Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/714

Rh 700 LACHARES. by Demetrius Poliorcetes. He was afterwards se- cretly gained over by Cassander, who incited him to aim at the acquisition of the tyranny, hoping to be able through his means to rule Athens. (Pans, i. 25. § 7.) He does not seem, however, to have been able to effect this purpose until Athens was besieged by Demetrius (b. c. 296), when he took advantage of the excitement of the popular mind to expel Deraochares, the leader of the opposite party, and establish himself as undisputed master of the city. We know but little either of the intrigues by which he raised himself to power or of his pro- ceedings afterwards ; but he is described in general terms by Pausanias, as " of all tyrants the most inhuman towards men, and the most sacrilegious towards the gods." He plundered the temples, and especially the Parthenon, of all their most valuable treasures, stripping even the statue of Athena of her sacred ornaments. At the beginning of his rule he had procured a decree to be passed, forbidding, under pain of death, even the mention of treating with Demetrius ; and he succeeded in inducing, or compelling, the Athenians to hold out until they were reduced to the last extremities of famine. At length, however, he despaired of doing so any longer, and, stealing out of the city in dis- guise, made his escape to Thebes. (Pans. i. 25. § 7, 29. § 10 ; Plut. Demetr. 33, 34, De Is. et Osir. 71, p. 379, Adv. Epicur. p. 1090, e. ; Poh'aen. iv. 7. § 5 ; Athen. ix. p. 405, f.) A story is told of him by Polyaenus (iii. 7. § 1), that being pursued by some horsemen of Demetrius, he escaped from them by dropping gold pieces along the road as he Hed. According to the same author, he remained at Thebes until it was taken by Demetrius, when he fled from thence to Delphi, and afterwards to Thrace. Here he was again in danger of falling into the hands of his enemy, Demetrius having invaded Thrace during the captivity of Lysimachus, and besieged the town of Sestos, in which Lachares tlien happened to be ; but he once more succeeded in making his escape to Lysimachia. (Polyaen. iii. 7. §§ 2, 3.) We again hear of him at Cassan- drea as late as B. c. 279, when he was expelled from that city by ApoUodorus, on a charge of having conspired to betray it into the hands of Aiitiochus. {Id. vi. 7. § 2.) Hence it appears clear that Pausanias is mistaken when he states that Lachares was murdered soon after his escape from Athens, for the sake of the wealth he was supposed to have accumulated. (Paus. i. 25. § 7.) [E. H. B.] LA'CH.^RES (Aaxapijs), a rhetorician of Athens, who flourished in the fifth century of our era, under the emperors Marcianus and Leo. He was a disciple of Heracleon, and in his turn he was the instructor of many eminent men of the time, such as Eustephius, Nicolaus, Asterius, Proclus, and Superianus. (Suid. s. vv. Aaxapv^^ ^ovin^pi- au6s ; Marinus, Vit. Prod. 11.) He is spoken of in terms of very high praise both by Suidas and Marinus, as a man of a noble character and an orator of great popularity in his time. Suidas mentions several works of his, but all are lost, and scarcely a single trace of them has come down to us. Their titles are: 1. Ilffji kuKov^ Kai Kd/JL/xaros, koi irepi- o^ov. (Comp. Schol. ad Hermog. in the Rhet. araec. vol. iii. pp. 719, 721, vol. vii. p. 930.) 2. A«oAe^6ts, or Disputations. 3. 'laropia t) Hard KopvovTou: whether this was an historical or a rhetorical work is uncertain, no historian of the LACINIUS. name of Cornutus being known. 4. 'EieKoyal pT]TopiKa KUTct a-roix^'iov, i. e. select passages from the Greek orators in alphabetical order. [L. S.] LACHES (Adxvs), an Athenian, son of Mela- nopus, was joined with Charoeades in the command of the first expedition sent by the Athenians to Sicily, in B. c. 427. His colleague was soon after slain in battle, and Laches, being left sole general, took Messina, and gained some slight advantages over the Epizephyrian Locrians. In b. c. 426 he was superseded by P3'^thodorus, with whom So- phocles and Eurymedon were shortly joined, and was recalled, apparently to stand his trial on a charge of peculation in his command, brought against himbyCleon. (Thuc. iii. 86, 88,90,99, 103, 115, vi. 1, 6, 75 ; Just. iv. 3 ; Arist. Fesp. 240, 836, 895, 903, 937 ; Dem. c. Tim. § 145 ; Schol. ad Arist. Vesp. 240, 836.) The Scholiast thinks that Aristophanes, in the Wasps, meant no reference to Laches in the arraignment of the dog Lobes, for cheese-stealing. But the name of Laches' demus Aexone (comp. Plat. Lack. p. 197), and the special mention of Sicilia7i cheese, seem to fix the allusion beyond dispute, while by the accusing dog, the Kvuv KvhaQ7]vai^vs, himself as great a filcher, Cleon is as evidently intended. Laches, we find from Plato {Loch. p. 181), was present at the battle of Delium, in B. c. 424. In B. c. 421 he was one of the commissioners for concluding the fifty years' truce between Athens and Sparta, as well as the separate treaty between these states in the same year. He was also one of the commanders of the force sent to Argos, in B. c. 418, when Alcibiades induced the Argives to break the truce made in their name with the Lacedaemonians, by Thrasyllus and Alciphron ; and in the same year he fell at the battle of Mantineia, together with his colleague Nicostratus. (Thuc. v, 19, 24, 61, 74.) In the dialogue of Plato which bears his name, he is re- presented as not over-acute in argument, and with temper on a par with his acuteness. His son Me- lanopus was one of those whom, being in possession of some prize-money, which was public property, the law of Timocrates would have shielded. (See Dem. c. Tim. p. 740.) [E. E.J LACHES, artist. [Chares, p. 684, a] LA'CHESIS. [MoKRAK.] LACI'NIA (AoKiv/a), a surname of Juno, under which she was worshipped in the neighbourhood of Croton, where she had a rich and famous sanctuaryii: (Strab. vi. p. 261, &c., 281; Liv. xxiv. 3.) Th«| name is derived by some from the Italian hero La- cinius, or from the Lacinian promontory on th< eastern coast of Bruttium, which Thetis was said to have given to Juno as a present. (Serv. Aen. iii. 552.) It deserves to be noticed thatl Hannibal dedicated in the temple of Juno Laciniftj a bilingual inscription (in Punic and Greek), whicll recorded the history of his campaigns, and of whichl Polybius made use in writing the history of the] Hannibalian war. (Polyb. iii. 33; comp. lAs xxviii. 46.) [L. S.] LACI'NIUS {AaKivios). 1. An Italian her and fabulous robber, by whom Heracles, on hU expedition in Italy, is said to have been robbed of some of the oxen of Geryones, and who was killed'] by the hero in consequence. After the place of th« murder was purified, Heracles built a temple to| Hera (Juno), surnamed Lacinia. (Diod. iv. 24 Serv. ad Aen. iii. 552.) 2. A son of Gyrene and king among the Brut-