Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/15

 extant work is the original itself, which the brevity and simple close reasoning render a probable conclusion.

This small treatise is divided into four chapters. The first chapter shows that the whole (to trdu^ or 6 KoafjLos) had no beginning, and will have no end. He maintains that it is consistent with his views of the Cosmos that men have always existed, but he admits that the earth is subject to great revolutions, that Greece (Hellas) has often been and will be barbarous, and that it has sustained great physical changes. The object of the sexual intercourse, he says, is not pleasure, but the procreation of children and the permanence of the human race. Accordingly, the commerce of the sexes should be regulated by decency, moderation, and congruity in the male and female, in order that healthy beings may be produced, and that families may be happy; for families compose states, and if the parts are unsound, so will the whole be. The book appears to be a fragment. The physical philosophy is crude and wortliless, but the fundamental ideas are clearly conceived and happily expressed.

The best editions are by A. F. W. Rudolphi, Leipzig, 1801—8, with copious notes and commentaries, and by Mullach; the latter edition bears the title, " Aristotelis de Melisso, Xenophane et Gorgia Disputationes cum Eleaticorum philosophorum fragmentis, et Ocelli Lucani, qui fertur, de universa natura libello." Berlin, 1846. There is another good edition by Batteux, Paris, 1768, three vols. 12mo. An edition was published at Berlin, 1762, 8vo., by the Marquis d'Argens, with a French translation, and a good commentary. Ocellus was translated into English by Thomas Taylor, 1831, 8vo.

O'CHIMUS ("Ox'Moy a Rhodian king, a son of Helios and Rhodes. He was married to the nymph Hegetoria, and the father of Cydippe, who married Ochimus' brother Cercaphus. (Diod. v. 56, 57; Plut. Quaest Graec. 27.)

OCHUS. []

OCNUS, a son of Tiberis and Manto, and the reputed founder of the town of Mantua, though according to others he was a brother or a son of Auletes, and the founder of Cesena in Gaul. (Serv. adAen.x.d%.)

O'CREA, C. LU'SCIUS, a senator mentioned by Cicero in his speech for Roscius, the actor (C. 14).

OCRI'SIA or OCLI'SIA,the mother of Servius Tullius, according to the old Roman legends. She was one of the captives taken at the conquest of Corniculum by the Romans, and in consequence of her beauty and modesty was given by Tarquinius as a handmaid to his queen, Tanaquil. One day, in the royal palace, when she was presenting some cakes as an offering to the household genius, she saw in the fire the genitale of a man. Tanaquil commanded her to dress herself as a bride, and to shut herself up alone in the chapel, in which the miracle had occurred. Thereupon she became pregnant by a god, whom some regarded as the Lar of the house, others as Vulcan. The offspring of this connexion was Servius Tullius. The more prosaic account represents her as having been first the wife of Spurius Tullius in Corniculum or at Tibur, and relates that after she was carried to Rome she married one of the clients of Tarquinius Priscus, and became by him the mother of Servius Tullius. (Dionys. iv. 1, 2; Ov. Fast. vi. 625, &c.; Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 27. s. 70; Festus, s. v. Nothum; Plut. de Fort. Rom. 10; Niebuhr, Hist, of Rome, vol. i. p. 364.)

OCTACFLIUS. [.]

OCTAVE'NUS, a Roman jurist, who is cited by Valens (Dig. 36. tit. 1. s. 67), by Pomponius, who couples him with Aristo (Dig. 40. tit. 5. s. 20), and by Paulus, who joins him with Proculus (Dig, 18. tit. 6. 8. 8), from which we may conclude that he lived after the time of Tiberius. It has been conjectured that he wrote on the Lex Julia et Papia, but the passages alleged in proof of this (Dig. 23. tit. 2. s. 44, 40. tit. 9. s. 32) are not decisive. He is also quoted by Ulpian and others.

OCTA'VIA, 1. The elder daughter of C. Octavius, praetor, B. c. 61, by his first wife, Ancharia, and half-sister of the emperor, Augustus. (Suet. Aug. 4.) Plutarch erroneously makes this Octavia the wife of Marcellus and of M. Antonius.

2. The younger daughter of C. Octavius, by his second wife, Atia, and own sister of the emperor, Augustus, was married first to C. Marcellus, consul, 50, and subsequently to the triumvir, M. Antonius. (Suet. /. c.) Plutarch {Anton.?, as has been remarked above, makes the elder Octavia the wife of the triumvir; and he has lately found a supporter of his opinion in Weichert {De Cassio Parmcnd., p. 348, &c.), though some modern scholars, adopting the views of Perizonius, have decided in favour of the authority of Suetonius. The question is fully discussed by Drumann {GeschicJde Roms, vol. iv. p. 235), who adheres, on good reasons as it appears to us, to the opinion of Perizonius; but for the arguments adduced on each side of the question we must refer the reader to Drumann.

Octavia had been married to Marcellus before the year 54, for Julius Caesar, who was her great uncle, was anxious to divorce her from Marcellus that she might marry Pompey, who had then just lost his wife, Julia, the only daughter of Caesar. (Suet, Caes. 27.) Pompey, however, declined the proposal, and Octavia's husband continued to be one of the warmest opponents of Caesar. [.] But after the battle of Pharsalia he sued for and easily obtained the forgiveness of the conqueror; and Octavia appears to have lived quietly with her husband at Rome till the assassination of the dictator in 44. She lost her husband towards the latter end of 41; and as Fulvia, the wife of Antony, died about the same time, Octavianus and Antony, who had lately been at variance, cemented their reconciliation by the marriage of Octavia to Antony. Octavia was at the time pregnant by her former husband, but the senate passed a decree by which she was permitted to marry at once. This marriage caused the greatest joy among all classes, and especially in the army, and was regarded as a harbinger of a lasting peace. Octavianus was warmly attached to his sister, and she possessed all the charms, accomplishments and virtues likely to fascinate the affections and secure a lasting influence over the mind of a husband. Her beauty was universally allowed to be superior to that of Cleopatra, and her virtue was such as to excite even admiration in an age of growing licentiousness and corruption. Plutarch only expresses the feelings of her contemporaries when he calls her XP^JM Rh