Oppius

Oppĭus, i, m.; Oppĭa, ae, f.,

• the name of a Roman gens.
• • • 1 C. Oppius, a friend of Caesar, Cic. Att. 4, 16, 14 al.—
    • 2 L. Oppius, a Roman knight, Cic. Fl. 13, 31.—
    • 3 P. Oppius, a quaestor, defended by Cicero; v. the fragm. in Orell. p. 444.—In fem.: Oppia, the wife of L. Mindius, Cic. Fam. 13, 28, 2; v. also Juv. 10, 220 Jan.; id. 10, 322.
• —Hence, Oppĭus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to an Oppius, Oppian: Oppia lex, proposed by the people's tribune, C. Oppius, against women's extravagance in dress, Liv. 34, 1, Tac. A. 3, 33; 34: Oppius mons, one of the summits of the Esquiline Hill, Varr. L. L. 5, § 50 Müll.; Fest. s. v. septimontium, pp. 340 and 348 Müll.; cf. Becker's Antiq. 1, pp. 521, 534.

Oppius, a, um, röm. Familienname, unter dem am bekanntesten C. Oppius, der vertraute Freund Cäsars, mit Unrecht für den Verf. des bellum Alex. u. Hisp. (am Cäsar) gehalten, Suet. Caes. 52 u. 56 72: oft in Cic. epp., s. Orelli Onomast. Tull. 2. p. 430 sq. Vgl. Herzog Caes. b. G. p. 592 sq. – Adi. Oppius mōns, einer der beiden den mons Esquilinus bildenden Hügel (vgl. Cispius), j. Hügel von St. Pietro in Vincola, Varro LL. 5, 50.

Oppĭus, (11) ĭī, m. , nom dʼune famille romaine : Cic. Fl. 31 ; Att. 4, 16, 14 || Oppĭus, a, um, dʼOppius : Oppia lex Liv. 34, 1, loi Oppia, cf. Tac. Ann. 3, 33 ; Oppius mons Varro L. 5, 50, un des deux sommets de lʼEsquilin.

O'ppius

1. M. OPPIUS, was elected, with Sext. Manilius. as the commander of the soldiers, in their secession to the Aventine during the second decemvirate, B. C. 449 (Liv. 3.51; Dionys. A. R. 11.43, 44).

O'ppius

2. C. Oppius, was elected one of the tribunes of the plebs on the overthrow of the second decemvirate, B. C. 449 (Liv. 3.54).

O'ppius

3. C. Oppius, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 213, in the middle of the second Punic war, carried a law to curtail the expenses and luxuries of Roman women. It enacted that no woman should have more than half an ounce of gold, nor wear a dress of different colours, nor ride in a carriage in the city, or in any town, or within a mile of it, unless on account of public sacrifices. This law was repealed in B. C. 195, notwithstanding the vehement opposition of the elder Cato (Liv. 34.1_8; V. Max. 9.1.3; Tac. Ann. 3.33, 34).

O'ppius

4. C. Oppius, a praefect of the allies, was sent by the consul P. Aelius Paetus, in B. C. 201, with some raw levies to attack the territories of the Boii, but was cut off by the enemy with a large number of his men (Liv. 31.2).

O'ppius

5. L. Oppius, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 197 (Liv. 32.28), is probably the same as L. Oppius Salinator [No. 6], though Livy omits his praenomen.

O'ppius

6. L. Oppius Salinator, plebeian aedile, B. C. 193, was sent inthe following year to convey a fleet of twenty ships to Sicily. He was praetor in B. C. 191, and obtained Sardinia as his province. (Liv. 35.23, 24, 36.2).

O'ppius

7. Q. Oppius, one of the Roman generals in the Mithridatic war, B. C. 88. He is called proconsul in the Epitome of Livy, from which we may infer that he had been praetor, and was afterwards sent, as was frequently the case, with the title of proconsul to take the command of an army. He had possession of the city of Laodiceia in Phrygia, near the river Lycus; but when Mithridates had conquered the whole of the surrounding country, the inhabitants of Laodiceia gave up Oppius to the king on the promise of their receiving pardon by so doing. Mithridates did no injury to Oppius, but carried him with him in his various campaigns, exhibiting to the people of Asia a Roman general as a prisoner. Mlithridates subsequently surrendered him to Sulla. (Liv. Epit. 78; Athen. 5.213a; Appian, App. Mith. 17, 20, 112.)

O'ppius

8. Oppius stated by an ancient scholiast to have been praetor in Achaia, and to have been accused at the instigation of Verres. We may therefore place his praetorship about B. C. 80. (Schol. in Cic. Verr. p. 389; Pseudo-Ascon. in Cic. Verr. pp. 128, 171, ed. Orelli.)

O'ppius

9. P. Oppius, was quaestor in Bithynia to M. Aurelius Cotta, who was consul in B. C. 74, and who remained in Bithynia for the next three or four years. Oppiusappears to have appropriated to his own use many of the supplies intended for the troops ; and when he was charged with this by Cotta, he forgot himself so far as to draw his sword upon the proconsul. Cotta accordinglydismissed him from the province, and sent a letter to the senate, in which he formally accused Oppius of malversation, and of making an attempt upon the life of his imnperator. He was brought to trial in B. C. 69, and was defended by Cicero. The speech which Cicero delivered in his favour is lost, but it seems to have been one of considerable merit, as it is referred to several times by Quintilian. (D. C. 36.23 ; Quint. Inst. 5.10.69, 5.13.17; Sall. Hist. iii. p. 218. ed. Gerlach; Cic. Fraigm. vol. iv. p. 444, ed. Orelli; Drumann, Geschichte Romns, vol. v. p. 343.)

O'ppius

10. C. Oppius, one of the most intimate friends of C. Julius Caesar. Together with Cornelius Balbus, with whose name that of Oppius is usually coupled, he managed most of Caesar's private affairs, and was well acquainted with all his plans and wishes. In the time of A. Gellius (17.9) there was extant a collection of Caesar's letters to Oppius and Balbus, written in a kind of cipher. The regard which Caesar had for Oppius is shown by an anecdote related both by Plutarch (Plut. Caes. 17) and Suetonius (Suet. Jul. 72), who tell us, that when Caesar with his retinue was on one occasion overtaken by a storm and compelled to take refuge in a poor man's hut, which contained only a single chamber, and that hardly large enough for one person, he made Oppius, who was in delicate health, sleep in the hut, while he and the rest of his friends slept in the porch. On the breaking out of the civil war in B. C. 49, the name of Oppius often occurs in Cicero's letters. Oppius and Balbus had frequent correspondence with Cicero, in which they endeavoured to quiet his apprehensions as to Caesar's designs, and used all their efforts to persuade him to espouse the cause of the latter. There is in the collection of Cicero's letters a letter written to him in the joint names of Oppius and Balbus, accompanied by a letter of Caesar's to them, in which the great Roman at the very commencement of the civil war promises to use his victory with moderation, and says that he will try to overcome his enemies by mercy and kindness, a promise which he faithfully kept to the end of his life. (Cic. Att. 9.7; comp. ad Att. 9.13, ad Farn. 2.16, ad Att. 11.17, 18, 12.19.) To the death of Caesar, Oppius continued to hold the same place in his favour and esteem, and in the year before his death we read that Oppius and Balbus had the management and control of all affairs at Rome during the absence of the dictator in Spain, though the government of the city was nominally in the hands of M. Lepidus as magister equitum. (Cic. Fam. 6.8, 19.) After the death of the dictator, Oppius espoused the cause of the young Octavian, and exhorted Cicero to do the same (ad Att. 16.15).

Oppius was the author of several works, which are referred to by the ancient writers, but all of which have perished. The authorship of the histories of the Alexandrine, African, and Spanish wars was a disputed point as early as the time of Suetonius. some assigning them to Oppius and others to Hirtits. (Suet. Cues. 56.) But the similarity in style and diction between the work on the Alexandrine war and the last book of the Commentaries on the Gallic war, leads to the conclusion that the former, at all events, was the work of Hirtius. The book on the African war may have been written by Oppius, to whom it is confidently assigned by Niebuhr, who remarks, "that the work is very instructive and highly trustworthy, but that the language is quite different from that of the work on the Alexandrine war; there is a certain mannerism about it, and it is on the whole less beautiful." (Lectures on Roman History, vol. v. p. 47.) Oppius also wrote the lives of several of the most distinguished Romans. The following are expressly mentioned as his composition: 1. A Life of Scipio Africanus the elder. (Charisius, p. 119, ed. Putschius; Gel. 7.1.) 2. A Life of Cassius. (Charisius, l.c.) 3. A Life of Marius. (Plin. Nat. 11.45. s. 104.) 4. A Life of Pompey, quoted by Plutarch (Pomp.10), who observes, "that when Oppius is speaking of the enemies or friends of Caesar, it is necessary to be very cautions in believing what he says." 5. Probably a Life of Caesar, from which Suetonius and Plutarch appear to have derived some of their statements. (Comp. Suet. Cues. 53; Plut. Caes.17.) After Caesar's death, Oppius wrote a book to prove that Caesarion was not the son of Julius Caesar by Cleopatra, as the latter pretended. (Suet. Caes. 52. Comp. Vossius, De Historicis Latinis, i, 13, pp. 67, 68, Lugd. Bat. 1651.)

O'ppius

11. L. Oppius, a Roman eques, was a witness on behalf of Flaccus, whom Cicero defended in B. C. 59. (Cic. pro Flacc. 13.) He is probably the same as the L. Oppius, M. f., whom Cicero recommended to Quintius Gallius, and whom he calls homo mihi familiaris, and famniliarissimus (ad Fazm. 13.43), and also the same as the L. Oppius, whom Cicero recommended to Q. Philippus, proconsul in Asia, B. C. 54 (ad Fam. 13.73, 74).

O'ppius, P. or Sp. O'ppius

12. P. or Sp. Oppius, praetor, B. C. 44. (Cic. Pidilipp. 3.10.)

O'ppius

13. M. Oppius, was proscribed together with his father in B. C. 43. The father was unable to leave the city of his own accord on account of his great feebleness through old age, but his son carried him on his shoulders and reached Sicily with him in safety. This instance of filial piety excited such admiration among the people, that he was afterwards elected aedile; and as he had not sufficient property to discharge the duties of the office, the people contributed the requisite money for the purpose, and on his death further testified their affection towards him by burying him in the Campus Martius. (Appian, App. BC 4.41; D. C. 48.53.) He is often said to be the same as the M. Oppius, whom Cicero calls in a letter to Pompeius (ad Att. 8.11, B) "vigilans homo et industrius," but the modern editions have M. Eppius and not M. Oppius.

O'ppius

14. M. Oppius Capito, occurs on the coins of M. Antonius, struck about B. C. 40, as proprietor and praefectus classis. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 264.) He may be the same as the Oppius Capito, a mnan of praetorian rank, of whom Pliny (Plin. Nat. 7.13. s. 15) relates that he had a scirrhus in his stormach.

O'ppius

15. Oppius Chares, sometimes but erroneously called Cares, a Latin grarmmarlian, who taught in the province of Gallia togata towards the end of the republic, and continued his instructions to extreme old age, when he had lost not only the power of movement, but even of sight. (Suet. de Ill. Gramm. 3.) This grammariai may be the Oppius, whose work De Silvestribs Arboribus is referred to by Macrobius. (Saturn. 2.14, 15.) Oppius is also quoted by Festus (p. 182, ed. Miiler), in explanation of the meaning of the word ordianarius.

O'ppius

16. Oppius Gallus, whose scandalous treatment by M. Popilius is related by Valerius Maximus (7.8.9).

O'ppius

17. Oppius Statianus, legate of M. Antonius in his unfortunate canlpaigl against the Parthians in B. D. 36. When Antonius hastened forward to besiege Phraata, he left Oppius with two legions and the baggage to follow him; but Oppius was surprised by the enemy, and he and all his men were cut to pieces. (D. C. 49.25, 44 ; Plut. Ant. 38.)

O'ppius

18. Oppius Sabinus, a man of consular rank, was sent against the Dacians in the reign of Domitian, and perished in the expedition. (Eutrop. 7.23; Suet. Dom. 6.) The name, however, does not occur in any of the consular fasti, whence some have proposed to read Appius, instead of Oppius in Eutropius and Suetonius.

O'ppius

19. Q. Oppius, known only from the annexed coin, cannot be identified with certainty with any of the persons previously mentioned. The Pr. after the name of Q. OPPIVS may signify either praetor or praeiectus. The obverse represents the head of Venus, and the reverse Victory: the coin was probably struck in one of the provinces. (Eckhel vol. v. pp. 264, 265.)

Oppius

(1) C. Oppius, a tribune of the plebs B.C. 213, who carried a law to curtail the expenses and luxuries of Roman women. (See Sumptuariae Leges.)

(2) C. Oppius, an intimate friend of C. Iulius Caesar, whose private affairs he managed in conjunction with Cornelius Balbus, and whose biography he wrote. He has by some been regarded as the author of the pseudo-Caesarian treatises De Bello Alexandrino, De Bello Africano, and De Bello Hispaniensi. As to the first of these, his authorship is possible but not probable; as to the other two it is impossible. See Nipperdey, De Supplementis Commentariorum Caesaris (Berlin, 1846); and Teuffel, Rom. Lit. i. pp. 338-341 (Eng. trans. 1891).