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Bible Encyclopedias
Lycia
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Lyc′ia, a province in the south-west of Asia Minor, having Pamphylia on the east, Phrygia on the north, Caria on the west, and the Mediterranean on the south. Great part of the country, however, consists of a peninsula projecting south into the Mediterranean. It is mountainous, and is watered by numerous small rivers which flow from the mountains. Its inhabitants were believed to be descendants of Cretans, who came thither under Sarpedon, brother of Minos. One of their kings was Bellerophon, celebrated in mythology. The Lycians were a warlike people, powerful on the sea, and attached to their independence, which they successfully maintained against Croesus, King of Lydia, and were afterwards allowed by the Persians to retain their own kings as satraps. Lycia is named in , as one of the countries to which the Roman senate sent its missive in favor of the Jews. The victory of the Romans over Antiochus (B.C. 189) gave Lycia rank as a free state, which it retained till the time of Claudius, when it was made a province of the Roman Empire. Lycia contained many towns, two of which are mentioned in the New Testament; Patara (); Myra (); and one, Phaselis, in the Apocrypha ().
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Lycia'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/l/lycia.html.
