Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/140

 124 LAPATHUS. (^Dionys. siii. 447), owed its name to the legendaiy Lapathus, a follower of Dionysus. Strabo {I. c.) says that it received a Spartan colony, headed by Praxander. He adds, that it was situated opposite to the town of Nagidus, in Cilicia, and possessed a harbour and docks. It was situated in the N. of the island, on a river of the same name, with a district called Lapethia (AaTrrjAia, Ptol. v. 14. § 5). In the war between Ptolemy and Antigonus, Lapathus, with its king Praxippus, sided with the latter. (Diod. xix. 59.) The name of this place was synonymous with stupidity. (Suid. s. v. Aanddtoi.) Pococke (Trav. in the East, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 223) saw at Lapltlw several walls that were cut out of the rock, and one entire room, over the sea: there were also remains of some towers and walls. (Mariti, Viaggi, vol. i. p. 125 ; Engel, Kgjjros, vol. i. pp. 37, 78, 174, 224, 364, 507.) [E. B. J.J LAPATHUS, a fortress in the north of Thessaly, near Tempe, which Leake identifies with the an- cient castle near Kdpsani. (Liv. xliv. 2, 6; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 397, 418.) LAPHY'STIUM. [Boeotia, p. 412, b.] LAPIDEI CAMPI or LAPIDEUS CAMPUS (TreSior' Ai0c55es, idi.vov TTiSiov), in Gallia Narbo- nensis. Strabo (p. 182) says: "Between Massalia and the mouths of the Rhone there is a plain, about 100 stadia from the sea, and as much in diameter, being of a circular form ; and it is called the Stony, from its character ; for it is full of stones, of the size of a man's fist, which have grass growing among them, which furnishes abundant food for animals : and iu the middle there is standing water, and salt springs, and salt. Now all the country that lies above is windy, but on this plain especially the Melamborian (La Bise) comes down in squalls, — a violent and chilling wind : accordingly, they say that some of the stones are moved and rolled about, and that men are thrown down from vehicles, and stripped both of arms and clothing by the blast." This is the plain called La Crau, near the cast side of the east branch of the delta of the Klione, and near the E'tang de Berre. It is described by Arthur Young (Traveb, cfc. vol. i. p. 379, 2nd ed.), who visited and saw part of the plain. He supposed that there might be about 136,780 English acres. "It is composed entirely of shingle — being so uniform a mass of round stones, some to the size of a man's head, but of all sizes less, that the newly thrown up shingle of a sea- shore is hardly less free from soil. Beneath these surfiice -stones is not so much a sand as a kind of cemented rubble, a small mixture of loam with frag- ments of stone. Vegetation is rare and miserable." The only use that the uncultivated part is turned to, he s.ays, is to feed, in winter, an immense number of sheep, which in summer feed in the Alps towards Barcelonette and Piedmont. When he saw the place, in August, it was very bare. The number of sheep said to be fed there is evidently an exaggeration. Some large tracts of the Crau had been broken up wlien he was there, and planted with vines, olives, and mulberries, and converted into corn and meadow. Corn had not succeeded ; but the meadows, covered richly with " clover, chicory, rib-grass, and arena elatior," presented an extraordinary contrast to the soil in its natural state. The name Crau is probably a Celtic word. In the Statistique du Depart, des Bouches du Rhone (torn. ii. p. 190, quoted in Ukert's Gallien, 425) it is supposed that Craou, as it is there written, is a Ligurian word ; which may be true, or it may not. What is added is more valuable LAPPA. information : " There is in Provence a number of places which have this name; and one may even say that there is not a village which has not in its terri- tory a Craou." Aristotle (Strabo, p. 182) supposed that earth- quakes, of the kind named Brastae tlirew up these stones to the earth's sui-fiice, and that they rolled down together to the hollow places in these parts. Posidonius, who, having travelled in Gallia, had probably seen the Crau, supposed that the place was once a lake. Here the text in Strabo is obscure, and perhaps corrupt; but he seems to mean that the action of water rounded the stones, for he adds, after certain words not easy to explain, that (owing to this motion of the water?) " it was divided into many stones, like the pebbles in rivers and the shingle on the sea-shore." Strabo (whose text is here again somewhat corrupted) considers both explanations so far true, that stones of this kind could not have been so made of themselves, but must have come from great rocks being repeatedly broken. Another hypo- thesis, not worth mentioning, is recorded iu the notes of Eustathius (ad Dionys. Perieg. v. 76). It is a proof of the early communication between the Phocaean colony of Massalia and other parts of Greece, that Aeschylus, whose geography is neither extensive nor exact, was acquainted with the existence of this stony plain ; for in the Prometheus Unbound (quoted by Strabo) he makes Prometheus tell Hercules that when he comes into the country of the Ligyes, Zeus will send him a shower of round stones, to de- feat the Ligurian army with. This stony plain was a good ground for mythological figments. (The fol- lowing passages of ancient authors refer to this plain : Mela, ii. 5; Plin. iii. 4, xxi. 10; Gellius, ii. 22, and Seneca, Nat. Quaest. v. 17, who speak of the violent wind in this part of Gallia; and Dionys. Halicarn. i. 41, who quotes part of the passage from the Prometheus Unbound.) This plain of stones probably owes its origin to the floods of the Rhone and the Durance, at some remote epoch when the lower part of the delta of the Rhone was covered by the sea. [G. L.] LA'PITHAE (AawiOai), a mythical race in Thes- saly. See Diet, of Biogr. and Myth. Vol. II. p. 721. LAPITHAEUM. [Laconia,?. 113,a.] LAPITHAS. [Eus, p. 817, b.] LAPPA, LAMPA (hdnva, Ptol. iii. 17. § 10 ; Aa,u7ra, Aa/xirai, Hierocl. ; Adfiirr], Steph. B. : Eth. Acnnra7os, Aafj.Traios), an inland town of Crete, with a district extending from sea to sea (Scylax, p. 18), and possessing the port Phoenix. (Strab. x. p. 475.) Although the two forms of this city's name occur in ancient authors, yet on coins and in inscriptions the word La))pa is alone found. Stephanus of Byzantium shows plainly that the two names denote the same place, when he says that Xenion, in his Cretica, wrote the word Lappa, and not Lampa. The same author (s. V. Ao/UTrTj) says that it was founded by Agamem- non, and was called after one Lampos, a Tarrhaean ; the interpretation of which seems to be that it was a colony of Tarrha. When Lyctus had been destroyed by the Cnossians, its citizens found refuge with the people of Lappa (Polyb. iv. 53). After the submission of Cydonia, Cnobsus, Lyctus, and Eleutherna, to the arms of Me- tellus, the Romans advanced against Lappa, which was taken by storm, and appears to have been almost entirely destroyed. (Dion C;iss. xxxvi. 1.) Augus- tus, in consideration of the aid rendered to him by the Lappaeans in his struggle with M. Antonius