Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/501

 OPITERGIUM. tlie river Tigris flowed by it. Xenoplion, in the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, speaks of it as a large city situated upon the Physcus (now Adkem), and ap- parently at some distance from its junction with the Tigris. Arrian, describing the return of Alexander from the East, states that he sailed up the Tigris to Opis, destroying on his way the dams which (it was said) the Persians had placed across the river to prevent any naval force ascending the stream. At Opis he is said to have held a great assembly of all his troops, and to have sent home those who were no longer tit to serve. (Aiiab. vii. 7.) Strabo speaks of it as in his time a small village, but places it, like Herodotus and Arrian, upon the Tigris (ii. p. 80, xi. p. 529, xvi. p. 739). Captain Lynch, in his account of the Tigris between Baghdad and Sdmar- rah, considers that some extensive ruins he met with near the angle formed by the Adhem and Tigris, and the remains of the Nahr-mvdn canal, mark the site of Opis. But the change in the course of the Tigris there observable has led to the de- struction of great part of the ancient city. (Lynch, Geagr. Journ. ix. p. 472 ; comp. Rawlinson, Geogr. Joum. X. p. 95.) [v.] OPITE'RGIUM QOitirip-^xov: Eth. Opiterginus: Oderzo), a city of Venetia, situated about 24 miles from the sea, midway between the rivers Plavis {Piave) and Liquentia {Livenza), on a small stream (now called the Frattci) flowing into the latter. No mention of it is found before the Roman con- quest of Venetia ; but it appears to have under their rule become a considerable municipal town, and is mentioned by Strabo as a flourishing place, though not a city of the first class. (Strab. v. p. 214.) In the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey a body of troops furnished by the Opitergini is mentioned as displaying the most heroic valour, and offering a memorable example of self-devotion, in a naval com- bat between the fleets of the two parties. (Liv. Ep. ex.; Flor. iv. 2. § 33; Lucan, iv. 462—571.) Tacitus also notices it as one of the more consider- able towns in this part of Italy which were occupied by the generals of Vespasian, Primus, and Varus. (Tac. Hist. iii. 6.) It is mentioned by all the geo- graphers, as well as in the Itineraries ; and though Ammianus tells us it was taken and destroyed by an irruption of the Quadi and Marcomanni in a. d. 372, it certainly recovered this blow, and was still a considerable town under the Lombards. (Plin. iii. 19. s. 23 ; Ptol. iii. 1. § 30; Itin. Ant. p. 280 ; Tab. Peut. ; Ammian. xxix. 6. § 1 ; P. Diac. iv. 40.) In an inscription of the reign of Alexander Severus, Opitergium bears the title of a Colonia ; as it is not termed such either by Pliny or Tacitus, it probably obtained that rank under Trajan. (Orell. Inscr. 72; Zumpt, de Colon, p. 402.) It was destroyed by the Lombard king Rotharis in A. d. 641, and again, in less than 30 years afterwards, by Grimoaldus (P. Diac. iv. 47, v. 28); but seems to have risen again from its ruins in the middle ages, and is still a con- siderable town and an episcopal see. Opitergium itself stood quite in the plain ; but its territory, which must have been extensive, com- prised a considerable range of the adjoining Alps, .as Pliny speaks of the river Liquentia as rising " ex montibus Opiterginis " (Plin. iii. 18. s. 22). The Itinerary gives a line of cross-road which pro- ceeded from Opitergium by Feltria {Feltre) and the Val Sw/ana to Tridentum (Trent). (Itin. Ant. p. 280.) [E. H. B.] O'PIUS ('OTrtoCs), a small port-town on the coast OPPIDUM NOVUIL 485 of Pontus, probably on or near the mouth of the river Ophis. (Ptol. v. 6. § 6 ; Tab. PeuHng.) It is placed 120 stadia west of the river Rhizius, although its name seems to indicate that it was situated further west, near the river Ophis. [L. S.] OPO'NE ('Oir(ivri;'07rwur) ifj-trdptov, Ptol. iv. 7. §11; Peripl. 3 far. Erythr. p. 9), the modern Ha- foon or Afun, was a town situated upon the eastern coast of Africa, immediately N. of the region called Azania (Khazayin), lat. 9° N. The author of the Peri plus, in his account of this coast, says that Opone stood at the commencement of the highland called by the ancients Mount Elephas. He further defines its position by adding that since there was only an open roadstead at the Aromatum Emporium — the cape Guardafni or Jerdaffoon of modern charts — ships in bad weather ran down to Tabae for shelter, — the promontory now known as Ras Bannah, where stood the town called by Ptolemy (i. 17. § 8, iv. 7. § 11) XlavSiv kwjxt), the Bannah of the Arabians. From thence a voyage of 400 stadia round a sharply projecting peninsula termi- nated at the emporium of Opone. Here ended to S. the Regio Aromata of the ancients. Opone was evidently a place of some commercial importance. The region in which it stood was from remotest ages the .seat of the spice trade of Libya. Throughout the range of Mount Elephas the valleys that slope seawards produce frankincense, while inland the cassia or cinnamon of the ancients at- tained jierfection. But the Greeks, until a com- paratively late period, were unacquainted with this coast, and derived from the Arabians its distinctive local appellations. Opone, which doubtless occu- pied the site, probably, therefore, represents also the Arabic name of a town called Afim or Hafoon, 1. e. Afaon^ fragrant gums and spices; which, again, is nearly equivalent to the Greek designation of the spice-land of Eastern Libya — Aromata. And this derivation is rendered the more probable, when taken in connection with the neighbouring bluff or headland of Guardafui or Jerdaffoon, since Afiin enters into the composition of both names, and Jerd or Guard resembles the Punic word Kartha, a headland. Thus Jerd-Affoon is the promontory of Opone. Ptolemy (iv. 7. § 11) places Opone too far S. of cape Jerdaffoon. The author of the Periplus more correctly sets it a degree further N., sis days' voyage from a river which runs at the southern base of Wady Haifa, or Mount Elephas. The character- istics of the entire tract, of which Opone formed one extremity, are those of an elevated ridge lying be- tween two seas, — the Red Sea and the ocean,— and which, from its elevation and exposure totheNE. monsoon, is humid ana fertile,ailbrding a marked con- trast to the generally sterile and arid shore above and below the highland of Elephas. S. of Opone there is no trace of ancient commerce. The articles of export from this emporium were, according to the author of the Periplus, cinnamon, distinguished as " native," aroma, fragrant gums generally, moto, or cinnamon of inferior quality ; shaves of a superior kind (AouAiKci KpeifftTom), principally for the Aegyptian market; and tortoise-shell of a superior quality and in great abundance. (See Vincent, Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, vol. ii. p. 152-1.57.) [W.B.D.] OPPIDUM NOVUM ("OTrTTiSoi' Nmi/, Ptol. iv. 2- § 25), a town of Mauretania, colonised in the reign of the emperor Claudius, by the veterans (Plin. V. 1), which Ptolemy (I. c.) places 10' to the E. of I I 3