Lycia came to occupy most of the Teke peninsula at the south-west corner of Anatolia between the Indos river bordering Caria in the west, the plains of Pamphylia starting at Attaleia in the east, and the mountains of Pisidia to the north. From its Homeric boundaries in the Xanthos river valley (Bryce 1986: 13), the territory called 'Lycia' expanded over time, whether as a set of independent city-states, as a formal federation, or while under the control of foreign powers such as Persia and Rome. In fact, its largest extent and greatest prosperity may have belonged to the Late Roman and Early Byzantine periods.
Lycia held the distinction of being the last area in Asia Minor to be formally incorporated as a Roman province. Lycia was formally free for over two centuries after breaking away from Rhodian control with Rome's blessing in 167 B.C. However, in A.D. 43, during the reign of Claudius, it was combined with part of Pisidia to the north-east and Pamphylia to the east into the joint province of 'Lycia et Pamphylia'. Though technically jointly administered for most of the imperial period, Lycia was always topographically, culturally, historically and to some extent administratively distinct. Thus Lycia will be treated in its own right as a provincial region of the Roman Empire.
Lycia only ever played a supporting role in international affairs, leaving us shy of an abundant historical record. Lycia might be considered a historical backwater, with only a few 'Great Men' or 'Great Events'. Nevertheless, the many relatively well-preserved material remains, including ample epigraphic and numismatic evidence, offer a fine picture of a province-at-work in the Roman Empire.
Lycia long had a history of strong regional-cultural identity, and a tradition of independent city-states that periodically joined in a Federation that was in many ways a model political organization. Despite a steep geography that sharply divides the land into river valleys, coastal plains and upland basins, despite the invasions of larger powers and despite the occasional rise of individual tyrants, the Lycian system of representative government was remarkably effective in maintaining Lycian autonomy during the troubled years of the Late Hellenistic period. Even under the Empire, when the governor, empire and army maintained ultimate authority, the Lycian League oversaw local religious, economic, and legal matters, distinct from the areas of Pisidia and Pamphylia that technically belonged to the same province. For the average citizen, that local Lycian decision-making was probably as real and relevant as the periodic imperial decisions or power-shifts centered at Rome. Lycia under the Roman Empire provides the historian a particular opportunity to consider the structures and processes of Romanization, to study how local culture and imperial culture interacted.
