Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/493

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
LEFT
417
RIGHT

LANSQUENET 417 LAODICEA pointed Secretary of State. He was chosen by President Wilson as one of the commissioners to negotiate peace in Paris in 1918. He continued to act as Secretary ^ of State on his return from Paris. His action in calling together the members of the Cabinet during Presi- dent Wilson's illness occasioned the re- sentment of the President and on the latter's recovery in 1920 he practically asked for the resignation of Mr. Lansing. Severe criticisms made by him on the ROBERT LANSING Treaty of Peace and the League of Na- tions Covenant were widely circulated and were never officially denied. It was generally conceded that he and the Presi- dent were at variance in regard to the negotiations of the Treaty and to its final terms. On his retirement from of- fice he continued the practice of law. LANSQUENET (lans'ke-), a German common soldier, originally one belonging to the infantry, raised by the Emperor Maximilian toward the end of the 15th century; afterward, a soldier of fortune; a soldier who gave his services to any one who paid highest. The name became corrupted into lance-knight. Also the name of a game at cards. LANTERN, or LANTHORN (lan'- turn), a common contrivance used for carrying a lamp or candle in. consisting of a case or vessel made of tin, with sashes of some transparent substance, such as horn or glass. Lanterns are first spoken of by Theopompus, a Greek comic poet, and Empedocles of Agrigen- tum. Lanterns were used by the an- cients in augury. The only representa- tion of an Egyptian lantern that has come down to us probably did not differ sensibly from those spoken of in St. John xviii : 3, where the party of men which went out of Jerusalem to apprehend Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane is de- scribed as being provided "with lanterns and torches." In architecture, a small structure on the top of a dome, or in other similar situations, for the purpose of admitting light, promoting ventilation, or for orna- ment, of which that on the top of the Capitol at Washington may be referred to as an example. In Gothic architecture the term is sometimes applied to louvres on the roofs of halls, etc., but it usually signifies a tower which has the whole height, or a considerable portion of the interior, open to vi3w from the ground, and is lighted by an upper tier of win- dows. LAOCOON (la-ok'6-on), according to classic legend, a priest of Apollo, after- ward of Poseidon, in Troy, who married against the will of the former god, and who warned his countrymen against ad- mitting the wooden horse into Troy. For one or both of these reasons he was de- stroyed along with his two sons by two enormous serpents which came up out of the sea. The subject is represented in one of the most famous works of ancient sculpture still in existence, a group dis- covered in 1506 at Rome, and purchased by Pope Julius II. for the Vatican. It was carried by Bonaparte to Paris in 1796, but recovered in 1814. According to Pliny, it was the work of the Rhodian artists, Agesander, Polydorus, and Athe- nodorus. The best authorities place its date at a little before 100 B. c. LAODICEA (-se'a), in ancient geog- raphy, the name of several towns of Asia, the most important of which was a city of ancient Phrygia, near the river Lycos, so called after Laodice, Queen of Antiochus Theos, its founder, built on the site of an older town named Dios- polis. It was destroyed by an earth- quake during the reign of Tiberius, but rebuilt by the inhabitants, who were very wealthy. A severe rebuke is addressed to its inhabitants in the Apocalypse. It fell into the hands of the Turks in 1255, was again destroyed in 1402, and is now a heap of ruins, known by the name of Eski-Hissar. Art and science flourished