A federation of the cities of Lycia in south-west Anatolia (attested from the early second century BCE, independent of Rhodes from 167 BCE, under Rome until annexation in 43 CE) whose assembly weighted votes by city size. Montesquieu called it the model of an excellent confederate republic, and the American founders studied it.
Lycia, the mountainous south-western corner of Anatolia, had its own language and a long tradition of cooperation among its cities. After the defeat of the Seleucid king Antiochus III, Rome gave Lycia to Rhodes in 188 BCE. The Lycians resisted Rhodian rule, and in 168/167 BCE the Roman Senate declared Lycia free. The League (koinon) of the Lycians is attested in inscriptions from the early second century BCE; Trevor Bryce suggests it may have formed to press Rome to reverse the transfer to Rhodes. It remained autonomous, first as a free ally and then within the Roman sphere, until Claudius made Lycia a province in 43 CE.
Our main description comes from the geographer Strabo, writing under Augustus and drawing on the first-century BCE historian Artemidorus:
Inscriptions show a federal council and assembly, federal priesthoods and federal coinage, and honours voted by the League. J. A. O. Larsen treats Lycia as a representative federal state: decisions were made by delegates rather than by a primary assembly of all citizens, a significant innovation in the Greek world.
Lycia's economy combined agriculture, timber, coastal trade and the port of Patara. The League coordinated federal cults, notably at the Letoon sanctuary near Xanthos, issued coinage, and ran federal courts. Contributions to common costs were proportional to votes. In the Roman imperial period wealthy Lyciarchs and benefactors funded games, buildings and relief across the cities, and the League became a vehicle for elite euergetism.
Federal courts settled disputes between cities and citizens of different cities. External conflict shaped the League's fate: wars against Rhodes in the 180s and 170s BCE, involvement in the Mithridatic wars on Rome's side, and in 42 BCE the brutal siege of Xanthos by Brutus during the Roman civil wars, when many inhabitants killed themselves rather than surrender. A treaty with Rome concluded in 46 BCE and preserved in an inscription regulated alliance, jurisdiction and the return of property and prisoners. In 43 CE Claudius ended Lycian independence: Suetonius gives deadly internal feuds as the reason, Cassius Dio a revolt in which Romans were killed, adding that Claudius incorporated the Lycians in the prefecture of Pamphylia.
The League survived for roughly two centuries as an autonomous federation and then as a provincial body (koinon) under Roman rule, electing Lyciarchs and organising the imperial cult. Its lasting influence came through political theory. In The Spirit of the Laws (1748) Montesquieu praised it as the best example of a confederate republic because votes and burdens were proportioned to city size. Madison's 1786 notes on ancient and modern confederacies included it, and Hamilton quoted Montesquieu in the Federalist No. 9 (1787): "Were I to give a model of an excellent Confederate Republic, it would be that of Lycia."
A federation of some twenty-three cities governed common affairs through a delegate assembly with votes weighted by city size, proportional contributions, a federal chief magistrate (Lyciarch), federal courts and coinage. It became the classic historical model of a representative federal republic for Montesquieu and the American founders.
Rome controlled Lycian foreign policy from the first century BCE, the Roman civil wars devastated Xanthos in 42 BCE, and in 43 CE Claudius annexed Lycia as a province, citing internal strife. The League survived as a provincial koinon for elite honours and the imperial cult, without sovereign powers.
Strabo reports that twenty-three Lycian cities shared in the League's vote, the largest having three votes, middle-sized cities two and the rest one, with contributions and liturgies in the same proportion, and that the congress chose a Lyciarch and other officials.[1]
Federalist No. 9 quotes Montesquieu: 'Were I to give a model of an excellent Confederate Republic, it would be that of Lycia.'[1][2]
Claudius ended Lycian independence in 43 CE; Suetonius gives deadly internal feuds as the reason, while Cassius Dio says the Lycians had revolted and killed some Romans, and that Claudius incorporated them in the prefecture of Pamphylia.[1][2][3][4]