OROSIO, PAOLO – *Historiae adversus paganos* libri VII. Incipit of book VI with a small initial and glosses (9th c., first half). Vatican Library, codex Reg. lat. 296, f. 67v.
The term *orosio* (horoscope) appears on temples, tombs, coins, etc. In Greece (where the term also indicates the instrument for determining the position of the stars, said to have been invented by Anaximander: Diogenes Laertius, II, 1) the *o.* was in use only from the Alexandrian period (cf. Hesychius and Suidas, s.v.; cf. also Clement of Alexandria, *Stromata*, VI, p. 757). At Rome it was treated particularly in the Augustan age by Manilius, and in the 4th c. by Firmicus Maternus, who wrote a treatise on astrology: *Matheseos libri* VIII.
OROSIO, PAOLO. – Spanish priest of Braga, in ancient Galicia (Braulio, *Epist.*, 44), disciple of Augustine, “of expert intellect, facile eloquence, eager for knowledge, desirous of combating the evil doctrines” that were disturbing the distant regions of Galicia (St Augustine, *Epist.*, 166). Fleeing before the Vandals, he was drawn to Hippo by the prestige of St Augustine, to whom in the year 414 he presented his problems: Priscillianism in his homeland, the origin of the soul, etc. He brought with him his *Commonitorium de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum*. St Augustine replied with his treatise *Ad Orosium contra Priscillianistas et Origenistas*.
In the spring of 415 O., commended by Augustine himself, went to Palestine to St Jerome and found himself in the midst of the Pelagian controversy. In June of that year he had occasion to set forth his view at the Council of Jerusalem and gathered the doctrinal substance of his debates in his *Liber apologeticus contra Pelagianos* (c. 417-18), the best anti-Pelagian refutation of that early period. He intended to return to Spain, but on learning of warlike disturbances in Minorca he returned to St Augustine. The holy doctor was then finishing the 12th book of *De civitate Dei* (416-17):
ORZOCA ALFONSO – ORSI PAOLO