Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/825

Rh O L O O L Y 765 OLOROX-SAINTE-MARIE, the chief town of an arron- clissement in the department of Basses-Pyrenees, France, lies about 21 miles south-west of Pau, at the confluence of the mountain torrents (locally known as &quot;gaves&quot;) Aspe and Ossau, which unite to form the Oloron, a tributary of the Pau. The united population of Oloron and of Sainte- Marie, on the opposite bank of the Aspe, is 7746. Oloron, curiously clustered on the summit and slopes of a steep hill, has remains of old ramparts and pleasant promenades with beautiful views. The only building of interest, the church of the Sainte-Croix, belongs mainly to the llth century; it contains a large altar of gilded wood, constructed in the Spanish style of the 17th century. The church of Sainte- Marie, which formerly served as the cathedral of Oloron, is a medley of various styles from the llth to the 15th century, and its sculptures are more antique than tasteful. The fairs and markets of Oloron for cattle, horses, wool, and hams are much frequented. It manufactures Avoollen goods, textile fabrics, and caps (berets), and has also tan- yards and flour-mills. Oloron, formerly Iluro, an ancient episcopal town, was destroyed by the Saracens, and afterwards by the Normans, and was re built in 1080 by the viscount of Beam. At the Reformation the place became a centre of Catholic reaction. In the 17th century it carried on a considerable trade with Aragon, until the Spaniards, jealous of its prosperity, pillaged the establishments of the Oloron merchants at Saragossa in 1694, a disaster from which it only slowly recovered. The bishopric was suppressed in 1790. OLYBRIUS, Roman emperor from llth July to 23d October 472, was a member of the Anician family and a native of Rome, where he lived until the sack of Genseric in 455. He then went to Constantinople, where in 464 he was made consul, and about the same time married Placidia, daughter of Valentinian III. In 472 he was sent to Italy by the emperor Zeno to assist Anthemius against Ricimer, but, having entered into negotiations with the latter, was himself proclaimed emperor, and, on the murder of his rival, ascended the throne unopposed. His reign was as uneventful as it was brief. He died from natural causes. OLYMPIA. The purpose of this article is to give a short but clear summary for English readers of the principal results obtained by the German exploration of Olympia in 1875-81, and recorded in the five volumes of the Ausgrabungen published at Berlin. While the sketch is necessarily confined to salient features and essential points, two aims have been kept in view : first, to omit nothing that is important to the general study of antiquity ; secondly, to make the outlines, however slight, sufficiently precise and consecutive to serve as an introduction to a more special archaeological study. Having enjoyed the advantage of seeing the excavations, under the courteous guidance of Dr. Treu (then at the head of the German archaeological mission), at the close of the third campaign in June 1878, the writer is able to speak of the ground not from a book-knowledge alone. A few words must be premised on the geography and history of Olympia, so far as an acquaintance with the broader aspects of these must be presupposed in an intelligent survey of the topography. On the western side of the Peloponnesus, the Alpheus, the chief river of the peninsula, issues from the central highlands of Arcadia. Increased by the tributary streams of the Ladon and the Erymanthus, it then flows, in a broad bed, between hills which gradually subside, until it enters on the sandy levels of the coast, and reaches the sea be tween two long lagoons. The district traversed by its lower course is that which was anciently called Pisatis, extending from the mouth of the Alpheus to the Eryman thus, between Elis on the north and Triphylia on the south. The alpine character of Arcadia has here entirely disappeared. There are few steep cliffs or rocks ; the banks of the river are generally covered with alluvial earth; and rich vegetation prevails, with abundance of evergreen trees and bushes. Cornfields, vines, and currants are plentiful ; even the sandy tracts, coated with a rich mud, prove fertile. Cattle-breeding prospers on the higher ground of Mount Pholoe ; and the lagoons yield fish. The stay-at-home character of the inhabitants which the his torian Polybius notices was a natural result of their en vironment. While the region was ill-suited to the secure development of a strong state, it was eminently favourable to a life of quiet industry, and was open on every side to peaceful intercourse with the neighbouring country. The ancient landing-place was at the mouth of the Alpheus, about 3000 metres above the present mouth. The site of the modern town of Pyrgos then much nearer the sea may be that of the ancient Dyspontium. The only modern landing-place is at Catacolo, where a mole has been constructed by French engineers. It is visited by coasting steamers, being one of the export-stations of the currant-trade. In the valley of the Alpheus, a few miles east of the point at which it enters on the flat seaboard, there existed a primitive shrine of the Pelasgian Zeus. As in other places associated with his worship, the low range bounding the Alpheus on the north was called Olympus, while the name of Ossa was given to the hill-boundary of the valley on the south. When the worship of the Hel lenic Zeus had been established on this spot, the place acquired the name of Olympia. Olympia is on the right or north bank of the Alpheus (now the Ruphia), about 16 kilometres east in a straight line from the modern Pyrgos. The course of the river is here from east to west, and the average breadth of the valley is about 1000 metres. At this point a small stream, the ancient Cladeus, flows from the north into the Alpheus. The area known as Olympia is bounded on the west by the Cladeus, on the south by the Alpheus, on the north by the low heights which shut in the Alpheus valley, and on the east by the ancient race-courses. One group of these heights terminates in a conical hill, about 122 metres high, which is cut off from the rest by a deep cleft, and descends abruptly on Olympia. This hill is the famous Cronion (Kpoviov), sacred to Cronus, the father of Zeus. The natural situation of Olympia is, in one sense, of great beauty. When Lysias, in his Olympiacus (spoken here), calls it &quot; the fairest spot of Greece,&quot; he was doubtless thinking also or perhaps chiefly of the masterpieces which art, in all its forms, had contributed to the embellish ment of this national sanctuary. But even now the praise seems hardly excessive to a visitor who, looking eastward up the valley of Olympia, sees the snow- crowned chains of Erymanthus and Cyllene rising in the distance. The valley, at once spacious and definite, is a natural temenos. Nowhere could the Greek Zeus be more fitly honoured by the display of human gifts, physical or mental ; nowhere could the divided communities of Hellas find a more con venient or attractive place of peaceful re-union. The importance of Olympia in the history of Greece has, in fact, this twofold character : it is at once religious and political. The religious associations of the place date from the prehistoric age, when, before the states of Elis and Pisa had been founded, predecessors perhaps ancestors- of the Hellenes worshipped the &quot;heaven -father&quot; in this valley. The political associations may be said to date from the time when the Achaeans founded Pisa, and combined the Pelasgian worship of the god Zeus with a local cult of their own ancestor, the hero Pelops. It was then, and in honour of Pelops, that games were probably instituted for the first time at Olympia. The addition of Hera and of the mother of the gods to the specially honoured deities must have come early in the Hellenic period. Elis and