Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/55

Rh of secretary to Attila, find was also his ambassador at Constantinople. After the death of Attila, Orestes returned to Italy, where on account of his great wealth, he soon rose to eminence, and obtained the title and rank of patricius. He then married a daughter of Romulus Comes. In 475, while at Rome, he received orders from the emperor Julius Nepos to assemble an army and send it to Gaul, as fears were entertained that the West Gothic king Euric intended another invasion of that country. Being once at the head of an army, Orestes availed himself of his power and riches to make himself master of Italy, and forthwith set out for Ravenna, where Nepos was residing. On his approach Nepos fled in confusion (28th of August, 475) to Salona in Dalmatia, where he met with the deposed emperor Glycerins, his former rival, who was their bishop of that place; and on the 29th of August Orestes had his son Romulus Augustulus proclaimed emperor, remaining, however, at the head of affairs. His first minister was Parmenus. He sent Latinus and Madusus to Constantinople, that he might be recognised by the emperor Zeno; and he made peace with Genseric, the king of the Vandals. The reign of Orestes was of short duration. In the following year (476) Odoacer rose in aims against him, and Orestes having shut himself up in Pavia, was taken prisoner after the town had been stormed by the barbarians, and conducted to Placentia where his head was cut off by order of Odoacer. This took place on the 28th of August, 476, exactly a year after he had compelled Nepos to fly from Ravenna. On the 4th of September Paul us, the brother of Orestes, was taken at Ravenna, and likewise put to death. (The authorities quoted in the lives of Romulus Augustulus, Glycerius, Julius Nepos, and Odoacer.) [W.P.]

ORESTES ('Ope'tTTTjs), a Christian physician of Tyana in Cappadocia, called also Arestes, who suffered martyrdom during the persecution under Diocletian, A. D. 303, 304. An interesting account of his tortures and death is given by Simeon Metaphrastes, ap. Surium, De Probat. Sandor. Histor., vol. vi. p. 231, where he is named Arestes. See also Menolog. Graec. vol. i. p. 178, ed. Urbin. 1727. He has been canonized by the Greek and Roman churches, and his memory is celebrated on Nov. 9. (See Bzovius, Nomenclator Sanctor. Profess. Medlcor.) [W. A. G.]

ORESTES, CN. AUFI'DIUS, originally belonged to the Aurelia gens, whence his surname of Orestes, and was adopted by Cn. Aufidius, the historian, when the latter was an old man [See Vol. I. p. 418, b.]. Orestes was repulsed when a candidate for the tribunate of the plebs, but he obtained the consulship in B. c. 7 1, with P. Cornelius Lentulus. From an anecdote recorded by Cicero {deOff.WAl) Orestes seems to have carried his election partly by the magnificent treats he gave the people, (Cic. pro Dom. 13, pro Plane. 21 ; Eutrop. vi. 8.)

ORESTES, AURE'LIUS. 1. L. Aurelius L. F. L. N. Orestes, consul b. c. 157, with Sex. Julius Caesar. (Fasti Capit. ; Plin. H. A^. xxxiii. 3.9. 17.)

2. L. AURELIUS L. F. L. N. Orestes, son of the preceding, was consul B.C. 126, with M. Aemilius Lepidus. He was sent into Sardinia to subdue the inhabitants of the island, who had again risen against the Roman authority, as they had done on many previous occasions. Orestes remained in his province upwards of three years, and obtained a triumph on his return to Rome in B. c. 122. C. Gracchus was quaestor to Orestes in Sardinia, and distinguished himself greatly by the way in which he there discharged the duties of his office. M. Aemilius Scaurus also served under Orestes in Sardinia (Liv. Epit. 60; Pint. C, Gracch. 1, 2; Cic. Brut 28; Aur. Vict, de Vir. III. 72; Fasti Capit.) This Aurelius Orestes obtains a place, along with his brother C. Aurelius Orestes, in the list of orators in the Brutus of Cicero (c. 25), who, however, only says of them, "quos aliquo video in nuniero oratorum fuisse." 3. C. Aurelius Orestes, younger son of No. 1. See No. 2, sub finem.

4. L. Aurelius L. f. L. n. Orestes, son of No. 2, was consul with C. Marius, in the third consulship of the latter, b. c. 103, and died in the same year. (Fasti : comp. Plut. Mar. 14.) 5. Cn. Aurelius Orestes, praetor urbanus B. c. 77, one of whose decisions was annulled upon appeal by the consul Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus. (Val. Max. vii. 7. § 6.)

ORESTHEUS ('O/;6(T0eus), a son of Lycaon, and the reputed founder of Oresthasium, which is said afterwards to have been called Oresteium, from Orestes. (Pans. viii. 3. § 1 ; Eurip. Orest, 1642.)

2. A son of Deucalion, and king of the Ozolian Locrians in Aetolia. His dog is said to have given birth to a piece of wood, which Orestheus concealed in the earth. In the spring a vine grew forth from it, from the sprouts of which he derived the name of his people. (Paus. x. 38. § 1 ; Hecat. ap. Athen. ii. p. 35.) [L. S.]

ORESTILLA, AURE'LIA. [Aurelia.]

ORESTILLA, LI'VIA, called Cornelia OresUna by Dion Cassius, was the second wife of Caligula, whom he married in a. d. 37. He carried her away on the day of her marriage to Piso, having been invited to the nuptial banquet, but divorced her before two months had elapsed, and banished her and Piso. (Suet. Cal. 25 ; Dion Cass. lix. 8.)

ORFITUS, or ORPHITUS, a cognomen of several gentile names under the empire, does not occur in the time of the republic. Orfitus is the correct orthography, as we see from inscriptions. Many of the Orfiti mentioned below are only known from the Consular Fasti, and from inscriptions.

1. Ser. Cornelius Orfitus, consul in a. d. 51, with the emperor Claudius (Tac. Ann. xii. 41 ; Plin. H. N. ii. 31 ; and the inscription in Fabrettus, p. 472). In a. d. 66 Orfitus proposed, in honour of the imperial family, that the month of June should for the future be called Germanicus (Tac. Ann. xvi. 12). It would appear, from an incidental notice in Tacitus (Hist. iv. 42), that Orfitus perished not long after this, by an accusation of the informer Aqnillius Regulus.

2. Salvidienus Orfitus, one of the victims of Nero's cruelty and caprice. (Suet. Ner. 37.)

3. Paccius Orfitus, a centurion primi pili in Corbulo's army in the East, in the reign of Nero. (Tac. Ann. xiii.36, xv.12.)

4. Salvidienus Orfitus, banished by Domitian, on the pretext of conspiracy. (Suet. Dom. 10.)

5. Cornelius Scipio Orfitus, one of the consules suffecti a. d. 101.