LĒGĀTUM, a part of the hereditas which a testator gives out of it, from the heres (ab herede); that is, it is a gift to a person out of that whole (universum) which is diminished to the heres by such gift. There were several laws limiting the amount of property which a person might give in legacies; and it was at last fixed by the Lex Falcidia (B.C. 40), that he should not bequeath more than three-fourths of his property in legacies, and thus a fourth was left to the heres. By the Law of the Twelve Tables a man could dispose of his property as he pleased, and he might exhaust (erogare) the whole hereditas by legacies and bequests of freedom to slaves, so as to leave the heres nothing. The consequence was that in such cases the scripti heredes refused to take the hereditas, and there was of course an intestacy. Legata were inutilia or void, if they were given before a heres was instituted by the will, for the will derived all its legal efficacy from such institution; there was the same rule as to a gift of freedom.
LĒGĀTUS, from lego, a person commissioned or deputed to do certain things. They may be divided into three classes:—1. Legati or ambassadors sent to Rome by foreign nations; 2. Legati or ambassadors sent from Rome to foreign nations and into the provinces; 3. Legati who accompanied the Roman generals into the field, or the proconsuls and praetors into the provinces. 1. Foreign legati at Rome, from whatever country they came, had to go to the temple of Saturn, and deposit their names with the quaestors. Previous to their admission into the city, foreign ambassadors seem to have been obliged to give notice from what nation they came and for what purpose; for several instances are mentioned, in which ambassadors were prohibited from entering the city, especially in case of a war between Rome and the state from which they came. In such cases the ambassadors were either not heard at all, and obliged to quit Italy, or an audience was given to them by the senate (senatus legatis datur) outside the city, in the temple of Bellona. This was evidently a sign of mistrust, but the ambassadors were nevertheless treated as public guests, and some public villa outside the city was sometimes assigned for their reception. In other cases, however, as soon as the report of the landing of foreign ambassadors on the coast of Italy was brought to Rome, especially if they were persons of great distinction, or if they came from an ally of the Roman people, some one of the inferior magistrates, or a legatus of a consul, was despatched by the senate to receive, and conduct them to the city at the expense of the republic. When they were introduced into the senate by the praetor or consul, they first explained what they had to communicate, and then the praetor invited the senators to put their questions to the ambassadors. The whole transaction was carried on by interpreters, and in the Latin language. [[Interpres].] After the ambassadors had thus been examined, they were requested to leave the assembly of the senate, who now began to discuss the subject brought before them. The result was communicated to the ambassadors by the praetor. In some cases ambassadors not only received rich presents on their departure, but were at the command of the senate conducted by a magistrate, and at the public expense, to the frontier of Italy, and even farther. By the Lex Gabinia it was decreed, that from the 1st of February to the 1st of March, the senate should every day give audience to foreign ambassadors. There was a place on the right-hand side of the senate-house, called Graecostasis, in which foreign ambassadors waited. All ambassadors, whencesoever they came, were considered by the Romans throughout the whole period of their existence as sacred and inviolable. 2. Legati to foreign nations in the name of the Roman republic were always sent by the senate; and to be appointed to such a mission was considered a great honour, which was conferred only on men of high rank or eminence: for a Roman ambassador had the powers of a magistrate and the venerable character of a priest. If a Roman during the performance of his mission as ambassador died or was killed, his memory was honoured by the republic with a public sepulchre and a statue in the Rostra. The expenses during the journey of an ambassador were, of course, paid by the republic; and when he travelled through a province, the provincials had to supply him with every thing he wanted. 3. The third class of legati, to whom the name of ambassadors cannot be applied, were persons who accompanied the Roman generals on their expeditions, and in later times the governors of provinces also. They are mentioned at a very early period as serving along with the tribunes, under the consuls. They were nominated (legabantur) by the consul or the dictator under whom they served, but the sanction of the senate was an essential point, without which no one could be legally considered a legatus. The persons appointed to this office were usually men of great military talents, and it was their duty to advise and assist their superior in all his undertakings, and to act in his stead both in civil and military affairs. The legati were thus always men in whom the consul placed great confidence, and were frequently his friends or relations: but they had no power independent of the command of their general. Their number varied according to the greatness or importance of the war, or the extent of the province: three is the smallest number that we know of, but Pompey, when in Asia, had fifteen legati. Whenever the consuls were absent from the army, or when a proconsul left his province, the legati or one of them took his place, and then had the insignia as well as the power of his superior. He was in this case called legatus pro praetore, and hence we sometimes read that a man governed a province as legatus without any mention being made of the proconsul whose vicegerent he was. During the latter period of the republic, it sometimes happened that a consul carried on a war, or a proconsul governed his province, through his legati, while he himself remained at Rome, or conducted some other more urgent affairs. When the provinces were divided at the time of the empire [[Provincia]], those of the Roman people were governed by men who had been either consuls or praetors, and the former were always accompanied by three legati, the latter by one. The provinces of the emperor, who was himself the proconsul, were governed by persons whom the emperor himself appointed, and who had been consuls or praetors, or were at least senators. These vicegerents of the emperor were called legati augusti pro praetore, legati praetorii, legati consulares, or simply legati, and they, like the governors of the provinces of the Roman people, had one or three legati as their assistants. During the latter period of the republic it had become customary for senators to obtain from the senate the permission to travel through or stay in any province at the expense of the provincials, merely for the purpose of managing and conducting their own personal affairs. There was no restraint as to the length of time the senators were allowed to avail themselves of this privilege, which was a heavy burden upon the provincials. This mode of sojourning in a province was called legatio libera, because those who availed themselves of it enjoyed all the privileges of a public legatus or ambassador, without having any of his duties to perform. At the time of Cicero the privilege of legatio libera was abused to a very great extent. Cicero, therefore, in his consulship (B.C. 63) endeavoured to put an end to it, but, owing to the opposition of a tribune, he only succeeded in limiting the time of its duration to one year. Julius Caesar afterwards extended the time during which a senator might avail himself of the legatio libera to five years.
LĔGĬO. [[Exercitus].]
LEITURGIA (λειτουργία, from λεῖτον, Ion. λήϊτον, i.e. δημόσιον, or, according to others, πρυτανεῖον), a liturgy, is the name of certain personal services which, at Athens, every citizen who possessed a certain amount of property had to perform towards the state. These personal services, which in all cases were connected with considerable expenses, were at first a natural consequence of the greater political privileges enjoyed by the wealthy, who, in return, had also to perform heavier duties towards the republic; but when the Athenian democracy was at its height the original character of these liturgies became changed, for, as every citizen now enjoyed the same rights and privileges as the wealthiest, they were simply a tax upon property connected with personal labour and exertion. All liturgies may be divided into two classes: 1, ordinary or encyclic liturgies (ἐγκύκλιοι λειτουργίαι); and 2, extraordinary liturgies. The former were called encyclic, because they recurred every year at certain festive seasons, and comprised the Choregia, Gymnasiarchia, Lampadarchia, Architheoria, and Hestiasis. Every Athenian who possessed three talents and above was subject to them, and they were undertaken in turns by the members of every tribe who possessed the property qualification just mentioned, unless some one volunteered to undertake a liturgy for another person. But the law did not allow any one to be compelled to undertake more than one liturgy at a time, and he who had in one year performed a liturgy was free for the next, so that legally a person had to perform a liturgy only every other year. Those whose turn it was to undertake any of the ordinary liturgies were always appointed by their own tribe. The persons who were exempt from all kinds of liturgies were the nine archons, heiresses, and orphans until after the commencement of the second year of their coming of age. Sometimes the exemption from liturgies (ἀτελεία) was granted to persons for especial merits towards the republic. The only kind of extraordinary liturgy to which the name is properly applied is the trierarchia (τριηραρχία); in the earlier times, however, the service in the armies was in reality no more than an extraordinary liturgy. [See [Eisphora] and [Trierarchia].] In later times, during and after the Peloponnesian war, when the expenses of a liturgy were found too heavy for one person, we find that in many instances two persons combined to defray its expenses. Such was the case with the choragia and the trierarchy.
LEMBUS, a skiff or small boat, used for carrying a person from a ship to the shore. The name was also given to the light boats which were sent ahead of a fleet to obtain information of the enemy’s movements.
LEMNISCUS (λημνίσκος), a kind of coloured ribbon which hung down from crowns or diadems at the back part of the head. Coronae adorned with lemnisci were a greater distinction than those without them. This serves to explain an expression of Cicero (palma lemniscata, pro Rosc. Am. 35), where palma means a victory, and the epithet lemniscata indicates the contrary of infamis, and at the same time implies an honourable as well as lucrative victory. Lemnisci were also worn alone and without being connected with crowns, especially by ladies, as an ornament for the head.
LĔMŬRĬA, a festival for the souls of the departed, which was celebrated at Rome every year in the month of May. It was said to have been instituted by Romulus to appease the spirit of Remus, whom he had slain, and to have been called originally Remuria. It was celebrated at night and in silence, and during three alternate days, that is, on the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth of May. During this season the temples of the gods were closed, and it was thought unlucky for women to marry at this time and during the whole month of May, and those who ventured to marry were believed to die soon after, whence the proverb, mense Maio malae nubent. Those who celebrated the Lemuria walked barefooted, washed their hands three times, and threw black beans nine times behind their backs, believing by this ceremony to secure themselves against the Lemures. As regards the solemnities on each of the three days, we only know that on the second there were games in the circus in honour of Mars, and that on the third day the images of the thirty Argei, made of rushes, were thrown from the Pons Sublicius into the Tiber by the Vestal virgins [[Argei]]. On the same day there was a festival of the merchants, probably because on this day the temple of Mercury had been dedicated in the year 495 B.C.
LĒNAEA. [[Dionysia].]
LESCHĒ (λέσχη), an Ionic word, signifying council or conversation, and a place for council or conversation. There is frequent mention of places of public resort, in the Greek cities, by the name of Leschae, some set apart for the purpose, and others so called because they were so used by loungers; to the latter class belong the agora and its porticoes, the gymnasia, and the shops of various tradesmen. The former class were small buildings or porticoes, furnished with seats, and exposed to the sun, to which the idle resorted to enjoy conversation, and the poor to obtain warmth and shelter: at Athens alone there were 360 such. In the Dorian states the word retained the meaning of a place of meeting for deliberation and intercourse, a council-chamber or club-room. There were generally chambers for council and conversation, called by this name, attached to the temples of Apollo. The Lesche at Delphi was celebrated through Greece for the paintings with which it was adorned by Polygnotus.
LEX. Of Roman leges, viewed with reference to the mode of enactment, there were properly two kinds, Leges Curiatae and Leges Centuriatae. Plebiscita are improperly called leges, though they were laws, and in the course of time had the same effect as leges. [[Plebiscitum].] Originally the leges curiatae were the only leges, and they were passed by the populus in the comitia curiata. After the establishment of the comitia centuriata, the comitia curiata fell almost into disuse; but so long as the republic lasted, and even under Augustus, a shadow of the old constitution was preserved in the formal conferring of the imperium by a lex curiata only, and in the ceremony of adrogation being effected only in these comitia. [[Adoptio].] Those leges, properly so called, with which we are acquainted, were passed in the comitia centuriata, and were proposed (rogabantur) by a magistratus of senatorial rank, after the senate had approved of them by a decretum. Such a lex was also designated by the name Populi Scitum.—The word rogatio (from the verb rogo) properly means any measure proposed to the legislative body, and therefore is equally applicable to a proposed lex and a proposed plebiscitum. It corresponds to our word bill, as opposed to act. When the measure was passed, it became a lex or plebiscitum; though rogationes, after they had become laws, were sometimes, but improperly, called rogationes. A rogatio began with the words velitis, jubeatis, &c., and ended with the words ita vos Quirites rogo. The corresponding expression of assent to the rogatio on the part of the sovereign assembly was uti rogas. The phrases for proposing a law are rogare legem, legem ferre, and rogationem promulgare; the phrase rogationem accipere applies to the enacting body. The terms relating to legislation are thus explained by Ulpian the jurist:—“A lex is said either rogari or ferri; it is said abrogari, when it is repealed; it is said derogari, when a part is repealed; it is said subrogari, when some addition is made to it; and it is said obrogari, when some part of it is changed.”—A privilegium is an enactment that had for its object a single person, which is indicated by the form of the word (privilegium), privae res being the same as singulae res. The word privilegium did not convey any notion of the character of the legislative measures; it might be beneficial to the party to whom it referred, or it might not. Under the empire, the word is used in the sense of a special grant proceeding from the imperial favour.—The title of a lex was generally derived from the gentile name of the magistratus who proposed it, as the Lex Hortensia from the dictator Hortensius. Sometimes the lex took its name from the two consuls or other magistrates, as the Acilia Calpurnia, Aelia or Aelia Sentia, Papia or Papia Poppaea, and others. It seems to have been the fashion to omit the word et between the two names, though instances occur in which it was used. A lex was also designated, with reference to its object, as the Lex Cincia de Donis et Muneribus, Lex Furia Testamentaria, Lex Julia Municipalis, and many others. Leges which related to a common object, were often designated by a collective name, as Leges Agrariae, Judiciariae, and others. A lex sometimes took its name from the chief contents of its first chapter, as Lex Julia de Maritandis Ordinibus. Sometimes a lex comprised very various provisions, relating to matters essentially different, and in that case it was called Lex Satura.—The number of leges was greatly increased in the later part of the republican period, and Julius Caesar is said to have contemplated a revision of the whole body. Under him and Augustus numerous enactments were passed, which are known under the general name of Juliae Leges. It is often stated that no leges, properly so called, or plebiscita, were passed after the time of Augustus; but this is a mistake. Though the voting might be a mere form, still the form was kept. Besides, various leges are mentioned as having been passed under the Empire, such as the Lex Junia under Tiberius, the Lex Visellia, the Lex Mamilia under Caligula, and a Lex Claudia on the tutela of women. It does not appear when the ancient forms of legislation were laid aside. A particular enactment is always referred to by its name. The following is a list of the principal leges, properly so called; but the list includes also various plebiscita and privilegia:—