may be you are using some oracle 6, 7

Code:
lsc@DEV817>r
  1  select * from
  2  (select * from emp order by deptno) a
  3  where rownum = 1
  4*

     EMPNO ENAME      JOB              MGR HIREDATE                    SAL       COMM     DEPTNO
---------- ---------- --------- ---------- -------------------- ---------- ---------- ----------
      7782 CLARK      MANAGER         7839 1981-JUN-09 00:00:00       2450                    10