History

The history of Lycia

The history of Lycia is a story of fierce struggles against those who sought to invade and dominate it, as it was a very desirable region.  It appears that Greek efforts to colonize Lycia during the first millennium B.C. were largely unsuccessful even though there were several Athenian expeditions.

The first recorded instance of Lycian resistance fighting occurred around 540 BC when the Persians under the commander Harpagos overran all Asia Minor during the rule of Cyrus II (The Great). The Persians attacked the Lycian capital city of Xanthos and the Xanthosians put up a heroic fight.  In the end however, they chose mass suicide over surrender. The men of Xanthos gathered their wives, children and possessions in the acropolis and set fire to all before rushing out fighting to die to the last man.  Herodotus of Halicarnassos reports:

"The Persian Army entered the plain of Xanthos under the command of Harpagos, and did battle with the Xanthians. The Xanthians fought with small numbers against the superior Persians forces, with legendary bravery. They resisted the endless Persian forces with great courage, but were finally beaten, their womenfolk, children, slaves and treasures into the fortress. This was then set on fire from, below and around the walls , until destroyed by conflagration. Then the warriors of Xanthos made their final attack on the Persians, their voices raised in calls of war, until every last man from Xanthos was killed."

This disaster was confirmed during excavations by a thick layer of ash covering the site.

Xanthos was later repopulated by about 80 families outside the city at the time of the mass suicide as well as other Lycian immigrants to the city.  Persian rule of Lycia actually proved to be quite mild, requiring only tribute, and the country was left to be ruled by its own dynasts. The state of calm that came over Lycia fostered economic growth and the strength of the region.  The abundant coinage of Lycia in the 5th and 4th centuries BC testifies to the great prosperity of Lycia at that time.  It was during this period that the first monumental rock-cut tombs were carved and the Lycian alphabet came into wide-spread use.

Lycia remained nominally under Persian rule in the late 5th century, but in practice was almost independent, as long as they kept paying their tribute to Persia.  In 480 BC the Lycians contributed fifty ships to the Persian King Xerxes' invasion of Greece, though they later sided with Athens. 

Around 470 BC the Athenian general Cimon was campaigning against the Persians in Lycia and from 454 BC the Lycians joined the Delian League, contributing ships and later, tribute.  Not that they had much of a choice. Plutarch tells us that Phaselis refused to join the League or admit Cimon's fleet, so in retaliation Cimon "devastated their land". Around 468 BC Cimon, with a fleet of 300 ships, arrived at the southern coast of Asia Minor and drove the Persians out of Lycia and neighbouring Caria.

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 a 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 Lycia is documented as fighting on the winning side of Persia.  The Persian Satraps (province governors/local military rulers) were re-installed, but allowed local dynasts the freedom to rule.  Gergis was suceeded by his son, Arbinnus of Tlos, who ruled Telmessos, Xanthos, Pinara and erected the temples of Leto and Apollo at Letoon.  There are a few theories about exactly what happened next in history, but it seems that the dynast Pericles of Limyra's ambition was apparently to gain eastern independence from the rulers of Xanthos.  He may have defeated the dynasty at Xanthos and come to have controlled all of Lycia and neighboring regions to the north and east.  The Persians would not have allowed this shift of power and so, along with some other Anatolian regions and satraps, Pericles led Lycia into the Satraps Revolt in 362 BC in a bid to win independence.  When the revolt was crushed, Lycia was placed under the control of a Persian satrap of Carian descent, Mausolus (from whom we get the word Mausoleum), and became an occupied territory with garrisons put in strategic places.  From this time on, Carian rulers began suppressing the indigenous culture of Lycia and imposing Helleno-Carian culture.  The Letoon Trilingual text, discovered at Letoon in 1973 (now in the Fethiye Museum) discusses the introduction of two Carian cults in the heart of Lycia and gives clear evidence of Carian rule.

By the time Alexander the Great arrived in Lycia in 333/4 BC, the Lycians must have been fed up with Carian rule because we know that when Alexander arrived, he did not receive a hostile reception from the Lycians - it seems that he may have possibly been welcomed as a deliverer.  Xanthos opened its gates voluntarily, whereas before it had resisted foreign invasions, and all other Lycian cities quietly submitted to Alexander - save Termessos (sometimes reckoned as part of Lycia, sometimes as part of Pisidia).  Alexander never did take Termessos - its fierce people did not want his rule and he took one look at the city perched high on the mountain and then went around it.  It was of no use to him anyhow.  The Roman historian Anabasis Alexandri in his Campaigns of Alexander (the most important source on Alexander) tells us that Lycia added 10 triremes to Alexander's gathered fleet which trounced Darius' Tyrian allies at the siege of Tyre.  Lycian cavalry units were also incorporated into Alexander's army, along with some from Lydia, Syria and other Asian satraps.

Following the death of Alexander, his generals argued over his conquests and Lycia, along with most of Asia minor, was taken over by General Antignus.  But in 309 BC, another of Alexander's generals, Ptolemy, who declared himself king of Egypt, took over Lycia.  It was during this Ptolemaic rule which lasted over a hundred years, that Lycia began to lose a bit of its native character.  Greek was adopted by Lycia as the nation’s language and the Greek influence was also felt in art and culture. For example, the popularization of sarcophagus-tombs to replace the earlier rock-cut tombs. The rule of the Lycian dynasts ended with Pericles, as cities adopted Greek constitutions. It was also during this time that the democratic Lycian Union was formed. It eventually consisted of 36 cities.