from Olympia, where they were observed, or from Jupiter Olympius, to
whom they were dedicated. They were, according to some, instituted
by Jupiter after his victory over the Titans, and first observed by
the Idæi Dactyli, B.C. 1453. Some attribute the institution to Pelops,
after he had obtained a victory over Œnomaus and married Hippodamia;
but the more probable, and indeed the more received opinion is, that
they were first established by Hercules in honour of Jupiter Olympius,
after a victory obtained over Augias, B.C. 1222. Strabo objects
to this opinion, by observing that if they had been established in
the age of Homer, the poet would have undoubtedly spoken of them,
as he is in every particular careful to mention the amusements and
diversions of the ancient Greeks. But they were neglected after
their first institution by Hercules, and no notice was taken of them,
according to many writers, till Iphitus, in the age of the lawgiver
of Sparta, renewed them, and instituted the celebration with greater
solemnity. This reinstitution, which happened B.C. 884, forms a
celebrated epoch in Grecian history, and is the beginning of the
Olympiad. _See:_ Olympias. They, however, were neglected for some
time after the age of Iphitus, till Corœbus, who obtained a victory,
B.C. 776, reinstituted them to be regularly and constantly celebrated.
The care and superintendence of the games were entrusted to the
people of Elis, till they were excluded by the Pisæans, B.C. 364,
after the destruction of Pisa. These obtained great privileges
from this appointment; they were in danger neither of violence nor
war, but they were permitted to enjoy their possessions without
molestation, as the games were celebrated within their territories.
Only one person superintended till the 50th Olympiad, when two were
appointed. In the 103rd Olympiad, the number was increased to 12,
according to the number of the tribes of Elis. But in the following
Olympiad, they were reduced to eight, and afterwards increased to 10,
which number continued till the reign of Adrian. The presidents were
obliged solemnly to swear that they would act impartially, and not
take any bribes, or discover why they rejected some of the combatants.
They generally sat naked, and held before them the crown which was
prepared for the conqueror. There were also certain officers to
keep good order and regularity, called ἀλυται, much the same as the
Roman lictors, of whom the chief was called ἀλυταρχης. No women were
permitted to appear at the celebration of the Olympian games, and
whoever dared to trespass this law was immediately thrown down from
a rock. This, however, was sometimes neglected, for we find not
only women present at the celebration, but also some among the
combatants, and some rewarded with the crown. The preparations for
these festivals were great. No person was permitted to enter the
lists if he had not regularly exercised himself 10 months before the
celebration at the public gymnasium of Elis. No unfair dealings were
allowed, and whoever attempted to bribe his adversary was subjected
to a severe fine. No criminals, nor such as were connected with
impious and guilty persons, were suffered to present themselves as
combatants; and even the father and relations were obliged to swear
that they would have recourse to no artifice which might decide the
victory in favour of their friends. The wrestlers were appointed
by lot. Some little balls, superscribed with a letter, were thrown
into a silver urn, and such as drew the same letter were obliged to
contend one with the other. He who had an odd letter remained the
last, and he often had the advantage, as he was to encounter the last
who had obtained the superiority over his adversary. He was called
ἐφεδρος. In these games were exhibited running, leaping, wrestling,
boxing, and the throwing of the quoit, which was called altogether
πενταθλον, or _quinquertium_. Besides these, there were horse and
chariot races, and also contentions in poetry, eloquence, and the
fine arts. The only reward that the conqueror obtained, was a crown
of olive; which, as some suppose, was in memory of the labours of
Hercules, which was accomplished for the universal good of mankind,
and for which the hero claimed no other reward than the consciousness
of having been the friend of humanity. So small and trifling a
reward stimulated courage and virtue, and was more the source
of great honours than the most unbounded treasures. The statues
of the conquerors, called Olympionicæ, were erected at Olympia,
in the sacred wood of Jupiter. Their return home was that of a
warlike conqueror; they were drawn in a chariot by four horses, and
everywhere received with the greatest acclamations. Their entrance
into their native city was not through the gates, but, to make it
more grand and more solemn, a breach was made in the walls. Painters
and poets were employed in celebrating their names; and indeed the
victories severally obtained at Olympia are the subjects of the most
beautiful odes of Pindar. The combatants were naked; a scarf was
originally tied round the waist, but when it had entangled one of
the adversaries, and been the cause that he lost the victory, it was
laid aside, and no regard was paid to decency. The Olympic games were
observed every fifth year, or, to speak with greater exactness, after
a revolution of four years, and in the first month of the fifth year,
and they continued for five successive days. As they were the most
ancient and the most solemn of all the festivals of the Greeks, it
will not appear wonderful that they drew so many people together,
not only inhabitants of Greece, but of the neighbouring islands
and countries. _Pindar_, _Olympian_, chs. 1 & 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 67, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Plutarch_,
_Theseus_, _Lycurgus_, &c.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 10, li. 1.
――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 46.――_Lucian_,
_Anacharsis_.――_Tzetzes_, _Lycophron_.――♦_Aristotle._――_Statius_,
_Thebaid_, bk. 6.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Preface_.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 49.――――A town of Elis in Peloponnesus,
where Jupiter had a temple with a celebrated statue 50 cubits high,
reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. The Olympic games
were celebrated in the neighbourhood. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.
♦ ‘Aristotel’ replaced with ‘Aristotle’
=Olympias=, a certain space of time which elapsed between the
celebration of the Olympic games. The Olympic games were celebrated
after the expiration of four complete years, whence some have said
that they were observed every fifth year. This period of time was
called Olympiad, and became a celebrated era among the Greeks,
who computed their time by it. The custom of reckoning time by the
celebration of the Olympic games was not introduced at the first
institution of these festivals, but, to speak accurately, only the
year in which Corœbus obtained the prize. This Olympiad, which has
always been reckoned the first, fell, according to the accurate and
learned computations of some of the moderns, exactly 776 years before
the christian era, in the year of the Julian period 3938, and 23
years before the building of Rome. The games were exhibited at the
time of the full moon, next after the summer solstice; therefore
the Olympiads were of unequal length, because the time of the full
moon differs 11 days every year, and for that reason they sometimes
began the next day after the solstice, and at other times four weeks
after. The computations by Olympiads ceased, as some suppose, after
the 364th, in the year 440 of the christian era. It was universally
adopted, not only by the Greeks, but by many of the neighbouring
countries, though still the Pythian games served as an epoch to
the people of Delphi and to the Bœotians, the Nemæan games to the
Argives and Arcadians, and the Isthmian to the Corinthians and the
inhabitants of the Peloponnesian isthmus. To the Olympiads history
is much indebted. They have served to fix the time of many momentous
events, and indeed before this method of computing time was observed,
every page of history is mostly fabulous, and filled with obscurity
and contradiction, and no true chronological account can be properly
established and maintained with certainty. The mode of computation,
which was used after the suppression of the Olympiads and of the
consular fasti of Rome, was more useful as it was more universal;
but while the era of the creation of the world prevailed in the east,
the western nations in the sixth century began to adopt with more
propriety the christian epoch, which was propagated in the eighth
century, and at last, in the tenth, became legal and popular.――――A
celebrated woman, who was daughter of a king of Epirus, and who
married Philip king of Macedonia, by whom she had Alexander the Great.
Her haughtiness, and more probably her infidelity, obliged Philip
to repudiate her, and to marry Cleopatra the niece of king Attalus.
Olympias was sensible of this injury, and Alexander showed his
disapprobation of his father’s measures by retiring from the court to
his mother. The murder of Philip, which soon followed this disgrace,
and which some have attributed to the intrigues of Olympias, was
productive of the greatest extravagancies. The queen paid the highest
honour to her husband’s murderer. She gathered his mangled limbs,
placed a crown of gold on his head, and laid his ashes near those of
Philip. The administration of Alexander, who had succeeded his father,
was, in some instances, offensive to Olympias; but when the ambition
of her son was concerned, she did not scruple to declare publicly
that Alexander was not the son of Philip, but that he was the
offspring of an enormous serpent which had supernaturally introduced
itself into her bed. When Alexander was dead, Olympias seized the
government of Macedonia, and to establish her usurpation, she cruelly
put to death Aridæus, with his wife Eurydice, as also Nicanor the
brother of Cassander, with 100 leading men of Macedonia, who were
inimical to her interest. Such barbarities did not long remain
unpunished; Cassander besieged her in Pydna, where she had retired
with the remains of her family, and she was obliged to surrender
after an obstinate siege. The conqueror ordered her to be accused,
and to be put to death. A body of 200 soldiers were directed to put
the bloody commands into execution, but the splendour and majesty
of the queen disarmed their courage, and she was at last massacred
by those whom she had cruelly deprived of their children, about 316
years before the christian era. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 6; bk. 9, ch. 1.
――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Curtius._――_Pausanias._――――A fountain of
Arcadia which flowed for one year and the next was dry. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 29.
=Olympiodōrus=, a musician who taught Epaminondas music. _Cornelius
Nepos._――――A native of Thebes in Egypt, who flourished under
Theodosius II., and wrote 22 books of history, in Greek, beginning
with the seventh consulship of Honorius, and the second of Theodosius,
to the period when Valentinian was made emperor. He wrote also
an account of an embassy to some of the barbarian nations of the
north, &c. His style is censured by some as low, and unworthy of
an historian. The commentaries of Olympiodorus on the _Meteora_ of
Aristotle, were edited with Aldus Manutius, 1550, in folio.――――An
Athenian officer, present at the battle of Platæa, where he behaved
with great valour. _Plutarch._
=Olympius=, a surname of Jupiter at Olympia, where the god had a
celebrated temple and statue, which passed for one of the seven
wonders of the world. It was the work of Phidias. _Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 2.――――A native of Carthage, called also Nemesianus.
_See:_ Nemesianus.――――A favourite at the court of Honorius, who
was the cause of Stilicho’s death.
=Olympus=, a physician of Cleopatra queen of Egypt, who wrote some
historical treatises. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――――A poet and musician
of Mysia, son of Mæon and disciple to Marsyas. He lived before the
Trojan war, and distinguished himself by his amatory elegies, his
hymns, and particularly the beautiful airs which he composed, and
which were still preserved in the age of Aristophanes. _Plato_,
_Minos_.――_Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 8.――――Another musician of
Phrygia, who lived in the age of Midas. He is frequently confounded
with the preceding. _Pollux_, bk. 4, ch. 10.――――A son of Hercules
and Eubœa. _Apollodorus._――――A mountain of Macedonia and Thessaly,
now _Lacha_. The ancients supposed that it touched the heavens with
its top; and, from that circumstance, they have placed the residence
of the gods there, and have made it the court of Jupiter. It is about
one mile and a half in perpendicular height, and is covered with
pleasant woods, caves, and grottoes. On the top of the mountain,
according to the notions of the poets, there was neither wind nor
rain, nor clouds, but an eternal spring. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1,
&c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 2, 6, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_.
――_Lucan_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――――A
mountain of Mysia, called the Mysian Olympus, a name which it still
preserves.――――Another in Elis.――――Another in Arcadia.――――Another in
the island of Cyprus, now _Santa Croce_. Some suppose the Olympus of
Mysia and of Cilicia to be the same.――――A town on the coast of Lycia.
=Olympusa=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Olynthus=, a celebrated town and republic of Macedonia, on the isthmus
of the peninsula of Pallene. It became famous for its flourishing
situation, and for its frequent disputes with the Athenians and
Lacedæmonians, and with king Philip, who destroyed it, and sold
the inhabitants for slaves. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_.――_Plutarch_,
_de Cohibenda Ira_, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 127.――_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 9.
=Olyras=, a river near Thermopylæ, which, as the mythologists report,
attempted to extinguish the funeral pile on which Hercules was
consumed. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Olyzon=, a town of Thessaly.
=Omarius=, a Lacedæmonian sent to Darius, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Ombi= and =Tentyra=, two neighbouring cities of Egypt, whose
inhabitants were always in discord one with another. _Juvenal_,
satire 15, li. 35.
=Ombri.= _See:_ ♦Umbria.
♦ ‘Umbri’ replaced with ‘Umbria’ to match listing
=Omŏle=, or =Homŏle=, a mountain of Thessaly. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 675.――――There were some festivals called _Homoleia_, which were
celebrated in Bœotia in honour of Jupiter, surnamed _Homoleius_.
=Omophagia=, a festival in honour of Bacchus. The word signifies _the
eating of raw flesh_. _See:_ Dionysia.
=Omphăle=, a queen of Lydia, daughter of Jardanus. She married Tmolus,
who, at his death, left her mistress of his kingdom. Omphale had
been informed of the great exploits of Hercules, and wished to see
so illustrious a hero. Her wish was soon gratified. After the murder
of Eurytus, Hercules fell sick, and was ordered to be sold as a slave,
that he might recover his health, and the right use of his senses.
Mercury was commissioned to sell him, and Omphale bought him, and
restored him to liberty. The hero became enamoured of his mistress,
and the queen favoured his passion, and had a son by him, whom some
call Agelaus, and others Lamon. From this son were descended Gyges
and Crœsus; but this opinion is different from the account which
makes these Lydian monarchs spring from Alcæus, a son of Hercules by
Malis, one of the female servants of Omphale. Hercules is represented
by the poets as so desperately enamoured of the queen that, to
conciliate her esteem, he spins by her side among her women, while
she covers herself with the lion’s skin, and arms herself with the
club of the hero, and often strikes him with her sandals for the
uncouth manner with which he holds the distaff, &c. Their fondness
was mutual. As they once travelled together, they came to a grotto
on mount Tmolus, where the queen dressed herself in the habit of her
lover, and obliged him to appear in a female garment. After they had
supped, they both retired to rest in different rooms, as a sacrifice
on the morrow to Bacchus required. In the night, Faunus, or rather
Pan, who was enamoured of Omphale, introduced himself into the cave.
He went to the bed of the queen, but the lion’s skin persuaded him
that it was the dress of Hercules, and therefore he repaired to the
bed of Hercules, in hopes to find there the object of his affection.
The female dress of Hercules deceived him, and he laid himself down
by his side. The hero was awakened, and kicked the intruder into
the middle of the cave. The noise awoke Omphale, and Faunus was
discovered lying on the ground, greatly disappointed and ashamed.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 305, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9;
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 11,
li. 17.
=Omphălos=, a place of Crete, sacred to Jupiter, on the borders of the
river Triton. It received its name from the umbilical cord (ὀμφαλος)
of Jupiter, which fell there soon after his birth. _Diodorus._
=Omphis=, a king of India, who delivered himself up to Alexander the
Great. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 12.
=Onæum=, or =Oæneum=, a promontory and town of Dalmatia. _Livy_, bk. 43,
ch. 19.
=Onārus=, a priest of Bacchus, who is supposed to have married Ariadne
after she had been abandoned by Theseus. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Onasĭmus=, a sophist of Athens, who flourished in the reign of
Constantine.
=Onātas=, a famous statuary of Ægina son of Micon. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 42.
=Onchemītes=, a wind which blows from Onchesmus, a harbour of
Epirus, towards Italy. The word is sometimes spelt _Anchesites_
and _Anchemites_. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 2.
――_Ptolemæus._
=Onchestus=, a town of Bœotia, founded by Onchestus, a son of Neptune.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 26.
=Oneion=, a place of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Onesicrĭtus=, a cynic philosopher of Ægina, who went with Alexander
into Asia, and was sent to the Indian Gymnosophists. He wrote a
history of the king’s life, which has been censured for the romantic,
exaggerated, and improbable narrative it gives. It is asserted that
Alexander, upon reading it, said that he should be glad to come to
life again for some time, to see what reception the historian’s work
met with. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 10.
=Onesĭmus=, a Macedonian nobleman, treated with great kindness by the
Roman emperors. He wrote an account of the life of the emperor Probus,
and of Carus, with great precision and elegance.
=Onesippus=, a son of Hercules. _Apollodorus._
=Onesius=, a king of Salamis, who revolted from the Persians.
=Onetorĭdes=, an Athenian officer, who attempted to murder the garrison
which Demetrius had stationed at Athens, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Onium=, a place of Peloponnesus, near Corinth.
=Onoba=, a town near the columns of Hercules. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Onobala=, a river of Sicily.
=Onochŏnus=, a river of Thessaly, falling into the Peneus. It was dried
up by the army of Xerxes. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 196.
=Onomacrĭtus=, a soothsayer of Athens. It is generally believed that
the Greek poem on the Argonautic expedition, attributed to Orpheus,
was written by Onomacritus. The elegant poems of Musæus are also, by
some, supposed to be the production of his pen. He flourished about
516 years before the christian era, and was expelled from Athens by
Hipparchus, one of the sons of Pisistratus. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 6.
――――A Locrian, who wrote concerning laws, &c. _Aristotle_, bk. 2,
_Politics_.
=Onomarchus=, a Phocian, son of Euthycrates and brother of Philomelus,
whom he succeeded, as general of his countrymen, in the sacred
war. After exploits of valour and perseverance, he was defeated
and slain in Thessaly by Philip of Macedon, who ordered his body to
be ignominiously hung up, for the sacrilege offered to the temple
of Delphi. He died 353 B.C. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 4.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A man to whose care Antigonus entrusted the
keeping of Eumenes. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Eumenes_.
=Onomastorĭdes=, a Lacedæmonian ambassador sent to Darius, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Onomastus=, a freedman of the emperor Otho. _Tacitus._
=Onophas=, one of the seven Persians who conspired against the usurper
Smerdis. _Ctesias._――――An officer in the expedition of Xerxes against
Greece.
=Onosander=, a Greek writer, whose book _De Imperatoris Institutione_
has been edited by Schwebel, with a French translation, folio,
Nuremberg, 1752.
=Onythes=, a friend of Æneas, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 12, li. 514.
=Opalia=, festivals celebrated by the Romans, in honour of Ops, on the
14th of the calends of January.
=Ophēlas=, a general of Cyrene, defeated by Agathocles.
=Opheltes=, a son of Lycurgus king of Thrace. He is the same as
Archemorus. _See:_ Archemorus.――――The father of Euryalus, whose
friendship with Nisus is proverbial. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 201.――――One of the companions of Acœtes, changed into a dolphin
by Bacchus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, fable 8.
=Ophensis=, a town of Africa. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 50.
=Ophiădes=, an island on the coast of Arabia, so called from the great
number of serpents found there. It belonged to the Egyptian kings,
and was considered valuable for the topaz it produced. _Diodorus_,
bk. 3.
=Ophias=, a patronymic given to Combe, as daughter of Ophius, an
unknown person. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 382.
=Ophioneus=, was an ancient soothsayer in the age of Aristodemus. He
was born blind.
=Ophis=, a small river of Arcadia, which falls into the Alpheus.
=Ophiūsa=, the ancient name of Rhodes.――――A small island near Crete.
――――A town of Sarmatia.――――An island near the Baleares, so called
from the number of serpents which it produced (ὀφις, _serpens_). It
is now called _Formentera_.
=Ophrynium=, a town of Troas on the Hellespont. Hector had a grove
there. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Opĭci=, the ancient inhabitants of Campania, from whose mean
occupations the word _Opicus_ has been used to express disgrace.
_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 207.
=Opilius=, a grammarian who flourished about 94 years before Christ. He
wrote a book called _Libri Musarum_.
=Lucius Opimius=, a Roman who made himself consul in opposition to
the interests and efforts of the Gracchi. He showed himself a most
inveterate enemy to Caius Gracchus and his adherents, and behaved,
during his consulship, like a dictator. He was accused of bribery,
and banished. He died of want at Dyrrachium. _Cicero_, _For Sestius_,
_For Plancius_, & _Against Piso_.――_Plutarch._――――A Roman, who killed
one of the Cimbri in single combat.――――A rich usurer at Rome in the
age of Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 142.
=Opis=, a town on the Tigris, afterwards called Antiochia. _Xenophon_,
_Anabasis_, bk. 2.――――A nymph who was among Diana’s attendants.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, lis. 532 & 867.――――A town near the mouth
of the Tigris.――――One of Cyrene’s attendants. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 4, li. 343.
=Opĭter=, a Roman consul, &c.
=Opitergīni=, a people near Aquileia, on the Adriatic. Their chief city
was called _Opitergum_, now _Oderso_. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 416.
=Opītes=, a native of Argos, killed by Hector in the Trojan war.
_Homer_, _Iliad_.
=Oppia=, a vestal virgin, buried alive for her incontinence.
=Oppia lex=, by Caius Oppius the tribune, A.U.C. 540. It required that
no woman should wear above half an ounce of gold, have party-coloured
garments, or be carried in any city or town, or to any place within
a mile’s distance, unless it was to celebrate some sacred festivals
or solemnities. This famous law, which was made while Annibal was
in Italy, and while Rome was in distressed circumstances, created
discontent, and, 18 years after, the Roman ladies petitioned the
assembly of the people that it might be repealed. Cato opposed it
strongly, and made many satirical reflections upon the women for
their appearing in public to solicit votes. The tribune Valerius, who
had presented their petition to the assembly, answered the objections
of Cato, and his eloquence had such an influence on the minds of
the people, that the law was instantly abrogated with the unanimous
consent of all the _comitia_, Cato alone excepted. _Livy_, bks. 33
& 34.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3.
=Oppiānus=, a Greek poet of Cilicia in the second century. His father’s
name was Agesilaus, and his mother’s Zenodota. He wrote some poems,
celebrated for their elegance and sublimity. Two of his poems are
now extant, five books on fishing called _alieuticon_, and four on
hunting called _cynegeticon_. The emperor Caracalla was so pleased
with his poetry, that he gave him a piece of gold for every verse of
his cynegeticon; from which circumstance the poem received the name
of the golden verses of Oppian. The poet died of the plague in the
30th year of his age. His countrymen raised statues to his honour,
and engraved on his tomb that the gods had hastened to call back
Oppian in the flower of youth, only because he had already excelled
all mankind. The best edition of his works is that of Schneider, 8vo,
Strasbourg, 1776.
=Oppidius=, a rich old man introduced by Horace, bk. 2, satire 3,
li. 168, as wisely dividing his possessions among his two sons, and
warning them against those follies and that extravagance which he
believed he saw rising in them.
=Caius Oppius=, a friend of Julius Cæsar, celebrated for his life of
Scipio Africanus, and of Pompey the Great. In the latter he paid not
much regard to historical facts, and took every opportunity to defame
Pompey, to extol the character of his patron Cæsar. In the age of
Suetonius, he was deemed the true author of the Alexandrian, African,
and Spanish wars, which some attribute to Cæsar, and others to Aulus
Hirtius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 53.
――――An officer sent by the Romans against Mithridates. He met with
ill success, and was sent in chains to the king, &c.――――A Roman who
saved his aged father from the dagger of the triumvirate.
=Ops= (_opis_), a daughter of Cœlus and Terra, the same as the Rhea
of the Greeks, who married Saturn, and became mother of Jupiter.
She was known among the ancients by the different names of _Cybele_,
_Bona Dea_, _Magna Mater_, _Thya_, _Tellus_, _Proserpina_, and even
of _Juno_ and _Minerva_; and the worship which was paid to these
apparently several deities was offered merely to one and the same
person, mother of the gods. The word _Ops_ seems to be derived from
_Opus_; because the goddess, who is the same as the earth, gives
nothing without _labour_. Tatius built her a temple at Rome. She was
generally represented as a matron, with her right hand opened, as if
offering assistance to the helpless, and holding a loaf in her left
hand. Her festivals were called _Opalia_, &c. _Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 4.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2, &c.――_Tibullus_,
poem 4, li. 68.――_Pliny_, bk. 19, ch. 6.