Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "LYKAONIA Ancient country TURKEY".
(Lukaonia). A district of Asia Minor, forming the southeastern part of Phrygia. The people were, so far as can be traced, an aboriginal race, speaking a language which is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as a distinct dialect; they were warlike, and especially skilled in archery. Lycaonia belonged successively to the Persians, Syrians, Greeks, and Romans. Under Trajan it was united with the province of Cappadocia, but in the fourth century was made a separate province. Its chief town was Iconium.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Lycaonia (he Lukaonia: Eth. Lukaonios), a province of Asia Minor,
bordering in the east on Cappadocia, in the south on Cilicia, in the west on Pisidia
and Phrygia, and in the north on Galatia. These frontiers, however, were not always
the same, but the fluctuation becomes most perplexing at the time when Asia was
under the influence of the Romans, who gave portions of Lycaonia sometimes to
this and sometimes to that Asiatic prince, while they incorporated the greater
part with the province of Cappadocia, whence Ptolemy (v. 6. § 16) treats of it
as a part of Cappadocia. The name Lycaonia, however, continued to be applied to
the country down to a late period, as we see from Hierocles and other Christian
writers.
Lycaonia is, on the whole, a plain country, but the southern and northern
parts are surrounded by high mountains; and the north, especially, was a cold
and bleak country, but very well adapted as pasture-land for sheep, of which king
Amyntas is said to have possessed no less than 300 flocks. Their wool was rather
coarse, but still yielded considerable profit to the proprietors. The country
was also rich in wild asses. Its chief mineral product was salt, the soil down
to a considerable depth being impregnated with salt. In consequence of this the
country had little drinking-water, which had to be obtained from very deep wells,
and in some parts was sold at a high price. This account of the country, furnished
by Strabo (xii. p. 568), is fully confirmed by modern travellers. The streams
which come down from the surrounding mountains do not form rivers of any importance,
but nnite into several lakes, among which the salt lake Tatta, in the north-east,
is the most important.
The Lycaonians of Lycaonia, although Eustathius (ad Dionys. Per. 857)
connects their name with the Arcadian Lycaon, according to which they would be
Pelasgians, are never mentioned in history until the time of the expedition of
Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes, when Cyrus, passing through
their country in five days, gave it up to plunder because they were hostile. (Xenoph.
Anab. i. 2. § 19, comp. iii. 2. § 23, Cyrop. vi. 2. § 20.) Who the Lycaonians
were, and to what branch of the human family they belonged, is uncertain; but
from the Acts of the Apostles (xiv. 11) it appears that they spoke a peculiar
language. It is also well attested that, like the Pisidians, they were a hardy
and warlike race, which owned no subjection to the Persian monarchs, and lived
by plunder and foray. (Dionys. Per. 857; Prisc. 806; Avien. 1020.) Their principal
towns, which are few in number, and all of which appear to have been very small,
were: Iconium, Laodiceia, Combusta, Derbe, Antiochiana, and Laranda; the less
important ones were Tyriaeum, Vasata, Soatra, Ilistra, and Coropassus.
As to their early history, we know nothing about the Lycaonians; but
they seem to have gradually advanced westward, for in the time of Croesus the
Phrygians occupied the country as far as the river Halys, and Xenophon calls Iconium
the easternmost town of Phrygia, so that the Lycaonians must have continued their
extension towards the west even after that time, for subsequently Iconium was
nearly in the centre of Lycaonia. It has already been remarked that they maintained
their independence against Persia, but afterwards they shared the fate of all
the other nations of Asia Minor, being successively under the rule of Alexander
the Great, the Seleucidae, Antiochus, Eumenes of Pergamus, and finally under the
Romans. (Liv. xxvii. 54, xxxviii. 39, 56.) Under this change of rulers, the character
of the people remained the same: daring and intractable, they still continued
their wild and lawless habits, though in the course of time many Greek settlers
must have taken up their abode in the Lycaonian towns. Under their chief Amyntas,
however, whom Strabo even calls king, and who was his own contemporary, the country
acquired a greater political consistency. After the death of Amyntas, his whole
kingdom, which he had greatly extended, fell into the hands of the Romans, who
constituted the greater part of Lycaonia as a part of their province of Cappadocia.
We may add, that Strabo regards Isauria as a part of Lycaonia.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
