Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/524

 508 OZEXE. cated to it. (Aelian, Hist. An. x. 4G; Plut. Is. et Osir. c. 7.) The town stood nearly opposite Cyno- pdlis, between the western bank of the Nile and the Joseph-canal, lat. 28° 6' N. At the village of Beh- neseh. which stands on part of the site of Oxyryn- (hus, there are some remains — broken columns and cornices — of the ancient city (Jomard, Descript. de I'Egypte, vol. ii. ch. 16. p. 5.5 ; ChampoUion, VEgypte, vol. i. p. 30.3, seq.),; and a single Corin- thian column (De'non, I'Egypte, pi. 31), without leaves or volutes, partly buried in the sand, indicates a structure of a later period, probably of the age of Diocletian. Oxyrynchus became the site of an epis- copal see, and Apollonius dated from thence an epistle to the Council of Seleuceia (Epiphan. Haeres. Ixxiii.) Ri)m;in coins were minted at Oxyrynchus in the age nf Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. (1.) Ha- drian, with the reverseof Pallas, hoWing in her right hand a statuette of Victory, in her left a spear; or, (2.) Serapis holding a stag in his right hand. (3.) Aiitiminus, with a reverse, Pallas holding in her right hand an axe, in her left a statuette of Victory. (Eckhel, vol. iv. p. 112.) [W. B. D.] OZK'NE ('OfVl. Peripl M. Erythr. c. 48, ed. Miiller), the principal emporium of the interior of the district of W. India anciently called Limyrica. There can be no doulit that it is the Sanscrit Uj- jdini, the present Ovjein. This place is held by all Indian authors to be one of great antiquity, and a royal capital, — as Ptolemy calls it, — the palace of a king Tiastanes (vii. 1. § 63). We know for certain that it was the capital of Vikramaditya, who in B. c. 56 expelled the Saeae or Scythians from his country, and foimded the well known Indian aera, which has been called from this circumstance the Saca aera. (Lassen, de Ptntap. p. 57; Bohlen, AUe Ind. i. p. 94; Ritter, v. p. 486.) The author of the Periplus states that great variety of com- iTierce was sent down from Ozene to Barygaza (I. c). LV.] OZ0GARD.NA, a town in the middle of Meso- potamia, recorded by Ammianus, in his account of the advance of Julianus through that country (xxiv. c. 2). He states that the irdiabitants preserve there a throne or seat of judgment which they say belonged to Trajan. The same story is told in al- most the same words by Zosimus of a place he calls Zaragardia (iii. 15). The place cannot now with certainty be identified ; but JMannert thinks it the same as shortly afterwards bore the name of Pa- coria, from Pacorus (v. 2. p. 241); and Reichard holds it to be the same as Is or Izannesopolis (the present Hit). [ V.] PACATIANA. [PiiRYGiA.] PACHNA.MU'NIS {naxvafiovvis. or Uax^fv- fiovvis, Ptol. iv. 5. § 50 ; Uaxf^fJ-^iV^, Hierocles. p. 724), the principal town of the Sebennytic nome in the Aegyptian Delta, lat. 31° 6' N. It stood on the eastern'shore of the Lake Butos, and very near the modern village of Handahw. (ChampoUion, VEgypte. vol. ii. p. 206.) [W. B. D.] PACHY'NUS(naxi'»"'s: Capo Passaro). a cele- brated promontory of Sicily, forming the extreme SE. point of the whole island, and one of the three promontories which were supposed to have given to it the name of Trinacria. (Ovid. Fast. iv. 479, Met. xiii. 725; Dionys. Per. 467—472; Scyl. p. 4. § 13; PACTYE. Pol. i. 42; Strab. vi. pp. 265, 272, &c.; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 8; Mela, ii. 7. § 15.) All the ancient geographers correctly describe it as extending out towards the S. and E. so as to be the point of Sicily that was the most nearly opposite to Crete and the Peloponnese. It is at the same time thn southernmost point of the whole island. The headland itself is not lofty, but formed by bold projecting rocks (projecia saxa Puchyni, Virg. Aen. iii. 699), and immediately off it lies a small rocky island of considerable elevation, which appears to have been generally regarded as forming the ac- tual promontory. This explains the expression of Nonnus, who speaks of " the island rock of the sea- girt Pachynus." {Dionys. xiii. 322.) Lycophron also has a simikar phrase. (^Alex. 1181.) We learn from Cicero ( Verr. v. 34) that there was a port in the immediate neighbourhood of the promontory to which he gives tlie name of Portus Pachyni : it was here that the fleet of Verres w.as stationed under his officer Cleomenes, when the news that a squadron of pirates was in the neighbouring Port of Ulysses (Portus Odysseae) caused that com- mander to take to flight with precipitation. The Port of Ulysses is otherwise unknown; but Ptolemy gives the name of Promontory of Ulysses ('OSycro-ei'a 6.Kpa, Ptol. iii. 4. § 7) to a point on the S. coast of the island, a little to the W. of Cape Pachynus. It is therefore probable that the Portus Pachyni was the one now called Porto di Palo, immediately ad- joining the promontory, while the Portus Odysseae may be identified with the small bay or harbour of La Marza about 6 miles distant. There are, however, several rocky coves tn which the name of ports may be applied, and the determination must therefore be in great measure conjectural. (Smyth's Sicily, pp 181,185,186.) The convenience of this port at the extreme SE. point of the island caused it to be a fre- quent place of rendezvous and station for fleets ap- proaching Sicily; and on one occasion, during tfie Second Punic War the Carthaginian commander Bo- milcar appears to have taken up his post in the port to the W. of the promontory, while the Roman fleet lay immediately to the N. of it. (Liv. xxiv. 27, XXV. 27, xxxvi. 2.) " [E. H. B.] PACTO'LUS (na/cToiArfs), a.small river of Lydia, which flows down from Mount Tmolus in a northern direction, and, after passing on the west of Saidis, empties itself into the Hermus. (Herod, v. 101 ; Xenoph. Cyrop. vi. 2. § 1, vii. 3. § 4, Ages. i. 30; Strab. xii. pp. 554, 521, xiii. p. 625, foil.; Ptol. v. 2. § 6; Plin. v. 30.) In ancient times the Pactolus had carried in its mud, it is said, a great quantity of small particles of gold-dust, which were carefully col- lected, and were believed to have been the source of the immense wealth possessed by Croesus and his an- cestors ; but in Strabo's time gold-dust was no longer i found in it. The gold of this river, which w;is hence called Chrysorrhoas, is often spoken of by the poets. (Soph. Phil. 392 ; Dionys. Perieg. 831 ; Horn. Hymn, in Del. 249 ; Virg. Aen. x. 142 ; Horat. Epod. xv. 20; Ov. Met. xi"85, &c.; Senec. Phoen. 604; Ju- ven. xiv. 298; Silius It. i. 158.) The little stream, which is only 10 feet in breadth and scarcely 1 foot deep, still carries along with it a quantity of a red- dish mud, and is now called Sarahat. [L. S.] PACTYE (JlaKTv-i), Herod, vi. 36; Strab. vii. p. 331), a town of the Thracian Chersonese, on the coast of the Propontis, 36 stadia from Cardia, whither Alcibiades retired after the Athenians had for the second time deprived him of the command.