Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/166

 150 LAUS POMPEIA. about 10 miles from the sea, is the town of Laino, supposed by Cluverius to represent the ancient Laiis; but the latter would appear, from Strabo's descrip- tion, to have been nearer the sea. Eomanelli would place it at ScaJea, a small town with a good port, about three miles N. of the mouth of the river ; but it is more probable that the ancient city is to be looked for between this and the river Lao. (Cluver. Jtal p. 1262 ; Eomanelli, vol. i. p. 383.) Accord- ing to Strabo there was, near the river and city, a temple or Heroum of a hero named Dracon, close to which was the actual scene of the great battle be- tween the Greeks and Lucanians. (Strab. I. c.) Strabo speaks of a gulf of Laiis, by which he can hardly mean any other than the extensive bay now called the Gulf of PoUcastro, which may be con- sidered as extending from the promontoiy of Pynus {Capo degli Infreschi) to near Cirella. There exist coins of Laiis, of ancient style, with the in- scription AAINON : they were struck after the de- struction of Sybaris, which was probably the most flourishing time in the history of Laiis. [E. H. B.] COIN OF LAU3. LAUS POMPEIA, sometimes also called simply Laus (^Eth. Laudensis : Lodi Vecckio), a city of Gallia Transpadana, situated 16 miles to the SE. of Milan, on the highroad from that city to Pla- centia. {Itin. Ant. pp. 98, 127.) According to Pliny it was an ancient Gauhsh city founded by the Boians soon after they crossed the Alps. (PHn. lii. 17. s. 21.) It afterwards became a Eoman municipal town, and probably assumed the epithet of Pompeia in compliment to Pompeius Strabo, who conferred the rights of Latin citizens upon the mu- nicipalities of Transpadane Gaul ; but we find no special mention of the fact. Nor does any his- torical notice of Laus occur under the Eoman Em- pire : though it seems to have been at that period a, considerable town, and is termed in the Itineraries " Laude civitas," and by P. Diaconus " Laudensis civitas." (Itin. Ant. p. 98; Itin. Hier. p. 617; P. Diac. V. 2.) In the middle ages Lodi became an important city, and an independent republic; but was taken and destroyed in a. d. 1112 by the Iili- lanese, and in 1158 the emperor Frederic Barba- rossa having undertaken to restore it, transferred the new city to the site of the modem Lodi, on the right bank of the Adda. The ancient site is still occupied by a large village called Lodi Vecchio, about 5 miles due W. of the modern city. It is correctly placed by the Itineraries 16 M. P. from !Mediolanum, and 24 from Placentia. (Itin. Ant. p. 98.) [E. H. B.] LAUSO'XIUS LACUS, in the country of the Helvetii. The Antonine Itin. has a road from ^le- diolanum (^Milan) through Geneva to Argentoratum {Strasshirg). Sixteen Eoman miles from Geneva, on the road to Strasshirg, the Itin. has Equestris, which is Colonia Equestris or Noviodunum {Nyon) ; and the next place is Lacus Lausonius, 20 Eoman miles from Equestris. To the next station, Urba (Orbe), is 18 Eoman miles. In the Table the name LAZL is " Lacum Losonne," and the distances from Geneva to Colonia Equestris and Lacum Losonne are respec- tively IS M. P., or 36 together. The Lacus Lauso- nius is supposed to be Lausanne, on the Lake of Geneva; or rather a place or district, as D'Anville calls it, named Vidi. The distance from Geneva to Nyon, along the lake, is about 15 English miles; and from Nyon to Lausanne, about 22 or 23 miles. The distance from Geneva to Nyon is nearly exact; but the 20 miles from Equestris to the Lacus Lau- sonius is not enough. If Vidi, which is west oi Lau- sanne, is assumed to be the place, the measures will agree better. D'Anville cites 51. Bochat as authority for an inscription, with the name Lousonnenses, hav- ing been dug up at Vidi, in 1739; and he adds that there are remains there. (Comp. Ukert's note. Gal- lien, y>. 491 .) [G. L.] LAU'TULAE or AD LAU'TULAS (al Aairo- ai, Diod.), is the name given by Livy to the pass between Tarracina and Fundi, where the road winds roimd the foot of the mountains, between them and the sea, so as to form a narrow pass, easily defensible against a hostile force. This spot figures on two oc- casions in Eoman history. In b. c. 342 it was here that the mutiny of the Eoman army under C. Mar- cius Eutilus first broke out; one of the discontented cohorts having seized and occupied the pass at Lau- tulae, and thus formed a nucleus around which the rest of the malcontents quickly assembled, until they thought themselves strong enough to march upon Eome. (Liv. vii. 39.) At a later period, in B. c. 315, it was at Lautulae that a great battle was fought between the Eomans, under the dictator Q. Fabius, and the Samnites. Livy represents this as a drawn battle, with no decisive results ; but he himself admits that some annalists related it as a defeat on the part of the Eomans, in which the master of the horse, Q. Aulius, was slain (ix. 23). Diodorus has evidently followed the annalists thus re- ferred to (xix. 72), and the incidental remark of Livy himself shortly after, that it caused great agitation throughout Campania, and led to the revolt of the neighbouring Ausonian cities, would seem to prove that the reverse must really have been much more serious than he has chosen to represent it. (Liv. ix. 25 : Niebuhr, vol. iii. pp. 228—231.) The locality is always designated by Livy as " ad Lautulas : " it is probable that this was the name of the pass, but whether there was a village or other place called Lautulae, we are unable to tell. The name was probably derived from the existence of warm springs upon the spot. (Niebuhr, I. c, note 399.) It is evidently the same pass which was occupied by Winucius in the Second Punic War, in order to guard the approach to Latium from Campania (Liv. xxii. 15), though its name is not there men- tioned. The spot is now called Passo di Portella, and is guarded by a tower with a gate, forming the barrier between the Eoman and Neapolitan terri- tories. (Eustace, vol. ii. p. 309.) [E. H. B.] LAXTA. [Celtiberia.] LAZI (Adfoi, Arrian, Peripl. p. 1 1 ; Plin. vi. 4 ; Aafai, Ptol. V. 10. § 5), one among the many tribes which composed the indigenous population which clustered round the great range of the Caucasus, This people, whose original seats were, according to Procopius (B. G. iv. 2), on the N. side of the river Phasis, gave their name, in later times, to the country which was known to the Greeks and Eomans as Colchis, but which henceforth was called " Eegio Lazica." They are frequently mentioned in the