CHAPTER III. Xanthus—Sir Charles Fellows—Telmessus—Patara—Pinara—Myra—Tlos and Antiphellus—Attalia—Perge—Eurymedon—Aspendus—Side—Termessus—Cremna— Sagalassus—Selge—Antioch of Pisidia—Tarsus—Coracesium—Laertes—Selinus— Anemurium—Celenderis—Seleuceia—Corycus—Soli—Adana—Mallus—Mopsuestia— Anazarbus—Issus. WE come now to _Lycia_, of which many of the most important monuments are now in the Lycian room at the British Museum—for the most part the records of its chief town, XANTHUS—and all procured by Sir Charles Fellows. A few less valuable remains, were, at the same time, obtained from other Lycian towns. The chief value of the monuments from _Lycia_ lies in this, that, while they exhibit many well-executed pieces of sculpture, interesting as a local or provincial rendering of Greek work of the middle of the fourth century B.C., they comprise, also, a few slabs, as, for instance, those from the Harpy tomb, of a genuine Archaic type. Xanthus, the town from which the greater part of the monuments about to be described have been secured, underwent remarkable vicissitudes of fortune, some of which, it has been thought, are indicated on its sculptures. Originally, it was a Cretan colony settled at or near Xanthus; hence we read, in the Iliad, of Sarpedon and Glaucus, as the leaders of the Lycians in the Trojan army, and of the body of the former being carried back by Sleep and Death to Lycia to be honoured with a _stele_ and tomb. Pandarus, too, the celebrated archer, is also a Lycian. On the overthrow of Crœsus, Harpagus, Cyrus’s general, was sent to reduce Lycia with a mixed force of Persians, Dorians, and Ionians; the Glaucidæ, or royal family of Lycia, having vigorously supported the Ionians in their resistance to Cyrus. On this occasion Xanthus made a memorable defence. It is said that, when driven from the plain by the united forces of the Persian and confederate army, its people took refuge in their citadel, and, collecting therein their wives, children, and treasures, burnt them, at the same time falling to a man in a furious sally upon their enemies (Herod, i. 176). That the Persian success was complete, we know from the fact, that, sixty years later, the then Xanthians sent fifty ships to the aid of Xerxes, and continued, subsequently, to pay an annual tax to the Persian monarchs.[57] Yet their courage was not subdued; for when Alexander, after his victory over the Persians at the Graneicus, descended into Lycia, at Xanthus, and there alone, he met with an obstinate resistance. Footnote 57: It has been suggested (see Rawlinson’s Herodotus, i. p. 312) that the family of Harpagus continued to govern Lycia, and that the Xanthian obelisk (to which we shall presently refer) was erected soon after the battle of Eurymedon, B.C. 466. But “son of Harpagus,” on that monument, may easily mean no more than his descendant, just as Jehu was called “the son of Omri.”