Lycia

For other uses, see Lycia (disambiguation).

Lycia (Λυκία)
Ancient Region of Anatolia
Lycian rock cut tombs of Dalyan
Location	Southern Anatolia
State existed	15-14th c. BC (as Lukka) 1250–546 BC
Language	Lycian
Historical capitals	Xanthos
Roman province	Lycia

Map of Lycia showing significant ancient cities and some major mountains and rivers. Red dots are mountain peaks, white dots are ancient cities.

Lycia ( /ˈlɪʃə/; Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 Trm̃mis; Greek: Λυκία) was a geopolitical region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Muğla on the southern coast of Turkey. Known to history since the records of ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze Age, it was populated by speakers of the Luwian language group. Written records began to be inscribed in stone in the Lycian language (a later form of Luwian) after Lycia's involuntary incorporation into the Achaemenid Empire in the Iron Age. At that time (546 BC) the Luwian speakers were decimated, and Lycia received an influx of Iranian speakers.

Lycia fought for the Persians in the Persian Wars, but on the defeat of the Achaemenid Empire by the Greeks, it became intermittently a free agent. After a brief membership in the Athenian Empire, it seceded and became independent (its treaty with Athens had omitted the usual non-secession clause), was under the Persians again, revolted again, was conquered by Maussollus of Caria, returned to the Persians, and went under Macedonian hegemony at the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great. Due to the influx of Greek speakers and the sparsity of the remaining Lycian speakers, Lycia was totally Hellenized under the Macedonians. The Lycian language disappeared from inscriptions and coinage.

On defeating Antiochus III in 188 the Romans gave Lycia to Rhodes for 20 years, taking it back in 168 BC. In these latter stages of the Roman republic Lycia came to enjoy freedom as part of the Roman protectorate. The Romans validated home rule officially under the Lycian League in 168 BC. This native government was an early federation with democratic principles; these later came to the attention of the framers of the United States Constitution, influencing their thoughts.

Despite home rule under democratic principles Lycia was not a sovereign state and had not been since its defeat by the Carians. In 43 AD the Roman emperor, Claudius, dissolved the league. Lycia was incorporated into the Roman Empire with a provincial status. It became an eparchy of the Eastern, or Byzantine Empire, continuing to speak Greek even after being joined by communities of Turkish language speakers in the early 2nd millenium. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century, Lycia was under the Ottoman Empire, and was inherited by the Turkish Republic on the fall of that empire. The Greeks were withdrawn when the border between Greece and Turkey was negotiated in 1923. Lycia remained sparsely settled by Turkish speakers.

Lycia today is a substantial component of the Turquoise Coast. It is of interest not only for recreation and sport, but as a location of antiquities going back as early as the Bronze Age. The ruins of ancient Lycia are seemingly everywhere. For reasons unknown, perhaps isolation, recycling of the building stone was minimal compared to other regions.

Geography

The borders of Lycia varied over time but at its center was the Teke peninsula in south-western Turkey. It was bounded by Caria to the west and north west, Pamphylia to the east, and Pisidia to the north east. The region is mountainous and densely forested region with few large valleys. The mountains are the westernmost part of the Taurus mountains in particular the Akdağ and Beydağı mountains whose peaks can exceed 3000 meters. Inland is the Elmalı basin. The major rivers are the Eşen Çay (ancient Xanthos river), Demre Çay (ancient Myros river), Arykandos, and Alakir Çay. The area is known for steep gorges and underground rivers.

Modern

In modern Turkey the region is split between Antalya (on the east) and Muğla (on the west) provinces. The major city is Fethiye built on ancient Telmessos. Well known towns include Kalkan, Kaş, and Demre (ancient Myra). Inland Elmalı is fairly important.

Turkey's first waymarked long-distance footpath, the Lycian Way, follows part of the coast of the region. The establishment of the path is a phase of development of the region as a recreational center. It is part of what is currenty being called the Turkish Riviera or the Turquoise Coast, featuring long, sandy beaches at the bases of of cliffs and settlements in protected coves that cater to the yachting industry.

Ancient

Main article: List of Lycian place names

The ancient sources mention about 70 settlements of Lycia. These are situated either along the coastal strip in the protecting coves or on the slopes and hills of the mountain ranges. They are often difficult to access, which, in ancient times, was a defensive feature. The rugged coastline favored well-defended ports from which, in troubled times, Lycian pirate fleets sallied forth.

The principal cities of ancient Lycia were Xanthos, Patara, Myra, Pinara, Tlos and Olympos (each entitled to three votes in the Lycian League) and Phaselis. Cities such as Telmessos and Krya were sometimes listed by Classical authors as Carian and sometimes as Lycian.

Ancient names can sometimes be difficult to match with modern features: the Cragus and Anticragus mountains on the west side of the Xanthos river seem to include modern Babadağ. All of Lycia is dominated by the snowy peaks of the Akdağ range, which contains multiple high points and descends to the Mediterranean in long ridges. It is at the western end of the Taurus mountains.

Features and sights of interest

Lycian rock cut tombs of Dalyan.

Although the 2nd-century AD dialogue, Erōtes, found the cities of Lycia "interesting more for their history than for their monuments, since they have retained none of their former splendor," many relics of the Lycians remain visible today. These relics include the distinctive rock-cut tombs in the sides of cliffs. The British Museum in London has one of the best collections of Lycian artifacts. Letoon, an important center in Hellenic times of worship for the goddess Leto and her twin children, Apollo and Artemis, and nearby Xanthos, ancient capital of Lycia, constitute a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Ancient language

Main articles: Luwian language and Lycian language

Inscribed Xanthian Obelisk

The eponymous inhabitants of Lycia, the Lycians, spoke Lycian, a member of the Luwian branch of the Anatolian languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European family. Lycian has been attested only between about 500 BC and no later than 300 BC. However, the Luwian languages originated in Anatolia during the 2nd millennium BC. The country was known by the name of Lukka then, and was under Hittite rule. The gap must be a gap in the use of writing.

At about 535 BC, before the first appearance of attested Lycian, the Achaemenid Empire overran Lycia. Despite its resistance, because of which the population was decimated, Lycia became part of the Persian Empire. The first coins with Lycian letters on them appeared not long before 500. Lycia prospered under the Persian satraps, or governors, who assimilated to the population. Subsequently the Lycians were verbose in stone, carving memorial, historical and governmental inscriptions. Not all of these can yet be entirely understood, due to remaining ignorance of the language. The term "dynastic period" is used. If the government was any sort of federal democracy, there is no evidence of it, as the term "dynastic" suggests.

Lycia already had been hosting a small enclave of the Dorian Greeks as Doris for some centuries. Rhodes also was Dorian. After the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks, Lycia became open to further Greek settlement. Inscriptions in Lycian diminished, while those in Greek multiplied. Complete assimilation to Greek occurred in the 4th century, after Lycia had come under Alexander the Great and his fellow Macedonians. There is no agreement yet on which Lycian inscriprion is the very last. No date is later than 300 at the very latest.

Subsequently the Macedonians were defeated by the Roman Republic, which for most of its final tenure allowed home rule to the Lycians, including their own language, Greek. Lycia continued under the single empire, and fell naturally into the eastern empire when the division occurred. It was still speaking the Greek of the times when the eastern empire became the Byzantine Empire. In the 2nd millenium Anatolia was infiltrated by Turkish speaking settlers, but they never were very numerous in Lycia. After the fall of the Byzantines in the 15th century, Lycia was under the Ottoman Empire. Turkish and Greek settlements existed side-by-side, each speaking their own language.

All Greek-speaking enclaves in Anatolia were exchanged for Turkish speakers in Greece during the final settlement of the border with Greece at the beginning of the Turkish Republic in 1923. The Turks had won wars with Greece and Armenia in the preceding few years, settling the issue of whether the coast of Anatolia was going to be Greek or Turkish. The intent of the Treaty of Lausanne was to define borders that would not leave substantial populations of one country in another. Some population transfers were enforced. Former Greek villages still stand as ghost towns in Lycia.

History

Bronze age

The eternal fires of Chimera Mountain, which provides the setting for the Chimera myth.

Ancient Egyptian records describe the Lycians as allies of the Hittites. Lycia may have been a member state of the Assuwa league of ca. 1250 BC, appearing as 'Lukka or Luqqa. After the collapse of the Hittite Empire, Lycia emerged as an independent "Neo-Hittite" kingdom. According to Herodotus, Lycia was named after Lycus, the son of Pandion II of Athens. The region was never unified into a single territory in antiquity, but remained a tightly-knit confederation of fiercely independent city-states.

Lycia was frequently mentioned by Homer as an ally of Troy. In Homer's Iliad, the Lycian contingent was said to have been led by two esteemed warriors: Sarpedon (son of Zeus and Laodamia) and Glaucus (son of Hippolochus). Elsewhere in Greek mythology, the Lycian kingdom was said to have been ruled by another Sarpedon, a Cretan exile and brother of the king Minos; Sarpedon's followers were called Termilae, and they founded a dynasty after their conquest of a people called the Milyans. As with the founding of Miletus, this mythical story implies a Cretan connection to the settlement of Asia Minor. Lycia appears elsewhere in Greek myth, such as in the story of Bellerophon, who eventually succeeded to the throne of the Lycian king Iobates (or Amphianax).

Classical period

Lycia came under the control of the Persian Empire in 546 BC when Harpagus of Media, a general in the service of Cyrus conquered Asia Minor. Harpagus's descendants ruled Lycia until 468 BC when Athens wrested control away. Following the ousting of the Persians, as Athens and Sparta fought the Peloponnesian wars, the majority of Lycian cities defaulted from the Delian League, with the exception of Telmessos and Phaselis.

In 429 BC, Athens sent an expedition against Lycia to try to force it to rejoin the league. This failed when Lycia's leader Gergis of Xanthos defeated General Melasander. The Lycians once again fell under Persian domination and by 412 BC, Lycia is documented as fighting on the winning side of Persia. The Persian satraps were re-installed, but (as the coinage of the time attests) they allowed local dynasts the freedom to rule. Persia held Lycia until it was conquered by Alexander III (the Great) of Macedon during 334–333 BC.

Hellenistic period

After the death of Alexander the Great in 324 BC, his generals fought amongst themselves over the succession. Lycia fell into the hands of the general Antigonus by 304 BC. In 301 BC Antigonus was killed by an alliance of the other successors of Alexander, and Lycia became a part of the kingdom of Lysimachus, who ruled until he was killed in battle in 281 BC. By 240 BC Lycia was part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, centred on Egypt, and remained in their control through 200 BC. It had apparently come under Seleucid control by 190 BC, when the Seleucids' defeat in the Battle of Magnesia resulted in Lycia being awarded to Rhodes in the Peace of Apamea in 188 BC. It was then granted autonomy as a protectorate of Rome in 168 BC and remained so until becoming a Roman province in 43 BC.

Lycian League

LYCIAN LEAGUE
τὸ Λυκιακοῦ σύστημα

City	Votes
Xanthos	3
Patara	3
Myra	3
Pinara	3
Tlos	3
Olympos	3
Sympolity of Aperlae, Simena, Isinda, Apollonia	1
Amelas	?
Antiphellus	?
Arycanda	?
Balbura, Lycia	?
Bubon, Lycia	?
Cyaneae	?
Dias	?
Gagae	?
Limyra	?
Oenoanda	?
Phaselis	?
Phellus	?
Podalia	?
Rhodia	?
Sidyma	?
Telmessus	?

Formation

The Lycian League (Lukiakou systema in Strabo's Greek transliterated, a "standing together") is first known from two inscriptions of the early 2nd century BC in which it honors two citizens. Bryce hypothesizes that it was formed as an agent to convince Rome to rescind the annexation of Lycia to Rhodes. Lycia had been under Rhodian control since the Peace of Apamea in 188 BC. A fragment from Livy records a "pitiful embassy" in 178 BC from Lycia to the Roman Senate complaining that the Lycians were being treated as slaves. Whipping had been instituted as corporeal punishment and the women and children were being abused. The Romans sent back a stern warning with the Lycians to Rhodes saying that they had not intended the Lycians or any other people born in freedom to be enslaved by Rhodes, and that the assignment was only a protectorate. A fragment from Polybius tells a slightly different version of the story, which has the Romans sending legates to Rhodes to say that "the Lycians had not been handed over to Rhodes as a gift, but to be treated like friends and allies." The Rhodians sent an embassy in return claiming that the Lycians had made the story up for reasons of their own and that in fact they were a financial burden on Rhodes.

The continuation of the story did not survive, but in 168 BC, Rome took Lycia away from Rhodes and turned over home rule to the League. There was no question of independence. Lycia was not to be sovereign, only self-governing under democratic principles. It could neither negotiate with foreign powers nor disobey the Roman Senate. It was not independent. It could govern its own people and for a time mint its own coins as a right granted by Rome. It did not determine its own borders. Land and people could be assigned or taken away by the Senate. Remarking on this protectorate Strabo says of the government:

"Formerly they deliberated about war and peace, and alliances, but this is not now permitted, as these things are under the control of the Romans. It is only done by their consent, or when it may be for their own advantage."

Exactly what such a statement might imply is uncertain. Lycia had not been a sovereign state for some time. Whether the Lycian League as such is meant, implying that it existed anciently, or some other similar government is meant, is not clear. The statement does not say also whether there was a gap between the former sovereign state and the new Lycian League, or whether they are to be conceived as chronologically continuous.

Composition

According to Strabo, the league comprised some 23 known city-states as members. Lucius Licinius Murena (elder), Roman consul, added three more in 81 BC: Balbura, Bubon and Oenoanda, which he had stripped from another systema to the north, the Tetrapolis, Cibyratis, or Cabalian League. It was dominated by the city of Cibyra, which formed a league approximately contemporaneously with the Lycian League. Cibyra ruled the Turkish Lakes Region. It was called Cibyra Megale, "Greater Cibyra," to distinguish it from another Cibyra elsewhere. The lakes region is a string of alpine valleys in the folds of the Taurus Mountains, which have no natural exits. Instead they have collected lakes. Cibyra was on a low hill to the west of Gölhisar Valley and Gölhisar Lake, just north of Gölhisar.

Cibyra dominated an ancient region, Cabalis, which was divided between the later states of Lycia, Pisidia and Lydia, subsequently incorporated in Phrygia. According to Strabo, it spoke four languages, Lydian, even though Lydian had disappeared elsewhere, Greek, Pisidian and "that of the Solymi." Cabalis, which was later divided into Lycian and Asian Cabalis, was the putative home of the Solymi. It included the Milyas District of Lycia, putatively the home of the first Lycians. It is possible that they spoke a form of Anatolian earlier than the attested Lycian, which some have dubbed "Milyan." A further connection of this "Milyan" with Lycian B of the Xanthian Obelisk is pure fantasy.

Unlike the Lycian League, the Cibyratis was ruled by a succession of deliberately ostentatious and high-handed tyrants. Having become a thorn in the side of Rome, they attracted the attention of Gnaeus Manlius Vulso, commander of the Roman armies successfully fighting the Galatian War of 189 BC. Manlius turned toward Cibyratis with the intent of removing the thorn. The tyrant, Moagetes, barely escaped with his life and his position by entering the Roman camp dressed in humble clothing, with a handful of similarly dressed assistants, claiming destitution and begging for mercy. He offered a payment. Manlius set the payment at 500 talents, a huge sum, impossible of payment. Finally moved to mercy, he allowed Moagetes to bargain him down to 100 and a substantial payment of grain, necessary to the Roman commissary.

When the Romans had departed Moagetes dropped the pretense, and Cibyratis resumed its arrogance. Consequently, when Murena did finally deal with Cibyratis, he had no political mercy. Strabo says that Bubon and Balbura were transferred to the Lycian League forthwith. He does not mention Oenoanda, but it had been a city of the Lycians anyway. It minted coinage of the League subsequently. There is no evidence that Cibyra was ever admitted to the League, although that assumption sometimes is made. It was in Asian Cabalia and as such was joined to Phrygia later, an event supported by their coin issues.

The 23 at first and then 26 city states joined together in a federal-style government that shared political and economic resources. A “Lyciarch” was elected by a senate (συνέδριον, synedrion, "sitting together") that convened by agreement beforehand at "what city they please." Each member had one, two or three votes (presumably by different representatives), depending on the city's size. The diminishment of some cities over time caused them to join with the major state in their vicinity to form a sympolity. In that case they lost their vote (if they had one) assuming an influence in the vote of the major city. After election of the Lyciarch the Senate voted for the the other public officials and the magistrates. The League's government took precedence, but, as in many federal systems, the issue was not entirely settled, and the resulting civil conflict led to the dissolution of the union.

Strabo identified the major cities of the League; that is, the three-vote cities, as Xanthos, Patara, Pinara, Olympos, Myra, and Tlos, with Patara as the capital. The full complement has been identified by a study of the coins and mention in other texts. The coins recognize two districts, termed, for want of a better term, "monetary districts:" Masicytus and Cragus, both named after mountain ranges, in the shadow of which, presumably, the communities lived and conducted business. Where coinage before the Lycian League had often been stamped LY for Lycia, it was now stamped KP (kr) or MA.

Treaty with Rome

An inscription from Tyberissos records the treaty between Rome and Lycian League, which is of a type the Romans called a foedus. It was much used between Italian cities and Rome, except that their treaties provided for contributions to Rome, but this one does not. There is a general statement and four clauses. The general statement establishes "peace, friendship, and loyal alliance ... by land and sea for all time." The four clauses provide for neutrality of Rome to the enemies of the Lycian League, neutrality of the Lycian League to the enemies of Rome, mutual assistance in the case of first aggression by an enemy against either, and alteration of the treaty only by joint agreement. The treaty is written as though between independent and co-equal states, but all parties knew that this was conventional hypocrisy. The Lycian League was subject to the decisions of the Roman Senate and the decrees of the Roman emperors, but not vice versa. Only one state was sovereign.

Roman period

Main article: Lycia et Pamphylia

In 43 AD, the emperor Claudius annexed Lycia to the Roman Empire as a province and by the time of Vespasian, it was united with Pamphylia as a Roman province. The heir of Augustus, Gaius Caesar, was killed there in 4 AD.

Byzantine era

It subsequently was a part of the Byzantine Empire.

Lycian tombs at Simena, Üçağız (Turkey).

Turkish era

It was incorporated into the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire and eventually became part of Turkey. A substantial Christian community of Greeks lived in Lycia until the 1920s when they were forced to migrate to Greece after the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey following the Greco-Turkish War in the early 20th century. The abandoned Greek villages in the region are a striking reminder of this exodus. Abandoned Greek houses can still be seen at in the towns of Demre, Kalkan, Kas and Kaya which is a Greek ghost town. A small population of Turkish farmers moved into the region when the Lycian Greeks migrated to Greece. The region is now one of the key centres of domestic and foreign tourism in Turkey.

See also

• Lycian script
• Tomb of Amyntas

Sources

Primary sources

• “Poem on the Battle of Kadesh” 305–313, Ramesses II
• “Great Karnak Inscription” 572–592, Merneptah

Breasted, J. H. 1906. Ancient Records of Egypt. Vol. III. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• “Plague Prayers of Mursilis” A1–11, b, Mursilis

Pritchard, J. B. 1969. Ancient Near Eastern Texts. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Secondary sources

• Barnett, R. D. (1975). "The Sea Peoples". In J. B. Bury. The Cambridge Ancient History. II, part 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 362–366.  – Refers to many different sea peoples and their contact with Egypt and Anatolia. Also tells about the Philistines during the reign of Ramesses III.
• Bryce, T. (1993). "Lukka Revisited". Journal of Near Eastern Studies 51 (2): 121–130. doi:10.1086/373535.  – Discusses Lukka's relations to other regions (like Miletus) and where they inhabited.
• Bryce, T.; Zahle, J. (1986). The Lycians. 1. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.  – Covers the Lycians and where they lived, their history, language, culture, cults, and their language.
• Drews, R. (1995). The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe CA. 1200 B.C.. Princeton: Princeton University Press.  – A description of the Egyptian evidence on the Sea Peoples.
• Hill, George Francis (1897). "Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Lycia, Pamphylia, and Pisidia". A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum. http://books.google.com/books?id=F2wCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR5#v=onepage&q&f=false.  – A presentation of the history of Lycia during the time of its minting coins, and the coins.
• Keen, Anthony G. (1998) [1992]. Dynastic Lycia: A Political History of the Lycians & Their Relations with Foreign Powers, c. 545-362 BC. Mnemosyne: bibliotheca classica Batavia. Supplementum. Leiden; Boston; Köln: Brill. 

External links

• Satyurek, Patty; Satyurek, Kemal. "Lycian Turkey". lycianturkey.com. http://www.lycianturkey.com/. Retrieved 14 February 2012. 
• Walker, Christopher; Anderson, Thorne (Photographer) (September/October 2007). "Splendid Ruins for an 'Excellent Republic'". Saudi Aramco World. http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200705/splendid.ruins.of.an.excellent.republic..htm. 
• Kamiya, Takeo. "Lycian Influence to the Indian Cave Temples". http://kamit.jp/07_lycia/liki_eng.htm. Retrieved 20 February 2012. 
• Foss, Pedar W.. "Lycia". Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces (ERP). http://people.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Lycia/lycia.html. 
• "Virtual Tours / Myra, Mahmutlar, Lara (Turkey)". EDS Systems. http://www.360pano.eu/turkey/.  Fullscreen panoramas of the rock-cut tombs of the ancient Lycian necropolis at Myra.
• "Virtual Tour—Demre. Myra (Lycia)". Alexander Peskov Photography. 2011. http://www.apeskov.ru/images/stories/Lycia/demre.html.