A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

32 OPHELLAS.' OPILIUS.
OPE'LIIUS MACRI'NUS. [MACRINUS.] year, which was suppressed by Agis, the general of
OPHE'LION ('flnellwv). 1. An Athenian Ptolemy. Yet it could not have been long after
comic poet, probably of the Middle Comedy, of that he availed himself of the continued disaffection
whom Suidas says that Athenaeus, in his second of that people towards Egypt to assume the governbook, mentions the following as being his plays:- ment of Cyrene as an independent state. The
AhviKaXlwv,K'AXaLaXpos, Ke'vTavpos, 2avTpot, Mov- continual wars in which Ptolemy was engaged
cal, Movo'Tpo7roL, or rather, according to the emen- against Antigonus, and the natural difficulties of
dation of Toup, Movdorporos. The last three of assailing Cyrene, secured him against invasion;
these titles are elsewhere assigned by Suidas to and he appears to have continued in undisputed
Phrynichus. In the second book of Athenaeus, possession of the country for near five years.
which Suidas quotes, none of the titles are men- (Paus. i. 6. ~ 8; Droysen, Hellenism, vol. i. pp.
tioned, but Ophelion is thrice quoted, without the 414, 417.) The power to which Ophellas had
name of the play referred'to (Athen. ii. pp. 43, f. thus attained, and the, strong mercenary force
66, d. 67, a.); and, in the third book, Athenaeus which he was able to bring into the field, caused
quotes the Callaescl7rus, and also another play, Agathocles, during his expedition in Africa (B.C.
which Suidas does not mention (iii. p. 106, a.). 308) to turn his attention towards the, new ruler
The reasons for assigning him to the Middle of Cyrene as likely to prove an useful ally against
Comedy are, the reference to Plato in Athen. ii. the Carthaginians. In order to gain him over he
p. 66, d., and the statement that he used some promised to cede to him whatever conquests their
verses which were also found in Eubulus (Athen. ii. combined forces might make in Africa, reserving
p. 43, f., where the name of Ophelion is rightly to himself only the possession of Sicily. The amsubstituted by Porson for that of Philetas). Who bition of Ophellas was thus aroused: he put himmay have been the Callaeschrus, whose name self at the head of a powerful army, and notwithformed the title of one of his plays, we cannot standing all the natural obstacles which presented
tell; but if he was the same as the Callaeschrus, themselves on his route, succeeded in reaching the
who formed the subject of one of the plays of Carthaginian territories after a toilsome and perilous
Theopompus, the date of Ophelion would be fixed march of more than two months' duration. He was
before the 100th Olympiad, B. c. 380. There is, received by his new ally with every demonstration
perhaps, one more reference to Ophelion, again of friendship, and the two armies encamped near
corrupted into Philetas, in Hesychius, s.v.'IIaLs. each other: but not many days had elapsed when
(Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 415, vol. Agathocles took an opportunity treacherously to
iii. p. 380; Praef. ad Menand. pp. x. xi.) surprise the camp of the Cyrenaeans, and Ophellas
2. A Peripatetic philosopher, the slave and dis- himself perished in the confusion. His troops, thus
ciple of Lycon (Diog. Lairt. v. 73). [P. S.] left without a leader, joined the standard of
OPHE'LION ('eAMlcov). 1. A painter of un- Agathocles. (Diod. xx. 40-42; Justin, xxii. 7;
known time and country, on whose pictures of Pan Oros. iv. 6; Polyaen. v. 3. ~ 4; Suid. s. v.'OOElAand Aerope there are epigrams in the Greek An- Aas.) Justin styles Ophellas "rex Cyrenalrum,"'
thology. (Anth. Pal. vi. 315, 316; Brunck, Anal. but it seems improbable that he had really assumed
vol. ii. p. 382.) the regal title. He was married to an Athenian,
2. A sculptor, the son of Aristonides, was Eurydice, the daughter of Miltiades, and appears
the maker of a statue of Sextus Pompeius, to have maintained friendly relations with Athens.
in the Royal Museum of Paris. (Clarac, Catal. (niod. xx. 40; Plut. Demetr. 14.) [E. H. B.]
No. 150.) [P. S.] OPHELTES ('OXPeAr?7s). 1. A son of LycurOPHELLAS ('OOpQAXas), king or ruler of gus, who was killed by a snake at Nemea, as his
Cyrene, was a native of Pella in Macedonia: his nurse Hypsipyle had left him alone. (Apollod. i.
father's name was Seilenus. He appears to have 9. ~ 14; Pans. ii. 15. ~ 3; comp. ADRASTUS.)
accompanied Alexander during his expedition in 2. One of the Tyrrhenians who wanted to
Asia, but his name is first mentioned as command- carry off Dionysus, and were therefore metamoring one of the triremes of the fleet of that monarch phosed into dolphins. (Hygin. Fab. 134.)
on the Indus, B. c. 327. (Arrian, Ind. 18.) 3. The son of Peneleus and father of DamaAfter the death of the Macedonian king, he fol- sichthon, king of Thebes. (Paus. ix.5. ~ 8.) [L.S.]
lowed the fortunes of Ptolemy, by whom he was OPHION ('Opiwv), a Titan, was married to
sent, in B.C. 322, at the head of a considerable Eurynome, with whom he shared the supremacy
army, to take advantage of the civil war which had previous to the reign of Cronos and Rhea; but
broken out in the Cyrenaica. [THIMBRON.] This being conquered by the latter, he and Eurynome
object he successfully accomplished, totally de- were thrown into Oceanus or Tartarus. (Apollon.
feated Thimbron and the party that supported him, Rhod. i. 503, &c.; Tzetz, ad Lyc. 1191.) There
and established the supremacy of Egypt over are two other mythical beings of the same name.
Cyrene itself and its dependencies. But shortly (Ov. illet. xii. 245; Claudian. Rapt. Pros. iii.
after, the civil dissensions having broken out 348.) [L. S.]
again led Ptolemy himself to repair to Cyrene, OPI'LIUS. [OPELTUS.]
which he this time appears to have reduced to com- OPI'LIUS, AURE'LIUS,' the freedman of an
plete subjection. (Diod. xviii. 21; Arrian, ap. Phlot. Epicurean, taught at Rome, first philosophy, then
p. 70, a.) The subsequent proceedings of Ophellas rhetoric, and, finally, grammar, and is placed by
are involved in great obscurity. It seems certain Suetonius next in order to Saevius Nicanor [Nithat he was still left by Ptolemy at this time in CANOR]. He gave up his school upon the conthe government of Cyrene, which he probably con- demnation of Rutilius Rufus, whom he accompanied
tinued to hold on behalf of the Egyptian king to Smyrna, and there the two friends grew old
until about the year B. c. 313: but no mention is together in the enjoyment of each other's society.
found of his name in the account given by Diodorus Ile composed several learned works upon various
(xviii. 79) of the revolt of the Cyrenaeans in that subjects; one of these in particular, divided into