Pericles of Limyra

Location of Lycia. Anatolia/Asia Minor in the Greco-Roman period. The classical regions, including Lycia, and their main settlements Perikles (Perikle in Lycian), was the last known independent dynast of Lycia. A dynast of Limyra in eastern Lycia BCE, he eventually ruled the entire country during the Revolt of the Satraps, in defiance of the Achaemenid Empire. These eastern dynasts flourished in the 370s BCE, when the power of the traditionally-dominant rulers of Xanthos in western Lycia began to wane. Alternatively, they may have been brothers, or one may have married into the other's family.

Arttum̃para was minting coins at Side in Pamphylia by BCE, at which point Pericles had driven him out of Lycia. This was not a coordinated effort; Pericles had established himself as an independent king of Lycia throughout the 370s BCE, whereas the Great Revolt took place in the late 360s BCE. Nonetheless, Persian rule was firmly reestablished in Lycia in BCE, after the Revolt of the Satraps had collapsed and effort was made to subdue rebellious parts of Anatolia. Control was taken by Autophradates, the satrap of Lydia, who shortly transferred the province to Mausolus, the satrap of nearby Caria.

Tomb A monumental tomb was erected to Perikles in Limyra, decorated with frieze showing Pericles going to war. The tomb was in the form of a Greek Ionic temple. It was one of several monumental tombs built in southwestern Anatolia in the fourth century BCE and belongs to the same tradition as the earlier Nereid Monument and the later Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, blending Anatolian and Greek (Athenian) styles. Several friezes from the tomb are now visible in the Antalya Archeological Museum.

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