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LACINIAE.
lie found of it too fabulous, did not venture to give it in his own words, but quoted those of Varro, who had probably taken the account from the po pular stories of the Etruscans themselves. It was said to have been built partly under and partly above ground, whence the name labyrinth is cor rectly applied to it. But a building like this, says Niebuhr (Plistory of Rome^ vol. i. p. 130. note 40,5), is absolutely impossible, and belongs to the Arabian Nights. (Comp. Abeken, Mittelitalien^ p. 243.) [L. S.J
LACERNA (jjiavo’vas, ^ai/Su??), a cloak worn by the Romans over the toga, whence it is called by Juvenal (ix. 28) " munimentum togae." It differed from the paenula in being an open garment like the Greek pallium, and fastened on the right shoulder by means of a buckle (fibula), whereas the paenula was what is called a vestimen-tum dausum with an opening for the head. [paenula.] The Lacerna appears to have been commonly used in the army (Veil. Pat. ii. 70, 80 ; Ovid, Fast. ii. 746 ; Prop. iv. 3. 18), but in the time of Cicero was not usually worn in the city (Cic. Philip, ii. 30.) It soon afterwards, however, became quite common at Rome, as we learn from Suetonius, who says {Aug. 40) that Augustus, seeing one day a great number of citizens before his tribunal dressed in the lacerna, which was commonly of a dark colour (pullati), repeated with indignation the line of Virgil.
" Romanos rerum dominos, gentemque iogatam"
and gave orders that the Aediles should henceforth allow no one to be in the forum or circus in that dress.
Most persons seem to have carried a lacerna or paenula with them, when they attended the public games, to protect them from the cold or rain (Dion Cass. Ivii. 13); and thus we are told that the equites used to stand up at the entrance of Claudius and lay aside their lacernae. (Suet. Claud. 6.)
The lacerna was usually, as already remarked, of a dark colour (fusci colores* Mart. i. 97. 9), and was frequently made of the dark wool of the Baetic sheep (Baeticae lacernae^ xiv. 133). It was, hovyever, sometimes dyed with the Tyrian purple, and with other colours. (Juv. i. 27 ; Mart. i. 97.) Martial (viii. 10) speaks of larcernae of the former kind, which cost as much as 10,000 sesterces. When the emperor was expected at the public games, it was the practice to wear white lacernae only. (Mart. iv. 2, xiv. 137.)
The lacerna was sometimes thrown over the head for the purpose of concealment (Hor. Sat. ii. 7. 55) ; but a cucuttus or cowl was generally used for that purpose, which appears to have been frequently attached to the lacernae, and to have formed a part of the dress. (Mart. xiv. 139, 132.) See Becker, Gallus, vol. ii. p. 95, &c.
[CUCULLUS.]
LACINIAE, the angular extremities of the toga, one of which was brought round over the left shoulder. It was generally tucked into the girdle, but sometimes was allowed to hang down loose. Plautus (Mercat. i. 2. 16) indicates that it occasionally served for a pocket-handkerchief (At tu edepol sume laciniam atque absterge sudorem tibi) : Velleius Paterculus (ii. 3) represents Scipio Nasica as Avrapping the lacinia of his toga round his left arm for a shield (compare Val. Max. iii. 2. § 17) before he rushed upon Tib. Gracchus ; while, ac-
LAENA.
cording to Servius (ad Virg. Aen. vii. 612), the Cinctus Gabinus was formed by girding the toga tight round the body by one of its laciniae or loose ends. These expressions are quite irreconcileaWe with the opinion of Ferrarius and others, that the lacinia was the lower border or skirt of the toga, while all the passages adduced by them admit of easy explanation according to the above view. The lacinia was undoubtedly permitted by some to sweep the ground, especially by such as wore their garments loosely. Thus Macrobius (Sat. ii. 3) remarks upon one of Cicero’s witticisms, " Jocatus in Caesarem quia ita praecingebatur, ut trahendo laciniam velut mollis incederet," which corresponds with the well-known caution of Sulla addressed to Pompey, " Cave tibi ilium puerum male prae-cinctum ;" and Suetonius tells how the emperor Caius, being filled with jealousy on account of the plaudits lavished on a gladiator, hurried out of the theatre in such haste " ut calcata lacinia togae praeceps per graclus iret." Moreover, the secondary and figurative meanings of the word, namely, a raff (Plin. H. N. xix. 7), a narroiv neck of land (Id. v. 32), the point of a leaf (Id. xv. 30), the excrescences which liang doion from the neck of a she-goat (Id. viii. 50), &c., accord perfectly with the idea of the angular extremity of a piece of doth, but can scarcely be connected naturally with the notion of a bordw or skirt.
The corresponding Greek term was /fpa<r7re5oj>, and perhaps irTepvyiov (Pollux considers these synonymous) ; and accordingly Plutarch (Gracch. 19) and Appian (B. G. i. 16) employ the former in narrating the story of Scipio alluded to above, with this difference, however, that they de scribe him as throwing to Kpdcnreo’ov rov Iftariov over his head instead of twisting it round his arm. [W. R.]
LACONICUM. [BALNEAE,p.l84,b. 190,b.]
LACUNAR. [domus, p. 432, a.]
LACUS. [FoNS, p. 544, b.]
LAENA, the same word with the Greek Xcuva, and radically connected with dxvv), Iana9 &c.
1. It signifies, properly, a woollen cloak, the cloth of which was twice the ordinary thickness (duarum togaruin instar^ Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 133, ed. Muller), and therefore termed duplex (Festus, s. v. Laena; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. iv. 262), shaggy upon both sides (Schol. ad Juv. iii. 283), worn over the pallium or the toga for the sake of warmth. (Mart. xiv. 136.) Hence persons carried a laena with them when they went out to supper (Mart. viii. 59) ; and the rich man in Juvenal, who walks home at night escorted by a train of slaves and lighted on his way by flambeaux, is wrapped in a scarlet laena. (Juv. iii. 283.)
2. A robe of state, forming, it is said, in ancient times, part of the kingly dress. (Plut. Num. 7.)
3. The flamines offered sacrifice in a laena which was fastened round the throat by a clasp, and in the case of the dialis was woven by the hands of the flaminica, (Serv. ad Virg. Aen. iv, 262; Cic. Brut. 57.)
4. In later times the laena seems, to a certain extent, to have been worn as a substitute for the toga. Thus the courtly bard in Persius (i. 32) is introduced reciting his fashionable lays with a violet-coloured laena over his shoulders ; and wo gather from Juvenal (v. 130, vii. 73) that it.was
