OBRIMAS
OBRIMAS a river of Phrygia, an eastern tributary of the Maeander, had its sources, according to Livy (
38.15), on the eastern side of Mount Cadmus, near the town of Asporidos, and flowed in the neighbourhood of Apamea Cibotus (
Plin. Nat. 5.29.)
This is all the direct information we possess about it; but from Livy's account of the expedition of Manlius, who had pitched his camp there, when he was visited by Seleucus from Apamea, we may gather some further particulars, which enable us to identify the Obrimas with the
Sandukli Chai. Manlius had marched direct from Sagalassus, and must have led his army through the plains of
Dombai, passing in the rear of Apamea. Thus Seleucus would easily hear of the consul being in his neighbourhood, and, in his desire to propitiate him, would have started after him and overtaken him the next day (postero die.) Manlius, moreover, at the sources of the Obrimas required guides, because he found himself hemmed in by mountains and unable to find his way to the plain of Metropolis. All this agrees perfectly well with the supposition that the ancient Obrimas is the modern
Sandukli Chai (Hamilton,
Researches, ii. p. 172, &e.). Franz (
Fünf Inschriften, p. 37), on the other hand, supposes the
Kodsha Chai to correspond with the Obrimas. Arundell (
Discov. in Asia Min. i. p. 231), again, believes that Livy has confounded the sources of the Marsyas and Maeander with those of the Obrimas.
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L.S]
