Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/161

* LEOPOLD. 143 LEPERDITIA. Romantic Pliosphorists. He attempted all forms of poetry save the epic, and approiiclied nearest to distinction in his tragedies Odin (1790) and Virginia (1S02). LEOPOLD CHARLES FREDERICK (1790- 1852). Grand Duke of Baden. He succeeded his half-brother, Louis, in 1830. He interested him- self in the liberal ideas of his time, granted eon- cessions to his subjects in 1848, and in the spring of 1849 declined to oppose the movement which finally broke down all barriers and forced him to flee from the country on the night of May 13th. In August he was reinstated by the troops of Prussia and the Confederation. He acted with the greatest forbearance after regaining his power. During the last years of bis reign he admitted liis son I'^rederick, wlio later succeeded him, to a share in the government. LEOPOLDVILLE, le'6-p61d-vil. An impor- tant station in the Congo Free State, West Af- rica, situated on the left shore of .Stanley Pool, in latitude 4° 20' S., about 2.50 miles by rail from jMatadi. It is important as the eastern terminal of the Matadi-Leopoldville Railway line and the western terminus of navigation on the Upper Congo. The adjacent settlement of Kinchassa is the port of Leopoldville. LEOSTHENES, le-6s'the-nez (Lat., from Gk. AcaaBivr/c). A distingiiished Athenian general. When, after the death of Alexander the Great in B.C. 323, a league was formed, having as its ob- ject the expulsion of the Macedonians from Greece, Leosthenes was put in command of the confed- erate army. He first repulsed the Boeotians, who were fighting on the side of the Macedonians, and then defeated Antipater, the Macedonian general, near Therniopyhie. The latter took refuge in Lamia in Thessaly, which Leosthenes immediate- ly proceeded to besiege. He was killed by a stone thrown from the ramparts, B.C. 322. The Athenians honored him with a public funeral, and Hyperides delivered the funeral oration. LEOTYCHIDES, te'6-tlk'i-dez (Lat., from Gk. XeuTvxi^ric) ( ?-c.469 B.C.). King of Sparta (B.C. 491-4G9). With the aid of Cleomenes he brought about the deposition of his kinsman, King Demaratus, whom he succeeded. He com- manded the Greek fleet in B.C. 479, and .shared with Xanthip])us the honor of the victory over the Persians at Mycale. Afterwards he was sent into Thessaly, to punish those who had sided with the Persians, but on his return home w'as convicted of having accepted bribes from the Aleuadfe, who had once more become masters of Thessaly. He was accordingly banished to Tegea, where he died. LEOV'IGILD. King of the Visigoths from 569 to 580. He was noted as a successful war- rior and founder of cities. He did much to civi- lize his Gothic subjects and to fuse them with the Roman population of Spain into a single peo- ple. He is remembered, however, rather for his family troubles than for his real greatness. His son Ernienegild married a Catholic princess and by her influence was converted from the Arian faith, which liis father held. As the head of the Catholic party he engaged in repeated revolts against his father, who finally ordered his execu- tion. After the son's death Leovigild banished some Catholic bishops, but did not put any to death. In legend he has been depicted as a persecutor of the Catholic faith and his son as a martyred saint. Consult Bradley, The Goths (New York, 1888). LEPANTO, la-pan'td. Battle of. A naval engagement fought October 7, 1571, near the Cur- zolari Islands, at the western entrance to the G)ilf of Patras, between the' combined fleets of Venice, Spain, and the Papal States, and a power- ful Turkish armada. The determination of Sultan Selim II. to wrest Cyprus from Venice was the occasion of the attack by the States united in the Holy League. The allied fleet, consisting of nearly 300 sail, of which about 200 were great gallej-s, was commanded by Don .John of Aus- tria (q.v.) ; the Ottoman fleet, under AH Pasha, was of about equal numerical strength. The engagement was a desperate and sanguinary one, resulting in a victory for the Christian fleet. About 3000 Christians were killed, while the Turks are believed to have lost as many as 30.000 in killed, wounded, and prisoners. More than a Inuidred galleys were taken, besides a large number sunk. Twelve thousand Christian galley slaves ^ere liberated by this victory, which never- theless failed of its chief object, in that before battle was joined news came of the successful invasion of Cyprus by the Turks. The battle of Lepanto, however, efjectually broke the Turkish naval power in the Mediterranean. The Chris- tian fleet having been stationed, previous to the attack, at the mouth of the Acheloiis River in the neighborhood of the Curzolari Islands, the name of the latter has been given to the battle by some writers. Consult : Prescott, History of Philip II.; Stirling Maxwell, Don John of Aus- tria (Londpn, 1883). LEPANTO, Gulf of. See Corinth, Gulf LEPCHAS, lep'chnz. A Tibetan stock of Sikkim, Bhutan, and part of Eastern Tibet. They are a sma'll but powerful and muscular people, without that repulsive a.spect met with in so many Tibetans. Their two principal di- visions are the ROng and the Khamba. They are for the most part Buddhists. The language of the Lepchas proper or Rong is an archaic fonn of Tibetan. Mainwaring, whose Grammar of the Itong (Lepcha) Langiinge in the Darjiling and Sikkim Bills was published at Calcutta in 1876, entertained the extrav.agant opinion that this form of speech was "probably the oldest language extant." An essay, Uebrr die Sprache desi Volkes Rong in Sikkim, by Schoot, was pub- lished by the Berlin Academy in 1882. On the Lepchas, consult the following works: Von Schlagintweit, Results of a Seientific ilission to India and High .isia (London, 1803) : Rowncy, Wild Tribes of India (London. 1882) : Donald- son, In Lcpcha Land (London, 1900). LEPERDITIA, le'pcr-dish'i-a. A common fossil ostracod (q.v.) found in rocks of Ordovi- cian to Carboniferous age. Its shells are oblong, one-tenth to three-fourths of an inch long, with straight dorsal edge, smoothly rounded surface, and a small eye-tubercle. These shells arc abun- dant at some horizons, especially in the lower Trenton limestones of the Lake Champlain Val- ley, and in the tapper Silurian walor limestones of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and in limestones of similar" age in Europe. In these rocks they often occur packed together in myriads. 'See Cbusiacea.