Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/164

 148 LAURENTUM. Orig. G. Rom.. 10; Varr. L. L. v. 152; Virg.^ew. vii. 59.) The precise site of Laitrentum has been a subject of much doubt ; though it may be placed approxi- mately without question between Ostia and Pratica, the latter being clearly established as the site of Lavinium. It has been generally fixed at Toii-e di Paternb, and Gell asserts positively that there is no other position within the required limits "where either ruins or the traces of ruins exist, or where they can be supposed to have existed." The Itinerary gives the distance of Laurentum from Rome at 16 M. P., which is somewhat less than the truth, if we place it at Torre di Paternb, the latter being rather more than 17 M. P. from Rome by the Via Lauren- tina ; but the same remark applies to Lavinium also, which is called in the Itinerary 16 miles from Rome, though it is full 18 miles in real distance. On the other hand, the distance of 6 miles given in the Table between Lavinium and Laurentum coin- cides well with the interval between Pratica and Torre di Paternb. Nibby, who places Laurentum at Cajjo Cotto, considerably nearer to Pratica, ad- mits that there are no ruins on the site. Those at Torre di Paternb are wholly of Roman and imperial times, and may perhaps indicate nothing more than the site of a villa, though the traces of an aqueduct leading to it prove that it must have been a place of some importance. There can indeed be no doubt that the spot was a part of the dependencies of Lau- rentum under tlie Roman Empire; though it may still be questioned whether it marks the actual site of the ancient Latin city. (Gell, Top. of Pome, pp. 294 — 298; Nibby, Dintorni di Roma, vol. ii. pp. 187—205 ; Abeken, Mittelitalien, p. 62 ; Bor- mann, Alt Latin. Corographie, pp. 94 — 97.) It is hardly necessary to notice the attempts which have been made to determine the site of Pliny's Laurentine villa, of which he has left us a detailed description, familiar to all scholars (Plin. Ep. ii. 17). As it appears from his own account that it was only one of a series of villas which adorned this part of the coast, and many of them probably of equal, if not greater, pretensions, it is evidently idle to give the name to a mass of brick ruins which there is nothing to identify. In their zeal to do this, antiquarians have overlooked the circumstance that his villa was evidently close to the sea, which at once excludes almost all the sites that have been suggested for it. The road which led from Rome direct to Laurentum retained, down to a late period, the name of Via Laurentina. (Ovid, Fast. ii. 679; Val. Max. viii. 5. § 6.) It was only a branch of the Via Os- tiensis, from which it diverged about 3 miles from the gates of Rome, and proceeded nearly in a direct line towards Torre di Paternb. At about 10 miles from Rome it crossed a small brook or stream by a bridge, which appears to have been called the Pons ad Decimum, and subsequently Pons Decimus: hence the name of Decimo now given to a casale or farm a mile further on ; though this was situated at the 11th mile from Rome, as is proved by the dis- covery on the spot of the Roman milestone, as well as by the measurement on the map. Remains of the ancient pavement mark the course of the Via Laurentina both before and after passing this bridge. (Nibby, Dintorni, vol. i. p. 539, vol. iii. p. 621.) Roman authors generally agree in stating that the place where the Trojans first landed and established LAURIUM, their camp was still called Troja (Liv. i. 1 ; Cato, ap. Serv. ad Aen. i. 5; Fest. v. Troia, p. 367), and that it was in the Laurentine territory ; but Virgil is the only writer from whom we learn that it was on the banks of the Tiber, near its mouth (^Aen. vii. 30, ix. 469, 790, &c.). Hence it must have been in the part of the " ager Laurens " which was assigned to Ostia after the foundation of the colony ; and Servius is therefore correct in placing the camp of the Trojans " circa Ostiam." (Serv. ad Aen. vii. 31.) The name, however, would appear to have been the only thing that marked the spot. [E. H. B.] LAURETANUS PORTUS, a seaport on the coast of Etruria, mentioned only by Livy (xxx. 39). From this passage it appears to have been situated between Cosa and Populonium ; but its precise posi- tion is unknown. [E. H. B.] LAURI, a place in North Gallia, on a road from Lugdunum Batavorum (^Leiden) to Noviomagus {Nymeguen), and between Fletio (^Vleuten) and Niger Pullus. It is 5 M. P. from Niger Pullus to Lauri, and 1 2 M. P. from Lauri to Fletio. No more is known of the place. [G. L.] LAURIACUM or LAUREACUM, a town in the north of Noricum, at the point where the river Anisius empties itself into the Danube. (Amm. Marc. xxxi. 10; It. Ant. pp. 231, 235, 241, 277; Gruter, Inscr. p. clxiv. 3 ; Not. Imp. : in the Tab. Petit, its name is misspelt Blaboriciacum.) In a doubtful inscription in Gruter (p. 484. 3) it is called a Roman colony, with the surname Augusta: Laureacum was the largest town of Noricum Ripense, and was connected by high roads with Sirmium and Taurunum in Pan- nonia. According to the Antonine Itinerary, it was the head-quarters of the third legion, for which the Notitia, perhaps more correctly, mentions the second. It was, moreover, one of the chief stations of the Danubian fleet, and the residence of its praefect, and contained considerable manufactures of arms, and especially of shields. As the town is not mentioned by any earlier writers, it was probably built, or at least extended, in the reign of ^I. Aurelius. It was one of the earliest seats of Christianity in those parts, a bishop of Lauriacum being mentioned as early as the middle of the third century. In the fifth century the place was still so well fortified that the people of the surrounding countiy took refuge in it, and protected themselves against the attacks of the Ale- mannians and Thuringians; but in the 6th century it was destroyed by the Avari, and although it was restored as a frontier fortress, it afterwards fell into decay. Its name is still preserved in the modem village of Lorch, and the celebrated convent of the same name, around which numerous remains of the Roman town may be seen extending as far as Ens, which is about a mile distant. (Comp. Muchar, Ko7-ic. i. p. 362, 268, 163, ii. p. 75.) [L.S.] LAURIUM (Aavpeiov, Herod, vii. 144; Aavpiov, Thuc. ii. 55: Adj. AavpturiKSs; hence ai yAavKes AavpiwTiKai, Aristoph. Av. 1106, silver coins, with the Athenian figure of an owl), a range of hills in the south of Attica, celebrated for their silver mines. These hills are not high, and are covered for the most part with trees and brushwood. The name is probably derived from the shafts which were sunk for obtaining the ore, since Xavpa in Greek sig- nifies a street or lane, and Xavpuov would therefore mean a place formed of such lanes, — i. e., a mme of shafts, cut as it were into streets, like a catacomb. (Wordsworth, Athens and Attica, p. 209.) The mining district extended a little way north of