Encomium on the emperor Hadrian

Two entries of the Suda are dedicated to an author named Orion. The former is concerned with the well-known grammarian, contemporary of Theodosius II, who lived in Egyptian Thebes and dedicated a gnomic Anthology to the empress Eudocia (cf. ω 188; cf. Wendel 1939: 1083-1087; Heinze - Tosi 2000: 32). The latter introduces a grammarian from Alexandria: along with the Encomium on Hadrian, it attributes three other works to him (cf. ω 189). Since these texts belong to the corpus of Orus of Alexandria (cf. Alpers 2000: 52), the whole entry is likely a duplicate of the first (cf. FGrHist 1093). If both Orions are identified, the Encomium has to be dated to the first half of the fifth century; if the identification is not valid, its date of composition remains undetermined. In this case, the object of the praise could indicate a composition under Hadrian, but that need not be the case.