A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

16. LASCIVUS. Ausonius commemorates (Professor. Burdigal. Epigram. ii.) among the teachers of Bordeaux, Leontius, a grammaticus or grammarian, surnamed LASCIVUS, "a name," adds Ausonius, "unworthy of the purity of his life," who had been his friend and companion from early youth. Fabricius is in one place (Bibl. Graec. vol. viii. p. 325) inclined to identify with this Leontius of Bordeaux a Leontius MYTHOGRAPHUS, or SCRIPTOR FABULARUM, a writer of some merit, whose works were discovered and designed for publication by Brassicanus; but the design was never executed, and the MS. has been either lost or destroyed. (Not. ad Petronii Arbitri Satyricon, 100.121, p. 572, ed. Burmann, prima, or vol. i. p. 741, ed. secunda.) Gesner also thought he had somewhere read the work of one Leontius in which some of the myths of the poets were related. Sidonius Apollinaris, a generation later than Ausonius, mentions a Pontius Leontius of Bordeaux or the neighbourhood (Epistol. lib. 8.11, 12), whose castle at the confluence of the Garonne and Dordogne he describes in one of his poems. (Carmen xxii. Burgus Pontii Leontii). This Pontius Leontius is by Fabricius in another place (Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 94, note w.) identified with the fabulist of Brassicanus. But the Leontii of Ausonius and Sidonius, however doubtful it may be which (if either) of them is the fabulist, must be distinguished from each other, as well as from two other Leontii, bishops of Bordeaux, mentioned by Venantius Honorius Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers in the sixth century (Carmin. lib. 4.9, 10); one of whom is especially commemorated by him for his pious care in the restoration of ruined churches,

and the founding of new ones. (Carmin. lib. i. passim.) Burmann identifies, but without any apparent reason, this Leontius of Venantius with the Pontius Leontius of Sidonius, and supposes the works mentioned by Brassicanus to have been written by him; but we think the opinion that, the fabulist was the Leontius Lascivus of Ausonius is the most probable. (Burmann, l.c.: Fabric. ll. cc., and Bibl. Med. et Infim. Latinit. vol. iv. pp. 268, 269.)