2. See CLAUDIUS LYSIAS.
LYSIMACHUS (Avoluaxos).—1. L., the son of Ptolemy, of Jerus., is named in the subscription to the Greek edition of Esther (Ad. Est 11") as the translator of that book into Greek. This state- ment may imply that the additional sections, for which no Heb. original existed, are also to be ascribed to Lysimachus. We are told that the tr. was brought to Egypt in the 4th year of Ptolemy and Cleopatra; but as four Ptolemies had wives named Cleopatra, this information gives hardly any clue to the date.
2. The brother of the high-priest Menelaus, whom he left as his deputy (διάδοχος) in Jerus. when summoned to appear before Antiochus (2 Mac 4”), L. excited the hatred of the populace by his systematic plundering of the temple treasures ; and seeing that an insurrection was imminent, he took the precaution of arming 3000 men, and letting them loose upon the people. Many were injured in the riot Picea took place, and L. him- eel was killed beside the treasury (id. 4551).
H. A. WHITE.
LYSTRA was founded as a Roman Colony by Augustus, probably about B.c. 6, when an effort was made to tame and regulate the mountain tribes on the southern frontier of the province Galatia by a system of military roads and garrison cities (Antioch, Lystra, Parlais, Cremna, Comama, Olbasa). These colonies all used the Latin language officially, a rare and noteworthy fact in the eastern
J. A. SELBIE.
* Cf. 2 Mac 101) 111, where, however, the order of events is less correctly given, the appointment of Lysias to be ‘chan- cellor’ and his defeat at Bethsura being placed under Eupator instead of Epiphanes.
LYSTRA
LYSTRA 178
peortio: where, as a rule, Rome acquiesced in he use of Greek, and made no attempt to natur- alize Latin. that these colonies felt a special Roman character. Lystra was about 18 miles
The use of the Roman tongue implies ride in their
§.S.W. from Iconium, and a frontier line passed between them (see ICONIUM, LYCAONIA). It was situated in a vale at the northern extremity of the hills which fringe the Lycaonian plain on the south, and which grow higher and higher as one pocegs south, till they rise to the main mass of
ount Taurus. A stream, which flows eastward between gentle hills through the smiling vale, about a mile in breadth, loses itself after some miles in the great plain. On the north of the stream, about a mile north-west from the village of Khatyn Serai, is situated a hillock of consider- able extent, on which stood the fortified Colonia ; but the buildings of the city certainly extended to east and south, over the lower ground at least, where a large basis bearing an inscription in honour of Augustus stands probably in its original position, and perhaps indicates the site of a sacred place, Augusteum, dedicated to the worship of the
mperor and of Rome. The city stood about 3780 ft. above sea-level, and about 430 ft. above [conium.
The history of Lystra is quite unknown; and even the fact that it was a Roman colony was unknown until 1885, when the inscription just mentioned was discovered by the American Sterrett, and Waddington published a coin with Latin legend of COLONIA: IULIA - FELIX - GEMINA*LUSTRA (the Latin form Lustra, in- stead of the Grecizing Lystra, is usual on coins and inscriptions). Leake guessed the site in 1820 ; Sterrett proved it in 1885, after intermediate travellers had rejected Leake’s view.
Baroy, ΒΩ remains of the old city are now visible above ground. There is an Ayasma (as the Turks call a fountain held sacred by Christians, ἁγίασμα) in the low ground south of the hill. Not a trace has been found of the temple of Zeus Propoleos, Ac 14%; but it is possible that the Augusteum was in the precinct of the temple ; it was very common to unite the worship of the Emperor to that of the chief god of a city. The Bezan reading, τοῦ ὄντος Διὸς πρὸ πόλεως, is perhaps the original Lukan text, and is certainly excellent. The epithet Propoleos was a sort of technical term, often given to gods whose temple stood out- side the city; and it is characteristic of Luke’s style to use the participle ὥν (much in the same way as καλούμενος) before a name or technical term ; compare Ac 57 13! 2817, No inscription has i been found relating to the worship of this god ;
ut the analogy of other great native hiera in Asia Minor* makes it practically certain that there was a college of priests attached to it; hence the Bezan text ἱερεῖς is true to fact, though this reading is rejected by all editors, even including Blass, the special champion of the Western text.
The sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, in celebra- tion of the Epiphany of the gods, Ac 14%, was probably made at the entrance to the sacred precinct (Adv), and the apostles hearing of it as they were teaching in a public place in the city, ran forth and stopped it.
Lystra, standing in a retired situation some miles away from the high road, was not likely to par- ticipate strongly in the diffusion of Greek pees tion, when Lycaonia was ruled by the Seleucid kings ; but its neighbourhood to Iconium, the zapital, would give it some opportunity of sharing in the Grecizing tendency which was such a power-