Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/189

 LEVONI. LEVO'NT(Aeuai|/oi), a tribe mentioned by Ptolemy (ii. 11. § 35) as dwelling in the central parts of the island ot' Scandia. No further particulars are known about them. (Comp. Zeuss, die Deutschen, p. 158.) [L. S.] LEUPHANA (Aeu(|)ai'a), a town mentioned by Ptolemy (ii. 11. § 27) in the north of Germany, on the west of the Elbe ; it probably occupied the site of the modern Lunehurg. (Wilhelm, Gernumien, p. 161.) [L. S.] LEUTERNIA or LEUTARNIA. [Leuca.] LEUTUOANUM, a place in Pannonia Superior, 12 Roman miles east of JIursa, on the road from Aquileia to Sinnium (/^. Ilierus. p. 561); hence it seems to be identical with the place called Ad La- bores in the Peuting. Table. [L. S.] LEXO'VII (Ariidgioi, Strab. p. 189; ATjIougioi, Ptol. ii. 8. § 2), a Celtic people, on the coast of Gallia, immediately west of the mouth of the Seine. When the Veneti and their neighbours were pre- paring for Caesar's attack (b. c. 56), they applied tor aid to the Osismi, Lexovii, Nannetcs, and others. (i?. G. iii. 9, 11.) Caesar sent Sabinus against the Unelii, Curiosolites, and Lexovii, to prevent their joining the Veneti. A few days after Sabinus reached the country of the Unelii, the Aulerci Eu- burovices and the Lexovii murdered their council or senate, as Caesar calls it, because they were against the war ; and they joined Viridovix, the chief of the Unelii. The Gallic confederates were defeated by Sabinus, and compelled to surrender. (5. G. iii. 17 . — 19.) The Lexovii took part in the great rising of the Galli against Caesar (b. c. 52) ; but their force was only 3000 men. {B. G. vii. 75.) Walcke- naer supposes that the territory of the Lexovii of Caesar and, Ptolemy comprised both the territories of Lisieux and Bayeiix, though there was a people in Bayeux named Baiocasses; and he further supposes that these Baiocasses and the Viducasses were de- pendent on the Lexovii, and within their territorial limits. [Baiocasses.] The capital of the Lexovii, or Civitas Lexoviorum, as it is called in the Kotit. Provinc, is Lisieux, in the French department of Calvados. [Noviomagus,] The country of the Lexovii was one of the parts of Gallia from which the passage to Britain was made. [G. L.] LIBA (A(ga), a small place in Mesopotamia, mentioned by Polybius (v. 51) on the march of Antiochus. It was probably situated on the road between Nisibis and the Tigris. [V.] LIBA'lSiUS JIONS (AiSwos opos), in Hebrew Lebanon ^1^2?), a celebrated mountain range of Syria, or, as St. Jerome truly terms it, " mons Phoe- nices altissimus." {Onomast. s. v.) Its name is derived from the root 1?^, " to be white ; " as St. Jerome also remarks, '' Libanus XevKacrfihs, id est, ' candor' interpretatur " (^Adv. Jovinianum, torn. iv. col. 172): and white it is, " both in summer and winter; in the former season on account of the natural colour of the barren rock, and in the latter by reason of the snow," which indeed " remains in some places, near the summit, throughout the year." (Irby and JIangles, Oct. 30 and Nov. 1.) Allusion is made to its snows in Jer. xviiL 14; and it is described by Tacitus as " tantos inter ardores opacum fidumque nivibus." {Hist. v. 6.) Lebanon is much celebrated both in sacred and classical writers, and, in parti- cular, much of the sublime imagery of the prophets of the Old Testament is borrowed irom this moun- tain (e.g. Psal. xxix. 5, 6, civ. 16 — 18; Cant. iv. LIBANUS MONS. 173 8, 11, 15, V. 15; Isa. ii. 13; ITos. xiv. 5—7; Zech. xi. 1,2). It is, however, chiefly celebrated in sacred history for its forests of cedar and fir, from which the temple of Solomon was con.structed and adorned. (1 Kings, y.; 2 Chron. h.) It is clear from the sacred history that Mount Lebanon was, in Solomon's time, subject to the kings of Tyre; but at a later period we find the king of Assyria felling its timber for his military engines {Isa. xiv. 8, xxxvii. 24; Ezek. xxxi. 16); and Diodorus Siculus relates that Antigonus, having collected from all quarters hewers of wood, and sawyers, and shipbuilders, brought down timber from Libanus to the sea, to build him- self a navy. Some idea of the extent of its pine forests may be formed from the fact recorded by this historian, that 8000 men were employed in telling and sawing it, and 1000 beasts in transporting it to its destination. He correctly describes the mountain as extending along the coast of Tripoli and Byblius, as far as Sidon, abounding in cedars, and firs, and cypresses, of marvellous size and beauty (xix. 58); and it is singular that the other classical geogra- phers were wholly mistaken as to the course of this remarkable mountain chain, both Ptolemy (v. 15) and Strabo (xvi. p. 755) representing the two almost parallel ranges of Libanus and Antilibanus as com- mencing near the sea and running from west to east, in the direction of Damascus, — Libanus on the north and Antilibanus on the south; and it is remarkable that the Septuagint translators, apparently under the same erroneous idea, frequently translate the Hebrew word Lebanon by 'Avri^iSavos (e. g. Beut. i. 7, iii. 25, xi. 24; Josh. i. 4, ix. 1). Their relative position is correctly stated by Eusebius and St. Jerome (s. v. Antilibanus'), wlio place Antilibanus to the east of Libanus and in the vicinity of Da- mascus. [Antilibanus.] Lebanon itself may be said to commence on the north of the river Leontes (el-Kdsimiyeli), between Tyre and Sidon; it follows the course of the coast of the Jlediterranean towards the north, which in some places waijhes its base, and in others is separated from it by a plain varying in extent: the mountain attains its highest elevation (nearly 12,000 feet) about half way between Beirut and Trijyoli. It is now called by various names, after the tribes by whom it is peopled, — the southern part being in- habited by the Metowili; to the north of whom, as far as the road from Beirut to Damascus, are the Druses ; the Maronites occupying the northern parts, and in particular the district called Kesrawan. (Robinson, Bibl. Res. vol. iii. p. 459; Burckhardt, Syria, pp. 182 — 209.) It still answers, in part at least, to the description of St. Jerome, being " fer- tilissimus et virens," though it can be no longer said " densissimis arboinim comis protegitur" {Comment, in Osee, c. xiv.): and again, — " Nihil Libano in terra repromissionis excelsius est, nee nemorosius atque condensius." {Comment, in Zacharian, c. xi.) It is now chiefly fruitful in vines and mulberry trees; the former celebrated from of old {Uos. xiv. 7), the latter introduced with the cultivation of the silk- worm in comparatively modern times. Its extensive pine forests have entirely disappeared, or are now represented by small clusters of firs of no imposing growth, scattered over the mountain in those parts where the soft sandstone (here of a reddish hue) comes out from between the Jura limestone, which is the prevailing formation of the mountain. The cedars so renowned in ancient times, and known to be the patriarchs of all of their species now existing,