Lantfredus or Lamfridus, a disciple of bishop Ethelnold of Winchester, flourished in the latter part of the lOfh century. He is known onlj^ by his life of St. Swithun. which is very interesting, as it affords fine fa- cilities for studying the manners and history of his time. "His style is very inflated, and it is rendered obscure by the ado])tion of numerous words formed from the Greek language." The editions of Lantfredus are those of Hen- rv Wharton, A»f/li(i Sarra, i (Lond. 1691, folio), 322: — Ldntfndi ej>i.'ito/ii /mm/issti Histori(s de Miraculis Swi- 1hiid,Art(i Sancloruin, Jidii, i (Antwerp, 1719, fol.), 328- 3;37 : — iSirilhuni Vita et Miracula, per Lamfridmn Mo- nachitm Winton. See Darling, Cyclop. Bibliofp: ii, 1767. Laodice'a [strictly Laodici'a] (AaociKfio, jiis- tice o/'tae people), the name of several cities in Syria and Asia ]Minor. but one of which, usually called Luodl- ceii (III Li/niin (from its proximity to the river Lycus\ is named in Scripture. It lay on the confines of I'hrygia and Lydia. about forty miles east of Ephesus, and is that one of the '• seven churches in Asia" to which John was commissioned to deliver the awful warning contamed in Kcv. iii. U-19. The fulfilment of this waming is to be sought in the history of the Christian Church which existed in that city, and not in the stone and mortar of the city itself; for it is not the city, but '■ the Church of the Laodiceans," which is denounced. It is true, how- over, that the eventual fate of that Church must have been involved in that of the city. (See an account of the synod at Laodicea, in Phrj-gia, A.D. 350-389, in "S'on Drey's Theol. Quart(d.schr. 1824, p. 3 sq.)
Laodicea was the capital of Greater Phrygia (Strabo, xii, p. .')7(); Pliny, v, 29; or Phrygia Pacatiana, accord- ing to the subscription of 1 Tim.), and a ver\' consider- able city (Strabo, p. 578) at the time it was named in the New Testament; but the violence of earthquakes, to which this district has always been liable, demolished, some ages after, a great part of the city, destroyed many of tlie inhabitants, and eventually obliged tlie remainder to aliandon tlie s]iot altogctlier. The town was origin- ally called Diii.y/olis. and afterwards Ithixi.t (Pliny, v, 29 I; but Laodicea, the building of which is ascribed to Autiochus Theos, in honor of his wife Laodice, was l)r(.bal>ly founded on the old site. It was not far west from Coloss;v, and only six miles to the west of Hierap- olis (/tin. Ant. p. 337; Tab. Pait.; Strabo. xiii, p. 629). At first Laodicea was not a jilace of much importance, but if soon ac(iuired a high degree of prosperity. It suffered greatly during the :\Iithridatic war (Appian, Bell. Mith. 20; Strabo, xii, p. 578), but quickly recover- ed under tlie dominion of Pome; and towanls the end of the republic and under the first emperors, Laodicea became one of the most imiiorfant and flourishing com- mercial cities of Asia Jlinor, in which large money
transactions and an extensive trade in wood were car- ried on (Cicero, ad Fam. ii, 17; iii, 5; Strabo, xii, p. 577 ; compare Vitruv. viii, 3). The place often suffered from earthquakes, especially from the great shock in the reign of Tiberius, in which it was completeh' destroyed ; but the inhabitants restored it from their own means (Tacit. A nn. xiv, 27). The wealth of the citizens crea- ted among them a taste for the arts of the Greeks, as is manifest from the ruins; and that it did not remain be- hind-hand in science and literature is attested by the names of the sceptics Antiochus and Theiodas, the suc- cessors of yEnesidemus (Diog. Laert. ix, 11, § 106; 12, § 116), as well as by the existence of a great medical school (Strabo, xii, p. 580). During the Poman period Laodicea was the chief city of a Poman conventus (Cic- ero, ad Fam. iii, 7; ix, 25; xiii, 54, 67; xv, 4; ad Att. V, 15, 16, 20, 21 ; vi. 1, 2, 3, 7; in Verr. i, 30\ Jlany of its inhabitants were Jews, and it was probably owing to this circumstance that at a very early period it be- came one of the chief scats of Christianity [we have good reason for believing that when, in writing from Pome to the Christians of Colossa?, Paul sent a greeting to those of Laodicea, he had not personally visited either jilace. But the preaching of the Gospel at Ephesus (Acts xviii, 19-xix, 41) must inevitably have resulted in flic formation of churches in the neighboring cities, especially where .Jews were settled. See LAodiceans, Epistle to the], and the see of a bishop (Coloss. ii, 1 ; iv, 15 sq.; Pev. i, 11 ; iii, 14 sq. ; Josephus, Ant. xiv, 10, 20 ; Hierocl. p. 665). The Byzantine writers often men- tion it, especially in the time of the Comneni ; and it was fortified by the emperor Manuel (Nicef. Chon. .1 nn. p. 9, 81). During the invasion of the Turks and Mon- g<ils the city was much exposed to ravages, and fell into decay; but the existing remains stiU attest its former greatness (see Smith's Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Geo(j. s. v. Laodiceia). Smith, in his Journey to the Seven Chvrch- es (1671), was the first to describe the site of Laodicea. He was follo>ved by Chandler. Cockerell, and Pococke ; raid the locality has. within the present century-, been visited by ^Mr, Hartley, Mr. Arundell, Col. Leake, and ^Ir. Hamilton.