LYCAONIA, a region in the interior of Asia Minor, north of Mt. Taurus, bounded on the east by Cappadocia, on the north by Galatia, on the west by Phrygia and Pisidia; to the south it extended to the chain of Mt. Taurus, where it bordered on the country popularly called Cilicia Tracheia. The boundaries of Lycaonia varied greatly at different times. It is mentioned by Xenophon as traversed by Cyrus the younger on his march through Asia. That author describes Iconium as the last city of Phrygia; and in Acts xiv. 5 St. Paul, after leaving Iconium, crossed the frontier and came to Lystra in Lyca onia.
Lycaonia is described by Strabo as a cold region of elevated plains, affording pasture to wild asses and to sheep. Amyntas, king of Galatia, to whom the district was for a time subject, maintained there not less than 30o flocks. It forms part of the interior tableland of Asia Minor, and has an elevation of more than 3,000ft. It suffers from want of water, aggravated in some parts by abundance of salt in the soil, so that the northern por tion, extending from near Iconium to the salt lake of Tatta and the frontiers of Galatia, is almost wholly barren. In ancient times great attention was paid to storing and distributing the water, so that much land now barren was formerly cultivated and sup ported a large number of cities.
The plain is interrupted by some minor groups of mountains, of volcanic character, of which the Kara Dagh in the south rises above 7,o0oft.
The Lycaonians were to a great extent independent of the Persian empire, and were like their neighbours, the Isaurians, a wild and lawless race of freebooters ; but their country was traversed by one of the great natural lines of high road through Asia Minor, from Sardis and Ephesus to the Cilician gates, and a few considerable towns grew up along or near this line. The
most important was Iconium, in the most fertile spot in the country, of which it was always regarded by the Romans as the capital. It was the capital of the Seljuk Turkish empire for sev eral centuries. A little farther north, stood Laodicea (Ladik) ; and in the south, near the foot of Mt. Taurus, was Laranda, now called Karaman, which has given name to the province of Kara mania. Derbe and Lystra, which appear from the Acts of the Apostles to have been considerable towns, were between Iconium and Laranda. Lycaonia was Christianized very early; and its ecclesiastical system was more completely organized during the 4th century than that of any other region of Asia Minor.
After the defeat of Antiochus the Great (q.v.), Lycaonia was given by the Romans to Eumenes II., king of Pergamos. About I60 B.C. part of it was added to Galatia; and in 129 B.C. the eastern half (usually called during the following 200 years Lycaonia proper) was given to Cappadocia. Its administration and grouping changed often under the Romans. In A.D. 371 Lycaonia was first formed into a separate province.
The Lycaonians appear to have retained a distinct nationality in the time of Strabo, but their ethnical affinities are unknown. The mention of the Lycaonian language in the Acts of the Apostles (xiv. I 1) shows that the native language was spoken by the common people at Lystra as late as A.D. 50.