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St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon

Note 20 — I. THE CHURCHES OF THE LYCUS.

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The position of Laodicea with respect to the neighbouring streams is accurately described by Pliny N.H. v. 29 ‘Imposita est Lyco flumini, latera affluentibus Asopo et Capro’; see Tchihatcheff P. I. p. 258. Strabo xii. (l.c.) is more careless in his description (for it can hardly be, as Tchihatcheff assumes, that he has mistaken one of these two tributaries for the Lycus itself), ἐνταῦθα δὲ καὶ ὁ Κάπρος καὶ ὁ Λύκος συμβάλλε τῷ Μαιάνδρῳ ποταμῷ ποταμὸς εὐμεγέθης, where ἐνταῦθα refers to ὁ περὶ τὴν Λαοδίκειαν τόπος, and where by the junction of the stream with the Mæander must be intended the junction of the combined stream of the Lycus and Caprus. On the coins of Laodicea (Eckhel III. p. 166, Mionnet IV. p. 330, ib. Suppl. VII. p. 587, 589) the Lycus and Caprus appear together, being sometimes represented as a wolf and a wild-boar. The Asopus is omitted, either as being a less important stream or as being less capable of symbolical representation. Of modern travellers, Smith (p. 250), and after him Pococke (p. 72), have correctly described the position of the streams. Chandler (p. 227), misled by Strabo, mistakes the Caprus for the Lycus and the Lycus for the Mæander. The modern name of the Lycus is Tchoruk Sú.

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