Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/642

* LYDDA. 568 LYDIA. learning, and became the scat of a bishopric early in Cliristian times. Outside of its biblical associations, the town is famous for its connec- tion with Saint (icorfie, who is said to have been born and buried there. A church was built over his tomb, which has been repeatedly de- stroyed and rebuilt. It is now in possession of the Greeks, by wliom it has been restored. Lydda was situated on the road from Joppa to Jeru- salem, and it is now a station on the railroad. In ancient times it was also on the great caravan route between Babylon and Egypt. The modern village on the ancient site still preserves the ancient name Ludd. LYDDITE. A high explosive, receiving its name from Lydd in Kent, the place of its first manufacture. It is used as a bursting charge for shells, its reputed destructive power being due to the shock of air-concussion, rather than to the fragments produced by the rupture of the shell. It is supposed to kill by shock, or suffocate by its fumes, every living thing within a radius of twenty-five yards of the bursting-point. It is a very stable compound under changes of tempera- ture, and is said to be fully as effective against masonry as black powder, and twice as effective against sand or earth. It was extensively used against the Boers in the war of 1899-1902, but, owing to the character and conformation of the positions usually selected by the Boers, it did not prove very destructive. Its real value is still problematic. See Explosives. LY'DEKKEB, Richard (18-t9— ). An Eng- lish naturalist. He was educated at Trinity Col- lege. Cambridge, in 1874 was appointed to the staff of the Geological Survey of India, and dur- ing his Indian residence made particular study of the series of vertebrate fossils from the Siwalik Hills. In 18S4 he undertook for the British ilusevun the preparation of catalogues of the fossil mannnalia, amphibia, reptilia. and birds in that institution. He also visited the Argentine Republic in 1893 and 1894. to study the fossil mammals contained in the Plata Museum. Elected a fellow of the Zoological Society in 1880, and in 1898 a member of its coimcil. he also be- came a fellow of the Geological Society in 1883, a member of the council of the organization in 1886 and 1893. and a vice-president in 1894. He wrote numerous works, including: Catalnfiur of the Remains of Siirnlik Vcrtcbrata Contained in the Geoloffical Department of the Indian Museum (1885) ; Catalogue of the liemains of Pleistocene and Prehistoric Vertehrata in the Geological De- partment of the Indian Museum, Calcutta (1886) ; An Introduction to the Studi/ of Mam- mals, Living and Extinct (1891); The Royal Natural Historii (1893-96) : A Geographical His- tory of Mnmmnls( 1890) ; The Deer of All Lands: A nistori/ of the Fainihi Ccrvidie, hiring and Extinct '(1898); and Wild Oxen. Sheep, and Goats of .ill Lands, Liring and Extinct (1898). LYDGATE, lid'gnt. .Joiix (e.l370-c.l451). An English poet. He was educated at Oxford, trav- eled considerably in France, entered the Benedic- tine Order, and conducted a school of rhetoric and philosophy at the monastery of Bury Saint Ed- munds. An admirer and imitator of Cliaucer, he wrote in ten-syllabled couplets an additional Can- terbury Tale, called The Htorie of Thebes and represented as having been narrated by the author after joining the pilgrims on their return. His other works include The Troy Book (1420) and The Fulls of Princes (1430), both based on ilid- dle-Age Latin originals. His work, largely bungling in versification and prosy in detail, has eminent liistoric value, not only as the chief literary monument of the obscure post-Chaucerian period, but as the repositoiy of information on contemporary manners. A selection from the lesser poems was made by Halliwell-Phillipps in 1840. LYD'IA (Lat., from Gk. Xvila). An ancient country of Asia Minor, bounded on the west by Ionia, on the south by Caria, on the east by Phry- gia, and on the north by Mysia. The earliest Greek name for the country is said to have been !Miieonia. The inhabitants are said to have been closely akin to the Phrygians and Mysians, and in that case were probably Indo-Europeans, though the names of the kings suggest Semitic origin. The country was mountainous in the south and west, the principal range being that of Tmolus. It was celebrated for its fruitful soil and for its mineral wealth, particularly for tlie gold of the river Pactolus and of the neighboring mines. The people were active traders, and early devel- oped considerable wealth and hixurj-. Coined money seems to be their invention, and in religion and nuisie they strongly intluenced the Greeks, from whom in turn they received their alphabet, and of whose customs and gods, and especially of the oracle at Delphi, their kings were great ad- mirers. The earliest dynasties, according to Herodotus, were the Atyadfe and Heraclidie. Of these the first seems purely mythical, and the second is perhaps a reminiscence of the rule of Hittite conquerors. Lydia attained its highest prosperity under the third dynasty of the Jlermnadte (c. 689-546 B.C.). wliieh was founded by Gyges (q.v.), a member of a noble Lydian family, around whom has gathered a mass of myth. It seems clear that he was an energetic ruler, who extended his power in Asia Minor, and especially sought to open a way to the coast by establishing his suzerainty over the Greek colonies on the .Egean. His progress was checked by the Cimmerian invasion, which so seriously imperiled his safety that he sought the help of the Assyrian King. Assurbanipal, to whom he paid tribute. Later he fell before the invaders, but his son Ardys finally threw off their yoke and resumed the attacks on the Greeic _ cities. The policy was continued by Sadyattes ■ and Alyattcs, under whom the conquest of Asia m Minor seems to have been completed. The latter's war with the Medes was settled in B.C. 585, by a treaty fixing the river Halys as the eastern boundary of his realm. Lydian government of the Greek cities seems to have been merely nominal, and the lonians were willing to pay tribute in return for the large advantages in trade. This friendlv policy was continued by the last king of this riice, the famous Crcesus (q.v.). until his overthrow by Cyrus in B.C. 546. The subsequent history of Lydia as a Persian province and as subject to Greeks and Romans is unimportant. The only important remains of native Lydian art are the great tumuli, near the Gygsean Lake, which mark the graves of the kings. The reli- gion was that common in Phrygia and through- out ."Ksia Minor: the worship of a great nature goddess, the 'mother of the gods;' a nature god, Sabazios, honored by wild orgies; a god of heaven,