Leontopolis was an

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian city located in the

Nile Delta The Nile Delta (, or simply , ) is the River delta, delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's larger deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the eas ...

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...

. It served as a provincial capital and Metropolitan Archbishopric. The archaeological site and settlement are known today as Kafr Al Muqdam.

Name

Known most popularly in the modern era and to scholarship by its traditional

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

name Leontopolis (literally, "city of lions"), or Leonto , ("lion"), the demographic makeup of the city varied culturally and linguistically over its long history, and the Greek name was progressively used more and more over the native

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

Taremu ("Land of Fish"). After the annexation of

Ptolemaic Egypt Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty * Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining ...

as a

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

, the city retained the Greek name, and was referred to in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

sources as the

oppidum An ''oppidum'' (: ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age Europe, Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celts, Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread acros ...

Leontos, though the Egyptian name still lingered among primary speakers of Coptic Egyptian into the post-classical period. Today, the site itself is referred to in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

as Tell el-Muqdam ("mound of the city").

History

The city is located in the central part of the

region. It was the capital of the 11th nome of

(the Leontopolite nome) and was probably the centre of pharaonic power under the 23rd dynasty. In his conquest-stela found at the fourth Nile Cataract at

Jebel Barkal Jebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal () is a mesa or large rock outcrop located 400 km north of Khartoum, next to Karima in Northern State in Sudan, on the Nile River, in the region that is sometimes called Nubia. The jebel is 104 m tall, has a f ...

Piye Piye (also interpreted as Pankhy or Piankhi; was an ancient Kushite king and founder of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled Egypt from 744–714 BC. He ruled from the city of Napata, located deep in Nubia, modern-day Sudan. Name Piye ...

writes about his conquest over Iuput II, who ruled over Leontopolis.

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

is the earliest writer who mentions either the nome, or its chief town: and it was probably of comparatively recent origin or importance. The Greek name of this city means "City of Lions", given on account of the presence of temples to the lioness goddesses Bast and

Sekhmet In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet ( or Sachmis , from ; ) is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of medicine. Sekhmet is also a solar deity, sometimes given the epithet "the Eye of Ra, eye of Ra". She is often associated with the goddesses Hatho ...

, and their son,

Maahes Maahes (also spelled in Greek: Maches, Michos, Miysis, Mios, and Maeches) (Greek: Μαχές, Μιχός, Μίυσις, Μίος, or Μάιχες) was an ancient Egyptian lion-headed god of war, whose name means "he who is true beside her". He w ...

, the lion prince. Live lions were kept at the temples during the time of the Greek occupation. It became the capital of the

of Augustamnica Secunda.

Ecclesiastical history

As provincial capital it also was a Metropolitan archbishopric, known as Leontopolis in Augustamnica, which was to fade. *

Michel Le Quien Michel Le Quien (8 October 1661, Boulogne-sur-Mer – 12 March 1733, Paris) was a French historian and theologian. Biography Le Quien studied at , Paris, and at twenty entered the Dominican convent in Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he made ...

lists Theodotus at the second Council of Constantinople in 553AD. and * Metrodorus of Leontopolis signed the cannon of the

Council of Ephesus The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops convened in Ephesus (near present-day Selçuk in Turkey) in AD 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church th ...

Catholic Titular see

The diocese was restored nominally in the 18th century, as

titular bishopric A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

, erroneously called Leontopolis in Bithynia, and as such had the following incumbents of fitting episcopal (lowest) rank : * Elias Daniel von Sommerfeld (1714.01.26 – 1742.07.26) * Joaquim de Nossa Senhora de Nazareth Oliveira e Abreu,

Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (commonly called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the t ...

(O.F.M.) (1815.09.04 – 1819.08.23) * Alexander Dobrzański (1819.12.17 – 1831?) * Ludwig Forwerk (1854.07.11 – 1875.01.08) It was promoted circa 1880 to titular archbishopric of Metropolitan rank; it was renamed in 1925 Leontopolis, in 1933 Leontopolis in Augustamnica. It has had the following incumbents, of fitting (Metropolitan? archiepiscopal) rank : * Jean-Pierre-François Laforce-Langevin (1891.02.06 – 1892.01.26) * Dominique-Clément-Marie Soulé (1893.03.21 – 1919.04.21) * Andrea Cassulo (1921.01.24 – 1952.01.09) * Terence McGuire (1953.11.16 – 1957.07.04) * Angelo Ficarra (1957.08.02 – 1959.06.01) * Cornelius Bronsveld,

White Fathers The White Fathers (), officially known as the Missionaries of Africa (), and abbreviated MAfr, are a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of pontifical right (for men). They were founded in 1868 by Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie, who w ...

(M. Afr.) (1959.12.21 – 1970.11.30)

Greek Orthodox Titular See

*Dionysios (Hatzivasiliou) 1997-2012 *Gabriel of Leontopolis 2012 - Present

Identification

Most scholars today agree that Leontopolis is located at Tell al Muqdam, at latitude 30° 45′ North. Researchers were long divided as to the real site of Leontopolis. According to D'Anville (1697–1782), its ruins were covered by a

mound A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...

called ''Tel-Essabè'' (Tel es-sab`), or the "Lion's Hill". Jomard (1777–1862), on the other hand, maintained that some

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

near the village of ''El-Mengaleh'' in the Delta, represent the ancient Leontopolis, and this supposition agrees better with the account of the town given by

Xenophon of Ephesus Xenophon of Ephesus (Greek: Ξενοφῶν ὁ Εφέσιος; fl. 2nd century – 3rd century AD) was a Greek writer. His surviving work is the '' Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes'', otherwise known as the ''Ephesiaka'' one of the earlies ...

.''Ephesiaca'', iv. p. 280, ed. Bipont W. Smith (1813–1893) locates the city at latitude 30° 6′ North, which is considerably further south than the actual site.

Notes

Sources and external links

* ;Printed sources * Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (), p. 74. * Hans Bonnet: ''Leontopolis (2.)'', in: ''Lexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte'', Hamburg 2000 S. 423. * W. M. Flinders Petrie: ''Hyksos and Israelite Cities'', London 1906. * Max Küchler: ''Leontopolis'' in: ''Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Handwörterbuch für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft.'' (RGG) 4. Auflage, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, S. 274. ;External links
Leontopolis
article at JewishEncyclopedia.com

* {{s-end Populated places established in the 1st millennium BC Populated places disestablished in the 1st millennium Archaeological sites in Egypt Cities in ancient Egypt Catholic titular sees in Africa Former populated places in Egypt Jewish Ptolemaic history Nile Delta Roman sites in Egypt Tells (archaeology) Former capitals of Egypt Bastet Sekhmet