Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/502

 486 OPPIDUM XOVTJM. Manliana, and the Antonine Itinerary 18 JI. P. to the W.; Ptolemy's position agrees with the Sinaab of Shaw (Trav. p. 58), where that traveller found ruins on the W. bank of the Chinalaph. The town of the Itinerary corresponds with El Khddarah, the " Cliadra " of Edrisi (Geog. Nub. p. 81), situated on a rising ground, on tlie brink of the same river, where there are also ruins. [E. B. J.] OPPIDUM NOVUM, of Aquitania in Gallia, is placed by the Antonine Itin. on the road from Aquae Tarbellicae {Dax) to Tolosa (Tonlotise), and be- tween Benehannum and Aquae Convenarum. [Be- NEHARNCM; Aquae Oonvenarum.] D'Anville has fixed Oppidum Novum at N'ai/e, the chief reason for which is some resemblance of name. [G. L.] OPSICELLA, a town mentioned only by Strabo (iii. p. 157), and said to have been founded by one of the companions of Antenor, in the territoiy of the Cantabri. [T. H. D.] OPTATIANA. [Dacia, Vol. I. p. 744, b.] OPU'NTIUS SINUS [Opus.] OPUS ('Onovs, contr. of 'OirSeis, fl. ii. 531 : Eth. 'OTTovfTtos), the chief town of a tribe of the Locri, who were called from this place the Locri Opuntii. It stood at the head of the Opuntian gulf (d 'Onovi>- Ttos k6-kos, Strab. ix. p. 425; Opuntius Sinus, Plin. iv. 7. s. 12; Jlela, ii. 3. § 6), a little inland, being 15 stadia from the shore according to Strabo (I. c), or only a mile according to Livy (xxviii. 6). Opus was believed to be one of the most ancient towns in Greece. It was said to have been founded by Opus, a son of Locrus and Protogeneia; and in its neigh- bourhood Deucalion and Pyrrha were reported to have resided. (Pind. 01. ix. 62, 87 ; Schol. ad he.) It was the native city of Patroclus. (Hom. //. xviii. 326), and it is mentioned in the Homeric catalogue as one of the Locrian towns subject to Ajax, son of Oileus {II. ii. 531). During the flourishing period of Grecian history, it was regarded as the chief city of the eastern Locrians, for the distinction between the Opuntii and Epicnemidii is not made either by Herodotus, Tliucydides, or Polybius. Even Strabo, from whom the distinction is chiefly derived, in one place describes Opus as the capital of the Epicne- midii (ix. p. 416); and the same is confirmed by Pliny (iv. 7. s. 12) and Stephanus (s. v. 'OTro'eiy; from Leake, Northeiti Greece, vol. ii. p. 181.) The Opuntii joined Leonidas with all their forces at Thermopylae, and sent seven ships to the Grecian fleet at Artemisium. (Herod, vii. 203, viii 1.) Sub- sequently they belonged to the anti-Athenian party in Greece. Accordingly, after the conquest of Boeotia by the Athenians, which followed the battle of Oenophyta, b. c. 456, the Athenians carried off 100 of the richest Opuntians as hostages. (Thuc. i. 108.) In the Peloponnesian War the Opuntian privateers annoyed the Athenian trade, and it was in order to check them that the Athenians fortified the small island of Atalanta off the Opuntian coast. (Thuc. ii. 32.) In the war between Antigonus and Cas- sander. Opus espoused the cause of the latter, and was therefore besieged by Ptolemy, the general of Antigonus. (Diod. xix. 78.) The position of Opus is a disputed point. Mele- tius has fallen into the error of identifying it with Pundonitza, which is in the territory of the Epicne- midii. Many modern writers place Opus at Tdlanda, where are several Hellenic remains; but Leake ob- serves that the distance of Tdlanda from the sea is much too great to correspond with the testimony of Strabo and Livy. Accordingly Leake places Opus OEBELUS. at Kardhcnitsa, a village situated an hour to the south-eastward of Tdlanda, at a distance from the sea corresponding to the 15 stadia of Strabo, and where exist the remains of an ancient city. (^Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 173, seq.) 2. A town in the mountainous district of Acroreia in Elis, taken by the Spartans, when they invaded Elis at the close of the Peloponnesian War. The Scholiast on Pindar mentions a river Opus in Elis. The site of the town is perhaps represented by the Hellenic ruins at Skidda, and the river Opus may be the stream which there flows from a small lake into the Peneius. (Diod. xiv. 17; Steph. B. s. v.; Strab. ix. p. 425; SchoL ad'P'md. 01. ix. 64; Leake, Pdoponnesiaca, p. 220; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. i. p. 41.) ORA ("Opo), a place mentioned by Ptolemy (vi. 8. § 14) in Carmania, but apparently on the con- fines of Gedrosia. It seems not improbable that he has confounded it with Orae, or Oraea, which was certainly in the latter province. Strabo (xv. p. 723) and Arrian (vi. 24) both apparently quoting from the same authority, speak of a place of this name in Gedi'osia, — the capital, probably, of the Oritae. [V.] ORA (ra, "fipa), a town in the NW. part of India, apparently at no great distance from the Kabul river, of which Arrian describes the capture by Alexander the Great, on his march towards the Panjdb (iv. c. 27). It does not appear to have been identified with any existing ruins ; but it must have been situated, according to Arrian's notice, between the Guraei (^Gauri) and the celebrated rock Aornos. [V.] ORAE CClpai, Arrian, vi. 22, 28), the chief town, in all probability, of the people who are generally called Oritae, though their name is written in different ways. It was situated in Gedrosia, and is most likely the same as is called in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, the Emporium Or.iea (c. 37, ed. Miiller). The neighbouring country was rich in com, wine, barley, and dates. [V.] ORATHA (^Opada), a city described by Stepha- nus B. (s. f.), as in the district of Mesene, on the Tigris. As he does not state in which Meseae he supposes it to have been, it is impossible now to identify it. Some commentators have supposed that it is the same as " Ur of the Chaldees." It is, how- ever, more likely that it is "Ur cast«llum Persarum " (Amm. Marc. xxv. 8), now believed to be repre- sented by the ruins of Al-Hathrr ; or, perliaps, the Ura of Pliny (v. 24. s. 21). [V.] ORB'ELUS QOpSr)Kos, Herod, v. 16; Strab. vii. p. 329 ; Diodor. xx. 19 ; Arrian, Anab. i. 1. § 5; Ptol. iii. 9. § 1, iii. 11. § 1 ; Pomp. Mela, ii. 2. § 2; Plin iv. 17), th« great mountain on tlie frontiers of Thrace and Macedonia, which, beginning at th« Stiymonic plain and lake, extends towards the sources of the Strymon, where it unites with the summit called Scomius, in which the river had its origin. The amphibious inhabitants of lake Prasias procured their planks and piles, on which they con- structed their dwellings, from this mountain. (Herod. I. c.) Cassander, after having assisted Audoleon, king of Paeonia, against the Illyrian Autariatae, and having conquered them, transported 20,000 men, women, and children to Mt. Orbelus. (Diodor. I. e.) The epitomiser of Strabo (I. c), who lived not long before the commencement of the 1 1th century, ap- plies this name to the ridge of Haemus and Rhodope; Gatterer (^Comment. Soc. Got. vol. iv. p. 99, vol. vi.