LYCIA, a district in the south-west of Asia Minor, occupy ing the coast between Caria and Pamphylia, and extending inland as far as the ridge of Mt. Taurus. It is a rugged, mountainous country, traversed by offshoots of the Taurus range, which ter minate in lofty promontories. The coast is indented by a suc cession of bays—the most marked of which is the Gulf of Macri (anc. Glaucus Sinus) in the extreme west. A number of smaller bays and broken, rocky headlands, with a few small islets, con stitute the coast-line thence to the south-east promontory of Lycia, known in ancient times as the "Sacred Promontory" (Hiera Akra). Though the mountain ranges of Lycia are all offshoots of Mt. Taurus, in ancient times several of them were distinguished by separate names. Such were Daedala in the west, adjoining the Gulf of Macri, Cragus on the sea-coast, west of the valley of the Xanthus, Massicytus ( o,000ft.) nearly in the centre of the region, and Solyma in the extreme east above Phaselis (7,800ft.). The steep and rugged pass between Solyma and the sea, called the Climax ("Ladder"), was the only direct communication between Lycia and Pamphylia.
The only considerable rivers are: (I) the Xanthus, which descends from the central mass of Mt. 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 small alluvial plains at the mouths of these rivers are the only level ground in Lycia, but the hills that rise thence towards the mountains are covered with a rich arborescent vegetation. The upper valleys and mountain sides afford good pasture for sheep, and the main Taurus range encloses several extensive upland basin-shaped valleys (vailas). (See Asia? MINOR.) According to Artemidorus, the towns that formed the Lycian league were 23 in number; but Pliny states that Lycia once pos sessed 7o towns, of which only 26 remained in his day. Recent researches have confirmed the fact that the sea-coast and the valleys were studded with towns. On the Gulf of Glaucus stood Telmessus, while a short distance inland 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. Myra, one of the most important cities of Lycia, occupied the entrance of the valley of the Andriacus; on the coast between this and the mouth of the Xanthus stood Antiphellus, while in the interior, at a short distance, were found Phellus, Cyaneae and Candyba. In the alluvial plain formed by the rivers Arycandus and Limyrus stood Limyra. Arycanda commanded the upper valley of the river of the same name. On the east coast stood Olympus, one of the cities of the league, while Phaselis, a little farther north, which was a much more important place, never belonged to the Lycian league and appears always to have maintained an inde pendent position.
History.—The name of the Lycians, Lukki, is first met with in the Tel el-Amarna tablets (5400 B.c.), and in the list of the nations from the eastern Mediterranean who invaded Egypt in the reign of Mineptah, the successor of Rameses II. At that time they seem to have occupied the Cilician coast. Their occupa tion of Lycia was probably later and, since the Lycian inscrip tions are not found far inland, we may conclude that they entered the country from the sea. According to Herodotus (i. 573; vii. 92), the original inhabitants of the country were the Milyans and Solymi, the Lycians being invaders from Crete. In this tra dition there is a reminiscence of the fact that the Lycians had been sea-rovers before their settlement in Lycia. The Lycian Sarpedon was believed to have taken part in the Trojan war. The Lydians failed to subdue Lycia, but after the fall of the Lydian empire it was conquered by Harpagus, the general of Cyrus (i. 171). While acknowledging the suzerainty of Persia, how ever, the Lycians remained practically independent, and for a time joined the Delian league (q.v.). They were incorporated into the empire of Alexander, but, even after their conquest by the Romans, preserved their federal institutions as late as the time of Augustus. Under Claudius, Lycia was annexed to the Roman empire and united with Pamphylia; Theodosius made it a sepa rate province.