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Oritae

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Map of Oriens, showing Oritai within Gedrosia

The Oritae or Oreitae (Ancient Greek: Ὠρεῖται,[1] Ōreîtai or Ὠρῖται[2]) were a tribe of the sea-coast of Gedrosia, mentioned by several ancient writers.[3]

History

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Map (detail) showing the route of Alexander through Gedrosia

The Oritae were a people inhabiting the sea-coast of Gedrosia, with whom Alexander fell in on his march from the Indus to Persia in 326 BC.[4] Their territory appears to have been bounded on the east by the Arabis, and on the west by a mountain spur which reached the sea at Cape Moran.[3]

There is considerable variation in the manner in which their names are written in different authorities: thus they appear as Oritae in Arrian;[5] Oritai (Ὠρῖται) in Strabo,[6] Dionysius Periegetes,[7] Plutarch,[8] and Stephanus Byzantinus;[2] as Ori or Oroi (Ὦροι) in Arrian[9] and Pliny;[10] and Horitae in Curtius.[11][3]

Arrian and Strabo have described them at some length. According to the former, they were an Indian nation,[12] who wore the same arms and dress as those people, but differed from them in manners and institutions.[13] According to the latter they were a race living under their own laws,[6] and armed with javelins hardened at the point by fire and poisoned.[14][3]

In another place Arrian appears to have given the true Indians to the river Arabis (or Purali), the eastern boundary of the Oritae;[15] and the same view is taken by Pliny.[16] Pliny calls them "Ichthyophagi Oritae";[17] Curtius "Indi maritimi".[18][3]

Rambacia (Ῥαμβακία) was the first village of the Oritae, which was taken by Alexander the Great.[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Oritae
  2. ^ a b Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, YO710.9
  3. ^ a b c d e Vaux 1857, p. 493.
  4. ^ Arr. Anab. vi. 21, 22, 24, &c.
  5. ^ Arr. Ind. 23; Anab. vi. 22.
  6. ^ a b Strab. xv. p. 720.
  7. ^ Dionys. Per. v. 1096.
  8. ^ Plut. Alex. c. 66.
  9. ^ Arr. vi. 28.
  10. ^ Plin. HN. vi. 23. § 26.
  11. ^ Curt. ix. 10. 6.
  12. ^ Arr. vi. 21; cf. Diod. Sic. xvii. 105.
  13. ^ Arr. Ind. c. 23.
  14. ^ Strab. xv. p. 723.
  15. ^ Arr. Ind. c. 22.
  16. ^ Plin. NH. vii. 2.
  17. ^ Plin. NH. vi. 23. s. 25.
  18. ^ Curt. ix. 10. 8.
  19. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Rambacia

Sources

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Primary

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  • Jones, Horace Leonard (1930). The Geography of Strabo, with an English Translation. Vol. 7. London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 129, 139.
  • Rackham, H. (1961). Pliny: Natural History, with an English Translation. Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. pp. 411, 527.
  • Robson, E. Iliff (1966). Arrian, with an English Translation. Vol. 2. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 167–171, 177, 373.

Secondary

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  • "Oritae". ToposText. Retrieved 16 May 2022.