A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

LATERENSIS. LATINUS. 725
that, while holding this office, he gavean exhibition sealed his devotion- with his blood. (Cic. pro
of games at Praeneste; and subsequently proceeded, Plane. passim, ad Att. ii. 18, 24, in Jratin. 11, ad
perhaps as pro-quaestor, to Cyrene. In B. C. 59 Pam. viii. 8, ad Att. xii. 17, ad Famn. x. 11, 15,
(the year of the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus) 18, 21, 23; Dion. Cass. xlvi. 51'; Veil. Pat. ii.
he became a candidate for the tribunate of the 63; Appian, B. C. iii. 84.)
plebs; but as he would have been obliged, if 2. L. (JuvENTIUS) LATERENSIS, was a legate
elected, to have sworn to maintain the agrarian in the army of Q. Cassius Longinus in Further
law of Caesar, which was passed in that year, he Spain B. C. 49, and was proclaimed praetor by- the
retired voluntarily from the contest. It was pro- soldiers in the conspiracy against the life of Cassius,
bably owing to his political sentiments that La- whom they believed to have been put, to death.
terensis became one of Cicero's personal friends; Cassius, however, escaped the hands of the assas~and it was doubtless'his opposition to Caesar which sins, and immediately executed Laterensis and the
led L. Vettius to denounce him as one of the con- ringleaders of the conspiracy. (Hirt. B. Alex. 53
spirators in the pretended plot against Pompey's — 55.) It is not known what relation this Lalife in B. C. 58. terensis was to the preceding.
In B. C. 55, in the second consulship of Pompey LA'THRIA. [ANAXANDRA.]
and Crassus, Laterensis became a candidate for the LATIA'LIS or LATIA'RIS, a surname of'curiule aedileship, with Cn. Plancius, A. Plotius, Jupiter as the protecting divinity of Latium. -The
and Q. Pedius. The elections were put off this Latin towns and Rome celebrated to him every
year; but in the summer of the following year year the feriae Latinae, on the Alban mount,
-(. c. 54) Plancius and Plotius were elected; but which were proclaimed and conducted by one of
before they could enter upon their office Laterensis,'the Roman consuls. (Liv. xxi. 63, xxii. 1; Dioinys.
in conjunction with L. Cassius Longinus, accused iv. 49; Serv. ad Aen. xii. 135; Suet. Calig. 22;
Plancius of the crime of sodalitium, or the bribery comp. LATINUS.) [L. S.]
of the tribes by means of illegal associations, in L TIA'RIS, LATI'NIUS, in' the earlier part
accordance with the lex Licinia, which had been of the reign of Tiberius had been praetor, but in
proposed by the consul Licinius Crassus in the pre- what year is unknown. He was a creature of
ceding year. (SeeDiet. ofAnt. s.v. Ambitus.) This Sejanus, and aspired to the consulship. But at
contest between Laterensis and Plancius placed that time delation was the readiest road to prefer-,Cicero in an awkward position, since both of them ment. Titius Sabinus had offended Sejanus by
were his personal friends. Plancius, however, had his steady friendship to the widow and children of
-much stronger claims upon him, for being qtaestor Germanicus. Him, therefore, in A.D. 28, Latiaris
in Macedonia in the year of Cicero's'banishment, singled out as his victim and stepping-stone to the
he had afforded him shelter and protection in his consular fasces. He wormed himself into the conprovince, at a time when Cicero believed that his fidence of Sabinus, and encouraged him to speak of
life was in danger. Cicero had therefore warmly Agrippina's wrongs and Sejanus' tyranny in a room
exerted himself in canvassing for Plancius, and where three confederates lay hid between the ceilcame forward to defend him when he was accused ing and the roof. After the fall of Sejanus, Latiaris
by Laterensis. He avoids, however, personal attacks was soon marked for destruction by Tiberius. The
upon Laterensis, and attributes his loss of the elec- senate gladly condemned him, and Latiaris died
tion to his relying too much upon the nobility of without a murmur in his favour. (Tac. Ann. iv.
his family, and to his neglecting a personal can- 68, 69, vi. 4.) [W. B. D.]
vassing of the voters, and likewise to his opposition LATI'NUS (Aaivos), a king of Latium, is
to Caesar a few years before. Through Cicero's described in the common tradition as a son of
exertions, Plancins was probably acquitted. Faunus and the nymph Marica, as a brother of
[PLANCIUS.] Lavinius, and the husband of Amata, by whom he
Laterensis obtained the praetorship in B. c..l1, became the father of Lavinia, whom he gave in
and is spoken of by Cicero's correspondent, Caelius, marriage to Aeneas. (Virg. Aen. vii. 47, &c.;
as ignorant of the laws. In the civil wars between Serv. ad Aen. i. 6; Arnob. ii. 71.) But along
Caesar and the Pompeians his name does not with this there are a variety of other traditions.
occur, and he is not mentioned again till B. C. 45, Hesiod (Theog. 1013) calls him a son of Odysseus
in which year we learn from Cicero that he was and Circe, and brother of Agrius, king of the
one of the augurs. - Tyrrhenians, and Hyginus (Fab. 127) calls him a
Laterensis appears again in history as a legate son of Telemachus and Circe, while others describe
in the army of M. Aemilius Lepidus, who was him as a son of Heracles, by an Hyperborean
governor of the provinces of Nearer Spain and woman, who was afterwards married to Faunus
Southern Gaul, B.C. 43. When Antony, after (Dionys. i. 43), or as a son of Heracles by a
the battle of Mutina, fled across the Alps, and was daughter of Faunus. (Justin. xliii. 1.) Conon
drawing near to Lepidus in Gaul, Laterensis used (Narr. 3) relates, that Latinus was the father of
every possible exertion to confirm Lepidus in his'Laurina, whom he gave in marriage to Locrus, and
allegiance to the senate. In this object he was that Latinus was slain by Heracles for having
warmly seconded by Munatius Plancus, who com-' taken away from him the oxen of Geryones.
manded in Northern Gaul. But all their efforts According to Festus (s. v. Oscillum) Jupiter Latiaris
were vain, for as soon as Antony appeared, the once lived upon theearth under thename of Latinus,
soldiers of Lepidus threw- open the gates of the or Latinus after the fight with Mezentius suddenly
camp to him; and Laterensis, in despair, cast him- disappeared, and was changed into Jupiter Latiaris.
self upon his sword, and thus perished. The senate Hence the relation between Jupiter Latiaris and
decreed to him the honour of a public funeral and Latinus is perfectly analogous to that between
the erection of his statue. From his first entrance Quirinus and Romulus, and Latinus may be conupon public life Laterensis was always a warm ceived as an incarnation ofthe supreme god. -[L. S.]
supporter. of the senatorial party, to which he LATI'NUS, a celebrated player in the farces