Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/511

 ORONTES.

river rising in Coele-Syria, then sinking beneath the earth, again issues forth, and, passing through the district of Apamea to Antiocheia, after ap- proaching the city, runs off to the sea towards Se- leuceia. It received its name from one Orontes, who built a bridge over it, having been formerly called Typhon, from a mythic dragon, who being struck with lightning, fled in quest of a hiding- place, and after marking out the course of the stream with its trail, plunged into the earth, from whence forthwith issued the fountain.” He places its embouchure 40 stadia from Seleuceia (xvi. p. 750). He elsewhere places the source of the river more definitely near to Libanus and the Para- dise, and the Egyptian wall, by the country of Apamea (p. 756). Its sources have been visited and described in later times by Mr. Barker in 1835. The river “ is called by the people £l-’A’sz, ‘ the rebel, ” from its refusal to water the fields without the compulsion of water-wheels, according te Abul- feda (Tab. Syr. p. 149), but according to Mr. Barker, “ from its occasional violence and windings, during a course of about 200 miles in a northerly direction, passing through Hems and Hamah, and finally discharging itself into the sea at Suwéidiah near Antioch.” (Journal of the Geog. Soc. vol. vii. p. 99.) The most remote of these sources is only a few miles north of Baalbek, near a village called Labweh, “ at the foot of the range of Anti- libanus on the top of a hillock, near which passes a small stream, which has its source in tle ad- jeining mountains, and after flowing for several hours through the plain, falls into the basin from which springs the Orontes.” These fountains are about 12 hours north of Labweh, near the vil- lage Karmul, where is a remarkable monument, “ square, and solid, terminating above in a pyramid from 60 to 70 feet high. On the four sides hunting Scenes are sculptured in relief, of which the drawing borders on the grotesque.” (Robinson, Journal of Geog. Soc. vol. xxiv. p. 32.) There can be no difficulty in connecting this monument with the Paradise or hunting park mentioned by Strabo near the source of the Orontes, similar, no doubt, in origin and character, to those with which the narrative of Xenuphon abounds, within the territories of the Persian monarchs. The rise and course of this river and its various tributaries has been detailed by Col. Chesney (Eapedition, vol. i. pp. 394—-398), and the extreme beauty of its lower course between Antioch and the sea has been described in glowing terms by Captains Irby and Mangles. (Travels, pp- 225, 226.) (G. W.] ORONTES (Opévrys, Ptol. vi. 2. § 4), a moun- tain chain of Media, which extended in a south-east direction, passing the Ecbatana of Greater Media (Hamadén). It must be considered as an outlying portion of the still greater chain of the Zagros. It is now called the Erwend or Elwend. It is pro- bable that the name is preserved in the celebrated mountain of Azdistan, now called Rowdndiz. In Armenian geography this mountain district is called Erovantimi; which is evidently connected with the ancient Orontes. (St. Martin, Armenia, vol. ii. pp- 363, 429.) W. ORONTES, a people of ancient Assyria, described hy Pliny as being to the east of Gaugamela (vi. 26. s. 30). There can be no doubt that these are the present Rowandi, a tribe living, as in ancient times, about the great mountain Rowdndiz, in Kurdistan, and doubtless connected with the Orontes of Ptolemy

OROPUS. 495

(vi. 2. § 4). They derive their name from Erwend, a pure old Persian root, which was usually Helleu- ized into Orodes or Urontes. (Rawlinson, Juurn. of Geog. Soc. x. p. 73.) iva

ORO'PUS (6 'Npw7ds, rarely 7)’Qowmds, Paus. vii. 11. § 4; comp. Steph. B.s.2.: Eth. ’Apémos, and ac- cording to Steph B.’Qpwmevs), a town on the borders of Attica and Boeotia, and the capital of a district, called after it ORor1a (7 ‘Npwria.) This district is a maritime plain, through which the Asopus flows into the sea, and extends for 5 miles along the shore. It is separated from the inland plain of Tanagra by some hills, which are a continuation of the principal chain uf the Diacrian mountains. Oropus was origi- nally a town of Boeotia; and, from its position in the maritime plain of the Asopus, it naturally belonged to that country. (Paus. i. 34. § 1.) It was, however, a frequent subject of dispute between the Athenians and Boeotians; and the former people obtained pos- session of it long before the Peloponnesian War. It continued in their hands till B.c. 412, when the Boeotians recovered possession of it. (Thue. viii. 60.) A few years afterwards (B. c. 402) the Boeotians, in consequence of a sedition of the Oropii, removed the town 7 stadia from the sea. (Diod. xiv. 17.) During the next 60 years the town was alternately in the hands of the Athenians and Boeotians (comp. Xen. Hell, vii. 4. § 1, &c.), till at length Philip after the battle of Chaeroneia gave it tothe Athenians. (Paus. i. 34. § 1.) In B.c. 318 the Oropians recovered their liberty. (Diod. xviii. 56.) In B.c. 312 Cas- sander obtained possession of the city; but Polemon, the general of Antigonus, soon afterwards expelled the Macedonian garrison, and handed over the city to the Boeotians (Diod. xix. 77.) It has been cun- cluded from a passage of Dicaearchus (p. 11, ed. Hudson) that Oropus continued to belong to Thebes in the next century; but the expression oixia On€av is corrupt, and no safe conclusion can therefore be drawn from the passage. Leake propuses to read Grouia OnSav, Wordsworth cxia Onav, but C. Miiller, the latest editor of Dicaearchus, reads ov- voila @nra@v. Dicaearchus calls the inhabitants Athenian Boeotians, an epithet which he also applies to the inhabitants of Plataeae. Strabo also describes Oropus as a Boeotian town (ix. p. 404); but Livy (alv. 27), Pausanias (J. c.), and Pliny (iv. 7. s. 11) place it in Attica. How long the Oropii inhabited the inland city is uncertain, Pausanias expressly savs that Oropus was upon the sea (éml daAacons, i. 34. § 1); and the inhabitants had probably returned to their old town long before his time.

Although Oropus was so frequently in the hands of the Athenians, its name is never found among the Athenian demi. Its territory, however, if not the town itself, appears to have been made an Attic demus under the name of Graea (7 Tpaia). In Homer Oropus does not occur, but Graea is mentioned among the Boeotian towns (Jl. ii. 498); and this ancient name appears to have been revived by the Athenians as the official title of Oropus. Aristotle said that Oropus was called Griea in his time (ap. Steph. B. s. v. ’Qpwds); and accordingly we find in an inscription, belonging to this period, the T'paijs (pacts) mentioned as a demus of the tribe Pandionis (Ross & Meier, Die Demen von Attika, p- 6, seq.) In the passage of Thucydides (ii. 23) mapiovres be ‘Opwndy riv yhy Mepaixiy nadouperny, tv ve~ povrat ‘Npwmotr "ACnvaiwy tmjxoo, édijwoay, all the existing MSS. have Metpaixijy, but Stephanus, who quotes the passage, reads Tpaikyy, which Poppo