Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/740

Rh 726 LAVERNA. called mimes {Did. of Ant. s. v.) in the reign of Domitian, with whom he was a great favourite, and whom he served as a delator. It seems pro- bable that the Latinus spoken of by Juvenal (i. 35, vi. 44), was the same person, though the scho- liast on Juvenal (//. cc.) sa^'s that this Latinus was put to death by Nero on account of his being privy to the adulteries of Messallina. The Latinus of the time of Domitian is frequently mentioned Vjy Martial, who gives his epitaph (ix. 29), and speaks of his private character in favourable terms. La- tinus frequently acted as niimiis in conjunction with Thymele as mima. (Juv. L c. ; Suet. Dom. 15; Mart. i. 5, ii. 72, iii. 86, v. 61, ix. 29.) LATI'N US, literary. 1. A Greek grammarian of uncertain age, who wrote a work in six books, entitled Ilepi rav oiic ISicou MevdvSpov. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 456. ) 2. Latinus Alcimus Avitus Alethius, the full name of the Alcimus spoken of in Vol. L p. 102, b. 3. Latinus Pacatus Drepanius. [Drepa- NIUS,] LATO'NA. [Leto.] LATRO, M. PO'IICIUS, a celebrated Roman rhetorician in the reign of Augustus, was a Spaniard by birth, and a friend and contemporary of the elder Seneca, with whom he studied under Maril- lius, and by whom he is frequently mentioned. He flourished about the year B.C. 17, in which year he declaimed before Augustus and M. Agrippa. (Senec. Controv. ii. 12. p. 177, ed. Bipont. Comp. Clinton, F. H. ad ann.) His school was one of the most frequented at Rome, and he numbered among his pupils the poet Ovid. He possessed an astonishing memory, and displayed the greatest energy and vehemence, not only in declamation, but also in his studies and other pursuits. In his school he was accustomed to declaim himself, and seldom set his pupils to declaim, whence they re- ceived the name of avditores, which word came gradually into use as synonymous with discipuU. But great as was the reputation of Latro, he did not escape severe criticism on the part of his con- temporaries : his language was censured by Mes- salla, and the arrangement of his orations by other rhetoricians. Though eminent as a rhetorician, he did not excel as a practical orator ; and it is related of him that, when he had on one occasion in Spain to plead in the forum the cause of a relation, he felt so embarrassed by the novelty of speaking in the open air, that he could not proceed till he had induced the judges to remove from the fonim into the basilica. Latro died in B. c. 4, as we learn from the Chronicle of Eusebius. Many modem writers suppose that Latro was the author of the Declamations of Sallust against Cicero, and of.Ci- cero against Sallust. (Senec. Controv. i. Praef. p. 63, &c., ii. 10, p. 157, ii. 13. p. 175, iv. 25, p. 291, iv. Praef. p. 273, ed. Bipont. ; comp. Quintil. x. 5. § 18 ; Plin. H. N. xx. 14. s. 57 ; Hieronyra. in Euseb. Chron. Olymp. 194, 1 ; Westermann, Gesch. d. Rmnisclien Beredtsamkeit, § 86 ; Meyer, Oratorum Roman. Fragmenta^ p. 539, &c., 2d ed.) LAVERNA, the protecting divinity of thieves and impostors ; a grove was sacred to her on the via Salaria, and she had an altar near the porta Lavernalis, which derived its name from her. ( Ar- nob. adv. Gent. iiL 26 ; Nonius, viii. 6 ; Acron, ad Horat. Ep. i. 16, 60 ; Varro,i)e L. L. v. 163 ; Fest. s.v. Lai^emiones.) The name of this divi-. LEAGRCS. nity, which is said to be a contraction of Lativema, is, according to some, connected with the verb latere, or with the Greek haSflv and the Sanscrit labh, but it is more probably derived from levare and levator (a thief). See Petron. 140.; Obbarius, ad Horat. Ep. I 16. 60. [L. S-] LAVI'NIA, a daughter of Latinus and Amat.a, and the wife of Aeneas, by whom she became the mother of Ascanius or Silvias. (Li v. i. 1 ; Virg. Aen. vii, 52, &c., vi. 761 ; Dionys. i. 70.) Some traditions describe her as the daughter of the priest Anius, in Delos. (Dionys. i. 50 ; Aur. Vict. Orlg. Getit. Bom. 9.) [L. S.] P. LAVI'NIUS, a Latin grammarian, who wrote a work, De Verbis Sordidis, which is referred to by A. Gellius (xx. 1 1 ), but of whom we know nothing more. It has been conjectured that he may be the same as the Laevinus mentioned by Macrobius. {Saturn, iii. 8.) LAURE'NTIA. [Acca Laurentia.] LAURE'NTIUS JOANNES. [Joannbs, No. 79.] LAUSUS. 1. A son of Mezentius, who was slain while defending his father against Aeneas. (Virg. Aen. vii. 649, x. 790.) According to the author of the De Oriy. Gent. Rom. (15), Lausus fell at a later time, during the siege of Lavinium, by the hand of Ascanius. 2. A son of Numitor and brother of Ilia, was fraudulently killed by Amulius. (Ov. Fast. iv. 6b.) ^ [L. S.] LEADES (AeaSrjs), a son of Astacus, who, according to Apollodorus (iii. 6. § 8), fought in the defence of Thebes against the Seven, and slew Eteocles ; but Aeschylus {Sept. 474) represents Megarens as the person who killed Eteocles. [L.S.] LEAENA. (Ae'aii/a). 1. An Athenian hetaera, beloved by Aristogeiton, or, according to Athenaeus, by Harmodius. On the murder of Hipparchus she was put to the torture, as she was supposed to have been privy to the conspiracy ; but she died under her sufferings without making any disclosure, and, if we may believe one account, she bit off her tongue, that no secret might be wrung from her. The Athenians honoured her memory greatly, and in particular by a bronze statue of a lioness (Aeaiva) without a tongue, in the vestibule of the Acropolis. (Paus. i. 23 ; Athen. xiii. p. 596, e ; Plut. de Garr. 8 ; Polyaen. viii. 45.) Pausanias tells us {l. c.) that the account of her constancy was pre- served at Athens by tradition. 2. An hetaera, one of the favourites of Demetrius Poliorcetes, at Athens. (Mach. ap. Athen. xiii. p. 577, d ; comp. Plut. Dem. 26.) [E. E.] LEAGRUS {AUxrypos), son of Glaucon, in con- junction with Sophanes the athlete, of Deceleiiu, commanded the Athenians who fell in the first attempt to colonise Amphipolis, B. c. 465, at Dra- bescus or Datus (Herod, ix. 75 ; Paus. i. 29. § 4 ; comp. Thuc. i. 100). His son, a second Glaucon, commanded, with the orator Andocides, the rein- forcements sent to the aid of the Corcyraeans, B. c 432 ; and his grandson, another Leagrus, is ridi- culed in a passage of the comic poet Plato {ap. Allien, ii. p. 68, c), as a highborn fool. odx Spas oTi 6 fikv Aeaypos FXavKuvos ixeyaKov yivovs KOKKV^ -^iKiQios irepUpxeTai. A sister of his was married to Callias IIL, son of