A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

LŪCAR. [[Histrio].]

LŪCĔRES. [[Tribus].]

Lucerna, lamp. (Museo Borbonico, vol. iv. pl. 10.)

LŬCERNA (λύχνος), an oil lamp. The Greeks and Romans originally used candles; but in later times candles were chiefly confined to the houses of the lower classes. [[Candela].] A great number of ancient lamps has come down to us; the greater part of which are made of terra cotta, but also a considerable number of bronze. Most of the lamps are of an oval form, and flat upon the top, on which there are frequently figures in relief. In the lamps there are one or more round holes, according to the number of wicks (ellychnia) burnt in them; and as these holes were called from an obvious analogy, μυκτῆρες or μύξαι, literally nostrils or nozzles, the lamp was also called Monomyxos, Dimyxos, Trimyxos, or Polymyxos, according as it contained one, two, three, or a greater number of nozzles or holes for the wicks. The following is an example of a dimyxos lucerna, upon which there is a winged boy with a goose. The next woodcut represents one of the most beautiful bronze lamps which has yet been found. Upon it is the figure of a standing Silenus. The lamps sometimes hung in chains from the ceiling of the room, but they generally stood upon a stand. [[Candelabrum].]

Lucerna lamp. (Museo Borbonico, vol. i. pl 10.)

LUCTA, LUCTĀTĬO (πάλη, πάλαισμα, παλαισμοσύνη, or καταβλητική), wrestling. The Greeks ascribed the invention of wrestling to mythical personages, and Hermes, the god of all gymnastic exercises, also presided over wrestling. In the Homeric age wrestling was much practised: during this period wrestlers contended naked, and only the loins were covered with the perizoma (περίζωμα), and this custom probably remained throughout Greece until Ol. 15, from which time the perizoma was no longer used, and wrestlers contended entirely naked. In the Homeric age the custom of anointing the body for the purpose of wrestling does not appear to have been known, but in the time of Solon it was quite general, and was said to have been adopted by the Cretans and Lacedaemonians at a very early period. After the body was anointed, it was strewed over with sand or dust, in order to enable the wrestlers to take a firm hold of each other. If one combatant threw the other down three times, the victory was decided. Wrestling was practised in all the great games of the Greeks. The most renowned wrestler was Milon, of Croton. [[Pancratium].]

LŪDI, the common name for the whole variety of games and contests which were held at Rome on various occasions, but chiefly at the festivals of the gods; and as the ludi at certain festivals formed the principal part of the solemnities, these festivals themselves are called ludi. Sometimes ludi were also held in honour of a magistrate or a deceased person, in which case they may be considered as ludi privati. All ludi were divided by the Romans into two classes, ludi circenses and ludi scenici, accordingly as they were held in the circus or in the theatre; in the latter case they were mostly theatrical representations with their various modifications; in the former they consisted of all or of a part of the games enumerated in the articles [Circus] and [Gladiatores]. Another division of the ludi into stati, imperativi, and votivi, is analogous to the division of the feriae. [[Feriae].] The superintendence of the games, and the solemnities connected with them, was in most cases intrusted to the aediles. [[Aediles].] If the lawful rites were not observed in the celebration of the ludi, it depended upon the decision of the pontiffs whether they were to be held again (instaurari) or not. An alphabetical list of the principal ludi is subjoined.

Ludi Apollinares were instituted at Rome during the second Punic war, after the battle of Cannae (212 B.C.), at the command of an oracle contained in the books of the ancient seer Marcius, in order to obtain the aid of Apollo. They were held every year under the superintendence of the praetor urbanus, and ten men sacrificed to Apollo, according to Greek rites, a bull with gilt horns and two white goats also with gilt horns, and to Latona a heifer with gilt horns. The games themselves were held in the Circus Maximus, the spectators were adorned with chaplets, and each citizen gave a contribution towards defraying the expenses. In B.C. 208, it was ordained that they should always be celebrated on the 6th of July.