Geography

​After the Rhodian Peraea, of which Daidala is the boundary, Lycia lies next for those sailing eastwards as far as Pamphylia, then Pamphylia as far as the Rough Cilicians, and then the territory of the latter as far as the other Cilicians around the Issic Gulf. These are parts of the peninsula, the isthmus of which we said was the road from Issus to Amisus, or, as some say, to Sinope; but they lie outside the Taurus on a narrow strip of coast extending from Lycia as far as the region around Soli, now called Pompeiopolis. Then from Soli and Tarsus the coastal region along the Issic Gulf already opens out into plains. Therefore, for those who have traversed this coast, the whole account of the peninsula will have been completed; and then we shall pass on to the other parts of Asia outside the Taurus, and finally we shall set forth the account of Libya.

​After Daidala, which belongs to the Rhodians, there is a mountain in Lycia of the same name, Daidala, from which begins the whole Lycian coastal voyage. It is one thousand seven hundred and twenty stadia long, rugged and difficult, but extremely well provided with harbors, and inhabited by people of sober character. For the nature of the country itself is very similar to that of the Pamphylians and the Rough Cilicians; but while those peoples used their territories as bases for piracy, either engaging in piracy themselves or offering markets for plunder and stations for fleets to the pirates — for example, in Side, a city of Pamphylia, shipyards were established for the Cilicians, and there they sold their captives under the herald’s cry, while acknowledging them to be free men — the Lycians continued to live so civilly and soberly that, although the others, through their good fortune, held dominion over the sea as far as Italy, they were nevertheless not led away by any shameful gain, but remained under the ancestral administration of the Lycian league.

​There are twenty-three cities that share in the vote. They assemble from each city at a common council, choosing whichever city they approve. Of these cities, the largest are masters of three votes each, the medium ones of two, and the others of one; and in the same proportion they contribute their taxes and perform other public services. Artemidorus said that the six largest were Xanthus, Patara, Pinara, Olympus, Myra, and Tlos, which is situated near the pass to Cibyra. In the council, first a Lyciarch is elected, and then the other offices of the league; and courts of justice are designated in common. In former times they also deliberated on war, peace, and alliances, but now this is not likely, but these matters must depend upon the Romans, except if they permit them or if it is useful for themselves. Likewise, judges and officials are chosen from each city in proportion to the votes. Since they were thus well governed, it was their lot to remain free under the Romans, administering their ancestral laws, and to see the pirates utterly destroyed; first by Servilius Isauricus, at the time when he also demolished Isaura, and later by Pompey the Great, who burned more than one thousand three hundred vessels and destroyed their settlements, and of the men who survived the battles, established some in Soli, which he named Pompeiopolis, and others in Dyme, which was depopulated and is now occupied as a Roman colony. The poets, especially the tragic poets, confusing the nations, call the Lycians Carians, just as they address the Trojans, Mysians, and Lydians as Phrygians.

​After Daidala, then, there is the Lycian mountain, and near it Telmessus, a small town of the Lycians, and the Telmessian promontory, which has a harbor. Eumenes received this place from the Romans in the Antiochian War, and when his kingdom was dissolved, the Lycians recovered it.