LEO LEONTODON TARAXACUM. 



443 



addressed a letter to the caliph Omar on the truth 

 of Christianity. 



LEO, LEONARDO, chapel-master in the Conserva- 

 torio St Onofrio, and private composer to the royal 

 chapel at Naples, born in 1694 (according to Piccini, 

 1701), at Naples, probably studied under Scarlatti. 

 To him, to Pergolesi, and some other composers of 

 tliat period, is to be attributed the reputation which 

 the Neapolitan school acquired all over Europe. 

 Among his scholars, Piccini, Sacchini, Pergolesi, 

 Traetta, are distinguished. He surpassed all his pre- 

 decessors, and, as he became equally perfect in all 

 the departments of composition, he may be esteemed 

 one of the greatest masters of Italy. All his works 

 were studied with veneration by the Italian musicians. 

 Although Leo was very successful in passionate, 

 grand, and elevated compositions, he was not less so 

 in simple, tender, and comic, as his comic opera // 

 cioe proves. Leo is, besides, the first composer who 

 availed himself of the form of rondos in his comic 

 operas. He died in 1742. His best operas are 

 Sofonisba (1718, according to Burney, his first opera); 

 Olimpiade; La Clemenza di Tito (1735) ; Achille in 

 Sciro (1740). He composed two oratorios Santa 

 Elena al Calvario (to the words of Metastasio), and 

 La Morte d'Abele. Of his church-music, his Ave 

 Maria, and a Miserere alia Capella, are the most 

 remarkable. 



LEO, JOHN (surnamed Africanus), a traveller and 

 geographer of the sixteenth century, was born of 

 Moorish parents, at Grenada, in Spain, and, when 

 that city was taken by the Spaniards, in 1492, retired 

 to Africa. He studied at Fez, and afterwards travel- 

 led through various parts of the north of Africa. 

 Having been captured by pirates, he was taken to 

 Italy, and presented to pope Leo X., who persuaded 

 him to embrace Christianity, and gave him his own 

 name on his being baptized. At Rome, he acquired 

 a knowledge of the Italian language, into which he 

 translated his Description of Africa, originally writ- 

 ten in Arabic. This is a very curious and interesting 

 work, comprising accounts of several countries rarely 

 visited by Europeans. Leo also composed a treatise 

 on the lives of the Arabian philosophers. He is sup- 

 posed to have died soon after 1526. 



LEOBEN ; a town on the Mur, in the Austrian 

 duchy of Styria, about 1600 feet above the sea, with 

 2400 inhabitants, famous as the place where the pre- 

 liminaries of the treaty of Campo-Formio were con- 

 cluded, between Austria, Naples, and the French 

 republic, August 17, 1797, after Bonaparte's suc- 

 cessful campaign of 1796 in Italy, against the arch- 

 duke Charles. (See Campo-Formio, Peace of.) 

 Here the young French general displayed great 

 talents as a statesman, deriving little aid from the in- 

 structions of the directory. See Napoleon, and Italy. 



LEON, PONCE DE. See Ponce de Leon. 



LEON ; one of the great divisions of Spain, usually 

 styled the kingdom of Leon ; bounded north by As- 

 turia, east by Old Castile, south by Estremadura, and 

 west by Portugal and Galicia. It was united to Cas- 

 tile in the beginning of the eleventh century. The 

 soil is generally fertile, and produces all the neces- 

 saries of life ; and the wine is tolerably good. 

 Population, 1,215,551 ; square miles, 21,000. It is 

 divided into six provinces. 



LEON (anciently Legio Septima Gemina) a city 

 of Spain, capital of a province to which it gives 

 name, at the conflux of two rivers, whose united 

 stream runs into the Esla, ten miles south of the 

 town ; 150 miles north-west Madrid ; Ion. 5 37' 

 W.; lat. 42 45' N.; population, 5900. It is a 

 bishop's see. This city is very ancient, and was 

 formerly much more rich and populous than it now 

 is. It was the capital of a kingdom of the same 



name, and the kings resided in a palace here till the 

 year 1037. It now contains thirteen parish churches, 

 nine convents, and four hospitals. The cathedral is 

 handsome, and abounds in relics. In it are seen 

 the tombs of thirty-seven kings and one emperor. 



LEONARDO DA VINCI. See rind. 



LEONID AS, king of Sparia, son of king Anaxan- 

 drides, ascended the throne 491 years B. C. When 

 Xerxes, king of Persia, invaded Greece with an 

 immense army, Athens and Sparta were the only 

 great cities which resolved to resist him. The Spar- 

 tans gave the chief command of the military force 

 to Leonidas, who marched to Thermopylaj, in the 

 year 480 B. C., with 300 men. Small as his army 

 was, amounting to but 7000 men, including the allies, 

 he stationed it so skilfully, that the Persians, on 

 coming to the narrow pass, became aware of the 

 difficulty of carrying it by force. Xerxes, therefore, 

 attempted to bribe Leonidas, offering him the domin- 

 ion of all Greece. This proposal being rejected with 

 scorn, the despot sent a herald to order the Greeks 

 to surrender their arms : " Let him come and take 

 them," was the reply of the Spartan king. Thrice 

 did the Persians advance against the pass, in great 

 force; thrice were they repelled, with great loss. 

 Meanwhile, a traitorous Greek, named Ephialtes, led 

 a select troop of 10,000 Persians, by a secret path, 

 over the mountain, who, after compelling the few 

 opposing Phocians to take to flight, appeared in 

 the rear of Leonidas. He now saw that all was lost, 

 but resolved to show, by a memorable example, 

 what the Greeks could perform in the cause of their 

 country. He is said, also, to have been influenced 

 by an oracle, which declared that Sparta could be 

 saved only by the death of one of its kings. To 

 avoid useless bloodshed, Leonidas dismissed the 

 greater part of his troops, and retained but 300 Spar- 

 tans, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans ; the last, in 

 some measure, as pledges of the fidelity of their 

 countrymen, and the Thespians, because they could 

 not be induced to leave their Spartan allies. As 

 soon as Xerxes had learned the successful passage of 

 the troops led by Ephialtes, he threw himself, with 

 his whole force, into the entrance of the pass. But 

 Leonidas, before daybreak, penetrated into the Per- 

 sian camp. After a long contest, the hero fell, sur- 

 rounded by fallen enemies. His men defended his 

 body, till they sank beneath countless assailants. 

 This defence of Thermopylae is one of the most 

 remarkable exploits of antiquity. The Greeks 

 erected a splendid monument to the fallen, and 

 celebrated, annually, warlike games over their 

 sepulchres. 



LEONINE VERSE ; a kind of Latin verse, in 

 vogue in the middle ages, consisting of hexameters 

 and pentameters, of which the final and middle syl- 

 lables rhyme ; so called from Leonius, a poet of the 

 twelfth century, who made use of it, or, according to 

 some, from pope Leo I. (A. D. 680). Poems of con 

 siderable length were written in this barbarous taste. 

 The following distich may serve as an example : 

 Dferuon languebat, monachus tune ease Tolebat; 

 Aat ubi cdiiv aluit, mansit ut ante tint. 



Leo versified a great part of the Old Testament in 

 this manner. See Rhyme. 



LEONTIUM (Leontia) ; a courtezan, the scholar 

 and mistress of Epicurus. According to some, she 

 was his lawful wife ; according to others, the mistress 

 of Metrodorus. She is said to have possessed distin- 

 guished talents, and to have composed an essay, 

 replete with acuteness and learning, in a beautiful 

 Attic style, in defence of the doctrines of Epicurus 

 against Theophrastus. 



LEONTODON TARAXACUM, or DANDE- 

 LION ; the name of a plant, indigenous to Europe, 



