LYCIA. - A peninsular region of southwestern Asia Minor, consisting in the interior of a rugged plateau with a sparse population, and on the periphery of mountain ranges descending steeply to the sea. Lycia borders Caria to the west, Pamphylia to the east, and Phrygia to the north. Its historical importance in the pre-Hellenistic and Roman age is attested by the presence of the name in Egyptian, Hittite and el-'Amärnah inscriptions.

It is mentioned among the countries to which the consul Lucius sent a letter in favor of the Jews (1 Macc. 15:33). In the Roman age it was favored by Augustus, and in 43 A.D. Claudius united Lycia and Pamphylia into a single province. In antiquity, ships that set sail from the Phoenician or Egyptian coasts often put in at the cities of Myra, the capital, or of Patara, farther west, to seek shelter there from storms stirred up by the west winds. St. Paul, on his last journey to Jerusalem, having embarked at Miletus, passed by Cos and Rhodes and then landed at Patara, near the mouth of the Xanthus, where he immediately found a ship bound for Phoenicia (Acts 21:1-4). On the journey that carried him as a prisoner to Italy (ibid. 27:1), having embarked at Caesarea, he put in at Myra, where he was transferred to a ship that came from Alexandria and was continuing on to Italy.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: G. Corradi, s. v. in Enc. Ital., XXI, pp. 90-91; E. Beurlier, Lycie, in DB, IV, coll. 440-42.

Donato Baldi

@incollection{ec7_licia, author = {Baldi, Donato}, title = {Licia}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1327}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/licia} }

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