Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/771

Rh LEONTIUS. tween the " holy bishops " of the orthodox party and the " philosophers " who embraced the opposite side. If so, the Leontius who took part in it was not our Leontius, but a much older person, bishop of the Cappadocian Caesareia, contemporary of Athanasius, by whom he is mentioned, and author of several works not now extant. 9. According to Nicephorus Callisti (/. c), our Leontius wrote also " an admirable work" in thirty books, in which he entirely overthrew the tritheistic heresy of Joannes Philoponus, and firmly established the orthodox doctrine ; but this work, if Nicephorus has cor- rectly described it, is lost. A homily, entitled Oratio in medium Pentccostem et in Caecum a JVativitaie^ necnon in illud : Nolite ^wiicare secundum faciem^ by " Leontius presbyter Constantinopolitanus," was published by Combefis, with a Latin version, in his Auctarium Novum, vol. i. fol. Paris, 1648. The editors of the Biblio- theca Patrum (vol ix. fol. Lyon, 1677), by placing this piece among the works of our Leontius, appear to identity the writer with him ; and Cave, though with hesitation, ascribes the homily to him. But it is not given by Galland ; and Fabricius {Bibl. Graec. vol. viii. p. 321) ascribes the homily to Leontius of Neapolis. [No. 20.] A homily on the parable of the good Samaritan, printed among the supposititious works of Chrysostom (Opera, vol. vii. p. 506, ed. Savill), is ascribed by Allatius and Fabricius {BlUioth. Graec. vol. viii. p. 326, vol. X. p. 304) to " Leontius of Jerusalem," who is perhaps the same as our Leontius. There are various homilies extant in MS. by " Leontius pres- byter Constantinopolitanus." (Photiusand Niceph. Callisti, U. cc; Canisius, TzYa Zeow^a, apud Bihliuth. Patrum^ vol. ix. fol. Lyon, 1677, and Lectlones Antiquae, vol. i. pp. 527, &c., ed. Basnage ; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. i. p. 543 ; Vossius, De Historicis Graecis, lib. iv. c. 18 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. viii. p. 309, ivc, 318, vol. xii. p. 648 ; Oudin, de Scrip- iorib. et Scriptis Eccles. vol i. col. 1462 ; Mansi, Concilia^ vol. viL col. 797, &c. ; Galland. Biblioth. Patrum, vol. xii. Prolegom. c 20.) 6. Of Byzantium. According to Labbe {De Byzantinae Historiae Scriptoribus Protrepticon ; Catalogus Scriptorum, c. 28 ; and Delineatio Appa- ratus, Pars II., all prefixed to the Paris edition of the Byzantine historians), the name of Leontius has been given, but with very doubtful correctness, to the otherwise anonymous continuator of the Ckronographia of Theophanes. This writer, what- ever his name may have been, lived in the reign of Constantine Porphyrogenitus [Constantinus VII.], with whom he was intimate, and who desired him to undertake the work, and supplied him with the materials. The continuation, in its present form, comes down to the second year of Romanus, son and successor of Constantine Por- phyrogenitus, and probably reached, or was designed to reach, to a later period, for it is imperfect, and breaks oif abruptly. But the latter part of the history is an addition by a later hand. In fact the work which heniiQdiXpovo'ypa<pia,Chronr)gra'phia, is composed of three parts, by three distinct writers : 1. The History of the Emperors Leo V. the Anne- nian, Michael II. of Amorium, Theophiltts the son of Michael, and Michael III. and Theodora, the Bon and widow of Theophilus, by the so-called Leontius, from the materials supplied by Constantine Porphyrogenitus ; 2. The Life of Basil the Mace- donian, by Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself LEONTIUS. 757 (though Labbe and Cave would assign this also to Leontius) ; and 3. The Lives of Leo VI. and Alexander, the sons of Basil, and of Constantine Porphyrogenitus and the commencement of the reign of Romanus II., by an unknown later hand. This third part is more succinct than the former parts, and is in a great degree borrowed, with little variation, from known and existing sources. The first edition of the Ckronographia was in the Paris edition of the Byzantine historians. It was prepared for publi- cation by Combefis, and a Latin version was made by him ; but the work was not actually published till 1685, some years after the editor's death. It forms part of the volume entitled Oi ficTd. &eo(pd- VT]v, Scriptores post Theophanem, and is in folio. It was again published in the Venetian reprint of that series, fol. a. d. 1729, and again under the editorial care of Bekker, 8vo. Bonn, 1838, with the Latin version of Combefis. The life of Basil, by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, was printed sepa- rately as early as 1653, in the ^^.v/h/jlikto, of Allatius, 8vo. Cologn. [Constantinus VII.] (Theophan. Continuat. Prooem ; Labbe, //. cc. ; Vossius, De Historicis Graccis, lib. iv. c. 21 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 681, vol. viii. p. 318 ; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. p. 90.) 7. Of Constantinople. [No. 5.] 8. Of Cyprus. [No. 20.] 9. Epigrammaticus. [No. 27.] 10. Episcopus. [Nos. 2, 16, 20.] 11. FaBULARUM SCRIPTOR. [No. 16.] 12. Grammaticus. [No. 16.] 13. Hagiopolita. [No. 20.] 14. HlEROSOLYMlTANUS, Or of JERUSALEM. [No. 5.] 15. Of Lampsacus. [Leo, No. 3.] 16. Lascivus. Ausonius commemorates {Pro- fessor. Burdigal. Epigram, vii. ) among the teachers of Bordeaux, Leontius, a grammaticus or gramma- rian, surnamed Lascivus, "a name," adds Auso- nius, " unworthy of the purity of his life," who had been his friend and companion from early youth. Fabricius is in one place {BiU. Graec. vol. viii. p. 325) inclined to identify w^ith this Leontius of Bordeaux a Leontius Mythographus, or Scriptor Fabularum, a writer of some merit, whose works were discovered and designed for publication by Brassicanus; but the design was never executed, and the MS. has been either lost or destroyed. {Not. ad Petronii Arbitri Satyricon, c. 121, p. 572, ed. Burmann, prima, or vol. i. p. 741, ed. secunda.) Gesner also thought he had somewhere read the work of one Leontius in which some of the myths of the poets were related. Sido- nius Apollinaris, a generation later than Ausonius, mentions a Pontius Leontius of Bordeaux or the neighbourhood {Epistol. lib. viii. 11, 12), whose castle at the confluence of the Garonne and Doi^- dogne he describes in one of his poems. {Carmen xxii. Durgus Pontii Tjioiiiii). This Pontius Leon- tius is by Fabricius in another place {Bibl. Graec. voL iv. p. 94, note w.) identified with the fabulist of Brassicanus. But the Leontii of Ausonius and Sidonius, however doubtful it may be which (if either) of them is the fabulist, must be distin- guished from each other, as well as from two otlier Leontii, bishops of Bordeaux, mentioned by Ve- nantius Honorius Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers in the sixth century {Curmin. lib. iv. 9, 10); one of whom is especially commemorated by him for bis pious care in the restoration of ruined churches, 3c 3