181 



OSTROGOTHS. 



OVAL. 



162 



neither was ostracism considered in the light of a punishment or 

 accounted a disgrace. It passed for what it was, a declaration of 

 superior wealth, of superior influence, sometimes indeed of superior 

 virtue, whose ascendancy the state dreaded. 



It is well known that Aristides the Just was one of those on whom 

 -in was inflicted. The story told by Plutarch of his writing 

 down his own name for ostracism is also well known. 



Ostracism was introduced into Athens by Cleisthenes after the 

 expulsion of the Pisistratida; (-Eliau, ' Var. Hist.,' viii., c. 24); and 

 Cleisthenes was the first victim. Themistocles, Cimon, Alcibiades, 

 Thucydides, were all numbered among the ostracised. 



As to the merits of such an institution as ostracism, there cannot be 

 any great difference of opinion. That must be a bad form of polity 

 which needs it, though under a bad form of polity it may be itself a 

 good. The first object of the statesman ia to construct a government 

 proof against the wealth and power arising from the ordinary course of 

 social development : if he fails in this, he must defend the government, 

 even at the expense of partial evil. The Athenians took care to miti- 

 gate the severity of the banishment, so far us they could consistently 

 with the object of it. " Though this institution," says Montesquieu, 

 " may be so far a condemnation of popular government*, yet it is, on 

 the other hand, well fitted to prove their mildness ; and we should 

 have perceived this, were it not that, exile being with us always a 

 .Mient. we have been unable to separate the idea of ostracism 

 irui that of punishment." (' Esprit dea Lois,' book xxi., chap. 17.) 

 Mr. Grote (' History of Greece ') calls it " a wise precaution," as pre- 

 venting the excesses of partisanship by showing decisively the sense of 

 the majority of the community, and less likely to lead even the vic- 

 torious party to any infringement of the constitution. 



A similar institution is said to have prevailed in Argos, Miletus, and 

 Megara. At Syracuse also it prevailed, and there bore the name 

 Petalimt, leaves (ro\a) being used on the occasion of voting, instead 

 of shells. 



OSTKOGOTHS, or Eastern Goths, a division of the great Gothic 

 nation, were settled in Pannonia in the 5th century of our era, whence 

 they extended their dominion over Noricum, Hhiutia, and the Illyricum. 

 us.] About the year 482 or 483 A.D., their king Theodoric was 

 serving as an auxiliary under the emperor Zeno, and distinguished 

 himself in Syria. On his return to Constantinople, Theodoric, accord- 

 ing to the statement of the historian Evagrius, fearing Zeno's jealousy 

 of his success, retired into Pannonia in 487, where he collected an 

 army, and in the following year marched into Italy, with all his tribe, 

 men, women, and children, and, as appears, with the consent of Zeno 

 himself, who wished to remove the Ostrogoths from his territories. 

 He defeated Odoacer in various battles, took him prisoner, and some 

 time after put him to death. Upon this event, Theodoric sent an 

 ambassador to Anastagius. the emperor of Constantinople, who sent 

 him in return the purple vest, and acknowledged him as king of Italy. 

 It appears that both Theodoric and his predecessor Odoacer acknow- 

 ledged, nominally at least, the supremacy of the Eastern emperor. 

 For the rest of the history of the Ostrogoth* ee THEODOBIC [in Bioo. 

 l)iv.], who established his dynasty over Italy, which is generally styled 

 the reign of the Goths in that country. 



OTHYL, COMI'or.M) <>K. iSee col. 28.) 



OTHVL, HYDRIDE OF. (See col. 23.) 



OUHOB. [POUND.] 



I'LAWRY. This term, which is derived from the Saxon UOagh 

 or f'lhlni/h. signifies an exclusion from the protection of the law. In 

 English law it is a punishment consequent upon a flight from justice. 

 or a contumacious neglect or refusal to appear and answer for a 

 criminal transgression, in obedience to the process of a court of com- 

 petent jurisdiction. By the laws of the Anglo-Saxons, continued after 

 'iu|uest, an outlaw, who was also called laiujhltsman (lawless man) 

 and jr- mill-man (friendless man), lost his Uxrnm legem, and had no 

 ' ion from the frankpledge in the decennary in which he was 

 sworn. A boy under twelve years of age, not being sworn to his law 

 in the decennary, could not be outlawed ; and for the same reason a 

 woman who contumaciously refused to appear could not be outlawed, 

 but was said to be wairtrl (derelicta), and incurred the same penal con- 

 sequences as an outlaw. 



!' r centuries after the Conquest an outlaw was said " Gerere caput 

 lupiimin," and illicit l lawfully killed by any one who met him. It 

 i stated in the ' Mirror ' (cap. iv. sec. 4) to have been the custom for 

 those who slew outlaws or wolves to " carry the heads to the chief 

 place of the county or franchise, and there to receive a demi-mark 

 from the county for each head, whether of an outlaw or a wolf." The 

 ' Mirror ' is a book of doubtful antiquity and authority, and this story 

 of the reward for the heads of outlaws is probably fabulous, or at all 

 event* an exaggeration of the fact. Bracton (lib. iii., cap. 13), declares 

 that an outlaw " might be killed by all, especially if he defended 

 himself or ran away, so that it was difficult to take him ; but that when 

 once taken, his life and death were in the king's hands ; and if any 

 man then killed him, he must answer for it as in the case of any other 

 homicide." That this practice and law prevailed in his time is further 

 I by another passage (c. 14), in which he says that a man who 

 11 outlawed, hut ha* become " inlagatus," or restored to his law 

 V.y a |*nlou from the king, should take care always to "carry his 

 pardon about with him wheresoever he may go, and have it ready in 



his hand to show, lest peradventure some person, not knowing that he 

 has obtained the king's grace, should slay him as an outlaw." Fleta 

 (lib. i., cap. 27), mentions the same law, and justifies it : " Utlagatus 

 et waiviata capita gerunt lupina, quse ab omnibus impune potermit 

 amputari ; merito euirn sine *ge perire debent qui secunclum legem 

 vivere recusant." Lord Coke says, " In the beginning of the reign of 

 Edward III. it was resolved by the judges, for avoiding of inhumanity 

 and effusion of Christian blood, that it should not be lawful for any 

 man but the sheriff only (having lawful warrant therefore) to put to 

 death any man outlawed, though it were for felony ; and if he did, he 

 should undergo such punishments and pains of death aa if he had 

 killed any other man ; and so from thenceforth the law continued until 

 this day." For this fact he refers to the ' Year Book/ 2 Ass. pi. 3. The 

 ' Year Book ' however, as cited, and another report of the same case in 

 Fitzherbert's 'Abridgement,' tit. Corone, 148, contain no such resolu- 

 tion, and the case from which it is obvious that Lord Coke derived the 

 above statement, is clearly an authority to show the continuance of the 

 old practice. A man being arraigned for homicide objects to answer 

 because the person with whose death he was charged had been outlawed 

 for felony. The judges at first certainly appeared to think that it was 

 not lawful for any one to kill an outlaw unless it were upon his resisting 

 a bailiff who should attempt to arrest him. But after argument, they 

 said they " must send to the chancery to inquire if the deceased had a 

 charter of pardon, and search their own rolls to see if his outlawry has 

 been reversed ; " and they admitted the prisoner to bail in the mean time, 

 telling him that if they found that there had been no pardon and no 

 reversal of the outlawry, he would not be called upon to answer. 

 This case therefore seems to show that Lord Coke prematurely claimed 

 for the judges in the reign of Edward III. the merit of abolishing this 

 barbarous practice ; indeed so late as the reign of Philip and Mary, 

 Staundforde, in his ' Pleas of the Crown,' mentions the above case, and 

 speaks of the law upon this subject as doubtful. However, though 

 the technical quality of homicide so committed may have been 

 questionable, there is no doubt that the practice of killing outlaws like 

 wild beasts had ceased long before Staundforde's time. 



The consequences of outlawry are the forfeiture of goods and 

 chattels universally. Where it takes place upon a prosecution for 

 treamn or murder, it amounts to a conviction and attainder of the 

 offence charged, and therefore all the outlaw's real property, as well as 

 his personalty, is forfeited. Where it takes place upon criminal 

 prosecutions for other offences, or upon civil actions, the profits only 

 of the defendant's lands are, during his life, forfeited to the crown. 

 The outlaw, having neither the privilege nor protection of the law, ia 

 incapable of maintaining any action ; at common law he cannot be a 

 juror, as he is not " liber et legalis ; " and he is expressly excluded from 

 acting aa such by stat. 6 Geo. IV.,c. 50, sec. 3. 



The consequences of outlawry being so highly penal, the law has at 

 all times been careful that no person shall be outlawed without 

 sufficient notice of the process of the court, and without satisfactory 

 proof of his contumacy. He must be called or exacted in five successive 

 county courts, or in five successive hustings, if in London ; if he 

 renders himself, the sheriff takes him. But if he does not appear at 

 the fifth county-court or busting, judgment of outlawry is forthwith 

 pronounced by the coroners, who are the judges for this purpose in the 

 county court, and by the recorder if the proceedings are in London 

 (Co. Litt., 288 6; Dyer, 223 a, 317 a). Upon this return a writ of 

 capias utlegatum may be issued into any county to arrest the defendant, 

 and other process follows against his property. As an additional 

 security that a man shall not be outlawed without notice of the 

 process to which he is required to appear, the sheriff must make three 

 proclamations of him in notorious places in the county a month before 

 the outlawry shall take place. 



An outlawry may be reversed by writ of error, in which the party 

 may avail himself of errors either of law or fact ; the slightest mistake 

 in any part of the proceedings being sufficient to avoid the outlawry. 

 It was formerly necessary to procure a pardon from the crown, by 

 which the outlaw was restored to his law, and became " inlagatus." 

 It has long been the usual course for the courts to reverse outlawries 

 upon motion, justice being thus expedited and expense saved. 



OUTWORKS, in fortification, is the term applied to the various 

 works constructed outside the enceinte of a fortress. These may be 

 either temporary, to take advantage of the ground and enfilade a 

 besieger's works, or they may be permanent works established on 

 heights and commanding ground which it is necessary to occupy. 



OVAL, or as the name imports, egg-shaped, is the name given ori- 

 ginally to such a form as the section of an egg presents, round, but not 

 circular. In mathematics it has received some extension of meaning. 

 Any curve, or isolated branch of a curve, which returns into itself, 

 would be called an oval; perhaps even a figure of eight would receive 

 the name. 



The curve having for its equation 



(a and 6 being positive, and a less than i) has an oval extending from 

 x to x=a : but there is no curve whatever from x=a to x = b, or 

 from x= b to x = 0. If a be small, the dimensions of the oval are 

 small : and when o = the equation becomes 



