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* LYCHNIS. 565 LYCIAN LANGUAGE. LYCHNIS, lik'nls (Lat., rose of a bright- red color, from Gk. Xuxi-is, a plant with a scarlet flower; connected with Xiix^os, lychnos, lamp). A genus of mostly perennial herbs of the natural order Caryophyl- lace;e ; natives of t em pe rate cli- mates. The rag- ged robin {Lych- nis Flos-cuntli) is one of the most frequent o r n a - ments of mead- ows and moist pastures in Eu- rope, but is rare in America : the German catchfly {Li/chnis Visca- ria) is very rare, and ge n e ra 1 ly found growing on almost inaccessi- ble precipices : the red c a lu ]i i o n (Li/chnis dioica) and the white campion ( Lych- n i s (Uvnrirata) abound in fields, LVCHSIS. !;'''^f «' ="<1 *}>« borders of woods. The flowers of Lychnis respertina are usually fra- grant in the evening. The scarlet lychnis (Lych- nis chalceilonica) . a native of Asia ilinor, is .a frequent and brilliant ornament of flower-borders. Lychnis Githugo. the corn-cockle, is a common weed in wheat-fields in the United States, its pur- plishred petals making it very conspicuous. It sometimes is so abundant that it depreciates the value of the crop through the presence of its seeds in the grain. Some of the species have sapona- ceous properties. LYCIA, lish'i-a (Lat., from Gk. XvKm.Lykia) . A country on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor, bounded on the northwest by Caria, on the north by Phrygia, on the northeast In' Pisidia, and on the east by Pamphylia. The ancient inhabit- ants are said to have been two races called the Holymi and Tramiloe or Termilce, the former of whom seem to have been driven from the coast to the mountain plateau of Jlilyas in the north by the latter, who seem to have been of the Indo- European race, and to have entered the country by sea. They early developed a city life and stood in close connection with the Greeks. It is doulitful whether the Lycians can be identified with the Lcka of the Eg;s-ptian inscriptions. Though the Lycians seem to have maintained their independence against the Lvdians, they were subdued by the Persians imder Harpagus, the general of Cyrus, after an heroic resistance dur- ing which the inhabitants of the chief city, Xanfhus, burned their citadel, with their wives, children, and property, rather than surrender. The Persians attached the country to the Carian satrapy, but seem to have left the old forms of government undisturbed. The Lycians seem to have formed a Icagtie of cities governed by a body of nobles, with a chief in eveiy city whose name appears on the coins. The chief cities were: Xanthus; Patara. with a temple of Apollo: Pinara. and Tlos in the west, on the hills along the valley of the Xanthus; Telmessus, the seat of an oracle, further to the northwest, while to the south and east, near the coast, were Myra, Limyra, and Olympus. Persian influence "was strong in the ruling families, but the civilization and especially the art were strongly Hellenic. Even in the sixth centurj- n.c. the Harpy tomb of Xanthus shows the work of Greek artists, the re- liefs of Gijlbashi (Trysa) are a reflection of the paintings of Polygnotus, and the Nereid monument reproduces the Greek art of the fourth century B.C. After the Persian wars the Lycian cities were for a time enrolled in the IJilian League, but seem to have returned to Persian rule before B.C. 440. Early in the fourth centuri- they for a time attempted to assert their independence, but were again reduce<l. With the rest of Asia, !Minor Lycia was subdued by Alexander, and later came under the rule of the kings of Syria. The Romans first gave it to the Rhodians." but later recognized its independence, and the Lycian league of twenty-three cities, with a Lyciarch as its chief officer, continued to exist, with some vicissitudes, until Vespasian finally united the district to Pamphylia. The mountainous region abounds in interesting ruins of the past. The antiquities, however, had received little atten- tion till Sir Charles Fellows (q.v.), about the year 1838, pointed out their interesting char- acter. Since that time they have been more carefully lexplored and studied. Among the monimients a prominent place is held by the in- scriptions in the native language. (See Lyciax Language.) Lycia has no importance in early Cliristian history. Bibliography. The history is treated by Treuber, Geschichte dcr Ly Icier (Stuttgart, 1887). The monuments are described in Fellows. Ac- count of Discoveries in Lycia (London. 1841): Spratt and Forbes, Travels in Lycia (London. 1S47), and especially in Benndorf, Xiemann. Petersen, and Luschan, Reisen im sildiicsllichcn KIcinasirn. (Vienna. 1884 and 1888). Consult also: Benndorf and Niemann. Das Heroon von (Ijolbaschi-Trysa (Vienna, 1889); Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire dc Viirt duns Vnntiquili-, vol. V. (Paris, 1890) ; English translation. History of Art in I'hrygia, Lydia, Caria, and Lycia (New York, 1892). For the coins, consult: Hill, Coi/i,? of Lycia, Pampliylia. and Pisidia, vol. xviii. of Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Mu- seum (London, 1807). The inscriptions have been for the first time fully colle<'ted and edited under the auspices of the Vienna Academy ot Sciences, as the first volume of a collection of the inscriptions of Asia Minor, Tituli Asia- Minoris, vol. i. Tituli Lycia' Lingua Li/cia Conscripti, edited by E. Kalinka (Vienna, 1901 ). The work contains a full bibliography, and supersedes all pre- vious publications, though for detailed discussions it is still necessary to compare earlier articles in the philological and archa-ological journals. LYCIAN LANGUAGE. The native language of the ancient Lycians is only imperfectly known. In 18.38 and IS-io Fellows discovered and copied thirty inscriptions in Lycia. Among these, one found at Xanthus covered the four sides of a large obelisk having, in addition to 238 lines of Lycian. a Greek epigram of 12 hexameters. The others were all tomb inscriptions, one of them, found at Limyra. being a biliiisual. Greek and Lycian. Another bilingual found at. tiphelUis was pub- lished bv Grotefend in 1842. The same year