Leontius of Neapolis (or of Hagiopolit, accord- nig to his own authority), in Cyprus, who was bishop of that city, which Le Quien {Oriens Christianus, ii, 1061) identities with the Nova Lcmissus, or Nemissus, or Neraosa, that rose out of the ruins of Amathus, flourished in the latter part of the 6th and the early part of the 7th century. Baronius, Possevino, and oth- ers call Leontius bishop of Salamis or Constantia, but in the records of the second Nicene or seventh General Council, held A.D. 787, Actio iv (Condlia, vii, col. 236, ed. Labbe ; iv, col. 193, ed. Hardouin ; viii, col. 884, ed. Coleti; and xiii, col. 44, ed. Mansi), he is expressly de- scribed as bishop of Neapolis, in Cvprus. His death is v.— A A
said to have occurred between 620 and 630. His prin- cipal works are Aoyoi inrep rJ/c Xpiartai'M' anoXoyiag Kara, lovSaiojv Kal ncpi tlicovojv tCjv ayiwv, Sermo- ?ies j)ro DeJ'ensione Cliristianorum contra Judaos ac de inuvjinibus Sanctis. A. long extract from the fifth of these sermons was read at the second Nicene Council {Concilia, 1. c.) to support the use of images in worship; and several passages, most of them identical with those cited in the council, are given by John of Damascus in his third oration, and in De Iniaginibus {Oj^era, i, 373, etc., ed. Le Quien). A Latin version of another portion of one of these discourses of Leontius is given in the Lectiones A ntiquw of Canisius, i, 793, edit. Basnage : — Biog Tov uyiov 'itiiavvov apxtiTTiaKoiTOV 'AXiuiT^pii- ac: TOV 'EXtfiixoi'Oc, Vita Sandi Joannis A rchiepisco/A A lexandriw Cofjnomento Eleemonis, s. Eleemosynarii. See John the Aljisgiveh. This life by Leontius was men- tioned in the second Nicene Council {Condlia, vol. cit., col. 246 Labbe, 202 Hardouin, 896 Coleti, 53 Mansi), and is extant in No. 8 in the Imperial Library at Vienna. An ancient Latin version by Anastasius Bibliothccarius is given by Kosweid {De Vitis Patrum, pars i), Surius {De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis), and Bollandus {Ada Sanctorum, Januarj', ii, 498, etc.). The accomit of St. Vitalis or Vitalius, given in ihaAda Sanctorum of Bol- landus (January), i, 702, is a Latin version of a ]iart of this life of John the Almsgiver: — Bi'o^ Toi' ualov 2i)- peiov Toij aaXoii, Vita Sancta Symeonis Simplicis, or Biof Kal noXirtia ruv 6/3/3a 'Svfitwv roC cut XpiiTTOv tTTovopaaSiVTOi: ^aXov, Vita et Conversatio Abbaiis Symeonis qui coynominatus est Stidtus propter Christum, was also mentioned in the Nicene Council (/.c),and pub- lished in the A da Sanct. of the BoUandists (July), i, 136, etc. The other published works of Leontius are homi- lies : Sermo in Simc07icm qiiando Doniinimi in Ulncis sus- cepit : — In Diemfestum medics Pentecostes ; both with a Latin version in the Novum A uctarium of Combefis, vol. 1 (Par. 1648, fol.). As Leontius is recorded to have writ- ten many homilies in honor of saints {tyKwpia f.nd for the festivals of the Church {—ai'tiyvpiicoi Xuyoi), espe- cially on the transfiguration of our Saviour, it is not un- likely that some of those extant under the name of Le- ontius of Constantinople may be by him. He wrote also UapaXXijXwi' Xiiyoi /3', Parallelorum, s. Locorum communium Thtoloyicorum Libri ii; the first book con- sisted of tCuv Biiiui', and the other rwv c'n'^pwTrirujv. Turrianus possessed the second book ; but whether that or the first is extant, we know not; neither has been published. It has been thought that John of Damas- cus, in his Parallela, made use of those of Leontius. Fabricius also inserts among the works of our Leontius the homily E/^ tu [Saia, In Festum {s. Ramos) I'alma- rum, generally ascribed to Chrysostom, and printed among his doubtful or spurious works (vii, 334, ed. Sa- viU; X, 767, ed. Montfaucon, or x, 915, and xiii, 354, in the recent Parisian reprint of Montfaucon's edition). Maldonatus {ad Joan, vii) mentions some MS. Commen- tarii in Joamiem by Leontius, and an Oratio in laudeni S. Epiphanii is mentioned by Theodore Studita in his A ntirrheticu^ Secmulus, a]iud Sismondi,6|/'/7. v, 130. (See Fabricius, Bibl. Grceca, viii, 320, etc. ; Cave, Hist. Litt. i, 550 ; Oudin, De Sci'iptor. Ecclesiustids, i, col. 1575, etc. ; Vossius, De Ilistor. Grccc. lib. ii, c. 23 ; Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, ii, col. 1062; Acta Sanctor. JuW, v, 131.) — Smith, Did. of Greek and Roman Bioyraphy, ii, 768.
Leopard (Ileb. "TOS, niima-', so called as being spotted, Cant, iv, 8 ; Isa. xi, 6 ; Jer. v, 6 ; xiii, 23 ; Hos. xiii, 7 ; Hab. i, 8 ; Chald. "1^3, nemar', Dan. vii, 6 ; Gr. TTc'ipoaXig, Dan. vii, 6 ; Rev. xiii. 2 ; Ecclus. xxviii, 23). Though zoologists differ in opinion respecting the iden- tity of the leopard and the panther, and dispute, sup- posing them to be distinct, how these names shoidd be respectively applied, and by what marks the animals should be distinguished, nevertheless there can be no doubt that the namer of the Bible is that great spotted feline which anciently infested the Syrian mountains,
LEOPARD
370
LEOPOLD II
and even now occurs m the wooded ranges of Lebanon, for the Arabs still use ninir, the same word slightly modified, to denote that animal. The Abyssinian name differs scarcely from either; and in all tliese tongues it means sjjotted. Pigikris, according to Kirscher, is the Coptic name ; and in English "leopai-d" has been adopt- ed as the most appropriate to represent both the Hebrew word and the Greek ndpoaXti; (which is imitated in the Talmudic Dbl"i2, Mishna,/j;((6(( .1/e^. viii, 2), although the Latin leopardus is not found in any author anterior to the fcjurth century, and is derived from a gross mis- take in natural history. Gesenius {TItts. Ilt-b. p. 443) contends that the scriptural animal was rather striped than spotted (rm3"i5n, Jer. xiii, 23), and thinks that not improbably the iiffer was also comprised under this name, as the Hebrews had no specific name for that an- imal {Thesaur. p. 889). The panther {Fdis pardus of