Lithobŏlia, a festival celebrated at Trœzene in honour of Lamia and Auxesia, who came from Crete, and were sacrificed by the fury of the seditious populace, and stoned to death. Hence the name of the solemnity, λιθοβολια, lapidation.
Lithrus, a town of Armenia Minor. Strabo.
Lithubium, a town of Liguria. Livy, bk. 32, ch. 29.
Lityersas, an illegitimate son of Midas king of Phrygia. He made strangers prepare his harvest, and afterwards put them to death. He was at last killed by Hercules. Theocritus, Idylls, poem 10.
Līvia Drusilla, a celebrated Roman lady, daughter of Lucius Drusus Calidianus. She married Tiberius Claudius Nero, by whom she had the emperor Tiberius and Drusus Germanicus. The attachment of her husband to the cause of Antony was the beginning of her greatness. Augustus saw her as she fled from the danger which threatened her husband, and he resolved to marry her, though she was then pregnant. He divorced his wife Scribonia, and with the approbation of the augurs, he celebrated his nuptials with Livia. She now took advantage of the passion of Augustus, in the share that she enjoyed of his power and imperial dignity. Her children by Drusus were adopted by the complying emperor; and, that she might make the succession of her son Tiberius more easy and undisputed, Livia is accused of secretly involving in one common ruin the heirs and nearest relations of Augustus. Her cruelty and ingratitude are still more strongly marked, when she is charged with having murdered her own husband to hasten the elevation of Tiberius. If she was anxious for the aggrandizement of her son, Tiberius proved ungrateful, and hated a woman to whom he owed his life, his elevation, and his greatness. Livia died in the 86th year of her age, A.D. 29. Tiberius showed himself as undutiful after her death as before, for he neglected her funeral, and expressly commanded that no honours, either private or public, should be paid to her memory. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Suetonius, Augustus and Tiberias.—Dio Cassius.——Another. See: [Drusilla].——Another, called Horestilla, &c. She was debauched by Galba, as she was going to marry Piso. Suetonius, Galba, ch. 25.——Another, called also Ocellina. She was Galba’s stepmother, and committed adultery with him. Suetonius, Galba, ch. 3.
Līvia lex, de sociis, proposed to make all the inhabitants of Italy free citizens of Rome. Marcus Livius Drusus, who framed it, was found murdered in his house before it passed.——Another by Marcus Livius Drusus the tribune, A.U.C. 662, which required that the judicial power should be lodged in the hands of an equal number of knights and senators.
Livineius, a friend of Pompey, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 3, ch. 11, &c.
Livilla, a daughter of Drusus.——A sister of Caligula, &c. See: [Julia].
Līvius Andronīcus, a dramatic poet, who flourished at Rome about 240 years before the christian era. He was the first who turned the personal satires and fescennine verses, so long the admiration of the Romans, into the form of a proper dialogue and regular play. Though the character of a player, so valued and applauded in Greece, was reckoned vile and despicable among the Romans, Andronicus acted a part in his dramatic compositions and engaged the attention of his audience, by repeating what he had laboriously formed after the manner of the Greeks. Andronicus was the freedman of Marcus Livius Salinator, whose children he educated. His poetry was grown obsolete in the age of Cicero, whose nicety and judgment would not even recommend the reading of it. Some few of his verses are preserved in the Corpus Poetarum.——Marcus Salinator, a Roman consul, sent against the Illyrians. The success with which he finished the campaign, and the victory which some years after he obtained over Asdrubal, who was passing into Italy with a reinforcement for his brother Annibal, show how deserving he was to be at the head of the Roman armies. Livy.——Drusus, a tribune who joined the patricians in opposing the ambitious views of Caius Gracchus. Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus.——An uncle of Cato of Utica. Plutarch.——Titus, a native of Padua, celebrated for his writings. He passed the greatest part of his life at Naples and Rome, but more particularly at the court of Augustus, who liberally patronized the learned, and encouraged the progress of literature. Few particulars of his life are known, yet his fame was so universally spread even in his lifetime, that an inhabitant of Gades traversed Spain, Gaul, and Italy, merely to see the man whose writings had given him such pleasure and satisfaction in the perusal. Livy died at Padua, in his 67th year, and according to some, on that same day Rome was also deprived of another of its brightest ornaments, by the death of the poet Ovid, A.D. 17. It is said that Livia had appointed Livy to be the preceptor to young Claudius the brother of Germanicus, but death prevented the historian from enjoying an honour to which he was particularly entitled by his learning and his universal knowledge. The name of Livy is rendered immortal by his history of the Roman empire. Besides this, he wrote some philosophical treatises and dialogues, with a letter addressed to his son, on the merit of authors, which ought to be read by young men. This letter is greatly commended by Quintilian, who expatiates with great warmth on the judgment and candour of the author. His Roman history was comprehended in 140 books, of which only 35 are extant. It began with the foundation of Rome, and was continued till the death of Drusus in Germany. The merit of this history is well known, and the high rank which Livy holds among historians will never be disputed. He is always great; his style is clear and intelligible, laboured without affectation, diffusive without tediousness, and argumentative without pedantry. In his harangues he is bold and animated, and in his narrations and descriptions he claims a decided superiority. He is always elegant, and though many have branded his provincial words with the name of Patavinity, yet the expressions, or rather the orthography of words, which in Livy are supposed to distinguish a native of a province of Italy from a native of Rome, are not loaded with obscurity, and the perfect classic is as familiarly acquainted with the one as with the other. Livy has been censured, and perhaps with justice, for being too credulous, and burdening his history with vulgar notions and superstitious tales. He may disgust when he mentions that milk and blood were rained from heaven, or that an ox spoke, or a woman changed her sex, yet he candidly confesses that he recorded only what made an indelible impression upon the minds of a credulous age. His candour has also been called in question, and he has sometimes shown himself too partial to his countrymen, but everywhere he is an indefatigable supporter of the cause of justice and virtue. The works of Livy have been divided by some of the moderns into 14 decades, each consisting of 10 books. The first decade comprehends the history of 460 years. The second decade is lost, and the third comprehends the history of the second Punic war, which includes about 18 years. In the fourth decade, Livy treats of the wars with Macedonia and Antiochus, which contain about 23 years. For the first five books of the fifth decade, we are indebted to the researches of the moderns. They were found at Worms, A.D. 1431. These are the books that remain of Livy’s history, and the loss which the celebrated work has sustained by the ravages of time, has in some measure been compensated by the labours of Johann Freinshemius, who with great attention and industry has made an epitome of the Roman history, which is now incorporated with the remaining books of Livy. The third decade seems to be superior to the others, yet the author has not scrupled to copy from his contemporaries and predecessors, and we find many passages taken word for word from Polybius, in which the latter has shown himself more informed in military affairs, and superior to his imitator. The best editions of Livy will be found to be those of Maittaire, 6 vols., 12mo, London, 1722; of Drakenborch, 7 vols., 4to, Amsterdam, 1731; and of Ruddiman, 4 vols., 12mo, Edinburgh, 1751.——A governor of Tarentum, who delivered his trust to Annibal, &c.——A high priest who devoted Decius to the Dii Manes.——A commander of a Roman fleet sent against Antiochus in the Hellespont.
Lixus, a river of Mauritania, with a city of the same name. Antæus had a palace there, and according to some accounts it was in the neighbourhood that Hercules conquered him. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 258.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Strabo, bk. 2.——A son of Ægyptus. Apollodorus.