L Y S 
in other parts of Auftria. In the year 1576 he went to 
Tubingen, and took his degree of doctor of divinity; and 
in the following year, Auguftus eledtorof Saxony was in¬ 
duced by the fame of his pulpit-talents to appoint him a 
minifter of the church of Wittemberg. He bad not been 
Ting fettled in this fituation, before he was created a pro- 
feifor of divinity in that univerfity ; and was afterwards 
nominated fuperintendant of the diftrid, and aflelTor of 
the confiftory. In the year 1594, he was appointed mi¬ 
nifter of the court at Drefden. Here he fpent the remain¬ 
der of his life, occupied not only in his literary labours, 
and his minilterial duties, but in the education of the 
young princes. He died in 1601, when in the forty-ninth 
year of his age. He was a very voluminous writer, parti¬ 
cularly as a commentator on the Scriptures. He wrote 
likewife feveral controverfial treatifes. 
LY'SERUS (John), a Lutheran divine of the fame fa¬ 
mily with the preceding, and a native of Saxony. He 
was a fingular character, who, being poflefled of the no¬ 
tion that polygamy wasadoftrine fandioned both by rea- 
fon and Scripture, fpent his fortune and his life in endea¬ 
vours to maintain and propagate it. And yet he was a 
little, deformed, thin, pale, abfent, timid, creature, who, 
fays Bayie, would have found one wife too much for him. 
Intent on eftablifhing his favourite opinion, and on prov¬ 
ing that polygamy is not only permitted but commanded 
in°certain circumftances, he relinquilhed a confiderable 
employment in his native country, and entered into the 
fuite of a Swedilh count, whom he had made a convert to 
his dodrine. After the death of that patron, he appears 
to havebeenoneof the chaplains to the army of Chriftian V. 
king of Denmark; which poll he loft, and was baniflied 
from all the dominions of his Danilh majefty, on its being 
difcovered thathewas the author ofthe treadle mentioned be¬ 
low. With incredible pains he travelled through Germany, 
Denmark, Sweden, Holland, England, Italy, and France, 
examining the libraries for materials to confirm his fyftem, 
and publilhing various treatifes in defence of it, under 
feigned names, but without having the gratification of 
finding that he gained many converts to his dodrine. At 
length^ reduced to great diftrefs, and difappointed in the 
hope of bettering his fortune at the court of Verfailles 
by his extraordinary {kill in the game of chefs, he fell 
fick and died at a houfe between that place and Paris, 
in the year 1684. The molt confiderable of his publica¬ 
tions, and which for a time excited no little attention, 
was entitled, “ Polygamia Triumphatrix; id eft, Difcurfus 
Politicus de Polygamia ; audore Theophilo Alithseo; cum 
notis Athanafii Vincentii;” publilhed at Amfterdam in 
i68z, 4to. Thistreatife was anfwered by Brunfmanus, a 
Danilh minifter, in a book entitled “ Monogamia Vidrix,” 
1689, 8 vo. In our own time, we have feen a grave divine 
of the church of England enter the lifts in defence of the 
fame caufe with Lyferus; but the Engliflr champion has 
gained no greater honour than the German. Gen. Biog. 
LYS'IA, in ancient geography, a town of Afia, in 
Syria, feated on the river Mariyas, weft of the river 
Orontes, and north-weft of the town of Apamea.—A 
town of Afia Minor, in Caria, placed by Ptolemy in 
Phrygia Major.—A town of the Peloponnefus, in Arca¬ 
dia, called alfo Lvfias. See Lycia, p. 810. 
LYSIAR'CHA, an ancient kind of magiftrate, being 
the pontiff of Lycia, or fuperintendant of the facred 
games of that province. Strabo obferves, that the Lyfi- 
archa was created in a council confining of the deputies 
of twenty-three cities; that is, of all the cities in the pro¬ 
vince; fome of which cities had three voices, others two, 
and others but one. Cardinal Norris fays, that the Lyfi- 
archa prefided in matters of religion ; in effed, the Lyfi- 
arclra was nearly the fame with the AJiarcha and Syriarcha ; 
who, though they were all the heads of the councils, or 
ftates of thofe provinces, yet were they eftablilhed prin¬ 
cipally to take care of the games and fealts celebrated in 
honour of the gods, whofe priefts they were inaugurated. 
L Y S 843 
at the fame time that they were created Ly/iarcha, Syriar¬ 
cha, or AJiarcha. 
LYSIAN'THUS,yi in botany. See Lisianthus, vol. 
xii. p. 786. 
LYS'IAS, an eminent Greek orator, born .at Syracufe 
about the year 459 B. C. He accompanied his father to 
Athens while he was very young, and was educated with 
great care in that city. In procefs of time he became 
himfelf a teacher of rhetoric, and compofed orations for 
others, but does not appear to have been a pleader. He 
diftinguilhed himfelf by the eloquence and purity of his 
orations, of which it is laid by Plutarch, he wrote no lefs 
than 425, though the number may with more probability 
be reduced to 230; and of thefe only 34 remain, which 
are to be found in the colledions of the Greek orators. 
He died in the 81 ft year of his age, and in the 378th yearB.C, 
Lyfias attained great reputation in his time, which his 
works afterwards fupported ; and he is mentioned with ap- 
plaufe by Cicero and Quintilian. He feems to have well 
underftood the management of an argument, and to have 
employed his fubtilty with Ikill. Having once given a 
pleading to his adversary to read, and defired his opinion 
of it, “ When I perufed it for the firft time (faid the man), 
I thought it excellent—at the fecond reading, middling— 
at the third, bad.” “Then, (faid Lyfias,) it was good 5 
for it was to be heard but once.” This orator lived at a 
fomewhat earlier period than Ifocrates; and exhibits a 
model of that manner which the ancients call the “tenuis 
vel fubtilis.” He has none of the pomp of Ifocrates. 
He is every where pure and attic in the higheft degree ; 
Ample and unaffefted ; but wants force, and is fometimes 
frigid in his compofitions. In the judicious companion 
which Dionyfius of Halicarnaftus makes of the merits of 
Lyfias and Ifocrates, he aferibes to Lyfias, as the diltin- 
guilhing charafter of his manner, a certain grace or ele¬ 
gance arifing from fimplicity : ELpoxs y«g n Atm 8 * e | f5 
C-/HV to xa-guv' jj o’lcrovgultig, | 2 aAETat: i. e. The ftyle of 
Lyfias has gracefulnels for its nature; that of Ifocrates 
J'eems to have it. In the art of narration, as diftinft, pro¬ 
bable, and perfuafive, he holds Lyfias to be fuperior to all 
orators; at the fame time he admits, that his compofitiou 
is more adapted to private litigation than to great fubjefls. 
He convinces, but he does not elevate nor animate. The 
magnificence and Iplendour of Ifocrates are more fuited 
to great occafions. He is more agreeable than Lyfias; and 
in dignity of fentiment far excels him. The belt editions 
of Lyfias’s Orations is that by Taylor, Lond, 1739, 4to» 
and Camb. 1740, 8vo. Blair's Lett. vol. ii. 
LYS'IAS, a friend and relation of king Antiochus 
Epiphanes. That prince, going beyond the Euphrates to 
collect money, left the regency of Syria to Lyfias, with 
orders to make war upon the Jews, and utterly deltroy 
them 3 Lyfias therefore fent Ptolemy the fon of Dorimenes, 
Nicanor, and Georgias, into Judea with a powerful army. 
But, Judas Maccabasus having routed it, he came the year 
following with greater forces ; and was again overcome, 
his army put to flight, and himfelf obliged to retire to An¬ 
tioch. The fame year Antiochus Epiphanes dying be¬ 
yond the Euphrates, (fee the article Jew, vol. x. p. 716.) 
Lyfias took upon himfelf the government of the kingdom 
during the minority of young Antiochus, though the late 
king had left the regency to Philip, one of his friends who 
was with him at the time of his death. (1 Macc. vi. 14, 
15, See.) Notwithftanding the king’s laft will, Lyfias kept 
the government of Syria; continued by his generals the 
war againft the Jews ; and came a fecond time into the 
land of Judah, as far as Bethfura ; but the Jews defeated, 
him, and obliged him to fly. He fent propofals of ac¬ 
commodation to Judas Maccabteus; and peace was con¬ 
cluded, very advantageous to the Jews, A. M. 3411, ante 
A. D. 163. This peace was of Ihort duration. Lyfias re¬ 
turned towards the dole of the year, and brought the 
young king Eupator with him, with the belt of his troops.. 
They laid liege to Bethfura, and afterwards to Jerufalem. 
The 
