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

38 OPPIUS. OPPI US.
account of public sacrifices. This law was repealed with his retinue was on one occasion overtaken by
in B.C. 195, notwithstanding the vehement opposi- a storm and compelled to take refuge in a poor
tion of the elder Cato (Liv. xxxiv. 1-8; Val. man's hut, which contained only a single chamber,
Max. ix. i. ~ 3; Tac. Ann. iii. 33, 34). and that hardly large enough for one person, he
4. C. OPPIUS, a praefect of the allies, was sent made Oppius, who was in delicate health, sleep in
by the consul P. Aelius Paetus, in B. C. 201, with the hut, while he and the rest of his friends slept
some raw levies to attack the territories of the Boii, in the porch. On the breaking out of the civil
but was cut off by the enemy with a large number war in B. C. 49, the name of Oppius often occurs
of his men (Liv. xxxi. 2). in Cicero's letters. Oppius and Balbus had
5. L. OppIus, tribune of the plebs, B.C. 197 frequent correspondence with Cicero, in which
(Liv. xxxii. 28), is probably the same as L. Oppius they endeavoured to quiet his apprehensions as to
Salinator [No. 6], though Livy omits his prae- Caesar's designs, and used all their efforts to pernomen. suade him to espouse the cause of the latter. There
6. L. OPPIUS SALINATOR, plebeian aedile, is in the collection of Cicero's letters a letter written
B. C. 193, was sent in the following year to convey to him in the joint names of Oppius and Balbus,
a fleet of twenty ships to Sicily. He was praetor accompanied by a letter of Caesar's to them, in
in B. C. 191, and obtained Sardinia as his province. which the great Roman at the very commencement
(Liv. xxxv. 23, 24, xxxvi. 2). of the civil war promises to use his victory with
7. Q. OPeIus, one of the Roman generals in the moderation, and says that he will try to overcome
Mithridatic war, B.C. 88. He is called proconsul his enemies by mercy and kindness, a promise
in the Epitome of Livy, from which we may infer which he faithfully kept to the end of his life.
that he had been praetor, and was afterwards sent, (Cic. ad At t. ix. 7; comp. ad Att. ix. 13, ad Fain.
as was frequently the case, with the title of pro- ii. 16, ad Att. xi. 17, 18, xii. 19.) To the death of
consul to take the command of an army. He had Caesar, Oppius continued to hold the same place
possession of the city of Laodiceia in Phrygia, near in his favour and esteem, and in the year before his
tile river Lycus; but when Mithridates had con- death we read that Oppius and Balbus had the manquered the whole of the surrounding country, the agement and control of all affairs at Rome during
inhabitants of Laodiceia gave up Oppius to the the absence of the dictator in Spain, though the
king on the promise of their receiving pardon by government of the city was nominally in the hands
so doing. Mithridates did no injury to Oppius, of M. Lepidus as magister equitum. (Cic. ad Faim.
but carried him with him in his various campaigns, vi. 8, 19.) After the death of the dictator, Oppius
exhibiting to the people of Asia a Roman general espoused the cause of the young Octavian, and
as a prisoner. Mithridates subsequently surren- exhorted Cicero to do the same (ad Att. xvi. 15).
dered him to Sulla. (Liv. Epit. 78; Athen. v. Oppius was the author of several works, which
p. 213, a; Appian, lliitlir. 17, 20, 112.) are referred to by the ancient writers, but all of
8. OPPIus, stated by an ancient scholiast to which have perished. The authorship of the hishave been praetor in Achaia, and to have been tories of the Alexandrine, African, and Spanish wars
accused at the instigation of Verres. We may was a disputed point as early as the time of Suetherefore place his praetorship about B. C. 80. (Schol. tonius, some assigning them to Oppius and others
in Cic. Verr. p. 389; Pseudo-Ascon. in Cic. Verr. to Hirtiuis. (Suet. Caes. 56.) But the similarity
pp. 128, 171, ed. Orelli.) in style and diction between the work on the
9. P. OPPIus, was quaestor in Bithynia to Alexandrine war and the last book of the ComM. Aurelius Cotta, who was consul in B.C. 74, and mentaries on the Gallic war, leads to the conclusion
who remained in Bithynia for the next three or four that the former, at all events, was the work of
years. Oppius appears to have appropriated to his Hirtius. The book on the African war may have
own use many of the supplies intended for the troops; been written by Oppius, to whom it is confidently
and when he was charged with this by Cotta, he assigned by Niebuhr, who remarks, " that the work
forgot himself so far as to draw his sword upon the is very: instructive and highly trustworthy, but
proconsul. Cotta accordinglydismissed him from the that the language is quite different from that of
province, and sent a letter to the senate, in which the work on the Alexandrine war; there is a
he formally accused Oppius of malversation, and of certain mannerism about it, and it is on the whole
making an attempt upon the life of his imperator. less beautiful." (Lectures on Roman History, vol. v.
He was brought to trial in B.C. 69, and was de- p. 47.) Oppius also wrote the lives of several of
fended by Cicero. The speech which Cicero deli- the most distinguished Romans. The following
vered in his favour is lost, but it seems to have are expressly mentioned as his composition: 1. A
been one of considerable merit, as it is referred to Life of Scipio Africanus the elder. (Charisius,
several times by Quintilian. (Dion Cass. xxxvi. 23; p. 119, ed. Putschius; Gell. vii. 1.) 2. A Life of
Quintil. v. 10. ~ 69, v. 13. ~ 17; Sall. Hist. iii. p. Cassius. (Charisius, 1. c.) 3. A Life of Marius.
218. ed. Gerlach; Cic. Fragm. vol. iv. p. 444, ed. (Plin. H. N. xi. 45. s. 104.) 4. A Life of PomOrelli; Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. v. p. 343.) pey, quoted by Plutarch (Pomp. 10), who observes,
10. C. OPPius, one of the most intimate friends " that when Oppius is speaking of the enemies or
of C. Julius Caesar. Together with Cornelius Bal- friends of Caesar, it is necessary to be very cautious
bus, with whose name that of Oppius is usually in believing what he says." 5. Probably a Life
coupled, he managed most of Caesar's private affairs, of Caesar, from which Suetonius and Plutarch apand was well acquainted with all his plans and pear to have derived some of their statements.
wishes. In the time of A. Gellius (xvii. 9) there (Comp. Suet. Caes. 53; Plut. Caes. 17.) After
was extant a collection of Caesar's letters to Op- Caesar's death, Oppius wrote a book to prove that
pius and Balbus, written in a kind of cipher. The Caesarion was not the son of Julius Caesar by Cleoregard which Caesar had for Oppius is shown by an patra, as the latter pretended. (Suet. Caes. 52.
anecdote related both by Plutarch (Caes. 17) and Comp. Vossius, De Historicis Latinis, i, 13, pp. 67,
Suetonius (Caes. 72), who tell us, that when Caesar 68, Lugd. Bat. 1651.)