Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/162

 146 LAVINIUM. ceived a fresh colony, which for a short time raised it again to a degree of prosperity. On this occasion it would appear that the Laurentines and Lavinians were united into one community, which assumed the name of Lauko-Lavinium, and the citizens that of Laueentes LAaNATES, names which from henceforth occur frequently in inscriptions. As a tribute to its ancient sacred character, though a fresh apportionment of lands necessarily attended the establishment of this colony, the territory still retained its old limits and regulations Qege et con- secratione veteri manet, Lib. Colon, p. 234.) This union of the two communities into one has given rise to much confusion and misconception. Nor can we trace exactly the mode in which it was ef- fected ; but it would appear that Lavinium became the chief town, while the " populus " continued to be often called that of the Laurentes, though more correctly designated as that of the Laurentes Lavi- nates. The effect of this confusion is apparent in the commentary of Servius on the Aeneid, who evidently confounded the Laurentum of Virgil with the Lauro-Lavinium of his own day, and thence, strangely enough, identifies it with the Lavinium founded as the same city. (Serv. ad Aen. i. 2.) But, even at a much earlier period, it would seem as if the " ager Laurens," or Laurentine territory, was regarded as comprising Lavinium ; and it is certainly described as extending to the river Numi- cius, which was situated between Lavinium and Ardea. [Numicius.] Inscriptions discovered at Pratica enable us to trace the existence of this new colony, or revived Lavinium, down to the end of the 4th century ; and its name is found also in the Itineraries and the Tabula. {Itin. Ant. p. 301 ; Tab. Pent. ; Orell. Jnscr. 1063, 2179, 3218, 3921.) We learn also from a letter of Symmachus that it was still subsisting as a municipal town as late as A. D. 391, and still retained its ancient religious character. Macrobius also informs us that in his time it was still customary for the Roman consuls and praetors, when entering on their office, to repair to Lavinium to offer certain sacrifices there to Vesta and the Penates, — a custom which appears to have been transmitted without interruption from a very early period. (Macrob. Sat. ii. 4. § 11; Val. Max. i. 6. § 7 ; Symmach. Ep. i. 65.) The final decay of Lavinium was probably produced by the fall of paganism, and the consequent extinction of that religious reverence which had apparently been the principal means of its preservation for a long while before. The position of Lavinium at Pratica may be con- sidered as clearly established, by the discovery there of the numerous inscriptions already referred to re- lating to Lauro-Lavinium : in other respects also the site of Pratica agrees well with the data for that of Lavinium, which is placed by Dionysius 24 stadia, or 3 miles, from the coast. (Dionys. i. 56.) The Itineraries call it 16 miles from Rome ; but this statement is below the truth, the real distance being little, if at all, less than 18 miles. The most direct approach to it from Rome is by the Via Ardeatina, from whence a side branch diverges soon after passing the Solfatara, — a spot suppoj^ed to be the site of the celebrated grove and oracle of Faunus, referred to by Virgil [Ardea], which is about 4 miles from Pratica. The site of this latter village, which still possesses a baronial castle of the middle ages, re- sembles those of most of the early Latin towns : it is a nearly isolated hill, with a level smnmit of no LAURENTUM. great extent, bounded by wooded ravines, with steep banks of tufo rock. These banks have probably been on all sides more or less scarped or cut away artificially, and some slight remains of the ancient walls may be still traced in one or two places. Be- sides the inscriptions already noticed, some frag- ments of marble columns remain from the Imperial period, while broken pottery and terracottas of a rude workmanship found scattered in the soil are the only relics of an earlier age. (Nibby, Dintorni, vol. ii. pp. 206—237.) [E. H. B.] LAVISCO or LABISCO, in Gallia Narbonensis, appears on a route from Mediolanum (^Milan) through Darantasia {Moutiers en Tarentaise) to Vienna ( Vi- enne) on the Rhone. Lavisco is between Lemincum {LeTiiens, or Cliambery au Mont Leminc') and Au- gustum (^Aoste or Aouste), and 14 M. P. from each. D'Anville supposes that Lavisco was at the ford of the little river Laisse, near its source ; but the dis- tance between Lemincum and Augustum, 28 M. P. is too much, and accordingly he would alter the figures iu the two parts of this distance on each side of Lavisco, from xiiii. to viiii. [G. L.] LAUMELLUM (AavfieWov, Ptol. iii. 1. § 36: Lomelh), a town of Gallia Transpadana, not men- tioned by Pliny, but placed by Ptolemy, together with Vercellae, in the territory of the Libici. The Itin. Ant. (pp. 282, 347) places it on the road from Ticinum to Vercellae, at 22 M. P. from the former and 26 from the latter city: these distances agree well with the position of Lomello, a small town on the right bank of the Agogiia, about 10 miles from its confluence with the Po. According to the same Itinerary (p. 340) another road led from thence by Rigomagus and Quadratae to Augustae Taurinorum, and in accordance with this Ammianus Marcelliuus (xv. 8. § 18) mentions Laumellum as on the direct road from Ticinum to Taurini. It seems not to have enjoyed municipal rank in the time of Pliny, but apparently became a place of more consideration in later days, and under the Lombard rule was a town of importance, as it continued during the middle ages ; so that, though now but a poor de- cayed place, it still gives to the suiTounding dis- trict the name of Lumellina. [E. H. B.] LAUREA'TA, a place on the coast of Dalmatia, which was taken by the traitor Ilaufus, for Totila and the Goths, in a. d. 548. (Procop. B. G. iii. 35 ; Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. ix. p. 182.) [E. B. J.] LAURENTUM (^AaiipevTov, Strab. et al.; Aw- piVTdu, Dion. Hal. ; Eth. Aavpeurivos, Laurentinus: Torre diPaternd),an ancient city of Latium, situated near the sea-coast between Ostia and Lavinium, about 16 miles from Rome. It was represented by the legendary history universally adopted by Roman writers as the ancient capital of Latium, and the residence of king Latinus, at the time when Aeneas and the Trojan colony landed in that country. All writers also concur in representing the latter as first landing on the shores of the Laurentine territory. (Liv. i. 1; Dionys. i. 45, 53; Strab. v. p. 229; Appian. Pom. i. 1 ; Vict. Or iff. Gent. Rom. 13; Virg. Aen. vii. 45, &c.) But the same legendary history related that after the death of Latinus, the seat of government was transferred first to Lavinium, and subsequently to Alba; hence we cannot wonder that, when Laurentum appears in historical times, it holds but a very subordinate place, and appears to have fallen at a very early period into a state of comparative insignificance. The historical notices of the city are indeed extremely few and scanty; the