Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/784

Rh 770 LEPORIUS. same year respecting the punishment of C. Lutorius Priscus ; again in A. D. 24 ; then in A. D. 26, when he was appointed governor of the province of Asia ; and lastly in A. d. 33, which was the year of his death. (Tac. Ann. i. 13, iii. 35, 50, iv. 20, 56, vi. 27.) It was this M. Lepidus who repaired the Aemilia Basilica in A. d. 22 (Tac. An7i. iii. 72), as is mentioned above. [No. 16.] 24. Aemilia Lepida. [Lepida, No. I.] 25. M Aemilius Q. f. Lepidus, the son ap- parently of No. 21, was consul with T. Statilius Taurus in a. d. 11. (Dion Cass. Ivi. 25.) He must be carefully distinguished from his contemporary M. Aemilius Lepidus, with whom he is frequently confounded. [See No.. 23.] Though we cannot trace the descent of this M'. Lepidus [see No. 21], yet among his ancestors on the female side were L. Sulla and Cn. Pompey. (Tac. Ann. iii. 22.) It is perhaps this M Lepidus who defended Piso in A. D. 20 ; and it was undoubtedly this Lepidus who defended his sister later in the same year. [Lepida, No. 2.] In a. d. 21 he obtained the province of Asia, but "Sex. Pompey declared in the senate that Lepidus ought to be deprived of it, because he was indolent, poor, and a disgrace to his ancestors, but the senate would not listen to Pompey, maintaining that Lepidus was of an easy rather than a slothful character, and that the manner in which he had lived on his srqall patri- mony was to his honour rather than his disgrace. (Tac. Ann. iii. 1 1, 22, 32.) 26. Aemilia Lepida, sister of No. 25. [Le- pida, No. 2.] 27. Aemilius Lepidus, the son of L. Aemilius PauUus [No, 22] and Julia, the granddaughter of Augustus. He was consequently the great-grandson of Augustus. He was one of the minions of the emperor Caligula, with whom he had the most shameful connection. So great a favourite was he with Caligula, thai the latter allowed him to hold the public offices of the state five years before the legal age, and promised him to make him his suc- cessor in the empire. He moreover gave him in marriage his favourite sister Drusilla [Drusilla, No. 2], and allowed him to have intercourse with his other sisters, Agrippina and Livilla. But, notwithstanding all these marks of favour, Caligula put him to death, a. d. 39, on the pretext of his conspiring against him. (Dion Cass. lix. 11, 22 ; Suet. Cal. 24, 36 ; comp. Tac. Ann. xiv. 2.) 28. Aemilia Lepida, sister of No. 27, and wife of the emperor Claudius. [Lepida, No. 3. J 29. Aemilia Lepida, daughter of No. 23, and wife of Drusus, son of Germanicus. [Lepida, No. 4.] LEPIDUS, an author of unknown date, wrote in Greek an abridgement of history, of which Ste- phanus of Byzantium quotes the first and eighth books (s. w. Te7€a, BovdpooTos^ S/fOTrot). LEPO'RIUS, by birth a Gaul, embraced the monastic life, under the auspices of Cassianus. in the early part of the fifth century, at Marseilles, where he enjoyed a high reputation for purity and holiness, until he became the advocate of the double heresy that man did not stand in need of Divine grace, and that Christ was bom with a human nature only. Having been excommunicated, in consequence of these doctrines, he betook himself to Africa, where he became familiar with Aurelius and St. Augustine, by whose instructions he pro- fited so much, that he not only became convinced LEPREUS. of liis errors, but drew up a solemn recantation addressed to Proculus, bishop of Marseilles, and Cyllinnius, bishop of Aix, while four African pre- lates bore testimony to the sincerity of his con- version, and made intercession on his behalf. Although now reinstated in his ecclesiastical privi- leges, Leporius does not seem to have returned to his native country ; but laying aside the profession of a monk, was ordained a presbyter by St. Augus- tine about A. D. 425, and appears to be the same Leporius so warmly praised in the discourse De Vita et Moribus Clericorum. We know nothing further regarding his career except that he was stiU alive in 430. (Cassianus, de Incarn. i. 4.) The work, to which we have alluded above, and which is still extant, under the title Libellus Emendationis sive Satisfadionis ad Episeopos Gal- liae^ sometimes with the addition, Con/essionem Fidei Catholicae continens de Mysterio Incarnaiionis Cliristi., cum Erroris pristini Detestatione, was held in very high estimation among ancient divines, and its author was regarded as one of the firmest bul- warks of orthodoxy against the attacks of the Nestorians. Some scholars in modem times, espe- cially Quesnel, who has written an elaborate dis- sertation on the subject, have imagined that we ought to regard this as a tract composed and dic- tated by St. Augustine, founding their opinion partly upon the style, partly upon the terms in which it is quoted in the acts of the second council of Chalcedon and other early documents, and partly upon certain expressions in an epistle of Leo the Great (clxv. ed. Quesn.) ; but their arguments are far from being conclusive, and the hypothesis is generally rejected. Fragments of the Libellus were first collected by Sirmond, from Cassianus, and inserted in his collection of Gaulish councils, fol. Par. vol. i. p. 52. The entire work was soon after discovered and published by the same editor in his Opuscula Dog- viatica Veterum quinque Scri}itorum 8vo. Par. 1630; together with the letter from the African bishops in favour of Leporius. It will be found also in the collection of Councils by Labbe, fol. Par. 1671 ; in Garnier's edition of Marius Mer- cator, fol. Par. 1673, tom. i. p. 224 ; in the Biblio- theca Pati-um Max. fol. Lugdun. 1677, tom. vii. p. 14 ; and in the Bibliotheca Patnim of Galland, fol. Venet. 1773, tom. ix. p. 396. (Gennad. de Viris Illustr. 59 ; Cassian. de Incarn. i. 4 ; con- sult the dissertation of Quesnel in his ed. of the works of Leo, vol. ii. p. 906, ed. Paris ; Histoire Litt6raire de la France^ vol. ii. p. 167 ; the second dissertation of Gamier, his edition of M. Mercator, vol. i. p. 2 30 ; the Prolegomena of Galland ; Schbne- mann, Biblioth. Pair. Latt, vol. ii. § 20.) [W. R.] LE'PREA (AeTT/jea), a daughter of Pyrgeus, from whom the town of Lepreum, in the south of Elis, was said to have derived its name. (Paus. V. 5. § 4.) Another tradition derived the name from Lepreus, a son of Caucon, Glaucon, or Pyr- geus (Aelian, V. H. i. 24 ; Paus. v. 5. § 4), by Astydameia. He was a grandson of Poseidon (the Schol. ad Callim. Hymn, in Jov. 39, calls him a son of Poseidon), and a rival of Heracles both in his strength and his powers of eating, but he was conquered and slain by him. His tomb was believed to exist at Phigalia. (Athen. x. p. 411, &c.; Paus. /. c; EuStath. ad Horn. p. 1523.) [L. S.J LEPREUS. [Lbpbba.]