a. and sb. Also 7 Zanthian. [f. Xanthus (see def.) + -IAN.] Of or pertaining to (or an inhabitant of) Xanthus, an ancient town in Asia Minor; spec. of a collection of marbles discovered near it.
1685. Cotton, Montaigne, I. xl. (1711), I. 363. The Zanthians, who being besieg’d … precipitated themselves … into such a furious Appetite of dying … that Brutus had much ado to save but a very small number.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, I. 662. Ere yet the Food Or Troy they taste, or drink the Xanthian Flood.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch, IV. 244 (Alexander). A spring in Lycia near the city of the Xanthians.
1842. Sir C. Fellows (title), The Xanthian Marbles, their acquisition and transmission to England.
