Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/32

The annexed coin belongs to this gens, but by whom it was struck is uncertain. The names on the obverse, Q. ogvl. car. ver., are those of triumvirs of the mint, and are probably abbrevia- tions of Q. Ogulnius, Carvilius, and Verginius or Virgilius.

COIN OF OGULNIA GENS.

OGU'LNIUS. 1, 2. Q. and Cn. Ogulnii, tribunes of the plebs, B. c. 300, proposed and car- ried a law by which the number of the pontiffs was increased from four to eight, and that of the augurs from four to nine, and which enacted that four of the pontiffs and five of the augurs should be taken from the plebs. (Li v. x. 6 — 9.) Besides these eight pontiffs there was the pontifex raaximus, who is generally not included when the number of pontiffs is spoken of. The pontifex maximus con- tinued to be a patrician down to b. c. 254, when Tib. Coruncanius was the first plebeian who was invested with this dignity. In B.C. 296 Q. and Cn. Ogulnii were curule aediles. They prosecuted several persona for violating the usury laws ; and with the money accruing from the fines inflicted in consequence they executed many public works (Liv. x. 23). The name of Cn. Ogulnius does not occur again after this year. In B. c. 294 Q. Ogulnius was sent at the head of an embassy to Epidaurus, in order to fetch Aescu- lapius to Rome, that the plague might be stayed which had been raging in the city for more than two years. The legend relates that, upon the arrival of the ambassadors at Epidaurus, the god in the form of a gigantic serpent issued from the sanc- tuary, and settled in the cabin of Q. Ogulnius. (Val. Max. i. 8 § 2 ; Aur. Vict, de Vir. III. 22 ; Liy. Epii. 11; Oros. iii. 22; Ov. Met.xy. 622, &c.) In B. c. 273 Q. Ogulnius was again employed on an embassy, being one of the three ambassadors sent by the senate to Ptolemy Philadelphus, who had sought the friendship and alliance of the Romans in consequence of their conquest of Pyrrhiis. The ambassadors were received with great distinction at the Egyptian court, and loaded with presents. These they were obliged to accept ; but the golden crowns which had been given them, they placed on the heads of the king's statues ; and the other presents they deposited in the treasury immediately upon their arrival at Rome, but the senate restored them to them. (Val. Max. iv. 3. § 9 ; Justin, xviii. 3 ; Dion Cass. Fragm. 147, with the note of Fabricius.)

. M. Ogulnius was sent into Etruria with P. Aquillius in B. c. 210, in order to purchase corn to be sent to Tarentum. (Liv. xxvii. 3.)

. M. Ogulnius, tribune of the soldiers in the second legion, fell in battle against the Boii, B. c. 196. ( Liv. xxxiii. 36.)

OGY'GUS or OGY'GES {^ayvyns), is some- times called a Boeotian autochthon, and sometimes a son of Boeotus, and king of the Hectenes, and the first ruler of the territory of Thebes, which was called after him Ogygia. In his reign the waters of lake Copais rose above its banks, and inundated the whole valley of Boeotia. This flood is usually called after him the Ogygian. (Paus. ix, 5. § 1 ; ApoUon. Rhod. iii. 1177 ; Serv. ad Virg, Ed. vi. 41.) The name of Ogyges is also con- nected with Attic story, for in Attica too an Ogygian flood is mentioned, and he is described as the father of the Attic hero Eleusis, and as the father of Daeira, the daughter of Oceanus. (Paus. i. 38. § 7.) In the Boeotian tradition he was the father of Alalcomenia, Thelxinoea and Aulis (Suid. s. V. npa|iSiK7) ; Paus. ix. 33. § 4.) Polybius (iv. 1) and Strabo (viii. p. 384) call Ogyges the last king of Achaia, and some traditions even described him as an Egyptian king. (Tzetz. ad Lye. 1206.) [L. S.]

OICLES or OICLEUS ('Oi"/cA^s, 'o;«Aei/s), a son of Antiphates, grandson of Melampus and father of Amphiaraus, of Argos. (Hom. Od. xv. 241, &c.) Diodorus (iv. 32) on the other hand, calls him a son of Amphiaraus, and Pausanias (vi. 17. § 4), a son of Man tins, the brother of Antiphates. Oicles accompanied Heracles on his expedition against Laomedon of Troy, and was there slain in battle. (Apollod. ii. 6. §4; Diod. iv. 32.) According to other traditions he returned home from the expedition, and dwelt in Arcadia, where he was visited by his grandson Alcmaeon, and where in later times his tomb was shown. (Apollod. iii. 7. § 5 ; Paus. viii. 36. § 4.) [L. S.]

OILEUS ('OiAeus.) 1. A Trojan, charioteer of Bianor, was slain by Agamemnon. (Hom. II. xi. 93.)

. A son of Hodoedocus and Laonome, grandson of Cynus, and great-grandson of Opus, was a king of the Locrians, and married to Eriopis, by whom he became the father of Ajax, who is hence called Oi'lides or Oiliades. O'ileus was also the father of Medon by Rhene. (Hom. //. ii. 527, 725, xiii. Q^l., 712; Propert. iv. 1. 117.) He is also men- tioned among the Argonauts. (Apollod. v. 10. § 8 ; ApoUon. Rhod. i. 74 ; Orph. Argon. 191.) [L. S.]

O'LBIADES ('OAgiaSTjs), the painter of a picture in the senate-house of the Five Hundred, in the Cerameicus, at Athens, representing Calip- pus, the commander of the army which repulsed the invading Gauls under Brennus, at Thermopylae, B. c. 279. (Paus. i. 3. § 4. s. 5.) [P. S.]

OLEN ('flAT^j/), a mythical personage, who is represented as the earliest Greek lyric poet, and the first author of sacred hymns in hexameter verse. He is closely connected with the worship of Apollo, of whom, in one legend, he was made the prophet. His connection with Apollo is also marked by the statement of the Delphian poetess Boeo, who represents him as a Hyperborean, and one of the establishers of oracles ; but the more common story made him a native of Lycia. In either case, his coming from the extreme part of the Pelasgian world to Delos intimates the distant origin of the Ionian worship of Apollo, to which, and not to the Dorian, Olen properly belongs. His name, according to Welcker [Europa und Kadmos^ p. 35), signifies simply the Jiute-player. Of the ancient hymns, which went under his name, Pausanias mentions those to Here, to Achaeia, and to Eileithyia ; the last was in celebration of the birth of Apollo and Artemis. (Herod, iv. 35 ; Paus. i. 18. § 5, ii. 13. § 3, v. 7. § 8, ix. 27. § 2, X. 7. § 8 ; Callim. Hymn, in Dei.