Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/14

 1720, especially the latter, to which we may add that of Hase, subjoined to the Valerius Maxiraus in Lemaire's edition of the Latin classics, 8vo. Paris, 1823, and containing the commentaries of both Scheffer and Oudendorp. No MS. having been employed since the time of Aldus, all the alterations introduced from time to time into the text are purely conjectural.

We have translations into French by George de la Bouthiere, 8vo. Lyons, 1555, and by Victor Verger, 12mo. Paris, 1825, and into Italian by Damiano MarafR, 8vo. Lione, 1554. The first and last of the above contain also translations of the three books by Polydore Virgil on the same topic.

OBSI'DIUS. 1. The commander of a Frentanian troop of horse, serving under the consul Laevinus in the campaign against Pyrrhus B. c. 280, distinguished himself in the battle fought at the river Siris in that year, by the daring attempt which he made upon the king's life. He unhorsed Pyrrhus, but was killed by the personal attendants of the king. He is called Oplacus ("OTrAa-Kos) in Plutarch, Oblacus Vulsinius {"OSAukos Ovaivtos) in Dionysius, but Obsidius in Florus. (Flor. i. 18. § 7; Plut. Fi/rrh. 16; Dionys. xviii.

2. Discovered in Aethiopia the stone which was named after him Ohsidianus (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 26. § 67). The name Obsidius Rufus occurs in inscriptions, but is not mentioned elsewhere.

OBULTRO'NIUS SABI'NUS, was quaestor aerarii in A. d. 57, when Nero transferred the charge of the public documents from the quaestors to the praefecti. He was slain by Galba, in Spain, on his accession to the imperial throne, A. d. 68. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 28, Hist. i. 37.)

OCALEIA ('nKoAeia), a daughter of Mantineus, and wife of Abas, by whom she became the mother of Acrisius and Proetus. (Apollod. ii. 2. § 1.) The Scholiast of Euripides {Orest. 953) calls her Aglaia.

O'CCIA, a vestal virgin, who died in the reign of Tiberius, A. d. 19, after discharging the duties of her priesthood for the long period of fifty-seven years. (Tac. Ann. ii. 58.)

OCEA'NIDES. [.]

OCE'ANUS ('n/ceai/o's), the god of the river Oceanus, by which, according to the most ancient notions of the Greeks, the whole earth was surrounded. An account of this river belongs to mythical geography, and we shall here confine ourselves to describing the place which Oceanus holds in the ancient cosmogony. In the Homeric poems he appears as a mighty god, who yields to none save Zeus. (Il. xiv. 245, xx. 7, xxi. 195.) Homer does not mention his parentage, but calls Tethys his wife, by whom he had three daughters, Thetis, Eurynome and Perse. (Il. xiv. 302, xviii. 398, Od. X. 139.) His palace is placed somewhere in the west (Il. xiv. 303, &c.), and there he and Tethys brought up Hera, who was conveyed to them at the time when Zeus was engaged in the struggle with the Titans. Hesiod {Theog. 133, 337, &c., 349, &c.) calls Oceanus a son of Uranus and Gaea, the eldest of the Titans, and the husband of Tethys, by whom he begot 3000 rivers, and as many Oceanides, of whom Hesiod mentions only the eldest. (Comp. Apollod. iii. 8. § 1, 10. § 1.) This poet {Theog. 282) also speaks of sources of Oceanus, Representations of the god are seen on imperial coins of Tyre and Alexandria. (Hirt, Mylhol. Bilderh. p. 149.) [L. S.]

OCELLA, Ll'VIUS. [, emperor, p. 206, b.]

OCELLA, SE'RVIUS, respecting whom Caelius tells Cicero that he was detected in adultery twice within three days. (Cic. ad Fam. viii. 17, ii. 15.) This Ocella seems to be the same person as Cicero speaks of more than once during the civil wars. (Ad AtLx. 10,13,17.)

OCELLATAE, sisters and vestal virgins, to whom the emperor, Domitian, gave the choice of the mode of their death, when they were proved to have been unfaithful to their vow of chastity. (Suet. Dom. 8.)

OCELLI'NA, LI'VIA. [, p. 206, b.]

OCELLUS or OCYLLUS ("n/ceAAoy, "n/cuA.Aoj), a Lacedaemonian, was one of the three ambassadors who happened to be at Athens when Sphodrias invaded Attica, in B. c. 378. They were apprehended as having been privy to his design, but were released on their pointing out the groundlessness of the suspicion, and on their assurances that the Spartan government would be found to look with disapproval on the attempt of Sphodrias. In 369, we find Ocellus again at Athens, as one of the ambassadors who were negotiating an alliance between the Athenians and Spartiins against Thebes. (Xen. Hell. v. 4. §§ 22, &c., vi. 5. §§ 33, &c.; comp. Diod. xv. 29, 63; FluLPelopAi.)

OCELLUS LUCA'NUS (^OKeAAos Aeu/cai/o's), as his name implies, was a Lucanian, and a Pythagorean in some sense. There were attributed to him a work, ITepi No/aou, or on Law; Trept fia(TiAetos Kal oo-joTTjros, on Kingly Rule and Piety; and Trept rrjs rod iravros (pxxrios, on the Nature of the Whole, which last is extant, though whether it is a genuine work is doubtful, or, at least, much disputed.

Ocellus is mentioned in a letter from Archytas to Plato, which is preserved by Diogenes Laertius. (viii. 80), and in this letter the works above mentioned are enumerated. If the letter of Archytas is genuine, it proves that Ocellus lived some time before Archytas, for it speaks of the descendants of Ocellus. Nothing is said in the letter about Ocellus being a Pythagorean. Lucian {Pro Lapsuj &c. vol. i. p. 729, ed. Hemst.) speaks of Ocellus and Archytas as acquainted with Pythagoras, but we know that Archytas lived at least a hundred years after Pythagoras, and Lucian's historical facts are seldom to be relied on. Ocellus is mentioned by still later writers, but their evidence determines nothing as to his period.

As he was a Lucanian, Ocellus would write in the Doric dialect, and as the work attributed to him is in the Ionic, this has been made a ground for impugning its genuineness; but so far from being an argument against the genuineness of the work, this is in its favour, and only shows that some copyist had altered the dialect. Besides this, the fragments from this work, which Stobaeus cites, are in the Doric dialect. It is, however, always a doubtful matter as to early works, which are first mentioned by writers of & much later period, whether they are really genuine. If the existing work is not genuine we must suppose that when it was fabricated the original was lost. It is also possible that it is a kind of new modelled edition of the original; and it is also possible that the