Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/220

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204 LONDOBRIS. least seven gates. By the sides of the chief roads stood tlie cemeteries, from which enormous quantities of sepulchral remains have been, and still are, pro- cured. Among the inscriptions, are records of sol- diers of the second, the sixth, and the twentieth legions. {Col. Ant. vol, i.) We have no evidence, however, to show that the legions themselves were ever quartered at Londinium. The only troops which may be considered to have been stationed in this city were a cohort of the native Britons (CoZ. Ant. vol. i.); but it is not known at what particular period they were here. It is, however, a rather remarkable fact, as it was somewhat contrary to the policy of the Eomans to station the auxiliaries in their native countries. Traces of temples and portions of statues have also been found in London. The most remarkable of the latter is, perhaps, the bronze head of Hadrian found in the Thames, :md the large bronze hand found in Thames Street. In reference to the statues in bronze which adorned Londinium and other cities of Koman Britain, the reader may be directed to a curious passage in Geotfrey of Monmouth. That •writer relates (xii. 13), that, after the death of Cad- walla, the Britons embalmed his body and placed it in a bronze statue, which was set upon a bronze horse of wonderful beauty, and placed over the western gate of London, as a trophy of victory and as a terror to the Saxons. All that we are called upon to consider in this statement is, whether it is at all likely that the writer would have invented the details about the works in bronze ; and whether it is not very probable that the story was made up to account for some Roman works of art, which, for cen- turies after the Romans had left Britain, remained a wonder and a puzzle to their successors. Equestrian statues in bronze were erected in Britain by the Eomans, as is proved by a fragment found at Lin- coln ; but in the subsequent and middle ages such works of art were not fabricated. We have above referred to the " Praepositus The- saurorum Augustensium." Numerous coins are extant of the mint of Londinium. Those which may be certainly thus attributed are of Carausius, Allectus, Constantinus, and the Constantino family. (Akerman's Coins of the Romans relating to Bri- tain.^ With respect to the precise position of the public buildings, and, indeed, of the general distri- bution of the Roman city, but little is known ; it is, however, very certain, that, with some few exceptions, the course of the modern streets is no guide to that of the ancient. This has also been remarked to be the case at Treves and other ancient cities. [C.R.S.] LO'NDOBRIS (Aoj/Sogpi's, Ptol. ii. 5. § 10; Aa- votiKpLi, Marc. Heracl. p. 4.3: Berlingmis), a small island, and the only one, belonging to the province of Lusitania, lay off the promontory Lunaricm (C Carvoeiro.') [P. S.] LOXGANUS {ho-yyavis), a river in the N. of Sicily, not far from Jlylae {Milazzo), celebrated for the victory of Hieron, king of Syracuse, over the Mamertines in b. c. 270 (Pol. i. 9 ; Diod. xsii. 13; Exc. H. p. 499, where the name is written Aof- Tai'OJ, but the same river is undoubtedly meant). Polybius describes it as " in the plain of Mylae " (eV TO) Muai(x! TreSioj), but it is impossible to say, with certainty, which of the small rivers that flow into the sea near that town is the one meant. The Flume di Santa Lucia, about three miles soutli- west of Milazzo, has perhaps the best claim ; though Cluverius fixes on the Fitinie di Castro Reale, a LONGULA. little more distant from that city. (CIuv. Skil. p. 303.) [E. H. B.] LONGATICUM, a town in the S. of Pannonia Superior, on the road from Aquileia to Emona. Now Logatecz, according to Jluchar. {It. Anton. ; It. Ilieros. ; Tab. Pent. ; ]Iuchar, Koriaim, p. 232.) LONGOBARDl. [Langobardi.J LONGONES. [Sardinia.] LONGOVICUS, a town in Britain, mentioned in the Notitia, and nowhere else. It was, probably, in the neighbourhood of the Cumberland and West- moreland lakes ; but beyond this it is not safe to go further in the way of identification; though the J/o- numenta Britannica makes it Lancaster. [R. G. L.] LO'NGULA (Ao77oAa : Eth. Longulanus : Buon Riposo), an ancient city of Latium, which seems to have been included in the territory of the Vol- scians. It first appears as a Volscian city, which was taken by assault by the Roman consul, Postu- mus Cominius in b. c. 493. (Liv. ii. 33 ; Dionys. vi. 91.) But it was recovered by the Volscians under the command of Coriolanus, in B.C. 488 (Liv. ii. 39; Dionys. viii. 36): in both cases it is described as falling an easy prey to the invading army, and was probably not a place of any great importance ; indeed Livy's expressions would lead us to infer that it was a dependency of Antium. After this it is only incidentally mentioned ; once, as the place where the Roman army under L. Aemilius encamped in the war against the Volscians, B.C. 482 (Dionys. viii. 85); and again, at a much later period in the Samnite Wars, B. c. 309. (Liv. ix. 39.) Its name is after this found only in Pliny's list of the cities of Latium which were in his time utterly decayed and deserted. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9.) As he enumerates it among the cities that shared in the sacrifices on the Alban Mount, it would seem to have been originally a Latin city, though it had fallen into the hands of the Vol- scians before its name appears in history. All the above passages would lead us to place Longula in the neighbourhood of Antium, while the two former connect it closely with PoUusca and Corioli. These are all the data which we have for determining its position, which must therefore be in some degree matter of conjecture, especially as that of Pollusca and Corioli is equally uncertain. But Nibby has pointed out a locality which has at all events a plausible claim to be that of Longula, in the casale, or farm-house, now called Buon Kiposo, on the right of the road from Rome to Antium, about 27 miles from Rome, and 10 in a straight line from Porto d^Anso.* The farm, or tenuta, of Buon Riposo lies between that of Carroceto on the one side, and Ardea on the other ; while the site occu- pied by the casale itself, and which was that of a castle in the middle ages, is described as one of those which is so clearly marked by natural advantages of position that it could scarcely fail to have been chosen as the site of an ancient city. No ruins re- main ; but perhaps these could hardly be expected in the case of a town that ceased to exist at so early a period. (Xibby, vol. i. p. 326 ; Abeken, Mittel- Italien, p. 72.) [E. H. B.]

  • The position assigned to Buon Riposo on Gell's

map does not accord with this description of the site given by Nibby ; but this part of the map is very imperfect, and evidently not derived from pei-sonal observation. Gell's own account of the situation of Buon Riposo (p. 185), though less precise, agrees with that of Nibby.