who took it from him by force in 309 BC.
In 197 BC, Antiochus III , who wanted to take Lycia from the Ptolemies, made an agreement with the Xanthians, declaring the city free and dedicating it to Leto, Apollo and Artemis. After Antiochus’ defeat at Magnesia of Sypile, and because of their support to her, Rome gave Xanthos to the Rhodians. Complaining that they were treated like slaves, the Xanthians revolted many times so that Rome finally put an end to the Rhodien domination in 167 BC. During the Roman civil wars of the 1st century BC, the Lycians sided with Caesar against Pompeius. But Caesar was assassinated in Rome by Brutus and Cassius who came to Asia Minor to collect money and recruit soldiers. As the Lycians were reluctant to make any contributions, Brutus attacked Xanthos where the Lycian League’ s soldiers were gathered. He demolished the Acropolis and slaughtered the inhabitants. For the second time in their history, in the year 42 BC, the Xanthians underwent mass suicide for their freedom. Marc Antony, hoping to heal the scars left by Brutus, rebuilt their city. In Byzantines times, the city walls were renovated and a monastery was added. The city was deserted, ruined by Arab raids in the 8th century.
Xanthos was discovered in 1838 by Sir Charles Fellows who had all the reliefs and finds of any significance transported to London, on a warship that anchored in Patara.
The Hellenistic walls and gates of the city, the Lycian buildings and monuments, the necropolis with typical Lycian tombs and sarcophagi, the funerary pillars, the Roman theatre, the agora, the Byzantine church with mosaics, the Byzantine monastery,....are among the main vestiges of the archaeological site.
The Monument of the Harpies: this sarcophagus, which dates back to 480 - 470 BC, consists of a huge piece of hewn rock 8.87 m / 29 ft high and a small burial chamber decorated on all four sides by reliefs, and closed by a stone lid. The monument’s reliefs seen today are plaster copies. The originals, as well as sculpted sarcophagi and the Nereids Monument (a temple with 12 Nereid statues between the columns) were taken by Charles Fellows to the British Museum in 1842.
