Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/738

Rh 724 LASUS. parchus expelled Onoraacritus from Athens (vh*. 6 There also appears to have been a strong rivalry between Lasus and Simonides. (Aristoph. /. c. ; Schol. ad loc. ; Dindorf, Arinot. ad Scliol.) The time when he instructed Pindar in lyric poetry must have been about B, c. 506 (Thorn. Mag. Vit. Pind.) ; and it must be to this date that Suidas refers, when he places Lasus in the time of Dareius, the son of Hystaspes. (Suid. s. v. where, accord- ingly, vTj should, be corrected into I??.) Nothing further is known of his life, and the notices of his poetiy are very defective. Tzetzes mentions him after Arion, as the second great dithyrambic poet. {Proleg. in Lycoph. p. 252, ed. M'uller ; comp. Schol. ad Pind. 01. xiii. 25.) According to a scholiast on Aristophanes {Av. 1403), some ancient writers ascribed to him, instead of Arion, the in- vention of the cyclic choruses. (Comp. Suid, s. v. KvKiodidd(rKaKos.) A better account is given by another scholiast (Vesp. 1410) and Suidas (s. v. Actffos), that Lasus was the first who introduced dithyrambic contests, like those of the dramatic choruses. This seems to have been in 01. 68, 1, B. c. 508. (Marra. Par, Ep. 46.) Putarch states (De Mus. p. 1141, b. c.) that Lasus invented va- rious new adaptations of music to dithyrambic poetry, giving it an accompaniment of several flutes, and using more numerous and more varied voices (or musical sounds, <pQ6yyois). The change of form was naturally accompanied by a change in the subjects of the dithyramb. Suidas (s, v.) and the scholiast on Aristophanes {Vesp. 1410) tell us that Lasus introduced ipicTTiKods yovs. From these statements, compared with what we know of the earlier dithyramb on the one hand, and on the other with the works of Lasus's great pupil, Pin- dar, we may infer that Lasus introduced a greater freedom, both of rhythm and of music, into the dithyrambic Ode ; that he gave it a more artificial and more mimetic character ; and that the subjects of his poetry embraced a far wider range than had been customary. It is difficult, however, to say what the scholiast means by epiariKovs yovs. Some writers explain them as jocose altercations among the Satyrs, who formed the chorus ; but this is scarcely consistent with the dignity of dithyrambic poetry. Another explanation is that Lasus, like the dramatic poets, introduced into his poetry subjects which aflforded occasion for the dis- play of dialectic skill. It is something in confirm- ation of this view, that, according to some accounts, he was reckoned among the seven wise men of Greece. (Schol. ad Aristoph. Vesp. 1410; Suid. s. V. ; Diog. Laert. i. 42 ; comp. the note of Me- nagius.) Lasus wrote a hymn to Demeter, who was wor- shipped at Hermione, in the Doric dialect, with the Aeolic harmonj', of which there are three lines extant (Ath. xiv. p. 624, e.), and an ode, entitled Kevravpoi, both of which pieces were remarkable for not containing the letter 2. (Ath. x. p. 455, d.) He is also cited twice by Aelian ( V. H. xii. 36 ; A''. A. vii. 47 ). Besides his poems, Lasus wrote on music, and he is said to have been the first who did so. (Suid. S.V.) The grammarian, Chamaeleon of Heracleia, wrote a work upon Lasus. (Ath. viii. p. 338, b.) His name is sometimes mis-spelt by the ancient writers. Tzetzes {Proleg. in Lycophr. I. c.) calls him Adaaos, and Stobaeus (Serm. xxvii) writes LATERENSIS. Tdaaos. (Burette, Mem. de VAcad. des Tnscr. toia, XV, p. 324 ; Forkel, Geschichte d. Musik. vol. i. p. 358 ; Fabric. BlU. Graec. vol. ii. p. 128 ; Bockh, de Metr. Pind. p. 2 ; Miiller, Hist, ofilve Lit. of Greece., pp. 214, 215; Bode, Geschichte d. lyrisclien Dichtkunst. pass.; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtk. vol. ii. pass. ; Schneidewin, Comment, de Laso Her- mionensi, Gotting, 1842.) [P. S.] LATEllA'NUS, was, according to Arnobius (adv. Gent. iv. 6), a divinity protecting the hearths built of bricks {lateres)., whence some consider him to be identical with Vulcan. (Hartung, Die Relig. der Rmn. ii. p. 109.) |L, S.] LATERA'NUS, APP. CLAU'DIUS, was one of the lieutenants of the emperor Septimius Severus in the expedition against the Arabians and Par- thians, A. d. 195, and two years afterwards appears in the Fasti as consul. (Dion Cass. Ixxv. 2 ; Victor, Epit. 20 ; Gruter, Corp. Imcript. xlvi. 9, Ii. 1, ccc.) [W. R.] LATERA'NUS, L. SE'XTIUS SEXTI'NUS, was the friend and supporter of the celebrated C. Licinius Calvus Stolo in his attempts to throw open the consulship to the plebeians. He was the col- league of Licinius in the tribunate of the plebs from B. c. 376 to 367 ; and upon the passing of the Licinian laws in the latter of these years, he was elected to the consulship for the year b. c. 366, being the first plebeian who had obtained that dignity. (Liv. vi. 35 — 42, vii. 1.) For an account of the Licinian laws, see Vol. I. p. 586, b., and the authorities there referred to. The name of Sextius Lateranus does not occur again under the republic, but re-appears in the times of the empire. Thus we find in the Fasti a T. Sextius Magius Lateranus consul in A. D. 94, and a T. Sextius Lateranus consul in A. d. 154. LATERA'NUS, PLAU'TIUS, was one of the lovers of Messallina, the wife of the emperor Clau- dius, and was in consequence condemned to death by the emperor in A. D. 48 ; but pardoned, says Tacitus, on account of the brilliant services of his uncle, by whom the historian probably means A. Plautius, the conqueror of Britain. Lateranus was deprived of his rank as a senator, to which, how- ever, he was restored on the accession of Nero, in A. D. bQ. Ten years afterwards (a. d. QQ), although consul elect, he took part in the celebrated con- spiracy of Piso against Nero, actuated, says the historian, by no private wrongs, but by love for the state. He met death with the greatest firmness, refusing to disclose the names of any of the con- spirators, and not even upbraiding the tribune, who executed him in the place where slaves were put to death, with being privy to the conspiracy, though such was the case. The first blow not severing his head from his body, he calmly stretched it out again. (Tac. Ann. xi. 30, 36, xiii. 11, xv 49, 60 ; Arrian, Epictet. Dissert, i. 1.) LATERENSIS, the name of a noble plebeian family of the Juventia gens [.Tuventia Gens], but not patrician, as has been erroneously stated by a scholiast on Cicero. (Schol. Bob, pro Plane, p. 253, ed, Orelli,) 1. M. JuvENTius LATERENSIS, appears to have served in early life in the Mithridatic war. (Cic. pro Plane. 34. § 84, with Wunder's note, p. 207.) As he was descended both on his father's and mother's side from consular ancestors, he naturally became a candidate for the public offices. The year of his quaestorship is not stated and we only know