Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/190

 174 LTBARNA, are found principally towards the north of the range (Robinson, Bibl. Res. vol. iii. pp. 440, 441), parti- cularly in the vicinity of a Maronite village named Ehden, doubtless identical with the " Eden " of Ezekiel (xxxi. 16), in the neighbourhood of which the finest specimens of the cedars were even then found. They had almost become extinct, — only eight ancient trees can now be numbered, —when, a few years ago, the monks of a neighbouring convent went to the pains of planting some five hundred trees, which are now carefully preserved, and will perpetuate the tradition of the " cedars of Lebanon " to succeeding generations. The fact remarked by St. Jerome, of the proper name of the mountain being synonymous with frankincense, both in Greek and Hebrew, has given rise to the idea that the mountain produced this odoriferous shrub, of which, however, there is no proof. (Relaud, Palaestina, p. 313.) [G. W.] LIBARNA (Algapva), a city of Liguria, which is mentioned by Pliny among the " nobilia oppida " that adorned the interior of that province, as well as by Ptolemy and the Itineraries, in which its name appears as " Libarnum " or " Libarium." (Plin. iii. 5. s. 7; Ptol. iii. 1. § 45 ; Jtiii. Ant. p. 294; Tab. Peut.) These place it on the road from Genua to Dertona, but the distances given are certainly cor- rupt, and therefore afiurd no clue to the position of the town. This has, however, been of late years established beyond doubt by the discovery of its remains on the left bank of the Scrivia, between A rqitata and Serravalle. The traces still visible of its ancient theatre, forum, and aqueducts, confirm riiny's statement of its flourishing condition; which is further attested by several inscriptions, from one of which it would appear to have enjoyed colonial rank. (S. Quintino, Antica Colonia di Libariia, in the Mejti. delV Accadem. di Torino, vol. xxix. p. 143; Aldini, Lapidi Ticinesi, pp. 120, 139.) [E. H. B.] LIBETHRA, LIBETHRUM {higqBpa : Eth. AtSJjdpios), a town of Macedonia in the neighbour- hood of Dium. It is mentioned by Livy (xliv. 5), who, after describing the perilous march of the Roman army under Q. ^Marcius through a pass in the chain of Olympus, — Gallipeuce (the lower part of the ravine of Plaiamona), — says, that after four days of extreme labour, they reached the plain between Libethrum and Heracleia, Pausanias (ix. 30. § 9) reports a tradition that the town was once destroyed. " Libethra," he says, " was situated on Mount Olympus, on the side of Macedonia. At no great distance from it stood the tomb of Orpheus, respecting which an oracle had declared that when the sun beheld the bones of the poet the city should be destroyed by a boar (Sn-o cri/os). The inhabitants of Libethra ridiculed the thing as impossible; but the colunm of Orpheus's monument having been accidentally broken, a gap was made by which light broke in upon the tomb, when the same night the torrent named Sl's, being prodigiously swollen, rushed down with violence from Mt. Olympus upon Li- bethra, overthrowing the walls and all the public and private buildings, and destroying every living creature in its furious course. After this calamity the remains of Orpheus were removed to Dium, 20 stadia distant from their city towards Olym- pus, where they erected a monument to him, con- sisting of an urn of stone upon a column." In the time of Alexander the Great there was a statue of Orpheus made of cvpress, at Libethra. (Pint. Alex. 14.) LIBXIUS. The only two torrents which could have effected such havoc as that described by Pausanias are the rivers of Plataimhia and Lituhlioro. As the former was near Heracleia, it may be concluded that the Sus, was the same river as the Enipeus, and that Libethra was situated not far from its junction with the sea, as the upper parts of the slope towards Litoklwro, are secured from the ravages of the torrent by their elevation above its bank. It might be supposed, from the resemblance, that the modern Malathria [Dium] is a corruption of the ancient Libethra : the similarity is to be at- tributed, perhaps, to the two names having a common origin in some word of the ancient language of Macedonia. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 413, 422.) Strabo (ix. p. 409, x. p. 471) alludes to this place when speaking of Helicon, and remarks that several places around that mountain, attested the former existence of the Pierian Thracians in the Boeotian districts. Along with the worship of the Jlu^es the names of mountains, caves, and spi'ings, were transferred from Jit. Olympus to Helicon ; hence they were surnamed Libethrides as well as Pierides (" Nymphae, noster amor, Libethrides," Virg. Eel. vii. 21). [E. B. J.] LIBE'THRIAS, LIBE'THRIUS. [Helicon.] LI'BIA. [AUTRIGONES.] LIBICII or LIBICI (Af§e«:ioi, Pol.; AiSlko'i, Ptoh), a tribe of Cisalpine Gauls, who inhabited the part of Gallia Transpadana about the river Sesia and the neighbourhood of Vercellae. They are first mentioned by Polybius (ii. 17), who places them, together with the Laevx (Aooi), towards the sources of the Padus, and W. of the Insubres. This statement is sufficiently vague: a more precise clue to their position is supplied by Phny and Ptolemy, both of whom notice Vercellae as their chief city, to w'hich the latter adds Laumellum also. (Plin. iii. 17. s. 21; Ptol. iii. 1. §36.) Pliny expressly tells us that they were descended from the Sallyes, a people of Ligurian race ; whence it would appear probable that the Libicii as well as the Laevi were Ligurian, and not Gaulish tribes [Laevi], though settled on the N. side of the Padus. Livy also speaks, but in a passage of which the reading is very uncertain (v. 35), of the Salluvii (the same people with the iSidlyes) as crossing the Alps, and settling in Gaul near the Latvi. [E. H. B.] LIBISO'SONA (cognomine Foroaugustana, Plin. iii. 3. s. 4 ; Inscr. up. Gruter, p. 260. no. 3 ; Libi- sona. Coins, ap. Sestini, p. 168 ; Libisosia, J tin. Ant. p. 446 ; Ai€iawica, Ptol. ii. 6. § 59 ; Lebi- nosa, Geog. Rav. iv. 44 : Lezuza), a city of the Oretani, in Hispania Tarraconensis, 14 M. P. NE. of the sources of the Anas, on the high-road from Laminium to Caesaraugusta. It was an important place of trade, and, under the Romans, a colony, belonging to the conventus of Caesaraugusta (Plin. I. c. ; Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. pp. 411, 412). [P. S.] LIBNATH {AiSvd, Aogi'ci), generally mentior.ed in connection with Lacliish, from which it could not be far distant [Lachisii]. (Josh. x. 29 — 32 ; 2Kin(js, xix. 8.) It belonged to .ludah (Josh. xv. 42), and is recognised by Eusebius as a village in the dis- trict of Eleutheropolis. (Onomast. s. v. AoSa.ua.') Dr. Robinson could not succeed in recovering auy traces of its name or site (Bib. Pes. vol. ii. p. 389). [G. W.] LI'BXIUS, a river in Ireland, mentioned by Pto- lemy (ii. 2. § 4) as on the west coast, = the river