poetry, is applied to a kind of verses which rhyme at every hemistic, the middle always chiming to the end. The origin of the word is somewhat obscure. Pasquier derives it from one Leoninus or Leonius, who excelled in this species of composition, and dedicated several pieces to Pope Alexander III.; others derive it from Pope Leo, and others from the lion, by reason it is the loftiest of all verses.

Leontica, feasts or sacrifices celebrated amongst the ancients in honour of the sun. They were called Leontica, and the priests who officiated at them Leones, because they represented the sun under the figure of a lion radiant, bearing a tiara, and gripping in his two fore paws the horns of a bull, which struggled with him in vain to disengage himself. The critics are extremely divided about this feast. Some will conceive it to have been anniversary, and make its return, not in a solar, but in a lunar year; others hold its return more frequent, and give instances where the period was not above two hundred and twenty days. The ceremony was sometimes also called Mithriaca, Mithras being the name of the sun amongst the ancient Persians. There was always a man sacrificed at these feasts till the time of Hadrian, who prohibited it by a law. Commodus introduced the custom anew, but after his time it was again exploded.

Leopard. See Mammalia.