Scanned text contains errors.

On this page: Oarses – Oaxes – Oblacus – Obodas – Obrimus – Obsequens

A DICTIONARY

op

GREEK AND ROMAN BIOGRAPHY

AND

MYTHOLOGY.

OBSEQUENS.

OARSES. [arses.]

OAXES or OAXUS (vOa|os), the mythical founder of the town of Oaxus in Crete, is said by some to have been a son of Acacallis, the daughter of Minos (Steph. Byz. s.v. yOa|os), and by others a son of Apollo by Anchiale. (Serv. ad Virg. Ed. i. 66.) [L. S.J

OBLACUS. [OusiDius.]

OBODAS or O'BEDAS ('OSoSay, 'O&fSas). 1. A king of the Arabs of Gaulonitis. Alexander Jannaeus invaded his territory in b. c. 92, but lost his army by an ambuscade in the mountains of Ga-dara, and escaped himself with difficulty. (Jos« Ant. xiii. 13. $ 5. Bell. Jud. i. 4. $ 4.)

2. A king of the Nabathaeans in Arabia Petraea. He appears to have been the successor of Malchus [No. 3], and is mentioned both by Strabo and Josephus as an indolent man, who left the manage­ment of all his affairs to Svllaeus. It was in his

V

reign that the expedition of Aelius Gallus into Arabia took place, in b. c. 24. (Strab. xvi. p. 7BO, &c. ; Jos. Ant. xv. 9. § 3, xvi. 7. § 6, Bell. Jud. i. 24. §6.) [E. E.J

OBRIMUS (vO^M<>*),or O'MBRIMUS f oa*-Gpi/uos), a Greek rhetorician, probably of Asia, but of uncertain date, two of whose orations are quoted by Stobaeus, namely, HpuToyAvov Kpivo^evov juaffoov, or virep Tlpwroyovov, and uvrep (Phot. Cod. 167 ; Stobaeus, Florileg, vol. ii. p. 277, vol. iii. p. 487, vol. ii. p. 286.)

OBSEQUENS, JU'LIUS, the name prefixed to a fragment entitled De Prodigiis or Prodi-giorum Libellus, containing a record for many years of those startling phenomena classed by the Romans under the general designation of Prodigia or Ostenta, which were universally believed to be miraculous manifestations of divine power, and to be intended as solemn warnings of coming events. The series is arranged in regular chronological order, and extends from the consulship of Scipio and Laelius, b.c. 190, to the consulship of Fabius and Aelius, b. c. 11. The materials are derived in a great measure from Livy, whose very words are frequently employed ; and although we can in some places detect deviations from the narrative of the historian, these consist chiefly in repetitions, and in variations with regard to dates, discrepancies

VOL. III.

OBSEQUENS.

which may very probably have arisen from the interpolations or carelessness of transcribers. With regard to the compiler we know absolutely nothing, not even the country to which he belonged, nor the age when he flourished. He is mentioned by no ancient writer, and there is no internal evidence to guide us. The style is upon the whole tole­rably pure, but certainly does not belong to the Augustan age. Vossius supposes that the author lived before Orosius, and Scaliger believes that he was consulted by St. Jerome ; but no substantial arguments have been adduced in support of these assertions.

No MS. of Obsequens is known to exist. Tho first edition, printed by Aldus in 1508, was taken from a codex belonging to Jocundus of Verona, but this has disappeared, and no other has ever been discovered.

About the middle of the sixteenth century, Conrad Woolfhart, professor at Basle, who assumed the appellation of Conradus Lycosthenes, published a supplement, in which he collected from Livy, Dionysius, Eutropius, and other authorities, the prodigies which had been chronicled from the foundation of the city until the period when the fragment of Obsequens commences, making at the same time additions from the same sources to the text of Obsequens himself. From this time for­ward the original and the supplement have been usually printed together, and care must be taken in every case to keep the two portions perfectly distinct.

The Editio Princeps of Obsequens was pub­lished, as we have already stated, by Aldus, 8vo. Venet. 1508 (reprinted 1518), in a volume con­taining also the epistles of the younger Pliny ; the second edition was that of Beatus Rhenanus, 8vo. Argentorat. 1514, in a volume containing also the epistles of Pliny, Aurelius Victor. De Viris Illiis-tribus^ and Suetonius De Claris Grammatids et Khetoribus ; the third was from the press of Robert Stephens, 8vo. Paris, 1529, and, like the two former, combined with the epistles of Pliny. The first' edition, which contained the supplement of Lycosthenes, was that which appeared at Basle. 8vo. 1552 The best are those of Scheffer, 8vo. Amst. 1679, and of Oudendorp, 8vo. Lug, Bat

B