Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/487

 OISPORIS. states that he obtained this story from Nearchus and Orthagoras (or Pytliaporas), who learnt it from Milhropastes, the son of a Phrygian satrap, to whom he had given a passage in his fleet to Persia. The same name is given to the island in many other geographers (as in Mel. iii. 8. § 6; Dionys. Per. 607; Plin. vi. 28. s. 32; Priscian, Perieg. 60.5; Fest. Avien. 794; Steph. K s.v. Suidas, s.v.). The other editions of Strabo read Tvppriv-q and TvpplvT], — possibly a corruption of 'ClyvpivT] or rvpivr], — the form which Vossius (in Melam, I. c.) has adopted. The account, however, preserved in Annan's Voyage of Nearclius {Indie. 37), differs much from the above. According to him, the fleet sailing westward passed a desert and rocky island called Organa ; and, 300 stadia beyond it, came to anchor beside another island called Ooracta; that there the tomb of Erythras was said to exist, and the fleet obtained the aid of JIazene, the chief of the island, who volunteered to accompany it, and pilot it to Susa. It seems generally admitted, that the Organa of Arrian and Ptolemy (vi. 7. § 46, who, placing it along the Arabian coast, has evidently adopted the distances of Sti'abo) is the modern Honnuz, which bears also the name of Gerun, or Jerun. Vincent, however, thinks that it is the modern Areh, or L'Arek. {Voi/. Nearchm, i. j>. S48.) The distance in Strabo is, perhaps, confounded with the distance the fleet had sailed along the coast of Carmania. Again Nearchus places the tomb of Erythras, not in Organa, but in Ooracta; and Agatharchides mentions that the land this king reigned over was very fertile, which applies to the latter, and not to the former. (Agatharch. p. 2, ed Hudson.) The same is true of what Pliny states of its size {I. c). Curtius, without mentioning its name, evidently alludes to Ogyris (Orniuz), which he places close to the con- tinent (x. 2), while the Geographer of Eavenna has preserved a remembrance of all the places under the head of " Colfo Persico," in which he places " Ogi- ris, Oraclia, Durcadena, Rachos, Orgina." Ooracta is called in Strabo (^. c.) AwpaKra; in Pliny, Oracla (vi. 28. s. 98); in Ptolemy, OvopSxea (vi. 8. § 15). The ancient name is said to be preserved in the modern Vroct, or Broct. It also derives the name of Kishmi from the quantity of grapes now found on it. Edrisi calls Jezireh-tuileh, the long island (i. p. 364 ; of. also Wellsted's Travels, vol. i. p. 62). The whole of this complicated piece of geography has been fully examined by Vincent, Vof). of Nearchus, vol. i. p. 348, &c.; Ritter, vol. xii. p. 435. [V.] OI'SPORIS (Oio-Tropis, Ptol. iv. 3. § 14; Opirus, Peut. Tab. ; "ETrijpof, Stadiasm. § 86), a town of the Greater Syrtis, which Barth {Wanderungen, pp. 368, 378) identifies with Linian N^alm, where there is a sandy bay into which ships might send their boats, with almost all winds, for water, at three wells, situated near the beech. (Beechey, Exped. to N. Coast of Africa, p. 173.) The tower, of which the Coast-describer speaks, must be the ruins at Ras Eski, to the E. of Nairn. [E. B. J.] OLBASA ("OAgaffa). 1. A town in Cilicia Aspera. at the foot of Mount Taurus, on a tributary of the Calycadnus. (Ptol. v. 8. § 6.) Col. Leake {Asia Minor, p. 320) identifies the town of Olbasa with the Olbe mentioned by Strabo (xiv. p. 672); while in another passage (p. 117) he conjectures that Olbasa may at a later period have changed its name into Claudiupolis, with which accordingly he is inclined to identify it. The former supposition is OLBIA. 471 possible, but not the latter, for Strabo places Olbe in the interior of Cilicia, between the rivers Lamus and Cydnus, that is, in the mountainous districts of the Taurus. According to tradition, Olbe had been built by Ajax, the son of Teucer ; it contained a temple of Zeus, whose priest once ruled over all Cilicia Aspera. (Strab. I. c.) In later times it was regarded as belonging to Isauria, and was the seat of a bishop. (Hierocl. p. 709 ; Basil. Vit. Theclae, ii. 8.) We still possess coins of two of those priestly princes, Polemon and Ajax. (Eckhel, Doctr. Num. vol. iii. p. 26, &c.) It should be observed that Stephanus Byz. (s. v. 'OAgi'a) calls Olbasa or Olbe Olbia. 2. A town in the Lycaoiliian district Antiochiana, in the south-west of Cybistra. (Ptol. v. 6. § 17 ; Hierocl. p. 709.) 3. A town in the northern part of Pisidia, between Pednelissus and Selge. (Ptol. v. 5. § 8 ; Hierocl. p. 680.) [L. SJ OLBE. [Olbasa, No. 1.] O'LBIA ('OA§ia, Strab. iv. p. 200, vii. p. 206; Scymn. 806; Ptol. iii. 5. § 28; Arrian, Per. p. 20; Anon. Per. p. 8; Mela, ii. 1. § 6; Joniand. B. Get. 5; with the affix Sabia, 2agi'a, Anon. I. c; on coins in the Ionic form always 'GASitj). Pliny (iv. 26) says that it was anciently called Olbiopolis, and MiLKTOPOLLS: the fonner of these names does not occur elsewhere, and is derived probably from the ethnic name Olbiopolitae ('OA§i07rtiArTai, Herod. iv. 18; Suid. s. v. noceiSwi'ios), w-hich appears on coins as late as the date of Caracalla and Alexander Severus. (Kohler, Mem. de I'Acud. de St. Pttirsb. vol. xiv. p. 106; Blaramberg, Choix des Aftd. An- iiques dOlhiopolis ou cFOlbia, Paris, 1822; Wm- net, Descr. des Med. vol. i. p. 349.) Althmich the inhabitants always called their city Olbia, strangers were in the habit of calling it by the name of the chief river of Scythia, Bokysthenes (BopvtyQiv-qs, BopoaQivis), and the people Borysthenitae (Bo- pvadiViirai, Herod. I. c. ; Dion Chrys. Orat. xxxvi. vol. ii. p. 74; Lucian, Toxar. 61; Menand. ap. Schol. ad Dionys. Perieg. 311 ; Steph. Ii. s.v.; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. § 40; Macrob. Sat. i. 10). A Grecian colony in Scythia, on the right bank of the Hypanis, 240 stadia (Anon. I. c. ; 200 stadia, Stiab. p.200; 15 M. P., Plin. /. c.) from its mouth, the ruins of which are now found at a place on tlie W. bank of the Bug, called Stomogil, not far from the village Ilginskoje, about 12 Eng. miles below Nicholaev. This important settlement, which was situated among the Scythian tribes of the Callipidae and Alazones, owed its origin to the Ionic Jlih-tus in B. c. 655. (Anon. Peripl. I. c; Euseb. C/iron.) At an early period it became a point of the highest importance for the inland trade, which, issuing from thence, was carried on in an easterly and northern direction as far as Central Asia. It was visited by Herodotus (iv. 17, 18, 53, 78), who obtained his valuable information about Scythia from tlie Greek traders of Olbia. From the important series of in- scriptions in Bockh's collection (fnscr. 2058 — 2096), it appears that this city, although at times dependent upon the Scythian or Sarmatian princes, enjoyed the privileges of a free government, with institutions framed upon the Ionic model. Among its eminent names occur those of Poseidonius (Suidas, s. v.), a sophist and historian, and Sphaerus the stoic, a disciple of Zcno of Citium. (Plut. Clemi. 2.) There has been much controversy as to the date of the famous inscription (Bockh, No. 2058) H H 4