Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, page 788 (v. 2) (original) (raw)

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On this page: Lipasius – Lipodorus – Litae – Litorius – Lityerses – Livia – Livilla

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LITORTUS.

favourites of the gods ; and, in the midst of the enjoyment of their happy youth, they are carried off by a sudden or violent death ; but their remem­ brance is kept alive by men, who celebrate their memory in dirges and appropriate rites, and seek the vanished youths generally about the middle of summer, but in -vain. The feeling which seems to have : given rise to the stories about these person­ ages, who' form a distinct class by themselves .in Greek mythology, is deeply felt grief at the cata­ strophes observable in nature, which dies away under the influence of the burning sun (Apollo) soon ^fter it has developed all its fairest beauties. Those popular dirges, therefore, originally the ex­ pression of grief at the premature death of nature through the heat of the sun, were transformed into lamentations of the deaths of youths, and were sung on certain religious occasions. They were afterwards considered to have been the productions of the very same youths: whose momory was cele­ brated in them. The whole class of songs of this kind was called frprjvoi ol/crot, and the most cele­ brated and popular among them was the a.ii/os, which appears to have been popular even in the days of Homer. , (IL xyiii. 569, with the Schol.) Pamphos, the Athenian, and Sappho, sang of Linus under the name of Oetolinus (olros aiz/ou, i. e. the death of Linus, Pans. ix. 29. § 3) ; and the tragic poets, in mournful choral odes, often use the form ctffavos (Aeschyl. Aaam. 121; Soph. Ajax., 627 ; jEurip. Plioen. 1535, Orest. 1380), which is a compound of at, the interjection, and Mv$. As regards the etymology of Linus, Welcker regards Jt as formed from the mournful interjection, Ii9 while others, on the analogy of Hyacinthus and ^Narcissus, consider Linus to have originally been the name of a flower (a species of narcissus). (Phot, .Lex, p, 224, ed. Pors.; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 99; compare in general Ambrosch, De Lino, Berlin, 1829, 4to; Welcker, Kleine Scliriften^ i. p. 8, &c, ; E. v, Lasaulx, Ueber die Linosklage, Wurzburg, 1842, 4to.) [L. S.]

**LIPASIUS, the engraver of a beautiful gem, bearing the head of the city. Antioch, with the in­ scription AinACIOT, in the Museum Worsleyanum (p. 143), According to Raoul-Rochette, however, the .name should be read 'Aairaffiov, (Lettre a M. Schorn, p. 33, or p. 122, 2d edit.) [P. S.J

**LIPODORUS (Amtecopos) commanded a body of 3000 soldiers in the army of the Greeks, who, having been settled by Alexander the Great in the upper or eastern satrapies of Asia, revolted as soon as they heard of his death, in b. c, 323. Pithon, having been sent against them by the regent Per- diccas, found means to bribe Lipodorus, who idrew off his men during the heat of the battle, and thus caused the defeat of his friends. (Diod. xviii, 4, 7 ; Droysen, Gescli. der Nachf. Alex. pp. £6—58.) . [E, E.]

**LITAE (AtraQ, a personification of the prayers offered up in repentance. They are described as the daughters of Zeus, and as following closely be­ hind crime, and endeavouring to make amends for what has been done ; but whoever disdains to receive them, has himself to atone 'for the crime that has been committed. (Horn. //. ix. 502, &c.; Eustath, ttd Horn. p. 768 ; Hesych. s. v. aZrai, calls them Aetae, which however is probably only a mistake in the name.) [L. S.]

**LITORIUS (AiTfifyMos) a veterinary surgeon, a native of Beneyentum in Samnium, >vho may, per-

. LIVIA.

haps, Tiave liveH in the fourth or "fifth century after Christ. A few fragments of his writings, which are all that remain, are'to be found in the collection of writers on veterinary surgery, first published m Latin by Jean de la Ruelle, Paris 1530, fol., and afterwards in Greek by Simon, Grynaeus, Basil, 1537,4to. [W.A. G.]

**LITYERSES (Airvepays), a .natural son of Midas, lived at Celaenae in Phrygia, engaged in rural pursuits, and hospitably received all strangers that passed his house, but he then compelled them to assist him in the harvest, and whenever they allowed themselves to be surpassed by him in their work, he cut off their heads in the evening, and concealed their bodies in the sheaves, accompanying his deed with songs. Heracles, however, slew him, and threw his body into the Maeander. The Phrygian reapers used to celebrate his memory in a harvest-song which bore the name of Lityerses (Schol. ad Tlieocrit. x. 41 ; A then. ,x. p. 615, xiv, p. 619 ; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1164 ; Hesych., Phot., Suid. s. v. ; Pollux, iv. 54). Concerning the song Lity-r erses see Eichstadt, De Dramate Graecor. comico- satyricO) imprimis de Sosithei Lityersa, p, 16, &c. ; Ilgen, De Scoliorum Poesi, p. 16, &c, [L. S,]

LIVILLA, [**LiviA.]

**LIVIA. 1. Daughter of M. Livius Drusus, consul b. c. 112, and sister of M. Livius Drusus, the celebrated tribune of the plebs, who was killed B. c. 91. [See the genealogical table, Vol. I. p. 1076.] She was married first to'Ml Porcius Cato, by whom she had Cato Uticensis (Cic. Brut. 62; Val. Max. iii. 1. § 2 ; Aur. Vict. de Vir. Ill 80..; Plut. Cat. Min. i. 2), and subsequently to Q. Servilius Caepio, by whom she had a daughter, Servilia, who was the mother of M. Brutus, who killed Caesar. (Plut. Brut. 2, Caes. 62, Cat. Min. 24.) Some writers suppose that Caepio was her first husband, and Cato her second.

2. livia Dnusn-LA, the wife of Augustus, was the daughter of Livius Dmsus Claudianus [drusus, No. 7], who had been adopted by one of the Livia gens, but was a descendant of App. Claudius Caecus, Livia was born on the 28th of September, b. c. 56—54. (Letronne, Recherches pour sermr a FHistoire deTEgypte, p, 171.) She was married first to Tib. Claudius Nero ; but her beauty having attracted the notice of Octavian at the beginning of b. c. 38, her husband was compelled to divorce her, and surrender her to the triumvir. She had, already borne her husband one son, the future em­peror Tiberius, and at the time of her marriage with Augustus, was six months pregnant with anpther, who subsequently received the name of Drusus. It was only two years 'previously that she had been obliged to fly before Octavian, in con­sequence of her husband having fought against him in the Perusinian war, (Suet. 726. 3, 4> Veil. Pat, ii. 75, 79; Suet, Aug. 62; Dion Cass, xlyiii, 15,34,44.)

Livia never bore Augustus any children, but she continued to have unbounded influence over him till the time of his death. The empire which she had gained by her charms she maintained by the purity of her conduct and the fascination of her manners, as well as by a perfect knowledge of the character of Augustus, whom she endeavoured to please . in every way. She was a .consummate actress, excelled in dissimulation and intrigue, and never troubled either herself or her husband by complaining of the numerous mistresses of the,