The Umbrian center of Oriculum, according to Livy, became an ally of the Romans after 308 BC. From 220 BC it was a station on the Via Flaminia; during the Social War it sided with the Italics and was completely devastated; perhaps after this event it was moved to the plain near the Tiber. It was a municipium of Regio VI, enrolled in the Arniensis tribe, and enjoyed a certain prosperity during the Empire. According to Hydatius, in 413 a bloody battle took place near O. between the militias of Honorius and Heraclianus. In the Middle Ages the site of the Roman city was abandoned and the settlement moved back to the hill where the Umbrian center had been. After having belonged to the Duchy of Rome, O. passed into the domains of the Church; in 1433 it was occupied by Francesco Sforza; in 1547 it was invested in G. B. Savelli. Between 1776 and 1786 Pius VI had systematic excavations carried out there, which yielded numerous works of art for the Vatican Museums, including the famous bust of Jupiter.
The patron saint of O. is St. Victor, whose feast is celebrated on May 14. Also venerated there are Sts. Fulgentius, Eleozumo, Nestorius, Leopardo, and Corona, whose relics were transferred in 1316 to the collegiate church of O., as well as St. Medicus, whose body was discovered in 1611 in the Christian cemetery of St. Victor.
O. was an ancient diocese; mentions of it date from the 5th century, and the bishops Herculanus (487), Constantine (499), and Dominic (595 and 601) are known, as well as St. Fulgentius, who occupied the see around the middle of the 6th century and whom Totila, passing through O., first imprisoned and then released following a miraculous event recounted by St. Gregory the Great. At the beginning of the 7th century, news of the diocese ceases, as it was absorbed by that of Narni.
Below the present-day O. there are notable remains of the Roman city, largely attributable to the Augustan period: a theater, an amphitheater, a large arched structure, and the baths of L. Iulius Iulianus of the 2nd century AD, from which the well-known Rotunda Museum of the Vatican originates. The collegiate church of St. Mary, known since the mid-12th century, preserves an inscription from the 6th century placed by St. Fulgentius on the altar of St. Victor.
The monastery of St. Victor near the ruins of the Roman city (remains from the 11th-12th centuries) arose near the church built in the 6th century by St. Fulgentius to contain the body of that saint, which he had discovered. In 1232 Gregory IX assigned this monastery to the bishop of Narni; it then became the right and property of the Roman Church. An underground cemetery was attached to II. Recently, remains of a Christian place of worship have appeared in the area where the Roman basilica must have stood: an inscription placed by a Marcellus (probably a presbyter) on the occasion of the construction of a baptistery, a votive inscription of a Mercurius (6th-7th century), and a monogrammatic bronze cross (5th century) have been found there.
OCTATEUCH. The term (ὀκτώ "eight" and τεῦχος "chest" or "case for books" and thus "book") first appears in Cassiodorus (De institutione divinarum litterarum, I: PL 70, 1110-12; ed. Mynors, Oxford 1937, pp. 11-15), who coined it in imitation of the more common designations Pentateuch (v.), Hexateuch, Heptateuch. The term designates the first eight books of the Greek-Latin Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth).
While the word Hexateuch (v.), which denotes the first six biblical books, was revived by rationalist critics of modern scholarship (P. Ewald, Knobel, J. Wellhausen, S. R. Driver, C. H. Cornill, C. Steuernagel, O. Eissfeldt), that of Octateuch is found only among Catholic exegetes.
Octateuch of Clement: V. Apostolic Constitutions.
OPTATUS OF MILEVIS in Numidia (Optatus Milevitanus), saint. - Bishop of this city in the 4th century, known for his polemical work against the Donatist Parmenian.
OPTATUS OF S. VITTORE. The exact title of this work has not survived: editors have reconstructed it differently (De schismate Donatistarum; Ad, Adversus or Contra Parmenianum schismaticum; perhaps De vera [or: catholica] Ecclesia or even De Catholica Ecclesiae unitate adversus Parmenianum schismaticum). It is certain that the work had two editions: the first in six books was composed, according to St. Jerome (De vir. ill., 110), "under the emperors Valentinian and Valens," i.e., between February 20, 364, and August 25, 367; according to some, however, after October 1, 366 (the consecration of Pope St. Damasus I), but perhaps even a little earlier, i.e., shortly after the death of Julian the Apostate, the condemnation of Photinus by Italian bishops in 363, and Parmenian's own writing (in which case the name of Pope Damasus would also have been added to the list of Roman pontiffs in II, 3; cf. 4). In the second edition, in response to new attacks by the Donatists, Optatus added Book VII and introduced, as mentioned, other revisions after 384. The work has come down to us in this state, but certainly before it received its final touches from the author; and thus it was circulated after his death.
Optatus's writing is important not only for the information it provides on the origin and history of Donatism, and even more so for an interesting appendix of documents (Gesta apud Zenophilum, etc. [V. DONATISM]; found only in the Paris Codex 1711, 11th century, formerly Colbertinus 1951), probably collected by Optatus himself; and because, in the face of a whole Donatist literature, it is the only Catholic writing prior to St. Augustine, who made extensive use of II. But it is also important from a theoretical point of view. Optatus, in fact, while partly accepting principles already admitted by his adversary and developing (as indeed Parmenian also did) thoughts expressed earlier by St. Cyprian, strives to define clearly and precisely what the true Church, Catholic, is: "rationabilis et ubique diffusa" (II, 1, cf. 2), characterized by the "unitas animorum" and the possession of valid Sacraments (I, 11) as well as the true spouse of Christ endowed with the mystical "dotes," which Parmenian also mentions (I, 10; II, 2; 9; etc.). He thus clearly distinguishes "heresy" from "schism" and just as clearly affirms that sacraments are valid in themselves, not by the worthiness of men. For these reasons, Optatus's work was read attentively by Anglicans of the "Oxford Movement" in the last century and exerted a certain influence on the future Cardinal Newman.
A sermon relating to a feast in the Christmas cycle has survived (it speaks of the Incarnation and the birth of Christ, the adoration of the Magi, and the Massacre of the Innocents). It was published by G. Morin (1917) and by A. Wilmart (1922), who attributed it to Optatus, and from it various conclusions have been drawn about the history of the liturgy. It expresses, however (an argument hitherto uncontradicted), ideas too refined to be attributed to the defender of the Catholic Church; it could be the work (and this would explain the title in the Codex Florianensis) of that other Optatus, who was a fanatical Donatist bishop of Thamugadi, a contemporary of St. Augustine, and considered a martyr by his followers.