Leontopolis was an ancient Egyptian city located in the

Nile Delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) 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, ...

. 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 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 years of ...

Taremu ("Land of Fish"). After the annexation of Ptolemaic Egypt as a Roman province, the city retained the Greek name, and was referred to in Latin sources as the oppidum Leontos, though the Egyptian name still lingered among primary speakers of

Coptic Egyptian Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet, t ...

into the post-classical period. Today, the site itself is referred to in Arabic 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 The Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXIII, alternatively 23rd Dynasty or Dynasty 23) is usually classified as the third dynasty of the ancient Egyptian Third Intermediate Period. This dynasty consisted of a number of Meshwesh ki ...

. In his conquest-stela found at the fourth Nile Cataract at Jebel Barkal, Piye writes about his conquest over

Iuput II Iuput II (also spelled Auput II) was a ruler of Leontopolis, in the Nile Delta region of Lower Egypt, who reigned during the 8th century BC, in the late Third Intermediate Period. Reign He was an ally of Tefnakht of Sais who resisted the invasio ...

. 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 "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

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. It became the capital of the Roman province 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 lists Theodotus at the second Council of Constantinople in 553AD. and *

Metrodorus of Leontopolis Metrodorus ( el, Μητρόδωρος, translit=Mētrodōros, translation=mother's gift) is the name of numerous historical figures, including: * Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the elder) (5th century BC), philosopher from the school of Anaxagoras * Met ...

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, 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 (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 Bernard McGuire (1953.11.16 – 1957.07.04) * Angelo Ficarra (1957.08.02 – 1959.06.01) *

Cornelius Bronsveld Cornelius may refer to: People * Cornelius (name), Roman family name and a masculine given name * Pope Cornelius, pope from AD 251 to 253 * St. Cornelius (disambiguation), multiple saints * Cornelius (musician), stage name of Keigo Oyamada * Me ...

, White Fathers (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 Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (; born in Paris 11 July 169728 January 1782) was a French geographer and cartographer who greatly improved the standards of map-making. D'Anville became cartographer to the king, who purchased his cartographic ...

(1697–1782), its ruins were covered by a mound called ''Tel-Essabè'' (Tel es-sab`), or the "Lion's Hill". Jomard (1777–1862), on the other hand, maintained 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 by Xenophon of Ephesus.''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