Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/512

 496 OROPUS and other modem editors have received into the text. It is, however, right to observe that the district of Oropus was frequently designated as tlie border country or country over the border (ttjs ivipav 77)$, Thuc.'iii. 91). According to Dicaearchus {I. c.) the Oropians ■were notorious for their grasping exactions, levied upon all imports into their country, and were for this reason satirised by Xenon, a comic poet: — naj'Tss TfXSivai, iravres dalv apwayes. KaKbv teAos yivono tois TLpwjriois. The position of Oropus is thus defined by Strabo. " The beginning [of Boeotia] is Oropus, and the sacred harbour, which they call Delphinium, op- posite to which is old Eretria in Euboea, distant 60 .stadia. After Delphinium is Oropus at the distance of 20 stadia, opposite to which is the present Ere- tria, distant 40 stadia. Then comes Delium." (Strab. ix. p. 403.) The modern village of Oropo stands at the distance of nearly two miles from the sea, on the right bank of the Vourieni, anciently the Asopus: it contains some fragments of ancient buildings and sepulchral stones. There are also Hellenic remains at the SxaAa or wharf upon the bay, from which persons usually embark for Euboea: this place is also called es rous ayiovs arroaTdAovs, from a ruined church dedicated to the " Holy Apostles." Leake originally placed Oropus at Oropo and Delphinium at Skala; but in the second edition of his Demi he leaves the position of Oropus doubtful. It seems, however, most probable that Oropus originally stood upon the coast, and was re- moved inland or.ly for a short time. In the Pelo- ponnesian War Thucydides speaks of sailing to and anchoring at Oropus (iii. 91, viii. 95); and Pau- sanias, as we have already seen, expressly states that Oropus was upon the coast. Hence there can he little doubt that SJcdla is the site of Oropus, and that Oropo is the inland site which the Oropians occupied only for a time. It is true that the dis- tance of Oropo from the sea is more than double the 7 stadia assigned by Diodorus, but it is possible that he may have originally written 17 stadia. If Oropus stood at Skdla, Delphinium must have been more to the eastward nearer the confines of Attica. In the territory of Oropus was the celebrated temple of the hero Amphiuraus. According to Pausanias (i. 34. § 1) it was 12 stadia distant from Oropus. Strabo places it in the district of Psophis, which stood between Rlianmus and Oropus, and which was subsequently an Attic demus (ix. p. 399). Livy calls it the temple of Amphilochus (xlv. 27), who, we know from Pausanias, was worshipped conjointly with Ampliiaraus. Livy further describes it as a place rendered agreeable by fountains and rivers ; which leads one to look for it at one of two torrents which join the sea between Skdla and Kdlamo, which is probably the ancient Psophis. The mouth of one (if these torrents is distant about a mile and a half from SJcdla ; at half a mile fi-oni the mouth are some remains of antiquity. Tlie other torrent is about three miles further to the eastward ; on which, at a mile above the plain, are remains of ancient walls. This place, which is near Kdlamo, is called Mavro-DhUUsi, the epithet Mavro (black) distinguishing it from DhilLssi, the site of Delium. The distance of the Hellenic remains on the first- mentioned torrent agree with the 12 stadia of Pausanias ; but, on the other hand, inscriptions have been found at Mavro -Dhiliiisi and Kdlamo, in OPcTHAGORIA. which the name of Amphiaraus occurs. Dicaear- chus (I. c.) describes the road from Athens to Oropus as leading through bay-trees (5ia ^a.v instead of Sia ha(pv'L^wv, observing that it is not probable that a topographer would have described a route of about 30 miles, which is the distance from Athens to Oropus, by telling his readers that it passed through " bay-trees and a temple." Although this reading has been rejected by Leake, it is admitted into the text of Dicaearchus by C. Miiller. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 444, seq., Demi of Attica, p. 112, seq. ; Finlay, Remarks on the Topography of Oropia and Diacria, in Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, 1839, p. 396, seq. ; Wordsworth, Athens and Attica, p. 22, seq.) OROSIXES, a river of Thrace, flowing into the Euxine. (Plin. iv. 18.) [T^ H. D.] ORO'SPEDA (^ 'Opdo-TreSa, Strab. iii. p. 161, • seq.), called by Ptolemy Ortospeda ('OpTOTTreSa, ii. 6. § 21), a mountain chain in Hispania Tarraconeii- sis, the direction of which is described under His- pania [Vol. I. p. 1086]. It is only necessary to add here the following particulars. It is the highest inland mountain of Spain (11,000 feet), ai first very rugged and bald, but becoming wooded as it approaches the sea at Calpe. It abounds in silver mines, whence we find part of it called Mons Argen- tarius. [Amgentarius Mons.] It is the present chain of Sierra del M/mdo, as far as Sierra de Alcarez and Sierra de Ronda. [T. H. D.] O'RREA. 1. (Oppea, Ptol. ii. 3. § 14). a town of the Venicones, on the E. coast of Britannia Bar- bara. Horsley (Brit. Rom. p. 373) identifies it with Oii'ock, on the little river Orewater in Fife- shire. 2. A town in Moesia Superior (Ptol. iii. 9. §5). [T.H.D.] ORSA. a mountain with a bay, on the east coast of Arabia, without the straits of the Persian Gulf. (Pliny, vi. 28. s. 32.) Mr. Forster explains tho name to mean literally in Arabic " the transverse mountain." He adds: " Its position is efiectually determined from the East India Company's Chart, where, about a third of a degree south of Daba, a great mountain, at right angles with the mountains of Lima, runs right down to the sea, while at its base lies the port of Chorfakan." (Geog. of Arabia, vol. ii. p. 228.) [G. W.] OESINUS, a tributary of the Maeander, flowing in a north-western direction, and disch.irging itself into the main river a few miles below Antioch (Plin. V. 29). As some MSS. of Pliny have Mos- synus, and as Hierocles (p. 665) and other ecclesi- astical writers {Notit. Episc. Phryg. Pac. p. 27) speak of a town Mosyna in those parts, the river was probably called Mosynus. Its modern name is said to be Hagisik, that is the river described by Col. Leake {Asia Minor, p. 249) as descending from Gheira and Karajasu. [L. S.] ORTACEA, a small stream of Elymais, which Pliny states flowed into the Persian Gulf; its mouths were blocked up and rendered unfit for navigation by the mud it brought down (vi. 27. s. 31). [V.] ORTAGUREA. [Makoneia.J ORTHAGO'RIA COpea^o/jIa), a town of Mace- donia, of which coins are extant. Pliny (iv. 11. s. 18) says that Ortagurea was the ancient name of Maroneia ; but we learn from an ancient geographer (Hudson, Geogr. Min. vol. iv. p. 42) that Ortha- I 1