LYCHNIDUS
LYCHNIDUS (
Λυχνιδός: Eth.
Λυχνίδιος, Eth.
Λυχνίτης,
Steph. B. sub voce Ptol. 3.13.32), the chief town of the Dassaretae in Illyricum. From its position on the frontier it was always a place of considerable importance, and the name frequently occurs in the wars of the Romans with Philippus V. and Perseus, kings of Macedon. (
Liv. 27.32,
33.34,
43.9,
10,
21;
Λυχνίς, Plb. 18.30.)
Afterwards it continued to be, as on the Candavian way described by Polybius (
Λυχνίδιον, 34.12), one of the principal points on the Egnatian road. (
Strab. vii. p.323;
Itin. Anton.; Peut. Tab.; Itin. Hierosol.: in the Jerusalem Itinerary the original reads Cledo.) Under the Byzantine empire it appears to have been a large and populous town, but was nearly destroyed by an earthquake during the reign of Justinian. (Procop.
Hist. Arc. 18; Malch.
Excerpt. p. 250, ed. Bonn; Niceph. Callist. 17.3.) Lychnidus, which from the data of the Itineraries must be placed near the S. extremity of the Lake Lychnitis, on its E. shores (Leake,
North. Greece, vol. iii. p. 281), was afterwards replaced by the more northerly ACHRIDA (
στὴν Ἄχριδα, Ὄχριδα, Ἄχρις, of the Byzantine writers; Anna Comn. xiii. p. 371; Cedren. vol. ii. p. 468, ed. Bonn Cantacuzen. 2.21), the capital of the Bulgarian empire. Some geographers have supposed that Achrida is the same as Justiniana; this identification, which is a mistake, has arisen from the circumstance that the metropolitans of Achrida called themselves after the emperor Justinian. Justiniana Prima is the modern town of
Köstendil. (Schafarik,
Slav. Alt. vol. ii. p. 227.) The Slavonic name survives in the modern
Akridha, on the NE. shores of the lake.
[
E.B.J]
