Prehistory and antiquity
The island was first mentioned by 6th century lexicographer Stephen from Byzantium who called it Ladesta and Ladeston. His source was Theopompus, a 4th century BC Greek historian. The names of numerous other Illyric settlements along the coast had the same suffix -est which indicates its Illyric origins. When the Romans conquered Dalmatia they gave the island the Latin name Augusta Insula meaning "emperors island". During the Middle Ages, Lastovo (L�gosta), given its name to the carob or locust bean, which flourishes all over the island, or it is the tree that has christened the island, and weather Lastovo is locust, or locust has become Lastovo, there is the farther question whether the eponymous "locust" is the carob tree or the lobster, with which the crayfish (French: langouste, Italian: aligusta, arigusta) is a characterist a product of the island as the carob bean. It may not generally known that the English words "lobster" and "Locust" are both derived from the same source, namely, the Latin LOCUSTA, and it is remarkable circumstance than L�gosta should embody in its names, its two principal but so divergent product, the name would be transcribed as Augusta, Lagusta or Lagosta. The Slavic suffix -ovo combined with the Roman form of Lasta gives the islands present name of Lastovo.
The first traces of human presence on the island were found in the Ra?a cave where continuous evidence of habitation reaches as far as the late Neolithic Age. In prehistoric times the island was inhabited by the Illyrians. However finds of Greek ceramics show that the island was on one of the Greek trade routes on the Adriatic and probably a part of the state of Issa.
When the Romans conquered the province of Dalmatia they too settled Lastovo. The Romans named the island Augusta Insula. The Romans left very clear traces of their long rule on the island, the so called "villae rusticae" (residential farming units) or the water
