- Leontopolis
:"This article is about the large ancient city of Lower Egypt; for other uses of Leontopolis, see
Leontopolis (disambiguation) "Leontopolis (Greek: polytonic|Λεόντων πόλις [Ptol. iv. 5. § 51,
Strabo xvii. pp. 802, 812] ) or Leonto (polytonic|Λεοντώ [Hieronym. "ad Jovian." ii. 6] ) orLatin : Leontos Oppidum [Plin. v. 20. s. 17] or Egyptian: Taremu, was anAncient Egypt ian city that is known as Tell al Muqdam today.History
The city is located in the central part of the
Nile Delta region. It was the capital of the 11th nome ofLower Egypt (theLeontopolite nome ) and was probably the centre of pharaonic power under the 23rd dynasty. Strabo 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 , and their son,Maahes , the lion prince. Live lions were kept at the temples during the time of the Greek occupation.In the reign of Ptolemy VI Philometor (180-
145 BC ) a temple, modelled after that ofJerusalem , was founded by the exiledJew ish priestOnias IV . [Joseph. "Ant. Jud." xiii. 3. § 3; Hieronym. "in Daniel." ch. xi.] The Hebrew colony, which was attracted by the establishment of their national worship at Leontopolis, and which was increased by the refugees from the oppressions of theSeleucid kings inPalestine , flourished there for more than three centuries afterwards. After the outbreak of theJewish War , the Leontopolite temple was closed in the first century CE, amid the general backlash againstJudaism . [Joseph. "B. Jud." vii. 10. § 4]It was a
titular see of theRoman Catholic church. [CathEncy|wstitle=Leontopolis]The site
Antiquarians were long divided as to the real site of the ruins of Leontopolis. According to
D'Anville , they were covered by a mound called "Tel-Essabè" (Tel es-sab`), or the Lion's Hill. [Comp.Champollion , "l'Egypte", vol. ii. p. 110, seq]Jomard , on the other hand, maintains that some tumuli 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 byXenophon of Ephesus . ["Ephesiaca", iv. p. 280, ed. Bipont] Smith sites the city at latitude 30° 6′North, which is considerably further south than the actual site.Most scholars today agree that Leontopolis is located at Tell al Muqdam, at latitude 30° 45′North.
ee also
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Jewish Temple of Leontopolis Notes
References
*SmithDGRG
*Richard Talbert ,Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World , (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), p. 74.External links
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=206&letter=L Leontopolis] article at JewishEncyclopedia.com
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