it importance in the military history of Italy from the Hannibalic wars onwards. The town was a municipium, situated on the main road to the S.E., which left the coast at Histonium (Vasto) and ran from Larinum E. to Sipontum. From Larinum a branch road ran to Bovianum Vetus. Remains of its city walls, of its amphitheatre and also of baths, &c., exist, and it did not cease to be inhabited until after the earthquake of 1300, when the modern city was established. Cluentius, the client of Cicero, who delivered a speech in his favour, was a native of Larinum, his father having been praetor of the allied forces in the Social War. (T. As.)
LARISSA (Turk. Yeni Shehr, “new town”), the most important
town of Thessaly, situated in a rich agricultural district
on the right bank of the Salambria (Peneios, Peneus, Peneius),
about 35 m. N.W. of Volo, with which it is connected by rail.
Pop. (1889) 13,610, (1907) 18,001. Till 1881 it was the seat of a
pasha in the vilayet of Jannina; it is now the capital of the Greek
province and the seat of a nomarch. Its long subjection to
Turkey has left little trace of antiquity, and the most striking
features in the general view are the minarets of the disused
mosques (only four are now in use) and the Mahommedan
burying-grounds. It was formerly a Turkish military centre and
most of the people were of Turkish blood. In the outskirts is a
village of Africans from the Sudan—a curious remnant of the
forces collected by Ali Pasha. The manufactures include Turkish
leather, cotton, silk and tobacco; trade and industry, however, are
far from prosperous, though improving owing to the immigration
of the Greek commercial element. Fevers and agues are
prevalent owing to bad drainage and the overflowing of the river;
and the death-rate is higher than the birth-rate. A considerable
portion of the Turkish population emigrated in 1881; a further
exodus took place in 1898. The department of Larissa had
in 1907 a population of 95,066.
Larissa, written Larisa on ancient coins and inscriptions, is near the site of the Homeric Argissa. It appears in early times, when Thessaly was mainly governed by a few aristocratic families, as an important city under the rule of the Aleuadae, whose authority extended over the whole district of Pelasgiotis. This powerful family possessed for many generations before 369 B.C. the privilege of furnishing the Tagus, or generalissimo, of the combined Thessalian forces. The principal rivals of the Aleuadae were the Scopadae of Crannon, the remains of which (called by the Turks Old Larissa) are about 14 m. to the S.W. The inhabitants sided with Athens during the Peloponnesian War, and during the Roman invasion their city was of considerable importance. Since the 5th century it has been the seat of an archbishop, who has now fifteen suffragans. Larissa was the headquarters of Ali Pasha during the Greek War of Independence, and of the crown prince Constantine during the Greco-Turkish War; the flight of the Greek army from this place to Pharsala took place on the 23rd of April 1897. Notices of some ancient inscriptions found at Larissa are given by Miller in Mélanges philologiques (Paris, 1880); several sepulchral reliefs were found in the neighbourhood in 1882. A few traces of the ancient acropolis and theatre are still visible.
The name Larissa was common to many “Pelasgian” towns, and apparently signified a fortified city or burg, such as the citadel of Argos. Another town of the name in Thessaly was Larissa Cremaste, surnamed Pelasgia (Strabo ix. p. 440), situated on the slope of Mt. Othrys. (J. D. B.)
LĀRISTĀN, a sub-province of the province of Fars in Persia,
bounded E. and N.E. by Kerman and S. by the Persian Gulf.
It lies between 26° 30′ and 28° 25′ N. and between 52° 30′ and
55° 30′ E. and has an extreme breadth and length of 120 and
210 m. respectively, with an area of about 20,000 sq. m. Pop.
about 90,000. Laristan consists mainly of mountain ranges in
the north and east, and of arid plains varied with rocky hills and
sandy valleys stretching thence to the coast. In the highlands,
where some fertile upland tracts produce corn, dates and other
fruits, the climate is genial, but elsewhere it is extremely sultry,
and on the low-lying coast lands malarious. Good water is
everywhere so scarce that but for the rain preserved in cisterns
the country would be mostly uninhabitable. Many cisterns are
infested with Guinea worm (filaria medinensis, Gm.). The
coast is chiefly occupied by Arab tribes who were virtually independent,
paying merely a nominal tribute to the shah’s government
until 1898. They reside in small towns and mud forts
scattered along the coast. The people of the interior are mostly
of the old Iranian stock, and there are also a few nomads of the
Turkish Bahārlū tribe which came to Persia in the 11th century
when the province was subdued by a Turkish chief. Laristan
remained an independent state under a Turkish ruler until 1602,
when Shah Ibrahim Khan was deposed and put to death by
Shah ‘Abbas the Great. The province is subdivided into eight
districts: (1) Lar, the capital and environs, with 34 villages;
(2) Bikhah Ihsham with 11; (3) Bikhah Fal with 10; (4)
Jehangiriyeh with 30; (5) Shibkuh with 36; (6) Fumistan with
13; (7) Kauristan with 4; (8) Mazayijan with 6 villages.
Lingah, with its principal place Bander Lingah and 11 villages,
formerly a part of Laristan, is now included in the “Persian
Gulf Ports,” a separate administrative division. Laristan is
famous for the condiment called māhiābeh (fish-jelly), a compound
of pounded small sprat-like fish, salt, mustard, nutmeg,
cloves and other spices, used as a relish with nearly all foods.
LARIVEY, PIERRE (c. 1550–1612), French dramatist, of
Italian origin, was the son of one of the Giunta, the famous
printers of Florence and Venice. The family was established
at Troyes and had taken the name of Larivey or L’Arrivey,
by way of translation from giunto. Pierre Larivey appears to
have cast horoscopes, and to have acted as clerk to the chapter
of the church of St Étienne, of which he eventually became
a canon. He has no claim to be the originator of French comedy.
The Corrivaux of Jean de la Taille dates from 1562, but Larivey
naturalized the Italian comedy of intrigue in France. He
adapted, rather than translated, twelve Italian comedies into
French prose. The first volume of the Comédies facétieuses
appeared in 1579, and the second in 1611. Only nine in all were
printed.[1] The licence of the manners depicted in these plays
is matched by the coarseness of the expression. Larivey’s
merit lies in the use of popular language in dialogue, which often
rises to real excellence, and was not without influence on Molière
and Regnard. Molière’s L’Avare owes something to the scene
in Larivey’s masterpiece, Les Esprits, where Séverin laments
the loss of his purse, and the opening scene of the piece seems
to have suggested Regnard’s Retour imprévu. It is uncertain
whether Larivey’s plays were represented, though they were
evidently written for the stage. In any case prose comedy
gained very little ground in popular favour before the time of
Molière. Larivey was the author of many translations, varying
in subject from the Facétieuses nuits (1573) of Straparola to the
Humanité de Jésus-Christ (1604) from Pietro Aretino.
LARK (O. Eng. láwerce, Ger. Lerche, Dan. Laerke, Dutch Leeuwerik),
a bird’s name used in a rather general sense, the specific
meaning being signified by a prefix, as skylark, titlark, woodlark.
It seems to be nearly conterminous with the Latin Alauda as
used by older authors; and, though this was to some extent
limited by Linnaeus, several of the species included by him
under the genus he so designated have long since been referred
elsewhere. By Englishmen the word lark, used without qualification,
almost invariably means the skylark, Alauda arvensis,
which, as the best-known and most widely spread species throughout
Europe, has been invariably considered the type of the genus.
Of all birds it holds unquestionably the foremost place in English
literature. It is one of the most favourite cage birds, as it will
live for many years in captivity, and, except in the season of
moult, will pour forth its thrilling song many times in an hour
for weeks or months together. The skylark is probably the most
plentiful of the class in western Europe. Not only does it
frequent almost all unwooded districts in that quarter of the
globe, but, unlike most birds, its numbers increase with the spread
of agricultural improvement. Nesting chiefly in the growing
corn, its eggs and young are protected in a great measure from
molestation; and, as each pair of birds will rear several broods
- ↑ Le Laquais, from the Ragazzo of Ludovico Dolce; La Veuve, from the Vedova of Nicolo Buonaparte; Les Esprits, from the Aridosio of Lorenzino de Medicis; Le Morfondu, from the Gelosia of Antonio Grazzini; Les Jaloux, from the Gelosi of Vincent Gabbiani; and Les Escolliers, from the Cecca of Girolamo Razzi, in the first volume; and in the second, Constance, from the Costanza of Razzi; Le Fidèle, from the Fedele of Luigi Pasqualigo; and Les Tromperies, from the Inganni of N. Secchi.
