10% Off Store-Wide Sale Until 2 April!!!All Items Purchased From Forum Ancient Coins Are Guaranteed Authentic For Eternity!!!Please Call Us If You Have Questions 252-646-1958Expert Authentication - Accurate Descriptions - Reasonable Prices - Coins From Under $10 To Museum Quality Rarities10% Off Store-Wide Sale Until 2 April!!!All Items Purchased From Forum Ancient Coins Are Guaranteed Authentic For Eternity!!!Internet Challenged? We Are Happy To Take Your Order Over The Phone 252-646-1958Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!!
Lycia, on the southern coast of Anatolia, was first recorded in the Late Bronze Age records of ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire. In 546 B.C. when Lycia was involuntary incorporated into the Persian Empire, the local population was decimated, and the area received an influx of Persians. Lycia fought for Persia in the Persian Wars. Intermittently free after the Greeks defeated the Achaemenid Empire, it briefly joined the Athenian Empire, it seceded and became independent, was under the Persians again, revolted again, was conquered by Mausolus of Caria, returned to the Persians, and went under Macedonian hegemony at the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great. Lycia was totally Hellenized under the Macedonians. The Lycian language disappeared from inscriptions and coinage. On defeating Antiochus III in 188 the Romans gave Lycia to Rhodes for 20 years, taking it back in 168 B.C. The Romans allowed home rule under the Lycian League, a federation with republican principles, which later influenced the framers of the United States Constitution. In 43 A.D. Claudius dissolved the league and made Lycia a Roman province. It was an eparchy of Byzantine Empire. A substantial Christian Greek community lived in Lycia until the 1920s when they were forced to migrate to Greece following the Greco-Turkish War.