LACUS ORPHEI
a fountain, named doubtless from a statue of Orpheus,
on the Esquiline in
Region V (Not. Cur), probably just outside the porta
Esquilina (
Mart. x. 19. 6-7). The inhabitants of this district seem to
have been called Orfienses (
CIL vi. 31893 d. 12:
tabernarii Orfienses) in
the fourth century (cf.
LPD i. 171, 178 n. 13:
domum in regione orfea
intra urbem); and the name continued in use during the Middle Ages
(cf. S. Biagio,
1 S. Lucia and S. Martino in Orfea, Arm. 201, 214, 218;
HCh 306, 382). See
Jord. ii. 127, 495; HJ 345; Gruppe in Rosch. s.v.
Orpheus iii. 1194; Eisler, Orpheus the Fisher, 278, who (following
Richter 308) makes it ' an artificial lake of circular shape surrounded by
steps, so that the whole building resembled a theatre.'
2 The position of
the churches makes it impossible to identify it with the 'Trofei di Mario'
(see
NYMPHAEUM ALEXANDRI).
