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Limyra

Historical Article from The Catholic Encyclopedia

Catholic Encyclopedia

Historical Context

This article preserves the historical wording and context of the printed encyclopedia. Dates, statistics, terminology, disciplinary descriptions, and civic or ecclesiastical circumstances may reflect the period in which the article was published.

Article Text

Limyra, a titular see of Lycia, was a small city on the southern coast of Lycia, on the Limyrus, and twenty stadia from the mouth of this river. It is mentioned by Strabo (XIV, 666), Ptolemy (V, 3, 6), and several Latin authors. Nothing, however, is known of its history except that Caius Cæsar, adopted son of Augustus, died there (Veilleius Paterculus, II, 102).

Limyra is mentioned in the “NotitiæEpiscopatuum” down to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as a suffragan of Myra. Six bishops are known: Diotimus, mentioned by St. Basil (Epistle 218); Lupicinus, present at the Council of Constantinople, 381; Stephen, at Chalcedon (451); Theodore, at Constantinople (553); Leo, at Nicæa (787); Nicephorus, at Constantinople (879).

The ruins of Limyra are to be seen three or four miles east of the village of Fineka, in the sanjak of Adalia, Vilayet of Konia; they consist of a theatre, tombs, Sarcophagi, bas-reliefs, Greek and Lycian inscriptions, etc.

Sources

LEQUIEN, Oriens christianus, I, 971; LEAKE, Asia Minor (London 1893), 186; FELLOWS, Journal of an Excursion in Asia Minor (London, 1859), 214; IDEM, Account of Discoveries in Lycia (London, 1852), 205 sq.; SMITH, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, s.v.; TEXIER, Asie mineure (Paris, 1862), 694.

Source Record

Author
Pétridès, Sophrone
Publication
The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1910.
Nihil Obstat
Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor.
Imprimatur
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.