Leontopolis was an ancient Egyptian city in the Nile Delta, Lower Egypt. It served as a provincial capital and Metropolitan Archbishopric. The archaeological site and settlement are known today as Kafr Al Muqdam.
Location of Leontopolis
Leontopolis (ancient Egyptian: tꜣ-rm.w, modern: Tell el-Muqdam) is an Ancient Egyptian city in Lower Egypt, located near the centre of the Nile Delta. It was the provincial capital of Kaheseb, the eleventh nome of Lower Egypt.
Name
Known most popularly in the modern era and to scholarship by its traditional Greek name “Leontopolis” Λεόντων πόλις (literally, “city of lions”), or Leonto Λεοντώ, (“lion”), the demographic makeup of the city varied culturally and linguistically over its long history. The Greek name was increasingly used over the native Egyptian 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. However, the Egyptian name still lingered among primary speakers of Coptic Egyptian into the post-classical period. Today, the site is referred to in Arabic as Tell el-Muqdam (“mound of the city”).
History
The city is located in the central part of the Nile Delta region. It was the capital of the 11th nome of Lower Egypt (the Leontopolite nome) and was probably the centre of pharaonic power under the 23rd dynasty. Strabo is the earliest writer who mentioned either the nome or its chief town, and it was perhaps of comparatively recent origin or importance. In his conquest-stela found at the fourth Nile Cataract at Jebel Barkal, Piye writes about his conquest over Iuput II. who ruled over Leontopolis.
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 Greek occupation.
It became the capital of the Roman province of Augustamnica Secunda.
Ecclesiastical history
As a 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 553 AD.
- Metrodorus of Leontopolis signed the cannon of the Council of Ephesus.
Catholic Titular see
The diocese was restored nominally in the 18th century as a 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 the titular archbishopric of Metropolitan rank; it was renamed in 1925 Leontopolis and 1933 Leontopolis in Augustamnica. It has had the following incumbents of fitting (Metropolitan? archepiscopal) 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, 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 agree that Leontopolis is located at Tell al Muqdam, at 30° 45′ North latitude.
Researchers were long divided as to the accurate site of Leontopolis. According to D’Anville (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. W. Smith (1813–1893) located the city at latitude 30° 6′ North, which is considerably further south than the actual site.
