Editing Lycia (section)

====The Harpagid theory====
The Harpagid Theory was initiated by [[Charles Fellows]], discoverer of the [[Xanthian Obelisk]], and person responsible for the transportation of the Xanthian Marbles from Lycia to the [[British Museum]]. Fellows could not read the Lycian inscription, except for one line identifying a person of illegible name, to whom the monument was erected, termed the son of Arppakhu in Lycian, equivalent to Greek [[Harpagos]]. Concluding that this person was the conqueror of Lycia in 546, Fellows conjectured that Harpagos had been made permanent satrap of Lycia for his services; moreover, the position was hereditary, creating a Harpagid Dynasty. This theory prevailed nearly without question for several generations.

[[File:Xanthos sarcophagus (cropped).jpg|thumb|The "[[Harpy Tomb]]" of [[Kybernis]], a solid sandstone pillar with the sarcophagus of Kybernis on top (c. 480 BC).]]
To the inscriptions of the Xanthian Obelisk were added those of the [[Letoon trilingual]], which gave a sequel, as it were, to the names on the obelisk. Studies of coin legends, initiated by Fellows, went on. Currently, most (but not all) of the Harpagid Theory has been rejected. The Achaemenids utilized no permanent satrapies; the political circumstances changed too often. The conqueror of new lands was seldom made their satrap; he went on to other conquests. It was not the Persian custom to grant hereditary satrapies; satrap was only a step in the ''[[cursus honorum]]''. And finally, a destitute mountain country would have been a poor reward for Cyrus' best general.<ref name=Keen76/> The main evidence against the Harpagid Theory (as Keen calls it) is the reconstruction of the name of the Xanthian Obelisk's deceased as Lycian Kheriga, Greek Gergis ([[Nereid Monument]]), a king reigning approximately 440–410&nbsp;BC, over a century later than the conqueror of Lycia.

The next logical possibility is that Kheriga's father, Arppakhu, was a descendant of the conqueror. In opposition, Keen reconstructs the dynastic sequence from coin inscriptions as follows.<ref>{{harvnb|Keen|1998|pp=78, 116–117}}.</ref> Kheriga had two grandfathers, Kuprlli and Kheriga. The younger Kheriga was the successor of Kuprlli. The latter's son, therefore, Kheziga, who was Kheriga's uncle, must have predeceased Kuprlli. Arppakhu is listed as regnant on two other inscriptions, but he did not succeed Kuprlli. He must therefore have married a daughter of Kuprlli, and have also predeceased the long-lived Kuprlli. The latter then was too old to reign de facto. On the contemporaneous deaths of both him and his son-in-law, Kheriga, named after his paternal grandfather, acquired the throne.

Kuprlli was the first king recorded for certain (there was an earlier possible) in the coin legends. He reigned approximately 480–440. Harpagos was not related by blood. The conqueror, therefore, was not the founder of the line, which was not Harpagid. An Iranian family, however, producing some other Harpagids, did live in Lycia and was of sufficient rank to marry the king's daughter. As to whether the Iranian family were related to any satrap, probably not. Herodotus said that Satrapy 1 (the satrapies were numbered) consisted of Ionia, Magnesia, Aeolia, Caria, Lycia, Milya, and Pamphylia, who together paid a tax of 400 silver talents. This satrapy was later broken up and recombined.<ref>Herodotus, The Histories, 3.90</ref> Keen hypothesizes that since Caria had responsibility for the King's Highway through Lycia, Lycia and Caria were a satrapy.<ref name="Keen 1998 84">{{harvnb|Keen|1998|p=84}}.</ref>