Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

The plain is interrupted by some minor groups of mountains, of volcanic character, of which the Kara Dagh in the south, a few miles north of Karaman, rises above 7000 ft., while the Karadja Dagh, north-east of it, though of inferior elevation, presents a striking range of volcanic cones. The mountains in the north-west, near Iconium and Laodicea, are the termination of the Sultan Dagh range, which traverses a large part of Phrygia.

The Lycaonians appear to have been in early times 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, although ethnologically it was Phrygian. It is still called Konia, and it was the capital of the Seljuk Turkish empire for several centuries. A little farther north, immediately on the frontier of Phrygia, stood Laodicea (Ladik), called Combusta, to distinguish it from the Phrygian city of that name; and in the south, near the foot of Mount Taurus, was Laranda, now called Karaman, which has given name to the province of Karamania. Derbe and Lystra, which appear from the Acts of the Apostles to have been considerable towns, were between Iconium and Laranda. There were many other towns, which became bishoprics in Byzantine times. Lycaonia was Christianized very early; and its ecclesiastical system was more completely organized in its final form during the 4th century than that of any other region of Asia Minor.

After the defeat of Antiochus the Great, Lycaonia was given by the Romans to Eumenes II., king of Pergamos. About 160 B.C. part of it, the "Tetrarchy of Lycaonia," 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 as an eleventh strategia. In the readjustment of the Provinciae, 64 B.C., by Pompey after the Mithradatic wars, he gave the northern part of the tetrarchy to Galatia and the eastern part of the eleventh strategia to Cappadocia. The remainder was attached to Cilicia. Its administration and grouping changed often under the Romans. In A.D. 371 Lycaonia was first formed into a separate province. It now forms part of the Konia viláyet.

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. 11) shows that the native language was spoken by the common people at Lystra about A.D. 50; and probably it was only later and under Christian influence that Greek took its place.

See Sir W. M. Ramsay, _Historical Geography of Asia Minor_ (1890),
_Historical Commentary on Galatians_ (1899) and _Cities of St Paul_
(1907); also an article on the topography in the _Jahreshefte des
Oesterr. Archaeolog. Instituts_, 194 (Beiblatt) pp. 57-132.
(W. M. Ra.)

LYCEUM, the latinized form of Gr. [Greek: Lykeion], the name of a gymnasium and garden with covered walks, near the temple of Apollo Lyceus ([Greek: Apollon Aykeios]) at Athens. Aristotle taught here, and hence the name was applied to his school of philosophy. The name had been used in many languages for places of instruction, &c. In France the term _lycée_ is given to the secondary schools which are administered by the state, in contradistinction to the communal _collèges_.

LYCIA, in ancient geography, a district in the S.W. of Asia Minor, occupying the coast between Caria and Pamphylia, and extending inland as far as the ridge of Mt Taurus. The region thus designated is a peninsula projecting southward from the great mountain masses of the interior. It is for the most part a rugged mountainous country, traversed by offshoots of the Taurus range, which terminate on the coast in lofty promontories. The coast, though less irregular than that of Caria, is indented by a succession 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, constitute the coast-line thence to the S.E. promontory of Lycia, formed by a long narrow tongue of rocky hill, known in ancient times as the "Sacred Promontory" (Hiera Acra), with three small adjacent islets, called the Chelidonian islands, which was regarded by some ancient geographers as the commencement of Mt. Taurus. 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 (10,000 ft.) nearly in the centre of the region, and Solyma in the extreme east above Phaselis (7800 ft.). 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 two considerable rivers are: (1) 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_), which are characteristic of that range throughout its extent (see ASIA MINOR).

The limits of Lycia towards the interior seem to have varied at
different times. The high and cold upland tract to the north-east,
called Milyas, was by some writers included in that province, though
it is naturally more connected with Pisidia. According to Artemidorus
(whose authority is followed by Strabo), the towns that formed the
Lycian league in the days of its integrity were twenty-three in
number; but Pliny states that Lycia once possessed seventy towns, of
which only twenty-six remained in his day. Recent researches have
fully confirmed the fact that the sea-coast and the valleys were
thickly studded with towns, many of which are proved by existing
remains to have been places of importance. By the aid of inscriptions
the position of the greater part of the cities mentioned in ancient
authors can be fixed. On the gulf of Glaucus, near the frontiers of
Caria, stood Telmessus, an important place, while a short distance
inland from it 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, while Araxa stood at the head of the valley, at the
foot of the pass leading into the interior. 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, and encircling the same
bay the three small towns of Rhodiapolis, Corydalla and Gagae.
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 independent position.

The cold upland district of the Milyas does not seem to have contained
any town of importance. Podalia appears to have been its chief place.
Between the Milyas and the Pamphylian Gulf was the lofty mountain
range of Solyma, which was supposed to derive its name from the
Solymi, a people mentioned by Homer in connexion with the Lycians and
the story of Bellerophon. In the flank of this mountain, near a place
called Deliktash, was the celebrated fiery source called the Chimaera,
which gave rise to many fables. It has been visited in modern times by
Captain F. Beaufort, T. A. B. Spratt and Edward Forbes, and other
travellers, and is merely a stream of inflammable gas issuing from
crevices in the rocks, such as are found in several places in the
Apennines. No traces of recent volcanic action exist in Lycia.

_History._--The name of the Lycians, _Lukki_, is first met with in the Tel el-Amarna tablets (1400 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 occupation of Lycia was probably later, and since the Lycian inscriptions are not found far inland, we may conclude that they entered the country from the sea. On the other hand the name appears to be preserved in Lycaonia, where some bands of them may have settled. According to Herodotus they called themselves Termilae, written Trmmile in the native inscriptions, and he further states that the original inhabitants of the country were the Milyans and Solymi, the Lycians being invaders from Crete. In this tradition 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, Xanthus or Arnna, the capital, being completely destroyed. While acknowledging the suzerainty of Persia, however, the Lycians remained practically independent, and for a time joined the Delian league. "The son of Harpagus" on the obelisk of Xanthus boasts of having sacked numerous cities in alliance with the Athenian goddess. The Lycians were incorporated into the empire of Alexander and his successors, but even after their conquest by the Romans, preserved their federal institutions as late as the time of Augustus. According to Strabo the principal towns in the league were Xanthus, Patara, Pinara, Olympus, Myra and Tlos; each of these had three votes in the general assembly, while the other towns had only two or one. Taxation and the appointment of the Lyciarch and other magistrates were vested in the assembly. Under Claudius Lycia was formally annexed to the Roman empire, and united with Pamphylia: Theodosius made it a separate province.

_Antiquities._--Few parts of Asia Minor were less known in modern times than Lycia up to the 19th century. Captain Beaufort was the first to visit several places on the sea-coast, and the remarkable rock-hewn tombs of Telmessus had been already described by Dr Clarke, but it was Sir Charles Fellows who first discovered and drew attention to the extraordinary richness of the district in ancient remains, especially of a sepulchral character. His visits to the country in 1838 and 1840 were followed by an expedition sent by the British government in 1842 to transport to England the valuable monuments now in the British Museum, while Admiral Spratt and Edward Forbes explored the interior, and laid down its physical features on an excellent map. The monuments thus brought to light are among the most interesting of those discovered in Asia Minor, and prove the existence of a distinct native architecture, especially in the rock-cut tombs. But the theatres found in almost every town, some of them of very large size, are sufficient to attest the pervading influence of Greek civilization; and this is confirmed by the sculptures, which are for the most part wholly Greek. None of them, indeed, can be ascribed to a very early period, and hardly any trace can be found of the influence of Assyrian or other Oriental art.

One of the most interesting results of these recent researches has been the discovery of numerous inscriptions in the native language of the country, and written in an alphabet peculiar to Lycia. A few of these inscriptions are bilingual, in Greek and Lycian, and the clue thus afforded to their interpretation has been followed up, first by Daniel Sharpe and Moritz Schmidt, and in more recent years by J. Imbert, W. Arkwright, V. Thomsen, A. Torp, S. Bugge and E. Kalinka.

The alphabet was derived from the Doric alphabet of Rhodes, but ten other characters were added to it to express vocalic and other sounds not found in Greek. The attempts to connect the language with the Indo-European family have been unsuccessful; it belongs to a separate family of speech which we may term "Asianic." Most of the inscriptions are sepulchral; by far the longest and most important is that on an obelisk found at Xanthus, which is a historical document, the concluding part of it being in a peculiar dialect, supposed to be an older and poetical form of the language. Among the deities mentioned are Trzzube (Trosobis) and Trqqiz or Trqqas.

Lycian art was modelled on that of the Greeks. The rock-cut tomb usually represented the house of the living, with an elaborate façade, but in one or two instances, notably that of the so-called Harpy-tomb, the façade is surmounted by a tall, square tower, in the upper part of which is the sepulchral chamber. Lycian sculpture followed closely the development of Greek sculpture, and many of the sculptures with which the tombs are adorned are of a high order of merit. The exquisite bas-reliefs on a Lycian sarcophagus now in the museum of Constantinople are among the finest surviving examples of classical art. The bas-reliefs were usually coloured. For the coinage, see NUMISMATICS, section "Asia Minor."

AUTHORITIES.--C. Fellows, _Journal in Asia Minor_ (1839) and
_Discoveries in Lycia_ (1841); T. A. B. Spratt and E. Forbes, _Travels
in Lycia_ (1847); O. Benndorf and G. Niemann, _Reisen im südwestlichen
Kleinasien_ (1884); E. Petersen and F. von Luschan, _Reisen in Lykien_
(1889); O. Treuber, _Geschichte der Lykier_ (1887); G. Perrot and C.
Chipiez, _Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquite_, v. (1890); P.
Kretschmer, _Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache_
(1896); S. Bugge, _Lykische Studien_ (from 1897); A. Torp, _Lykische
Beiträge_ (from 1898); V. Thomsen, _Études lyciennes_ (1899); E.
Kalinka and R. Heberdey, _Tituli Asiae Minoris_, i. (1901); see also
articles XANTHUS, MYRA, PATARA. (A. H. S.)

LYCK, or LYK, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of East Prussia, 112 m. by rail S.E. of Königsberg, and close to the frontier of Poland, on a lake and river of the same name. Pop. (1900) 11,386. It is the chief town of the region known as Masuria. On an island in the lake is a castle formerly belonging to the Teutonic order, and dating from 1273, now used as a prison. There are iron-foundries, distilleries, breweries, tanneries, paper mills and flour mills, and a trade in grain and cattle.

LYCOPHRON, Greek poet and grammarian, was born at Chalcis in Euboea. He flourished at Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.). According to Suïdas, he was the son of Socles, but was adopted by Lycus of Rhegium. He was entrusted by Ptolemy with the task of arranging the comedies in the Alexandrian library, and as the result of his labours composed a treatise _On Comedy_. His own compositions, however, chiefly consisted of tragedies (Suïdas gives the titles of twenty, of which very few fragments have been preserved), which secured him a place in the Pleiad of Alexandrian tragedians. One of his poems, _Alexandra_ or _Cassandra_, containing 1474 iambic lines, has been preserved entire. It is in the form of a prophecy uttered by Cassandra, and relates the later fortunes of Troy and of the Greek and Trojan heroes. References to events of mythical and later times are introduced, and the poem ends with a reference to Alexander the Great, who was to unite Asia and Europe in his world-wide empire. The style is so enigmatical as to have procured for Lycophron, even among the ancients, the title of "obscure" ([Greek: skoteinos]). The poem is evidently intended to display the writer's knowledge of obscure names and uncommon myths; it is full of unusual words of doubtful meaning gathered from the older poets, and many long-winded compounds coined by the author. It has none of the qualities of poetry, and was probably written as a show-piece for the Alexandrian school. It was very popular in the Byzantine period, and was read and commented on very frequently; the collection of scholia by Isaac and John Tzetzes is very valuable, and the MSS. of the _Cassandra_ are numerous.[1] A few well-turned lines which have been preserved from Lycophron's tragedies show a much better style; they are said to have been much admired by Menedemus of Eretria, although the poet had ridiculed him in a satyric drama. Lycophron is also said to have been a skilful writer of anagrams.

Editio princeps (1513); J. Potter (1697, 1702); L. Sebastiani (1803);
L. Bachmann (1830); G. Kinkel (1880); E. Scheer (1881-1908), vol. ii.
containing the scholia. The most complete edition is by C. von
Holzinger (with translation, introduction and notes, 1895). There are
translations by F. Deheque (1853) and Viscount Royston (1806; a work
of great merit). See also Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, _De Lycophronis
Alexandra_ (1884); J. Konze, _De Dictione Lycophronis_ (1870). The
commentaries of the brothers Tzetzes have been edited by C. O. Müller
(1811).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Two passages of the _Cassandra_, 1446-1450 and 1226-1282, in
which the career of the Roman people and their universal empire are
spoken of, could not possibly have been written by an Alexandrian
poet of 250 B.C. Hence it has been maintained by Niebuhr and others
that the poem was written, by a later poet mentioned by Tzetzes, but
the opinion of Welcker that these paragraphs are a later
interpolation is generally considered more probable.

LYCOPODIUM, the principal genus of the Lycopodiaceae, a natural order of the Fern-allies (see PTERIDOPHYTA). They are flowerless herbs, with an erect, prostrate or creeping widely-branched stem, with small simple leaves which thickly cover the stem and branches. The "fertile" leaves are arranged in cones, and bear spore-cases (sporangia) in their axils, containing spores of one kind only. The prothallium developed from the spore is a subterranean mass of tissue of considerable size, and bears the male and female organs (_antheridia_ and _archegonia_). There are about a hundred species widely distributed in temperate and tropical climates; five occur in Britain on heaths and moors, chiefly in mountainous districts, and are known as club-mosses The commonest species, _L. clavatum_, is also known as stag-horn moss.

FIG. 1.--Lycopodium clavatum.

A, Old prothallus.
B, Prothallus bearing a young sporophyte.
G, Polian of a mature plant, showing the creeping habit, the
adventitious roots and the specialized erect branches bearing the
strobile or cones.
H, Sporophyte bearing the single sporangium on its upper surface.
J, Spore.]

Gerard, in 1597, described two kinds of lycopodium (_Herball_, p.
1373) under the names _Muscus denticulatus_ and _Muscus clavatus_ (_L.
clavatum_) as "Club Mosse or Woolfes Clawe Mosse," the names being in
Low Dutch, "Wolfs Clauwen," from the resemblance of the club-like or
claw-shaped shoots to the toes of a wolf, "whereupon we first named it
_Lycopodion_." Gerard also speaks of its emetic and many other
supposed virtues. _L. Selago_ and _L. catharticum_ (a native of the
Andes) have been said to be, at least when fresh, cathartic; but, with
the exception of the spores of _L. clavatum_ ("lycopodium powder"),
lycopodium as a drug has fallen into disuse. The powder is used for
rolling pills in, as a dusting powder for infants' sores, &c. A
_tinctura lycopodii_, containing one part of the powder to ten of
alcohol (90%), has been given, in doses of 15 to 60 minims, in cases
of irritation and spasm of the bladder. The powder is highly
inflammable, and is used in pyrotechny and for artificial lightning on
the stage. If the hand be covered with the powder it cannot be wetted
on being plunged into water. Another use of lycopodium is for dyeing;
woollen cloth boiled with species of lycopodium, as _L. clavatum_,
becomes blue when dipped in a bath of Brazil wood.

LYCOSURA (mod. _Palaeokastro_ or _Siderokastro_), a city of Arcadia, reputed to be the most ancient city in Greece, and to have been founded by Lycaon the son of Pelasgus. Its fame in later times was chiefly associated with the temple of Despoena, containing the colossal group made by Damophon of Messene, of Despoena and Demeter seated, with Artemis and the Titan Anytus standing beside them. The temple and considerable remains of the group of sculpture were found in 1889. The date of both has been a matter of dispute, Damophon being placed at dates varying from the 4th century B.C. to the age of Hadrian. But it has now been shown that he lived in the 2nd century B.C. Remains of a portico, altars and other structures have also been found.

See [Greek: Praktika tes Arch. Hetairias] (1896); G. Dickens, _Annual
of British School_ at Athens, xii. and xiii.

LYCURGUS (Gr. [Greek: Lykourgos]), in Greek history, the reputed founder of the Spartan constitution. Plutarch opens his biography of Lycurgus with these words: "About Lycurgus the lawgiver it is not possible to make a single statement that is not called in question. His genealogy, his travels, his death, above all, his legislative and constitutional activity have been variously recorded, and there is the greatest difference of opinion as to his date." Nor has modern historical criticism arrived at any certain results. Many scholars, indeed, suppose him to be in reality a god or hero, appealing to the existence of a temple and cult of Lycurgus at Sparta as early as the time of Herodotus, (i. 66), and to the words of the Delphic oracle (Herod. i. 65)--

[Greek: dixo e se theon manteusomai e anthropon.
all' eti kai mallon theon elpomai, o Lykoorge.]

If this be so, he is probably to be connected with the cult of Apollo Lycius or with that of Zeus Lycaeus. But the majority of modern historians agree in accepting Lycurgus as an historical person, however widely they may differ about his work.

According to the Spartan tradition preserved by Herodotus, Lycurgus was a member of the Agiad house, son of Agis I. and brother of Echestratus. On the death of the latter he became regent and guardian of his nephew Labotas (Leobotes), who was still a minor. Simonides, on the other hand, spoke of him as a Eurypontid, son of Prytanis and brother of Eunomus, and later the tradition prevailed which made him the son of Eunomus and Dionassa, and half-brother of the king Polydectes, on whose death he became guardian of the young king Charillus. According to Herodotus he introduced his reforms immediately on becoming regent, but the story which afterwards became generally accepted and is elaborated by Plutarch represented him as occupying for some time the position of regent, then spending several years in travels, and on his return to Sparta carrying through his legislation when Charillus was king. This latter version helped to emphasize the disinterestedness of the lawgiver, and also supplied a motive for his travels--the jealousy of those who accused him of trying to supplant his nephew on the throne. He is said to have visited Crete, Egypt and Ionia, and some versions even took him to Spain, Libya and India.

Various beliefs were held as to the source from which Lycurgus derived his ideas of reform. Herodotus found the tradition current among the Spartans that they were suggested to Lycurgus by the similar Cretan institutions, but even in the 5th century there was a rival theory that he derived them from the Delphic oracle. These two versions are united by Ephorus, who argued that, though Lycurgus had really derived his system from Crete, yet to give it a religious sanction he had persuaded the Delphic priestess to express his views in oracular form.

_The Reforms._--Herodotus says that Lycurgus changed "all the customs," that he created the military organization of [Greek: enomotiai] (_enomoties_), [Greek: triekades] (_triecades_) and [Greek: syssitia] (_syssitia_), and that he instituted the ephorate and the council of elders. To him, further, are attributed the foundation of the apella (the citizen assembly), the prohibition of gold and silver currency, the partition of the land ([Greek: ges anadasmos]) into equal lots, and, in general, the characteristic Spartan training ([Greek: agoge]). Some of these statements are certainly false. The council of elders and the assembly are not in any sense peculiar to Sparta, but are present in the heroic government of Greece as depicted in the Homeric poems. The ephors, again, are almost universally held to be either an immemorial heritage of the Dorian stock or--and this seems more probable--an addition to the Spartan constitution made at a later date than can be assigned to Lycurgus. Further, the tradition of the Lycurgan partition of the land is open to grave objections. Grote pointed out (_History of Greece_, pt. ii. ch. 6) that even from the earliest historical times we find glaring inequalities of property at Sparta, and that the tradition was apparently unknown to all the earlier Greek historians and philosophers down to Plato and Aristotle: Isocrates (xii. 259) expressly denied that a partition of land had ever taken place in the Spartan state. Again, the tradition presupposes the conquest by the Spartans of the whole, or at least the greater part, of Laconia, yet Lycurgus must fall in the period when the Spartans had not yet subjugated even the middle Eurotas plain, in which their city lay. Finally, we can point to an adequate explanation of the genesis of the tradition in the ideals of the reformers of the latter part of the 3rd century, led by the kings Agis IV. and Cleomenes III. (q.v.). To them the cause of Sparta's decline lay in the marked inequalities of wealth, and they looked upon a redistribution of the land as the reform most urgently needed. But it was characteristic of the Greeks to represent the ideals of the present as the facts of the past, and so such a story as that of the Lycurgan [Greek: ges anadasmos] may well have arisen at this time. It is at least noteworthy that the plan of Agis to give 4500 lots to Spartans and 15,000 to perioeci suspiciously resembles that of Lycurgus, in whose case the numbers are said to have been 9000 and 30,000 respectively. Lastly, the prohibition of gold and silver money cannot be attributed to Lycurgus, for at so early a period coinage was yet unknown in Greece.

Lycurgus, then, did not create any of the main elements of the Spartan constitution, though he may have regulated their powers and defined their position. But tradition represented him as finding Sparta the prey of disunion, weakness and lawlessness, and leaving her united, strong and subject to the most stable government which the Greek world had ever seen. Probably Grote comes near to the truth when he says that Lycurgus "is the founder of a warlike brotherhood rather than the lawgiver of a political community." To him we may attribute the unification of the several component parts of the state, the strict military organization and training which soon made the Spartan hoplite the best soldier in Greece, and above all the elaborate and rigid system of education which rested upon, and in turn proved the strongest support of, that subordination of the individual to the state which perhaps has had no parallel in the history of the world.

Lycurgus's legislation is very variously dated, and it is not possible either to harmonize the traditions or to decide with confidence between them. B. Niese (_Hermes_, xlii. 440 sqq.) assigns him to the first half of the 7th century B.C. Aristotle read Lycurgus's name, together with that of Iphitus, on the discus at Olympia which bore the terms of the sacred truce, but even if the genuineness of the document and the identity of this Lycurgus with the Spartan reformer be granted, it is uncertain whether the discus belongs to the so-called first Olympiad, 776 B.C., or to an earlier date. Most traditions place Lycurgus in the 9th century: Thucydides, whom Grote follows, dates his reforms shortly before 804, Isocrates and Ephorus go back to 869, and the chronographers are divided between 821, 828 and 834 B.C. Finally, according to a tradition recorded by Xenophon (_Resp. Laced_. x. 8), he was contemporary with the Heraclidae, in which case he would belong to the 10th century B.C.

AUTHORITIES.--Our chief ancient authorities, besides Plutarch's
biography, are:--Herodotus i. 65; Xenophon, _Respublica
Lacedaemoniorum_; Ephorus _ap_. Strabo x. 481, 482; Aristotle,
_Politics_, ii.; Pausanias iii. and v. 4; and scattered passages in
Plato, Isocrates, Polybius, Diodorus, Polyaenus, &c. Of modern works
the most important are: E. Meyer, "Lykurgos von Sparta," in
_Forschungen zur alten Geschichte_ (Halle, 1892), i. 211 sqq.; A.
Kopstadt, _De rerum Laconicarum constitutionis Lycurgeae origine et
indole_ (Greifswald, 1849); H. K. Stein, _Kritik der Überlieferung
über den spartanischen Gesetzgeber Lykurg_ (Glatz, 1882); S. Wide,
"Bemerkungen zur spartanischen Lykurglegende," in _Skand_. _Archiv_.
i. (1891), 90 sqq.; E. Nusselt, _Das Lykurgproblem_ (Erlangen, 1898);
H. Bazin, _De Lycurgo_ (Paris, 1885); C. Reuss, _De Lycurgea quae
fertur agrorum divisione_ (Pforzheim, 1878); A. Busson, _Lykurgos und
die grosse Rhetra_ (Innsbruck, 1887); H. Gelzer, "Lykurg und die
delphische Priesterschaft" in _Rhein_. _Mus_. xxviii. 1 sqq.; F.
Winicker, _Stand der Lykurgischen Frage_ (Graudenz, 1884); G.
Attinger, _Essai sur Lycurgue et ses institutions_ (Neuchâtel, 1892);
the general Greek histories, and the works on the Spartan constitution
cited under SPARTA. (M. N. T.)

LYCURGUS (c. 396-325 B.C.), one of the "ten" Attic orators. Through his father, Lycophron, he belonged to the old Attic priestly family of the Eteobutadae. He is said to have been a pupil both of Plato and of Isocrates. His early career is unknown, but after the real character of the struggle with Philip of Macedon became manifest he was recognized, with Demosthenes and Hypereides, as one of the chiefs of the national party. He left the care of external relations to his colleagues, and devoted himself to internal organization and finance. He managed the finances of Athens for twelve successive years (338-326), at first directly as treasurer of the revenues ([Greek: ho hepi te dioikesei]) for four years, and in two succeeding terms, when the actual office was forbidden him by law, through his son and a nominal official chosen from his party. Part of one of the deeds in which he rendered account of his term of office is still preserved in an inscription. During this time he raised the public income from 600 to 1200 talents yearly. He increased the navy, repaired the dockyards, and completed an arsenal, the [Greek: skeuotheke] designed by the architect Philo. He was also appointed to various other offices connected with the preservation and improvement of the city. He was very strict in his superintendence of the public morals, and passed a sumptuary law to restrain extravagance. He did much to beautify the city; he reconstructed the great Dionysiac theatre and the gymnasium in the Lyceum, and erected the Panathenaic stadium on the Ilissus. He is mentioned as the proposer of five laws, of which the most famous was that statues of the three great tragedians should be erected in the theatre, and that their works should be carefully edited and preserved among the state archives. For his services he was honoured with crowns, statues and a seat in the town hall; and after his death his friend Stratocles drew up a decree (still extant in pseudo-Plutarch, _Vit. dec. orat._ p. 851; see also E. L. Hicks, _Greek Historical Inscriptions_, 1st ed., No. 145), ordering the erection of a statue of bronze to Lycurgus, and granting the honours of the Prytaneum to his eldest son. He was one of the orators whose surrender was demanded by Alexander the Great, but the people refused to give him up. He died while president of the theatre of Dionysus, and was buried on the road leading to the Academy at the expense of the state.

Lycurgus was a man of action; his orations, of which fifteen were published, are criticized by the ancients for their awkward arrangement, harshness of style, and the tendency to digressions about mythology and history, although their noble spirit and lofty morality are highly praised. The one extant example, _Against Leocrates_, fully bears out this criticism. After the battle of Chaeroneia (338), in spite of the decree which forbade emigration under pain of death, Leocrates had fled from Athens. On his return (probably about 332) he was impeached by Lycurgus, but acquitted, the votes of the judges being equally divided.

The speech has been frequently edited. Editio princeps (Aldine, 1513);
F. G. Kiessling (1847) with M. H. E. Meier's commentary on
pseudo-Plutarch's _Life of Lycurgus_ and the fragments of his
speeches; C. Rehdantz (1876); T. Thalheim (1880); C. Scheibe (1885);
F. Blass (ed. major, 1889), with bibliography of editions and articles
(ed. minor, 1902); E. Sofer (Leipzig, 1905), with notes and introd.
There is an index to Andocides, Lycurgus and Dinarchus by L. L. Forman
(Oxford, 1897). The exhaustive treatise of F. Dürrbach, _L'Orateur
Lycurgue_ (1890), contains a list of the most important review
articles on the financial and naval administration of Lycurgus and on
his public works; see also C. Droege, _De Lycurgo publicarum
pecuniarum administratore_ (Minden, 1880). Several fragments of his
various laws have been preserved in inscriptions (_Corpus
inscriptionum atticarum_, ii. 162, 163, 173, 176, 180). On the history
of the period see authorities under DEMOSTHENES.

LYCURGUS, "THE LOGOTHETE" (1772-1851), Greek leader in the War of Independence, was born in the island of Samos. He was educated at Constantinople, received the usual training, and followed the customary career of a Phanariot Greek. He accompanied Constantine Ypsilanti when he was appointed hospodar of Walachia, as secretary, and served Ypsilanti's successor, Alexander Soutzos, as treasurer and chancellor (Logothete). In 1802 he returned to Samos, and having become suspected by the Turkish government was imprisoned. He fled to Smyrna, when he was pardoned and released by the Turks. When the War of Independence began he induced his countrymen to declare Samos independent, and was chosen ruler. His share in the War of Independence is chiefly memorable because he provoked the massacre of Chios in 1822. Lycurgus conducted an expedition of 2500 to that island, which was held by a Turkish garrison under Velna Pasha. His force was insufficient, the time was ill-chosen, for a strong Turkish fleet was at sea, and Lycurgus displayed utter incapacity as a military leader. After these events, he was deposed by the Samians, but recovered some influence and had a share in the defence of Samos against the Turks in 1824. When the island was left under the authority of Turkey by the protocol of the 3rd of February 1830, he helped to obtain autonomy for the Samians. He retired to Greece and died on the 22nd of May 1851.

See G. Finlay, _History of the Greek Revolution_ (London, 1861).

LYDD, a market town and municipal borough in the southern parliamentary division of Kent, England, 71½ m. S.E. by E. of London by a branch of the South-Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. (1901) 2675. It lies in the open lowland of Dunge Marsh. To the south-east are the bare shingle banks of the promontory of Dungeness. Its church of All Saints has a beautiful Perpendicular tower with rich vaulting within. The neighbourhood affords pasture for large flocks of sheep. On the land known as the Rypes, in the neighbourhood, there is a military camp, with artillery and rifle ranges; hence the name given to the explosive "lyddite." The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 12,043 acres.

The first settlement at Lydd (Hlide, Lide, Lyde) was probably due to its convenience as a fishing-station. After the Conquest it became a seaport of some consequence and although now, owing to the alteration of the coast, it stands nearly 3 m. inland a number of its inhabitants are still fishermen. In 774 land in Lydd was granted by Offa to the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, and the archbishop of Canterbury evidently held the lordship of the town from an early date. At some time before the reign of Edward I. Lydd was made a member of the Cinque Port of Romney, and in 1290 was granted the same liberties and free customs as the Cinque Ports on condition of aiding the service of its head-port to the crown with one ship. This charter was confirmed by Edward III. in 1365. The corporation also possesses documents of 1154, 1399 and 1413, granting to the archbishop's men of Lydd the privileges enjoyed by the Cinque Ports and confirming all former privileges. Lydd is called a borough in the Hundred Rolls. Its incorporation under a bailiff, of which there is evidence in the 15th century, may have been due to the archbishop or to the court of Shepway, but it was not incorporated by the crown until 1885, when, by a charter under the Municipal Acts, the last bailiff was elected the first mayor. In 1494 a grant was made to the bailiff, jurats and commonalty of a yearly fair on the 12th of July and two days following. A fair was held under this grant until 1874.

LYDENBURG, a town and district of the Transvaal, South Africa. The town is 60 m. by rail N.N.E. of Belfast on the Pretoria-Delagoa Bay railway. Pop. (1904) 1523. It is picturesquely situated on the Spekboom tributary of the Olifants river at an altitude of 4900 ft. Some 15 m. E. is the Mauchberg (8725 ft.), the highest point in the Transvaal. The town is the chief centre for the Lydenburg goldfields. Next to Lydenburg the most important settlement in these goldfields is Pilgrim's Rest, pop. (1904) 1188, 23 m. N.E. of Lydenburg. Lydenburg (the town of suffering) was founded in 1846 by Boers who two years previously had established themselves farther north at Ohrigstad, which they abandoned on account of the fever endemic there. Lydenburg at once became the capital of a district (of the same name) which then embraced all the eastern part of the Transvaal. In 1856 the Boers of Lydenburg separated from their brethren and proclaimed an independent republic, which was, however, incorporated with the South African Republic in 1860. The discovery of gold near the town was made in 1869, and in 1873 the first successful goldfield in the Transvaal was opened here. It was not until 1910, however, that Lydenburg was placed in railway communication with the rest of the country. The present district of Lydenburg consists of the north-east and central parts of the original district. In the Lulu Mountains, a spur of the Drakensberg, and some 40 m. N.W. of Lydenburg, was the stronghold of the Kaffir chief Sikukuni, whose conflict with the Boers in 1876 was one of the causes which led to the annexation of the Transvaal by Great Britain in 1877. (See TRANSVAAL: _History_.)

LYDFORD, or LIDFORD, a village, once an important town, in the western parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, near the western confines of Dartmoor, 27 m. N. of Plymouth by the London & South-Western railway. From its Perpendicular church of St Petrock fine views of the Dartmoor tors are seen. The village stands on the small river Lyd, which traverses a deep narrow chasm, crossed by a bridge of single span; and at a little distance a tributary stream forms a cascade in an exquisite glen. Close to the church are slight remains of the castle of Lydford.

Lydford (_Lideford_) was one of the four Saxon boroughs of Devon, and possessed a mint in the days of Aethelred the Unready. It first appears in recorded history in 997, when the Danes made a plundering expedition up the Tamar and Tavy as far as "Hlidaforda." In the reign of Edward the Confessor it was the most populous centre in Devonshire after Exeter, but the Domesday Survey relates that forty houses had been laid waste since the Conquest, and the town never recovered its former prosperity; the history from the 13th century centres round the castle, which is first mentioned in 1216, when it was granted to William Briwere, and was shortly afterwards fixed as the prison of the stannaries and the meeting-place of the Forest Courts of Dartmoor. A gild at Lideford is mentioned in 1180, and the pipe roll of 1195 records a grant for the reestablishment of the market. In 1238 the borough, which had hitherto been crown demesne, was bestowed by Henry III. on Richard, earl of Cornwall, who in 1268 obtained a grant of a Wednesday market and a three days' fair at the feast of St Petrock. The borough had a separate coroner and bailiff in 1275, but it was never incorporated by charter, and only once, in 1300, returned members to parliament. Lydford prison is described in 1512 as "one of the most hainous, contagious and detestable places in the realm," and "Lydford Law" was a by-word for injustice. At the time of the Commonwealth the castle was entirely in ruins, but in the 18th century it was restored and again used as a prison and as the meeting-place of the manor and borough courts.

LYDGATE, JOHN (c. 1370-c. 1451), English poet, was born at the village of Lydgate, some 6 or 7 m. from Newmarket. It is, however, with the Benedictine abbey of Bury St Edmunds that he is chiefly associated. Probably he was educated at the school attached to the monastery, and in his _Testament_ he has drawn a lively picture of himself as a typical orchard-robbing boy, who had scant relish for matins, fought, and threw creed and paternoster at the cock. He was ordained sub-deacon in 1389, deacon in 1393, and priest in 1397. These dates are valuable as enabling us to fix approximately the date of his birth, which must have occurred somewhere about 1370. Lydgate passed as a portent of learning, and, according to Bale, he pursued his studies not only at both the English universities but in France and Italy. Koeppel (see _Laurents de Premierfait und John Lydgates Bearbeitungen von Boccaccios De Casibus_, Munich, 1885) has thrown much doubt on this statement as regards Italy, but Lydgate knew France and visited Paris in an official capacity in 1426. Bale is also the authority for another assertion that figures in what has been aptly termed the poet's "traditional biography," viz. that Lydgate, on completing his own education, kept school for the sons of noblemen and gentlemen. This "traditional biography" prolongs his life to the year 1461, but it is quite improbable that he lived many years after 1446, when Abbot Curteys died and John Baret, treasurer of Bury, signed an extant receipt for a pension which he shared with Lydgate, and which continued to be paid till 1449. If it be true, as Bishop Alcock of Ely affirms, that Lydgate wrote a poem on the loss of France and Gascony, it seems necessary to suppose that he lived two years longer, and thus indications point to the year 1451, or thereabouts, as the date of his death.

Lydgate had a consuming passion for literature, and it was probably that he might indulge this taste more fully that in 1434 he retired from the priorate of Hatfield Broadoak (or Hatfield Regis), to which he had been appointed in June 1423. After 1390--but whilst he was still a young man--he made the acquaintance of Geoffrey Chaucer, with whose son Thomas he was on terms of considerable intimacy. This friendship appears to have decided Lydgate's career, and in his _Troy-book_ and elsewhere are reverent and touching tributes to his "master." The passages in question do not exaggerate his obligations to the "well of English." The themes of all his more ambitious poems can be traced to Chaucerian sources. _The Story of Thebes_, for instance, was doubtless suggested by the "romance" which Cressida and her companions are represented as reading when interrupted by Pandarus (_Troilus and Cressida_, II. xii.-xvi.). The _Falls of Princes_, again, is merely the _Monk's Tale_ "writ large."

Lydgate is a most voluminous writer. The _Falls of Princes_ alone comprises 7000 stanzas; and his authentic compositions reach the enormous total of 150,000 lines. Cursed with such immoderate fluency Lydgate could not sustain himself at the highest level of artistic excellence; and, though imbued with a sense of the essentials of poetry, and eager to prove himself in its various manifestations, he stinted himself of the self-discipline necessary to perfection of form. As the result the bulk of his composition is wholly or comparatively rough-hewn. That he was capable of better work than is suggested by his average accomplishment is shown by two allegorical poems--the _Complaint of the Black Knight_ and the _Temple of Glass_ (once attributed to Hawes). In these he reveals himself as a not unworthy successor of Chaucer, and the pity of it is that he should have squandered his powers in a futile attempt to create an entire literature. For a couple of centuries Lydgate's reputation equalled, if it did not surpass, that of his master. This was in a sense only natural, since he was the real founder of the school of which Stephen Hawes was a distinguished ornament, and which "held the field" in English letters during the long and dreary interval between Chaucer and Spenser. One of the most obvious defects of this school is excessive attachment to polysyllabic terms. Lydgate is not quite so great a sinner in this respect as are some of his successors, but his tendency cannot be mistaken, and John Metham is amply justified in his censure--

Eke John Lydgate, sometime monk of Bury,
His books indited with terms of rhetoric
And half-changed Latin, with conceits of poetry.

Pedantry was an inevitable effect of the early Renaissance. French literature passed through the same phase, from which indeed it was later in emerging; and the ultimate consequence was the enrichment of both languages. It must be conceded as no small merit in Lydgate that, in an age of experiment he should have succeeded so often in hitting the right word. Thomas Warton remarks on his lucidity. Since his writings are read more easily than Chaucer's, the inference is plain--that he was more effectual as a maker of our present English. In spite of that, Lydgate is characteristically medieval--medieval in his prolixity, his platitude, his want of judgment and his want of taste; medieval also in his pessimism, his Mariolatry and his horror of death. These attributes jarred on the sensitive Ritson, who racked his brains for contumelious epithets such as "stupid and disgusting," "cart-loads of rubbish," &c.; and during the greater part of the 18th and 19th centuries Lydgate's reputation was at its lowest ebb. Recent criticism has been far more impartial, and almost too much respect has been paid to his attainments, especially in the matter of metre, though Lydgate himself, with offensive lightheartedness, admits his poor craftsmanship.

Lydgate's most doughty and learned apologist is Dr Schick, whose
preface to the _Temple of Glass_ embodies practically all that is known
or conjectured concerning this author, including the chronological
order of his works. With the exception of the _Damage and Destruction
in Realms_--an account of Julius Caesar, his wars and his death--they
are all in verse and extremely multifarious--narrative, devotional
hagiological, philosophical and scientific, allegorical and moral,
historical, satirical and occasional. The _Troy-book_, undertaken at
the command of Henry V., then prince of Wales, dates from 1412-1420;
the _Story of Thebes_ from 1420-1422; and the _Falls of Princes_
towards 1430. His latest work was _Secreta Secretorum_ or _Secrets of
Old Philosophers_, rhymed extracts from a pseudo-Aristotelian treatise.
Lydgate certainly possessed extraordinary versatility, which enabled
him to turn from elaborate epics to quite popular poems like the
_Mumming at Hertford_, _A Ditty of Women's Horns_ and _London
Lickpenny_. The humour of this last is especially bright and effective,
but, unluckily for the author, the piece is believed to have been
retouched by some other hand. The longer efforts partake of the nature
of translations from sundry medieval compilations like those of Guido
di Colonna and Boccaccio, which are in Latin.

See publications of the Early English Text Society, especially the
_Temple of Glass_, edited by Dr Schick; Koeppel's _Lydgate's Story of
Thebes, eine Quellenuntersuchung_ (Munich, 1884), and the same
scholar's _Laurents de Premierfait und John Lydgates Bearbeitungen von
Boccaccios De Casibus Illustrium Virorum_ (Munich, 1885); Warton's
_History of English Poetry_; Ritson's _Bibliotheca Anglo-Poética_;
Furnivall's _Political Poems_ (E. E. T. S.); and Sidney Lee's article
in the _Dict. Nat. Biog._ (F. J. S.)

LYDIA, in ancient geography, a district of Asia Minor, the boundaries of which it is difficult to fix, partly because they varied at different epochs. The name is first found under the form of _Luddi_ in the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Assur-bani-pal, who received tribute from Gyges about 660 B.C. In Homer we read only of Maeonians (_Il_. ii. 865, v. 43, x. 431), and the place of the Lydian capital Sardis is taken by Hyde (_Il_. xx. 385), unless this was the name of the district in which Sardis stood (see Strabo xiii. p. 626).[1] The earliest Greek writer who mentions the name is Mimnermus of Colophon, in the 37th Olympiad. According to Herodotus (i. 7), the Meiones (called Maeones by other writers) were named Lydians after Lydus, the son of Attis, in the mythical epoch which preceded the rise of the Heraclid dynasty. In historical times the Maeones were a tribe inhabiting the district of the upper Hermus, where a town called Maeonia existed (Pliny, _N.H._ v. 30; Hierocles, p. 670). The Lydians must originally have been an allied tribe which bordered upon them to the north-west, and occupied the plain of Sardis or Magnesia at the foot of Tmolus and Sipylus. They were cut off from the sea by the Greeks, who were in possession, not only of the Bay of Smyrna, but also of the country north of Sipylus as far as Temnus in the pass (_boghaz_), through which the Hermus forces its way from the plain of Magnesia into its lower valley.[2] In a Homeric epigram the ridge north of the Hermus, on which the ruins of Temnus lie, is called Sardene. Northward the Lydians extended at least as far as the Gygaean Lake (Lake Coloe, mod. Mermereh), and the Sardene range (mod. Dumanli Dagh). The plateau of the Bin Bir Tepe, on the southern shore of the Gygaean Lake, was the chief burial-place of the inhabitants of Sardis, and is still thickly studded with tumuli, among which is the "tomb of Alyattes" (260 ft. high). Next to Sardis the chief city was Magnesia ad Sipylum (q.v.), in the neighbourhood of which is the famous seated figure of "Niobe" (_Il_. xxiv. 614-617), cut out of the rock, and probably intended to represent the goddess Cybele, to which the Greeks attached their legend of Niobe. According to Pliny (v. 31), Tantalis, afterwards swallowed up by earthquake in the pool Sale or Saloe, was the ancient name of Sipylus and "the capital of Maeonia" (Paus. vii. 24; Strabo xii. 579). Under the Heraclid dynasty the limits of Lydia must have been already extended, since according to Strabo (xiii. 590), the authority of Gyges reached as far as the Troad. Under the Mermnads Lydia became a maritime as well as an inland power. The Greek cities were conquered, and the coast of Ionia included within the Lydian kingdom. The successes of Alyattes and of Croesus finally changed the Lydian kingdom into a Lydian empire, and all Asia Minor westward of the Halys, except Lycia, owned the supremacy of Sardis. Lydia never again shrank back into its original dimensions. After the Persian conquest the Maeander was regarded as its southern boundary, and in the Roman period it comprised the country between Mysia and Caria on the one side and Phrygia and the Aegean on the other.

Lydia proper was exceedingly fertile. The hill-sides were clothed with vine and fir, and the rich broad plain of Hermus produced large quantities of corn and saffron. The climate of the plain was soft but healthy, though the country was subject to frequent earthquakes. The Pactolus, which flowed from the fountain of Tarne in the Tmolus mountains, through the centre of Sardis, into the Hermus, was believed to be full of golden sand; and gold mines were worked in Tmolus itself, though by the time of Strabo the proceeds had become so small as hardly to pay for the expense of working them (Strabo xiii. 591). Maeonia on the east contained the curious barren plateau known to the Greeks as the Katakekaumene ("Burnt country"), once a centre of volcanic disturbance. The Gygaean lake (where remains of pile dwellings have been found) still abounds with carp.