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

OROSIUS. ORPHEUS. 59
tropius, and inferior second-hand authorities, whose rome against Pelagius, and will be found also in
statements are rashly admitted and unskilfully the Bibliotheca Patrum Max. Lugdun. 1677, vol.
combined, without any attempt to investigate the vi.; it is appended to the edition of the Historiae
basis upon which they rest, or to reconcile their by Havercamp, and is included in Harduin's colcontradictions and inconsistencies. Although such lection of Councils, vol. i. p. 200.
a compilation might be held in high esteem in the III. Commonito-ium ad Augustinuns, the earliest
fifth century, and might command the applause of the works of Orosius, composed soon after his
of the ecclesiastical biographers from Gennadius first arrival in Africa, for the purpose of explaining
downwards, and even of some scholars of a later the state of religious parties in Spain, especially in
date, its defects could not escape the keen discern- reference to the commotions excited by the Prisment of Sigonius, Lipsius, and Casaubon, who cillianists and Origenists. It is usually attached
soon perceived that no original sources of informa- to the reply, by Augustine, entitled Contra Pristion had been consulted, that the Greek writers cillianistas et Origenistas Liber ad Ordsium, vol. viii.
had been altogether neglected, either through igno- ed. Bened.
rance or indifference, and that the whole narrative Some Epistolae ad Augustinum appear to have
so abounded with gross errors in facts and in chro- been at one time in existence, but are now lost.
nology as to be almost totally destitute of utility, The following productions have been commonly
since no dependence can be placed on the accuracy ascribed to Orosius.
of those representations which refer to events not 1. Dialoqus sexaginta quinque Quaestionuns Orosii
elsewhere chronicled. The style which has been percontantis et Azugstini respondentis, found among
pronounced by some impartial critics not devoid of the works of Augustine. 2. Quaestiones de Trinielegance, is evidently formed upon the two great tate et aliis Scripturae Sacrae Locis ad A ugzustinum,
models of the Christian eloquence of Africa, Ter- printed along with Augustini Responsio, at Paris,
tullian and Cyprian. Among the various titles in 1533. 3. Commentarium in C(anticumn Canticoexhibited by the MSS., such as, Historia adversus rum, attributed by Trithemius to Orosius, but in
Paganorum Calumnias; De Cladibus et ifIiseriis reality belonging to Honorius Augustodunensis.
Muandi, and the like, one, which has proved a most 4. The De Ratione Animae, mentioned by Trithepuzzling enigma, appears under the varying forms, mius, supposed by many to be a spurious treatise,
Hormesta, or Ormesta, or Ormista, sometimes with is in reality the Commonitorium under a different
the addition, id est miseriarum Christiani temporis. title. No complete edition of the collected works
Among a multitude of solutions, many of them al- has yet appeared. (Augustin. de Ratione Anita.
together ridiculous, the most plausible is that which ad Hieron.; Gennad. de Viris Illustr. 39. 46;
adopting Ormista as the true orthography supposes Trithem. de Script. Eccles. 121; Nic. Anton. Bibl.
it to be a compound of Or. m. ist. —an abbreviation Hispan. Vet. iii. 1; G. J. Voss. de Historicis Lat.
for Orosii mundi historia. ii. 14; Schinemann, Bibl. Patr. Lat. vol. ii. ~ 10;
The Editio Princeps of the Historia was printed Bahr, Geschipcte der R6inischen Litterat. ~ 238;
at Vienna, by J. Schiissler, fol. 1471,and presents suppl. band. 2te Abtheil. ~ 141; D. G. Moller,
a text derived from an excellent MS. Another Dissertatio de Paulo Orosio, 4to. Altorf. 1639;
very early impression is that published at Vicenza, Voss. Histor. Pelay. i. 17; Sigonius, de Historicis
in small folio, without a date, by Herm. de Colonia, Romn. 3; Lips. Comment. in Tacit. Ann.; Casauand from this the Venice editions of 1483, 1484, bon. de Rebus Sacris, &c. i. 12, especially Miirner,
1499, and 1500, appear to have been copied. The De Orosii Vita ejusque Historiarum Libris septera
only really good edition is that of Havercamp, adversus Paqanos, Berol, 1844.) [W. R.]
Lug. Bat. 4to. 1738, prepared with great industry, ORPHEUS ('Oppevs). The history of the exand containing a mass of valuable illustrations. tant productions of Greek literature begins with
A translation into, Anglo-Saxon was executed the Homeric poems. But it is evident that works
by Alfred the Great, of which a specimen was pub- so perfect in their kind are the end, and not the
lished by Elstob at Oxford in 1690, and the whole beginning, of a course of poetical development.
work accompanied by a version of the Anglo-Saxon This assumption is confirmed by innumerable tratext into English appeared at London, 8vo. 1773, ditions, which record the names of poets before the
under the inspection of Daines Barrington and John time of Homer, who employed their music for the
Reinhold Foster. There are old translations into civilisation of men and for the worship of different
German and Italian also; into the former by divinities. In accordance with the spirit of Greek
Hieronymus Bonerus, fol. Colmar, 1539, frequently mythology, the gods themselves stand at the head
reprinted; into the latter by Giov. Guerini Da Lan- of this succession of poets, namely, Hermes, the
ciza, without date or name of place, but apparently inventor of the lyre, and Apollo, who received the
belonging to the sixteenth century. invention from his brother, and became the divinity
II. Liber Apologeticus de Arbitrii Libertate, writ- presiding over the whole art of music. With
ten in Palestine, A. D. 415. Orosius, having been Apollo are associated, still in the spirit of the old
anathematised by John of Jerusalem as one who mythology, a class of subordinate divinities- the
maintained that man could not, even by the aid of Muses. The earliest human cultivators of the aIt
God, fulfil the divine law, published this tract with are represented as the immediate pupils, and even
the double object of proving the injustice of the (what, in fact, merely means the same thing) the
charge and of defending his own proceedings by children of Apollo and the Muses. Their personal
demonstrating the fatal tendency of the tenets in- existence is as uncertain as that of other mythical
culcated by Pelagius. By some oversight on the part personages, and for us they can only be considered
of a transcriber, seventeen chapters of the De ATa- as the representatives of certain periods and certain
tura et Gratia, by Augustine, have been inserted kinds of poetical development. Their names are
in this piece, a mistake which has led to no small no doubt all significant, although the etymology of
confusion. The Apologeticus was first printed at some of them is very uncertain, while that of others,
Louvain, 8vo. 1558, along with the epistle of Je- such as Musaeus, is at once evident. The chief of