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LUCTA.
713
LUCERNE.
covered with small plates of metal. ~ These straps j served in part for ornament, and partly also to protect the lower region of the body in concert with the belt (C^7?) and the band (/iirpa). They are well shown in the preceding figure of Caligula.
Instead of the straps here described, which the Greeks called irrepvyes (Xen. d& Re Equest. xii. 4), the Chalybes, who were encountered by Xeno-phon on his retreat (Anab. iv. 7. § 15), had in the •same situation a kind of cordage. Appendages of a similar kind were sometimes fastened by hinges to the lorica at the right shoulder, for the purpose of protecting the part of the body which was exposed by lifting up the arm in throwing the spear or using the sword. (Xen. de Re Equest. xii. 6.)
Of Grecian cuirasses the Attic were accounted the best and most beautiful. (Aelian, F". H. iii. 24). The cuirass was worn universally by the heavy-armed infantry and by the horsemen, ex cept that Alexander the Great gave to the less brave of his soldiers breast-plates only, in order that the defenceless state of their backs might decrease their propensity to flight. (Polyaen. iv. 3. 13.) These were called half-cuirasses (r)fj,i6cff- pd,Kia). The thorax was sometimes found to be very oppressive and cumbersome. (Tac. Ann. i. 64.) [J. Y.]
LORFCA, LORICA‘TIO, in architecture. [MuRus ; tectorium opus.]
LOUTRON (AourpoV). [balneae.]
LUCAR. [histrio, p. 613, a.]
LUCERES. [patricii.]
The next woodcut* taken frofri the same work (vol. i. pi. 10), represents erne of the most beautiful bronze lamps which has yet been found. Upon it is the figure of a standing Silenus.
LUCERNA (vxvqs an oil lamp. The Greeks and Romans originally used candles ; but in later times candles were chiefly confined to the houses of the lower classes. [candela.] A great number of ancient lamps has come down to us ; the greater part of which are made of terra cotta (rpox^AccTOJ, Aristoph. Eccl. 1), but also a considerable number of bronze. Most of the lamps are of an oval form, and flat upon the top, on which there are frequently figures in relief. (See the woodcuts, pp. 143, 395, 464.) In the lamps there are one or more round holes according to the number of wicks (ellychnia) burnt in it; and as these holes were called from an obvious analogy, jjlv-Krripts or juu|cu, literally nostrils or nozzles, the lamp was also called Monomyxos, Dimyxos, Tri-myxos, or Polymyxos, according as it contained one, two, three, or a greater number of nozzles or holes for th^ wicks. The following example of a dimyocos lucerna, upon which there is a winged boy with a goose, is taken from the Museo Borbonico, vol. iv. pi. 14.
The lamps sometimes hung in chains from the ceiling of the room (Virg. Aen. i. 726 ; Petron. 30), but generally stood upon a stand. [candelabrum.] Sometimes a figure holds the lamp, as in the annexed woodcut (Museo Bcrbon. vol. vii. pi. 15), which also exhibits the needle or instrument which served to trim the wick, and is attached to the figure by means of a chain. (Comp. Virg. Moret. 11. " Et producit acu stupas hum ore carentes.")
We read of lucernae eu-biculares, balneares, tricli-niares^sepulcrales, &c.; but these names were only given to the lamps on account of the purposes to whicli they were applied, and not on account of a difference in shape. The lucernae cubiculares were burnt in bed-chambers all night. (Mart. xiv. 39, x. 38.)
Perfumed oil was sometimes burnt in the lamps. (Petron. 70; Mart. x. 38. 9.)
(Passeri, Lucernae fictiles; Bbttiger Die Silenus-lampen, Amalth, vol. iii. p. 168, &c. ; Becker, Charikles, vol. ii. p. 215, &c.5 Gallus, vol. ii. p. 201, &c.)
LUCTA, LUCTA‘TIO (mfcty, n-chaw^d, TraAoucTjUocruj/Tj, or Kara€7)TiK’f)}, wrestling. The word TraAr? is sometimes used in a wider sense, embracing all gymnastic exercises with the exception of dancing, whence the schools of the athletae were called palaestrae, that is, schools in which the 7raA?7 in its widest sense was taught. (Plat, de Leg. vii. p. 795 ; Herod, ix. 33.) [palaestra.] There are also many passages in ancient writers in which TrctAT? and TraAcueii/ are used to designate any particular species of athletic games besides wrestling, or a combination of several games. (See Krause, p. 400. note 2.)
The Greeks ascribed the invention of wrestling to mythical personages, such as Palaestra, the daughter of Hermes (Apollod. ii. 4. § 9), Antaeus and Cercyon (Plat, de Leg. vii. p. 796), Phorbas of Athens, or Theseus. (Schol. ad Find. Nem. v. 49.) Hermes, the god of all gymnastic exercises,
