585), and is said to have been destroyed by the Dioscuri, who hence derived the surname of Lapersae. (Strab. viii. p. 364; Steph. B. s. v. Aâ.) There was also a mountain in Laconia called Lapersa. (Steph. B. s. v. ▲añéρσa.) In the later period it was a place of no importance. Livy speaks of it as "vicus maritimus" (xxxviii. 30), and Pausanias mentions the ruins of the city on Mt. Asia. Before the walls he saw a statue of Hercules, and a trophy erected over the Macedonians who were a part of Philip's army when he invaded Laconia; and among the ruins he noticed a statue of Athena Asia. The modern town was near a fountain called Galaco (Taλak), from the milky colour of its water, and near it was a gymnasium, in which stood an ancient statue of Hermes. Besides the ruins of the old town on Mt. Asia, there were also buildings on the two other mountains mentioned above: on Mt. Ilium stood a temple of Dionysus, and on the summit a temple of Asclepius; and on Mt. Cnacadium a temple of Apollo Carneius.

Las is spoken of by Polybius (v. 19) and Strabo (viii. p. 363) under the name of Asine; and hence it has been supposed that some of the fugitives from Asine in Argolis may have settled at Las, and given their name to the town. But, notwithstanding the statement of Polybius, from whom Strabo probably copied, we have given reasons elsewhere for believing that there was no Laconian town called Asine; and that the mistake probably arose from confounding "Asine" with "Asia," on which Las originally stood. [ASINE, No. 3.]

Las stood upon the hill of Passava, which is now crowned by the ruins of a fortress of the middle ages, among which, however, Leake noticed, at the southern end of the eastern wall, a piece of Hellenic wall, about 50 paces in length, and two-thirds of the height of the modern wall. It is formed of polygonal blocks of stone, some four feet long and three broad. The fountain Galaco is the stream Turkóvrysa, which rises between the hill of Passavá and the village of Kárvela, the latter being one mile and a half west of Passavá. (Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 254, seq., p. 276, seq.; Peloponnesiaca, p. 150; Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 87; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 273, seq.)

LASAEA (Aaraía), a city in Crete, near the roadstead of the "Fair Havens." (Acts, xxvii. 8.) This place is not mentioned by any other writer, but is probably the same as the Lisia of the Peutinger Tables, 16 M. P. to the E. of Gortyna. (Comp Höck, Kreta, vol. i. pp. 412, 439.) Some MSS. have Lasea; others, Alassa. The Vulgate reads Thalassa, which Beza contended was the true name. (Comp. Coneybeare and Howson, Life and Epist. of St. Paul, vol. ii. p. 330.) [E. B. J.]

LA'SION (Aaoíwv or Aaσiv), the chief town of the mountainous district of Acroreia in Elis proper, was situated upon the frontiers of Arcadia near Psophis. Curtius places it with great probability in the upper valley of the Ladon, at the Paleokastro of Kumani, on the road from the Eleian Pylos and Ephyra to Psophis. Lasion was a frequent object of dispute between the Arcadians and Eleians, both of whom laid claim to it. In the war which the Spartans carried on against Elis at the close of the Peloponnesian War, Pausanias, king of Sparta, took Lasion (Diod. xiv. 17). The invasion of Pausanias is not mentioned by Xenophon in his account of this war; but the latter author relates that, by the treaty of peace concluded between Elis and Sparta in B.C.

400, the Eleians were obliged to give up Lasion, in consequence of its being claimed by the Arcadians. (Xen. Hell. iii. 2. § 30.) In B. c. 366 the Eleians attempted to recover Lasion from the Arcadians; they took the town by surprise, but were shortly afterwards driven out of it again by the Arcadians. (Xen. Hell. vii. 4. § 13, seq.; Diod. xv. 77.) In B. C. 219 Lasion was again a fortress of Elis, but upon the capture of Psophis by Philip, the Eleian garrison at Lasion straightway deserted the place. (Polyb. iv. 72, 73.) Polybius mentions (v. 102) along with Lasion a fortress called Pyrgos, which he places in a district named Perippia. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 200, seq.; Boblaye, Récherches, fc. p. 125; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. i. p. 41 )

LA'SSORA, a town of Galatia, mentioned in the Peut. Tab. as 25 miles distant from Eccobriga, whence we may infer that it is the same place as the Aaokopia of Ptolemy (v. 4. § 9). The Antonine Itinerary (p. 203) mentions a town Adapera in about the same site. [L. S.]

LASTI'GI, a town of Hispania Baetica, belonging to the conventus of Hispalis (Plin. iii. 1. s. 3), and one of the cities of which we have coins, all of them belonging to the period of its independence: their type is a head of Mars, with two ears of corn lying parallel to each other. The site is supposed to be at Zahara, lying on a height of the Sierra de Ronda above the river Guadalete. (Carter's Travels, p. 171 Florez, Esp. S. vol. ix. pp. 18, 60, Med. vol. ii p. 475, vol. iii. p. 85; Mionnet, vol. i. p. 50, Suppl. vol. i. p. 113; Sestini, Med. Isp. p. 61; Num. Goth.; Eckhel, vol. i. p. 25; Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. pp. 358, 382.) [P.S.]

LASUS, a town of Crete, enumerated by Pliny (iv. 12) among his list of inland cities. A coin with the epigraph AATION, the Doric form for Aaríwv, is claimed by Eckhel (vol. ii. p. 316, comp. Sestini, p. 53) for this place. [E. B. J.]

LATARA. [LEDUS.]

LATHON (Aάowv, Strab. xvii. p. 836, where the vulgar reading is Addwv; comp. xiv. p. 647, where he calls it Antaîos; Ptol. iv. 4. § 4; Ańowv, Ptol. Euerg. ap Ath. ii. p. 71; FLUVIUS LETHON, Plin. v. 5; Solin. 27; LETHES AMNIS, Lucan, ix. 355), a river of the Hesperidae or Hesperitae, in Cyrenaica. It rose in the Herculis Arenae, and fell into the sea a little N. of the city of HESPERIDES OF BERENICE: Strabo connects it with the harbour of the city (Auny 'Eσrepidŵv: that there is not the slightest reason for altering the reading, as Groskurd and others do, into λíurn, will presently appear); and Seyiax (p. 110, Gronov.) mentions the river, which he calls Ecceius ('EKкetós), as in close proximity with the city and habour of Hesperides. Pliny expressly states that the river was not far from the city, and places on or near it a sacred grove, which was supposed to represent the "Gardens of the Hesperides" (Plin. v. 5: nec procul ante oppidum flu vius Lethon, lucus sacer, ubi Hesperidum horti memorantur). Athenaeus quotes from a work of Ptolemy Euergetes praises of its fine pike and eels, somewhat inconsistent, especially in the mouth of a luxurious king of Egypt, with the mythical sound of the name. That name is, in fact, plain Doric Greek, descriptive of the character of the river, like our English Mole. So well does it deserve the name, that it "escaped the notice" of commentators and geographers, till it was discovered by Beechey, as it still flows "concealed" from such scholars as depend on vague guesses in place of an accurate knowledge

II. EXTENT AND BOUNDARIES.

The name of Latium was applied at different periods in a very different extent and signification. Originally, as already pointed out, it meant the land of the Latini; and as long as that people retained their independent national existence, the name of Latium could only be applied to the territory possessed by them, exclusive of that of the Hernici, Aequians, Volscians, &c., who were at that period independent and often hostile nations. It was not till these separate nationalities had been merged into the common condition of subjects and citizens of Rome that the name of Latium came to be extended to all the territory which they had previously occupied; and was thus applied, first in common parlance, and afterwards in official usage, to the whole region from the borders of Etruria to those of Campania, or from the Tiber to the Liris. Hence we must carefully distinguish between Latium in the original sense of the name, in which alone it occurs throughout the early Roman history, and Latium in this later or geographical sense; and it will be necessary here to treat of the two quite separately. The period at which the latter usage of the name came into vogue we have no means of determining: we know only that it was fully established before the time of Augustus, and is recognised by all the geographers. (Strab. v. pp. 228, 231; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Ptol. iii. 1. §§ 5, 6.) Pliny designates the original Latium, or Latium properly so called, as Latium Antiquum, to which he opposes the newly added portions, as Latium Adjectum. It may, however, be doubted whether these appellations were ever adopted in common use, though convenient as geographical distinctions.

1. LATIUM ANTIQUUM, or Latium in the original and historical sense, was a country of small extent, bounded by the Tiber on the N., by the Apennines on the E., and by the Tyrrhenian sea on the W.; while on the S. its limits were not defined by any natural boundaries, and appear to have fluctuated considerably at different periods. Pliny defines it as extending from the mouth of the Tiber to the Circeian promontory, a statement confirmed by Strabo (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Strab. v. p. 231); and we have other authority also for the fact that at an early period all the tract of marshy plain, known as the Pontine Marshes or "Pomptinus Ager," extending from Velitrae and Antium to Circeii, was inhabited by Latins, and regarded as a part of Latium. (Cato, ap. Priscian. v. p. 668.) Even of the adjoining mountain tract, subsequently occupied by the Volscians, a part at least must have been originally Latin, for Cora, Norba, and Setia were all of them Latin cities (Dionys. v. 61), — though, at a somewhat later period, not only had these towns, as well as the plain beneath, fallen into the hands of the Volscians, but

that people had made themselves masters of Antium and Velitrae, which are in consequence repeatedly called Volscian cities. The manner in which the early Roman history has been distorted by poetical legends and the exaggerations of national vanity renders it very difficult to trace the course of these changes, and the alterations in the frontiers consequent upon the alternate progress of the Volscian and the Roman arms. But there seems no reason to doubt the fact that such changes repeatedly took place, and that we may thus explain the apparent inconsistency of ancient historians in calling the same places at one time Volscian, at another Latin, cities. We may also clearly discern two different periods, during the first of which the Volscian arms were gradually gaining upon those of the Latins, and extending their dominion over cities of Latin origin; while, in the second, the Volscians were in their turn giving way before the preponderating power of Rome. The Gaulish invasion (B. C. 390) may be taken, approximately at least, as the turning point between the two periods.

The case appears to have been somewhat similar, though to a less degree, on the northern frontier, where the Latins adjoined the Sabines. Here, also, we find the same places at different times, and by different anthors, termed sometimes Latin and sometimes Sabine, cities; and though in some of thes cases the discrepancy may have arisen from mere in advertence or error, it is probable that in some in stances both statements are equally correct, bu refer to different periods. The circumstance tha the Anio was fixed by Augustus as the boundary the First Region seems to have soon led to the notion that it was the northern limit of Latium also; and hence all the towns beyond it were regarded as Sabine, though several of them were, according to the general tradition of earlier times, originally Latin cities. Such was the confusion resulting from this cause that Piny in one passage enumerates Nomentum, Fidenae, and even Tibur among the Sabine towns, while he elsewhere mentions the two former as Latin cities,—and the Latin origin of Tibur is too well established to admit of a doubt. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9, 12. s. 17.)

In the absence of natural boundaries it is only by means of the names of the towns that we can trace the extent of Latium; and here fortunately the lists that have been transmitted to us by Dionysius and Pliny, as well as those of the colonies of Alba, afford us material assistance. The latter, indeed, cannot be regarded as of historical value, but they were unquestionably meant to represent the fact, with which their authors were probably well acquainted, that the places there enumerated were properly Latin cities, and not of Sabine or Volscian origin. Taking these authorities for our guides, we may trace the limits of ancient Latium as follows:-1. From the mouth of the Tiber to the confluence of the Anio, the former river constituted the boundary between Latium and Etruria. The Romans, indeed, from an early period, extended their territory beyond the Tiber, and held the Janiculum and Campus Varicanus on its right bank, as well as the so-called Septem Pagi, which they wrested from the Veientes; and it is probable that the Etruscans, on the other hand, had at one period extended their power over a part of the district on the left bank of the Tiber, but that river nevertheless constituted the generally recognised geographical limit between Etruria and Latium. 2. North of the Anio the Latin territory

III. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

The land of the Latins, or Latium in its original sense, formed the southern part of the great basin through which the Tiber flows to the sea, and which is bounded by the Ciminian Hills, and other ranges of volcanic hills connected with them, towards the N., by the Apennines on the E., and by the Alban Hills on the S. The latter, however, do not form a continuous barrier, being in fact an isolated group of volcanic origin, separated by a considerable gap from the Apennines on the one side, while on the other they leave a broad strip of low plain between their lowest slopes and the sea, which is continued on in the broad expanse of level and marshy ground, commonly known as the Pontine Marshes, extending in a broad band between the Volscian mountains and the sea, until it is suddenly and abruptly terminated by the isolated mass of the Circeian promontory.

The great basin-like tract thus bounded is divided into two portions by the Tiber, of which the one on the N. of that river belongs to Southern Etruria, and is not comprised in our present subject. [ETRURIA.] The southern part, now known as the Campagna di Roma, may be regarded as a broad expanse of undulatory plain, extending from the seacoast to the foot of the Apennines, which rise from it abruptly like a gigantic wall to a height of from 3000 to 4000 feet, their highest summits even exceeding the latter elevation. The Monte Gennaro, (4285 English feet in height) is one of the loftiest summits of this range, and, from the boldness with which it rises from the subjacent plain, and its advanced position, appears, when viewed from the Campagna, the most elevated of all; but, according to Sir W. Gell, it is exceeded in actual height both by the Monte Pennecchio, a little to the NE. of it, and by the Monte di Guadagnolo, the central peak of the group of mountains which rise immediately above Praeneste or Palestrina. The citadel of Praeneste itself occupies a very elevated position, forming a kind of outwork or advanced post of the chain of Apennines, which here trends away suddenly to the eastward, sweeping round by Genazzano, Olevano, and Rojate, till it resumes its general SE. direction, and is continued on by the lofty ranges of the Hernican mountains, which bound the valley of the Sacco on the E. and continue unbroken to the valley of the Liris.

Opposite to Praeneste, and separated from it by a breadth of nearly 5 miles of intervening plain, rises the isolated group of the Alban mountains, the form of which at once proves its volcanic origin. [ALBANUS MONS.] It is a nearly circular mass, of about 40 miles in circumference; and may be conceived as forming a great crater, the outer ridge of which has been broken up into numerous more or less detached summits, several of which were crowned in ancient times by towns or fortresses, such as Tusculum, Corbio, &c.; while at a lower level it throws out detached offshoots, or outlying ridges, affording advantageous sites for towns, and which were accordingly occupied by those of Velitrae, Lanuvium, Alba Longa, &c. The group of the Alban mountains is wholly detached on all sides: on the S. a strip of plain, of much the same breadth as that which separated it from the Apennines of Praeneste, divides it from the subordinate but very lofty mass of moun

Volscian mountains. This group, which forms an outlying mass of the Apennines, separated from the main chain of those mountains by the broad valley of the Trerus or Sacco, rises in a bold and imposing mass from the level of the Pontine Marshes, which it borders throughout their whole extent, until it reaches the sea at Tarracina, and from that place to the mouth of the Liris sends down a succession of mountain headlands to the sea, constituting a great natural barrier between the plains of Latium and those of Campania. The highest summits of this group, which consists, like the more central Apennines, wholly of limestone, attain an elevation of nearly 5000 feet above the sea: the whole mass fills up almost the entire space between the valley of the Trerus and the Pontine Marshes, a breadth of from 12 to 16 miles; with a length of near 40 miles from Monte Fortino at its N. extremity to the sea at Terracina: but the whole distance, from Monte Fortino to the end of the mountain chain near the mouth of the Liris, exceeds 60 miles. The greater part of this rugged mountain tract belonged from a very early period to the Volscians, but the Latins, as already mentioned, possessed several towns, as Signia, Cora, Norba, &c., which were built on projecting points or underfalls of the main chain.

But though the plains of Latium are thus strongly characterised, when compared with the groups of mountains just described, it must not be supposed that they constitute an unbroken plain, still less a level alluvial tract like those of Northern Italy. The Campagna of Rome, as it is called at the present day, is a country of wholly different character from the ancient Campania. It is a broad undulating tract, never rising into considerable elevations, but presenting much more variety of ground than would be suspected from the general uniformity of its appearance, and irregularly intersected in all directions by numerous streams, which have cut for themselves deep channels or ravines through the soft volcanic tufo of which the soil is composed, leaving on each side steep and often precipitous banks. The height of these, and the depth of the valleys or ravines which are bounded by them, vary greatly in different parts of the Campagna; but besides these local and irregular fluctuations, there is a general rise (though so gradual as to be imperceptible to the eye) in the level of the plain towards the E. and SE.; so that, as it approaches Praeneste, it really attains to a considerable elevation, and the river courses which intersect the plain in nearly parallel lines between that city and the Anio become deep and narrow ravines of the most formidable description. Even in the lower and more level parts of the Campagna the sites of ancient cities will be generally found to occupy spaces bounded to a considerable extent — frequently on three sides out of four-by steep banks of tufo rock, affording natural means of defence, which could be easily strengthened by the simple expedient of cutting away the face of the rocky bank, so as to render it altogether inaccessible. The peculiar configuration of the Campagna resulting from these causes is well represented on Sir W. Gell's map, the only one which gives at all a faithful idea of the physical geography of Latium.

The volcanic origin of the greater part of Latium has a material influence upon its physical character and condition. The Alban mountains, as already mentioned, are unquestionably a great volcanic mass