Orei
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Orei were people mentioned in Mesopotamia by Pliny.[1][2]
Variants
Jat Gotras Namesake
- Ore = (Pliny.vi.9, Pliny.vi.30, Pliny.vi.31)
History
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[3] mentions ....Both of these rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) take their rise in Armenia, which also forms the commencement of Mesopotamia, a tract of country which lies between these streams; the intervening space between them being occupied by the Arabian Orei5.
5 Littré suggests that the reading should be "Aroei."
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[4] mentions ....The whole of Mesopotamia formerly belonged to the Assyrians, being covered with nothing but villages, with the exception of Babylonia1 and Ninus.2 The Macedonians formed these communities into cities, being prompted thereto by the extraordinary fertility of the soil.
Besides the cities already mentioned, it contains those of Seleucia3, Laodicea4, Artemita5; and in Arabia, the peoples known as the Orei6 and the Mardani, besides Antiochia7, founded by Nicanor, the governor of Mesopotamia, and called Arabis.
1 The great seat of empire of the Babylonio-Chaldæan kingdom. It either occupied the site, it is supposed, or stood in the immediate vicinity of the tower of Babel. In the reign of Labynedus, Nabonnetus, or Bel- shazzar, it was taken by Cyrus. In the reign of Augustus, a small part only of Babylon was still inhabited, the remainder of the space within the walls being under cultivation. The ruins of Babylon are found to commence a little south of the village of Mohawill, eight miles north of Hillah.
2 Nineveh. See c. 16 of the present Book.
3 On the left bank of the Euphrates, opposite to the ford of Zeugma; a fortress of considerable importance.
4 Its site is unknown. Dupinet confounds it with the place of this name mentioned in the last Chapter, calling them by the name of Lor.
5 Pliny is wrong in placing Artemita in Mesopotamia. It was a city of Babylonia, in the district of Apolloniatis. The modern Sherbán is supposed to occupy its site.
6 Burnouf, having found the name of these people, as he supposes, in a cuneiform inscription, written "Ayura," would have them to be called Aroei. The Orei are also mentioned in B. v. c. 20.
7 This Antioch does not appear to have been identified.
Mention by Pliny
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[6] mentions Tigris.... The Tigris, after flowing through Armenia and receiving the well-known rivers Parthenias and Nicephorion, separates the Arabian Orei12 from the Adiabeni, and then forms by its course, as previously mentioned, the country of Mesopotamia.
12 Or Aroei, as Littré suggests. See Note to c. 30 in p. 71.
References
Back to Jat Places in Iraq