Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/174

 153 LEONTIXr. identical with Nahr-ed-Damur, half way between Beyriit and Saida, Lion's town and river should be looked for south of this, and north of Sidon. The only fctream in this interval is Nahr-eUA iily, called also in its upper part Nahr Baruk, which Dr. Eobin- son has shown to be the Bostrenus Fluvius. [Bo- STRENUS.] This, therefore, Mannert seemed to have sufficient authority for identifying with the Leontes. But the existence of the LUamj — a name supposed to be similar to the Leontes — between Sidou and Tyre, is thought to countenance the conjecture that Ptolemy has misplaced the Leontes, which is in fact identical with the anonymous river which Strabo mentions near Tyre (p. 758), which can be no other than the LUaiiy (Robinson, Bib. Res. vol. iii. pp. 408 — 410, and notes). No great reliance, however, can be placed on the similarity of names, as the form Leontos is merely the inflexion of Aiaiv, which was not likely to be adopted in Ai-abic. It is far more probable that the classical geographer in this, as in other cases, translated the Semitic name. [See Canis and Lycus.] Besides which the Litany does not retain this name to the coast, but is here called Nahr-el-Kdsiiniyek, the Casimeer of Maun- drell (March 20, p. 48 ; Eeland, Palaestina, pp. 290, 291.) [G. W.] LEONTI'NI (Aeoi/rri/ot : Eth. Aeovrlvos : Len- tini), a city of Sicily, situated between Syracuse and Catana, but about eight miles from the sea- coast, near a considerable lake now known as the Lago di Lentini. The name of Leontini is evidently an ethnic form, signifying properly the people rather than the city itself; but it seems to have been the only one in use, and is employed both by Greek and Latin writers (declined as a plural adjective*), with the single exception of Ptolemy, who calls the city Ai6vTiov or Leontium. (Ptoh iii. 4. § 13.) But it is clear, from the modern form of the name, Lentini^ that the form Leontini, which we find universal in writers of the best ages, continued in common use down to a late period. All ancient writers concur in representing Leontini as a Greek colony, and one of those of Chalcidian origin, being founded by Chalcidic colonists from Naxos, in the same year with Catana, and six years after the parent city of Naxos, B.C. 730. (Thuc. vi. 3 ; Scymn. Ch. 283 ; Diod. xii. 53, xiv. 14.) According to Thucydides, the site had been previously occupied by Siculi, but these were expelled, and the city be- came essentially a Greek colony. We know little of its early history ; but, from the strength of its po- sition and the extreme fertility of its territoiy (renowned in all ages for its extraordinary richness), it appears to have early attained to great prosperity, and became one of the most considerable cities in the E. of Sicily. The rapidity of its rise is attested by the fact that it was able, in its turn, to found the colony of Euboea (Strab. vi. p. 272 ; Scymn. Ch. 287), apparently at a very early period. It is probable, also, that the three Chalcidic cities, Leon- tini, Naxos, and Catana, from the earhest period adopted the same line of policy, and made common cause against their Dorian neighbours, as we find them constantly doing in later times. The government of Leontini was an oligarchy, but it fell at one time, like so many other cities of Sicily, under the yoke of a despot of the name of Panaetius, who is said to have been the first instance of the zivwv TToKis (vii. 6). LEONTINL kind in Sicily. His usurpation is referred by Eu- sebius to the 43rd Olympiad, or b. c. 608. (Arist. Pol V. 10, 12; Euseb. Arm. vol. ii. p. 109.) Leontini appears to have retained its independ- ence till after b. c. 498, when it fell under the yoke of Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela (Herod, vii. 1 54) : after which it seems to have passed in succession mider the authority of Gelon and Hieron of Syra- cuse; as we find that, in B.C. 476, the latter despot, having expelled the inhabitants of Catana and Naxos from their native cities, which he peopled with new colonists, estabhshed the exiles at Leontini, the pos- session of which they shared with its former citizens. (Diod. xi. 49.) We find no special mention of Leontini in the revolutions that followed the death of Hieron ; but there is no doubt that it regained its independence after the expulsion of Thrasybulus, b. c. 466, and the period which followed was pro- bably that of the greatest prosperity of Leontini, as well as the other Chalcidic cities of Sicily. (Diod. xi. 72, 76.) But its proximity to Syracuse became the source of fresh troubles to Leontini. In e. c. 427 the Leontines found themselves engaged in hos- tilities with their more powerful neighbour, and, being unable to cope single-handed with the Syra- sans, they applied for support not only to their Chalcidic brethren, but to the Athenians also, who sent a fleet of twenty ships to their assistance, m:ider the command of Laches and Cbaroeades. (Thuc. iii. 86 ; Diod. xii. 53 ) The operations of the Athenian fleet under Laches and his successors Pythodorus and Eurymedon were, however, confined to the part of Sicily adjoining the Straits of I^lessana : the Leontines received no direct support from them, but, after the war had continued for some years, they were included in the general pacification of Gela, B. c. 424, which for a time secured them in the possession of their independence. (Thuc. iv. 58, 65.) This, however, did not last long : the Sy- racusans took advantage of intestine dissensions among the Leontines, and, by espousing the cause of the ohgarchy, drove the democratic party into exile, while they adopted the oligarchy and richer classes as Syracusan citizens. The greater part of the latter body even abandoned their own city, and mi- grated to Syracuse ; but quickly returned, and for a time joined with the exiles in holding it out against the power of the Syracusans. But the Athenians, to whom they again applied, were unable to render them any effectual assistance ; they were a second time expelled, b. c. 422, and Leontini became a mere dependency of Syracuse, though always retaining some importance as a fortress, from the strength of its position. (Thuc. v. 4; Diod. xn. 54.) In B. c. 417 the Leontine exiles are mentioned as joining with the Segestans in urging on the Athe- nian expedition to Sicily (Diod. xii. 83 ; Pint. A'ic. 12) ; and their restoration was made one of the avowed objects of the enterprise. (Thuc. vi. 50.) But the failure of that expedition left them without any hope of restoration ; and Leontini continued in its subordinate and fallen condition till b. c. 406, when the Syracusans allowed the unfortunate Agri- gentines, after the capture of their own city by the Carthaginians, to establish themselves at Leontini. The Geloans and Camarinaeans followed their ex- ample the next year: the Leontine exiles of Syracuse at the same time took the opportunity to return to their native city, and declare tbemselves independent, and the treaty of peace concluded by Dionysius with Himilco, in b. c. 405, expressly stipulated for the
 * Polybius uses the fuller phrase v rwv Aeov-