Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/156

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LEONIDAS I. 138 LEONTIUS OF BYZANTIUM. cceupy, and at daylneak on the next day Lconidas learned tluit llic I'ersians were pouring across the mountains to attack liini in the rear. Theu Lconidas sent away his auxiliaries, gathered liis 300 Spartans, together with their attendants, about him, and prei)ared to defend his post. In the tight that ensued heonidas himself soon fell, but the remaining Greeks retreated to a hillock near the road and made their last stand. They fell, ligliling, to a man. LEONIDAS II. (c.285-230 B.C.). A King of Sparta. He was a son of Cleonymus, and served abroad under the Kings of Syria and Kgypt. He brought back to Sparta an Eastern wife and Eastern ideas; and was dethroned by the ephors (241) because of his opposition to the reforms of King Agis IV. (See Agis.) He came back to power in 240, after a brief exile at Tegea ; put King Agis to death ; and ruled alone for four years in a tyrannical and despotic manner. He was succeeded by his son, Cleo- menes II. LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA. A Greek poet under Xcro and Vespasian. In the Greek Anthology, forty-three epigrams of very little merit are ascribed to him. LE'ONINE CITY (It. CittA Lconinn) . A part of Rome on the right bank of the Tiber, embracing the Vatican, the Castle of Sant' An- gelo, and the poor quarter called the Borgo. It was inclosed by Leo IV. with high walls as a defense against the Saracens, and became a refuge for the popes in later times. It was de- stroyed after the fall of Rienzi, but was restored during the next century. It now forms the Fourteenth Ward of modern Rome. LEONINE VERSES. The name given to the liexamctei" and pciilameter vei'ses. common in the Middle Ages, which rhymed at the middle and end. They are said to have been so named after a eanon of the Clnirch of Saint Victor, in Paris, about the middle of the twelfth century, or, according to others, after Pope Leo II., who was a lover and imjjrover of music. But leonine verse can be ascribed to no single man as the inventor. It is rather one of the incidentals in the passage from the quantitative ver.se of the ancients to the accented verse of modern literature, and still more from non- rhyming to rhyming verse. Indeed, traces of leonine verse appear even in the Roman poets themselves, esjiecially in Ovid's Epistlrs. In the Middle .Ages it was widely employed in Latin Iiymns and secuhir poetry, in epitaphs and epi- grams. An analogous etlect is proilu,'e<l in Eng- lish poetry by the use of rhyme in the middle of the line. It was employed with effect by Tenny- son in "The Bugle Song" — " The spendour falls on castle walla," and earlier by Shelley in "The Cloud" — " That orbed maiden with white fire laden." It is perhaps oftener used by Kipling than by any other English poet. LE'ONNA'TUS (Lat.. from Ok. KmvviTof) ( ?-i!.c. 322). A Macedonian eonimander. He was one of the generals who avenged the death of Philip upon his assassin Pausanias (Diodorus, xvi. 04). He aoeompanied Alexander the Great in his invasion of Persia in n.c. 334, and it was through his personal bravery that Alexander's life was saved during the attack on the city of the ilalli. M the death of his chief he obtained the satrapy of Phrygia Minor, but soon after- wards was killed in the battle near Laiuia while aiding Antipater against the revolted Greeks. LEONORA, lao-no'ri. (I) In Beethoven's opera Fidclio, the wife of Fernando. She gains access to her husband's prison in male attire and under the name of Fidelio. (2) In Verdi's 11 TroLUloif, a princess in love with Manrico. She kills herself to avoid marriage with his uncle, to wliom she promises herself, in order to save Manrico's life. (3) The heroine of Doni- zetti's La t'arorila. She marries Ferdinando, who is ignorant that she has been the King's mistress, and who on learning the fact puts her away. LEONORE, ov L'AMOUR CONJUGAL, ia'6'n6r' oo la'moor' kox'/.hu'gal' ( Leunorf, or conjugal love). A French opera by Bouilly, with score by Gaveaux (1708). The German translation furnished the libretto for which Bee- thoven composed his onl}' opera, Fidclio, at first also called Lconore. LEON PINELO, Ift-on' p^-na'I6, Antonio de. . .Spanish author of the seventeenth century. .ie was born at Cordoba, Peru (ikjw Argentina), ill the last quarter of the sixteenth century. He Miulied law in Lima, but spent the greater part of his life in Spain, where he was prominently connected with the administration of Spanish colonies as member of the Supreme Council of the Indies up to lfi")3. At that date he became judge of the Contrataeion in Cadiz. His more important works were: Epitome de In hibliotera oriental y occidental, niiutica y rieografica (1620; revised by De Barcia, 1737-.'3S), the earliest bibliography of the Spanish colonies; and the great colonial code, Ilecopilacion de las Icycs de Indias (1080). LEON'TES. The King of Sicily in Shake- speare's Winter's Tale. In a fit of jealousy he at- t<'nipts to poison his guest Polixcnes. the King of Bohemia, and casts his wife, Hermione. into prison, where she gives birth to a daughter, f.eontes orders the child to be exposed, but in (he denouement she is discovered in the person of Perdita, ^ who marries Florizel, the son of Polixenes. LE'ONTI'NI. The ancient name of Lentini (q.v. ). a city in Sicily. LEONTIUS (h'-on'shi-us) OF BYZAN- TIUM, bi-zan'shi-um (c.485-e..543). An ecclesi- astic of very uncertain date. Many Avorks of about the same date bear the name Leontius, with the epithets Byzantinus. Cypriiis, Hieroso- lymitanus, Presbyter et Ahhas iSancti tiahrr. and Heapolitanus. It is possible that these epithets, with the exception of Xcapolitnnus and Cyprins (which refer to a bishop of Naples and Cyprus, of the seventh century, author of a life of Saint Simeon), were used by a monk born at Byzantium and a teacher there, and afterwards a priest at the Abbey of Saint Sabas near Jerusalem. There is further confusion possibly with a Scythian monk of the same name: if not we must suppose that the Byzantine monk lived in Scythia, was originally a Nestorian — although he afterwards attacked this sect — and that he came to Rome and Constantinople about .510 with Scythian monks who took part in the theopaschitic contro- ver.sy. Leontius wrote: De f^ectis, or Scholia in ten sections (jrpifeit), of which a later recen-