A´XYLUS a woodless tract in Asia Minor, northward of the region of lakes and plains, through which leads the road from Afioum Karahissár to Kónia and Erkle, a dry and naked region, which extends as far as the Sangarius and Halys.(Leake, Asia Minor, p. 65.) Livy (Liv. 38.18) describes the Axylus as entirely destitute of wood; the inhabitants used dried cow-dung for fuel. Pococke, who traversed part of the country, speaks of the people as being much distressed for fuel, and commonly using cow-dung. He might have found the same thing done in some parts of England. (Compare Hamilton, vol. i. pp. 448, 468, as to the Axylus.) The Roman consul Manlius marched through the Axylus to invade Galatia. Part of this woodless region was included in Phrygia, and part in Galatia and Lycaonia. The high plateaus north of Kóniaand Erkleare the mountain-plains (ὀροπέδια), as Strabo (p. 568) terms them, of the Lycaonians, cold, treeless and waterless, but well adapted for sheep-feeding.
[G.L]