LY CIA, a country on the s. coast of Asia Minor, extending towards Mt. Taurus, and bounded on the w. by Caria, and on the n. by Plirygia and Pisidia, and on the e. by Pamphylia. The most ancient inhabitants are said to have been two Semitic races called the &lymi and Termilts, the former of whom were driven from the coast to the moun tains in the n. by adventurers from Crete, under the command of Sarpedon, a brother 'of Minos, who first gave the country the name of Lycia. To what race the invaders 4:Ielonged, is not certain; they were, however, not of Hellenic origin. The Lycians are -prominent in the Homeric legend-of the Trojan war. It shared the vicissitudes of the -other states of Asia Minor, becoming subject to the Persian and Syrian monarchies, and 'then to Rome. During the time of its independence, it consisted of 23 confederate -cities, of which the principal Were Xantlius, Patara, Pinara, Olympus, Myra, and Tlos; and at the head of the whole confederation was a president or governor called the Lyciarch. Many monuments and ruined buildings (temples. tombs, theaters, etc.),
exquisite sculptures, coins, and other antiquities, testify to the attainments of the :Lycians in civilization and the arts, in which they rival the Greeks themselves. These antiquities, however, had received little attention, till sir Charles Fellovrs, about the year 1840, pointed out their interesting character. Since that time they have been very assiduously explored and studied. A beautiful collection of Lycian sculptures, madc by sir Charles, is now to be seen in the British museum. The most interesting of all the antiquities of Lycia are, however, the inscriptions in which a peculiar alphabet is used, neatly allied to the Phrygian, and the language of which appears to be an Indo-Ger manic language, mingled with Semitic words. Grotefend, Sharpe, Daniell, and others have spent much labor in deciphering these inscriptions.