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746 LYCURGUS LYDIA even the love of money, stands powerfully and specially developed." Having obtained for his institutions the approbation of the Delphic oracle, he exacted from his countrymen a promise not to alter them till his return, left Sparta, and was never again heard from. (For an account of the constitution of Lycurgus, see SPAETA.) LYCURGUS, an Attic orator, born in Athens about 396 B. 0., died there in 323. He first devoted himself to the Platonic philosophy, but afterward became a disciple of Isocrates. In 343 he was sent with Demosthenes on an em- bassy to counteract the intrigues of Philip. In 33V he was elected guardian of the public revenue for a term of four years, and contin- ued in office for three consecutive terms, fill- ing it so satisfactorily that 17 years after his death a monument was erected, reciting the great sums he had received and disbursed, and the ability with which he had discharged his office. He was also appointed superintendent of the city and censor, and in the latter ca- pacity caused his own wife to be fined for vio- lating one of his sumptuary enactments. He belonged to the party of DemostKenes, and was one of the ten orators whose surrender was demanded by Alexander, but the people of Athens refused to give him up. Of the prosecutions which he conducted, the most celebrated was that against Lysicles, who had commanded the army of Athens at Chasronea; Lysicles was condemned to death. There were 15 orations of his extant in the ages of Plutarch and Photius, but all have since perished except that against Leocrates, and some fragments. LYDGATE, John, an English poet, born at Lydgate, Suffolk, about 1375, died in Bury St. Edmund's about 1461. After studying at Ox- ford, and visiting France and Italy, he entered the Benedictine monastery of Bury St. Ed- mund's, and established a school for instructing the sons of the aristocracy in versification and composition. He began to write about 1400. The principal of his works are his "Fall of Princes," "Storie of Thebes," and "Historie, Siege, and Destruction of Troye." His minor poems were published by the Percy society in 1840. Ritson, in his Bibliographia Poetica, gives a complete catalogue of his works. LYDIA, an ancient country of western Asia Minor, bounded N. by Mysia, E. by Phrygia, S. by Caria, and W. by the ^Egean sea. The boundaries, however, varied at different times. According to Strabo, the territory extended from the sources of the Hermus in the Dindy- mus mountains to the ^Egean sea, and from the Messogis aad the Cadmus in the south to the Temnus mountains in the north. The Hermus valley was of great fertility, but the most luxuriant vegetation was found near the Gygean lake. The Pactolus, an affluent of the Hermus, carried gold, and the rocks of Mts. Tmolus and Sipylus contained rich veins of it. The principal towns were Sardes, the capital, Magnesia at the foot of Mt. Sipylus, Thyatira, and Philadelphia. In the earlier half of the 5th century B. 0. the Lydian Xanthus, son of Candaules, wrote in Greek the history of his people in four books. Extant fragments of this and the statements of Herodotus relate the origin of their reigning houses. Atys, son of Manes, first ruled over them, and after him his son Lydus, after whom the people were called. The brother of Lydus, whom Xanthus calls Torrhebus and Herodotus Tyrsenus, was the father of the Torrhebi or Tyrseni, whose territory lay near the upper Cayster. The first sovereigns were called Atyadae. Alcimus was the best among the successors of Lydus. An- other, Meles, was the father of a lion, which was carried around Sardes in order to render the city impregnable. A later king, Jardanus, was succeeded by his daughter Omphale. Be- fore she ascended the throne she caused the virgins of the land to meet at a certain place and offer themselves to the slaves, and she herself killed the strangers, her guests, after having rested at their side. The dynasty of the Atyadaa was followed by that of the Hera- clidaa. According to Herodotus, Hercules was the father of Alcteus by a slave of Jardanus, and according to others by Omphale. Belus was the son of Alcaeus, and Ninus of Belus. There can be no doubt as to the mythical na- ture of these accounts. Manes and Atys were Phrygian divinities ; King Lydus was invented after the tribal name; King Alcimus's peaceful and successful reign is probably based on the common belief in an original happy state ; the lion is presumed to point to the Syrian solar deity, which is all the more probable as it is recorded that the name of Sardes, the Lydian capital, was given after the god of the sun. The coins of Sardes were stamped with the image of the lion and the bull. Omphale is easily brought in connection with rites in the service of the Babylonian goddess Mylitta. This mix- ture of the Phrygian and the Semitic mythology has led to the supposition that the original inhabitants of the shores of the Hermus were Phrygians, and that Semites, coming from the east, conquered and absorbed them, but re- tained some elements of the Phrygian worship and language. It is possible that the dynasty of the Heraclidee had been preceded by an- other. Candaules, the last of the Heraclidse, was assassinated by Gyges at the instigation of his wife. With Gyges (about 700 B. C.) begins the dynasty of the Mermnadaa, and the histori- cal period of the annals of Lydia. Gyges con- quered Colophon, Magnesia, and Sipyla, and devastated Miletus and Smyrna. An invasion of the Cimmerians, however, compelled him, according to Assyrian accounts, to seek the aid of the Assyrians, by submitting to them as a vassal ; but venturing to render assistance to Psammetik (Psammetichus), king of Egypt, his country was again invaded and ravaged by the Cimmerians at the call of the king of Assyria. Gyges died during the invasion, after a long reign, and his 'son Ardys had again to ac-