ORTHE (Open), a town of Perrhaebia in Thessaly, mentioned by Homer (Il. ii. 739), was said by Strabo (ix. p. 440) to have become the acropolis of Phalanna. [PHALANNA.] It occurs, however, in the lists of Pliny (iv. 9. s. 16) as a distinct town from Phalanna.

ORTHO'SIA ('Opewoía), a town of Syria mentioned by Strabo and Ptolemy, near the river Eleutherus, contiguous to Simyra, between it and Tripoli. (Strab. xvi. p. 753; Ptol. v. 15. § 4.) The former makes it the northern extremity of Phoenice, Pelusium being the southern (p. 756), a distance, according to Artemidorus, of 3650 stadia (p. 760). It was 1130 stadia south of the Orontes. (16.) Ptolemy places both Simyra and Orthosia south of the Eleutherus; but Strabo to the north of it: "agreeable whereunto," writes Shaw," we still find, upon the north banks of this river (Nahr-elBerd), the ruins of a considerable city in a district named Ortosa. In Peutinger's table, also, Orthosia is placed 30 miles south of Antaradus and 12 miles north of Tripoli. The situation of it is likewise further illustrated by a medal of Antoninus Pius, struck at Orthosia, upon the reverse of which we have the goddess Astarte treading upon a river; for this city was built upon a rising ground, on the northern banks of the river, within half a furlong of the sea: and as the rugged eminences of Mount Libanus lie at a small distance, in a parallel with the shore, Orthosia must have been a place of the greatest importance, as it would have hereby the entire command of the road (the only one there is) betwixt Phoenice and the maritiine parts of Syria." (Travels, p. 270, 271.) The difficulties and discrepancies of ancient authors are well stated by Pococke. (Observations, vol. ii. pp. 204, 205, notes d. e.) He assumes the Nahr Kibeer for the Eleutherus, and places Orthosia on the river Accar, between Nahr Kibeer and El-Berd. (Maundrell, Journey, March 8.) [G. W.]

ORTHO'SIA ('Opewola), a town of Caria, not far from Alabanda, on the left bank of the Maeander, and apparently on or near a hill of the same name (Strab. xiv. p. 650; Plin. xxxvii. 25). Near this town the Rhodians gained a victory over the Carians (Polyb. xxx. 5; Liv. xlv. 25; comp. Ptol. v. 2. §19; Plin. v. 29, xxxvii. 9, 25; Hierocl. 688). The ancient remains near Karpusli probably mark the site of Orthosia (Leake, Asia Minor, p. 234); though others, regarding them as belonging to Alabanda, identify it with Dsheni-sheer. [L S.]

Latium, situated on the confines of the Aequian territory. It is twice mentioned during the wars of the Romans with the latter people: first, in B. c. 481, when we are distinctly told that it was a Latin city, which was besieged and taken by the Aequians (Liv. ii. 43; Dionys. viii. 91); and again in B. C. 457, when the Aequians, by a sudden attack, took Corbio, and, after putting to the sword the Roman garrison there, made themselves masters of Ortona also; but the consul Horatius engaged and defeated them on Mount Algidus, and after driving them from that position, recovered possession both of Corbio and Ortona. (Liv. iii. 30; Dionys. x. 26.) From these accounts it seems clear that Ortona was situated somewhere in the neighbourhood of Corbio and Mount Algidus; but we have no more precise clue to its position. No mention of it is found in later times, and it probably ceased to exist. The name is much corrupted in both the passages of Dionysius; in the first of which it is written 'Opoús, but the Vatican MS. has 'Opava for 'Oprava: in the second it is written Biprava. It is very probable that the Hortenses, a people mentioned by Pliny (iii. 5. s. 9) among the "populi Albenses," are the inhabitants of Ortona; and it is possible, as suggested by Niebuhr, that the PopTieto (a name otherwise wholly unknown), who are found in Dionysius's list of the thirty cities of the Latin League, may be also the same people. (Dionys. v. 61; Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 18, note.) The sites which have been assigned to Ortona are wholly conjectural.

2. (Ortona a Mare), a considerable town of the Frentani, situated on the coast of the Adriatic, about midway between the mouth of the Aternus (Pescara) and that of the Sagrus (Sangro). Strabo tells us that it was the principal port of the Fren tani (v. p. 242). He erroneously places it S. of the Sagrus; but the passage is evidently corrupt, as is one in which he speaks of Ortona or Histonium (for the reading is uncertain) as a resort of pirates. (Strab. I. c., and Kramer ad loc.) Ptolemy correctly places it between the Sagrus and the Aternus; though he erroneously assigns it to the Peligni. Pliny mentions it among the municipal towns of the Frentani; and there seems no doubt that it was one of the principal places possessed by that people. (Plin. iii. 12. s. 17; Ptol. iii. 1. § 19.) Some inscriptions have been published in which it bears the title of a colony, but these are of dubious authenticity (see Zumpt, de Colon. p. 358, note): it is not mentioned as such in the Liber Coloniarum The Itineraries place it on the road from the mouth of the Aternus to Anxanum (Lanciano). The name is still retained by the modern town of Ortona; and antiquities found on the spot leave no doubt that it occupies the same site with the ancient one. (Itin. Ant. p.313; Tab. Peut.; Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 67.) [E. H. B.]

ORTONA (OpTwv). 1. An ancient city of

The

leading through Bactriana met at this place; hence the notice in Strabo (l. c.) of the Báктршv Tpíodos. Groskurd has (as appears to us), on no sufficient ground, identified Ortospana with the present Kandahar. If the reading of some of the MSS. of Ptolemy be correct, Kábul may be a corruption οι Κάβουρα.

It is worthy of note, that in the earlier editions of Ptolemy (vi. 18. § 3) mention is made of a people whom he calls KaboXira; in the latest of Nobbe (Tauchnitz, 1843) the name is changed to Bwλiral. It is not improbable that Ptolemy here is speaking of Kábul, as Lassen has observed. (Ind. Alterthums. vol. i. p. 29.) The three roads may be, the pass by Bamián, that by the HindúKush, and that from Anderáb to Khawar. [V.] ORTOSPEDA. [OROSPEDA]. ORTY'GIA. [DELOS.] ORTY'GIA. [SYRACUSE.]

ORU'DII (Tà 'Opoúdia opn, Ptol. vii. 1. §§ 25, 36), a chain of mountains in India intra Gangem, which were, according to Ptolemy, the source of the river Tynna (now Pennais). It is difficult now to identify them with certainty, but Forbiger conjectures that they may be represented by the present Nella-Mella. [V.]

OSCELA. [LEPONTII.

OSCI or OPICI (in Greek always "ORIKOL: the original form of the name was OPSCUS, which was still used by Ennius, ap. Fest. s. v. p. 198), a nation of Central Italy, who at a very early period appear to have been spread over a considerable part of the peninsula. So far as we can ascertain they were the original occupants, at the earliest time of which we have anything like a definite account, of the central part of Italy, from Campania and the borders of Latium to the Adriatic; while on the S. they adjoined the Oenotrians, whom there is good reason to regard as a Pelasgic tribe. Throughout this extent they were subsequently conquered and reduced to subjection by tribes called Sabines or Sabellians, who issued from the lofty mountain tracts of the Apennines N. of the territory then occupied by the Oscans. The relation between the Sabellians and the Oscans is very obscure; but it is probable that the former were comparatively few in number, and adopted the language of the conquered people, as we know that the language both of the Campanians and Samnites in later times was Oscan. (Liv. x. 20.) Whether it remained unmixed, or had been modified in any degree by the language of the Sabellians, which was probably a cognate dialect, we have no means of determining, as all our existing monuments of the language are of a date long subsequent to the Sabellian conquest. The ethnical affinities of the Oscans, and their relations to the Sabellian and other races of Central Italy, have been already considered under the article ITALIA; it only remains to add a few words concerning what is known of the Oscan language.

ORYX. [ARCADIA, Vol. I. p. 193, a.] OSCA. 1. (Oσka, Ptol. ii. 6. § 68), a town of the Ilergetes in the N. of Hispania Tarraconensis, on the road from Tarraco and Ilerda to Caesaraugusta (Itin. Ant. pp. 391, 451), and under the jurisdiction of the last-named city. Pliny alone (iii. 3. s. 4) places the Oscenses in Vescitania, a district mentioned nowhere else. It was a Roman colony, and had a mint. We learn from Plutarch (Sert. c. 14) that it was a large town, and the place where Sertorius died. It is probably the town called Ileoscan ('Iedoкav) by Strabo, in an apparently corrupt passage (iii. p. 161; v. Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 451.) It seems to have possessed silver mines (Liv. xxxiv. 10, 46, xl. 43), unless the "argentum Öscense" here mentioned merely refers to the minted silver of the town. Florez, however (Med. ii. 520), has pointed out the impossibility of one place supplying such vast quantities of minted silver as we find recorded in ancient writers under the terms argentum Oscense," " signatum Oscense;" and is of opinion that Oscense in these phrases means Spanish, by a corruption from the national name, Eus-cara. (Cf. Caes. B. C. i. 60; Vell. Pat. ii. 30.) It is the modern Huesca in Arragon. (Florez, Med. ii. p. 513; Sestini, p. 176; Mionnet, i. p. 46, Suppl. i. p. 92; Murray's Handbook of Spain, p. 448.)

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2. A town of the Turdetani in Hispania Baetica, which some have identified with Huescar, but which Ukert (vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 370) thinks must be sought to the W. of that place. (Ptol. ii. 4. § 12; Plin. ii. 1. s. 3.) The pretended coins of this town are not genuine. (Florez, Med. l. c.; Sestini, p. 78; Mionnet, i. p. 43, Suppl. i. p. 40; Sestini, p. 78; Ukert, l. c.) [T. H. D.]

Niebuhr has justly remarked that "the Oscan language is by no means an inexplicable mystery, like the Etruscan. Had a single book in it been preserved, we should be perfectly able to decipher it out of itself." (Nieb. vol. i. p. 68.) Even with the limited means actually at our command we are able in great part to translate the extant inscriptions in this language, few and mostly brief as they are; and though the meaning of many words remains uncertain or unknown, we are able to arrive at distinct conclusions concerning the general character and affinities of the language. The Oscan was closely connected with the Latin; not merely as the Latin was with the Greek and other branches of the great Indo-Teutonic family, as offshoots from the same original stock, but as cognate and nearly allied dialects. This affinity may be traced throughout the grammatical forms and inflections of the language not less than in the vocabulary of single words. The Latin was, however, in all probability a composite language, derived from a combination of this Oscan element with one more closely akin to the Greek, or of Pelasgic origin [LATIUM, p. 137]; while the Oscan doubtless represents the language of Central Italy in its more unmixed form. In many cases the older and ruder specimens of the Latin retain Oscan forms, which were laid aside in the more refined stages of the language: such is the termination of the ablative in d, which is found in the Duilian and other old Latin inscriptions, and appears to have been universal in Oscan.

The few notices of Oscan words which have been preserved to us by Latin writers, as Varro, Festus, &c., are of comparatively little importance. Our chief knowledge of the language is derived from extant inscriptions; of which the three most important are: 1. the Tabula Bantina, a bronze tablet found in the

neighbourhood of Bantia, on the borders of Apulia and Lucania, and which refers to the municipal affairs of that town; 2. the Cippus Abellanus, so called from its having been found at Abella in Campania, and containing a treaty or agreement between the two neighbouring cities of Nola and Abella; and 3. a bronze tablet recently discovered in the neighbourhood of Agnone in northern Samnium, containing a dedication of various sacred offerings. It is remarkable that these three monuments have been found in nearly the most distant quarters of the Oscan territory. By the assistance of the numerous minor inscriptions, we may fix pretty clearly the limits within which the language was spoken. They include, besides Campania and Samnium Proper, the land of the Hirpini and Frentani, and the northern part of Apulia. No inscriptions in Oscan have been found in Lucania (except immediately on its borders) or Bruttium, though it is probable that in both of these countries the Sabellian conquerors introduced the Oscan language, or one closely connected with it; and we are distinctly told by Festus that the Bruttians spoke Greek and Oscan. (Fest. p. 35, M.) We learn also with certainty that not only the vernacular, but even the official, use of the Oscan language continued in Central Italy long after the Roman conquest. Indeed few, if any, of the extant inscriptions date from an earlier period. The comic poet Titinius alludes to it as a dialect still in common use in his time, about B. C. 170. (Fest. s. v. Opscum, p. 189.) The coins struck by the Samuites and their allies during the Social War (B. c. 90-88) have Oscan inscriptions; but it is probable that, after the close of that contest and the general admission of the Italians to the Roman franchise, Latin became universal as the official language of Italy. Oscan, however, must have continued to be spoken, not only in the more secluded mountain districts, but even in the towns, in Campania at least, until a much later period; as we find at Pompeii inscriptions rudely scratched or painted on the walls, which from their hasty execution and temporary character cannot be supposed to have existed long before the destruction of the city in A. D. 79.

(Concerning the remains of the Oscan language see Mommsen, Unter-Italischen Dialekte, 4to. Leipzig, 1850; Klenze, Philologische Abhandlungen, 8vo. Berlin, 1839; and Donaldson, Varronianus, pp. 104-138.)

We have no evidence of the Oscans having any literature, properly so called; but it was certainly from them that the Romans derived the dramatic entertainments called Atellanae, a kind of rude farces, probably bearing considerable resemblance to the performances of Pulcinello, still so popular at Naples and in its neighbourhood. When these were transplanted to Roine they were naturally rendered into Latin; but though Strabo is probably mistaken in speaking of the Fabulae Atellanae of his day as still performed at Rome in Oscan, it is very natural to suppose that they were still so exhibited in Campania as long as the Oscan language continued in common use in that country. (Strab. v. p. 233; concerning the Fabulae Atellanae see Mommsen, 1. c. p. 118; Bernhardy, Römische Literatur, p. 378, &c.; Munk, de Fabulis Atellanis, Lips. 1840.) [E. H. B.]

OSCINEIUM, a name which appears in the Jerusalem Itin. on the road from Vasatae (Bazas) to Elusa (Eause). [COSSIO; ELUSATES.] The order

of names is Vasatae, Tres Arbores, Oscineium, Sattium or Sotium, and Elusa. Oscineium is marked at the distance viii. from the two places between which it lies. D'Anville finds on this road a place named Esquies, which in name and position agrees pretty well with the Oscineium of the Itin. [G. L.]

OSERIATES ('Oσepíates), a tribe of Pannonia Superior, dwelling on the banks of the river Dravus; but nothing is known about them but their name. (Ptol. ii. 15. § 2; Plin. iii. 28.) [L. S.]

OSI, a German tribe mentioned only by Tacitus (Germ. 28, 43), as dwelling beyond the Quadi, in a woody and mountainous country. But their national customs, as well as their language, were those of the Pannonians. They were, moreover, tributary to the Quadi and Sarmatae. The exact districts they inhabited cannot be determined, nor do we know whether they had migrated into Germany from Pannonia, or whether they were an ancient remnant of Pannonians in those districts. [L. S.]

OSIANA, a town in the west of Cappadocia, between the river Halys and lake Tatta, on the road from Ancyra to Caesarea (It. Ant. p. 206). Its site must probably be looked for in the district of Jurkup or Urgub. [L. S.]

If we

OSISMI or OSISMII ('Oσioμio), a Celtic people who joined the Veneti in the war against Caesar, B. C. 56. (B. G. iii. 9.) There is nothing in Caesar which shows their position further than this, that they were in the peninsula of Bretagne. Ptolemy (ii. 8. § 5) makes them extend as far south as the Gobaeum headland, and he names Vorganium as their chief city. [GOBAEUM.] accept the authority of Meia, who says (iii. 6) that the island Sena (Sein) is opposite to the shores of the Osismii, this will help us to determine the southern limit of the Osismii, and will confirm the conjecture of Gobaeum being the headland called Raz Pointe, which is opposite to the small island Sein, or as it is improperly called Isle des Saints; or being somewhere near that headland. In another passage (iii. 2) Mela makes the great bend of the west coast of Gallia commence where the limits of the Osismii end: "ab illis enim iterum ad septentriones frons littorum respicit, pertinetque ad ultimos Gallicarum gentium Morinos." Pliny (iv. 18) describes this great peninsula of Bretagne thus: “Gallia Lugdunensis contains a considerable peninsula, which runs out into the ocean with a circuit of 625 miles, beginning from the border of the Osisinii, the neck being 125 miles in width: south of it are the Nannetes." It is plain then that Pliny placed the Osismi along the north coast of Bretagne, and there is Mela's authority for placing them on the west coast of the peninsula. The neck of the peninsula which Pliny describes, may be determined by a line drawn from the bay of St. Brieuc on the north to Lorient on the south, or rather to some of the bays east of it, or Morbihan. It seems a fair conclusion, that the Osismii occupied a large part of the peninsula of Bretagne; or as Strabo (iv. p. 195) says: "Next to the Veneti are the Osismii, whom Pytheas calls Timii, who dwell in a peninsula which runs out considerably into the ocean, but not so far as Pytheas says and those who believe him." He does not tell us how far Pytheas said that the peninsula ran out into the sea, but if we had Pytheas' words, we might find that he knew something about it. The conclusion of D'Anville is justified by the ancient authorities. He says: It seems that it has been agreed up to the present time to limit the territory