge at Larnpa. Polybius (iv. 53, 54), on this occasion, bears testimony to the high character of the Lyctiaus, as compared with their countrymen. They afterwards recovered their city by the aid of the Gortyiiians, who gave them a place called Dia- tonium, which they had taken from the Cnossians. (Polyb. xxiii. 15, xiiv. 53.) Lyctus was sacked by Jletellus at the Eomau conquest (Liv. Epit. xci.x. ; Flor. iii. 7), but was existing in the time of Strabo (x. p. 479) at a distance of 80 stadia from the Libyan sea. (Strab. p. 476; comp. Steph. B. s. v.; Scyl. p. 18 ; Pliu. iv. 12 ; Hesych. 5. v. Kap- vrjaaoTroKis ; Hierocl.) The site still bears the name of Lytto, where ancient remains are now found. (Pa.shley, Trav. vol. i. p. 269.) In the 16th cen- tury, the Venetian MS. {Mus. Class. Ant. vol. ii. p. 274) describes the walls of the ancient city, with circular bastions, and other fortifications, as existing upon a lofty mountain, nearly in the centre of the island. Numerous vestiges of ancient structures, tombs, and broken marbles, are seen, as well as an immense arch of an aqueduct, by which the water was carried across a deep valley by means of a large marble channel. The town of Arsinoe and the harbour of Ciieksonesus are assigned to Lyctus. The type on its coins is usually an eagle flying, with tiie epigraph ATTTIIiN. (Eckhel, vol. ii. p.316 ; Hock, Kreta, vol. i. pp. 13, 408, vol. ii. pp. 431, 446, vol. iii. pp. 430, 465, 508.) [E. B. J.] COIN OF LYCTLS. LYCU'PJA (AvKovpia), a village in Arcadia, which still retains its ancient name, marked the boundaries of the Pheneatae and Cleitorii. (Pans, viii. 19. § 4 ; Leake, Morea, vol. iii. p. 143 ; Boblaye, Recherches, ^c. p. 156 ; Curtius, Felo- ponnesos, vol. i. p. 198.) LYCUS. 227 LYCUS (AvKos), is the name of a great many rivers, especially in Asia, and seems to have ori- ginated in the impression made upon the mind of the beholder by a torrent rushing down the side of a hill, which suggested the idea of a wolf rushing at his prey. The following rivers of this name occur in Asia Minor : — 1. The Lycus of Bithynia: it flows in the east of Bithynia in a western direction, and empties itself into the Euxine a little to the south of Heracleia PontiCa, which was twenty stadia distant from it. The breadth of the river is stated to have been two plethra, and the j)lain near its mouth bore the name of Campus Lj-caeus. (Scylax, p. 34; Orph. Ar- rjon. 720; Arrian, PeripL p. 14; Anonym. Peripl. p. 3; Xenoph. Anab. vi. 2. § 3; Ov. Epist. ex Pimt. X. 47; Memnon, ap. Phut. 51; Phn. vi. 1, who erroneously states that Heracleia was situated on (appositum) the river.) 2. The Lycus of Cilicia is mentioned only by Pliny (v. 22) as flowing between the Pyramus and Pinarus. 3. The Lycus of Lydia was a tributary of the Hemms, flowing in a south-western direction by the town of Thyatira : whether it emptied itself directly into the Hermus, or only after its juncture with the Hyllus, is uncertain. (Plin. v. 31; comp. Wheler, vol. i. p. 253 ; P. Lucas, Troisieme Voy- age, vol. i. p. 139, who, however, confounds the Lycus with the Hermus.) 4. The Lycus of Phrygia, now called Tclioruh- Su, is a tributary of the Maeander, which it joms a few miles south of Tripolis. It had its sources in the eastern parts of Mount Cadmus (Strab. xii. p. 578), not far from those of the Maeander itself, and flowed in a western direction towards Colossae, near which place it disappeared in a chasm of the earth; after a distance of five stadia, however, its waters reappeared, and, after flowing close by Lao- diceia, it discharged itself into the Maeander. (Herod, vii. 30; Plin. v. 29; Ptol. v. 2. § 8; Hamilton, Researches, vol. i. p. 508, &c., and Journal of the Royal Geogr. Sac. vii. p. 60, who re-discovered the chasm in which the Lycus disap- pears, amid the ruins near Chonas.) 5. Pontus contained two rivers of this name : — (ff.) A tributary of the Iris in the west, is now called Kiilei Bissar. It has its somxes in the hills of Lesser Armenia, and, after flowing for some time in a western direction, it tm-ns towards the north, pass- ing through Nicopolis, and emptying itself into the Iris at Magnopolis. The Lycus is almost as im- portant a river as the Iris itself (Strab. xi. p. 529, xii. pp. 547, 556; Plut. Lncul. 15; Phn. vi. 3, 4; Ov. Epist. ex Pont. iv. 10,47 ; HierocL p. 703; Act. Martyr, vol. iii. Jul. p. 46). (6.) A tributary of the Acampsis or ApsoiThos, in the east- ern part of Pontus, and is believed to answer to the modern Gorgoro. (Ptol. v. 6. § 7.) 6. According to Curtius (iii. 1), the river Mar- syas, which flowed through the town of Celancae, changed its name into Lycus at the point wheie it rushed out of the f rtifications of the place. [L. S.] LYCUS (Ay/cos), a river of Assyria, also called Zabatus. [Zabatls] LYCUS (Au/cos), a river of Syria, between an- cient Byblus and Berytus. (Strab. xvi. j). 755; Plin. V. 20.) Although botli these geographers mention the river Adonis as distinct from this, more to the north, between Palae-Byblus and Byblus, the two rivers have been sometimes confounded. Their tj2