Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/488

 408 L E P L E P months it fell into the hands of the Romans, 191 B.C. It was still a nourishing place in the time of Pausanias, but according to Procopius it was destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Justinian. In the Middle Ages it fell into the hands of the Venetians, who fortified it so strongly that in 1477 it successfully resisted a four months siege by a Turkish army thirty thousand strong ; in 1-199, however, it was taken by Bajazet II. The mouth of the Gulf of Lepanto was the scene of the great sea light in which the naval power of Turkey was for the time being destroyed by the united papal, Spanish, and Venetian forces (October 7, 1571). See JOHN OF AUSTRIA. In 1678 it was recaptured by the Venetians, but was again restored in 1699 by the treaty of Carlo witz to the Turks ; in the war of independence it finally became Greek once more (March 1829). LEPIDOSIREN&quot; is the name of one of the most remarkable genera of fishes, of which one species (Lepidosiren paradoxa} has been found in tributaries of the river Amazon, and the other (Lepidosiren annectens) occurs in the systems of alt the large rivers of tropical Africa. The latter species differs in some points, notably in having six instead of five branchial arches, from L. paradoxa, and therefore lias been generically separated by Owen under the name of Protopterus, which name likewise is in common use. Together with the Australian Geratodm, the lepidosirens are the only living representa tives of a very old type of fishes, the Dipnoi, which reaches back to the Devonian age, thus giving us an insight into tlie organization of fishes of which nothing but some obscure and fragmentary impressions of the hard parts are preserved. The body of Lepidosiren is eel-shaped, and covered with small thin scales. A single vertical fin sur rounds the posterior part of the body and the tail ; the paired fins are reduced to two pairs of long threads, internally supported by a series of small cartilages. The dentition is very characteristic, and consists of a pair of conical pointed vomerine teeth, and a pair of large cuspidate and ribbed molar teeth on the palate and in the lower jaw. The skeleton is notochordal ; and lungs are present in addition to gills. From this latter fact it may be inferred that the lepidosirens can breathe air as well as water; and, although they have never been observed to leave the water voluntarily, either in a state of nature or in captivity, they rise from time to time to the surface to fill their lungs with a fresh supply of air ; further, when, during the hot season, the water of the tanks in which they live changes into mud, branchial respiration is entirely superseded by pulmonal. Of the habits, of Lepidosiren paradoxa scarcely anything is known ; only a few specimens have been found by naturalists, and neither Bates nor Wallace succeeded in obtaining one. This species, therefore, is one of the greatest desiderata in zoological museums. The African .species, on the other hand, is common in the upper Nile, in the central lake-region, on the Zambesi, and in all the rivers of the west coast. Baker states that in some districts of central Africa the lepidosireu is so abundant as to form an article of food, fresh and dried. Specimens living in pools which dry up during the hot season bury themselves in the mud, and form an oval cavity, the inside of which is lined with a protecting coat of hardened mucus, and in which they wait, coiled up and in a torpid condition, for the return of the rainy season. These retreats are discovered by the natives by a circular opening at the upper surface, which is closed by the mucous film. If the capsules are not broken, the fishes, imbedded in the clay- balls, can be transported to Europe, and emerge from their prison on being placed in tepid water. Both species attain to a length of 6 feet, and feed on frogs, fishes, and other of aquatic animals, For the details of the organization the Lepidosiren see the article ICHTHYOLOGY. LEPIDUS, M. yEiiiLius, a member of the second Roman triumvirate, was a son of M. /Emilius Lepidus, who had been consul in 137 B.C. He joined the party of Caesar in the civil wars, and was by the dictator thrice nominated mayister equitum and raised to the consulship 46 B.C. He was a man of great wealth and influence, and it was pro bably more on this ground than on account of his ability that Ciesar raised him to such honours. In the beginning of 44 B.C. he was sent to Gallia Narbonensis, but before he had left the city with his army Coesar was murdered. Lepidus, as commander of the only army near Home, became a man of great importance in the troubles which followed. Taking part with Antony, he joined in the recon ciliation which the latter effected with the senatorial party, and afterwards sided with him when open war broke out. Antony, after his defeat at Mutina, joined Lepidus in Gaul, and in August 43 B.C. Octavian, who had forced the senate to make him consul, effected an arrangement with Antony and Lepidus, and the triumvirate was organized at Bononia. Antony and Octavian soon reduced Lepidus to an inferior position. His province of Gaul and Spain was taken from him ; and, though lie was included in the triumvirate when it was renewed in 37 B.C., his power was only nominal. He made an effort in the following year to regain some reality of power, conquered part of Sicily, and claimed the whole island as his province, but Octavian found means to sap the fidelity of his soldiers, and he was obliged to supplicate for his life. He was allowed to retain his fortune and the office of pontifex maximus, to which he had been appointed in 44 B.C., but had to retire into private life. He died 13 B.C. Lepidus was the cognomen of a Roman family in the patrician yens ^Emilia. The first of this name of whom anything is recorded is M. jErnilius Lepidus, consul 285 B.C. From this time onwards the family continued in an almost unbroken series of distinguished men till in the 1st century after Christ it disappears. Another M. ^Emilius Lepidus was one of the three ambassadors sent to Egypt as tutorcs of the infant king Ptolemy V. He was consul in 187 and 175, censor 179, pontifex maximus from 180 onwards, and was six times chosen by the censors princcps scnulus. He died in 152. It is uncertain whether he is the Lepidus who is com memorated on a coin of the gens sEmilia as having slain an enemy and saved a citizen s life at the age of fifteen, while still dressed in the boy s toga praztcxta. Another of the same name was consul 137 B.C. Being sent to Spain to conduct the Numantinc war, he began against the will of the senate to attack the Vace. ci. This enterprise was so unsuccessful that he was deprived of his com mand in 136 and condemned to pay a fine. He was among the greatest of the earlier Roman orators, and Cicero praises him for having introduced the well-constructed sentence and even flow of language from Greek into Roman oratory. He contributed much to forming the style of Tiberius Gracchus. Another of the same name was infamous for his oppressive prretorship in Sicily (81 B.C.). In the civil wars he sided with Sulla and bought much of the confiscated property of the Marian partisans. Afterwards he became leader of the popular party, and was with the help of Pompey elected consul for 78 B.C., against the will of Sulla. When the dictator died, Lepidus tried in vain to prevent the burial of his body in the Campus Martins, and to alter the constitution established by him. His colleague Lutatius Catulus found a tribune to place his veto on Lepidus s proposals ; and the quarrel between the two parties in the state became so inflamed that the senate made the consuls swear not to take up arms. Lepidus was then ordered by the senate to go to his province, Transalpine Gaul ; but he stopped in Etruria on his way from the city and began to levy an army. He was declared a public enemy early in 77 B.C., and forthwith marched against Rome. A battle took place in the Campus Martins, Pompey and Catulus commanding the senatorial army, and Lepidus was defeated. He sailed to Sardinia, where he was also repulsed ; and soon after he died. One of his two sons was L. ^Emilius Paullus, consul 50, who built during his aedileship in 55 the Basilica /Emilia in the forum. LEPROSY (Lepra Arabum, Elephantiasis Grxcoruin, Aussatz, Spedalskhed), the greatest disease of mediaeval Christendom, is identified, on the one hand, with a disease endemic from the earliest historical times (1500 B.C.) in the delta and valley of the Nile, and on the other hand with a disease now common in Asia, Africa, South America, the West Indies, and certain isolated localities of Europe. An authentic representation of the leprosy of the