Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/792

778 LIBERTAS. Beroea, this noble resolution began to fail. He made overtures of submission, probably through Demophilus, the heretic bishop of the city where he had been compelled to take up his abode, and, having been summoned to Sirmium, signed in the presence of the council there assembled (the third, A. D. 357 ), the Arian creed sanctioned by that con- clave [PoTAMius], and the decrees against Atha- nasius. Upon this he was permitted to return to Rome, there to exercise a divided power along with a certain Felix, who had been nominated his succes- sor. But the zeal of the people in favour of their an- cient pastor frustrated this amicable arrangement. Violent tumults arose, Constantius yielded to the vehement display of popular feeling, Felix resigned, and his departure from the city was signalised by an inhuman massacre of his adherents. Liberius passed the remainder of his life in tranquillity, dying in A. d. 366, not however, we are assured, until he had once more changed his profession, by recanting all his errors and becoming a Catholic. I. The correspondence of Liberius as exhibited by Constant comprises twelve epistles. 1. Ad Osium. 2. Ad Caedlianum. 3. Ad Eusehium Vercellensem. 4. Ad Constantium Augustum. 5, G. Ad Eusebium Vercellensem. 1. Ad Eusebium, Dmiysium^ et Luciferum exsules. S. Ad Orientales. 9. Ad Ursacium, Falentem, et Gerinmium, bishops in the imperial court. 10. Ad Vincentium Capua- num. 11. Ad Catholicos Episcopos Italiae. 12. Ad universes Orientis orthodoxos Episcopos, in Greek. We find also ascribed to him : — II. Dicta ad Eusebium spadonem, dum ipsum ut in Athanasium subscribens Imperatori obtemperaret adhortabatur. III. Dialogus Liberii et Coiistantii Imperatoris, triduo anteqiiam in eocilium deportaretur, Jiabitus. IV. Oratio Liberii Marcellinam S. Ambrosii sororem dato virginitatis velo consecrantis. Of the letters, eight (1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) have been transmitted to us among the fragments of St. Hilarius, three (3, 5, 6) were first extracted by Baronius from the archives of the church at Vercelli, and one (12) is preserved by Socrates, H. E. iv. 12. The Dicta is found in the treatise of Athanasius Ad Monachos, the Dialogus in Theodoret, H. E. ii. 1 6, the Oratio in Arabrosius de Virgin, iii. 1, 2, 3. For full information with regard to the works of this father and discussions on the authenticity of the various pieces, see Constant, Epistolae Pontifi- cum Rom. fol. Paris, 1721, p. 421, and Galland, Bibliotheca Patrum^ vol. v. p. 65, fol. Venet. 1769, who rejects epistles 8, 9, 10, as fabrications. (Amm. Marc. xv. 7 ; Hieronym. Chron. ; Snip. Sever, ii. ; Socrat. H. E. iv. 12 ; Sozomen. H. E. iv. 15 ; Theodoret, H. E. ii. 17.) [W. R.] LIBERTAS, the personification of Liberty, was worshipped at Rome as a divinity. A temple was erected to her on the Aventine by Tib. Sempronius Gracchus, the expenses of which were defrayed by fines which had been exacted. Another was built by Clodius on the spot where Cicero's house had stood (Liv. xxiv. 16 ; Paul. Diac. p. 121 ; Dion Cass, xxxviii. 1 7, xxxix. 1 1 ), which Cicero afterwards con- temptuously called Templum Licentiae {pro Dom. 51, de Leg. ii. 17). After Caesar's victories in Spain, the senate decreed the erection of a temple to Libertas at the public expense (Dion Cass, xliii. 44) ; and after the murder of Sejanus, a statue of LIBO. her was set up in the forum. (Dion Cass. Iviii. 12.) From these temples we must distinguish the Atrium Libertatis, which was in the north of the forum, towards the Quirinal, probably on the elevated ground extending from the Quirinal to the Capito- line. (Cic. ad Alt. iv. 16 ; Liv. xliii. 16.) This building, which had been restored as early as B. c. 195 (Liv. xxxiv. 44), and was newly built by Asinius Pollio (Suet. Aug. 29), served as an office of the censors (Liv. I. c. xliii. 16, xlv. 15), and sometimes also criminal trials were held (Cic. p. Mil. 22), and hostages were kept in it. (Liv. XXV. 7.) It also contained tables with laws in- scribed upon them, and seems, to some extent, to have been used as public archives. (Liv. xliii. 1 6 ; Fest. p. 241, ed. Miiller.) After its rebuilding by Asinius Pollio, it became the repository of the first public library at Rome. Libertas is usually repre- sented as a matron, with the pileus, the symbol of liberty, or a wreath of laurel. Sometimes she ap- pears holding the Phr^-gian cap in her hand. (Dion Cass, xlvii. 25, Ixiii. 29 ; Suet. Ner. 57 ; Hirt. Mi/thoL Bilderb. p. 1 15, tab. 1 3, 1 4.) [L. S.] LIBF/THRIDES (Aeie-nepiSes), or nympliae Libethrides, a name of the Muses, which they derived from the well Libethra in Thmce ; or, ac- cording to others, from the Thracian mountain Libe- thrus, where they had a grotto sacred to them. (Virg. Eclog. vii. 21 ; Mela, ii. 3; Strab. ix. p. 410, X. p. 471.) Servius {ad Edog. I. c.) derives the name from a poet Libethrus, and Pausanias (ix. 34. § 4) connects it with mount Libethrius in Boeotia, (Comp. Lycoph. 275; Varro, de Ling. Lat vii. 2.) [L. S.] LIBITI'NA, an ancient Italian divinity, who was identified by the later Romans sometimes with Persephone (on account of her connection with the dead and their burial) and sometimes with Aphrodite. The latter was probably the conse- quence of etymological speculations on the name Libitina, which people connected with libido. (Plut. Num. 12, Quaest. Rom. 23.) Her temple at Rome was a repository of everything necessary for burials, and persons might there either buy or hire those things. It was owing to this circum- stance, that a person undertaking the proper burial of a person (an undertaker) was called lihitinarius^ and his business libiiiria, whence the expressions libitinam exercere., or facere (Senec. de Benef. vi. 38 ; Val. Max. v. 2. § 10), and Vibitina funeribus non sufficiebat, i. e. they could not all be buried. (Liv. xl. 19, xli. 21.) Also the utensils kept in the temple, especially the bed on which corpses were burnt, were called libitina. (Plin. xxxvii. 3 ; Martial, x. 97 ; Ascon. Argum. ad Milon.) Dio- nysius (iv. 79) relates that king Servius TuUius, in order to ascertain the number of persons who died, ordained that for each person that had died, a piece of money should be deposited in the temple of Libitina. (Comp. Suet. Ner. 39.) Owing to this connection of Libitina with the dead, Roman poets frequently employ her name in the sense of death itself. (Horat. Carm. iii. 30. 6 ; Sat. ii. 6, 19, Epist. ii. 1. 49 ; Juvenal, xiv. 122.) [L. S.] LI'BIUS SEVE'RUS. [Sbverus.] LIBO DRUSUS. [LiBO, Scribonius, Nos. 5 and 6.] LIBO, L. JU'LIUS, was consul b.c. 267, with M. Atilius Regulus, three years before the first Punic war. The two consuls made war upon the Sallentini in Apulia, whom they conquered, and