LAB 
M. Lepidus, the particular enemy of Auguftus, and then 
an exile; and, when the emperor alked him if there were 
no other more worthy, he replied, “ that every man mult 
judge for himfelf.” His great rival in jurifprudence, 
Ateius Capito, a man of a more complying difpoiition, 
blames this freedom as a kind of frenzy, and lays that 
Labeo, “ even when the deified Auguftus was the acknow¬ 
ledged head of the commonwealth, conlidered nothing as 
good in law which was not fanftioned by the ancient rules 
of juftice.” If Horace, by his Labeone infanior, (more frantic 
than Labeo,) alluded to this perfon, and his pafhon for 
liberty, he may be fufpefted of ridiculing a man of prin¬ 
ciple for unworthy purpofes. Tacitus fpeaksof both Ca¬ 
pito and Labeo as “ the two ornaments of peace in their 
age but celebrates the incorrupt freedom of the latter, 
which was the caufe of his rifing no higher than the pre- 
torlhip ; while the obfequioul'nefs of the former was re¬ 
warded with the confulate. Thefe two great lawyers were 
confidered as at the head of two oppofite fefts in the pro- 
feflion; Capito, it is faid, adhering ftriftly to the maxims 
he had received, while Labeo introduced many novelties 
from his reading and reflexion. As this appears contrary 
to their characters as before difplayed, it is explained by 
fuppofing that Capito regarded the ft rift letter of the law, 
while Labeo attended to its fpirit. Our lawyer divided 
his time between bufinefs and ftudy, fpending fix months 
at Rome in giving advice and attending to public duties, 
and fix in a country retreat. He wrote a great number of 
books on different fubjefts, but chiefly relating to jurif¬ 
prudence. Aulus Gellius f'everal times refers to his com¬ 
mentaries on the twelve tables'. The time of his death is 
uncertain; for it is fcarcely probable that he is the perfon 
of the fame name whom Pliny the elder mentions as lately 
dead at a very advanced age, and who made himfelf ridi¬ 
culous bv a paffion for miniature-painting. Gen. Bioo- 
LAB'ENSTEIN. See Lobenstein. 
LA'BENT, adj. \_laberis, Lat.] Sliding; gliding; flip¬ 
ping. 
LA'BER, a town of Bavaria, in the principality of 
Neuburg: eleven miles eaft of Dietfurt, and nine weft- 
north-weft of Ratifbon. 
LA'BER, a river of Bavaria, which runs into the Da¬ 
nube five miles fouth-weft of Ratifbon. 
LA'BER, a river of Bavaria, which runs into the Alt- 
<nuhl at Dietfurth. 
LA'BER (Gros), a river of Bavaria, which runs into 
the Danube three miles north-north-eait of Straubing. 
LA'BER (Klein), a river of Bavaria, which runs into 
the Danube four miles north-north-welt of Straubing. 
LABE'RIUS (Decimus),a writer of the dramatic pieces 
called by the Latins mimes, was a Roman knight by birth. 
He was fixty years of age, when Julius Caefar, in the ple¬ 
nitude of his power, incited him to appear on the ftage 
in one of his own pieces. Macrobius, who has recorded 
the anecdote, has alfo preferved the prologue fpoken by 
Laberius on the occafion, in which he intimates that the 
requelt of fuch a man as Caefar was equivalent to a com¬ 
mand. He (hows a fpirit in thefe verfes fuperior to what 
plight have been expefted from a writer of licentious 
farces. The following lines are truly touching: 
Ego bis tricenis amis aBis fine nota 
Eques Romanus bare egrejfus meo 
Domum revertar mimus : nimirum hoc die 
Uno plus vixi, mihi quam vivendum foret. 
Twice thirty years paft o’er without a blot, 
A Roman knight this morn I left my houfe, 
A player to return. Alas ! my friends, 
I feel that I have liv’d a day too long. 
He did not refrain, during the action, from fome ftrokes 
againll the ufurper, and drew the eyes of all the aflembly 
upon Csefar by the fentence, Necejfe eft multos timeat quern 
multitiment: “Many he dreads in turn, whom many dread.” 
Caefar, however, rellored him to the rank of knight, which 
he had loft by appearing on the ftage; but, to his morti- 
Vot.XII. No. 806. 
LAB ts 
fication, when he went to take his feat among the knights, 
no one offered to make room for him, and even his friend 
Cicero faid, “ I would give you room, if I were not too 
much crowded;” meaning a farcalin on the great num¬ 
ber of new knights created by Csefar. To which Labe¬ 
rius replied, “ I wonder you lhould be crowded, who ufu- 
ally fit upon two feats at once alluding to the orator’s 
trimming conduft in the civil dillenfions. Laberius fur- 
vived the dictator ten months, and died B.C. 44. The 
titles of feveral of his pieces are preferved by Atiius Gel¬ 
lius, and a few fragments of him are given in Mattaire’s 
Corpus Poetarum. Horace, in his Satires, has a line in 
difparagement of the mimes of Laberius, but which may 
be underftood rather as expreffing contempt for that fpe- 
cies of compofition than for his performances in particu¬ 
lar. VoJJii Poet. Lat. 
LA'BES, f. [Latin.] A fpot; ablemilh; the fulnefs of 
the lips. Phillips. 
LA'BES, a town of Hinder Pomerania: thirty miles 
north-eaft of Stargard, and thirty fouth of Colberg. Lat. 
53. 39. N. Ion.15.39.E. 
LA'BEZ, a province of Algiers, lying to the fouth of 
Boujeah. It was at one time a kingdom, and is now lo 
called. 
LA'BIA, f. plu. [Latin.] The lips; the edges of any 
wound or aperture. 
LA'BIAL, adj. [labialis , Lat.j Uttered by the lips.—— 
The Hebrews have alfigned which letters are labial , which 
dental, and which guttural. Bacon. 
LA'BIAL, f. One of the letters pronounced by a par¬ 
ticular motion or prelfure of the lips. 
LABIA'TAs, J. in botany, a natural order of plants, 
fo called, after Tournefort, from labium , a lip, in allufion 
to the ihape of the corolla, which relembles the mouth 
and lips of an animal. This order, the 39th of Juflieu’s 
lyftem, and the fixth of his eighth clafs, is equivalent to 
Linnaeus’s 43d natural order, Verticillatce ; or to the Didy- 
namia Gymnofpermia of his artificial fyftem ; except that 
the latter neceifarily excludes fuch genera of labiatce as 
have but two itamens, and which are therefore referred to 
his fecond clafs, diandria. Sec Botany Index. 
LA'BIATE, adj. Having lips. In botany, applied to 
an irregular corolla with two lips. 
LA'BIATED, adj. Formed with lips. 
LABIAU', a town of Pruilia, in the province of Sam- 
land, with an ancient caftle, on the Deim : twenty miles 
eaft-north-eaft of Konigfberg. Lat. 54. 10. N. Ion. 21. 
1 5. E. 
LABI'CUM, a town of Italy, called alfo Lavicum, be¬ 
tween Gabii and Tufculum, which become a Roman co¬ 
lony about four centuries B. C. Now’ Colonna. 
LA'BICZ, a town of Warfaw: thirty-two miles north 
of Gnefna. 
LABIE'NUS, an officer of Caefar in the wars of Gaul. 
He deferted to Pompey, and was killed at the battle of 
Munda.—A Roman who followed the intereft of Brutus 
and Caffius, and became general of the Parthians againlt 
Rome. He was conquered by the officers of Augultus- 
Titus, an hiftorian and orator at Rome in the age of Au¬ 
guftus. The fenate ordered his papers to be burnt on 
account of their feditious contents; and Labienus, unable 
to lurvive the lofs of his writings, deitroyed himfelf. 
LAB'ILE, adj. Slippery, apt to Hide, unftable. Cole. 
LABIL'ITY, f. [labilitas, Lat.] Ir.ftability, aptnefs to 
Aide. Cole. 
LABI'NA,y. in old records, watery land. 
LABI'NyE, f. A term ufed by the authors who have 
written of Swiflerland, and other mountainous countries, 
to exprefs thole vaft maffes of fuow, which fometimes fall 
from the hills, and bury houfes or even whole towns; and 
when hardened by the frofts, as is often the cafe, into folid 
fubftances, they overthrow woods, villages, and whatever 
ftands in the way of their courfe, as they roll down the fteep 
fides of the precipices in their way. Some authors have 
alfo extended the word to a larger fenfe, and made it ex- 
C prefs 
