A-dictionary-of-greek-and-roman-antiquities-william-smith

€80 LEMNISCUS. LENO.
they were performed were also divided into \ttrovfh wounds. (Celsos, vii. 28 ; Veget. de Re Veter. ii.
ylai xoXirtKoI, such as were incumbent upon 14 and 48, iii. 18.) [L.S.]
citizens, and Xwrovpyiax rwv /xctoikw?. (De-
LEMURA'LIA or LEMUHIA, a festival for
mosth. c. Lept. p. 462.) The only liturgies which
are mentioned as having been performed by the
fterotKoi, are the choregia at the festival of the
Lenaea (Schol. ad Aristoph. Plut, 954), and the
iariaats (Ulpian, ml Demosth Lept, § 15), to
which may be added the hydriaphoria and skiadephoria.
[Hydriaphoria.]
That liturgies were not peculiar to Athens, has
been shown by Bockh (Pub. Eeon. &c. p. 299),
for choregia and other liturgies are mentioned at
Siphnos (Isocrat. Aeginet. c. 17) ; choregia in
Aegina even before the Persian wars (Herod, v.
83) ; in Mytileue during the Peloponnesian war
(Antiph. de Coed. Herod, p. 744) ; at Thebes in
the time of Epaminondas (Plut. Aristid. 1); at
Orchomenos, in Rhodes, and in several towns of
Asia Minor. (Compare Wolf, Prolegom. in De
mosth. Ispt. p. lxxxvi. &c. ; Wachsmuth, vol. ii. p.
92, &c.^ [L.S.]
LEMBUS, a skiff or small boat, used for carry
ing a person from a ship to the shore. (Plaut.
Aferc. i. 2. 81, ii. 1. 35.) The name was also
given to the light boats which were sent ahead of
a fleet to obtain information of the enemy's move
ments. (Isidor. Oriff. xix. 1 ; Liv. xxxi. 45, xlv.
10.) Pliny (H. N. vii. 56. s. 57) attributes their
invention to the inhabitants of Cvrenc.
LEMNISCUS (ATj/ivuncoi). This word is said
to have originally been used only by the Syracusans.
(Hesych. *. v.) It signified a kind of co
loured ribbon which hung down from crowns or
diadems at the back part of the head. (Fest. s. v.)
The earliest crowns are said to have consisted of
wool, so that wc have to conceive the lemniscus as
a ribbon wound around the wool in such a manner
that the two ends of the ribbon, where they met,
were allowed to hang down. Sec the representa
tions of the corona obsidionalis and civica in p.
359, where the lemnisci not only appear as a means
to keep the little branches of the crowns together,
but also serve as an ornament. From the remark
of Servius (ad Aen. v. 269) it appears that coronae
adorned with lemnisci were a greater distinction
than those without them. This serves to explain
an expression of Cicero (palina lemmscata, pro
Rose. Am. 35) where palma means a victory, and
the epithet lemniscata indicates the contrary of
infamis, and at the same time implies an honour
able as well as lucrative victory. (Comp. Anson.
Epht. xx. 5.)
It seems that lemnisci were also worn alone and
without being connected with crowns, especially by
ladies, as an ornament for the head. (Plin. H.N. xxi.
3.) To show honour and admiration for a person,
flowers, garlands, and lemnisci were sometimes
showered upon him while he walked in public
(Casaub. ad Suet Ner. 25 ; Lit. xxxiii. 19.)
Lemnisci seem originally to have been made of
wool, and afterwards of the finest kinds of bast
(philyrae, Plin. //, N. xv. 14); but during the
latter period of the republic the wealthy Crassus
not only made the foliage or leaves of crowns of
thin sheets of gold and silver, but the lemnisci
likewise ; and P. Claudius Pulcher embellished the
metal lemnisci with works of art in relief and with
inscriptions. (Plin. //. N. xxi. 3.)
The word lemniscus is used by medical writers
iu the signification of a kind of liniment applied to
the souls of the departed, which was celebrated at
Home every yen in the month of May. It was
said to have been instituted by Romulus to ap
pease the spirit of Remus whom he had slain
(Ovid. Fast. v. 473, &.c), and to have been called
originally Remuria. It was celebrated at night
and in silence, and during three alternate days,
that is, on the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth of
May. During this season the temples of the gods
were closed, and it was thought unlucky for women
to marry at this time and during the whole month
of May, and those who ventured to marry were
believed to die soon after, whence the proverb,
meiise Maio malae nubent. Those who celebrated
the Lemuralia, walked barefooted, washed their
hands three times, and threw nine times black
beans behind their backs, believing by this cere
mony to secure themselves against the Lemures.
(Varro, Vita pop. Rom, Fragm. p. 241, ed.
Bipont ; Servius, ad Aen. L 276.) As regards
the solemnities on each of the three days, we onlyknow
that on the second there were games in the
circus in honour of Mars (Ovid. Fast. v. 597), and
that on the third day the images of the thirty
Argci, made of rushes, were thrown from the pons
sublicius into the Tiber by the Vestal virgins.
(Ovid. Fast. v. 621 ; Fest s. r. Dcpontani ; com
pare Argsi.) On the same day there was a fes
tival of the merchants (J'estum mercatonun, Ovid.
Fast. v. 670, &c), probably because on this day
the temple of Mercury had been dedicated in the
year 495 B.C. (Liv. ii. 21.) On this occasion the
merchants offered up incense, and by means of a
laurel-branch sprinkled themselves and their goods
with water from the well of Mercury at the Porta
Capena, hoping thereby to make their business
prosper.
[L. S.]
LEMURES. See Did. of Gr. and Rom, Rioqraphy
and Mythoiogy.
LENAEA. [Dionvsia, p. 411, b.]
LENO, LENOCI'NIUM. Lenocinium is
defined by Ulpian (Dig. 3. tit. 2. s. 4) to be the
keeping of female slaves for prostitution and the
profits of it ; and it was also lenocinium if gain
was made in the like way by means of free women.
Some lenoncs kept brothels (iupanaria ) or open
houses for prostitution. This trade was not for
bidden, but the praetor's edict attached infamia to
such persons [Infamia]. In the time of Caligula
(Sueton. Col. 40, and the notes in Burmann's
ed.), a tax was laid on lenones. Theodosius and
Valentinian endeavoured to prevent parents from
prostituting their children and masters their female
slaves by severe penalties ; and they forbad the
practice of lenocinium under pain of corporal
punishment, and banishment from the city, and so
forth. Justinian (Nov. 14) also attempted to put
down all lenocinium by banishing lenones from the
city, and by making the owners of houses, who
allowed prostitution to be carried on in them,
liable to forfeit the houses and to pay ten pounds
of gold : those who by trickery or force got girls
into their possession and gave them up to prostitu
tion were punished with the "extreme penalties ;v*
but it is not said what these extreme penalties
were. This Novella contains curious matter.
The Lex Julia de Adulteriis defined the leno
cinium which that lex prohibited (Dig. 48. tit. 5,