ORITAE
ORITAE (
Ὠρεῖται), a people inhabiting the seacoast of Gedrosia, with whom Alexander fell in on his march from the Indus to Persia. (Arrian, 6.21, 22, 24, &c.) Their territory appears to have been bounded on the east by the Arabis, and on the west by a mountain spur which reached the sea at
Cape Moran. (Vincent,
Voy. of Nearchus, i. p. 217.)
There is considerable variation in the manner in which their names are written in different authorities: thus they appear as Oritae in Arrian (
Indic. 23,
Exped. Alex. 6.22);
Ὠρῖται in Strabo (
xv. p.720), Dionysius Perieg. (5.1096), Plutarch (
Plut. Alex. 100.66), and Stephanus B.; as Ori in Arrian (6.28) and Pliny (
6.23.26); and Horitae in Curtius (
9.10. 6); yet there can be no doubt that they are one and the same people. Arrian and, Strabo have described them at some length.
According to the former, they were an Indian nation (6.21; cf.
Diod. 17.105), who wore the same arms and dress as those people, but differed from them in manners and institutions (
Ind. 100.23).
According to the latter they were a race living under their own laws (v. p. 720), and armed with javelins hardened at the point by fire and poisoned (xv. p. 723).
In another place Arrian appears to have given the true Indians to the river Arabis (or
Purali), the eastern boundary of the Oritae (
Indic. 100.22); and the same view is taken by Pliny (
7.2). Pliny calls them “Ichthyophagi Oritae” (6.23. s. 25); Curtius “Indi maril timi” (9.10. 8).
It is probable that the true form of the name was Horitae, as the Nubian geographer places a town called
Haúr on the route to
Firabuz in
Mekrán. (Comp. D'Anville,
Eclaircissements, &c. p. 42; Edrisi,
Geog. Nub. p. 58.)
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