Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/768

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
loc cit.
loc cit.

754 LEONTIADES. in person, was totally defeated, and he himself fell, covered with wounds, after displaying in the com- bat his accustomed valour. (Died, xviii. 12, 14, 15 ; Plut. Eum. 3, Phoc. 25 ; Justin, xiii. 5.) The only personal traits recorded to us of Leon- natus are his excessive passion for hunting, and his love of magnificence and display, the latter a quality common to most of his brother captains in the service of Alexander. (Plut. Alex. 40 ; Aelian. V. H. ix. 3 ; Athen. xii. p. 539.) 2. Another officer in the service of Alexander, a native of Aegae, and son of Antipater. (Arr. Ind. 18.) The anecdote related by Arrian (Anab. iv. 12. § 3.) may perhaps refer to this Leonnatus, rather than the preceding. 3. A Macedonian officer in the service of Pyrrhus, king of Epeirus, who saved the life of that monarch at the battle of Heraclea, B. c. 280. (Plut. Pyrrh. 16 ; Dionvs. Eccc. xviii. 2, 3.) [E. H. R] LEONNO'RIUS, one of the leaders of the Gauls in their invasion of Macedonia and the ad- joining countries. When the main body under Brennus marched southwards into Macedonia and Greece (b. c. 279), Leonnorius and Lutarius led a detachment, 20,000 strong, into Thrace, where they ravaged the country to the shores of the Hellespont, compelled the Byzantines to pay them tribute, and made themselves masters of Lysima- chia. The rich Asiatic shores of the Hellespont afforded them a tempting prospect ; and while Leonnorius returned to IByzantium, in order to compel the inhabitants of that city to give him the means of transporting his troops to Asia, Lutarius contrived to capture a few vessels, with which he conveyed all the force remaining under his com- mand across the Hellespont. While Leonnorius was still before Byzantium, Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, being in want of support in his war with Antiochus, agreed to take him and his troops, as well as those of Lutarius, into his pay, and fur- nished them with the means of passing over into Asia (B.C. 278). They first assisted him against his rival, Zipoetes, in Bithynia; after which they made plundering excursions through various parts of Asia ; and ultimately established themselves in the province, called thenceforth from the name of its barbarian conquerors, Galatia. No farther mention is made of either of the leaders after they had crossed into Asia. (Memnon. c. 19, ed. Orell. ; Liv. xxxviii. 16 ; Strab, xii. p. 566.) [E.H.B.] LEONTEUS (Aeoj/Tcws), a son of Coronus, and prince of the Lapithae. In conjunction with Poly- poetes, he led the Lapithae, in 40 ships, against Troy, where he took part in the games at the funeral of Patroclus. (Horn. II. ii. 745, &c., xii. 1 30, &c., xxiii. 837, &c.) [L. S.] LEONTEUS (Aeoyreus), of Argos, was a tragic poet and the slave of Juba, king of Mauritania, who ridiculed his Hi/psipyle in an epigram preserved by Athenaeus (viii. p. 343, e. f.). [P. S.] LEONTI'ADES (Aeoj/TzaSrjy). L A Theban, of noble family, commanded at Thermopylae the forces supplied by Thebes to the Grecian army. (Herod, vii. 205 ; comp. Diod. xi. 4.) They came unwillingly, according to Herodotus, and therefore were retained by Leonidas, rather as hostages than allies, when he sent away the main body of the Greeks. (Herod, vii. 220—222 ; but see Plut. de Herod. Mai. 31 ; Thiriwall's Greece, vol. ii. p. 287.) In the battle — a hopeless one for the Greeks — which was fought after the Persians had been con- LEONTISCUS. ducted over Callidromus, Leontiades and the force under his command surrendered to the enemy and obtained quarter. Herodotus tells us, however, that some of them were nevertheless slain by the barbarians, and that most of the remainder, includ- ing Leontiades, were branded as slaves by the order of Xerxes. (Herod, vii. 233.) Plutarch contra- dicts this (de Herod. Mai. 33), — if, indeed, the treatise be his, — and also says that Anaxander, and not Leontiades, commanded the Thebans at Thermopylae. [Eurymachus.] 2. Son of Eurymachus. and grandson, apparently, of the above, was one of the polemarchs at Thebes, in B. c. 382, when the Spartan commander, Phoe- bidas, stopped there on his way against Oiynthus. Unlike Ismenias, his democratic colleague, Leon- tiades courted Phoebidas from the period of his arrival, and, together with Archias and Philip, thft other chiefs of the oligarchical party, instigated him to seize the Cadmeia with their aid. This enter- prise having been effected on a day when the women were keeping the Thesmophoria in the citadel, and the council therefore sat in or near the agora, Leontiades proceeded to the council and an- nounced what had taken place, with an assurance that no violence was intended to such as remained quiet. Then, asserting that his office of polemarch gave him power to apprehend any one under sus- picion of a capital offence, he caused Ismenias to be seized and thrown into prison. Archias was forthwith appointed to the office thus vacated, and Leontiades went to Sparta and persuaded the La- cedaemonians to sanction what had been done. Accordingly, they sent commissioners to Thebes, who condemned Ismenias to death, and fully esta- blished Leontiades and his faction in the govern- ment under the protection of the Spartan garrison. (Xen. Hell. v. ii, §§ 25—36 ; Diod. xv. 20 ; Plut. Ages. 23, Pelop. 5, de Gen. Soc. 2.) In this position, exposed to the hostility and machinations of some 400 democratic exiles, who had taken refuge at Athens (Xen. Hell. v. 2. § 31), Leontiades, watch- ful, cautious, and energetic, presented a marked con- trast to Archias, his voluptuous colleague, whose reckless and insolent profligacy he discountenanced, as tending obviously to the overthrow of their joint power. His unscrupulousness, at the same time, was at least equal to his other qualifications for a party-leader ; for we find him sending emissaries to Athens to remove the chief of the exiles by as- sassination, though Androcleidas was the only one who fell a victim to the plot. In B. c. 379, when the refugees, associated with Pelopidas, had entered on their enterprise for the deliverance of Thebes, Pelopidas himself, with Cephisodorus, Damocleidas, and Phyllidas, went to the house of Leontiades, while Mellon and others were dealing with Archias. The house was closed for the night, and it was with some difficulty that the conspirators gained admittance. Leontiades met them at the door of his chamber, and killed Cephisodorus, who was the first that entered ; but, after an obstinate struggle, he was himself despatched by Pelopidas. (Xen. Hell. v. 4. §§ 1—7 ; Plut. Pel. 6, 1 1, Ages. 24, de Gen. Soc. 4, 6, 31 ; Diod. xv. 25.) It may be remarked that Plutarch calls him, throughout, Leontidas (Schn. ad Xen. Hell. v. 2. § 25). [E. E.] LEONTISCUS (AeofTiaKos), a son of Ptolemy Soter, by the celebrated Athenian courtezan, Thais. He was taken prisoner by Demetrius Poiiorcetes in the great sea fight off Cyprus (b. C.