Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/244

 228 LYCUS. Wolf-river is plainly identical with the Dog-river of the present day {Nahr-el-Kelh), about 2 hours north of Bei/ri'it; which derives its name, says JIaundrell, from an idol in the form of a dog or wolf, which was worshipped, and is said to have pronounced oracles, at this place. It is remarkable for an ancient via- duct cut in the face of a rocky promontory imme- diately on the south of the stream, the work of Antoninus Pius, as a Latin inscription, copied by Jlaundrell, and still legible, records journeij, March 17, pp. 35 — 37). Cuneiform inscriptions and figures resembling those found at BehisUm [Bagistanus MoNs] would seem to indicate that the Roman em- peror did but repair the work of some Persian king. There are casts of the inscriptions and figures in the British Mu.seum. [G. W. | LYCUS (AvKos), a river of Sarmatia, which flows through the country of the Thyssagetae, and dis- charges itself into the Palus Maeotis. (Herod, iv. 124.) Herodotus was so much in error about the position of the ]Laeotis, that it is difficult to make out his geography here. The Lycus has been iden- tified with the Lagous of Pliny (vi. 7), or the upper course of the Volga. (Comp. Schafarik, Slav. Alt. vol. i. p. 499.) Rennell (Geoff, of Herod, vol. i. p. 119) supposes it may be the Mechceditza. It must be distinguished from the Lycus of Ptolemy (iii. 5. § 13), which is the modern Kalmius. (Scha- farik, I. c.) [E. B. J.] LYCUS (Aiwos, Ptol. V. 14. § 2), a river of Cyprus, W. of Amathus. At a little distance inland from Capo delle Gatte [Curias] are some salt marshes, which receive an arm of a river correspond- ing with the Lycus of Ptolemy. (Engel, Kypros, vol. i. 37.) [E. B. J.] LYDDA. [DiospoLis.] LY'DI A (AuSio : Eth. Ai/5d9, Lydus), a country in the western part of Asia Minor. Its boundaries varied at diflerent times. Originally it was a small kingdom in the east of the Ionian colonies; but during the period of the Persian dominion it ex- tended to the south as far as the river Iilaeander, and, perhaps, even to Mount Messogis, whence some ■writers speak of the Carian towns of Aromata, Tralles, Nysa, and Magnesia on the Maeander, as Lydian towns, and Strabo (xii. p. 577) mentions the Maeander as the frontier between Lydia and Caria. To the east it extended as far as the river Lycus, so as to embrace a portion of Phrygia. In the time of Croesus, the kingdom of Lydia embraced the whole of AsLa Minor between the Aegean and the river Halys, with the exception of Cilicia and Lycia. The hmits of Lydia during the Roman period are more definitely fixed; for it bordered in the north on Mysia, from which it was separated near the coast by the river Hermus, and in the inland pai-ts by the range of Mount Temnus; to the east it bordered on Phrygia, and to the south on Caria, from which it was separated by Mount Mes- sogis. To the west it was washed by the Aegean (Plin. V. 30; Strab. i. p. 58, ii. p. 130,"xii. pp. 572, 577, &c.), whence it is evident that it em- braced the modern province of Sarukhan and the northern part of Sighla. This extent of country, however, includes also Ionia, or the coast country between the mouth of the Hermus and that of the Maeander, which was, properly speaking, no part of Lydia. [Ionia.] 1. Physical Features of Lydia. — In the southern and western parts Lydia was a mountainous country, being bounded on the south bv the Messogis, and LYDU. traversed by the range of Tmolus, which runs parallel to it, and includes the valley of the Cay- strus. In the western parts we have, as continua- tions of Tmolus, Mounts Dracon and Olympus, in the north of which rises Mount SiPVi.us. The extensive plains and valleys between these heights are traversed in a western direction by the rivers Caystrus and Hermus, and their numerous tri- butaries. The whole country Was one of the most fertile in the world, even the sides of the mountains admitting of cultiv.ation ; its chmate was mild and healthy, though the country has at all times been visited by severe earthquakes. (Xenoph. Cyrop. vi. 2. § 21; Strab. i. p. 58.) Its most important productions were an excellent kind of wine, saft'roii, and gold. The accounts of the ancients about the quantity of gold found in Lydia, from which Croe- sus was believed to have derived his wealth, are no doubt exaggerated, for iu later times the sand of the river Pactolus contained no gold at all, and the proceeds of the gold mines of Jlount Tmolus were so small as scarcely to pay for the labour of working them. (Strab. xiii. p. 591.) The plains about the Hermus and Caystrus were the most fertile parts of the countiy, if we except the coast districts of Ionia. The most celebrated of these plains and valleys bore distinct names, as the Cilbianian, the Cay-.strian, the Hyrcanian; and the Catace- CAUMENE m the north east. Some of these plains also contained lakes of considerable extent, the most important of which are the Gygaea Lacus, on the north of the Kermus, and some smaller ones in the neighbourhood of Ephesus, which were parti- cularly rich in fish. The capital of the country at all times was Sardes. 2. Names and Inhabitants of the Country. — In the Homeric poems the names Lycia and Lycians do not occur ; but the people dwelling about Mount Tmolus and Lake Gygaea, that is the country afterwards called Lydia, bear the name Meones or Maeones (MTJoves,Il. ii. 865, V. 43, x. 431), and ai-e aUied wth the Tro- jans. The earliest author who mentions the name Lydians is the lyric poet Mimnemius (Fi-agm. 14, ed. Bergk), whose native city of Colophon was con- quered by the Lydians. Herodotus (i. 7) states that the people originally called Meones afterwards adopted the name of Lydians, fi-om Lydus the son of Atys; and he accordingly regards Lydians and Meonians as the same people. But some of the ancients, as we learn from Strabo (xii. p. 572, xiv. p. 679), considered them as two distinct races, — a view which is unquestionably the correct one, and has been adopted in modern times by Niebuhr and other inquirers. A change of name like that of Maeonians into Lydians alone suggests the idea of the former people being either subdued or expelled by the latter. Wlien once the name Lydians had been established, it was applied indiscriminately to the nation that had been conquered by them as well as to the conquerors, and hence it happens that later writers use the name Lydians even when speaking of a time when there were no Lydians in the coun- try, but only JIaeonians. We shall first endeavour to show who the Maeonians were, and then proceed to the more difficult question about the Lydians and the time when they conquered the Maeonians. The Maeonians unquestionably belonged to the Indo- European stock of nations, or that branch of them which is generally called Tyrrhenian or Pelasgian, for these latter " inhabited Lesbos before the Greeks took possession of those islands (Strab. v. p. 221,