Lycian Covenant
The Lycian League was an ancient Koinon of the cities of the Asian Minor region of Lycia (today Turkey ). It probably existed since the early 3rd century BC. Until late antiquity .
history
While the older ancient historical research assumed that the federation had already existed since the 6th century BC. Exists, the younger assumes that it originated in the 3rd century at the earliest. It is only attested with certainty in 167 BC. When Lycia was declared independent from Rhodes by the Roman Senate . After its foundation, the Lycian League still had the opportunity to decide on war and peace itself; at the time of Strabons , who commented on the constitution of the Lycian League, the Koinon had already lost these powers.
The activities and existence of the Lycian League can be traced via Greek inscriptions from Lycia via the Roman province affiliation from AD 43 to late antiquity. From the middle of the first century AD he played an important role in the imperial cult and in communication between the Lycian cities and the Roman provincial administration as well as in honoring outstanding personalities such as Opramoas from Rhodiapolis . In addition, the Lycian League retained privileges in the collection of financial contributions to Rome, which were organized by the Archiphylax .
organization
The ancient authors were already divided on the exact number of federal cities. According to Strabo, there were 23 members, while Pliny the Elder speaks of 36 cities a few decades later. An important characteristic of the organization of the Lycian League was the representative system . Strabo passed on his organization, according to Artemidor : After that, the cities sent one to three representatives to the Federal Assembly according to their importance and population and made their contributions to the federal treasury. After Artemidor, the six largest Lycian cities were Olympos , Myra , Xanthos , Patara , Pinara and Tlos ; he emphasizes the latter in its geographical position in relation to Kibyra .
In the Hellenistic period, according to Strabo, the cities took turns organizing the Federal Assembly. On this occasion they elected the Lyciarch to their head and then other officials of the Lycian League, courts (ancient Greek δικαστήριά) were also appointed. Some Greek inscriptions from Lycia name strategists , nauarchs and hipparchs as further officials in the Hellenistic Lycian League . These military posts became obsolete at the latest with the establishment of the Roman province of Lycia, the Lykiarch was replaced by the federal priest in the imperial cult.
Probably since the 1st century BC. BC Limyra also had three votes. Smaller cities had only two or one vote or they formed a “community association” ( sympolitie ) under the leadership of one place - with one voice in the federal government. An example of this is the Sympolitie under the leadership of Aperlai , to which Isinda , Apollonia and Simena belonged. This may also explain the different numbers of members in the sources.
During the imperial era, the federal priest of the Lycian League was also regularly its highest secretary ( Grammateus ). This top management function followed the annuity principle , official documents in Lycia dated after the Lycian federal priest. From the 2nd century AD these former officials are regularly referred to as Lykiarch. In addition, the archiphylax took on important tasks in the financial administration of the Imperial League. Hypophylakes were assigned to him and were probably responsible for the region.
As the seat of the most important Lycian cult site ( Letoon ), Xanthos played a prominent role in the Hellenistic and imperial alliance of time. Due to the provincialization and the importance of Patara for the provincial administration, the neighboring port city, once the port of Xanthos, gained in importance. Patara experienced a heyday in the first centuries AD and was perhaps - the evidence is contradicting - the seat of the Roman provincial administration of Lycia and Pamphylia . The Buleuterion of Patara probably served as the meeting place of the Lycian League during the imperial era.
reception
In his work On the Spirit of Laws ( De l'Esprit des Lois ), Montesquieu emphasizes the proportional right to vote according to the constitution of the Hellenistic Lycian League, which Strabo had handed down, and sees it as a model of a good federal republic . As such, he played a role in the drafting of the American Constitution in 1787 .
literature
- Frank Kolb , Barbara Kupke: Lycia. History of Lycia in antiquity (= ancient world , special issue; Zabern's illustrated books on archeology, vol. 2). von Zabern, Mainz 1992 ISBN 3-8053-1415-9 .
- Martin Zimmermann : Between Polis and Koinon: on the ὑποφύλαξ in the Lykischen Bund, in: EA 21, 1993, pp. 107–120.
- Rudolf Haensch : Capita Provinciarum. Governor's seat and provincial administration in the Roman Empire, Mainz a. Rh. 1997.
- Ralf Behrwald : The Lycian League. Studies on history and constitution (= Antiquitas. Series 1: Treatises on ancient history. Vol. 48). Habelt, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-7749-3035-X (also: Chemnitz, Techn. Univ., Diss., 1997/98)
- Denis Knoepfler, “Un modèle d'une belle république fédérative”? Montesquieu et le système politique des Lyciens, de la genèse de l'Esprit des Lois aux découvertes épigraphiques les plus récentes en Asie Mineure , in: Journal des Savants 2013, 111–154.
- Babett Edelmann-Singer: Koina and Concilia. Genesis, organization and socio-economic function of the provincial parliaments in the Roman Empire , Stuttgart 2015, v. a. Pp. 101-105.
- Ralf Behrwald, Lykian League. In: Federalism in Greek Antiquity , ed. Hans Beck / Peter Funke, Cambridge 2015, 403–418.