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to foften prejudice, and to haften the progrefs of civiliza¬ 
tion and humanity. Greece, and particularly Pelopon- 
nefus, was the centre from which the adventurous fpirit 
of its inhabitants had diffufed innumerable colonies 
through the furrounding nations. To thefe widely-fepa- 
rated communities, which, notwithftanding their com¬ 
mon origin, feemed to have loft all connexion and corref- 
pondence, the olympiad ferved as a common bond of al¬ 
liance and point of re-union. The celebrity of this fef- 
tival continually attracted to it the characters molt dif- 
tinguilhed for genius and enterprife, whofe fame would 
have otherwife been unknown and loft in the boundlefs 
extent of Grecian territory. The remote inhabitants, 
not only of European Greece, but of Alia and Africa, 
being afl'embled to the worlhip of common gods, were 
formed to the fenfe of a general intereft, and excited to 
the purfuit of national honour and profperity. Strangers 
of fimilar difpofitions might confirm in Elis the facred 
and indifibluble ties of hofpitality. If their communities 
were endangered by any barbarous power, they might 
here folicit afliftance from their Grecian brethren. On 
other occafions they might explain the benefits which, in 
peace or war, their relpeCtive countries were beft quali¬ 
fied to communicate. And the Olympic feftival might 
thus ferve the purpofe of refident ambafladors, and other 
inftitutions alike unknown to antiquity. See Gilles’s 
Hift. of Greece ; and our article Greece, vol. viii. p. 837, 
8; 916. and Music, vol. xvi. p. 356. 
OLYM'PICI, the title of the academifts of Vicenza, in 
Italy. See Academy. 
OLYMPIN'ION, or New Athens, in ancient geo¬ 
graphy, a town of the illand of Delos, fo called by its 
founder, the emperor Adrian. It contained a temple 
of Hercules, and another confecrated to Neptune ; which, 
without doubt, were magnificent, as Adrian employed 
only Athenians in the conftrudtion of them. 
OLYMPIODO'RUS, an Alexandrian philofopher, who 
flourilhed about the year 430, is celebrated for his know¬ 
ledge of the Ariftotelian doftrine, and was the mailer of 
Proclus, who attended upon his fchool before he was 
twenty years of age.. 
This philofopher is to be diftinguilhed from a Platonift 
of the fame name, who wrote a “ Commentary upon 
Plato,” which was preferved among the manufcripts in 
the royal library at Paris 5 and “A Life of Plato,” of 
which James Windet has publilhed a Latin verlion, 
enriched with learned notes. 
He is alfo to be diftinguilhed from a Peripatetic, of a 
later age, who wrote “ A Commentary upon the Meteo¬ 
rology of Ariftotle.” Enfield's Hift. Phil. vol. ii. 
OLYMPIODO'RUS, a learned Greek commentator on 
the Holy Scriptures, who was probably at firft a monk, 
and afterwards became a deacon of Alexandria. It is 
not at all afcertained with accuracy as to the time when 
he flourifhed ; lome placing him in the ninth, others in the 
eleventh, century; but Cave fays he ought not to be 
placed later than the early part of the fixth. He is praifed 
for the excellence of his fermons, with which he edified 
the church at Alexandria, as well as by the talents which 
he difcovered in the elucidations of the fitcred writings. 
There are extant by him, 1. A Commentary on Eccle- 
fiaftes, in Greek and Latin. 2. A Commentary upon the 
Lamentations of Jeremiah, publilhed at Rome, with 
Origen’s Commentary, 1598, 410. 3. A Commentary 
upon the Book of Job; the beft edition of which was 
publilhed at London, by Patricius Junius, 1637, folio. 
Cave's Hift. Lit. vol. i. 
OLYMPIONI'CES, f. [Greek.] An appellation given 
to thofe who came off victorious in the Olympic games. 
The olympionices were infinitely honoured in their coun¬ 
try, as being elxeemed to have done it immortal honour. 
The Athenians particularly were fo la villi in their prefents 
to the olympionices, their countrymen, that Solon found 
it necelfary to reftrain their liberality by a fpecial law, 
which imported, that the city Ihould only give 500 
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drachmas to the olympionices ; which amounted to about 
58 ounces of filver of our weight. See Olympics. 
OLYM'PIS, in ancient geography, a ftrong place on 
the Peloponnefus, near the mountains, on the confines of 
Laconia and the Argolide. 
OLYM'PIUM, a fmall town of Sicyonia, eaft of Afopus, 
and at a fmall diftance from its mouth. It was famous 
for the tomb of Eupolis, an Athenian poet, mentioned 
by Horace, as one of the beft authors in the department 
of the ancient Greek comedy. 
OLYM'PUS, in ancient geography, a name given to 
feveral lofty mountains, and thence transferred to the 
heavens. According to Hefychius, the number of thefe 
mountains was fourteen ; and feven have been particularly 
noticed by geographers. Homer always diftinguilhes 
Olympus as the habitation of the gods, alluding occa- 
fionally to the mountain which feparated Macedonia 
from Thefialy, and which was one of the mountains belt 
known to the ancients, and defcribed by European geo¬ 
graphers under this name. As Athos aftonifhed obfervsrs 
by its bulk, Olympus ftruck the beholder with a kind of 
reverence, by its amazing elevation ; and, at the lame 
time, invited his afcent by the beauty and variety of the 
profpeHs which it afforded. The river Peneus, one of 
the cleared, gentleft, and moft beautiful, ftreams in the 
univerfe, waflied its foot, dividing it from Ofla, and mak¬ 
ing a multitude of fmall but delightful illes, covered with 
lhady trees, and adorned with magnificent temples, grot¬ 
tos, porticos, and other ftately buildings. On the fouth- 
eaft fide of the hill ran the famous river Helicon ; and 
near it ftood a noble temple of Jupiter, in the midft of a 
lhady grove. The mountains Ofla and Pelion were in 
the neighbourhood, and very confiderable for their height, 
though they fell far fhort of Olympus. 
Sonnini has particularly deficribed his afcent to the 
fummit of this mountain. On the fide of the mountain, 
and at the firft ftage of afcent, is the village called Shala ; 
above which the acclivity, which below it was gentle, 
becomes rugged and fteep. In this village is a Greek 
convent, from which the profpeft is exteniive and mag¬ 
nificent, commanding on one fide the lea, the neighbour¬ 
ing coafts of Mount Athos, and the numerous illands 
which diverfify it; and, on the other, the beautiful plains 
of Macedonia. The foreft by which the monaftery of 
Skala is furrounded, is compofed of pines, firs, oaks, elms, 
beeches, hollies, chefnut-trees, See. and inhabited by wild 
boars, flags, roe-bucks, bears, and birds of different 
fpecies. The vicinity is expofed to the attacks and 
ravages of Albanian robbers; and Sonnini and his com¬ 
panions efcaped, by feigning themfelves to be foreign 
phyficians, viho were in learch of plants on the mountain, 
that would furniih remedies for a variety of difeafes. 
The aga, or commander of the plundering band, labouring, 
under a complaint, applied to them for relief; and thus 
they avoided the danger to which they were expofed. 
In afeending beyond Skala, our travellers flopped at 
another monaftery, three leagues from the former: this 
bears the name of St. Dennis, to whom it is confecrated. 
Here the mountain is divided into feveral fteep points; 
and the building is furrounded by thofe towering pin¬ 
nacles, that are almoft entirely compofed of rocks. In 
this place are a grotto, or fmall chapel, faid to have been 
built by St. Dennis himfclf; a hut, which ferved him as a 
retreat; and, at the extremity of the grotto, a fpring 
Bluing from a torrent in the rock; and which, as the 
fable lays, the faint forced to appear by ftriking the rock 
with his cap. The fmall church of this convent is 
tolerably handfome; a large beautiful luftre of bronze, 
made in Germany, is fufpended to the roof. A fmall 
library of Greek and Latin books, printed in the fame 
country, and well chofen, occupies a chamber of the 
monaftery; and, being little ufed, will long be preferved 
in good condition. Many other articles are brought 
hither from neighbouring civilized countries; and par¬ 
ticularly a large clock, which, though of a common lbrt, 
is 
