LANZI, LUIGI (1732-1810), Italian archaeologist, was born in 1732 and educated as a priest. In 1773 he was appointed keeper of the galleries of Florence, and thereafter studied Italian painting and Etruscan antiquities and language. In the one field his labours are represented by his Storia Pittorica della Italia, the first portion of which, containing the Florentine, Sienese, Roman and Neapolitan schools, appeared in 1792, the rest in 1796. The work is translated by Roscoe. In archaeology his great achievement was Saggio di lingua Etrusca (1789), followed by Saggio delle lingue Ital. antiche (1806). In his memoir on the so-called Etruscan vases (Dei vasi antichi dipinti volgarmente chiamati Etruschi, 1806) Lanzi rightly perceived their Greek origin and characters. What was true of the antiquities would be true also, he argued, of the Etruscan language, and the object of the Saggio di lingua Etrusca was to prove that this language must be related to that of the neighbouring peoples—Romans, Umbrians, Oscans and Greeks. He was allied with E. Q. Visconti in his great but never accomplished plan of illustrating antiquity altogether from existing literature and monuments. His notices of ancient sculpture and its various styles appeared as an appendix to the Saggio di lingua Etrusca, and arose out of his minute study of the treasures then added to the Florentine collection from the Villa Medici. The abuse he met with from later writers on the Etruscan language led Corssen (Sprache der Etrusker, i. p. vi.) to protest in the name of his real services to philology and archaeology. Among his other productions was an edition of Hesiod’s Works and Days, with valuable notes, and a translation in terza rima. Begun in 1785, it was recast and completed in 1808. The list of his works closes with his Opere sacre, a series of treatises on spiritual subjects. Lanzi died on the 30th of March 1810. He was buried in the church of the Santa Croce at Florence by the side of Michelangelo.
LAOAG, a town, port for coasting vessels, and capital of the province of Ilocos Norte, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on the Laoag river, about 5 m. from its mouth, and in the N.W. part of the island. Pop. (1903) 34,454; in 1903, after the census had been taken, the municipality of San Nicolás (pop. 1903, 10,880) was added to Laoag. Laoag is on an extensive coast plain, behind which is a picturesque range of hills; it is well built and is noted for its fine climate, the name “Laoag” signifying “clear.” It is especially well equipped for handling rice, which is shipped in large quantities; Indian corn, tobacco and sugar are also shipped. Cotton is grown in the vicinity, and is woven by the women into fabrics, which find a ready sale among the pagan tribes of the mountains. The language is Ilocano.
LAOCOON, in Greek legend a brother of Anchises, who had been a priest of Apollo, but having profaned the temple of the god he and his two sons were attacked by serpents while preparing to sacrifice a bull at the altar of Poseidon, in whose service Laocoon was then acting as priest. An additional motive for his punishment consisted in his having warned the Trojans against the wooden horse left by the Greeks. But, whatever his crime may have been, the punishment stands out even among the tragedies of Greek legend as marked by its horror—particularly so as it comes to us in Virgil (Aeneid, ii. 199 sq.), and as it is represented in the marble group, the Laocoon, in the Vatican. In the oldest existing version of the legend—that of Arctinus of Miletus, which has so far been preserved in the excerpts of Proclus—the calamity is lessened by the fact that only one of the two sons is killed; and this, as has been pointed out (Arch. Zeitung, 1879, p. 167), agrees with the interpretation which Goethe in his Propylaea had put on the marble group without reference to the literary tradition. He says: “The younger son struggles and is powerless, and is alarmed; the father struggles ineffectively, indeed his efforts only increase the opposition; the elder son is least of all injured, he feels neither anguish nor pain, but he is horrified at what he sees happening to his father, and he screams while he pushes the coils of the serpent off from his legs. He is thus an observer, witness, and participant in the incident, and the work is then complete.” Again, “the gradation of the incident is this: the father has become powerless among the coils of the serpent; the younger son has still strength for resistance but is wounded; the elder has a prospect of escape.” Lessing, on the other hand, maintained the view that the marble group illustrated the version of the legend given by Virgil, with such differences as were necessary from the different limits of representation imposed on the arts of sculpture and of poetry. These limits required a new definition, and this he undertook in his still famous work, Laokoon (see the edition of Hugo Blümner, Berlin, 1876, in which the subsequent criticism is collected). The date of the Laocoon being now fixed (see [Agesander]) to 40-20 B.C., there can be no question of copying Virgil. The group represents the extreme of a pathetic tendency in sculpture (see [Greek Art], Plate I. fig. 52).
LAODICEA, the name of at least eight cities, founded or renovated in the later Hellenic period. Most of them were founded by the Seleucid kings of Syria. Seleucus, founder of the dynasty, is said by Appian to have named five cities after his mother Laodice. Thus in the immense realm of the Seleucidae from the Aegean Sea to the borders of India we find cities called Laodicea, as also Seleucia (q.v.). So long as Greek civilization held its ground, these were the commercial and social centres. The chief are Laodicea ad Lycum (see below); Combusta on the borders of Phrygia, Lycaonia and Pisidia; a third in Pontus; a fourth, ad mare, on the coast of Syria; a fifth, ad Libanum, beside the Lebanon mountains; and three others in the far east—Media, Persia and the lower Tigris valley. In the latter countries Greek civilization was short-lived, and the last three cities disappeared; the other five continued great throughout the Greek and Roman period, and the second, third and fourth retain to the present day the ancient name under the pronunciation Ladik, Ladikiyeh or Latakia (q.v.).
Laodicea ad Lycum (mod. Denizli, q.v.) was founded probably by Antiochus II. Theos (261-46 B.C.), and named after his wife Laodice. Its site is close to the station of Gonjeli on the Anatolian railway. Here was one of the oldest homes of Christianity and the seat of one of the seven churches of the Apocalypse. Pliny states (v. 29) that the town was called in older times Diospolis and Rhoas; but at an early period Colossae, a few miles to the east, and Hierapolis, 6 m. to the north, were the great cities of the neighbourhood, and Laodicea was of no importance till the Seleucid foundation (Strabo, p. 578). A favourable site was found on some low hills of alluvial formation, about 2 m. S. of the river Lycus (Churuk Su) and 9 m. E. of the confluence of the Lycus and Maeander. The great trade route from the Euphrates and the interior passed to it through Apamea. There it forked, one branch going down the Maeander valley to Magnesia and thence north to Ephesus, a distance of about 90 m., and the other branch crossing the mountains by an easy pass to Philadelphia and the Hermus valley, Sardis, Thyatira and at last Pergamum. St Paul (Col. iv. 15) alludes to the situation of Laodicea beside Colossae and Hierapolis; and the order in which the last five churches of the Apocalypse are enumerated (Rev. i. 11) is explained by their position on the road just described. Placed in this situation, in the centre of a very fertile district, Laodicea became a rich city. It was famous for its money transactions (Cic. Ad Fam. ii. 17, iii. 5), and for the beautiful soft wool grown by the sheep of the country (Strabo 578). Both points are referred to in the message to the church (Rev. iii. 17, 18).
Little is known of the history of the town. It suffered greatly from a siege in the Mithradatic war, but soon recovered its prosperity under the Roman empire. The Zeus of Laodicea, with the curious epithet Azeus or Azeis, is a frequent symbol on the city coins. He is represented standing, holding in the extended right hand an eagle, in the left a spear, the hasta pura. Not far from the city was the temple of Men Karou, with a great medical school; while Laodicea itself produced some famous Sceptic philosophers, and gave origin to the royal family of Polemon and Zenon, whose curious history has been illustrated in recent times (W. H. Waddington, Mélanges de Numism. ser. ii.; Th. Mommsen, Ephem. Epigraph. i. and ii.; M. G. Rayet, Milet et le Golfe Latmique, chap. v.). The city fell finally into decay in the frontier wars with the Turkish invaders. Its ruins are of wide extent, but not of great beauty or interest; there is no doubt, however, that much has been buried beneath the surface by the frequent earthquakes to which the district is exposed (Strabo 580; Tac. Ann. xiv. 27).
See W. M. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i.-ii. (1895); Letters to the Seven Churches (1904); and the beautiful drawings of Cockerell in the Antiquities of Ionia, vol. iii. pl. 47-51.