ORBI’CIUS (Ὀρβίκιος). In the Etymologicon Magnum (s. v. Στρατός) there is a short account of the names given to the various subdivisions of an army, and to their respective commanders. It is entitled Ὀρβικίου τῶν περὶ τὸ στράτευμα τάξεων, Orbicii de Exercitus Ordinibus, and occupies about half or two-thirds of a column in the earlier folio editions of the Etymologicon, Venice, 1499 and 1549, and that of Fred. Sylburg, 1594. It is extracted and given among the pieces at the end of the Dictionarium Graecum of Aldus and Asulanus, fol. Venice, 1524, and at the end of the Dictionarium Graecum of Sessa and De Ravanis, fol. Venice, 1525. Of Orbicius nothing is known except that he wrote (unless we suppose the passage to be interpolated) before the compilation of the Etymologicon, which cannot be placed later than the twelfth century, when it is cited by Eustathius, the commentator on Homer. [J.C. M.]
ORBI’LIUS PUPILLUS, a Roman grammarian and schoolmaster, best known to us from his having been the teacher of Horace, who gives him the epithet of plagosus from the severe floggings which his pupils received when they were poring over the crabbed verses of Livius Andronicus. (Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 71.) Orbilius was a native of Beneventum, and had from his earliest years paid considerable attention to the study of literature; but in consequence of the death of his parents, who were both destroyed by their enemies on the same day, he was left destitute, and in order to obtain a living, first became an apparitor, or servant of the magistrates, and next served as a soldier in Macedonia. On returning to his native town he resumed his literary studies, and after teaching there for a long while, he removed to Rome in the fiftieth year of his age, in the consulship of Cicero, b. c. 63. Here he opened a school ; but although he obtained a considerable reputation, his profits were small, and he was obliged to live in his old age in a sorry garret. His want of success would not contribute to the improvement of his temper as he grew older, and since he must have been upwards of sixty when Horace became his pupil, we can easily imagine that the young poet found him rather a crabbed and cross-grained master. His flogging propensities were recorded by other poets besides Horace, as for instance in the following line of Domitius Marsus:—
- “Si quos Orbilius ferula scuticaque cecidit.”
But Orbilius did not, like some schoolmasters, vent all his ill temper upon his pupils, and exhibit a bland deportment to the rest of the world. He attacked his rival grammarians in the bitterest terms, and did not spare the most distinguished men in the state, of which an instance is given by Suetonius and Macrobius (ii. 6), though they differ in the name of the Roman noble whom he made game of, the former calling him Varro Murena, and the latter Galba. Orbilius lived nearly a hundred years, but had lost his memory long before his death. As he was fifty in b. c. 63, he must have been born in b. c. 113, and have died shortly before b. c. 13. A statue was erected to him at Beneventum in the Capitol. He left a son Orbilius, who followed the profession of his father; and a slave and pupil of his, of the name of Scribonius, also attained some celebrity as a grammarian. Orbilius was the author of a work cited by Suetonius uuder the title of Perialogos but the name is evidently corrupt. Oudendorp proposed to read Paedagogus, and Ernesti Periautologos. (Suet, de Illustr. Gramm. 9, 19; comp. 4.)
O’RBIUS, P., a Roman jurist, and a contemporary of Cicero. (Brut. 48.) [G. L.]
ORBO’NA, a female Roman divinity, to whom an altar was erected at Rome, near the temple of the Lares in the Via Sacra. She was invoked by parents who had been deprived of their children, and desired to have others, and also in dangerous maladies of children. (Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 25 ; Plin. H. N. ii. 7; Arnob. adv. Gent. iv. 7; Tertull. ii. 14 ; P. Vict. Reg. Urb. x.) [L. S.]
ORCHO’MENUS (Ὀρχόμενος). 1. A son of Lycaon, and the reputed founder of the Arcadian towns of Orchomenus and Methydrium. (Apollod, iii. 8. § l;Paus. viii. 3. § 1.)
2. A son of Athamas and Themisto. (Hygin. Fab. 1; comp. Athamas.)
3. A son of Zeus or Eteocles and Hesione, the daughter of Danaus, was the husband of Hermippe, the daughter of Boeotus, by whom he became the father of Minyas. He is called a king of Orchomenus. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 230 ; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 272.) According to other traditions, he was a son (or a brother) of Minyas (Paus. ix. 36. §4) by Phanosura, the daughter of Paeon. (Comp. Müller, Orchom. p. 135, 2d edit.) [L. S.]
ORCHI’VIUS. [Orcivius.]
C. O’RCHIUS, tribune of the plebs in the third year after the consulship of Cato, b. c. 181, was the author of a sumtuaria lex, limiting the number of guests to be present at entertainments. When attempts were afterwards made to repeal this law, Cato offered the strongest opposition, and delivered a speech in defence of the law, which is referred to by the grammarians. (Macrob. Saturn. ii. 13 ; Festus, s. vv. Obsonitavere, Percunctatum; Schol. Bob. in Cic. pro Sest. p. 310, ed. Orelli ; Meyer, Orat. Rom. Fragmenta. p. 91, &c., 2nd ed. C.
C. ORCI’VIUS, was a colleague of Cicero in the praetorship, b. c. 66, and presided over cases of peculatus. He is called by Q. Cicero “civis ad ambitionem gratiosissimus” (Cic. pro Cluent. 34, 53 ; Q. Cic. de Pet. Cons. 5. § 19). The name is also written Orchivius and Orcinnius, but Orcivius seems to be the correct reading. (See Orelli, Onom. Tullian. s. v.)
ORCUS. [Hades.]
OREADES. [Nymphae.]
OREITHYIA (Ὀρείθυια). 1. One of the Nereides. (Hom. Il. xviii. 48.)
2. A daughter of Erechtheus and Praxithea. Once as she had strayed beyond the river Ilissus she was carried off by Boreas, by whom she became the mother of Cleopatra, Chione, Zetes, and Calais. (Apollod. iii. 15. §1, &c.; Apollon. Rhod. i. 215 ; comp. Plat. Phaedr. p. 194, ed. Heind. ; Schol. ad Odyss. xiv. 533.) [L. S.]
ORESAS, a Pythagorean. A fragment of his writings is preserved in Stobaeus, Eclog. p. 105. ( Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 860.) [C.P. M.]
ORESTES (Ὀρέστης), the only son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, and brother of Chrysothemis, Laodice (Electra), and Iphianassa (Iphigeneia; Hom. Il. ix. 142, &c., 284; comp. Soph. Elect. 154; Eurip. Or. 23). According to the Homeric account, Agamemnon on his return from Troy did not see his son, but was murdered by Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra before he had an
