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

40 OPTATUS. ORBIANA.
garded as an appendix added by the author him- Paris, fol. 1700, reprinted at Amsterdam, fol. 1701,
self upon a revision of his work. It is certainly and at Antwerp, fol. 1702, the last being in point
not a modern forgery, and was very probably com- of arrangement the best of the three, which are
posed, as Dupin suggests, by some African, as a very far superior to all others. That of Meric
supplement, not long after the publication of the Casaubon (8vo. Lond. 1631) is of no particular
original. value, that of L'Aubespine, bishop of Orleans (fol.
Optatus addresses his production to Parmenia- Par. 1631) is altogether worthless. Galland, in
nus, the Donatist bishop of Carthage, in reply to his Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. v. p. 462 (fol. Venet.
an attack made by that prelate upon the Catholics, 1769), has followed the text of Dupin, selected the
and explains at the outset the method he intends most important of his critical notes, adopted his
to pursue in refuting his opponent. The object of distribution of the " Monumenta Vetera ad Donathe first book is, to ascertain what class of persons tistarum Historiam pertinentia," and brought togemay justly be branded as traditors and schismatics, ther much useful matter in his Prolegomena, cap.
the former being the term uniformly applied by the xviii. p. xxix. (Hieronym. de Viris Ill. 11 0
Donatists to their antagonists; of the second, to Honor. i. 3; Trithem. 76; Augustin. de Doctrin.
ascertain what the Church is, and where it is to Clirist. ii. 40; Lardner, Credibility of Gospel Hisbe found; of the third, to prove that some acts of tory, c. cv.; Funccius, de L. L. veyet. Senect. c. x.
violence and cruelty on the part of the soldiery had ~ 56-63; Schdnemann, Bibl. Patr. Lat. vol. i.
not been committed by the orders or with the ap- ~ 16; Bihr, Geschichte der R Mm. Litt. suppl. band.
probation of the Catholics; of the fourth, to point 2te Abtheil. ~ 65.) [W. R.]
out who is really to be accounted the Sinner, whose OPUS ('OTroes). 1. A son of Zeus and Prosacrifice God rejects, from whose unction we must togeneia, the daughter of Deucalion, was king of
flee; of the fifth, to inquire into the nature of the Epeians, and father of Cambyse or Protogeneia.
baptism; of the sixth, to expose the errors and (Pind. 01. ix. 85, &c. with the Schol.)
projects of the Donatists. This performance was 2. A son of Locrus or Zeus by Cambyse, and a
long held in such high estimation on account of the grandson of No. 1. (Pind. 01. I. c.; Eustath. ad
learning, acuteness, and orthodoxy displayed, not Horn. p. 277.) From him a portion of the Locri
only in reference to the particular points under derived their name Opuntii. [L. S.]
discussion, but upon many general questions of ORA'TA or AURA'TA, C. SE'RGIUS, was
doctrine and discipline, that the author was es- a contemporary of L. Crassus the orator, and lived
teemed worthy of the honours of canonization, his a short time before the Marsic war. He was disfestival being celebrated on the fourth of June. tinguished for his great wealth, his love of luxury
Even now the book must be regarded as a valuable and refinement, and possessed withal an uncontribution to the ecclesiastical history of the blemished character. In a fragment of Cicero,
fourth century, and constitutes our principal source preserved by Augustin, Orata is described as a
of information with regard to the origin and pro- man " ditissimus, amoenissimus, deliciosissimus;"
gress of the heresy which distracted Africa for and it is related of him, that he was the first perthree hundred years. [DoNATUS.] The language son who invented the pensiles balneae, that is, baths
is tolerably pure, and the style is for the most part with the hypocausta under them (Dict. of Ant.
lofty and energetic, but not unfrequently becomes s. v. Balneumn), and also the first who formed
turgid and harsh, while it is uniformly destitute of artificial oyster-beds at Baiae, from which he oball grace or polish. The allegorical interpretations tained a large revenue. He is further said to have
of Scripture constantly introduced are singularly been the first person who asserted and established
fantastic, and the sentiments expressed with regard the superiority of the shell-fish from the Lucrine
to free-will would in modern times be pronounced lake, although under the empire they were less
decidedly Arminian. Optatus refers in the course esteemed than those from Britain. His surname
of his arguments (i. 14) to certain state papers and Orata or Aeurata was given to him, according to
other public documents, which he had subjoined in some authorities, because he was very fond of goldsupport of the statements contained in the body of fish (auratae pisces), according to others, because
the work. These have disappeared, but in the he was in the habit of wearing two very large gold
best editions we find a copious and important col- rings. (Augustin. de Beata Vita, c. 26, p. 308, ed.
lection of "pieces jastificatives," collected from Bened.; Cic. de Off. iii. 16, de Fin. ii. 22, de Orat.
various sources, which throw much curious light i. 39; Val. Max. ix. I. ~ 1; Plin. H. N. ix. 54.
not only upon the struggles of the Donatists, but s. 79; Varr. R. R. iii. 3. ~ 10; Colum. viii. 16.
upon tne practice of ancient courts and the forms ~ 5; Macrob. Saturn. ii. 11; Festus, s. v. Orata.)
of ancient diplomacy. ORBIA'NA, SALLU'STIA BA'RBIA, one
Of the epistles and other pieces noticed by Tri- of the three wives of Alexander Severus. Her
themius no trace remains. name is known to us from coins and inscriptions
The Editio Princeps of the six books of Optatus only, on which she appears with the title of
was printed by F. Behem (apud S. Victoren prnope Augusta. (Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 285.) [W. R.]
M[oguntiam), fol. 1549, under the inspection of
Joannes Cochlaeus, from a MS. belonging to the
Hospital of St. Nicolas near Treves. The text ~
which here appears under a very corrupt and mutilated form was corrected in a multitude of passages! 4
by Balduinus, first from a single new MS. (Paris, t
8vo. 1653, with the seventh book added in smallu }
type), and afterwards from two additional codices
(Paris, 8vo. 1659). The second of these impressions remained the standard until the appearance
of the elaborate edition by Dupin, printed at COIN OF OR3IAN.