Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/221

 LONGUM PPvOMONTORIUM. LONGUJI PROMONTORIUM. [Sicilia.] LONGUS, in North Britain, mentioned by Pto- lemy (ii. 3) as a river to the north of the Epi- dian Promontory {Mull of Cant/jre). Identified in the Monumenta Britannica with Lynneloch^ Inmrlochy, and Loch Melfort. [R. G. L.] LOPADUSSA (AoTraSuuo-cro, Strab. xvii. p. 834; Ao7ra5ou(ra, Ptol. iv. 3. § 34: Lampedusa), a small island otF the E. coast of Africa Propria, opposite to the town of Thapsus, at the distance of 80 stadia, according io an anc-a:Periplus(lra.v.e,Blhl.Matr it. Cod. Graec. p. 488). Pliny places it about 50 M. P. N. of Cercina, and makes its length about 6 M. P. (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14, v. 7. s. 7.) It really lies about 80 English miles E. of Thapsus, and about 90 NE. of Cercina. [P. S.] LOPHIS. [BoEOTiA, p. 413, a.] LOPOSAGIUM, in Gallia, is placed by the Table between Vesontio {Besanqori) and Epamanduodurum (^Mandeure). It is xiii. leagues from Vesontio. D'An- ville supposes that it may be a place called Baumes- les-Nones : others guess Baumes-les-Bames, or a place near it named Luciol or Luxwl. [G. L.] LOPSICA (Ad|'i/ca), a town of Liburnia, which Ptolemy (ii. 16. § 2 ; comp. Phn. iii. 25) places near the mouth of the river Tedanius (^Zermagna): perhaps the same place as the Ospela of the Geographer of Ravenna. [E. B. J.] LO'RIUM, or LAU'RIUM, a village in Southern Etruria and station on the Via Aurelia, 12 miles from Rome. {Itin. Ant. p. 290; Tab. Pent.) It is chiefly known from the circumstance that the family of Antoninus Pius had a villa there, in which that emperor was brought up, and where he after- wards constructed a palace or villa on a more mag- nificent scale, which was his place of residence at the time of his death. (Jul. Capit. Ant. P. 12 ; Vict, de Cues. 15, Epit. 15; Eutrop. viii. 8.) It was afterwards a favourite place of resort with his successor M. Aurelius, as we learn from his letters to Fronto (Fronto, Ep. ii. 18, iii. 20, vi. 3, &c.); but had already fallen into decay in the time of Capitolinus, who speaks only of its ruins. No other mention of Laurium occurs except: in the Itineraries, by which we are enabled to fix its position with certainty. The 12th mile from Rome coincides with a bridge over a small stream between a farm called Bottaccia and the Castel di Guido: here the remains of ancient buildings and sepulchres have been found ; and on the high ground above are the ruins of an edifice of a more extensive and sumptuous character, which, from the style of construction, may probably have belonged to the villa of the Antonines. (Nibby, vol. ii. p. 271.) The name is variously written Lorium, Lorii, and Laurium, but the first form, which is that adopted in the epistles of Fronto and M. Aurelius, is the best warranted. The place appears to have con- tinued to be inhabited during the early ages of Christianity, and we even meet with a bishop of Lorium in the 5th century. [E. H. B.] LO'RYMA (to Adpu/ua), a small fortified place with a port, close to Cape Cynossema, on the western- most point of the Rhodian Chersonesus, in Caria. Its harbour was about 20 Roman miles distant from Rhodes. (Liv. xxxvii. 17, xlv. 10 ; Steph. B. s. V. ; Plin. v. 29 ; Ptol. v. 2. § 11 ; Thucyd. viii. 43; Senec. Quaest. Nat. iii. 19 ; Appian, JSeW. Ciu iv. 72.) Strabo (xiv. p. 652) applies the name Loryma to the whole of the rocky district, without mentioning the town. The Larumna of Mela (i. LOTOPHAGL 205 16) and the Lorimna of the Tab. Pent, perhaps refer to Loryma, although it is also possible that they may be identical with a place called La- rymna mentioned by Pliny in the same district. Leake {Asia Minor, p. 223) regards the ruins in the west of Port Aplotheca as belonging to the an- cient town of Loryma. These ruins are seen on the spur of a hill at the south-western entrance of the port; the town was long and narrow, running from west to east; on each of its long sides there are still visible six or seven square towers, and one large round one at each end : the round tower at the east end is completely demolished. The walls are pre- served almost to their entire height, and built in the best style, of large square blocks of limestone. To- wards the harbour, in the north, the town had no gate, and on the south side alone there appear three rather narrow entrances. In the interior no remains of buildings are discernible, the ground consisting of the bare rock, whence it is evident that the place was not a town, but only a fort. Sculptures and in- scriptions have not been found either within or outside the fort, but several tombs with bare stelae, and some ruins, exist in the valley at the head of the harbour. (Ross, Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, vol. iv. pp. 46, &c.) [L. S.] LORNE, a fortress in Mesopotamia, situated on the northern frontier, upon Mount Izala. (Amm. Marc. xix. 9.) LOSA, a station in Gallia Aquitania, placed by the Antonine Itin. on the road from Pompelo (Pam- pelona) in Spain to Burdigala {Bordeaux). From Segosa {Escousse or Escoitrse) to Losa is xii. (leagues), from Losa to Boii [Boil] xii., and from Boii to Burdigala xvi. D'Anville conjectures L '^a to be .at a little canton, as he calls it, named Leche. Wak'kenaer fixes it at the Bois de Licogas. [G. L.] LOSOTtlUM (Aocrdpioj'), a fortress in Lazica, built by Justinian (Procop. de Aed. iii. 7), which Dubois de Montpereux (Voyage Autour du Caucase, vol. ii. p. 360) identifies with the modern village of Loussiatlchevi. [E. B. J.] LOSSONUS. [Oloosoon.] LOTO'PHAGI {hooTo(pa.yoi, i. e. lotus-eaters), a people on the N. coast of Africa, between the Syrtes, who first appear in mythical, but afterwards in his- torical geography. Homer {Od. ix. 84, et seqq.) represents Ulysses as coming, in his wanderings, to the coast of the Lotophagi, who compassed the destruction of his companions by giving them the lotus to eat. For whoever of them ate the sweet fruit of the lotus, lost all wish to return to his native country, but desired to remain there with the Lotophagi, feeding on the lotus, and forgetful of return. (The poetical idea is exquisitely wrought out by Tennyson in his Lotos-Eaters, works, vol. i, pp. 175 — 184.) The Greeks of the historical period identified the country of these Lotus-eaters with the coast between the Syrtes, where they found an indigenous tribe, who used to a great extent (Herodotus says, as their sole article of food) the fruit of a plant, which they therefore supposed to be the lotus of Homer. To this day, the aboriginal inhabitants who live in caves along the same coasts eat the fruit of the plant, which is doubtless the lotus of the ancients, and drink a wine made from its juice, as the ancient Lotophagi also did (Herod, iv. 177). This plant, the Zizyphus Lotus or Rhamnus Lotus (jujube tree) of the botanists (called by the Arabs Seedra), is a prickly branching shrub, bearing fruit of the size of a wild plum, of a,