As a satirist and humorist Lichtenberg takes high rank among the German writers of the 18th century. His biting wit involved him in many controversies with well-known contemporaries, such as Lavater, whose science of physiognomy he ridiculed, and Voss, whose views on Greek pronunciation called forth a powerful satire, Über die Pronunciation der Schöpse des alten Griechenlandes (1782). In 1769 and again in 1774 he resided for some time in England and his Briefe aus England (1776-1778), with admirable descriptions of Garrick’s acting, are the most attractive of his writings. He contributed to the Göttinger Taschenkalender from 1778 onwards, and to the Göttingisches Magazin der Literatur und Wissenschaft, which he edited for three years (1780-1782) with J. G. A. Forster. He also published in 1794-1799 an Ausführliche Erklärung der Hogarthschen Kupferstiche.
Lichtenberg’s Vermischte Schriften were published by F. Kries in 9 vols. (1800-1805); new editions in 8 vols. (1844-1846 and 1867). Selections by E. Grisebach, Lichtenbergs Gedanken und Maximen (1871); by F. Robertag (in Kürschner’s Deutsche Nationalliteratur (vol. 141, 1886); and by A. Wilbrandt (1893). Lichtenberg’s Briefe have been published in 3 vols, by C. Schüddekopf and A. Leitzmann (1900-1902); his Aphorismen by A. Leitzmann (3 vols., 1902-1906). See also R. M. Meyer, Swift und Lichtenberg (1886); F. Lauchert, Lichtenbergs schriftstellerische Tätigkeit (1893); and A. Leitzmann, Aus Lichtenbergs Nachlass (1899).
LICHTENBERG, formerly a small German principality on the west bank of the Rhine, enclosed by the Nahe, the Blies and the Glan, now belonging to the government district of Trier, Prussian Rhine province. The principality was constructed of parts of the electorate of Trier, of Nassau-Saarbrücken and other districts, and lay between Rhenish Bavaria and the old Prussian province of the Rhine. Originally called the lordship of Baumholder, it owed the name of Lichtenberg and its elevation in 1819 to a principality to Ernest, duke of Saxe-Coburg, to whom it was ceded by Prussia, in 1816, in accordance with terms agreed upon at the congress of Vienna. The duke, however, restored it to Prussia in 1834, in return for an annual pension of £12,000 sterling. The area is about 210 sq. m.
LICINIANUS, GRANIUS, Roman annalist, probably lived in the age of the Antonines (2nd century A.D.). He was the author of a brief epitome of Roman history based upon Livy, which he utilized as a means of displaying his antiquarian lore. Accounts of omens, portents, prodigies and other remarkable things apparently took up a considerable portion of the work. Some fragments of the books relating to the years 163-178 B.C. are preserved in a British Museum MS.
Editions.—C. A. Pertz (1857); seven Bonn students (1858); M. Flemisch (1904); see also J. N. Madvig, Kleine philologische Schriften (1875), and the list of articles in periodicals in Flemisch’s edition (p. iv.).
LICINIUS [Flavius Galerius Valerius Licinianus], Roman emperor, A.D. 307-324, of Illyrian peasant origin, was born probably about 250. After the death of Flavius Valerius Severus he was elevated to the rank of Augustus by Galerius, his former friend and companion in arms, on the 11th of November 307, receiving as his immediate command the provinces of Illyricum. On the death of Galerius, in May 311, he shared the entire empire with Maximinus, the Hellespont and the Thracian Bosporus being the dividing line. In March 313 he married Constantia, half-sister of Constantine, at Mediolanum (Milan), in the following month inflicted a decisive defeat on Maximinus at Heraclea Pontica, and established himself master of the East, while his brother-in-law, Constantine, was supreme in the West. In 314 his jealousy led him to encourage a treasonable enterprise on the part of Bassianus against Constantine. When his perfidy became known a civil war ensued, in which he was twice severely defeated—first near Cibalae in Pannonia (October 8th, 314), and next in the plain of Mardia in Thrace; the outward reconciliation, which was effected in the following December, left Licinius in possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, but added numerous provinces to the Western empire. In 323 Constantine, tempted by the “advanced age and unpopular vices” of his colleague, again declared war against him, and, having defeated his army at Adrianople (3rd of July 323), succeeded in shutting him up within the walls of Byzantium. The defeat of the superior fleet of Licinius by Flavius Julius Crispus, Constantine’s eldest son, compelled his withdrawal to Bithynia, where a last stand was made; the battle of Chrysopolis, near Chalcedon (18th of September), finally resulted in his submission. He was interned at Thessalonica and executed in the following year on a charge of treasonable correspondence with the barbarians.
See Zosimus ii. 7-28; Zonaras xiii. 1; Victor, Caes. 40, 41; Eutropius x. 3; Orosius vii. 28.