did not restrict herself to one lover. Her favors, however, were not
to be won, as usual, by the payment of gold, but through the invention
or solution of a difficult sophism.

The philosophy of Epicurus was a comfortable and pleasing doctrine for
people of light morals, and in consequence we meet with the names of a
large number of young and beautiful hetaerae who infested the Gardens of
Epicurus, among whom were a Boidion, Hedia, Nicidion, Erotion,
Marmarion, and the celebrated Leontium. Their presence gave the enemies
of the Epicurean sect justification for characterizing their philosophy
as a system of immorality; and the strict moralist and academician
Plutarch violently censured the Epicureans "who lived with the hetaera
Hedeia or Leontium, spat in the face of virtue, and found the _summum
bonum_ in the flesh and in sensuality." While nothing but the names of
the other Epicurean hetaeras have survived, Leontium, by her varied
accomplishments, has won an abiding prominence in the intellectual
world.

Leontium, "the little lioness," is indisputably the most remarkable and
attractive personality in the philosophical demi-monde of Ancient
Greece. Of her home and her family, history is silent; but she was the
product of a hetaera seminary which imparted to its pupils a thorough
intellectual discipline in addition to the secrets of "gallantry" and
the knowledge of cosmetic arts. When she became a favorite of Epicurus
and began to study philosophy, she continued the practice of hetairism,
which occasioned great vexation to the master, not because he deplored
her light morals, but because he was himself passionately enamored of
the highly gifted maiden. The aged and broken Epicurus could not attach
to himself alone the high-spirited creature, who preferred the beautiful
and wealthy Timarchus. One of her early lovers was the poet Hermesianax
of Colophon, to whom she owed her literary training. He dedicated to her
three books of elegies, entitled _Leontium_, fragments of which are
extant. Leontium's fame is due most of all to her activity as an
authoress. Theophrastus the Peripatetic published a work _On Marriage_
in which he severely handled the female sex. Leontium wrote a reply in
which she displayed so much subtlety, learning, and argumentative power
that Theophrastus was thoroughly routed. This work caused general
admiration, Cicero commends it, and Pliny pays a tribute to its
excellence. Unfortunately for our study o