Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/109

Rh L Y C I A 93 the statement of the same historian that they originally came from Crete is in the highest degree improbable ; and the attempts to connect them with the Greek legendary history through Sarpedon and Lycus, a son of Pandion, may be safely rejected as mere fictions. The Lycians alone among the nations in the west of Asia Minor preserved their independence against the kings of Lydia ; but after the fall of the Lydian monarchy (in 546 B.C.) they were subdued by Harpagus, the general of Cyrus, though not till after an obstinate resistance in which Xanthus, their chief city, was utterly destroyed. But, though they were from this time nominally subject to Persia, they appear to have enjoyed a considerable amount of independence, which they afterwards maintained by join ing the Athenian maritime league. They were conquered almost without resistance by Alexander, and thus passed under the Macedonian dominion, sometimes of the Ptolemies, sometimes of the Seleucidans. But through all these vicissitudes, as well as after their ultimate sub mission to the Roman power, they continued to preserve their federal institutions, which remained unimpaired, in form at least, as late as the time of Augustus. Strabo, who has preserved to us an account of their constitution, which he regards as the wisest form of federal government with which he was acquainted (a judgment confirmed by the high authority of Montesquieu), tells us that the league consisted of twenty-three cities in all, of which the six principal were Xanthus, Patara, Pinara, Olympus, Myra, and Tlos. These six had each three votes in the general assembly ; of the remaining cities the more considerable had each two votes, and the rest only one. The payment of taxes and other public burthens were apportioned in the same manner, and the choice of the supreme magistrate, who was styled Lyciarch, and the other magistrates of the league rested with the federal assembly. At the same time the internal affairs of each city were managed by a senate or council (Boule), and a general assembly of the people (Demos), in the same manner as was usual with Greek cities. This system of government continued to subsist under the Roman empire, though of course subject to the control as well as protection of the sovereign power ; but in the time of Claudius dissensions among the separate cities afforded a pretext for the intervention of Rome, and Lycia became formally annexed to the Roman empire. It was at first united in the same province with Pamphylia ; but in the reign of Theodosius it was constituted a separate province. Almost &quot; the whole of Lycia is a rugged mountainous country, traversed by offshoots and branches of the great range of Mount Taurus, which occupies the whole interior or northern part of the district, and sends down to the sea great arms or branches, constituting lofty promontories. The consequence is that the coast, though less broken and irregular than that of Caria, is indented by a succession of bays, the most marked of which is that called in ancient times the Glaucus Sinus, now the Gulf of Macri, in the extreme west of the province, and separating Lycia from Caria. A number of smaller bays, and broken rocky headlands, with a few small islets lying off them, constitute the coast-line from thence to the south-eastern promontory of Lycia, formed by a long narrow tongue of rocky hill, known in ancient times as the Sacred Promontory, with three small adjacent islets, called the Chelidonian islands, which was regarded by some ancient geographers as the commencement of Mount Taurus an opinion justly con troverted by Strabo. But it really forms an important point in the geography of Asia Minor, where the coast trends abruptly to the north till it reaches the confines of Pamphylia. It was believed by Strabo to be directly opposite to Canopus in Egypt, and to be the point where the interval between the two continents was the shortest. Though the mountain ranges of Lycia may all be con sidered as in reality offshoots of Mount Taurus, several of them in ancient times were distinguished by separate names. Such were Mount Daedala in the west, adjoining the Gulf of Macri, Mount Cragus on the sea-coast, west of the valley of the Xanthus, and Mount Massicytus nearly in the centre of the region, rising to a height of 10,000 feet, while Mount Solyma in the extreme east, above Phaselis, rises abruptly from the sea to an elevation of 7800 feet. The steep and rugged pass between this mountain and the sea, called the Climax, or Ladder, was the only direct communication between Lycia and Pamphylia. The only two considerable rivers in Lycia are (1) the Xanthus, which descends from the central mass of Mount Taurus, and flows through a narrow valley till it reaches the city of the same name, below which it forms a plain of some extent before reaching the sea, and (2) the Limyrus, which enters the sea near Limyra. The Arycandus and the Andriacus, which are intermediate between the two, are much less considerable streams, and do not flow from the central chain. The small alluvial plains at the mouths of these rivers are the only level ground in Lycia ; but the slopes of the hills that rise from thence towards the moun tains are covered with a rich arborescent vegetation of the most beautiful character. (See the description of it by Forbes, quoted in ASIA MINOR, vol. ii. p. 709.) The upper valleys and mountain sides afford good pasture for sheep, and the main range of Mount Taurus encloses several extensive yailahs or upland basin-shaped valleys of the peculiar kind so characteristic of that range throughout its extent (see ASIA MINOR, p. 704). It is very difficult to determine the limits of Lycia towards the interior ; and the boundary seems to have varied repeatedly at different times. The high and cold upland tract to the north-east, called Milyas (which was supposed to retain some remains of the aboriginal popula tion of Lycia), was by some writers included in that pro vince, though it is naturally more connected with Pisidia. A similar tract to the west of this, and also situated to the north of the watershed of Mount Taurus, was termed Cabalia ; but this had no natural connexion with Lycia, nor was in early times ever politically united with it, the four cities that were situated in this region Cibyra, with its dependent towns of CEnoanda, Balbura, and Bubon having always formed a separate league or Tetrapolis, which had no connexion with the Lycian league. It was not till after their annexation to Rome that Cibyra, with the district adjoining it, termed the Cibyratis, was united to Phrygia, while the three other towns above enumerated were annexed to Lycia. According to Artemidorus (whose authority is followed by Strabo), the towns that formed the Lycian league in the days of its integrity were twenty-three in number; but Pliny tells us that Lycia once possessed seventy towns, of which only twenty-six remained in his day. Recent researches have fully confirmed the fact that, notwithstand ing its rugged character, the sea-coast and the valleys that ran up into the interior were thickly studded with towns, which in many cases are proved by existing remains to have been places of considerable importance. The names have been for the most part identified by means of inscriptions, and we are thus enabled to fix the position of the greater part of the cities that are mentioned in ancient authors. On the Gulf of Glaucus, near the frontiers of Caria, stood Telmessus, an important place, while a short distance from it in the interior were the small towns of Daedala and Cadyanda. At the entrance of the valley of the Xanthus were Patara, Xanthus itself, and, a little higher up, Pinara on the west and Tlos on the east side of the valley, while Araxa stood at the head of the valley, just at the foot of