of December, 1865.—* His son and successor, Leopold II., was born in 1835, and married in 1853 Maria, archduchess of Austria, daughter of the Archduke Joseph, palatine of Hungary.—F. E.
LEOSTHENES, a celebrated Greek commander. On the death of Alexander the Great in 323 b.c. the government of Macedonia and Greece fell into the hands of Antipater and Craterus; and the Athenians, whose previous attempts to throw off a foreign yoke had been unsuccessful, determined to make a vigorous resistance to these rulers, by forming an extensive alliance against the Macedonians with the other recusant states of Greece. For this purpose all the able-bodied citizens were enrolled in the army, a large body of mercenaries was collected, and a powerful fleet was fitted out. Nearly all the states of Northern Greece, and several of those in the Peloponnesus joined the league, and Leosthenes, the Athenian general, was chosen commander-in-chief. The allies encountered Antipater in the valley of the Sperchius, between the mountain ranges of Œta and Othrys, and forced him to cross the river and seek safety behind the walls of Lamia, a small town within the borders of Thessaly. Leosthenes found himself unable to take Lamia by storm, and commenced a blockade of the town. He is generally said to have been killed by a blow from a stone during a sally of the Macedonian troops; some accounts, however, attribute his death to the stroke of a dart thrown from the wall during an assault. His remains were conveyed to Athens and honoured with a public funeral.—D. M.
LEPAUTE, Jean-André, a celebrated clockmaker, was born at Montmédy in 1709, and died at St. Cloud on the 11th of April, 1789. He made clocks for the principal public buildings of Paris, and for many of the chief observatories of Europe; and through the accuracy of the latter instruments he is held to have contributed materially to the advancement of astronomy. He wrote a valuable treatise on clockmaking, published in 1755 and 1760.—His brother, Jean Baptiste Lepaute, assisted him in his business, and was also remarkable for skill. He died in March, 1802.—W. J. M. R.
LEPAUTE, Nicole-Reiné Étable de la Brière, Madame, wife of Jean-André Lepaute, was born in Paris on the 5th of January, 1723, and died there on the 6th of December, 1788. Besides possessing admirable domestic and social qualities, she was an accomplished mathematician, and gave important help to Lalande in various astronomical calculations, and to her husband in the composition of his works.—W. J. M. R.
LEPIDUS, the name of a celebrated Roman family belonging to the gens Æmilia, which first appears in history in the third century b.c., and which continued to produce distinguished men till the end of the first century of the christian era:—
Lepidus, Marcus Æmilius, surnamed Porcina, was consul 137 b.c., and proconsul in Spain 136 b.c. His military operations in that province, like those of his predecessor Mancinus, were unsuccessful; for having provoked the Vaccæi to war, he found himself unable to cope with them, and suffered an ignominious repulse at the siege of Pallentia, the consequence of which was his immediate recall to Rome, where he was afterwards punished by a fine. He appears to have devoted considerable attention to the study of oratory; and Cicero speaks of him as one "who was considered a consummate orator, and who really was, as his speeches show, at least a good writer."—(Brut. xxv.)
Lepidus, Marcus Æmilius, prætor of Sicily 81 b.c., was probably a nephew of the preceding. Though in the early part of the wars between Sylla and Marius he seems to have followed the aristocratic party, yet he afterwards became an uncompromising opponent of Sylla. In his consulship, 78 b.c., his efforts to bring the popular party into power by the subversion of the constitution of Sylla, led to open hostilities, and in the following year he was declared an enemy to the republic. The army he had collected to attack the city of Rome was defeated in the Campus Martius by Pompey and Catulus, and he was forced to retreat to Sardinia, where he died.
Lepidus, Marcus Æmilius, son of the preceding, was appointed interrex 52 b.c., and held the prætorship 49 b.c. In 48 b.c. he obtained the proconsular authority in Hither Spain, and on his return in the following year he celebrated a triumph, though it is certain that he never engaged an enemy. At the time of Julius Cæsar's assassination, Lepidus was governor of Gallia Narbonensis, and of part of Spain; but his army was still in the neighbourhood of Rome, and he easily secured the city, which he held in the interest of Antony till the excitement of the populace had subsided. When Antony took the field in opposition to the senate, Lepidus joined him, and both were declared public enemies. The influence of Octavianus, however, induced the senate to come to terms with the rebellious generals, and a triumvirate was formed, consisting of Octavianus, Lepidus, and Antony. Lepidus soon became subordinate to the other two, and after holding the consulship, 42 b.c., he received Africa as his province. In 36 b.c. he attempted to recover his former influence, by prosecuting the Sicilian campaign on his own account, but, after a short period of success, he found his troops deserting him and joining Octavianus. On submission his life was granted to him, and Circeii was assigned to him as a residence. He died 13 b.c.
Lepidus, Æmilius Paulus, nephew of the preceding, a follower of Brutus, who afterwards submitted to the triumvirs. He was consul 34 b.c., and censor 22 b.c.
Lepidus, Marcus Æmilius, a son of Lepidus the triumvir, executed for a conspiracy against the life of Augustus, 30 b.c.
Lepidus, Marcus Æmilius, a favourite of the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius. Died a.d. 33.
Lepidus, Æmilius, a favourite of the Emperor Caligula, who put him to death on suspicion a.d. 39.—D. M.
* LE POITTEVIN, Eugene-Modest-Edmond, a popular French landscape and marine painter, was born at Paris, 31st July, 1806. He studied under Hersent, and in the école des beaux-arts, where he carried off the first prize for landscape. M. Le Poittevin has travelled and sketched much in Holland, Flanders, Italy, England, and the coasts of Normandy, and in 1838 went to Russia by special invitation of the Emperor Nicholas. Figures usually play a prominent part in his landscapes, which often partake of the character of genre pieces. He delights in painting fishermen returning to or leaving their families, or engaged in some seaside occupation; artists employed in their out-of-door studies (as Paul Potter painting; Vandevelde sketching a battle, &c.); coast scenes, and the like. For the gallery at Versailles he painted some sea-fights. His pictures are usually of small size, and carefully finished. Many of them have been engraved or lithographed. M. Le Poittevin was made a knight of the legion of honour in 1843. He is a member of the Academies of Berlin and Antwerp.—J. T—e.
LEPRINCE, Jean Baptiste, was born at Metz in 1733, and was one of the principal scholars of Boucher. He spent some years in Russia, and attracted great notice by a picture of a "Russian Baptism," which procured him his election into the Academy; he was also a member of the Academy of St. Petersburg. Leprince painted interiors and landscapes, pastoral scenes, &c., with small figures elaborately executed, fascinating by their composition and arrangement, good drawing, and general effect, yet commonly wanting in expression. The same fault is found with the ordinary details of his landscapes; they are elaborately executed, but inanimate. Nevertheless he had many imitators, and he made such out-door scenes fashionable. He painted many pictures of Russian life and costume, and engraved a large number of them himself. Leprince's own etchings and aquatinta engravings exceed a hundred and fifty in number, and the prints after his works by other engravers are also very numerous. He died at Lagny in 1781. He published an essay on his manner of engraving, "Traité de la gravure au lavis."—(Gault de St. Germain; Huber.)—R. N. W.
* LEPSIUS, Carl Richard, one of the most celebrated Egyptian scholars of the day, was born at Naumburg, Prussia, December 20, 1813, the son of Carl Peter Lepsius. He studied philology at Leipsic and Göttingen, and comparative philology under Professor Bopp at Berlin. At the latter place he gained, in 1833, the degree of doctor of philosophy by his treatise, "De Tabulis Eugubinis," and in the same year went to Paris to continue his study of the oriental languages. The recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt having brought him into contact with the leading French savans, he competed for the prize Volney, which he had awarded to him by the Academy in 1834, for his essay on "Paläographie als Mittel der Sprachforschung." In the following year he published another important treatise, "Über die Anordnung und Verwandschaft der semitischen, indischen, altpersischen, altägyptischen, und äthiopischen Alphabete," and in the winter of 1835-36 went to Rome, where he made the acquaintance of Chevalier Bunsen. His celebrated "Lettre à M. Rosellini sur l'alphabet
