LICIA. - A peninsular region of south-western Asia Minor, consisting inland of a high plateau, rugged and sparsely populated, and at its periphery of mountain chains descending steeply to the sea. L. borders Caria to the west, Pamphylia to the east, and Phrygia to the north. Its historical importance in the pre-Hellenistic and Roman periods is attested by the occurrence of its name in Egyptian, Hittite, and el-'Amärnah inscriptions.
It is mentioned among the countries to which the consul Lucius sent a letter in favour of the Jews (I Mach. 15, 33). In the Roman age it was favoured by Augustus, and in A.D. 43 Claudius united L. and Pamphylia into a single province. In antiquity, ships sailing from the Phoenician or Egyptian coasts often called at the cities of Myra, the capital, or Patara, farther west, in order to seek shelter from storms raised by the westerly winds. In his final journey to Jerusalem, S. Paul, having embarked at Miletus, passed through Cos and Rhodes and then landed at Patara, near the mouth of the Xanthus, where he promptly found a ship bound for Phoenicia (Acts 21, 1-4). On the journey that took 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 coming from Alexandria and continuing to Italy.