ODEUM—OPPIUS MONS

371

Jord. ii. 429, 625; JRS 1919, 43, 56; Cons. 171 ; Bullar. Vatican, i. 25
(a. 1023 Leo IX) ; Urlichs 228). It is a monolith of red granite, without
hieroglyphics, 25.36 metres in height (cf. Not. Brev. and Jord. ii. 187),
and was moved from its ancient to its present site in 1586 by Fontana,
at the command of Sixtus V (LS iv. 144-147 ; LR 554, and literature
cited, for removal 2), having stood erect from the time when it was brought
to the city (HJ 657 ; BC 1897, 225-227 = Ob. Eg. 149-151). The vessel
which brought it was used as the nucleus of the central breakwater
on which the pharos stood (Suet. Claud. 20) or the left-hand breakwater
(Plin. NH xvi. 76 ; xxxvi. 4) of the Claudian harbour of Portus Augusti
(Porto) (NS 1907, 734-740). The mediaeval church of S. Stefanus de
Agulia took its name from it (HCh 472).
Odeum : a building for musical performances, erected by Domitian in the
campus Martius, probably near the Stadium (Suet. Dom. 5 ; Eutrop.
vii. 23 ; Chron. 146 ; Hier. a. Abr. 2105). It was restored by Apollo-
dorus in the reign of Trajan (Cass. Dio lxix. 4) and contained 10600 loca,
that is, places for about 5000 spectators (cf. BC 1894, 310-324). In the
fourth century it was regarded as among the most conspicuous monuments
in Rome (Amm. Marcell. xvi. 10. 14) ; in the fifth as one of the seven
mira praecipua (Pol. Silv. 545)· It is possible that the artificial elevation,
called monte Giordano, covers its ruins (HJ 594).
Officinae Minii : mills for the working of red lead {minium) brought to
Rome from Spain (Vitr. vii. 9. 4). They were on the Quirinal between
the temple of Flora and that of Quirinus (q.v.), and therefore probably
at the foot of the hill, near the present Via Rasella (BC 1889, 379 ; RhM
1894, 407 ; HJ 412).
Oppius Mons : the southern spur of the Esquiline hill (Varro, LL v. 50),
separated from the Cispius (q.v.) on the north by the valley of the
Subura, and from the Caelius on the south by the valley of the Colosseum.
The Oppius and the Cispius united to form the Esquiline plateau just
inside the line of the Servian wall. In the divisions of the Septimontium
(Fest. 341, 348) Fagutal (q.v.) appears as an independent locality, so
that we may infer that originally Oppius was strictly applied to this
spur except the western end (HJ 254-257 ; Mon. L. xv. 782-785). Part
of this western end was also called Carinae (q.v.). The name Oppius
continued in use, at least for religious purposes, to the end of the republic
(CIL i2. 1003 =vi. 32455—for this inscription, which mentions the Montani
1 The story that, when the obelisk was being raised the silence was broken by a sailor
named Bresca, from San Remo, who shouted “acqua alle funi,” appears in a new form in
Rawlinson’s Diary, vol. i. 7 Dec. 1720 (Bodleian MS. Rawl. D. 1180, p. 163), ‘the great
obelisk of which is told this story, that when it was raising, the ropes fell too short, and so
great was the fear of failing that silence was commanded on pain of death, but an English
sailor present bid them wet the ropes, which then lengthened and the work was finished,
but instead of a reward, the sailor had only his fife given him, forfeited by his transgression
of the command.·’ (Ficoroni, Roma Moderna, 19; cf. Hulsen in Byz. Neugr. Jahrb. ii.
453-460 ; and Roma i. (1923), pp. 412-418, who points out that the story really belongs to
the obelisk at Constantinople and is taken from the relief on its base.)