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

OPIMIUS. OPIMIUS. 33
nine parts, and named Alusae, is referred to by the most formidable opponents of C. Gracchus; and
A. Gellius (i. 25), who quotes from it an expla- accordingly when he first became a candidate for
nation of the word Induciae, accompanied by a the consulship, C. Gracchus used all his influence
most foolish derivation. To another piece termed zwith the people to induce them to prefer C. FanPinae an acrostic was prefixed on his own name nius Strabo in his stead. (Plut. C. Gracch. 11.)
which he there gave as Opillius. (Sueton. de Gracchus succeeded in his object, and Fannius was
Ilustr. Gramre. 6; Lersch, Sprachkplilosophie der consul in B. C. 122; but he was unable to prevent
Alten, iii. p. 150.) [W. R.] the election of Opimius for the following year, and
OPI'MIA, a vestal virgin in the time of the had only rendered the latter a still bitterer enemy
second Punic War, was unfaithful to her vow of by the affront he had put upon him. Opimius's colchastity, and was in consequence buried alive at league was Q. Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus. The
the Colline gate. (Liv. xxii. 57.) history of the consulship of Opimius, B. C. 121, is
OPI'MIA GENS, plebeian, is first mentioned given at length in the life of C. Gracchus. It is
in the time of the Samnite wars. The first only necessary to state here in general, that Opimember of the gens who obtained the consulship, mius entered, with all the zeal of an unscrupulous
was Q. Opimius, in B.c. 154. The only cog- partisan and the animosity of a personal enemy,
nomen of the Opimii is Pansa, but the more dis- into the measures which the senate adopted to
tinguished persons of this name are mentioned crush Gracchus, and forced on matters to an open
without any surname. On coins the name is rupture. As soon as he was armed by the senate
always written Opeinius, as in the annexed spe- with the well-known decree, " That the consuls
cimen, which represents on the'obverse the head should take care that the republic suffered no inof Pallas, and on the reverse Apollo in a chariot jury," lie resolved to make away with Gracchus,
bending his bow, with M. OPEIM. ROMA. None and succeeded, as is related in the life of the latter.
of the coins of this gens can be referred with cer- Opimius and his party abused their victory most
tainty to any particular person. savagely, and are said to have killed more than
three thousand persons. [For details see Vol. II.
pp. 197, 198, and the authorities there quoted.]
In the following year, B.c. 120, Opimius was
o AM \ __l___ - accused by Q. Decius, tribune of the plebs, of having put Roman citizens to death without a trial.
K;o(J > D \Sg~)s E He was defended by the consul, C. Papirius Carbo,
who had formerly belonged to the party of Gracchus, but had gone over to that of the aristocracy.
COIN OF THE OPIMIA GENS. Although the judices now belonged to the equestrian order by one of the laws of Gracchus, they
OPI'MIUS. 1. C. OPIaCIUS PANSA, quaestor were too much terrified by the events of the pren. c. 294, was killed in the quaestorium or quaes- ceding year to condemn the person who had been
tor's tent, in an attack made by the Samnites the prime mover in them, and accordingly acquitted
upon the Roman camp. (Liv. x. 32.) the accused. (Liv. Ipit. 61; Cic. de Orat. ii. 25.)
2. Q. OPIMIUS Q. F. Q. N., was consul B.C. Opimius thus escaped for the present, but his ve154, with L. Postumius Albinus. Opimius in his nality and corruption brought him before the judices
consulship carried on war with the Oxybii and again a few years afterwards, when he met with a
Deciatae, Ligurian tribes on the northern side of different fate. He had been at the head of the
the Alps, who had attacked the territory of the commission which was sent into Africa in ni.c. 112,
people of Massilia, the allies of the Roman people, in order to divide the dominions of Micipsa beand had laid waste the towns of Antipolis and tween Jugurtha and Adherbal, and had allowed
Nicaea, which belonged to Massilia. Opimius himself to be bribed by Jugurtha, to assign to him
subdued these people without any difficulty, and the better part of the country. This scandalous
obtained in consequence the honour of a triumph. conduct had passed unnoticed at the time; but
(Polyb. xxxiii. 5, 7, 8; Liv. Epit. 47; Fasti when the defeat of the Roman army, through the
Capit.; Obsequ. 76.) This Opimius seems to misconduct of Albinus, in B.c. 109, had roused
have been a man of as little principle as his son, the indignation of the Roman people, the tribune,
and was notorious in his youth for his riotous C. Mamilius Limetanus, brought forward a bill for
living. Lucilius described him as "formosus homo inquiry into the conduct of all those who had reetfanosus" (Nonius, iv. s. v. Fama, p. 658, ed. ceived bribes from Jugurtha. By this law OpiGothofred.), and Cicero speaks of him as "qui mius was condemned along with many others of
adolescentulus male audisset." (De Orat. ii. 68, the leading members of the aristocracy. He went
fin.) In the same passage Cicero relates a joke of into exile to Dyrrhachium in Epeirus, where he
Opimius. lived for some years, hated and insulted by the
3. L. OiIMIUS Q. F. Q. N., son of the preceding, people, and where he eventually died in great powas praetor B. C. 125, in which year he marched verty. He richly deserved his punishment, and
against Fregellae, which had risen in revolt, in order met with a due recompense for his cruel and feroto obtain the Roman franchise. The town was cious conduct towards C. Gracchus and his party.
betrayed to Opihnius by one of its citizens, Q. Nu- Cicero, on the contrary, who, after his consulship,
mitorius Pullus, and severe vengeance was taken had identified himself with the aristocratical party,
upon the inhabitants. (Liv. Epit. 60; Cic. De frequently laments the fate of Opimius, and coinInvent. ii. 34; Ascon. in Pison. p. 17, ed. Orelli; plains of the cruelty shown towards a man who
Vell. Pat. ii. 6; Plut. C. Gracch. 3.) Opimius be- had conferred such signal services upon his country
longed to the high aristocratical party, and pos- as the conquest of Fregellae and the destruction of
sessed great influence in the senate. He was one Gracchus. He calls him the saviour of the comof the most violent and, at the same time, one of monwealth, and characterises his condemnation as
VOL. III. i)