his son Phraates IV. successor, but was soon afterwards killed by him (37 B.C.; Dio. Cass. 49.23; Justin 42.4; Plut. Crassus, 33). Plutarch relates that Orodes understood Greek very well; after the death of Crassus the Bacchae of Euripides were represented at his court (Plut. Crass. 33).
2. Orodes II., raised to the throne by the magnates after the death of Phraates V. about A.D. 5, was killed after a short reign "on account of his extreme cruelty" (Joseph. Ant. xviii. 2, 4). (Ed. M.)
OROGRAPHY (Gr. ὄρος, mountain, γράφειν, to write), that
part of physical geography which deals with the geological
formation, the surface features and description of mountains.
The terms “oreography,” “orology” and “oreology” are also
sometimes used.
ORONTES, the ancient name of the chief Syrian river, also called Draco, Typhon and Axius, the last a native form, from whose revival, or continuous employment in native speech, has proceeded the modern name ‛Āsī (“rebel”), which is variously interpreted by Arabs as referring to the stream's impetuosity, to its unproductive channel, or to the fact that it flows away from Mecca. The Orontes rises in the great springs of Labweh on the east side of the Buka‛a, or inter-Lebanon district, very near the fountains of the southward-flowing Litani, and it runs due north, parallel with the coast, falling 2000 ft. through a rocky gorge. Leaving this it expands into the Lake of Homs, having been dammed back in antiquity. The valley now widens out into the rich district of Hamah (Hamath-Epiphancia), below which lie the broad meadow-lands of Ghāb, containing the sites of ancient Apamea and Larissa. This central Orontes valley ends at the rocky barrier of Jisr al-Hadid, where the river is diverted to the west, and the plain of Antioch opens. Two large tributaries from the N., the Afrīn and Kara Su, here reach it through the former Lake of Antioch, which is now drained through an artificial channel (Nahr al-Kowsit). Passing N. of the modern Antakia (Antioch) the Orontes plunges S.W. into a gorge (compared by the ancients to Tempe), and falls 150 ft. in 10 m. to the sea just south of the little port of Suedia (anc. Seleucia Pieriae), after a total course of 170 m. Mainly unnavigable and of little use for irrigation, the Orontes derives its historical importance solely from the convenience of its valley for traffic from N. to S. Roads from N. and N.E., converging at Antioch, follow the course of the stream up to Homs, where they fork to Damascus and to Coele-Syria and the S.; and along its valley have passed the armies and traffic bound to and from Egypt in all ages. (See Antioch and Homs.) (D. G. H.)
OROPUS, a Greek seaport, on the Euripus, in the district
Πειραϊκή, opposite Eretria. It was a border city between
Boeotia and Attica, and its possession was a continual cause
of dispute between the two countries; but at last it came into
the final possession of Athens, and is always alluded to under
the Roman empire as an Attic town. The actual harbour,
which was called Delphinium, was at the mouth of the Asopus,
about a mile north of the city. A village still called Oropo
occupies the site of the ancient town. The famous oracle of
Amphiaraus was situated in the territory of Oropus, 12 stadia
from the city. The site has been excavated by the Greek
Archaeological Society; it contained a temple, a sacred spring,
into which coins were thrown by worshippers, altars and porticoes,
and a small theatre, of which the proscenium is well preserved.
Worshippers used to consult the oracle of Amphiaraus
by sleeping on the skin of a slaughtered ram within the sacred
building.
OROSIUS, PAULUS (fl. 415), historian and theologian, was born in Spain (possibly at Braga in Galicia) towards the close of the 4th century. Having entered the Christian priesthood, he naturally took an interest in the Priscillianist controversy then going on in his native country, and it may have been in connexion with this that he went to consult Augustine at Hippo in 413 or 414. After staying for some time in Africa as the disciple of Augustine, he was sent by him in 415 to Palestine with a letter of introduction to Jerome, then at Bethlehem. The ostensible purpose of his mission (apart, of course, from those of pilgrimage and perhaps relic-hunting) was that he might gain further instruction from Jerome on the points raised by the Priscillianists and Origenists; but in reality, it would seem, his business was to stir up and assist Jerome and others against Pelagius, who, since the synod of Carthage in 411, had been living in Palestine, and finding some acceptance there. The result of his arrival was that John, bishop of Jerusalem, was induced to summon at his capital in June 415 a synod at which Orosius communicated the decisions of Carthage and read such of Augustine's writings against Pelagius as had at that time appeared. Success, however, was scarcely to be hoped for amongst Orientals who did not understand Latin, and whose sense of reverence was unshocked by the question of Pelagius, et quis est mihi Augustinus? All that Orosius succeeded in obtaining was John's consent to send letters and deputies to Innocent of Rome; and, after having waited long enough to learn the unfavourable decision of the synod of Diospolis or Lydda in December of the same year, he returned to north Africa, where he is believed to have died. According to Gennadius he carried with him recently discovered relics of the protomartyr Stephen from Palestine to Minorca, where they were efficacious in converting the Jews.
The earliest work of Orosius, Consultatio sive commonitorium ad Augustinum de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum, explains its object by its title; it was written soon after his arrival in Africa, and is usually printed in the works of Augustine along with the reply of the latter, Contra Priscillianistas et Origenistas liber ad Orosium. His next treatise, Liber apologeticus de arbitrii liberate, was written during his stay in Palestine, and in connexion with the controversy which engaged him there. It is a keen but not always fair criticism of the Pelagian position from that of Augustine. The Historiae adversum Paganos was undertaken at the suggestion of Augustine, to whom it is dedicated. When Augustine proposed this task he had already planned and made some progress with his own De civitate Dei; it is the same argument that is elaborated by his disciple, namely, the evidence from history that the circumstances of the world had not really become worse since the introduction of Christianity. The work, which is thus a pragmatical chronicle of the calamities that have happened to mankind from the fall down to the Gothic period, has little accuracy or learning, and even less of literary charm to commend it; but it was the first attempt to write the history of the world as a history of God guiding humanity. Its purpose gave it value in the eyes of the orthodox, and the Hormesta, Ormesta, or Ormista as it was called, no one knows why (from Or[osii] M[undi] Hist[oria] or from de miseria mundi? see Mörner, p. 180, for list of guesses), speedily attained a wide popularity. Nearly two hundred MSS. of it have survived. A free abridged translation by King Alfred is still extant (Old English text, with original in Latin, edited by H. Sweet, 1883). The editio princeps of the original appeared at Augsburg (1471); that of Haverkamp (Leiden, 1738 and 1767) has now been superseded by C. Zangemeister, who has edited the Hist. and also the Lib. apol. in vol. v. of the Corp. scr. eccl. Lat. (Vienna, 1882), as well as an edit. min. (Leipzig, Teubner, 1889). The “sources” made use of by Orosius have been investigated by T. de Mörner (De Orosii vita ejusque hist. libr. vii. adversus Paganos, 1844); besides the Old and New Testaments, he appears to have consulted Caesar, Livy, Justin, Tacitus, Suetonius, Florus and a cosmography, attaching also great value to Jerome's translation of the Chronicles of Eusebius.
ORPHAN, the term used of one who has lost both parents by death, sometimes of one who has lost father or mother only. In Law, an orphan is such a person who is under age. The Late Lat. orphanus, from which the word, chiefly owing to its use in the Vulgate, was adopted into English, is a transliteration of ὀρφανός, in the same sense, the original meaning being “bereft of,” “destitute,” classical Lat. orbus. The Old English word for an orphan was steópcild, stepchild. By the custom of the city of London, the lord mayor and aldermen, in the Court of Orphans, have the guardianship of the children still under age of deceased freemen. Orphans' courts exist for the guardianship of orphans and administration of their estates in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the United States. In other states these are performed by officers of the Probate Court, known as “surrogates,” or by other titles.
ORPHEUS, in Greek legend, the chief representative of the art of song and playing on the lyre, and of great importance in the religious history of Greece. The derivation of the name is uncertain, the most probable being that which connects it with
