punished such offenders as were surprised in the fact, at the first command of the magistrates; and they generally acted in the capacity of executioners. Their name was derived à ligando, because they bound the hands and feet of condemned persons before their execution.

LIGNA VERSATILIA, rollers of wood used in the Roman circus to keep off wild beasts from the spectators. Being suspended at the extremity of their axes, they turned round, and never presented a fixed point.

LIGNAGIUM, in the Middle age, the right of cutting fuel in woods. It is sometimes taken for the tribute due for the same.

LIMUS, a garment reaching to the ground, and worn by certain Roman priests, who on that account were called Limocineti.

LINEN. Alexander Severus was the first emperor who wore a linen shirt; but the use of so necessary a garment did not become common till long after him. Linen was not worn by Jews, Greeks, or Romans, as any part of their ordinary dress. LINGONICUM, the name of the woollen flocks with which the Romans stuffed their mattresses. It was so called from the fleecy Gaulish stuffs called lingones, which were shorn for the purpose. The lingonicum on which they sat in the circus was made of dry chopped rushes.

LION. Among the Egyptians, the lion was the usual hieroglyphic of strength; besides being emblematic of many other things. (See HIEROGLYHICS.) Among the Persians, the sun was represented under the form of a lion, which they called Mithra, his priests being called lions, and the priestesses hyenas. There are several lions on Greek coins and gems. Those of Velia are of exquisite design. In the Middle age the crusaders wore the effigy of it as a warlike symbol. LITERE LAUREATE, letters sent by the Roman generals wreathed about with laurel, and giving an account of some considerable advantage, for which they begged the favour of a Supplicatio, or public thanksgiving.

LITERE SOLUTORIÆ, in the Middle age, were magical characters, supposed to be of such power, that it was impossible for any one to bind those persons who carried these about them.-Bede, 1. iv.

LITERATURE. Of the early literature of the East, we have very little authenticated information beyond the Hebrew Scriptures; and these, judging analogically, would induce us to conclude that literature, especially poetry, was then

cultivated to a considerable extent; although nearly all the productions of those ages have been irretrievably lost. The writings of Moses are undoubtedly the most ancient on record. The fragments of Sanconiatho the Phoenician, Berossus the Babylonian, Manetho the Egyptian, Hanno the Carthaginian, and a few others, which have been preserved through the medium of the Greeks, afford us but slight glimpses of the literature and history of the mighty empires of antiquity: yet that little possesses its value; and we shall therefore proceed briefly to notice them, before entering upon the more immediate objects of this articlethe immortal productions of Greece and Rome.

The writings of Sanchoniatho are unquestionably the most ancient remains of heathen antiquity. In his fragments of Phoenician history he commences with the creation of the world, under the heads of" Cosmogony," and the Generations." In what age he wrote (says Cory, in his Ancient Fragments,) is uncertain; but his history was composed in the Phoenician language, and its materials collected from the archives of the Phonician cities. It was translated into Greek by Philo Byblius; and for the preservation of these fragments we are indebted to the care of Eusebius. The Cosmogony, as one of the most ancient, is extremely valuable, and the Generations contain many very curious passages. In the first is an allusion to the Fall. choniatho seems to have been a very diligent inquirer, and intimates at the conclusion that the Generations contain the real history of those early times, stripped of the fictions and allegories with which it had been obscured by the son of Thabion, the first hierophant of Phoenicia. It is remarkable that Sanchoniatho is almost the only heathen writer upon antiquities who makes no direct mention of the deluge. He wrote also a history of the Serpent; a single fragment of which is preserved by Eusebius.

San

In the fragments of Berossus we have some few traces of the antediluvian world. Like Sanchoniatho, Berossus seems to have composed his work with a serious regard for truth. He was a Babylonian by birth, and flourished in the reign of Alexander the Great, and resided for some years at Athens. As a priest of Belus, he possessed every advantage which the records of the temple, and the learning and traditions of the Chaldæans, could afford. He appears to have sketched his history of the earlier times from the representations upon the walls of the

Euripides, who lived about five centuries after Homer, were the first considerable improvers of poetry. Herodotus, who was nearly contemporary, imparted simplicity and elegance to prosaic writings. Isocrates gave it cadence and harmony; but it was left to Thucydides and Demosthenes to discover the full force of the Greek tongue. It was not, however, in the finer arts alone that the Greeks excelled. Every species of philosophy was cultivated among them with the utmost success. Not to mention the divine Socrates, the virtues of whose life, and the excellence of whose philosophy, justly entitled him to a very high degree of veneration; his three disciples, Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon, may, for strength of reasoning, justness of sentiment, and propriety of expression, be put on a footing with the writers of any age or country.

We have little authenticated history of the literature of Greece previous to Hesiod and Homer; although frequent mention is made, by the Greek writers, of poets, who flourished many ages anterior to Homer. The names of Musæus, Linus, Orpheus, and others, are familiar to us; but their writings have unfortunately perished in the lapse of ages. Musæus is supposed to have been contemporary with Linus and Orpheus, and to have lived about 1400 years before the Christian era. It is generally admitted that he was one of the first who versified the oracles; and that his hymns were, from that period, sung in the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries. Diogenes Laertius informs us that Musæus not only composed a theogony, but also formed a sphere for the use of his companions. Great honour has been paid to his memory by Virgil, who, in the sixth book of his Eneid, gives him the pre-eminence among the poets in the Elysian Fields. We are told by Pausanias that a hill, near the citadel of Athens, called Museum, was the place of his interment. To this spot he was accustomed to resort for the benefit of temporary seclusion; and here he is said to have composed his religious hymns. In consequence of the prevalence of the Ionian poetry, which was more consonant to the genius of the Greeks in the later ages of their history, the works of Musaus were so long neglected, that at length it became impossible to separate the genuine from the spurious. None of the compositions of this author are now extant, except the Loves of Hero and Leander; which Scaliger, in his Poetica, even prefers to Homer himself; though some have considered them as the production of a later age. - Of the early

historians of Greece, the names only of some have been handed down to us; while of others, such as Histiæus and Eupolemus, some few fragments have escaped the general wreck. But to revert to the poets.-Of Homer, whose immortal works have fortunately been preserved, we have little knowledge, either with respect to the country where he was born, or the time in which he lived. Among the seven cities of Greece, which contended for the honour of having given him birth, Smyrna seems to have the best title to that glorious distinction. Herodotus tells us, that Homer wrote about 400 years before his time, that is, three hundred and forty years after the taking of Troy. He composed two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey: the subject of the first was the anger of Achilles, so pernicious to the Greeks, when they besieged Ilion, or Troy; and that of the second, was the voyages and adventures of Ulysses, after the taking of that city. It is remarkable, that no nation in the world, however learned and ingenious, has ever produced any poem comparable to these; and that whoever have attempted any works of the kind, have all taken their plan and ideas from Homer, borrowed all their rules from him, made him their model, and have only succeeded in proportion to their success in copying him. Hesiod was contemporary with Homer. It is said he was born at Cuma, a town of Æolis, but that he was brought up at Ascra, a little town in Boeotia, which has since passed for his native country. Thus Virgil calls him the old man of Ascra. We know little or nothing of this poet, but by the few remaining poems which he has left, all in hexameter verse; which are, 1st, The Works and Days; 2dly, The Theogony, or the genealogy of the gods; 3dly, The Shield of Hercules; of which last, some doubt whether it was written by Hesiod. The Theogony of Hesiod, and the poems of Homer, may be looked upon as the surest and most authentic archives and monuments of the theology of the ancients, and the opinions they had of their gods. - Archilochus, the inventor of the Iambic verse, was born in Paros, and lived in the time of Candaules, king of Lydia. The verses of Archilochus were extremely biting and licentious; as we see by those he wrote against Lycambes, his-father-in-law, which drove him to despair. Hipponax, a native of Ephesus, signalized himself some years after Archilochus, in the same kind of poetry, and with the same force and vehemence. Horace joins Hipponax with

Archilochus, and represents them as two poets equally dangerous. In the Anthologia there are three or four epigrams, which describe Hipponax as terrible even after his death. It is thought he invented the Scazon verse, in which the spondee is used instead of the iambus in the sixth foot of the verse that bears that name.Stesichorus was a native of Himera, a city in Sicily, and excelled in Lyric poetry, as did those other poets of whom we are about to speak. Stesichorus flourished between the 37th and 47th Olympiads. Pausanias, after many other fables, relates, that Stesichorus having been punished with the loss of sight for his satirical verses against Helen, did not recover it till he had retracted his invectives, by writing another ode contrary to the first; which latter kind of ode is since called Palinodia. Quintilian says, that he sung of wars and illustrious heroes, and that he supported upon the lyre all the dignity and majesty of epic poetry. Alcæus, from whom the Alcaic verse derived its name, was born at Mitylene, in Lesbos, about 600 B. C. He was a professed enemy to the tyrants of Lesbos, and particularly to Pittacus, against whom he perpetually inveighed in his verses. - Simonides was a native of Ceos, an island in the Egean sea. He continued to flourish at the time of Xerxes' expedition. At twenty-four years of age he disputed for, and carried, the prize of poetry. He travelled through many cities of Asia, and amassed considerable wealth by celebrating, in his verses, the praises of those who were capable of rewarding him. Sappho was of the same place, and lived at the same time with Alcæus, about 600 B. C. The Sapphic verse took its name from her. She composed a considerable number of poems, of which there are but two remaining. As a proof of her merit, she was called the Tenth Muse; and the people of Mitylene engraved her image upon their money. - Anacreon was of Teos, a city of Ionia, and lived in the 72d Olympiad. He spent a great part of his time at the court of Polycrates, the fortunate tyrant of Samos; and not only shared in all his pleasures, but was of his council. — Æsop was by birth a Phrygian, and flourished B. c. 556. He had abundance of wit; but was terribly deformed. He was afterwards sold to a philosopher named Xanthus, and on obtaining his liberty he made several voyages into Greece. Being at Athens a short time, after Pisistratus had usurped the sovereignty and abolished the popular government, and observing that the Athenians

bore this new yoke with great impatience, he repeated to them the fable of the frogs who demanded a king from Jupiter. It is doubted whether the fables of Æsop, such as we have them, are all his, at least in regard to the expression. Great part of them are ascribed to Planudes, who wrote his life, and lived in the fourteenth century. Æsop is reckoned the author and inventor of this simple and natural manner of conveying instruction by tales and fables; in which light Phædrus speaks of him.

It would be difficult to notice, in our limited space, all the productions of the Greek authors who have distinguished themselves by the brillancy of their compositions. We shall therefore confine ourselves to a brief chronological enumeration of the principal writers who succeeded those already mentioned; referring the reader to more extended notices, under the articles COMEDY, TRAGEDY, PHILOSOPHERS, and SAGES of Greece:

Thales, the first Greek astronomer and geographer, who flourished about B. c. 548 Pythagoras, founder of the Pythagorean philosophy in Greece, 497-Eschylus, the first Greek tragic poet, 436– Pindar, the lyric poet, 435—Herodotus, the first Greek historian, who has been called the father of history, 413-Aristophanes, the comic poet, 407-Euripides and Sophocles, the tragic poets, 406Socrates, the founder of moral philosophy, 400-Thucydides, the historian, 391

Hippocrates, the physician, 361-Democritus, the philosopher, 361-Xenophon, the philosopher and historian, 359 -Plato, the philosopher and disciple of Socrates, 348-Socrates, the orator, 336

Aristotle, the philosopher, and disciple of Plato, 332-Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, poisoned himself, 313-Theophrastus, the philosopher, and scholar of Aristotle, 288-Theocritus, the first pastoral poet, 285-Euclid, of Alexandria in Egypt, the mathematician, 277—Epicurus, founder of the Epicurean philosophy,270-Xeno, founder of the Stoic philosophy, 264-Callimachus, the elegiac poet, 244-Archimedes, the geometrician, 208-Polybius, the Greek and Roman historian, 124-Diodorus Siculus, the universal historian, 44-Strabo, the geographer, A. D. 25-Plutarch, the biographer, 119Ptolemy, the Greco-Egyptian geographer, mathematician, and astronomer, 140Galen, the philosopher and physician, 193

Diogenes Laertius, the biographer, 200 -Dion Cassius, the historian of Rome, 229-Longinus, the orator, and author of the Treatise on the Sublime, put to death by Aurelian, 273-Eusebius, the eccle

siastical historian and chronologer, 342. -After this period, Greek literature appears to have been rapidly on the decline.

The history of the early literature of ROME is of a more authenticated character than that of its immortal proto. type. In this we have something like certain data to depend upon. A general disquisition on Roman literature, however, would, to do the subject justice, occupy volumes; and the limits of a dictionary compel us to be brief; but as the Latin language forms the most important branch of modern education, the following historical and critical analysis may be useful.

Before the Punic wars, the Roman language was more rude and uncourtly than any other. In historical writing the progress was slow and inconsiderable. For three or four centuries they had scarcely a single native author; and for many years they employed the pens of foreigners to compile their annals. Fabius Pictor, who flourished in the third century before the Christian era, or about 500 years after the building of Rome, was the first historian who wrote a regular account of his country; but this was considered to be very imperfect; and the work now extant, which bears his name, is evidently a spurious composition. About two centuries afterwards, Trogus Pompeius, who lived in the time of Julius Cæsar, wrote a universal history, divided into twenty-four books, of all the most important events that had occurred from the earliest periods to the time in which he wrote. His history was epitomized by Justin, who flourished in the reign of Antoninus; and this abridgment, which has always been deservedly held in high estimation, is all that remains of the writings of Trogus Pompeius.-It was not until the superior abilities of a Livy were called into action, that the powers of the Latin language, for historical composition, became fully developed. Its capabilities for sustaining the dignity and measured march of history, was then fully proved; and the productions of Livy have ever since been considered as the purest standard of historical writing.

In the early history of all great nations, we find occasional attempts at dramatic amusements, sometimes attended by rude efforts at poetical numbers. Indeed it is usually the first kind of literary amusement which a rude or warlike people can appreciate or enjoy; yet it is a remarkable fact that the Romans for many ages were entirely unacquainted with every species of dramatic composition, notwithstanding

| the intellectual glory of the Grecian name was coeval with that period.Poetry, the twin-sister of the drama, appears to have been begun among the Romans, as amongst other nations, in the wild and inartificial notes of nature, before feet or measures were invented. The earliest attempts were in honour of the gods, or of nature. Hymns, in praise of festivals soon succeeded to private worship. At these festivals they sang and danced in an uncouth manner to a certain irregular kind of verse, called Saturnian, which appears to have been void of art. They used, at the same time, a sort of extempore verse, in which they were in the habit of exchanging their sentiments; but it seems to have been of an irregular description, without regard to rule or art. The Fescennine verses were somewhat similar to the Saturnian; but a little more regular in their structure. They were so called from Fescennia, the name of a city in Etruria, where they were first brought into use. These Fescennian verses were sung by the military, at the victories of their generals, so late as the time of Julias Cæsar; but with something like measure and number.Dramatic representations were altogether unknown in Rome till nearly 400 years after the building of the city. Livius Andronicus, who flourished about 240 years B.C., was the first regular dramatist who began to turn the Saturnian and Fescennine verses into a species of dramatic form. [For an account of the dramatic writers, from the time of Livius to Terence, the reader is referred to the article on COMEDY.]

In tracing the literary history of Rome, we see the Romans gradually emancipating themselves from a state of unlettered rudeness. But after their rival Carthage was destroyed, and they had no longer that powerful curb upon their ambition; when riches flowed in upon them by the multiplicity of their conquests; luxury began to prevail, and selfish ambition to take the place of patriotism. It was then they first began to discover the use to which a command of language could be' applied. Aspiring minds studied it with care, with a view of accomplishing their designs; while the more virtuous were obliged to acquire an equal degree of skill to enable them to repel the attacks of their adversaries. It was thus that the oratorical powers of the illustrious Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal, were called into action. He was compelled, as it were, repeatedly to defend himself, against the malevolence of his political rivals on the one hand, and the ingratitude of a