Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/739

Rh that, while holding this office, he gave an exhibition of games at Praeneste; and subsequently proceeded, perhaps as pro-quaestor, to Cyrene. In 59 (the year of the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus) he became a candidate for the tribunate of the plebs; but as he would have been obliged, if elected, to have sworn to maintain the agrarian law of Caesar, which was passed in that year, he retired voluntarily from the contest. It was probably owing to his political sentiments that Laterensis became one of Cicero's personal friends; and it was doubtless his opposition to Caesar which led L. Vettius to denounce him as one of the con- spirators in the pretended plot against Pompey's life in B. c. 58.

In B. c. 55^ in the second consulship of Pompey and Crassus, Laterensis became a candidate for the curule aedileship, with Cn. Plancius, A. Plotius, and Q. Pedius. The elections were put off this year ; but in the summar of the following year (h. c. 54) Plancius and Plotius were elected; but before they could enter upon their office Laterensis, in conjunction with L. Cassius Longinus, accused Plancius of the crime of sodalitium, or the bribery of the tribes by means of illegal associations, in accordance with the lex Licinia, which had been proposed by the consul Licinius Crassus in the pre- ceding year. {^eeDict. of Ant. s.v. Ambitus.) This contest between Laterensis and Plancius placed Cicero in an awkward position, since both of them were his personal friends. Plancius, however, had much stronger claims upon him, for being quaestor in Macedonia in the year of Cicero's banishment, he had afforded him shelter and protection in his province, at a time when Cicero believed that his life was in danger. Cicero had therefore warmly exerted himself in canvassing for Plancius, and came forward to defend him when he was accused by Laterensis. He avoids, however, personal attacks upon Laterensis, and attributes his loss of the elec- tion to his relying too much upon the nobility of his family, and to his neglecting a personal can- vassing of the voters, and likewise to his opposition to Caesar a few years before. Through Cicero's exertions, Plancius was probably acquitted. [Plancius.] Laterensis obtained the praetorship in B. c. 51, and is spoken of by Cicero's correspondent, Caelius, as ignorant of the laws. In the civil wars between Caesar and the Pompeians his name does not occur, and he is not mentioned again till b. c. 45, in which year we learn from Cicero that he was one of the augurs. Laterensis appears again in history as a legate in the army of M. Aemilius Lepidus, who was governor of the provinces of Nearer Spain and Southern Gaul, B.C. 43. When Antony, after the battle of Mutina, fled across the Alps, and was drawing near to Lepidus in Gaul, Laterensis used every possible exertion to confirm Lepidus in his allegiance to the senate. In this object he was warmly seconded by Munatius Plancus, who com- manded in Northern Gaul. But all their efforts were vain, for as soon as Antony appeared, the soldiers of Lepidus threw open the gates of the camp to him ; and Laterensis, in despair, cast him- self upon his bword, and thus perished. The senate decreed to him the honour of a public funeral and the erection of his statue. From his first entrance upon public life Laterensis was always a warm supporter of the senatorial party, to which he LATINUS. 725 sealed his devotion with his blood. (Cic. pro Plane, passim, ad Att. ii. 18, 24, i7i Vatin. 11, «</ Fam. viii, 8, ad Att. xii. 17, ad Fam. x. 11, 15, 18,21, 23; Dion. Cass. xlvi. 51; Veil. Pat. ii. 63 ; Appian, B. (7. iii. 84.) 2. L. (JuVENTius) Laterensis, was a legate in the army of Q. Cassius Longinus in Further Spain B. c. 49, and was proclaimed praetor by the soldiers in the conspiracy against the life of Cassius, whom they believed to have been put to death. Cassius, however, escaped the hands of the assas- sins, and immediately executed Laterensis and the ringleaders of the conspiracy. (Hirt. B. Alex. 53 — 55.) It is not known what relation this La- terensis was to the preceding. LA'THRIA. [Anaxandra.] LATIA'LIS or LATIA'RIS, a surname of Jupiter as the protecting divinity of Latium. The Latin towns and Rome celebrated to him every year the feriae Latinae, on the Alban mount, which were proclaimed and conducted by one of the Roman consuls. (Li v. xxi. 63, xxii. 1 ; Dionya. iv. 49 ; Serv. ad Aen. xii. 135 ; Suet. Calig. 22; comp. Latinus.) [L. S.] LATIA'RIS, LATI'NIUS, in the earlier part of the reign of Tiberius had been praetor, but in what year is unknown. He was a creature of Sejaniis, and aspired to the consulship. But at that time delation was the readiest road to prefer- ment. Titius Sabinus had offended Sejanus by his steady friendship to the widow and children of Germanicus. Him, therefore, in a.d. 28, Latiaris singled out as his victim and stepping-stone to the consular fasces. He wormed himself into the con- fidence of Sabinus, and encouraged him to speak of Agrippina's wrongs and Sejantis' tyranny in a room where three confederates lay hid between the ceil- ing and the roof. After the fall of Sejanus, Latiaiis was soon marked for destruction by Tiberius. The senate gladly condemned him, and Latiaris died without a murmur in his favour. (Tac. Ann. iv. 68, 69, vi. 4.) [ W. B. D.J LATI'NUS (Aarri/os), a king of Latium, is described in the common tradition as a son of Faunus and the nymph Marica, as a brother of Lavinius, and the husband of Amata, by whom he became the father of Lavinia, whom he gave in marriage to Aeneas. (Virg. Aen. vii. 47, &c. ; Serv. ad Aen. i. 6; Amob. ii. 71.) But along with this there are a variety of other traditions. Hesiod {Theog. 1013) calls him a son of Odysseus and Circe, and brother of Agrius, king of the Tyrrhenians, and H3ginus {Fab. 127) calls him a son of Telemachus and Circe, while others describe him as a son of Heracles, by an Hyperborean woman, who was afterwards married to Faunus (Dionys. i. 43), or as a son of Heracles by a daughter of Faunus. (Justin, xliii. 1.) Conon {Narr. 3) relates, that Latinus was the father of Laurina, whom he gave in marriage to Locrus, and that Latinus was slain by Heracles for having taken away from him the oxen of Geryones. According to Festus (s. v. Oscillum) Jupiter Latiaris once lived upon the earth under the name of Latinus, or Latinus after the fight with Mezentius suddenly disappeared, and was changed into Jupiter Latiaris. Hence the relation between Jupiter Latiaris and Latinus is perfectly analogous to that between Quirinus and Romulus, and Latinus may be con- ceived as an incarnation of the supreme god. [L. S.] LATI'NUS, a celebrated player in the farces