Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/183

 LESSA. The pastures on tliis mountain produced good cheese in Pliny's time (//. iV. xi. 42), as they do now. Mont Lozire gives its name to the French dejiart- ment Loz'ere. [G. L.] LESSA (A^fTtra), a village of Epidauria, upon the confines of the territory of Argos, and at the foot of Mount Arachnaeum. Pausanias saw there a temple of Athena. The ruins of Lessa are situated upon a hill, at the foot of which is the village of J^ykurio. On the outside of the walls, near the foot of the mountain, are the remains of an ancient pyramid, near a church, which contains some Ionic columns. (Pans. ii. 2.5. § 10; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 419; Boblaye, lieckerckes, cfc. p. 53 j Curtius, Pcloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 418.) LESTADAE. [Naxos.] LE'SUIIA, a branch of the Jlosella {MoseT), men- tioned by Ausonius {Mosella, v. 365). He calls it " exilis," a poor, ill-fed stream. The resemblance of name leads us to conclude that it is the Leser or Llsse, which flows past Wittlich, and joins the Mosel on the left bank. [G. L.] LETANDROS, a small Lsland in the Aegaean sea, near Amorgos, mentioned only by Pliny (iv. 12. s. 23). LETE (ArjTTi : Eili. Ar)Ta7os a town of Mace- donia, which Stephanus B. asserts to have been the native city of Xearclnis, the admiral of Alexander the Great; but in this he is certainly mistaken, as Nearchus was a Cretan. (Comp. Arrian, Inch 18; Diod. six. 19.) [E. B. J.] COIN OF LETE. LETHAEUS (Aveah?, Strab. x. p. 478 ; Ptol. iii. 17. § 4 ; Enstath. ad Horn. II. ii. 646 ; Solin. 17; Vib. Seq. 13), the large and important river which watered the plain of Gortyna in Crete, now tiie Malogniti. ' [E. B. J.] LETHAEUS (ATjOaros), a small river of Caria, which has its sources in Mount Pactyes, and after a short course from north to south discharges itself into the BLacander, a little to the south-east of Mag- nesia. (Strab. xii. p. 554, xiv. p. 647 : Athen. xv. p. 683.) ArvmAtW (^Seven Churclies, p. 57) describes the river which he identifies with the ancient Le- thaeus, as a torrent rushing along over rocky ground, and forming many waterfalls. [L. S.] LETHES FL. [Gallaecia.] LETO'POLIS (ArjToCj irjAt?, Ptol. iv. 5. § 46; At)Tovs, Steph. B. s. v. ; Letus, Itin. Anton, p. 156: Etli. A77T07roAtT7)s), a town in Lower Egypt, near the apex of the Delta, the chief of the nome Leto- jiolites, but with it belonging to the nomos or pre- fecture of ]Iemphis. (Strab. xvii. p. 807.) It was ]irobably situated on the banks of the canal of ^Memphis, a few miles SV. of Cercasoram. Leto, from whom the town and the nome derived tlieir name, was an appellation of the deity Athor, one of the eight Dii Majores of Aegypt. Lat. 30° N. [W.B.D.] LETRINI (AeVpii/oi, Paus. ; AerpiVa, Xen.), a town of Pisatis in Elis, situated near the sea, upon the Sacred Way leading from Elis to Olympia, at LEUCA. 1G7 the distance of 180 stadia from Elis, and 120 from Olympia. It was said to have been founded by Letreus, a son of Pclops. (Paus. vi. 22. § 8.) To- gether with several of the other dependent town- ships of Elis, it joined Agis, when he invaded the territories of Elis ; and the Eleians were obliged to surrender their supremacy over Letrini by the peace which they concluded with the Spartans in b. c. 400. (Xen. Hell. iii. 2. §§ 25, 30.) Xenophon (J. c.) speaks of Letrini, Amphidoli, and Mar- ganeis as Triphylian places, although they were on the right bank of the Alpheius; and if there is no corruption in the text, which Mr. Grote thinks there is (^fJist. oj" Greece, vol. ix. p. 415), the word Tri- phylian must be used in a loose sense to signify the dependent townships of Elis. The AiTpivaiai yvai are mentioned by Lycophron (158). In the time of Pausanias nothing remained of Letrini except a few houses and a temple of Artemis Alpheiaea. (Paus. I. c.) Letrini may be placed at the village and monastery of St. John, betvveen Pyrgo and the port of Katdkolo, where, according to Leake, among many fragments of antiquity, a part of a large statue was found some years ago. (Leake, Morca, vol. ii. p. 188; Boblaye", p. 130, &c.; Curtius, Pe- lojwnnesos, vol. i. p. 72.) LEVACI, a people in Caesar's division of Gallia, which was inhabited by the Belgae. The Levaci, with some other small tribes, were dependent on the Nervii. (B. G. v. 39.) The position of the Levaci is unknown. [G. L.] LEVAE FAXUM, in Gallia Belgica is placed by the Tabic on the road from Lugdunum Batavorum (^Leiden') to Noviomagus {N^ymer/en^. Levae Fanum is between Fletio (Vteiitcn) and CaiTo; 25 M. P. from Fletio and 12 from Carvo. [Carvo.] D'Au- ville, assuming that he has fixed Carvo right, sup- po.ses that there is some omission of places in the Table between Fletio and Carvo, and that we cannot rely upon it. He conjectures that Levae Fanum may be a little beyond Dursteede, on the bank opposite to that of the Batavi, at a place which he calls Liven-dael (vallis Levae), this Leva being some local divinity. Walckenaer fixes Levae Fanum at Leersvm. [G. L.] LEUCA (rot AivKa, Strab.: Leuc(i), a small town of Calabria, situated close to the lapygian promontory, on a small bay immediately to the W. of that celebrated headland. Its site is clearly marked by an ancient church still called Sta. Maria di Leuca, but known also as the Madonna dl Finis- terra, from its situation at the extreme jwint of Italy in this direction. The lapygian promontory itself is now known as the CajJO di Letica. Strabo is the only author who mentions a to^-n of this name (vi. p. 281), hut Lucan also notices the " secreta littora Leucae " (v. 375) as a port fre- quented by shipping; and its advantageous position, at a point where so many ships must necessarily touch, would soon create a town upon the spot. It was probably never a municipal town, but a large village or borr/o, such as now exists upon the spot in consequence of the double attraction of the })ort and sanctua>y. (Rampoldi, Corogr. delV Italia, vol. ii. p. 442.) Strabo tells us {I. c.) that the inhabitants of Leuca showed there a spring of fetid water, which they pretended to have arisen from the woimds of some of the giants which had been expelled by Her- cules from the Phlegraean plains, and who had taken refuge here. These giants they called Leuternii, M 4