Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/71

Rh OROSIUS. tropius, and inferior second-hand authorities, whoRe statements are rashly admitted and unskilfully combined, without any attempt to investigate the basis upon which they rest, or to reconcile their contradictions and inconsistencies. Although such a compilation might be held in high esteem in the fifth century, and might command the applause of the ecclesiastical biographers from Gennadius downwards, and even of some scholars of a later date, its defects could not escape the keen discern- ment of Sigonius, Lipsius, and Casaubon, who goon perceived that no original sources of informa- tion had been consulted, that the Greek writers had been altogether neglected, either through igno- rance or indifference, and that the whole narrative so aoounded with gross errors in facts and in chro- nology as to be almost totally destitute of utility, since no dependence can be placed on the accuracy of those representations which refer to events not elsewhere chronicled. The style which has been pronounced by some impartial critics not devoid of elegance, is evidently formed upon the two great models of the Christian eloquence of Africa, Ter- tullian and Cyprian. Among the various titles exhibitevl by the MSS., such as, Historia adversus Paganoruin Calumnias ; De Cladihus et Miscriis Mundi, and the like, one, which has proved a most puzzling enigma, appears under the varying forms, Hormesla, or Oi'inesta, or Ormista, sometimes with the addition, id est mi^eriarum Christiani temporis. Among a multitude of solutions, many of them al- together ridiculous, the most plausible is that which adopting Ormista as the true orthography supposes it to be a compound of Or. m. ist. — an abbreviation for Orosii mundi historia. The Editio Princeps of the Historia was printed at Vienna, by J. Schiissler, fol. 1471, and presents a text derived from an excellent MS. Another very early impression is that published at Vicenza, in small folio, without a date, by Herm. de Colonia, and from this the Venice editions of 1483, 1484, 1499, and 1500, appear to have been copied. The only really good edition is that of Havercamp, Lug. Bat. 4to. 1738, prepared with great industry, and containing a mass of valuable illustrations. A translation into Anglo-Saxon was executed by Alfred the Great, of which a specimen was pub- lished by Klstob at Oxford in 1690, and the whole work accompanied by a version of the Anglo-Saxon text into English appeared at London, 8vo. 1773, under the inspection of Daines Barrington and John Reinhold Foster. There are old translations into German and Italian also ; into the former by Hieronymus Bonerus, fol. Colmar, 1539, frequently reprinted ; into the latter by Giov. Guerini Da Lan- ciza, without date or name of place, but apparently belonging to the sixteenth century. II. Liber Apoloyeticus de Arbitrii Libertate, writ- ten in Palestine, A. D. 415. Orosius, having been anathematised by John of Jerusalem as one who maintained that man could not, even by the aid of God, fulfil the divine law, published this tract with the double object of proving the injustice of the charge and of defending his own proceedings by demonstrating the fatal tendency of the tenets in- culcated by Pelagius. By some oversight on the part of a transcriber, seventeen chapters of the De Aa- tura et Gratia, by Augustine, have been inserted in this piece, a mistake which has led to no small confusion. The Apologeticus was first printed at Louvain, 8vo. 1558, along with the epistle of Je- ORPHEUS. 59 rome against Pelagius, and vvfill be found also in the Bib/iotheca I'alrum Maw. Lugdun. 1G77, voL vi. ; it is appended to the edition of the Historiao by Havercamp, and is included in Harduin's col- lection of Councils, vol. i. p. 200. HI. Commonitorium ad Augustinum, the earliest of the works of Orosius, composed soon after his first arrival in Africa, for the purpose of explaining the state of religious parties in Spain, especially in reference to the commotions excited by the Pris- cillianists and Origenists. It is usually attached to the reply, by Augustine, entitled Contra Pris- cillianistas et Origenistas Liber ad Orosium, vol. viii. ed. Bened. Some Epistolae ad Augustinum appear to have been at one time in existence, but are now lost. The following productions have been commonly ascribed to Orosius. 1. Dialogus sexaginta quirique Quaestio7ium Orosii percontantis et Augustini respondentis., found among the works of Augustine. 2. Quaestiones de Tri7ii- tate et aliis Scripturae Sacrae Locis ad A tigustinumy printed along with Augustini Pesponsio, at Paris, in 1533. 3. Commentarium in Canticum Cantico- rum, attributed by Trithemius to Orosius, but in reality belonging to Honorius Augustodunensia. 4. Tlie De Ratione Animae, mentioned by Trithe- mius, supposed by many to be a spurious treatise, is in reality the Commonitorium under a diiferent title. No complete edition of the collected works has yet appeared. (Augustin. de Ratione Anim. ad Hieron. ; Gennad. de Viris Illustr. 39. 46 ; Trithem. de Script. Eccles. 121 ; Nic. Anton. jBe6/. Hispan. Vet. iii. 1 ; G. J. Voss. de Historicis Lat. ii. 14 ; Schbnemann, Bibl. Patr. Lat. vol. ii. § 10; BiJhr, Geschichte der RomiscJien Litterat. § 238 ; suppl. band. 2te Abtheil. § 141 ; D. G. Moller, Dissertatio de Paido Orosio, 4 to. Altorf. 1689 ; Voss. Histor. Pdag. i. 17 ; Sigonius, de Historicis Rom. 3 ; Lips. Comment, in Tacit. Ann.; Casau- bon, de Rebus Sacris, &c. i. 12, especially Morner, De Orosii Vita ejusque Historiarwn Libris septem adversus Paganos, Berol, 1844.) [W. R.] ORPHEUS {'Opcpivs). The history of the ex- tant productions of Greek literature begins with the Homeric poems. But it is evident that works so perfect in their kind are the end, and not the beginning, of a course of poetical development. This assumption is confirmed by innumerable tra- ditions, which record the names of poets before the time of Homer, who employed their music for the civilisation of men and for the worship of different divinities. In accordance with the spirit of Greek mythology, the gods themselves stand at the head of this succession of poets, namely, Hermes, the inventor of the lyre, and Apollo, who received the invention from his brother, and became the divinity presiding over the whole art of music. With Apollo are associated, still in the spirit of the old my thologj% a class of subordinate divinities — the Muses. The earliest human cultivators of the ait are represented as the immediate pupils, and even (what, in fact, merely means the same thing) the children of Apollo and the Muses. Their personal existence is as uncertain as that of other mythical personages, and for us they can only be considered as the representatives of certain periods and certain kinds of poetical development. Their names are no doubt all significant, although the etymology of some of them is very uncertain, while that of others, such as Musaeus, is at once evident. The chief of