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

A DICTO 1NARY
OF
GREEK AND ROMAN BIOGRAPHY
AND
MYTHOLOGY.
OBSEQUENS. OBSEQUENS.
OARSES. [AnsEs.] I which may very probably have arisen from the
OAXES or OAXUS ('Oaeos), the mythical interpolations or carelessness of transcribers. With
founder of the town of Oaxus in Crete, is said by regard to the compiler we know absolutely nothing,
some to have been a son of Acacallis, the daughter not even the country to which he belonged, nor
of Minos (Steph. Byz. s. v. "Oaeos), and by others the age when he flourished. He is mentioned by
a son of Apollo by Anchiale. (Serv. ad Virg. Ecl. no ancient writer, and there is no internal evidence
i. 66.) [L. S.] to guide us. The style is upon the whole toleO'BLACUS. [OssIDIus.] rably pure, but certainly does not belong to the
O'BODAS or O'BEDAS ('O~d'aas,'O~das). Augustan age. Vossius supposes that the author
1. A king of the Arabs of Gaulonitis. Alexander lived before Orosius, and Scaliger believes that he
Jannaeus invaded his territory in B. c. 92, but lost was consulted by St. Jerome; but no substantial
his army by an ambuscade in the mountains of Ga- arguments have been adduced in support of these
dara, and escaped himself with difficulty. (Jos, assertions.
Ant. xiii. 13. ~ 5. Bell. Jud. i. 4. ~ 4.) No MS. of Obsequens is known to exist. Tho
2. A king of the Nabathaeans in Arabia Petraea. first edition, printed by Aldus in 1508, was taken
He appears to have been the successor of Malchus from a codex belonging to Jocundus of Verona,
[No. 3], and is mentioned both by Strabo and but this has disappeared, and no other has ever
Josephus as an indolent man, who left the manage- been discovered.
ment of all his affairs to Syllaeus. It was in his About the middle of the sixteenth century,
reign that the expedition of Aelius Gallus into Conrad Woolfhart, professor at Basle, who assumed
Arabia took place, in B. c. 24. (Strab. xvi. p. 780, the appellation of Conradus Lycosthenes, published
&c.; Jos. Ant. xv. 9. ~ 3, xvi. 7. ~ 6, Bell. Jud. a supplement, in which he collected from Livy,
i. 24. ~ 6.) [E. E.] Dionysius, Eutropius, and other authorities, the
O'BRIMUS C('Oplios),or O'IMBRIMUS (COI- prodigies which had been chronicled from the
~ptos), a Greek rhetorician, probably of Asia, but foundation of the city until the period when the
of uncertain date, two of whose orations are quoted fragment of Obsequens commences, making at the
by Stobaeus, namely, IlpwT'-o-TVo KpLvOIIVOVU pap- same time additions from the same sources to the
AdtKv, or Wtrep HIpcwrooy'ov, and sthrp 2Es~pou.. text of Obsequens himself. From this time for(Phot. Cod. 167; Stobaeus, Florileg. vol. ii. p. 277, ward the original and the supplement have been
vol. iii. p. 487, vol. ii. p. 286.) usually printed together, and care must be taken
O'BSEQUENS, JU'LIUS, the name prefixed in every case to keep the two portions perfectly
to a fragment entitled De Prodigiis or Prodi- distinct.
piorsrus Libellus, containing a record for many The Editio Princeps of Obsequens was pubyears of those startling phenomena classed by the lished, as we have already stated, by Aldus, 8vo.
Romans under the general designation of Prsodigia Venet. 1508 (reprinted 1518), in a volume conor Ostenta, which were universally believed to be taining also the epistles of the younger Pliny; the
miraculous manifestations of divine power, and to second edition was that of Beatus R,henanus, 8vo.
be intended as solemn warnings of coming events. Argentorat. 1514, in a volume containing also the
The series is arranged in regular chronological epistles of Pliny, Aurelius Victor. De Viris I!stsorder, and extends from the consulship of Scipio tribus, and Suetonius De C'lOris Graenalticis et
and Laelills, B.c. 190, to the consulship of Fabius Rhemlorbus; the third was from the press of
and Aelius, s. c. 1. The materials are derived in Robert Stephens, 8vo. Paris, 1529, and, like the.
a great measure from Livy, whose very words are two former, combined with the epistles of Pliny.
frequently employed; and although we can in some The first edition, which contained the supplemlellt
places detect deviations from the narrative of the of Lycosthenes, was that which appeared at Basle.
historian, these consist chiefly in repetitions, and 8vo. 1552 The best are those of Scheffer, 8vo.
in variations with regard to dates, discrepancies Amst. 1679, and of Oudendorp, 8vo. Lug. Bat.
VOL. III. B