LOCRI, a people of ancient Greece, inhabiting two distinct districts, one extending from the north-east of Parnassus to the northern half of the Euboean channel, between Boeotia and Malis, the other south-west of Parnassus, on the north shore of the Corinthian Gulf, between Phocis and Aetolia. The former were divided into the northern Locri Epicnemidii, situated on the spurs of Mount Cnemis, and the southern Locri Opuntii, so named from their chief town Opus (q.v.): and the name Opuntia is often applied to the whole of this easterly district. Homer mentions only these eastern Locrians: their national hero in the Trojan war is Ajax Oileus, who often appears afterwards on Locrian coins. From Hesiod’s time onwards, the Opuntians were thought by some to be of “Lelegian” origin (see [Leleges]), but they were Hellenized early (though matriarchal customs survived among them)—, and Deucalion, the father of Hellen himself, is described as the first king of Opus. The westerly Locri “in Ozolae” on the Corinthian Gulf, a rude and barbarous people, make no appearance in Greek history till the Peloponnesian war. It was believed that they had separated from the eastern Locrians four generations before the Trojan war; yet Homer has no hint of their existence. Probably the Locrians were once a single people, extending from sea to sea, till subsequent immigrations forced them apart into two separate districts. The Locrian dialect of Greek is little known, but resembles that of Elis: it has στ for σθ; uses α; and has οις in dat. plur. 3rd decl. A colony of Locrians (whether from Opus or Ozolae was disputed in antiquity) settled, about the end of the 8th century B.C., at the south-west extremity of Italy. They are often called Locri Epizephyrii from Cape Zephyrion 15 m. S. of the city. Their founder’s name was Euanthes. Their social organization resembled that of the Opuntian Locri, and like them they venerated Ajax Oileus and Persephone. Aristotle (ap. Polyb. xii. 5 sqq.) records a tradition that these western Locrians were base-born, like the Parthenians of Tarentum; but this was disputed by his contemporary Timaeus. See [Locri] (town) below.
(J. L. M.)
LOCRI, an ancient city of Magna Graecia, Italy. The original settlers took possession of the Zephyrian promontory (Capo Bruzzano some 12 m. N. of Capo Spartivento), and though after three or four years they transplanted themselves to a site 12 m. farther north, still near the coast, 2 m. S. of Gerace Marina below the modern Gerace, they still retained the name of Locri Epizephyrii (Λοκροὶ οἱ ἐπιζεφύριοι), which served to distinguish them from the Ozolian and Opuntian Locri of Greece itself (see preceding article). The foundation of Locri goes back to about 683 B.C. It was the first of all Greek communities to have a written code of laws given by Zaleucus in 664 B.C. From Locri were founded the colonies of Meisma and Heiponium (Hipponium). It succeeded in repelling the attacks of Croton (battle on the river Sagras, perhaps sometime in the 6th century), and found in Syracuse a support against Rhegium: it was thus an active adversary of Athenian aggrandisement in the west. Pindar extolls its uprightness and love of the heroic muse of beauty, of wisdom, and of war, in the 10th and 11th Olympian Odes. Stesichorus (q.v.) was indeed of Locrian origin. But it owed its greatest external prosperity to the fact that Dionysius I. of Syracuse selected his wife from Locri: its territory was then increased, and the circuit of its walls was doubled, but it lost its freedom. In 356 B.C. it was ruled by Dionysius II. From the battle of Heraclea to the year 205 (when it was captured by P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Maior, and placed under the control of his legate Q. Pleminius), Locri was continually changing its allegiance between Rome and her enemies; but it remained an ally, and was only obliged like other Greek coast towns to furnish ships. In later Roman times it is often mentioned, but was apparently of no great importance. It is mentioned incidentally until the 6th century A.D., but was destroyed by the Saracens in 915.
Excavations in 1889-1890 led to the discovery of an Ionic temple (the Doric style being usual in Magna Graecia) at the north-west angle of the town—originally a cella with two naves, a closed pronaos on the E. and an adytum at the back (W.), later converted into a hexastyle peripheral temple with 34 painted terra-cotta columns. This was then destroyed about 400 B.C. and a new temple built on the ruins, heptastyle peripteral, with no intermediate columns in the cella and opisthodomos, and with 44 columns in all. The figures from the pediment of the twin Dioscuri, who according to the legend assisted Locri against Crotona, are in the Naples museum (see R. Koldewey and O. Puchstein, Griechische Tempel in Unteritalien und Sicilien, Berlin, 1899, pp. l sqq.). Subsequent excavations in 1890-1891 were of the greatest importance, but the results remained unpublished up to 1908. From a short account by P. Orsi in Atti del Congresso Storico, vol. v. (Archeologia) Rome, 1904, p. 201, we learn that the exploration of the environs of the temple led to the discovery of a large number of archaic terra-cottas, and of some large trenches, covered with tiles, containing some 14,000 scyphoi arranged in rows. The plan of the city was also traced; the walls, the length of which was nearly 5 m., consisted of three parts—the fortified castles (φρούρια) with large towers, on three different hills, the city proper, and the lower town—the latter enclosed by long walls running down to the sea. In the Roman period the city was restricted to the plain near the sea. Since these excavations, a certain amount of unauthorized work has gone on, and some of the remains have been destroyed. In the course of these excavations some prehistoric objects have been discovered, which confirm the accounts of Thucydides and Polybius that the Greek settlers found the Siculi here before them.
(T. As.)
LÖCSE (Ger. Leutschau), the capital of the county of Szepes, in Hungary, 230 m. N.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900) 6845, mostly Germans and Slovaks. The county of Szepes is the highest part of Hungary, and its north-western portion is occupied by the Tátra Mountains. Löcse lies in an elevated position surrounded by mountains, and is one of the oldest towns of Hungary. The church of St James is a Gothic structure of the 13th century, with richly carved altar, several monuments, and a celebrated organ erected in 1623, and long reputed the largest in Hungary. The old town-hall, restored in 1894, contains a Protestant upper gymnasium, founded in 1544, and one of the oldest printing establishments in Hungary, founded in 1585. Bee-keeping and the raising of garden produce are the chief industries.
Founded by Saxon colonists in 1245, Löcse had by the early part of the 16th century attained a position of great relative importance. In 1599 a fire destroyed the greater part of the town, and during the 17th century it suffered repeatedly at the hands of the Transylvanian princes and leaders.