in fabulous history, a son of Priam and Hecuba, or according to others of Antenor or of Capys. As being priest of Apollo, he was commissioned by the Trojans to offer a bullock to Neptune to render him propitious. During the sacrifice two enormous serpents issued from the sea, and attacked Laocoon's two sons who stood next to the altar. The father immediately attempted to defend his sons; but the serpents falling upon him squeezed him in their complicated wreaths, and he died in the greatest agonies. This punishment Laocoön punishment was said to have been inflicted upon him for diffusing the Trojans to bring into the city the fatal wooden horse which the Greeks had consecrated to Minerva, as also for his impiety in hurling a javelin against the sides of the horse as it entered within the walls. According to Hyginus, he suffered the above punishment for his marriage against the consent of Apollo, or, according to others, for his polluting the temple, by his commerce with his wife Antiope, before the statue of the god.

Laocoön, in the history of the arts, is a celebrated monument of Greek sculpture executed in marble by Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus, the three famous artists of Rhodes. Agesander is supposed to have been the father of the two latter. This remain of antiquity was found at Rome in the ruins of the palace of Titus, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, under the pontificate of Julius II. and afterwards deposited in the Farnese palace. Laocoön, the priest of Apollo and Neptune, is here represented with his two sons, with two hideous serpents clinging round his body, gnawing it, and injecting their poison: Virgil has given us the following description of the fact:

*Serpens amplexus uterque Implicat, et mileros morfu depascitur artus: Corripit, spirifuge ligant ingentibus, et jam Bis medium amplexi, bis collo squamae circum Terga dati, superant capite et cervicibus altis.*

This statue exhibits the most astonishing dignity and tranquillity of mind in the midst of the most excruciating torments: Pliny* says of it, that it is, *opus omnibus picturae et flavuarice artis, preferendum.*

When Italy was overrun by the French during the late revolution, this wonderful monument of ancient art was removed along with the celebrated Apollo Belvedere, &c., from the Vatican, where they had been seen and admired for 300 years, and placed in the Museum of Arts at Paris. "A hero," says the French account of the latter, guided by victory, drew it from the Vatican, and transporting it to the banks of the Seine, has fixed it there for ever."

The Laocoön, Dr Gillies† observes, may be regarded as the triumph of Grecian sculpture; since bodily pain, the grossest and most ungovernable of all our passions, and that pain united with anguish and torture of mind, are yet expressed with such propriety and dignity, as afford lessons of fortitude superior to any taught in the schools of philosophy. The horrible shriek which Virgil's Laocoön emits is a proper circumstance for poetry, which speaks to the fancy by images and ideas borrowed from all the senses, and has a thousand ways of ennobling its object: but the expression of this shriek would have totally degraded the statue. It is softened, therefore, into a patient sigh, with the eyes turned to heaven in search of relief. The intolerable agony of suffering nature is represented in the lower part, and particularly in the extremities of the body; but the manly breast struggles against calamity. The contention is still more plainly perceived in his furrowed forehead; and his languishing paternal eye demands assistance, less for himself than for his miserable children, who look up to him for help.

The group of the Laocoön is composed of five pieces of marble, joined together with so much art and neatness, that Pliny thought the whole was of one. Laodicæa, the right arm of the father, and two of the arms of Laomedon, the children are wanting. The deficiency is supplied by arms moulded on the groups in plaster of Paris.

Laodicæa on the Lycus, in Ancient Geography, a town of Phrygia, at first called Diopolis, then Rhosus. It was built by Antiochus son of Stratonice, and called after his comfort Laodicæa. It was long an inconsiderable place; but increased toward the age of Augustus Caesar, after having suffered in a siege from Mithridates. The fertility of the soil, and the good fortune of some of its citizens, raised it to greatness. Hiero who adorned it with many offerings, left the people his heir to more than 2000 talents. After that benefactor followed Zeno the rhetorician, and his son Polemo, as renowned a sophist as ever lived. This person flourished at Smyrna; but was buried here by the Syrian gate, near which were the sepulchres or coffins of his ancestors. Laodicæa, though inland, grew more potent than the cities on the coast, and became one of the largest towns in Phrygia. It was often damaged by earthquakes, and restored by its own opulence or by the munificence of the Roman emperors. These resources failed, and the city, it is probable, became early a scene of ruin. About the year 1097 it was pillaged by the Turks, and submitted to Ducas general of the emperor Alexis. In 1120 the Turks sacked some of the cities of Phrygia by the Maander, but were defeated by the emperor John Comnenus, who took Laodicæa, and built anew or repaired the walls. About 1161 it was again unfortified. Many of the inhabitants were then killed with their bishop, or carried with their cattle into captivity by the Turks. In 1190 the German emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, going by Laodicæa, with his army toward Syria on a croatade, was received so kindly, that he prayed on his knees for the prosperity of the people. About 1196 this region with Caria was dreadfully ravaged by the Turks. The sultan, on the invasion of the Tartars in 1255, gave Laodicæa to the Romans; but they were unable to defend it, and it soon returned to the Turks. It is now totally ruined and deserted. Several remains of its ancient grandeur are, however, still to be seen; particularly the ruins of two theatres and an amphitheatre.—The memory of this place is consecrated in Scripture, being one of the seven churches to which St John—in the Apocalypse addresses himself, commended by St Paul.

Laodicæa on the sea, in Ancient Geography, according to Strabo, was a town of Seleucis in Syria, extremely well built, with a commodious harbour. The country about it yielded great quantities of wine. The city took its name from Laodicæa, mother of Seleucus the founder of it.