Xanthus
Xanthus, Xanthus, name of several rivers
- I A river of Troas, confounded by many with the Scamander, Plin. 5, 30, 33, § 124; 2, 103, 106, § 230; Verg. A. 1, 473; 5, 634 al.; Ov. M. 2, 245; 9, 646; Vitr. 8, 3 med.—
- II A river in Lycia, near a town of the same name, now Essenide, Mel. 1, 15, 3; Verg. A. 4, 143; id. Cul. 14; Hor. C. 4, 6, 26; Plin. 5, 27, 28, § 100; 6, 34, 39, § 214.—
- III A small stream in Epirus, Verg. A. 3, 350.
XANTHUS(Ξάνθος: Eth. Ξάνθιος), the greatest and most celebrated city of Lycia, was situated according to Strabo (14. p. 666) at a distance of 70 stadia from the mouth of the river Xanthus, and according to the Stadiasmus ( § 247) only 60 stadia. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.28) states the distance at 15 Roman miles, which is much too great. (Comp. Steph. B. s. r.;Ptol. 5.3.5; Mela, 1.15; Plb. 26.7.) This famous city was twice destroyed, on each of which occasions its inhabitants defended themselves with undaunted valour. The first catastrophe befell the city in the reign of Cyrus, when Harpagus besieged it with a Persian army. On that occasion the Xanthians buried themselves,, with all they possessed, under the ruins of their city. (Hdt. 1.176.) After this event the city must have been rebuilt; for during the Roman civil wars consequent upon the murder of Caesar, Xanthus was invested by the army of Brutus, as its inhabitants refused to open their gates to him. Brutus, after a desperate struggle, took the city by assault. The Xanthians continued the fight in the streets, and perished with their wives and children in the flames, rather than submit to the Romans. (Dio Cass.; Appian, App. BC 4.18, foll.) After this catastrophe, the city never recovered. The chief buildings at Xanthus were temples of Sarpedon (Appian, l. c.), and of the Lycian Apollo. (Diod. 5.77.) At a distance of 60 stadia down the river and 10 stadia from its mouth, there was a sanctuary of Leto on the bank of the Xanthus. (Strab. l. c.) The site of Xanthus and its magnificent ruins were first discovered and described by Sir C. Fellows in his Excursion in Asia Minor, p. 225, foll. (comp. his Lycia, p. 164, foll.) These ruins stand near the village of Koonik, and consist of temples, tombs, triumphal arches, walls, and a theatre. The site, says Sir Charles, is extremely romantic, upon beautiful hills, some crowned with rocks, others rising perpendicularly from the river. The city does not appear to have been very large, but its remains show that it was highly ornamented, particularly the tombs. The architecture and sculptures of the place, of which many specimens are in an excellent state of preservation, and the inscriptions in a peculiar alphabet, have opened up a page in the history of Asia Minor previously quite unknown. The engravings in Fellows' works furnish a clear idea of the high perfection which the arts must have attained at Xanthus. (See also Spratt and Forbes, Travels in Lycia, 1. p. 5, and ii., which contains an excellent plan of the site and remains of Xanthus; E. Braun, Die Marmorwerke von Xanthos in Lykia, Rhein. Mus. Neue Folge, vol. 3. p. 481, foll.)
A large collection of marbles, chiefly sepulchral, discovered at Xanthus by Sir C. Fellows, and brought to England in 1842 and 1843, has been arranged in the British Museum. Of these a full account is given in the Supplement to the Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. 2. p. 713, foil.
[L.S]X´ANTHUS(Ξάνθος), an important river in the W. of Lycia, which is mentioned even in Homer (Hom. Il. 2.877, 5.479), and which, according to Strabo (14. p. 665), was anciently called Sirbes, that is in Phoenician and Arabic reddish yellow,so that the Greek name Xanthus is only a translation of the Semitic Sirbes or Zirba. The Xanthus has its sources in Mount Taurus, on the frontiers between Lycia and Pisidia, and flows as a navigable river in a SW. direction through an extensive plain (Ξάνθου πεδίον, Hdt. 1.176), having Mount Bragus on the W. and Massicytes on the E., towards the sea, into which it discharges itself about 70 stadia S. of the city of Xanthus, and a little to the NW. of Pinara. (Herod. l. c.;Ptol. 5.3.2; Dion. Per.848; Ov. Met. 9.645; Mela, 1.15; Plin. Nat. 5.28.) Now the Etshenor Essenide. (Fellows, Lycia, pp. 123, 278.) Respecting Xanthus as a name of the Trojan river Scamander, see SCAMANDER
[L.S]XANTHUS[BUTHROTUM]
(Ξάνθος). (1) See Scamander.
(2) Now the Echen Chai; the chief river of Lycia, rises in Mount Taurus, and flows south through Lycia, between Mount Cragus and Mount Massicytus, falling at last into the Mediterranean Sea a little west of Patara. It is navigable for a considerable part of its course.
(Ξάνθος). Now Gunik; the most famous city of Lycia, standing on the west bank of the river of the same name, sixty stadia from its mouth. Twice in the course of its history it sustained sieges, which terminated in the self-destruction of the inhabitants with their property, first against the Persians under Harpagus, and long afterwards against the Romans under Brutus. The city was never restored after its destruction on the latter occasion. Xanthus was rich in temples and tombs, and other monuments of a most interesting character, and several important remains of its works of art are now exhibited in the British Museum.
(Ξάνθος). A Greek historian. See logographi.
- in Lycia: Paus. 6.13.3
- a town in Lycia, resistance of the Xanthians to the Persians, and their defeat: Hdt. 1.176
- given by Poseidon to Peleus: Apollod. 3.13.5
- Paus. 8.24.1
- king of Thebes, slain by Andropompus: Paus. 9.5.16