Obsidius
1. The commander of a Frentanian troop of horse, serving under the consul Laevinus in the campaign against Pyrrhus B. C. 280, distinguished himself in the battle fought at the river Siris in that year, by the daring attempt which he made upon the king's life. He unhorsed Pyrrhus, but was killed by the personal attendants of the king. He is called Oplacus (Ὄπλακος) in Plutarch, Oblacus Vulsinius (Ὄβλακος Οὐλσίνιος) in Dionysius, but Obsidius in Florus. (Flor. 1.18.7; Plut. Pyrrh. 16; Dionys. A. R. 18.2-4.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.