LYDAI
Turkey.
Site in Lycia, on the promontory of Kapi Daği, on the W side of the gulf of Fethiye.
The name Lydai is abundantly proved by inscriptions
found on the spot, although the city is mentioned only
by Ptolemy (with variant Chydae) and in the
Stadiasmus (where it is assigned to Caria) in the form Clydae.
A silver coin of the 4th c. B.C. inscribed
ΛΥ has been
ascribed to Lydai, but this is doubtful; otherwise there
is no coinage.
The site is approached from the shore on the E by an
ancient paved road still surviving in part. The extant
ruins, of Roman and Byzantine date, lie in a valley running N-S in the center of the headland; on the acropolis
hill, at the S end, is a small fort. A late wall bars the
isthmus on the N, but there is no city wall. The site of
the agora is recognizable, and on the hillside to the W
the hollow of a theater is visible, though of the building
itself nothing remains. Otherwise the ruins consist almost
entirely of tombs, including a number of large and handsome mausoleums, fairly well preserved; there is one
tomb of Lycian type. The N part of the site, according
to inscriptions, constituted the deme of
Arymaxa.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Bent,
JHS 9 (1888) 83ff; 10 (1889)
51ff;
TAM II, 1 (1920) 41, 49; P. Roos,
Opuscula
Atheniensia 9 (1969) 75-83.
G. E. BEAN
