Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/70

Rh 58 ORONTOBATES. held the satrapy of Armenia (Xeu. A?iuh. i.4. §§ 9, &c. 5. § 40, iii. 5. § 17, iv. 8. § 4.) It seems to have been the same Orontes who was appointed by Artaxerxes (in B. c. 386, according to Diodorus) to command the land forces against Evagoras, the fleet being committed to Tiribazus. In 385, Tiribazus offered Evagoras certain conditions of peace, which the latter was willing to accept, pro- testing only against the requisition that he should acknowledge himself the mere vassal of Persia, and claiming the title of king. Hereupon Orontes, jealous of Tiribazus, wrote to court accusing him of treason, and obtained in answer an order to arrest his colleague, and to take upon himself the sole command of the forces. But Tiribazus was a favourite with the army, and the general dissatis- faction, together with some desertions, alarmed Orontes for the result of the war. He hastened therefore to make peace with Evagoras, on the very terms on which the latter had before insisted, and which Tiribazus had refused to grant. Not long after this, the trial of Tiribazus took place. The judges appointed by Artaxerxes unanimously ac- quitted him, and Orontes was disgraced, and lost the royal favour, (Diod. xv. 2 — 4, 8 — i 1 ; Isocr. Evag. p. 201, d ; Theopomp. ap. Phot. Bibl. 176 ; Wess. ad Diod. xiv. 26 ; Clint. F. H. vol. ii. App. xii.) 3. A Persian satrap of Mysia, joined in the great revolt of the western satraps from Artaxerxes Mnemon, in B. c. 362. He was appointed to the command of the rebel forces and entrusted with a large sum of money sufficient for the pay of 20,000 mercenaries for a year ; but, hoping to gain high rewards from the king, he arrested those who came to place the treasure in his hands, and sent them to Artaxerxes ; an act of treachery which he fol- lowed up by the surrender of a number of towns, and of the mercenary troops. (Diod. xv. 90, 91.) 4. A descendant of Hydarnes (one of the seven conspirators against Smerdis the Magian) is men- tioned by Strabo (xi. p. 531), as the last Persian prince who reigned in Armenia, before the division of the country by Antiochus the Great, of Syria, between two of his own officers, Artaxias and Zariadris. [E. E.l ORO'NTIUS MARCELLUS. [Marcellus.] ORONTOBATES i^OpovroBdn-ns). 1. A Per- sian, who married the daughter of Pixodarus, the usurping satrap of Caria, and was sent by the king to succeed him. On the approach of Alexander (B.C. 334) Orontobates and Memnon [Memnon] entrenched themselves in Halicarnassus. But at last, despairing of defending it, they set fire to the town, and under cover of the conflagration crossed over to Cos, whither they had previously removed their treasures. Orontes, however, still held the citadel Salmacis, and the towns Myndus, Caunus, Thera, and Callipolis, together with Triopium and the island of Cos. Next year, when at Soli, Alexander learnt that Orontobates had been defeated in a great battle by Ptolemaeus and Asander. It is natural to infer that the places which Orontobates held did not long hold out after his defeat. (Arrian, i. 23, ii, 5. § 7 ; Curt, iii. 7. § 4.) An officer of the name of Orontobates was present in the army of Dareius at the battle of Gaugamela, being one of the commanders of the troops di-awn from the shores of the Persian Gulf. (Arrian, iii. 8. § 8.^ Whether he was the same or a different person from the preceding, we have OROSIUS. no means of knowing. We are not told that the latter was killed as well as defeated. 2. A Median, Avho was appointed satrap of Media by Antigonus. He soon after successfully repulsed an attempt made upon the province by some partizans of Eumenes and Pithon, b. c. 316. (Diod. xix. 46, 47.) [C. P. M.] OROPHERNES. [Olophernes.] ORO'SIUS, PAULUS, a Spanish presbyter, a native, as we gather from his own words {Hiator. vii. 22), of Tarragona, flourished under Arcadius and Honorius. Having conceived a warm admi- ration for the character and talents of St. Augus- tine, he passed over into Africa about A. D. 41.3, in order that he might consult him upon the dogmas of the Priscillianists, which at that period were a source of great dissension in the churches of the Western peninsula. The bishop of Hippo flattered by the deep respect of this disciple, gave him a most cordial reception, and after imparting such in- structions as he deemed most essential, despatched him to Syria in 414 or 415, ostensibly for the pur- pose of completing his theological education under St. Jerome, who was dwelling at Bethlehem, but in reality to counteract the influence and expose the principles of Pelagius, who had resided for some years in Palestine. Orosius having found a warm friend in Jerome, began to carry out the ob- ject of his mission by industriously spreading the intelligence that Coelestius had been condemned by the Carthaginian synod, impressing at the same time upon all the close connection which subsisted between this convicted heretic and Pelagius, against whom he at length brought a direct charge of false doctrine. The cause was formally heard before the tribunal of John, bishop of Jerusalem, and ended in the discomfiture of the accuser, who, having in- dulged in some disrespectful expressions towards the judge, was in turn denounced as a blasphemer. He remained in the East until he had ascertained the unfavourable result of the appeal to the council of Diospolis, after which, having obtained posses- sion of the relics of St. Stephen, the protomartyr, the place of whose sepulture had not long before been marvellously revealed, he returned with them to Africa, and there, it is believed, died, but at what period is not known. The following works by this author are still extant. I. Historiarum adi^ersus Paganos Lihri VII.^ dedicated to St. Augustine, at whose suggestion the task was undertaken. The gentiles of this age were wont to complain that the dishonour and ruin which had so long threatened the empire, and which had at length been consummated in the sack of Rome by Alaric and his Goths, must be ascribed to the wrath of the ancient deities, whose worship had been abandoned and whose altars had been profaned by the votaries of the new faith. In order to silence their clamour Orosius, upon his return from Palestine, composed this history to de- monstrate that from the earliest epoch the world had been the scene of crimes not less revolting, and that men had groaned under calamities still more intolerable from war, pestilence, earthquakes, volcanoes, and the fury of the elements, while they could look forward to no happiness in a future state to console them for their miseries in the pre- sent. The annals, which extend from the Creation down to the year a. d. 417, are, with exception of the concluding portion, extracted from Justin, Eu-