Orontes
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- I The principal river of Syria, now Nahr El-Ashy, Mel. 1, 12, 5; Plin. 5, 21, 18, § 79; Prop. 2, 23 (3, 17), 21.
- —Hence, Ŏrontēus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to the Orontes, Orontian; poet. for Syrian: Orontea myrrha, Prop. 1, 2, 3.—
- II A chief of the Lycii and companion of Aeneas, Verg. A. 1, 113; 220.
(Ὀρόντης, Ὀρόντας.), or Orontas.
1. A Persian, related by blood to the royal family, and distinguished for his military skill. Dareius II. (Nothus) appointed him to be one of the officers of his son, Cyrus the younger; but, after the accession of Artaxerxes Mnenmon, Orontes, who commanded in the citadel of Sardis, held it against Cyrus, professing to be therein obeying the king's commands. Cyrus reduced him to submission and pardoned him : but Orontes revolted from him a second time, fled to the Mysians, and joined them in invading his territory. Again Cyrus subdued him, and again received him into favour. When, however, the prince in his expedition against his brother (B. C. 401), had passed the Euphrates, Orontes asked to be entrusted with 1000 horse, promising to check effectually with these the royal cavalry, which was laying waste the country before the invaders. Cyrus consented ; but, ascertaining from an intercepted letter of his to Artaxerxes, that he meant to desert with the force committed to him, he caused him to be arrested, and summoned a council, consisting of seven of the principal Persians and Clearchus the Lacedaemonian, to try the case. Orontes had not a word of defence or palliation to offer, and was condemned unanimously by the judges. He was then led off to the tent of Artapatas, one of the chief officers of Cyrus, and was never seen again either dead or alive. How he perished no one knew. Xenophon remarks that, on his way from the council, he received all the customary marks of respect from his inferiors, though they knew his doom. (Xen. Anab. 1.6. §§ 1-11.)
2. A Persian, son-in-law of Artaxerxes Mnemon. In the retreat of the Cyrean Greeks, when Tissaphernes joined their march, twenty days after his solemn and hollow treaty with them, Orontes accompanied him with a separate force under his command, and appears to have been a party to the treachery, by which the principal Greek generals were decoyed into the power of the Persians. He held the atrapy of Armenia (Xen. Anab. 2.4. §§ 9, &100.5. 40, 3.5.17, 4.3. $sect; 4.) It seems to have been the same Orontes who was appointed by Artaxerxes (in B. C. 386, according to Diodorus) to command the land forces against Evagoras, the fleet being committed to Tiribazus. In 385, Tiribazus offered Evagoras certain conditions of peace, which the latter was willing to accept, protesting only against the requisition that he should acknowledge himself the mere vassal of Persia, and claiming the title of king. Hereupon Orontes, jealous of Tiribazus, wrote to court accusing him of treason, and obtained in answer an order to arrest his colleague, and to take upon himself the sole command of the forces. But Tiribazus was a favourite with the army, and the general dissatisfaction, together with wome desertions, alarmed Orontes for the result of the war. He hastened therefore to make peace with Evagoras, on the very terms on which the latter had before insisted, and which Tiribazus had refused to grant. Not long after this, the trial of Tiribazus took place. The judges appointed by Artaxerxes unanimously acquitted him, and Orontes was disgraced, and lost the royal favour. (Diod.15.2-4, 8-11; Isocr. Evag. p. 201d; Theopomp. ap. Phot. Bibl. 176; Wess. ad Diod. 14.26; Clint. F. H. vol. ii. App. xii.)
3. A Persian satrap of Mysia, joined in the great revolt of the western satraps from Artaxerxes Mnemon, in B. C. 362. He was appointed to the command of the rebel forces and entrusted with a large sum of money sufficient for the pay of 20,000 mercenaries for a year; but, hoping to gain high rewards from the king, he arrested those who came to place the treasure in his hands, and sent them to Artaxerxes; an act of treachery which he followed up by the surrender of a number of towns, and of the mercenary troops. (Diod. 15.90, 91.)
4. A descendant of Hydarnes (one of the seven conspirators against Smerdis the Magian) is mentioned by Strabo (xi. p.531), as the last Persian prince who reigned in Armenia, before tle division of the country by Antiochus the Great, of Syria, between two of his own officers, Artaxias and Zariadris. [E.E]
ORONTES (Ὀρόντης), the most renowned river of Syria, used by the poet Juvenal for the country, in Tiberim defluxit Orontes.( Juv. iii.) Its original name, according to Strabo, was Typhon (Τυφών), and his account both of its earlier and later names, follows his description of Antioch. The river Orontes flows near the city. This river rising in Coele-Syria, then sinking beneath the earth, again issues forth, and, passing through the district of Apamea to Antiocheia, after approaching the city, runs off to the sea towards Seleuceia. It received its name from one Orontes, who built a bridge over it, having been formerly called Typhon, from a mythic dragon, who being struck with lightning, fled in quest of a hiding-place, and after marking out the course of the stream with its trail, plunged into the earth, from whence forthwith issued the fountain.H e places its embouchure 40 stadia from Seleuceia (16. p. 750). He elsewhere places the source of the river more definitely near to Libanus and the Paradise, and the Egyptian wall, by the country of Apamea (p. 756). Its sources have been visited and described in later times by Mr. Barker in 1835. The river is called by the people El-‘A´si, ‘the rebel,’f rom its refusal to water the fields without the compulsion of water-wheels, according to Abulfeda (Tab. Syr. p. 149), but according to Mr. Barker, from its occasional violence and windings, during a course of about 200 miles in a northerly direction, passing through Hems and Hamah, and finally discharging itself into the sea at Suwëidiah near Antioch.( Journal of the Geog. Soc. vol. 7. p. 99.) The most remote of these sources is only a few miles north of Baalbek, near a village called Labweh, at the foot of the range of Anti-libanus on the top of a hillock, near which passes a small stream, which has its source in the adjoining mountains, and after flowing for several hours through the plain, falls into the basin from which springs the Orontes.T hese fountains are about 12 hours north of Labweh, near the village Kurmul, where is a remarkable monument, square, and solid, terminating above in a pyramid from 60 to 70 feet high. On the four sides hunting scenes are sculptured in relief, of which the drawing borders on the grotesque.( Robinson, Journal of Geog. Soc. vol. 24. p. 32.) There can be no difficulty in connecting this monument with the Paradise or hunting park mentioned by Strabo near the source of the Orontes, similar, no doubt, in origin and character, to those with which the narrative of Xenophon abounds, within the territories of the Persian monarchs. The rise and course of this river and its various tributaries has been detailed by Col. Chesney (Expedition, vol. i. pp. 394--398), and the extreme beauty of its lower course between Antioch and the sea has been described in glowing terms by Captains Irby and Mangles. (Travels, pp. 225, 226.)
[G.W]ORONTES (Ὀρόντης, Ptol. 6.2.4), a mountain chain of Media, which extended in a south-east direction, passing the Ecbatana of Greater Media (Hamadán). It must be considered as an outlying portion of the still greater chain of the Zagros. It is now called the Erwend or Elwend. It is probable that the name is preserved in the celebrated mountain of Kurdistán, now called Rowándiz. In Armenian geography this mountain district is called Erovántúni; which is evidently connected with the ancient Orontes. (St. Martin, Armenia, vol. ii. pp. 363, 429.)
[V]ORONTES a people of ancient Assyria, described by Pliny as being to the east of Gaugamela (6.26. s. 30). There can be no doubt that these are the present Rowándi, a tribe living, as in ancient times, about the great mountain Rowándiz, in Kurdistán, and doubtless connected with the Orontes of Ptolemy (Ptol. 6.2.4). They derive, their name from Erwend, a pure old Persian root, which was usually Hellenized into Orodes or Orontes. (Rawlinson, Journ. of Geog. Soc. 10. p. 73.)
[V](Ὀρόντης). The largest river of Syria, rising in the Anti-Libanus, flowing past Antioch, and falling into the sea at the foot of Mount Pieria. Its earlier name was Typhon (Strabo, p. 750).
- Paus. 8.29.4
- Paus. 6.2.7, Paus. 8.20.2, Paus. 8.33.3, Paus. 10.20.5
- diverted by Roman emperor into navigable canal: Paus. 8.29.3
- body of giant found in: Paus. 8.29.4