Liguori (or Ligorio), St. Alfonso Maria de: b. Sept. 26, 1696, at Marianella, near Naples; d. Aug. 1, 1787, at Nocera de Pagani.
Lilybaeum, Cape: ancient name for the westernmost corner of Sicily.
Lilybaeum: ancient city of Sicily, on the extreme western coast. It is the modern Marsala. It was founded (396 B.C.) by Carthage and became a stronghold. In the First Punic War it resisted a long Roman siege (250-242 B.C.). Rome finally captured the city in 241 BC and later used it as a base for the African campaign of Scipio Africanus Major. The city was famous for its harbor.
Linus, St.: Pope (rAD 67-76). He was a native of Tuscany.
Lipara: The principal island of the Aeoliae Insulae.
Lipareae: See Aeoliae Insulae.
Lipari (anc. Lipareae): (area: 37.6 km²). The principal island of the Isole Eolie (Lipari Islands).
Lipari Islands: Also known as Isole Eolie. A chain of volcanic islands in the Mediterranean to the N of Sicily. According to legend, the ancient name, Lipara, derives from that of Liparus, a mythical king of the islands. A less-romantic theory states that the name comes from the Greek word liparos (= “fat” or “rich”).
Lira (Neapolitan): The principal currency used in the Kingdom of Naples in 1812-1813 under Murat. It was subdivided into 100 centesimi and was equal to 1 French franc. Minted as a silver coin, its name derived from the Latin libra = pound.
lire: a 3-stringed bowed fiddle, played on the knee. It is found mostly in Calabria.
Liris (mod. Garigliano): A river in central Italy. Rising near the Fucinus lacus, it flows SSE to Sora, and then turns sharply to the SSW. At Isola dei Liri, its flows cascades and finally flows through marshy ground at Minturnae to enter the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Liternum (mod. Lago di Patria): A Roman colony founded in 194 BC in the Liternum Patria, 8 km N of Cumae. It is known that P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus retired to a villa located. Although Livy, in the 1st century AD, wrote that the colony had failed by his time, archaeological evidence contradicts him and seems to show that it survived until the 3rd century AD. The construction of the Via Domitia, in the late AD 1st century, brought the town a brief period of prosperity. The advance of malarial marshes led to the town’s ultimate decline.
Liternum Patria: An ancient district along the northern coast of Campania. The Greeks established Kyme (Cumae), their first colony on the Italian mainland, here.
Locri – Gerace, Diocese of:
Metropolitan: Reggio Calabria – Bova
Conference Region: Calabria
Area: 1,248 km²/ mi²
Total Population: 131,005.
Total Priests: 80 (Diocesan: 56; Religious: 24)
Permanent Deacons: 2
Parishes: 74
Locri Epizephyrii (Lokroi Epizephyrioi): A city of ancient Bruttium. During the 7th century BC, a colony was established by Opuntian Greeks from Lokri on a site 85 km NE of modern Reggio Calabria. This city was the site where the lawgiver Zaleucus created what is often thought to be the earliest written Greek law code. The governement supported by this constutution was a hereditary oligarchic in nature.
Once securely established the Locrians began to send out their own colonies in the 6th century BC. These colonies, medma, Hipponium, and Metaurus, never attained any real level of independence, remaining largely dependent on Locri throughout their history. Politically, Locri was closely allied with Syracuse and supported the latter during the Athenian expedition of 415-13 BC. They provided aid to Dionysius I during his operations in southern Italy. In 356 BC, after giving asylum to Dionysius II, it was seized by him for a time. After Dionysius returned to Syracuse, the Locrians regained control of their city and brutally killed Dionysius’s family who had remained there. A constitutional government was reestablished. From 280 to 270 BC, Locri established an alliance with Pyrrhus, donating treasure from their sanctuary of Zeus to finance his campaigns. After Pyrrhus withdrew from Italy, Locri formed an alliance with Rome which continued until the Secord Punic War. In 214 BC, the Locrians threw their support to Hannibal until, in 208 BC, control of the city was siezed by a pro-Roman faction. This allowed the city to escape severe reprisal when Rome emerged victorious. For several centuries under the Romans, Locri flourished as a municipium. It was only as the empire declined that Lorci began to suffer. During the 5th century AD the ancient city was finally abandoned.