Brill’s New Pauly

Get access Subject: Classical Studies
Edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider (Antiquity) and Manfred Landfester (Classical Tradition).
English translation edited by Christine F. Salazar (Antiquity) and Francis G. Gentry (Classical Tradition)

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Brill´s New Pauly is the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, published by Verlag J.B. Metzler since 1996. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. The section on Antiquity of Brill´s New Pauly are devoted to Greco-Roman antiquity and cover more than two thousand years of history, ranging from the second millennium BC to early medieval Europe. Special emphasis is given to the interaction between Greco-Roman culture on the one hand, and Semitic, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavonic culture, and ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on the other hand. The section on the Classical Tradition is uniquely concerned with the long and influential aftermath of antiquity and the process of continuous reinterpretation and revaluation of the ancient heritage, including the history of classical scholarship. Brill´s New Pauly presents the current state of traditional and new areas of research and brings together specialist knowledge from leading scholars from all over the world. Many entries are elucidated with maps and illustrations and the English edition will include updated bibliographic references.

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Opaeum

(83 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] (ὀπαῖον, opaîon). The opening in the roof or dome in the architecture of antiquity; an important element of lighting in ancient buildings. Rare in Greek architecture ('lantern' of the Lysicrates monument in Athens; Telesterion of Eleusis), but common in Roman dome building. Dome, Construction of Domes; Roofing Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W.D. Heilmeyer (ed.), Licht und Architektur, 1990  C. Spuler, Opaion und Laterne. Zur Frage der Beleuchtung antiker und frühchristlicher Bauten durch ein Opaion und zur Entstehung der Kuppellaterne, 1973.

Opellius

(160 words)

Author(s): Franke, Thomas (Bochum)
[German version] [1] Emperor, 3rd cent. AD Imp. Caes. M.O. (Antoninus) Diadumenianus, son of the emperor M.O. Macrinus, born on 14 or 19 September 208 AD (Cass. Dio 78,34,2; SHA Diad. 5,5). At the beginning of 217 he was given the title of clarissimus puer (CIL XV 7505), shortly afterwards he was also princeps iuventutis and nobilissimus Caesar (Cass. Dio 78,17,1; 19,1; Herodian. 5,4,12; Aur. Vict. Caes. 22,1; AE 1953,54; 1954,8; 1960,36; RIC IV, 2,22). In May 218, after the beginning of the mutiny of troops in Raphanaea in Syria, Macrinus made him Au…

Opera

(3,186 words)

Author(s): Meier, Mischa (Bielefeld)
Meier, Mischa (Bielefeld) [German version] A. Early Period - General Characteristics (CT) Any attempt to trace the heritage of ancient drama in modern opera must focus less on the continuation of ancient genres in the post-medieval world than on a series of changing ideas and projections that have accompanied the history of opera and have on several occasions played a decisive role in its development; however, there are no historical or genre-specific links with ancient drama. When around 1600 a group of po…

Opera

(253 words)

Author(s): Schneider, Helmuth (Kassel)
[German version] The Latin term opera was used to describe the output of work demanded of a worker in one day. This says nothing about that worker's legal status; he could be a freeman, freedman or a slave (Cic. Off. 1,41; cf. also the definition in Paulus, Dig. 38,1,1: “operae sunt diurnum officium”). The Roman agrarian writers use opera to determine precisely at what time certain work had to be done; in this way, it was possible to specify the speed of the work above and beyond the working hours and to calculate the number of slaves needed for a rural…

Operae libertorum

(309 words)

Author(s): Schiemann, Gottfried (Tübingen)
[German version] The services (more precisely: the daily duties) Roman ex-slaves were obliged to perform for their patron ( p atronus ) after their manumission. The phenomenon of servitude for freed people is also known from other ancient slave-holder societies ( paramonḗ ). OL did not result from the slave-patron relationship itself. Rather, freed men and -women were obliged by oath to their manumitters and repeated the obligation after being set free either in the same form or by  stipulatio . Only by means of this repetition could undertaking of OL bec…

Operarii

(4 words)

see Day-labourers

Ophelestes

(49 words)

Author(s): Antoni, Silke (Kiel)
(Ὀφελέστης; Opheléstēs). [German version] [1] Trojan Trojan, killed by Teucrus outside the city (Hom. Il. 8,274). Antoni, Silke (Kiel) [German version] [2] Paeonian warrior at Troy Paeonian warrior at Troy, killed by Achilles [1] (Hom. Il. 21,210; schol. Hom. Il. 13,643 Maass with conjecture). Antoni, Silke (Kiel)

Ophelion

(65 words)

Author(s): Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen)
[German version] (Ὠφελίων/ Ōphelíōn). Attic comedian from the 4th cent. BC. The titles of four plays have survived (Δευκαλίων/ Deukalíōn; Ἰάλεμος/ Iálemos or ‘Simple Simon; Κάλλαισχρος/ Kállaischros - it is unclear from this name whether the play is about a historical or fictitious person; Κένταυρος/ Kéntauros). There are six fragments extant which are ineffectual except for fragment 3 (parody of Plato). Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography PCG VII, 1989, 97-99.

Ophellas

(399 words)

Author(s): Ameling, Walter (Jena)
(Οφέλλας/ Ophéllas). [German version] [1] Official in the Hellenistic period O. of Olynthus, presumably a subordinate of Cleomenes [7] in the administration of Egypt ( epimelētḗs in Athribis; see epimelētaí ). He is said to have blackmailed the nomárchai subordinate to him ([Aristot.] 1353a 5ff.). Agathocles [2] Ameling, Walter (Jena) Bibliography Berve 2, Nr. 599. [German version] [2] Friend and official of Alexander [4] the Great Son of Silenus, Macedonian from Pella, phílos of Alexander [4] the Great and his (liturgical)…

Opheltes

(251 words)

Author(s): Ambühl, Annemarie (Groningen)
[German version] (Ὀφέλτης/ Ophéltēs). Son of king Lycurgus [3] of Nemea and of Eurydice. He was killed as a child by a snake, when, despite an oracle's warning, his nurse, the Lemnian Hypsipyle (Lemnian women), left him unguarded on the ground to show the Seven against Thebes a spring. The Seven kill the snake, rescue the nurse from the death penalty and bury O. The seer Amphiaraus, who regards the misfortune as a bad omen for the war campaign, renames O. Archemorus ('beginning of death'). The fune…

Ophieis, Ophioneis

(112 words)

Author(s): Freitag, Klaus (Münster)
[German version] (Ὀφιεῖς/ Ophieîs, Ὀφιονεῖς/ Ophioneîs). One of the three Aetolian sub-tribes living in the highlands of Aetolia in the 5th cent. BC. It disintegrated into smaller associations, among whom the Bomieis and the Callieis are known (Thuc. 3,96,3; 3,100). In 426 BC, the O. were attacked by the Athenians (Thuc. 3,84,4-98,5). After the formation of the Aetolian League in the 4th cent., they formed a member state of the koinon (Str. 10,2,5; 10,3,6; SGDI 1978,3; 1862,2; IG IX 12, 1, 32; 46). Freitag, Klaus (Münster) Bibliography P. Funke, Polisgenese und Urbanisierung in Ait…

Ophion

(131 words)

Author(s): Käppel, Lutz (Kiel)
(Ὀφίων/ Ophíōn). [German version] [1] First ruler of the world also Ophioneus (Pherecydes of Syrus 7 B 4 Diels/ Kranz). First ruler of the world, overthrown by Kronos (Apoll. Rhod. 1,503-506), husband of Eurynome [1], referred to by schol. Lycophr. 1191 as a Titan, considered by Nonn. Dion. 41,352 to be identical with Uranus. The idea of a serpent ( óphis) as ruler of the world may be derived from Orphic (Orphism) or near eastern beliefs [1]. Käppel, Lutz (Kiel) [German version] [2] Giant in the shape of a serpent Giant in the shape of a serpent, defeated by Zeus in a battle against …

Ophir

(141 words)

Author(s): Renger, Johannes (Berlin)
[German version] (Hebrew Ōfīr, Ōfir; LXX: Οὐφειρ/ Oupheir, Σωφαρα/ Sōphara, Σωφειρ(α)/ Sōpheir(a), Σωφηρα/ Sōphēra, Σωφιρα/ Sōphira, Σουφειρ/ Soupheir, Σουφιρ/ Souphir, Σοφειρ/ Sopheir). According to the OT, O. was the land of origin of gold (1 Kg 9:28, 22:49) and semi-precious stones (1 Kg 10:11, Job 28:16), which Solomon had shipped over the Red Sea to Israel. Gold from O. is also mentioned in a Hebrew ostracon (epigraphically dated between the 8th and 6th cents. BC) [2]. The location of O. is disputed: both southern Arabia (or the eastern African coast) and India (because of a Supara…

Ophis

(63 words)

Author(s): Lienau, Cay (Münster)
[German version] (Ὄφις/ Óphis). River on the plain of Mantinea that originally flowed through the city; when the city was reestablished in 370 BC it was diverted to flow around it (Paus. 8,8,4; 7; Xen. Hell. 5,2,4f.; Diod. Sic. 15,12,1) and into the Katavothras at the western edge of the plain. Lienau, Cay (Münster) Bibliography E. Meyer, s.v. O. (1), RE 18, 649.

Ophites

(188 words)

Author(s): Holzhausen, Jens (Bamberg)
[German version] Christian Gnostic sect; first mentioned in Clem. Al. Strom. 7,17 (108,2). Orig. Contra Celsum 6,24-38 attributed to them the diagram described by Celsus, but expressed doubts as to whether Ophites were still in existence (Hippolytus, Refutatio 8,20,3 makes no mention of the sect). Its founder was said to be Euphrates (in Hippolytus, Refutatio 5,13,9 he was called “Perat”). They were said to curse Jesus. According to Theodoretus (PG 83,364) and Epiphanius (Adv. haereses 37), the sy…

Ophthalmology

(1,093 words)

Author(s): Nutton, Vivian (London)
[German version] A. Egypt The eye-doctors of Egypt were already famous when in about 540 BC the Persian king Cyrus [1] asked the Pharaoh Amasis for one to cure him (Hdt. 3,1; cf. 2,84). Diseases of the eyes were quite common in Egypt. Three of the seven early medical papyri are devoted to such diseases. P. Ebers alone contains more than 100 recipes for blindness. Some of these prescriptions involve Dreckapotheke, while others, for example, use liver - rich in vitamin A and a valuable remedy for xerophthalmia. Eye surgery seem to have been rarely performed and Egy…

Opilio

(79 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Lütkenhaus, Werner (Marl)
[German version] [1] Roman cognomen Roman cognomen ('shepherd'), occurring only in late Antiquity. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) Bibliography 1 Degrassi, FCIR, 260 2 Kajanto, Cognomina, 323. [German version] [2] Official under Odoacer Sometime between 476 and 490 AD, O. was comes sacrarum largitionum under Odoacer, perhaps from Liguria [2. 183]. He is mentioned in Cassiodorus's Variae. O.'s sons Cyprianus and O. held offices under Theoderic the Great. Lütkenhaus, Werner (Marl) Bibliography 1 PLRE 2, 807f. 2 D. Henning, Periclitans res publica, 1999, 109, 183.

Opillus, D. (?) Aurelius

(188 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Scholar from the Republican period, Italic, freedman of an Epicurean and hence a teacher of philosophy at first, and later of rhetoric and grammar. In 92/91 BC he followed the exile Rutilius Rufus to Smyrna where he lived to a ripe old age; for his life as a whole, see Suet. Gram. 6 (cf. in this respect [5]), who calls him an antiquarian Buntschriftsteller. Of his works ( Musae/'Muses'; Pinax/'Tablet'), only grammatical fragments (explanations of words, etymologies) have attained a position in the glossographic tradition via the filter of Varro. O.…

Opimia

(102 words)

Author(s): Müller, Christian (Bochum)
[German version] [1] Vestal vergin, buried alive in 483 BC Vestal virgin, buried alive for unchastity in 483 BC. Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 8,89,4 calls her O., but her name is given differently elsewhere (e.g. Liv. 2,42,11); the name was probably established by ancient authors through associations between the vestal concerned, not known by name, and others whose names were recorded (perhaps O. [2]). Müller, Christian (Bochum) [German version] [2] Vestal virgin, buried alive in 216 BC As a Vestal virgin, she was convicted for unchastity and buried alive in 216 BC (Plut. Fabius…

Opimius

(381 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Bringmann, Klaus (Frankfurt/Main)
Roman family name (in inscriptions also Opeimius), possibly derived from the (undocumented) cognomen Opimus (cf. Quint. Decl. 302). The family gained notoriety through O. [1] in the 2nd cent. BC, but in the 1st cent. BC no longer played a role in politics. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] O., L. Consul in 121 BC, declared opponent of the Gracchi In 125 BC, he was praetor urbanus and destroyed the rebellious town of Fregellae, which had risen up against Rome after M. Fulvius [I 9] Flaccus's initiative to give Roman citizenship to the Italic all…
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