Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Orbicius
ORBI’CIUS (Ὀρβίκιος). In the Etymologicon Magnum (s. v. Στρατός) there is a short account of the names given to the various subdivisions of an army, and to their respective commanders. It is entitled Ὀρβικίου τῶν περὶ τὸ στράτευμα τάξεων, Orbicii de Exercitus Ordinibus, and occupies about half or two-thirds of a column in the earlier folio editions of the Etymologicon, Venice, 1499 and 1549, and that of Fred. Sylburg, 1594. It is extracted and given among the pieces at the end of the Dictionarium Graecum of Aldus and Asulanus, fol. Venice, 1524, and at the end of the Dictionarium Graecum of Sessa and De Ravanis, fol. Venice, 1525. Of Orbicius nothing is known except that he wrote (unless we suppose the passage to be interpolated) before the compilation of the Etymologicon, which cannot be placed later than the twelfth century, when it is cited by Eustathius, the commentator on Homer. [J.C. M.]