Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/176

 160 LEONTIUM. implore the intervention of Athens. (Died. xii. 53 ; Plat. Hipp. Maj. p. 282.) [E. H. B.] COIN OF LEONTINI. LEO'NTIUM {e6vTiov : Eth. Aeovr-fjo-ios), a town of Achaia, was originally not one of the 12 Achaean cities, though it afterwards became so, succeeding to the place of Rhypes. It is only men- tioned by Polybius, and its position is uncertain. It must, however, have been an inland town, and was probably between Pharae and the territory ol' Aegium, since we find that the Eleians under the Aetolian general Euripidas, after marching through the territory of Pharae as far as that of Aegium, retreated to Leontium. Leake places it in the valley of the Selinus, between the territory of Tri- taea and that of Aegium, at a place now called Ai Andhrea, from a ruined church of that saint near the village of Guzumktra. Callierates, the partizan of the Romans during the later days of the Achaean League, was a native of Leontium. (Pol. ii. 41, V. 94, xxvi. 1 ; Leake, Morea, vol. iii. p. 419.) LEONTO'POLIS. [Nicephorium.] LEONTO'POLIS. [Leontes.] LEONTO'POLIS {AeiuTuiv ttoAis, Ptol. iv. 5. § 51 ; Strab. xvii. pp. 802, 812 ; AsJ^toi, Hieronym. ad Jovian, ii. 6; Leontos Oppidum, Plin. v. 20. s. 17), the capital of the Leontopolite nome in the Delta of Egypt. It stood in lat. 30° 6' N., about three geographical miles S. of Thmuis. Strabo is the earUest writer who mentions either this nome, or its chief town : and it was probably of comparatively recent origin and importance. The lion was not among the sacred animals of Aegypt : but that it was occasionally domesticated and kept in the temples, may be infeiTed from Diodorus (ii. 84). Trained lions, employed in the chase of deers, wolves, &c., are foimd in the hunting-pieces delineated upon the walls of the grottoes at Benihassan. (Wilkinson, M. and C. vol. iii. p. 1 6.) In the reign of Ptolemy Philometor (b. c. 180 — 145) a temple, modelled after that of Jerusalem, was founded by the exiled Jewish priest Onias. (Joseph. Ant. Jud. xiii. 3. § 3 ; Hieronym. in Daniel, ch. xi.) The Hebrew colony, which was attracted by the establishment of their national worship at Leontopolis, and which was increased by the refugees from the oppres- sions of the Seleucid kings in Palestine, flourished there for more than three centuries afterwards. In the reign of Vespasian the Leontopolite temple was closed, amid the general discouragement of Judaism by that emperor. (Joseph. B. Jud. vii. 10. § 4.) Antiquarians are divided as to the real site of the ruins of Leontopolis. According to D'Anville, they are covered by a mound still called Tel-Essahe, or the "Lion's Hill" (Comp. Cham- pollion, VEgijpte, vol. ii. p. 110, seq.). Jomard, on the other hand, maintains that some tumuli near the village of El-Mengaleh in the Delta, represent the ancient Leontopolis. And this supposition agrees better with the account of the town given by Xe- LEPONTIL nophon of Ephesus. (^Ephesiaca, iv. p. 280, ed. Bipont.) [W. B. D.] LEPETYMNUS (AewiTv,uvos, called Lepethym- nus or Lepethymus by Pliny, v. 31. s. 39 ; the MSS. vary), a mountain in the northern part of Lesbos, near Methymna. Plehn states (^Leshiac. Lib. p. 9) that it is the highest mountain in the island : but this does not appear to be consistent with modern surveys. Its present name is said to be Mont S. Theodore. The sepulchre and tomb of the hero Palamedes are alleged to have been here. (Tzetzes, Ltjcophr. Cassandr. 1095; Philostr. i^eroic. p. 716, Vit. Apollon. Tyan. iv. 13. 150, also 16. 154.) In Antigonus of Carystus (c. 17) there is a story given, on the authority of JIyrsilus the Lesbian, concerning a temple of Apollo and a sln'ine of the hero Lepe- tymnus, connected with the same mountain. Here, also, according to Theophrastus (Z>e Sign. Pluv. et Vent. p. 783, ed. Schneid.), an astronomer called Matricetas made his observations. [J. S. H.] LEPINUS MONS is the name given by Columella (x. 131), the only author in whom the name is found, to a mountain near Signia in Latium, pro- bably one of the underfalls or offshoots of the great mass of the Volscian Apennines. The name of Jlontes Lepini is frequently applied by modern geo- graphers to the whole of the lofty mountain group which separates the valley of the Sacco from the Pontine Marshes [Latium] ; but there is no ancient authority for this. [E. H. B.] LEPIDO'TON-POLIS (AeiriStoTuir ^ AimScoTbu ir6is, Ptol. iv. 5. § 72). a town in Upper Egypt, situated in the Panopolite nome, and on the eastern side of the Nile. It was about four geographical miles N. of Chenoboscia. Lat. 26° 2' N. This was doubtless, the place at which Herodotus had heard that the fish lepidotus was caught in great num- bers, and even received divine honours (ii. 72 ; comp. Minutoli, p. 414 ; Champollion, lEgypte, vol. i. p. 248). Lepidoton-Polis was probably con- nected with the Osirian worship, for, according to the legend, Isis, in her search for the limbs of Osiris, who had been cut into pieces by Typhon, traversed the marshes in a boat made of papyrus (^Baris), and in whatsoever place she found a member, there she buried it. In the end she discovered all the limbs, excepting one, which had been devoured by the fishes jihagras and lepidotus. No remains of Lepidoton-Polis have been discovered. [W. B. D.] LEPO'NTII {ArfKovTioi, Strab., Ptol.), an Al- pine people, who inhabited the valleys on the south side of the Alps, about the head of the two great lakes, the Lago di Como and Lago Maggiore. Strabo tells us distinctly that they were a Rhaetian tribe (iv. p. 206), and adds that, like many others of the minor Alpine tribes, they had at one time spread further into Italy, but had been gradually driven back into the mountains, (/i. p. 204.) There is some difficulty in determining the position and limits of their territoiy. Caesar tells us that the Rhine took its rise in the country of the Lepontii {B. G. iv. 1 0), and Pliny says that the Uberi (or Viberi), who were a tribe of the Lepontii, occupied the sources of the Rhone (Piin. iii. 20. s. 24), Ptolemy, on the con- trary (iii. 1. § 38), places them in the Cottian Alps; but this is opposed to all the other statements, Strabo distinctly connecting them with the Rhae- tians. Their name occurs also in the list of the Alpine nations on the trophy of Augustus (jip. Plin. I. c), in a manner quite in accordance with the statements of Caesar and Pliny; and on the