containing the solution of simple and quadratic equations, and approximate solutions of cubic equations; "Practica Geometricæ;" "Liber Quadratorum." They were first printed in 1854, being edited by the Prince Buoncompagni.—W. J. M. R.
LEONBRUNO, Lorenzo, the principal native painter of Mantua, was born in that city in 1489; he was the scholar of Lorenzo Costa, and a follower of Mantegna. The great abilities he displayed procured him the patronage of the Marquis Federigo Gonzaga, afterwards duke of Mantua, who granted Leonbruno a pension, sent him to Rome in 1521, and presented him with a small estate in 1526. The duke gave him much employment not only as a painter, but as military engineer and architect: accounts of sums paid to him are still preserved. It is remarkable that a painter who occupied so good a position should be so little known; he was altogether unknown to Lanzi. He appears to have disappeared from Mantua in 1537, and sought his fortunes in Milan with Francesco Maria Sforza. The cause of his disappearance is supposed to be the establishment of Giulio Romano at Mantua as prime arbitrator in all matters of art with the duke, and it is assumed that some of the principal works of Leonbruno executed in the palace were destroyed with other works by Giulio, to make room for his own. A few works by this painter were lately discovered in a small oratory used as a chapel by the Gonzagas, but now wholly disused. They represent Christ with his cross, four sibyls, and the four great prophets, with various accessories, in oil, and executed in a style not inferior to the best works of Mantegna or Giulio himself, according to his compatriot Coddè. There are also in Mantua three important pictures on wood, by Leonbruno, in private possession—a "St. Jerome," a "Judgment of Midas," and a "Pietà," or preparation for the entombment, with eight figures; the first picture is signed Leonbrunus Mantuanus. They are in oil, and in good style in every respect, and of large dimensions. The "Pietà" is also inscribed with the painter's name in minute letters in gold. An account of Leonbruno was first published by Prandi, Mantua, 1825.—(Coddè, Memorie Biografiche dei Pittori, &c., Mantovani, Mantua, 1837.)—R. N W.
LEONI or LIONI, Ottavio, Cavaliere, called also il Padovano, from Padua the birthplace of his father Lodovico, was born at Rome in 1574, and was educated as a painter by his father. Ottavio Leoni was the best portrait-painter at Rome in his time. He was employed by two popes, Gregory XV. and Urban VIII.; the former knighted him. He also executed a few altar-pieces for the churches of Rome, and was created president of the Academy of St. Luke. He is well known, likewise, as an engraver; he etched many excellent portraits from his own pictures or drawings, the dates of them ranging from 1623 to 1628, the year in which he died; and his strict application to these plates, says Baglione, was the immediate cause of his death.—(Baglione, Le Vite de' Pittori, &c.)—R. N. W.
LEONIDAS, King of Sparta, 491-480 b.c., was one of the sons of Anaxandrides, and succeeded his half-brother Cleomenes, whose daughter Gorgo he had married. When the famous Persian invasion under Xerxes took place, 480 b.c., and the Greek deputies assembled at the Isthmus had resolved to make a stand at Thermopylæ, the defence of this most important pass was committed to Leonidas, with a select band of three hundred Spartans and a considerable body of auxiliaries, amounting in all to about four thousand men. This comparatively small force kept at bay the immense host of Xerxes for two days, killed great numbers of them in a desperate hand-to-hand fight, and completely baffled their efforts to force their way through the pass. At length a Malian, named Ephialtes, revealed to Xerxes the existence of a mountain path which led to the rear of Thermopylæ. Leonidas had stationed there a detachment of one thousand Phocians, but they gave way before the attack of a strong body of Persians, and left the path open to the enemy. When it became known to Leonidas that the Persians had thus turned his position, and were about to fall upon his rear, he dismissed all his auxiliaries except the Thespian and Theban contingents, who volunteered to share the fate of the Spartans, and, along with his three hundred countrymen, resolved to set an example to Greece of chivalrous patriotism and devoted self-sacrifice. Advancing into the wider space outside of the pass, they made a furious attack on the advancing myriads of the enemy, anxious only to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Leonidas himself fell in this desperate encounter; but after a prolonged struggle, in which two of the brothers of Xerxes and many other chiefs of the Persians were killed, the little band of Greeks retired, carrying with them the body of their king, to a hillock in the pass where they made their last stand, and were finally surrounded and all slain.—J. T.
LEONNATUS, a Macedonian of Pella, one of Alexander the Great's most distinguished generals and cherished friends. He saved the life of that prince in India at the assault on the city of the Malli. After the death of Alexander, 323 b.c., Leonnatus obtained the satrapy of the Lesser Phrygia; but, dissatisfied with his share, he crossed over into Europe to assist Antipater against the Greeks, by whom he was blockaded in Lamia, but he was defeated by them and fell in the battle, 322 b.c.—J. T.
LEONTIEF, Alexis, a Russian scholar, learned in the Chinese language and literature, and the translator of many works from Chinese into Russian, which were published at St. Petersburg between 1771 and 1784. He was attached to the embassy which the Empress Elizabeth sent in 1742 to the emperor of China on his accession to the throne. A ten years' sojourn in Pekin qualified him for the post of translator to the foreign office, to which he was appointed on his return to St. Petersburg. In 1767 he again accompanied a mission to China, and on his return home became a member of the Academy of Sciences. He died at St. Petersburg, 12th May, 1786.—R. H.
LEONTIUM, celebrated as the pupil and the mistress of Epicurus in the third century before Christ. She is mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (Book x. 3); by Cicero (De Nat. Deor. i. 33); by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxv. 11); and Athenæus (xiii. 588, &c.). She wrote a treatise against Theophrastus, which gave rise to the proverb, "Suspendio arborem eligere." Epicurus was not her only lover.—B. H. C.
LEONTIUS, a distinguished general, who held the Greek empire at Constantinople, 695-698. He first rose to influence in the state in the reign of Constantine Pogonatus, under whom, and under Justinian II., he held several military offices of consideration. But Justinian, a cruel and capricious tyrant, threw Leontius into prison in 693, along with many of the leading patricians. His confinement did not terminate till 695, when his release was immediately followed by promotion to the government of Greece. Leontius, probably without injustice to the emperor, suspected the existence of some sinister design under the show of imperial favour; and the first use he made of his newly-acquired liberty was to excite a revolt against Justinian. Little opposition was offered to the revolutionists, and on the fall of Justinian Leontius was clothed with the purple amid the acclamations of the populace. After a reign of three years, which was not distinguished by any event of importance, Leontius was deposed in consequence of a revolt headed by Apsimar. On the restoration of Justinian in 705 he was put to death.—D. M.
LEOPARDI, Giacomo, Count, poet, philologist, philosopher, born at Recanati in the March of Ancona, 29th June, 1798; died at Capodimonte, Naples, 14th June, 1837. He was the eldest son of Count Monaldo Leopardi and the Marchioness Adelaide Antici, his family on both sides being reckoned amongst the noblest of his native place. Their fortune would appear not to have corresponded with their rank, if we may judge by the very straitened means of Giacomo. Other facts, however, seem to indicate that his father, a zealous catholic, may merely have endeavoured by scanty supplies to keep his son out of harm's way. In early childhood Giacomo's education was conducted by two priests; but after his fourteenth year he was emancipated from tutelage. At the age of eight he commenced unaided the study of Greek; and speedily rejecting the Paduan grammar as inadequate, launched out at random amongst the Greek volumes of his father's library; these he subsequently perused methodically. At sixteen, besides being versed in all the ancient classics, he had read many of the later Greek and Latin authors, and a portion of the writings of the fathers; he had mastered the delicacies of his native tongue, as well as learned the English, French, Spanish, German, and Hebrew languages. In 1814 he prepared a Life of Plotinus, which furnished matter for the Addenda et Corrigenda of Creuzer's subsequent edition of that author. He translated copiously from the works of Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, and others; and speaking of certain translators amongst his fellow-countrymen made memorable by their great originals, he exclaims, "It is a goodly destiny, not to die except it be in company with an immortal." In 1816-17 he contributed articles to the Spettatore of Milan; and in the latter year published two anacreontic odes and a hymn to Neptune, com-
