LEONTOPOLIS. - The locality called L. by Flavius Josephus corresponds to present-day Tell el-Jehādijjeh, about 30 km. from Cairo and 20 from ancient Heliopolis (v.), in a north-easterly direction. Excavations by Naville and Flinders Petrie document the existence there of a Jewish colony earlier than Christianity; and a Jewish temple also existed there.
Flavius Josephus narrates its origins in a somewhat different manner in Bell. Ind. (I, 1, 1; VII, 10, 2-3) and in Antiq. Ind. (XIII, 3, 1-3); according to the latter work, the temple was founded by Onias, son of Onias III, high priest killed at Daphne (II Mach. 4, 33), by concession of Ptolemy VI Philometor and Cleopatra, on the ruins of a temple of the goddess Bast. On the other hand the Jewish colony of L. also had a military character, attested both by the excavations and by the fact that it at first opposed with arms Antipater, who was bringing aid to Caesar. It was of Palestinian character, unlike the numerous Jewish colonies of Hellenistic type. Evidently in Jerusalem the cult of the temple of L. was considered illegal; the sacrifices were invalid, its priests could not officiate in the Temple of Jerusalem, but, strangely, vows made expressly for it preserved their value (Māndīrīh, XIII, 10). In reality it must have been of little importance; the vast majority of the Hellenized Jews of Egypt adhered to the Temple of Jerusalem, and the temple of L. lived in a kind of tolerance. Lupus, governor of Alexandria, received orders from Vespasian to destroy it, but limited himself to closing it; Paul, his successor, destroyed it completely in 73 A.D. (Fl. Josephus, Bell. Ind., VII, 10, 4).