Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/723

Rh LAETORIUS. mont, and was occupied with agricultural pursuits, aud an old female slave attended to liis wants {Od. i. 189) ; but, after the departure of Telemachus, he was 80 overpowered by his grief, that he gave up his rustic pursuits. {Od. xvi, l;^)8.) After the murder of the suitors, Odysseus visited him, and led him back to his house, and Athena made him young agjiin, so that soon after he was able to take part in the fight against the approaching Ithacans. d. xxiv. 204—370, 497.) [L. S.] LAE'RTIUS DIO'GENES. [Diogenes.] LAESPO'DIAS (Aato-TToSias), was one of three Athenian commanders, who, with a force of 30 sliips, joined the Argives in ravaging the Lacedae- monian coast, B.C. 414 ; and thus, at the moment when Gylippus was sailing for Syracuse, gave the Spartan government justification for open hostili- ties. He is named ag;iin, n. c. 41 1, as one of three ambassadors wlio were sent by the Four Hundred to treat with Sparta, but were, when their ship, the Paralus, was off Argos, seized and given in custody to the Argives by the sailors, who pro- ceeded to join the fleet at Samos. (Thuc. vi. 105, viii. 86.) He had something the matter with tlie shin or calf of his leg, and arranged his dress to conceal it. Ti, w KaKodaijiLOV Aaia-irodias, fl rrju (pvaiv ; says Poseidon, when scolding the uncouth Triballus for letting his garment hang about his legs. (Aris- toph. Av. 1568.) And the Scholiast gives a variety of references (see also Plut. Spup. vii. 8), which show that his misfortune made him a standing joke with the comedians. [A. H. C] LAETA. [Gratianus, p. 303.] LAETI'LIUS. 1. The person whom Verres constantly employed as his tabeilarius. (Cic. Ferr. ii. 26, 56.) 2. C. LAETir.ius Apalus, whose name occurs as duumvir along with that of Ptolemaeus, the son of the younger Juba, on a coin of New Carthage or Gades. (Eckhel, vol. iv. p. 160, vol. v. p. 232.) LAETO'RIUS. 1. M. Laetorius, a centurion ])rimi pili, mentioned as the first plebeian magis- trate, B. c. 495, chosen even before the secession to the Sacred Hill and the election of the first tri- bunes of the people ; for there cannot be any doubt that this Laetorius was a plebeian, although it is not exactly stated by Livy (ii. 27). He was chosen to establish a guild of merchants {collegium merca- tnrum), to dedicate a temple of Mercury, and to superintend the com market. From these functions it is probable that he was aedile, and the conclusion is obvious that the establishment of the plebeian aedileship preceded that of the tribuneship. (Comp. Val. Max. ix. 3. $ 6.) 2. C. Laetorius, was tribune of the people in B. c. 471, and by his courage and energy decided the success of the Publilian rogation, by which the comitia tributa obtained the power of legislating for the whole community, and of electing the ple- beian magistrates, tribunes and aediles, who ac- cordingly must have been chosen formerly either by the comitia curiata or centuriata, a disputed point on which see Did. of Ant. s. v. Tribunus. (Liv. ii. 56 — 58 ; Dionys. ix. 41—49.) It seems not improbable that this Laetorius, if not a relation, was the same who, with the praenomen Marcus, occurs in the annals a few years before. [No. 1.] 3. M. Laetorius Mergus, a military tribune during the third Samnite war (b. c. 298 — 290), was accused of adultery by the tribune of the peo- LAEVINUS. 709 pie, Cominins. He first escaped and then killed liimself, but the people passed sentence on hira nevertheless. (Val, Max. vi. 1. § 11 ; Suid. s. v. Taios AaiTwpios; Dionys. Excerpt. Vales, p. 88, &c., ed Mai.) 4. M. Laetorius Plancianus, magister equi- tum of the dictator Q. Ogulnius Gallus, B. c. 257. (Fast. Capit.) 5. C. Laetorius, curule aedile, b. c. 216, sent as ambassador by the senate to the consuls App. Claudius and Q. Fulvius Flaccus, B. c. 212, praetor, B. c. 210, and decemvir sacris faciundis, b. c. 209. (Liv. xxiii. 30, xxv. 22, xxvi. 23, xxvii. 7, 8.) 6. L. Laetorius, plebeian aedile in b. c. 202, was obliged to abdicate as his election was declared invalid on religious grounds. (Liv. xxx. 39.) 7. Cn. Laetorius, legate of the praetor, L. Fulvius Purpureo in the battle against the Gauls, B.C. 200. (Liv. xxxi. 21.) 8. Laetorius, a friend of C. Gracchus, who on the wooden bridge opposed himself to the pursuers of Gracchus, and, as he could not stop them, killed himself. (Val. Max. iv. 7. § 2.) Plutarch (C. Gracch. 16, 17) calls him Licinnius. 9. M. Laetorius, a senator of the party of Marius, was declared a public enemy by Sulla, es- caped from Rome, and afterwards returned with Marius. (Appian, B. C. i. 60, &c.) [W. I.] LAETUS (AaTros), a Greek writer of uncer- tain age, who translated from the Phoenician lan- guage a work of Theodotus. (Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 140 ; Euseb. Praep. Ev. x. 11, where Xairos is a false reading.) LAETUS, Q. AEMI'LIUS, was praefect »f the praetorium under Commodus, and one of the chief agents in his assassination. [Commodus, Ec- LECTUS, Marcia.] By Laetus and his associate Eclectus the vacant throne was offered to Pertinax, and Laetus was the first to incite the guards to rebel against the new prince, and to proclaim Sosiua Falco, the consul, emperor in his place. At length the turbulent career of this adventurer was brought to a close by Julianus, who put him to death on the suspicion that he was favourable to the claims of Severus. (Dion Cass. Ixxii. 19, 22, Ixxiii. 1, 6, 8, 9 ; Herodian. i, 16, 17, ii. 1,2; Lamprid. Commod. 15, 17; Capitolin. Fertin. 5, 6; Spar- tian. Julian. 6, Sept. Sever. 4.) [W. R.] LAETUS, was one of the lieutenants of Sep- timius Severus in tlie campaign against the Ara- bians and Parthians, a. d. 195 ; and a few years afterwards (a. d. 199) gained great renown by his gjillant and successful defence of Nisibis against a sudden attack headed by Vologaesus. Notwith- standing this good service, and the high reputation which he enjoyed both as a statesman and a general, he was put to death by the emperor, who had be- come jealous of his popularity with the soldiers. (Dion Cass. Ixxv. 2, 9, 10.) [W. R.] LAEVI'NUS, a cognomen of the Gens Valeria at Rome. It appears on the Fasti for the first time in b. c. 280, and was extant in the age of Augustus (llor. Sat. 1, 6, 12, Schol. Vet.), and in that of Domitian or Nerva. (Mart. Ep. vi. 9.) Laevina is also mentioned by Martial {Ep. i. 62). I. P. Valerius Laevinus, one of the consuls in B. c. 280, obtained for his province Southern Italy, and the conduct of the war with Pyrrhus, king of Epeirus. Pyrrhus had recently landed at Tarentum, and it was important to force him to engage before he was joined by his Italian allies, z z 3