 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |  |
|
Dictionary: Search the Dictionary Browse the Dictionary |
|
Timeline: Launch Interactive Timeline |
| Return to Front Page |
| Browse the Dictionary | |
| LABERIUS | The originator and leading representative of the mime (q.v.) as a form of literature; born about 105 B.C. Being a Roman knight with a strong love of freedom, he roused the wrath of the dictator Caesar; accordingly in B.C. 45 the latter compelled him to appear on the stage at the age of sixty, and to compete with his rival Publilius Syrus. In the prologue to the piece, one of the most beautiful monuments of Roman literature which have come down to us, Laberius complains bitterly of the indignity put upon him. His appearing as an actor involved the loss of knightly rank, which in this case, however, was restored to him by Caesar. He died at Puteoli in 43. Apart from the prologue already mentioned, we have only unimportant fragments of more than forty of his mimes. These bear witness to the originality of his wit and the vigour of his style. | |
| LACERNA | The Latin term for a coarse, dark-coloured cloak, fastened on the shoulder by a brooch, which was in use as a protection against rain. It was provided with a hood. In later times the name was given to a light and elegant mantle, either white or dyed in Tyrian purple, which was worn over the toga to complete the costume at games or other outdoor occasions. In the time of Augustus, who forbade its use in the Forum or Circus, it formed part of the military uniform. It was afterwards commonly worn even in Rome itself. | |
| LACHESIS |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 One of the three goddesses of fate. (See MCERAe.) |
|
| LACONICUM | A species of dry sweating-bath, introduced from Greece by the Romans towards the end of the Republic. It was specially used to correct the effects of excessive indulgence at the table, by inducing severe perspiration; at the conclusion of the process it was usual to take either a cold plunge or a shower-bath. The dry sweating-bath was taken in a small, circular room, covered with a cupola, and capable of being raised to a high degree of temperature. Its sole light was admitted through a hole in its vaulted roof. Under this opening there hung on chains a bronze shield (clipeus), by elevating and depressing which it was possible to regulate the temperature. | |
| LACTANTIUS | A pupil of Arnobius, summoned by Diocletian to teach rhetoric in the school of Nicomedia in Bithynia. Here he embraced Christianity (before A.D. 303), and in his old age (about 317) he became the teacher, in Gaul, of Crispus, the son of Constantine the Great. He is remarkable above all Christian authors for the purity and smoothness of his style, for which he was indebted to the careful study of Cicero, so much so indeed, as to have earned the title of the Christian Cicero. His great work is the "Introduction to Divine Knowledge" (Divinae Institutiones), in seven books. A poem on the phoenix, in eighty-five couplets, is also ascribed to him; but this ascription is doubtful. | |
| LACUNARIA | The Latin name for the panelled ceilings of rooms which were formed by placing planks across the beams of the roof, whereby hollow spaces were produced. These spaces were covered with wood or ivory, or ornamented with sculptured reliefs or pictures; occasionally they were even gilded or inlaid with plates of gold. [Horace, Odes, ii 18, 1.] In banqueting-rooms they were sometimes so formed that, the panels could be slipped aside to let flowers, wreaths, and other complimentary presents fall in showers on the guests below. [Suetonius, Nero, 31.] | |
| LADON | The hundred-headed dragon, who watched over the garden of the Hesperides (q.v.) ; the son of Phorcys (or of Typhon) and of Ceto. He was slain by Heracles when he went to fetch the golden apples. | |
| LAENA | An ancient Roman garment. It was a woollen mantle, fastened by a brooch, of a coarse, shaggy material, twice as thick as an ordinary toga. Under the Empire it was very generally worn as an outer cloak by all classes of society, especially on going out to supper. | |
| LAERTES | King of Ithaca, and son of Arcisius, a son of Zeus. He was the husband of Anticleia and father of Odysseus (q.v.). | |
| LAESTRYGONES |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 In Homer, a race of giants and cannibals dwelling in the distant north, where the nights are so short that the shepherd driving his flock out meets the shepherd who is driving his flock in. Their city was Telepylus, founded by Lamus. When Odysseus (q.v.) came there on his wanderings their king was Antiphates. The later Greeks placed the home of the Laestrygonians in Sicily, to the south of Etna, near the town of Leontini; the Romans, on the southern coast of Latium, near Formiae. [Homer, Od. x 82, 106; Thuc., vi 2; Cic., Ad Atticum ii 13; Horace, Odes iii 16, 34.] (See PAINTING, fig. 5.) |
|
| LAEVIUS |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A Roman epic and lyric poet. (See EPOS and |
|
| LAIUS |
The son of Labillcus, grandson of Polydorus, and great-grandson of Cadmus. When his guardian Lycus was banished or slain by Amphion (q.v.) and Zethus, he fled to Pelops. At the death of the usurpers, he ascended the throne of his fathers and married Jocasta. (See ( |
|
| LAMPRIDIUS | One of the Scriptores Historioe Augustoe (q.v.). | |
| LANISTA |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The Roman name for a fencing-master or trainer of gladiators. (See GLADIATORES.) |
|
| LANTERN OF DEMOSTHENES | A mediaeval name for the monument of Lysicrates (q.v.). | |
| LAOCOON |
According to the post-Homeric story, a priest of Apollo. He had displeased that god by marrying against his wishes; and, when the Greeks had departed for a time from Troy, leaving the wooden horse behind them, be again offended, by serving as a priest on the occasion of the sacrifice offered to Poseidon. Accordingly, in the midst of the sacrificial feast, the god sent two serpents who strangled Laocoon and one of his sons. In Vergil's account [Aen. ii 230] Laocoon draws down upon himself the wrath of Athena, not only for warning the Trojans against the guile of the Greeks, but for piercing with a spear the flank of the horse dedicated to the goddess. Whilst he was sacrificing to Poseidon on the beach, Athena caused two snakes to emerge from the sea and strangle the father and both of his sons. This incident has been represented in the famous group of sculpture (see cut), the work of the Rhodian artists Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus, which was found in 1506 amid the ruins of the house of the emperor Titus at Rome. It is now in the Belvedere court of the Vatican Museum. (Comp. |
|
| LAODAMEIA | The daughter of Acastus, and wife of Protesilaus (q.v.). She was celebrated for her attachment to her husband, whom she followed to death of her own free will. | |
| LAOMEDON | Son of Ilus and Eurydice, father of Priam, Tithonus, and Hesione, and king of Ilium. Apollo and Poseidon served him for wages, the former pasturing his flock on Mount Ida, while the latter, either alone or with the help of Apollo and Aeacus (q.v.), built the walls of the town. But Laomedon defrauded the gods of the payment that had been agreed upon. Apollo therefore visited the land with a plague, and Poseidon sent a sea-monster, to whom the king was forced to offer his daughter Hesione. Heracles, on his way back from the Amazons, found the maiden chained to a rock in the sea, and he offered to kill the monster if he were given the magic horses which Zeus had bestowed on Tros in exchange for Ganymede, whom be had carried off. Laomedon agreed to this, but again broke his promise. Accordingly Heracles (q.v.) subsequently waged war against him, and after capturing the city, slew him and all his sons, except Priam. | |
| LARARIUM |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The shrine of the Lares. (See LARES.) |
|
| LARES | The Latin name for the good spirits of the departed, who even after death continue to be active in bringing blessing on their posterity. The origin of the worship of the Lares is traced to the fact that the Romans buried their dead in their own houses, until it was forbidden by the laws of the Twelve Tables. Every house had individually a lar familiaris, who was the " lord " tutelary spirit of the family; his chief care was to prevent its dying out. His image, habited in a toga, stood between the two Penates, in the lararium or shrine of the Lares, beside the household hearth, which in early days was in the atrium; the group as a whole was also commonly called either the Lares or the Penates. The ancient Roman and his children saluted it daily with a morning prayer and an offering from the table; for, after the chief meal was over, a portion of it was laid on the fire on the hearth. When the hearth and the Lares were not in the eating-room, the offering was placed on a special table before the shrine. Regular sacrifices were offered on the calends, nones, and ides of every month and at all important family festivities, such as the birthday of the father of the family, the assumption by a son of the toga virilis, the marriage of a child, or at the reception of a bride, or the return of any member of the family after a long absence. On such occasions the Lares were covered with garlands and cakes and honey; wine and incense, and animals, especially swine, were offered up. Out of doors the Lares were also honoured as tutelary divinities, and in the chapels at the cross-ways (compita) there were always two lares compitales or vicorum (one for each of the intersecting roads) which were honoured by a popular festival (Compitalia) held four times a year (cp. cut). Augustus added to the Lares the Genius Augusti, and commanded two regular feasts to be held in honour of these divinities, in the months of May and August. Further, there were Lares belonging to the whole city (lares proestites). They were invoked with the mother of the Lares, also called Lara, Larunda, or Mania (q.v.), and had an ancient altar and temple to themselves in Rome. The Lares were invoked as protectors on a journey, in the country, in war, and, on the sea. In contrast to these good spirits we have the Larvae (q.v.). | |
| LARVAE | In Roman belief the Larvae, in contrast to the Lares (the good spirits of the departed), were the souls of dead people who could find no rest, either owing to their own guilt, or from having met with some indignity, such as a violent death. They were supposed to wander abroad in the form of dreadful spectres, skeletons, etc., and especially to strike the living with madness. Similar sipectres of the night are the Lemures. To expel them from the house, peculiar expiatory rites were held on three days of the year, the 9th, 11th, and 13th of May, the Lemuria, when all the temples were closed, and marriages avoided. | |
| LASUS |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A Greek dithyrambic poet. (See DITHYRAMBOS.) |
|
| LATIFUNDIUM |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The Latin term for an extensive landed estate which was worked by means of slaves. Lands of the State (see AGER PUBLICUS) taken into permanent use by occupatio formed the foundation of these properties, and their possessor enlarged them by obtaining contiguous property either by purchase or by forcible appropriation. This system of latifundia gradually caused the utter ruin of the Italian peasantry, and involved in it the general destruction of the community [Latifundia perdidere Italiam, Pliny, N. H., xviii 35]. |
|
| LATINI | The name originally given by the Romans, in the language of constitutional law, to those who belonged to the Latin league. At its dissolution, in B.C. 338, they did not receive the right of Roman citizenship, but entered into the condition of dependent socii (q.v.); they had a definite precedence over the other socii, possessed the commercium (q.v.), and the right of settlement in Rome, and their attainment of the right of citizenship was materially facilitated. They received this when they had once filled any annual public office in their community, or whe on settling in Rome, they left a son behind them in the colony to which they belonged. After the right of citizenship had been given to all the inhabitants of Italy (B.C. 89), this ius Latii, or Latin Right, became useless for Italy; it was even given by many of the emperors to communities in the provinces, and A.D. 212 all free inhabitants of the empire received the right of citizenship. After this time the only Latini remaining were those called the Latini Iuniani, slaves who had been informally set at liberty, and who were allowed this privilege from the time of Tiberius. | |
| LATINUS | Son of Faunus and of the Nymph Marica (according to another story, of Hercules and Fauna, or of Odysseus and Circe). He was king of Latium, and father of Lavinia, the wife of Aeneas (q.v.). | |
| LAVERNA | The Roman patroness of thieves. There was an altar dedicated to her at the gate named after her the Porta Lavernalis. | |
| LAVINIA | Daughter of Latinus, and wife of Aeneas (q.v.). | |
| LEANDER | A youth of Abydos, on the Hellespont, whose story was very celebrated in ancient times, and was the theme of a minor epic poem by Musaeus (q.v.). He was in love with Hero (q.v.), and every night swam across the Hellespont to visit her in her solitary tower at Lesbos. He was guided by a light in the tower, and on its being extinguished in a night of tempest, he lost his life in the waves. When Hero saw his corpse washed up the next morning on the shore, she threw herself down from the tower, and was thus killed. | |
| LEARCHUS | The son of Athamas (q.v.) and Ino. He was killed by his father in a fit of madness. | |
| LECTISTERNIUM | A festival of Greek origin, first ordered by the Sibylline books in 399 B.C. It was held on exceptional occasions, particularly in times of great distress. Images of the gods (probably portable figures of wood draped with robes, and with their heads made of marble, clay, or wax) were laid on a couch (called the lectus or pulvinar). A table was placed before them, on which was laid out a meal, always a free-will offering. At the first Lectisternia, there were three lecti arranged for three pairs of non-Roman divinities; Apollo and Latona, Heracles and Artemis (Diana), Hermes (Mercurius) and Poseidon (Neptune). Afterwards this sacrifice was offered to the six pairs oi Roman gods, who corresponded to the twelve great gods of the Greeks: Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Minerva, Mars, Venus, Apollo, Diana, Vulcan, Vesta, Mercury, and Ceres. These banquets to the gods generally took place at festivals of prayer and thanksgiving, which were called Supplicationes (q.v.), and were per formed in the market-places or at appointed temples, in which arrangements for the purpose were on a permanent footing. It was customary to have connected with this a domestic feast, to which both strangers and friends were invited, and in which even those imprisoned for debt were allowed to participate. From the commencement of the 3rd century B.C. a banquet was regularly given to the three Capitoline divinities, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, on every 13th of November, in conjunction with the plebeian games. Under the Empire the celebration was on the 13th of September, and was associated with the Roman games. From B.C. 196 it was pro vided by the College of Epulones (q.v.). The images of the three gods were decked with curls, anointed, and tricked out with colours. Jupiter was placed reclining on a cushion, with a goddess on each side of him seated on a chair; and the divinities were invited to a banquet, in which the whole senate participated. | |
| LECYTHUS |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 An oil-flask. (See VASES and |
|
| LEDA | Daughter of Thestius, and sister of Althaea, and wife of Tyndareos. According to Homer it was by Tyndareos, that she became the mother of Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces), and also of Clytaemnestra, while Helen was her daughter by Zeus. Generally, however, Helen and Pollux are described as children of Zeus, Clytaemnestra and Castor as those of Tyndareos. According to the later story, Zeus approached Leda in the shape of a swan, and she brought forth two eggs, out of one of which sprang Helen, and out of the other Castor and Pollux. | |
| LEGATI | ambassadors who, under the Republic, were chosen by the senate from among the most distinguished senators and provided with instructions and proper remuneration. On their return they had to hand in a report to the senate. | |
| LEGATI | Persons appointed, as above, by the senate, to accompany the generals and the governors of provinces. Three or more could be appointed, according to the necessity of the case. They were of senatorial rank, and were bound to carry out the commands of their superior officer, who was responsible for them. In his absence they took his place as legati pro praetore. Under the Empire this title was also given to those who assisted in the duties of jurisdiction and government in the senatorial provinces. On the other hand, the legati Augusti pro proetore were nominated by the emperor himself, without any specified limit of time, to act as governors over imperial provinces in which there was an army. They were divided into consular and praetorian legati, according as the authority delegated to them extended over several legions or only one. Besides these there were legati legionum, appointed according to the number of the legions. They were men of senatorial rank, and had the command of the several legions, and of the auxiliary troops belonging to them. | |
| LEGION |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 In the time of Romulus the united armed forces of Rome went by this name. The legion consisted of 300 knights (celeres) under the command of a tribunus celerum, appointed by the king, and 3,000 foot soldiers, under the command of three tribuni militum. Each of the three ancient tribes provided a third of this force and one tribune. With the increase of the military forces of Rome the name of legio was given to each of the sub-divisions equivalent in numbers to the original army. The military system of king Servius Tullius made the infantry the most important part of the military forces, instead of the cavalry as heretofore. The five classes included in the census (q.v.) were obliged to serve in the army at their own expense; those who were not comprised in these classes, viz. the proletarii, were freed from service, and, when they were enlisted, received their equipment from the State. The iuniores, those who were from 17 to 46 years old, were appointed for field service, and the seniores, those from 47 to 60, for the defence of the city. The first and second lines of the legion, drawn up in unbroken order like the Greek phalanx, consisted of citizens of the first class, equipped with helmet, cuirass, round shield (clipeus), and greaves, all of bronze. The third and fourth lines were from the second class, and had no cuirass, but had the helmet and greaves and large oblong shields (scutum). The fifth and sixth were armed similarly, but without greaves, and were drawn from the third class. The fourth class was armed with the scutum as its only weapon of defence, but, like the others, provided with spear (hasta) and sword. It either filled the seventh and eighth lines, or, with the fifth class, formed the rorarii, who opened the battle with slings and other light missiles. An impontant alteration, ascribed to Camillus (about B.C. 390), was the abolition of the phalanx and introduction of the manipular formation, which prevailed till the time of Marius (end of the 2nd century B.C.). In the flourishing days of the Republic, the normal strength of a legion, which could be increased in time of need, consisted of 300 knights (equites), and 4,200 foot soldiers (pedites). In respect to the weapons used, the latter were divided into four kinds, according to their length of service and familiarity with warfare. (1) 1,200 hastati, all in early manhood; (2) 1,200 principes, in the full vigour of life; (3) 600 triarii, who were proved veterans; and (4) 1,200 velites, who were lightly armed, and were drawn from the lowest classes of the census. The three first classes had a bronze helmet (cassis) with a lofty plume of feathers, a scutum, a leathern cuirass (lorica, q.v. ), greaves and a sword (gladius), which, after the second Punic War was of the Spanish kind, being short, strong, and two-edged, fitted for thrusting rather than cutting, and worn on the right side. There was also a spear, which in the two first divisions was a pilum (q.v.), and among the triarii a lance [Polyb. vi 23). The velites were armed with a leather helmet (galea), a light shield (parma), and a sword and several light javelins. The 3,000 heavily armed men were divided into 30 manipuli, numbering 120 men each among the hastati and principes, and 60 each among the triarii, and were again subdivided into two bodies called centuriae, and led by centurions (q.v.). Of the 1,200 velites, 20 were allotted to each century, and they formed the final complement of each maniple. On the field of battle the maniples were drawn up in open order, separated laterally from one another by intervals corresponding to the breadth of each maniple in front. The arrangement of the maniples would thus resemble that of the black squares on a chessboard. They fell into three divisions; the hastati in the front rank, with the principes behind them, and the triarii in the rear. If the first division, the hastati, were compelled to give way, then the second division, the principes, advanced through the intervals t by the maniples of the first division; if the principes in their turn had to retreat, then the third division, the triarii, who had been previously kneeling, protected by their shields, allowed the hastati and principes to fall back into the intervals separating the maniples of the triarii, and themselves closing their ranks pressed forward to meet the enemy. The 300 knights of the legion were divided into 10 turmae of 30 men each, and were equipped with a bronze cuirass, leathern greaves, helmet, shield, a long sword for attacking, and a long lance provided at both ends with an iron point. Each turma was under three decurions and three underofficers (optiones). The legion as a whole was under the command of six tribuni militum (q.v.) The consular army consisted of two legions. Four legions were regularly levied in each year; in other words, 16,800 foot soldiers and 1,200 cavalry. This levy of citizens was further swelled by the Italian allies (socii), a body of 20,000 foot soldiers and 3,600 cavalry, thus adding to each of the two consular armies 10,000 foot soldiers and 1,800 cavalry. The former were in twenty cohorts (see COHORS), each consisting of 420 men. Ten of these cohorts fought on the right wing, and ten on the left wing of the legions. Besides these, four cohorts of 400 men each were formed into a picked body. The cavalry were in six squadrons (See ALA, 1) of 300 men each. Four of these belonged to the main army, and two to the picked body. In wars beyond the limits of Italy there were also auxiliary forces (auxilia), consisting either of soldiers raised in the country where the war was being carried on, or of light-armed troops furnished by allied kings and nations. Besides the ordinary component parts of the legion there was also the bodyguard of the commander-in-chief, the cohors proetoria. (See COHORS.) In the course of the 1st century B.C. the organization of the legion was essentially altered. In the first place, in the time of Marius, the census ceased to be the basis of the levy, and all the citizens collectively were placed on the same footing in respect to their military service and the uniform which they wore. All the soldiers of the legion alike received the heavy equipment and the pilum, while the light-armed velites were done away with. After the right of citizenship had been conferred on the Italian allies, these no longer formed a separate part of the legions, but were incorporated with them. Thus the Roman army now consisted only of heavy-armed legions and of light-armed auxiliary troops. The latter were partly raised in the provinces and divide into cohorts, and partly enlisted as slingers and archers. The cavalry of the legions ceased to exist. Like the light-armed soldiers, the whole of the cavalry consisted of auxiliary troops, who were partly enlisted and partly levied from the provinces, while some were supplied according to agreement by allied nations and princes. A further important novelty introduced by Marius was the use of the cohort-formation, instead of the maniple-formation, which broke up the front too much. The legion was now divided into ten cohorts, in each of which there were three maniples of hastati, principes, and triarii, designations which now only concern the relative rank of the six centurions of the cohort. The customary battle array was in three divisions, the first being formed of four cohorts, and the second and third of three each. Again, while in earlier times the obligation of service extended at the most in the infantry to twenty campaigns and in the cavalry to ten, from the days of Marius the soldier remained uninterruptedly for twenty years with the army; an earlier dismissal being only exceptional. For this reason the well-to-do classes sought to withdraw themselves from the general military service, and it thus came to pass that the legions were for the greater part manned by means of conscriptions from the lowest strata of the burgher population of Italy, in which the service was regarded simply as a means of livelihood. Thus from the original army of citizens there was gradually developed a standing army of mercenaries. Under the Empire we find what is really a standing army, bound to the emperor by oath (see SACRAMENTUM); apart from the legions this army consisted of the auxilia (q.v.), the guards stationed in Rome and the neighbourhood (see PRAeTORIANI), and the city-cohorts (see COHORS), the artillery and the corps of workmen (see FABRI), the marines (see CLASSIARII), and the municipal and provincial militia. The legions are now once more provided with a corps of cavalry 120 strong, and are designated not only by numbers, but also by distinctive names. Together with the auxiliary troops they form the garrison of the imperatorial provinces under the command of the imperatorial legati legionum (see LEGATI), whose place was taken in the middle of the 3rd century by the praefecti legionum (see PRAeFECTI.). The strength of the legion now amounted to 5-6,000 men, raised partly by a regular levy, partly by drawing recruits from the Roman citizens of all the provinces beyond the bounds of Italy. As under the Republic, it was divided into 10 cohorts of 6 centuries each; the first cohort was, however, twice the strength of the remainder. It was not until the second half of the 3rd century A.D. that a now division of the 10 cohorts into 55 centuries came into use, with 10 centuries in the first cohort, and 5 in each of the rest. At the death of Augustus, the number of the legions was 25; it was then increased to 30, and this number was maintained until the end of the 2nd century, when three new legions were added by Septimius Severus. From the beginning of the 4th century it gradually rose to about 175, each of them, however, mustering a considerably smaller contingent. Incourse, of time, and especially after the 2nd century, owing to the conflicts with the barbarians, the legion was drawn up more and more after the manner of the Greek phalanx, without intervals in its line and with a division of troops in its rear. In its equipment there was an important alteration beginning with the second half of the 3rd century, when ad the soldiers of the legion carried long swords (Spathae), and the first five cohorts two pila, one larger and another smaller, while the last five had lanceae, or javelins serving as missiles, and fitted with a leather loop to help in hurling them with precision. The military music of the Romans was provided by tubicines (see TUBA.), cornicines (See CORNICEN), bucinatores (see BUCINA), and liticines (see LITUUS, 2). On standards or ensigns, see SIGNUM and |
|
| LEITOURGIA | ||
| LEMURES |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Ghosts. (See LARVAe.) |
|
| LENAEA |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A festival in honour of Dionysus. (See DIONYSIA, 3). |
|
| LEOCHARES | A Greek sculptor, of Athens, who (about 350 B.C.) was engaged with Scopas in the adornment of the Mausoleum (q.v.) of Halicarnassus. One of his most famous works was the bronze group of Ganymede and the Eagle, a work remarkable for its ingenious composition, which boldly ventures to the verge of what is allowed by the laws of sculpture, and also for its charming treatment of the youthful form as it soars into the air. It is apparently imitated in the well-known marble group in the Vatican (see cut). | |
| LESBONAX | A Greek rhetorician who lived early in the 1st century of our era. He composed political declamations on imaginary topics. Two of these have come down to us, exhorting the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War to be hold in battle against the Thebans and the Spartans. | |
| LETHE | A river of Hades (q.v.), out of which the souls of the departed drink oblivion of all their early existence. | |
| LETO | Daughter of the Titan Coeus and Phoebe. According to Hesiod [Theog. 406], she was the "dark-robed and ever mild and gentle" wife of Zeus, before he was wedded to Hera, and the mother of Apollo and Artemis. According to a later legend she is only the mistress of Zeus after he is wedded to Hera; when about to give birth to her children, she is pursued from land to land till at last she finds rest on the desolate island of Ortygia (Delos), which, up to that time, had floated on the sea, but was thereafter fixed firmly on four pillars of adamant. As mother of Apollo and Artemis, she dwells in Olympus. Her devoted children exact vengeance for her on Niobe (q.v.). The giant Tityus, for attempting to offer violence to her, is punished for evermore in the world below. She is for the most part worshipped in conjunction with Apollo and Artemis. | |
| LETTERS |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Letters were written on tablets (see DIPTYCHON) Or small rolls of papyrus, the address being put on the outside. They were tied up with a thread, and the knot was sealed with wax. In wealthy Roman families special slaves or freedmen (ab epistulis) were kept for writing the correspondence, and carrying the letters: the latter were called tabellarii. |
|
| LEUCOTHEA | The name of the deified Ino. | |
| LEXIARCHS | At Athens, a board of six members, who, with thirty assistants, saw that only properly qualified persons attended meetings of the ecclesia. They also entered young citizens on the list of their deme when they came of age. | |
| LIBANIUS | A Greek rhetorician of Antioch in Syria, born 314 A.D. His education was begun in his native city and completed at Athens, where he became a public teacher at the early age of 25. Called from Athens to Constantinople in 340, he met with extraordinary success; at the same time he excited the envy of his rivals, whose slanders led to his expulsion in 342. After being actively engaged for five years as a public teacher in Nicomedia in Bithynia, he was recalled to Constantinople, where he was again remarkably popular, but found himself compelled by the continued persecutions of his detractors to leave the capital once more in 353. He withdrew to his native city of Antioch, where he was for many years actively employed in the exercise of his profession and in promoting the interests of his fellow citizens; but even here he was much persecuted by his opponents. Apart from bodily sufferings caused by his being struck by a flash of lightning, his old age was saddened by the decline of learning and the fall of paganism, which he had foreseen would follow the Iamented death of his admirer and patron, Julian. He died about 393, honoured and admired by his pupils, among whom were included Christians such as Basil the Great and John Chrysostom; for, although he was enthusiastically devoted to the old religion, he was so tolerant in his relations to the adherents of Christianity, that he imparted his instructions to Christians and pagans alike. He himself gives us information about his life and work in a series of letters and in a speech "on his own fortune," written in his sixtieth year, but completed at a later date. He was conspicuous among his contemporaries, not only for his comprehensive culture and intellectual ability, but also for his productivity. We still possess sixty-seven of his speeches, the majority of which refer to the events of his time, and materially add to our knowledge of them; also fifty declamations; a considerable series of rhetorical exercises of various kinds, among them narratives, sketches of character and descriptions of works of art (some of them important in connexion with the history of ancient art), and also arguments to the speeches of Demosthenes. We have further about 2,000 letters addressed to friends, pupils, rhetoricians, scholars, statesmen, etc., which give us a vivid picture of his times. A fourth part of them, however, only exist in a Latin translation, and some of them are of doubtful genuineness. Indeed many of the writings that bear his name do not really belong to him. His style, which is formed on the best Attic models, is pure and has a certain elegance, although it is not always free from the affected and unnatural mannerism of his age. | |
| LIBER | The Italian god of wine, identified with the Greek Dionysus (q.v.). | |
| LIBERA |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The wife of the Italian wine-god Liber; identified with the Greek Persephone. (See DIONYSUS, last par.) |
|
| LIBERTAS |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Among the Romans, the personification of Liberty; she had a temple on the Aventine. Her name was also given to the Atrium Libertatis, a place of public business which served, amongst other purposes, as an office of the censors. After it had been burnt down under Augustus, it was rebuilt by Asinine Pollio, and the first public library in Rome was established within its walls. On coins Libertas is represented as a beautiful and richly adorned matron. At the end of the Republic, after the assassination of Caesar, she appears with a dagger and a cap of Liberty (see PILLEUS and coin under |
|
| LIBITINA | An ancient Italian goddess of voluptuous delight and of gardens, vineyards, and vintages, originally connected with Venus, and therefore often called Venus Libitina. She was also regarded as the goddess of death and of the departed, and was therefore afterwards identified with Proserpina. By an ancient ordinance, ascribed originally to Servius Tullus, for every person who died in Rome a piece of money was deposited in her temple. Everything requisite for burials was kept there, and had to be bought or borrowed from it. | |
| LIBRARIES | In the earlier times libraries, among the Greeks, were only possessed by private individuals, such as Euripides, Aristotle, and Theophrastus. Tradition attributed the establishment of a public library at Athens to Pisistratus in the 6th century B.C. This was said to have been carried off by Xerxes, and afterwards restored by the Syrian Seleucus Nicanor. The greatest library known in antiquity was that founded by the first Ptolemy at Alexandria, which is said to have contained 400,000 volumes. Next to this, the most important was that of the kings of Pergamon, said to have contained 200,000 volumes. This library was presented by Marcus Antonius to Cleopatra, when the best part of the library at the Museum of Alexandria was burnt down at the taking of the town by Caesar. There was a second library at Alexandria in the Serapeum. The first libraries which were formed at Rome were Greek, as, for instance, those of Aemilius Paullus, Sulla, and Lucullus, who had brought them to Rome as booty after their wars in Macedonia, Athens, and Asia Minor. From the middle of the last century of the Republic it became the fashion in wealthy families to form libraries; in country houses, especially, they were regarded as indispensable. Caesar had formed the plan of founding a public library in Rome, and of setting Varro to make a collection of Greek and Latin books. The first public library of Greek and Latin books was actually set up in the time of Augustus by Asinius Pollio in the atrium of Libertas. Augustus himself founded two more, the Octavian library in the portico of Octavia, and the Palatine in the temple of the Palatine Apollo. The most celebrated of those founded by the later emperors was the bybliotheca Ulpia of Trajan. In the later imperial period there were twenty-eight public libraries in Rome. There were some very considerable private collections, for instance, that of Serenus Sammonicus, the tutor of Gordian, which consisted of 62,000 volumes. 1,700 rolls have been found in a library discovered during the excavations at Herculaneum. | |
| LIBRARIUS |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The Latin name for a bookseller. (See BOOKS AND BOOK-TRADE.) |
|
| LIBURNA |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A kind of light war-vessel, with two banks of oars and of little draught. Its shape was long and narrow, pointed at both ends. The pattern was taken by the Romans from the Liburnians, a piratical tribe on the Dalmatic coast. (See SHIPS.) |
|
| LICHAS | The attendant of Heracles (q.v.), who brought him from Deianira the poisoned garment, and was hurled by him into the sea, where his body became a rock. | |
| LICTORS | Attendants who bore the fasces (q.v.) before Roman magistrates who had a right to these insignia. They were generally freedmen, and formed in Rome a corps consisting of three decuriae under ten presidents. From these decuriae, the first of which was exclusively reserved for the consuls, the magistrates in office drew their lictors, while the provincial office-bearers nominated their own for their term of power. There was besides another decuria of thirty lictores curiati to attend on the public sacrifices, to summon the comitia curiata, and, when these meetings became little more than formal, to represent in them the thirty curiae; from this decuria probably were also chosen the lictors of the flamen dialis and of the Vestals. It was the duty of the lictors to accompany the magistrate continually, whenever he appeared in public. On these occasions they marched before him in single file, last in order and immediately preceding him being the lictor proximus, who was superior in rank. All passers by, with the exception of matrons and Vestals, were warned by the lictors to stand aside and make due obeisance. The space required for official purposes was kept clear by them. Sentences of punishment were also executed by them. Their dress corresponded to that of the magistrate; inside the city the toga, outside, and in a triumph, the red military cloak. | |
| LIGHTING | ||
| LINUS | A hero representing probably a god of the old Greek nature-worship; his death, symbolic of the flagging vegetation during the heat of the dog-days, was hymned in widely known lanittys. The lament for Linus is mentioned as early as Homer [Il. xviii 570). In Argos an ancient festival of Linus was long continued. Here he was said to be the son of Apollo and the princess Psamathe). Born in secret and exposed by his mother the child grew up at a shepherd's among the lambs, until tom in pieces by dogs. Psamathe, however, on the news of what had happened, was put to death by her father. Apollo in wrath sent against the land a monster in female form, named Poine. By this monster mothers were robbed of their children, nor were the Argives freed from the curse until, by the bidding of the oracle, they appeased Apollo by building a temple, and establishing an expiatory festival in honour of the boy and his mother. This was celebrated in the dog-days, in what was hence called the "Month of Lambs," as the "Feast of Lambs" (Arneis) or the "Slaying of Dogs" (Cynphontis), whereat lambs were sacrificed, and the dogs which ran about free were slain, while women and children lamented Linus and Psamathe in mournful songs. In other places, e.g. in Thebes, on Helicon, and on Olympus, Linus, as son of Amphimarus and the Muse Urania, was known as a minstrel, the inventor of the Linus-song, who met with an early death, and whose grave was pointed out in different places. He was said to have challenged Apollo to a contest, and for that reason to have been slain by the god. On Helicon, the mountain of the Muses, his statue was placed in a grotto, where year by year, before the sacrifice to the Muses, a sacrifice for the dead was offered up to him. In later times he was described as the teacher of Heracles, who, when reprimanded, slew him with the lyre. | |
| LITTERATOR | A The Roman designation of an elementary instructor (see EDUCATION, 2). | |
| LITTERATUS | ||
| LITTERS |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 in ancient Greece, were for the most part used only for the conveyance of sick people and women; in other cases their use was regarded as a luxury. Among the Romans they appear to have first come into vogue along with the other luxuries of Asia after the victory over the Syrian king, Antiochus the Great (B.C. 190). They were used principally in the country and upon journeys. As in Greece, so in Rome, where driving was only exceptionally allowed (see CHARIOTS, 2), their use was at first, confined to invalids and women; but when men also began to use them in the town, they formed in the first instance a privilege of certain classes, until in the course of the imperial time they came into general use. Two kinds were distinguished: (1) the lectica, resembling a palanquin, adapted for lying down: this was a framework spanned by girths and with a bolster and pillow; and (2) the sella, a sedan chair, for one or two persons, which was used particularly by the emperors and consulares. Both kinds were provided with an arched covering, which could be closed up, even at the sides, by means of curtains or windows made of thin plates of tale [lapis specularis, Juv. iv 21, iii 242]. The litter was carried upon poles, which were either low and therefore hung in straps, or else rested upon the shoulders of the bearers, who were two, four, six, and even eight, according to its size. In distinguished houses special slaves (lecticarii) of particularly powerful bodily frame, in later times especially Cappadocians, were kept for this purpose; these used to wear a red livery. For those who could not afford the expense of a private litter, there were also hack-litters. In the later imperial time a litter called a basterna came into fashion, which was carried by two mules in shafts before and behind. |
|
| LITUUS |
The signal-trumpet of the cavalry, bent at the lower end; it was blown by the liticen, and emitted a clear, shrill note (cp. |
|
| LITUUS |
The Roman term for the augur's wand. It was a staff hooked at the upper end; with it the augur marked out the sacred region (templum) for the observation of birds (see cut and cp. |
|
| LIVIUS | Titus Livius, the celebrated Roman historian, was born at Patavium, (59 B.C.), apparently of good family. He was carefully educated, and betook himself early (certainly before 31 B.C.) to Rome, where he soon became acquainted with the most distinguished men of the time. Even Augustus entertained friendly relations towards him in spite of his openly expressed republican convictions, for which he called him a partisan of Pompey. He does not seem to have taken public office, but to have lived exclusively for literature. Esteemed by his contemporaries, he died in his native town in 17 A.D. He must have begun his great historical work between 27 and 25 B.C.; it can only have been completed shortly before his death, as he did not publish the first twenty-one books until after the death of Augustus (14 A.D.). He recounts the history of Rome in 142 books, extending from the foundation of the city (whence the title Ab Urbe Condita libri) to the death of Drusus (9 A.D.). His own death must have prevented its continuation to the death of Augustus, as he doubtless proposed. He published his work from time to time, in separate parts. He arranged his material--at least for the first ninety books--as far as possible in decads (portions consisting of ten books), and half-decads; the division into decade was however first carried through in the 5th century, probably for convenience of handling so vast a series of books. There still remain only the first decad (to 293 B.C.), the third, fourth, and half of the fifth decad (218-167); of the remainder, with the exception of a fairly large portion of book 91, only inconsiderable fragments. We also possess from an unknown pen, summaries (periochoe) of all the books except 136 and 137, and a scanty extract from the account of the portents (prodigia), which appeared in 249 B.C. and following year; this is by a certain Iulius Obsequens, and perhaps dates from the 4th century. Livy's importance rests more on the magnitude of his patriotic undertaking and the style of his narrative than upon his thoroughness as a historic inquirer. His preliminary studies were inadequate, and his knowledge of Roman law, and still more of the military system of Rome, was insufficient. He was content to select what seemed to him the most probable and reasonable statement from the authorities which happened to be familiar and accessible to him, without regard to completeness, and without severely scrutinising their value,--a method which necessarily led to numerous inaccuracies and serious errors. Primarily, his great aim was not critical research into the history of his country. He desired rather by a lively and brilliant narrative, which should satisfy the more exacting taste of the time, to rekindle the flagging patriotism of his countrymen, and to raise his politically and socially degraded contemporaries to the level of their ancestors' exploits. And his narrative in fact deserves the fullest admiration, especially for its descriptions of events and the actors in them, and for the speeches which are inserted in the work. The latter show his rhetorical training in all its brilliance. His language is choice and tasteful, although in details it marks a decline from the strictly classical standard. Asinius Pollio, in allusion to the author's birthplace, charged it with a certain patavinitas. This can only mean a provincial departure from the peculiar language of the metropolis, which is to us no longer perceptible. Livy's work enjoyed the greatest renown down to the latest days of Roman literature, and has been the great mine of information for knowledge of the past to all succeeding generations. | |
| LIVIUS |
Livius Andronicus, the founder of Roman epic and dramatic poetry. He was by birth a Greek of Southern Italy, and was brought as a slave to Rome, after the conquest of Tarentuin in 272 B.C., while still of tender age. His master, a Livius, whose name he bears, gave him his liberty, and he imparted instruction in the Greek and Latin languages. This employment probably gave occasion for histranslation of the Homeric Odyssey into Saturnian metre; in spite of its imperfections, this remained a school-book in Rome for centuries. In 240 B.C. he brought on the Roman stage the first drama composed after a Greek model, and with such success that thenceforward dramatic poetry was well established in Rome. According to ancient custom he appeared as an actor in his own pieces. His dramatic compositions, tragedies, and comedies were faithful but undoubtedly imperfect translations of Greek originals. He attempted lyric poetry also, for he was commissioned by the State to write a march in honour of |
|
| LOCHAGOS | The commander of a lochos (q.v.). | |
| LOCHOS | The Greek designation of a body of foot soldiers. Among the Spartans, it denoted in early times the largest divisions into which the whole population capable of bearing arms was grouped. Each of these [according to Thucydides v 68, ep. 66] comprised four pentecostyes of four enomotioe each [an enomotia containing on an average thirty-two men]. The name also denoted the individuals comprised therein ; later, [Xenophon, Rep. Lac. ii 4], it was the name of the four sub-divisions of a mora (q.v.). In Greek mercenary troops, a lochos was a company of 100 men under a separate commander. Several of these companies were united under the superior command of a strategos (q.v.). | |
| LOGEION |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 see THEATRE |
|
| LOGISTAE |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The name given at Athens to a board consisting originally of thirty, subsequently of ten members, who, in conjunction with another board, the ten euthyni, and their twenty assessors, received from magistrates, at the expiry of their term of office, the accounts of their administration. (See EUTHYNA.) This was especially important with those magistrates through whose hands public money passed. Both boards were originally chosen by show of hands; later by lot. One member was elected from each phyle, the assessors of the euthyni were appointed by free choice. The logistae, were the supreme authority to whom outgoing magistrates submitted their accounts. The euthyni examined the several details, notified, when necessary, those who were liable, and returned the accounts to the logistae with a report on their merits. Magistrates who had nothing to do with public money only gave an assurance to the logistae that they had received and paid nothing. If the accounts were approved, and no charge was brought after the public proclamation by the logistae, they gave the magistrate his discharge. In the other alternative they referred the case to a court of justice in which they were themselves presidents. The prosecution was entrusted to ten synegori or counsel for the State, who were chosen by lot and sat with the logistae. The final decision rested with the Heliastic court. (See HELLAeA.) |
|
| LOGOGRAPHI |
The name given to the oldest Greek historians, who by their first attempts at disquisitions in prose marked the transition from narrative poetry to prose history. As in the case of epic poetry, so these earliest historical writings emanated from Ionia, where the first attempts at an exposition of philosophic reflexions in prose were made at about the same time by Pherecydes, Anaximander, and Anaximeues; and, in both cases alike, it was the Ionic dialect that was used. This class of writing long preserved in its language the poetic character which it inherited from its origin in the epic narrative. It was only by degrees that it approached the tone of true prose. It confined itself absolutely to the simple telling of its story, which was largely made up of family and local traditions. It never classified its materials from a more elevated point of view, or scrutinised them with critical acumen. The logographers flourished from about 550 B.C. down to the Persian Wars. Their latest representatives extend, however, down to the time of the Peloponnesian War. When true history arose with Herodotus, they soon lapsed into oblivion, whence they were rescued in Alexandrian days. Many of the works ascribed to them were however believed to be spurious, or at least interpolated. We possess fragments only of a few. The larger number of the historic writers who are described as logographers were Asiatic Greeks, e.g. |
|
| LONGINUS | A Greek rhetorician, born at Athens about 213 A.D., who studied Neoplatonism at Alexandria, and practised as teacher of philosophy, grammar [i.e. literary criticism], and rhetoric, in his native city, from about 260, until the accomplished queen Zenobia of Palmyra summoned him as minister to her court. As he persuaded her to resist the Roman yoke, the emperor Aurelian caused him to be executed after Zenobia's overthrow in 273. He possessed such an extent of learning, that Eunapius called him a living library and a walking museum. His versatility is proved by compositions on philosophy, grammar, rhetoric, chronology, and literature. Of these, only fragments are extant, for example, the introduction to a commentary on Hephaestio's handbook of metres, and a short Rhetoric incomplete at the beginning. A brief treatise On the Sublime, commonly ascribed to him, is more probably to be assigned to an unknown writer about the Christian era. It treats and illustrates by classic examples the characteristics of the Iofty style from a philosophical and aesthetic point of view. It is written in a vigorous manner. | |
| LONGUS | who probably lived in the 3rd century A.D., was the author of a Greek pastoral romance, Daphnis and Chloe, in four books. It is considered the best of all ancient romances which have come down to us, on account of its deep and natural feeling, its grace of narrative, and the comparative purity and ease of the language. It has often been imitated by Italian, French, German, and English writers. [The rare translation by John Day of the French version of Amyot was reprinted in 1890.] | |
| LORICA | The leathern corselet of the Roman legionary. It consisted of thongs (lora) of shoe-leather faced with metal. These were fastened one upon another in such a way that they formed a covering for the body with two shoulder-pieces. Below the latter a plate of iron 9 1/2, inches square, was placed over the region of the heart (see cut). Of the early citizen-soldiers, the more wealthy wore also costs of chainarmour (lorica hamata), and corselets of mail (lorica squamata), in which the joints were further covered with metal plates; the latter were also worn by the praetorians in imperial times. | |
| LORICA | The breastworks on walls and on redoubts. | |
| LOTOPHAGI | A people on the north coast of Africa, mentioned as early as Homer [Od. ix 84]. They lived on the fruit of the lotus. (Cp. ODYSSEUS.) | |
| LOVE |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 God of, see EROS; Goddess of, see PHRODITE and |
|
| LUCERES |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 One of the three old patrician tribes in Rome. (See PATRICIANS.) |
|
| LUCERNA |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 See LIGHTING. |
|
| LUCIAN | One of the most interesting of Greek writers, born about 120 A.D. at Samosata, on the Euphrates in Syria. Owing to the poverty of his parents, he was apprenticed to a stonemason; but, thanks to his irresistible eagerness for higher culture, contrived to devote himself to the art of rhetoric. After practising for some time as an advocate, he traversed Greece, Italy, and Southern Gaul in the guise of a sophist, and gained wealth and renown by his public declamations. In his fortieth year he removed to Athens, to devote himself to the study of philosophy, and attached himself closely to the Stoic Demonax. In his old age the state of his finances compelled him once more to travel as a professional orator. At last, when far advanced in years, he was given an important and influential post in the administration of justice in Egypt; this he seems to have retained till death. Under his name we still possess more than eighty works (including three collections of seventy-one shorter dialogues). Twenty of these are, however, either certainly spurious or of doubtful authenticity. They date from every period of his life, the best and cleverest from the time of his sojourn in Athens. They fall into two classes, rhetorical and satirical. Of the latter the majority are in dramatic form, recalling in dialogue and outward dress the Old Comedy, of which Lucian had a thorough knowledge, and to which his genius was closely akin. These writings present an admirable picture of the tendencies and the absurdities of the time. In the field of religion, he directed his mockery (especially in the Dialogues of the Gods) against the tenets of the popular religion, the artificial revival of which was attempted in the time of Hadrian and the Antonines. He further attacked the popular conceptions of life after death in the Dialogues of the Dead. He assails with special bitterness the superstitions which had penetrated from the East, among which he reckons, it is true, Christianity, but without any real knowledge of its nature. In Peregrinus Proteus, he attacks mystical enthusiasm; in Alexander, or the Prophet of Lies, the impostors and oracle-mongers who preyed upon the superstition of the time, which he portrays in a masterly style in his Lover of Lies and his True Stories (Veroe Historiae). Another object of his satiric lance was the current philosophy, in which he had sought relief when sated with rhetoric. He had only found in it, however, a petrified dogmatism, a passion for strife and disputation, with the most absolute contradiction between theoretical teaching and the practice of life. This was true even of the Stoics, and still more of the Cynics, whose meanness and love of pleasure, which they concealed under a pretended absence of personal wants, he is never weary of deriding. Especially instructive for his attitude towards philosophy and his general view of life are the Auction of Philosophers, the Fisherman (with his defence of the latter), and Charon, or the Spectator of the World. All these are works of marked ability. The last named is a brilliant exposition, from his negative point of view, of the vanity of all human existence. He even exposes his own class, the Sophists, for attempting to conceal their miserable poverty of intellect by their bold readiness of tongue, and by their patchwork of fragmentary quotations borrowed from the writers of antiquity. In fact, there is scarcely a side of the literary and social life of the time that he does not attack in its weak points, confining himself, however, for the most part to demonstrating what ought not to be, without showing how the existing evils were to be cured. To sit in judgment on the false culture and want of taste in his contemporaries,he was certainly fitted above all others; for, apart from a wide range of knowledge, he possessed keen observation, and an unusual measure of wit and humour. He had moreover an extraordinary gift of invention, remarkable aptitude for vivid delineation of character, and a singular grace and elegance. In spite of his Syrian origin, his zealous study of the best models gave him a purity of language which for his time is remarkable. | |
| LUCILIUS | Gaius Lucilius, founder of Roman satire, was probably born 180 B.C. at Suessa Aurunca in Campania, of a distinguished and wealthy Latin equestrian family. He afterwards settled in Rome, where his Latin origin excluded him from a political career. Owing partly however to his excellent education, partly to his family connexions (being Pompey's granduncle on the mother's side), he was on friendly terms with the most distinguished men. In particular, he lived with the younger Scipio and his friend Laelius in the closest intimacy. He accompanied the former during the Numantine War, and died in Naples, 103 B.C. --His satires, in thirty books, were much esteemed in the time of the Republic and later. We possess numerous but inconsiderable fragments, from which, however, can be gathered their original position in the general scheme of his work. Each book certainly contained a number of separate poems which, at least in books xxvi-xxx (the first written and published), were composed, like the satires of Ennius, in various metres. In most of the books, however, only a single metre was used, by far the most common being the dactylic hexameter (bks. i-xx and xxx), which from Horace's time became the ordinary metre for satire. The contents of the satires were exceedingly varied: all occurrences of political, social, and learned life were brought by him within the range of his discussion. He even touched upon his own experiences and his studies on literary, antiquarian, grammatical, and orthographical questions. His severest censure and most pitiless mockery were directed, not only against the vices and absurdities of the time in general, but also against particular individuals without any respect of persons. On the other hand, true merit received his warmest praise. His satires must have given, on the whole, a true and lively picture of the time. On metrical form and on style he does not seem to have set much store; it is apparently only in its metrical setting that his language differs from the daily tone of educated circles. To the latter we may also probably ascribe the incorporation of so many fragments of Greek. His writings early became an object of study to the learned of Rome, and they also remained models to subsequent satirists, especislly Horace. | |
| LUCILIUS | Lucilius Iunior, friend of the philosopher Seneca, is supposed by a common but not improbable assumption to be the author of Aetna, a didactic poem in 646 hexameters. Suetonius, in his life of Vergil, says of that poet, Scripsit etiam de qua ambigitur Aetnam. It treats of Etna and its wonders, and was composed before the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. | |
| LUCINA | The Roman title of Juno (q.v.) as the goddess of light and of child-birth; later also of Diana in similar acceptation. | |
| LUCRETIUS CARUS | A Roman poet, born at Rome about 98 B.C. and died by his own hand, in 55. He composed for his friend Memmius, the orator and poet, a didactic poem in hexameter verse concerning the nature of things (De Rerum Natura) in six books. The teaching of Epicurus forms the main subject, the example of Empedocles prescribed the poetic form, and the mode of treatment was modelled on Ennius. The ostensible object of the work is to prove by a profound investigation of the world of nature that all comes to be, exists, and perishes by eternal law, without any interference of supernatural powers, and hence to set men free from their fearful torture, terror, and superstition. The first elements of all existence are the imperishable atoms which move in infinite space (book i). By union of these come into existence not only the material world (ii), but also soul and spirit, which consequently perish as soon as a dissolution of the atoms takes place (iii); perception, sensation, and thought are mental processes, occasioned by images which are ceaselessly being emitted by the surfaces of things (iv). Book v treats of the formation of the world, vi of single natural phenomena. This, work is the only considerable composition in epic verse which has come down to us from the time of the Republic. It is also the first attempt at a systematic treatment of Greek philosophy in the Latin tongue. The greatest admiration is due to the art with which Lucretius gives poetic form to his unpoetical subject, and adapts to his purpose a language which had hitherto been little exercised on such topics. The matter causes the exposition to be often dry, but frequently it rises to a magnificent beauty, as in the famous description of the Athenian plague at the end of the poem. The scientific zeal with which the whole is imbued, and which stands aloof from all frivolity, must inspire respect. He expresses himself with simplicity and power, and his language has an antique colouring. He was prevented by death from putting the finishing touches to his work (or even from completing it. Thus there is nothing on the subject of ethics, which could not properly be omitted in an exposition of the teaching of Epicurus]. It is true that; Cicero revised it before publication, yet the condition in which we have it is in great measure defective. | |
| LUSTRUM | among the Romans, was the purification, or absolution from sin, of the entire people. It took place at the close of each census (q.v.), commonly in May of the year following the censors' accession to office. The host of the people, horse and foot, in their newly constituted classes, was drawn up in full armour on the Campus Martius under the leadership of the censor to whom this duty fell by lot. The Suovetaurilia, a pig, ram, and bull, was carried three times round the whole army, and thereupon sacrificed to Mars, accompanied by a prayer of the censor in which he besought that the power of the Roman people might be increased and magnified, or as it ran later, might be maintained entirely undiminished. The censor then led the army under his banner to the city gate, where he dismissed them, while he himself, as a token of the completed lustrum, drove a nail into the wall of a temple and deposited the new roll of citizens in the Aerarium (or Treasury) of the people. | |
| LUXORIUS | A Roman epigrammatic poet, who lived in Africa about the beginning of the 6th century A.D., during the Vandal domination. He sought to imitate Martial. We still possess eighty-eight of his epigrams, which are often coarse and always dull. | |
| LYAEUS | A name of Dionysus. | |
| LYCAEA | A festival celebrated in honour of Zeus on the Lycaean Mount (Gr. Lukaion) in Arcadia. In the sacred inclosure on its highest peak, where, according to popular belief, no object cast a shadow, there was an altar of heaped up earth, and before it two columns with gilt eagles on top of them, looking to the east. At the festivals, probably celebrated every ninth year, the priests, who alone were allowed to enter the precincts, offered mysterious sacrifices to the god, including a human sacrifice. These were said to have been instituted by Lycaon (q.v.), and were kept up till the 2nd century A.D. The man who had been chosen by lot to perform the sacrifice was afterwards compelled to flee, and wandered about for nine years; like Lycaon, in the shape of a wolf, so the people believed. In the tenth he was allowed to return and regained his human form, i.e. the taint was removed. Besides the festival there were also athletic contests. | |
| LYCAON |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Mythical king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus and Me1iboea (daughter of Oceanus) or Cyllene), and father of Callisto. He is said to have founded on Mount Lycaeum. the town Lycosura, the oldest that Helios looked upon, and to have sacrificed a child to Zeus on the altar he had raised on the highest peak of the mountain, on account of which he was changed into a wolf (see LYCAeA). Another legend relates that he had fifty impious sons. When Zeus came to them in the guise of a beggar in order to put their contempt of the gods to the test, they followed the advice of Maenalus, the eldest, and set before him the entrails of a boy which had been mixed with the sacrifice. The god however threw the table over and killed Lycaon and his sons with lightning, with the exception of Nyctimus, the youngest, whom Gaea saved by firmly holding the right hand of Zeus. During the reign of Nyctimus the deluge connected with the name of Deucalion covered the land as a punishment for the impiety of Lycaon and his sons. |
|
| LYCIUS | Epithet of Apollo (q.v.). | |
| LYCOMEDES | King of Scyros, the murderer of Theseus (q.v.). Achilles grew up among his daughters; the son of Achilles and of one of these, Deidameia, was Neoptolemus. | |
| LYCOPHRON | A Greek grammarian and poet, a native of Chalcis in Euboea, who lived in the first half of the 3rd century B.C. at Alexandria, where Ptolemy Philadelphus. entrusted him with arranging for the library the works of the Greek comic poets. As a result of this occupation, he produced a voluminous and learned work on Greek Comedy. He himself wrote tragedies, and was counted one of the Pleiad, the seven Alexandrine tragedians. Of his works there remains a poem in 1,474 iambic verses, entitled Alexandra or Cassandra, which is rendered almost unreadable by the obscurity of its language and by its pedantic display of learning. It consists of a long monologue, in which Cassandra prophesies the fall of Troy and the fates of the heroes of the Trojan War, with allusions to the universal empire of Alexander the Great. | |
| LYCURGUS | Son of Dryas, king of the Thracian Edoni, threatened Dionysus with a scourge when he was wandering about on the Mount Nysa with his nurses, which made them let the holy implements fall to the ground, while the god sought shelter with Thetis in the sea. The gods punished him with blindness and an early death [Il. vi 130-140]. According to another legend, he was made mad by Dionysus and cut off his son's limbs, imagining that he was pruning the shoots of a vine. In accordance with the god's prophecy that his death alone could deliver the land from its temporary barrenness, he was led by the Edoni to Mount Pangaeus, where Dionysus caused him to be torn to pieces by horses. | |
| LYCURGUS | One of the Ten Attic Orators, born about B.C. 390 at Athens, of a noble family, pupil of Plato and Socrates. With Demosthenes and Hyperides he was a principal representative of the patriotic party, and directed his exertions especially to the improvemetit of the internal affairs of Athens. During his administration of the finances, a period of twelve years (338-326), lie won great credit by increasing the revenues of the state and the military strength of Athens, by beautifying the city with magnificent buildings, such as the completion of the theatre of Dionysus, and the building of the Panathenaic Stadium, and by causing copies of the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides to be preserved in the public archives. He died in 329, and was interred at the public expense. The Athenians did honour to his memory by raising a statue of bronze in his honour on the market-place and by a decree which is still extant [Hicks, Greek Historical Inscriptions, No. 145]. His speeches, of which the ancients possessed fifteen, elaborated with the greatest care, were remarkable for their serious moral tone and noble manner, though they were wanting in grace of form, and apt to become tedious owing to frequent digressions. These merits and defects are exemplified in the only speech of his now extant, that against Leocrates. | |
| LYCUS | Son of Poseidon, tyrant of Thebes, killed by Heracles for murdering his fatlier-in-law Creon during his absence, and for plottiug against his wife Megara and his children. | |
| LYCUS | Son of Poseidon and the Pleiad Celaeno, married to Dirce. He took over the government of Thebes after his brother Nyoteus, for Labdacus, who was a minor; and, after the death of Labdacus for his son Laius. He was either killed by Amphion (q.v.) and zethus, or (according to another account) handed the government of Thebes over to them at the behest of Hermes. | |
| LYDUS | A Greek writer, born at Philadelphia in Lydia 490 A.D. At the age of twenty-one he went to Constantinople in order to study philosophy, entered the service of the State, and rose to high office. About 552 he was dismissed by Justinian and took a post as teacher in the imperial school. Here he devoted himself to literature, and died at a great age in 565. We still possess some of his writings, which are derived from ancient source. lost to us: (1) on the State offices of Rome (De Magistratibus); (2) on portents in the sky, etc., and the doctrine of auguries (De Ostentis); (3) extracts from a work on the Roman months and the festivals held in them (De Mensibus). | |
| LYGDAMUS |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A Roman poet. See TIBULLUS. |
|
| LYNCEUS | Son of Aegyptus, husband of Hypermnestra, the daughter of Danaus (q.v.). | |
| LYNCEUS |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Brother of Idas. (See IDAS AND LYNCEUS.) |
|
| LYRIC POETRY |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 While among the Greeks elegiac and iambic poetry (q.v.), which forms the transition from epic to lyric composition, was practised by the Ionians, lyric poetry proper, or, as it was more commonly called, melic poetry (melos, a song), viz. the song accompanied by music, was cultivated by the Aeolians and Dorians. This is due to the talent for music peculiar to these races. That playing on stringed instruments and singing were cultivated even in mythical times in Aeolia, in the island of Lesbos, is shown by the legend that the head and lyre of Orpheus, who had been torn to pieces by Thracian women, were washed ashore on that island, and that the head was buried in the Lesbian town of Antissa. Antissa was the native place of |
|
| LYSIAS | in point of time the third of the Ten Attic Orators, was born at Athens about B.C.45. He was a son of the rich Syracusan Cephalus, who had been invited by Pericles to settle at Athens. At the age of fifteen he went with his two brothers to Thurii, in South Italy, and there studied under the Syracusan rhetorician Tisias. He returned to Athens in 412, and lived in the Piraeus in comfortable circumstances, being joint possessor, with his eldest brother Polemarchus, of several houses and a manufactory of shields, where 120 slaves were employed. Under the rule of the Thirty Tyrants, however, the brothers were accused in 404 of being enemies to the existing government; their property was confiscated and Polemarchus executed, while Lysias with the greatest difficulty managed to escape to Megara. After the fall of the Thirty, in which he had eagerly co-operated, he returned to Athens, and gave his time to the lucrative occupation of writing legal speeches for others, after obtaining high repute as an orator, in 403, by his accusation of Eratosthenes, the murderer of his brother. He died in his eighty-third year, esteemed by all. Of the 425 speeches to which the ancients assigned his name, but of which the greater number (233) were regarded as not genuine, there remain-besides numerous and sometimes considerable fragments-thirty-one, though they are not all quite complete; and of these five must be looked upon as certainly not genuine, and four others are open to grave suspicion. Only one of these speeches, that against Eratosthenes, mentioned above, was delivered by Lysias in person. He is the first really classical orator of the Greeks, and a model of the plain style, which avoids grandiloquence and seeks to obtain its effect by a sober and clear representation of the case. The ancient critics justly praised the purity and simplicity of his language, the skill shown in always adapting style to subject, the combination of terseness with graphic lucidity of description, particularly noticeable in narrative, and, lastly, his power of painting character. | |
| LYSICRATES, MONUMENT OF |
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 One of the most graceful relics of Greek antiquity, raised in memory of a victory in the dramatic contests won by Lysicrates when he was choregus (see CHORUS) in B.C. 334. From a slender square basement, [12 feet high by 9 feet wide) rises a small but elegant round temple; six engaged Corinthian columns surround its circular wall and support the entablature, on the frieze of which there is a delicate and life-like representation of a scene in the legend of Dionysus (the changing of the Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins, for having by mistake laid hands on the god). Over the entablature is a flat dome made of a single block of marble, and from the centre of the roof rises a finial of acanthus leaves, formerly crowned by the tripod which was the prize of victory. The monument is thirty-five feet high, and the diameter of the inside is about six feet. The reliefs of the frieze are of great value, as they belong to the new Attic school of Seopas and Praxiteles According to a tradition (which is without foundation) that Demosthenes used to study here, the monument used to be called the Lantern of Demosthenes. [This name was familiar to Michael Akominatos, in the second half of the 12th century; Gregorovius, Mirabilien der Stadt Athen, p. 357. The true name was first restored by Transfeldt about 1674, id. Athen im Mittelalter, ii 357.] |
|
| LYSIPPUS, OF SICYON | ||
| Back to Dictionary Browse | ||
|
Copyright 2000-2020 Peter T. Struck. No portion of this site may be copied or reproduced, electronically or otherwise, without the expressed, written consent of the author. |
 |
|