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

34 OPPIA. OPPIANUS.
a blot upon the Roman dominion, and a disgrace 2. VESTIA OPPIA, a woman of Atella in Camto the Roman people. (Sail. Jug. 16, 40; Veil. pania, resided at Capua during the second Punic
Pat. ii. 7; Plut. C. Gracch. 18; Cic. pro Planc. 28, war, and is said to have daily offered up sacrifices
Brut. 34, in Pison. 39, pro Sest. 67; Schol. Bob. for the success of the Romans, while Capua was in
pro Sest. p. 311, ed. Orelli.) the hands of the Carthaginians. She was accordThe year in which Opimius was consul (B. C. ingly rewarded by the Romans in B. c. 210, when
121) was remarkable for the extraordinary heat the city fell into their power. (Liv. xxvi. 33,
of the antumn, and thus the vintage of this year 34.)
was of an unprecedented quality. This wine long 3. The wife of L. Minidius or Mindius. (Cic.
remained celebrated as the Vinum Opimianum, and ad Fam. xiii. 28.) [MINIDIUS.]
was preserved for an almost incredible space of O'PPIA GENS, plebeian. This gens belonged
time. Cicero speaks of it as in existence when he to the tribus Terentina, and was one of considerable
wrote his Brutus, eighty-five years after the con- antiquity, and some importance even in early times,
sulship of Opimius (Brut. 83). Velleius Pater- since a member of it, Sp. Oppius Cornicen, was one
culus, who wrote in the reign of Tiberius, says of the second decemvirate, B. c. 450. We even
(ii. 7) that none of the wine was then in exist- read of a Vestal virgin of the name of Oppia as
ence; but Pliny, who published his work in the early as B. c. 483 (Liv. ii. 43), but it is difficult to
reign of Vespasian, makes mention of its existence believe that a plebeian could have filled this digeven in his day, two hundred years afterwards. nity at so early a period. None of the Oppii, howIt was reduced, he says, to the consistence of ever, ever obtained the consulship, although the
rough honey; and, like other very old wines, was name occurs at. intervals in Roman history from
so strong, and harsh, and bitter, as to be undrink- the time of the second decemvirate to that of the
able until largely diluted with water. (Plin. H. N. early emperors. [Compare however OPPIus, No.
xiv. 4. s. 6; Diet. of Ant.. v. Vinum.) 19.] The principal cognomens in this gens are CA4. L. OPIMIUS, served in the army of L. Lu- PITO, CORNICEN or CORNICINUS, and SALINATOR;
tatius Catulus, consul B. C. 102, and obtained but most of the Oppii had no surname. Those of
great credit by killing a Cimbrian, who had chal- the name of Capito and Salinator are given below.
lenged him (Ampelius, c. 22). [OPPIUS.] On coins we find the surnames Capito
5. Q. OPIMIus L. F. Q. N. was brought to trial and Salinator.
before Verres in his praetorship (B. C. 74), on the OPPIA'NICUS, the name of three persons,
plea that he had interceded against the Lex two of whom play a prominent part in the oration
Cornelia, when he was tribune in the preceding of Cicero for Cluentius. 1. STATIUS ALBIUS OPryear (B. C. 75); but, in reality, because he had in PIANICUS, was accused by his step-son A. Cluenhis tribunate opposed the wishes of some Roman tius of having attempted to procure his death by
noble. He was condemned by Verres, and de- poisoning, B.c. 74, and was condemned. 2. OppIprived of all his property. It appears from the ANICuS, the son of the preceding, accused Cluentius
Pseudo-Asconius that Opimius had in his tribunate himself in B. c. 66, of three distinct acts of poisonsupported the law of the consul C. Aurelius Cotta, ing. 3. C. OPPIANICUS, the brother of No. 1, said
which restored to the tribunes the right of being to have been poisoned by him (Cic. pro Cluent. 11).
elected to the other magistracies of the state after A full account of the two trials is given under
the tribunate, of which privilege they had been CLUENTIUS.
deprived by a Lex Cornelia of the dictator Sulla. OPPIA'NUS, a person to whom M. Varro
(Cic. Verr. i. 60; Pseudo-Ascon. in Verr. p. 200, wrote a letter, which is referred to by A. Gellius
ed. Orelli.) (xiv. 7).
6. OPIMIUS, is mentioned as one of the judices OPPIAINUS ('07lrrravds). Under this name
by Cicero (ad Att. iv. 16. ~ 6) in B. C. 54. The there are extant two Greek hexameter poems, one
word which follows Opimius, being either his cog- on fishing,'AAtevrc-Kd, and the other on hunting,
nomen or the name of his tribe, is corrupt. (See KVUmrYErKCd; as also a prose paraphrase of a third
Orelli, ad loc.) This Opimius may be the same poem on hawking,'4IeEUreKa. These were, till
as the following. towards the end of the last century, universally
7. M. OPIMIus, praefect of the cavalry in the attributed to the same person; an opinion which
army of Metellus Scipio, the father-in-law of not only made it impossible to reconcile with each
Pompey, was taken prisoner by Cn. Domitius other all the passages relating to Oppian that are
Calvinus, B. C. 48. (Caes. B. C. iii. 38.) to be found in ancient writers, but also rendered
8. OPIMIUS, a poor man mentioned by Horace contradictory the evidence derived from the perusal
(Sat. ii. 3. 124), of whom nothing is known. of the poems themselves. At length, in the year
OPIS. [UPI.] 1776, J. G. Schneider in his first edition of these
O'PlTER, an old Roman praenomen, given to poems threw out the conjecture that, they were
a person born after the death of his father, but in not written by the same individual, but by two
the lifetime of his grandfather. (Festus, p. 184, persons of the same name, who have been coned. Mtiller; Val. Max. de Nonm. Rat. 12; PIa- stantly confounded together; an hypothesis, which,
cidus, p. 491.) We find this praenomen in the if not absolutely free from objection, certainly
Virginia Gens, for instance. removes so many difficulties, and moreover affords
L. OPITE'RNIUS, a Faliscan, a priest of so convenient a mode of introducing various facts
Bacchus, and one of the prime movers in the intro- and remarks which would otherwise be inconduction of the worship of this god into Rome sistent and contradictory, that it will be adopted
B. c. 186. (Liv. xxxix. 17.) on this occasion. The chief (if not the only)
OPLACUS. [OusIDmus.] objection to Schneider's conjecture arises from its
O'PPIA. 1. A Vestal virgin, put to death in novelty, from its positively contradicting some
aX. c. 483 for violation of her vow of chastity. ancient authorities, and from the strong negative
(Liv. ii. 42.) fact that for nearly sixteen hundred years.no