26 
O S T 
lelogram. Each piece of armour is conapofed of feven 
fmaller pieces, which, by their raifed edges,form's liar with 
fix rays; in the centre of each ftar is a round red fpot 
made up of fmall tubercles; and feveral fpots of the fame 
colour appear upon the head and back. The eyes are 
large, with a black pupil and white-and-green iris. There 
are fourteen teeth in the upper jaw, and twelve in the 
lower. The principal colour of this fifli is grey ; the fins 
are reddifh; and there are brown fpots on the head and 
tail. Thisfpecies is found at the mouth ofthe Nile, and 
in the Nile. In other refpefils itrefembles the preceding. 
This is fhown at fig. 5. 
18. Oftracion meleagris, the fpeckled trunk-fifti: body 
quadrangular, blackilh-brown, fpeckled w'ith white. 
Length from fix to eight inches ; habit fimilar to that of 
the O. cubicus, being of the fame fquare fliape; mail di¬ 
vided into hexagons, and of a deep blackifh chefnut co¬ 
lour, each divilion being marked with numerous fmall 
white fpots ; naked or projecting part of the body marked 
in the fame manner; fins and tail whitifh, with chefnut- 
coloured rays ; eyes white. Native of the Indian Seas : 
obferved during Capt. Cook’s voyages about the coafts of 
New Holland, Otaheite, &c. Shaw's Naturalijl's Mifcellany, 
t. 253. 
OS'TR ACISM, f. \_orpa.y.icriAo<;, Gr.] A manner of pall¬ 
ing fentence, in which the note of acquittal or condemna¬ 
tion was marked upon a {hell which the voter threw into 
a veflel. Banilhment; public cenfure.—This man, upon 
a flight and falfe accufation of favouring arbitrary power, 
was banilhed by oftracifm; which in Englifli would fignify, 
that they voted he Ihould be removed from their prefence 
and councils for ever. Swift. 
Hyperbolus by fuffering did traduce 
The ojlracfm, and lham’d it out of ufe. Clcavelancl. 
Ostracism, in Grecian antiquity, denotes the banilh¬ 
ment of fuch perfons whole merit and influence gave um¬ 
brage to the people of Athens, left they Ihould attempt 
any thing againft the public liberty. This punilhment 
was called ojlracfm, from the Greek word orqay.ov, which 
properly fignifies a ihell; but, when applied to this objefl, 
it is ufed for the billet on which the Athenians wrote the 
names of the citizens whom they intended to banifh. The 
learned are divided with regard to the fubftanceof which 
this billet was formed : fome infill that it was a fmall 
Hone, or a piece of brick; fome that it was a piece of 
bark ; and others alfert that it w'as a Ihell. The word 
admits moll of thefe interpretations. But what deter¬ 
mines its true fenfe, is the epithet given it by ancient 
authors, of ceramite majiix; which words fignify, “the 
punilhment of potter’s clay and this expreflion feerns 
to us a proof, that the word or^ocy-ov, when applied on 
this occafion, fignifies a piece of baked earth in the form 
of a Ihell; and, undoubtedly, the Latin authors had this 
idea of the word here, for they tranflated it by tejlula. 
The ancients are likewife divided with regard to the 
time when oftracifm was inftituted; but they all agree, 
that the perfon who moved the law was its firft vidlirn : 
but, as to the name of its patron, and the time of its ef- 
tablilhment, they differ extremely. 
However that be, the punilhment of oftracifm was in- 
flidled by the Athenians when their liberty was in dan¬ 
ger. If, for inftance, jealoufy or ambition had fowed 
difeord among the chiefs of the republic ; and if different 
parties were formed, which threatened fome revolution 
in the Hate ; the people affembled to propofe meafures 
proper to be taken, in order to prevent the confequences 
of a divifion which in the end might be fatal to freedom. 
Oftracifm was the remedy to which they ufually had re- 
courfe on thefe occafions ; and the confultations of the 
people generally terminated with a decree, in which a 
day was fixed for a particular affembly, when they were 
to proceed to the fentence of oftracifm. Then they who 
were threatened with banilhment omitted no afliduity or 
art which might gain them the favour of the people. 
O S T 
They made harangues to evince their innocence, and the 
great injuftice that would be done them if they were ba¬ 
nilhed. They folicited, in perfon, the intereft of every 
citizen ; all their party exerted themfelves in their be¬ 
half: they procured informers to vilify the chiefs of the 
oppofite faflion. Some time before the meeting of the 
affembly, a wooden inclofure was raifed in the forum, 
w'ith ten doors, that is, with as many as there were tribes 
in the republic ; and, when the appointed day was come, 
the citizens of each tribe entered at their refpeftive door, 
and threw into the middle of the inclofure the fmall 
brick on which the citizen’s name was written whofe ba¬ 
nilhment they voted. The archons and the fenate pre- 
fided at this affembly, and counted the billets. He who 
was condemned by fix thoufand of his fellow-citizens, 
was obliged to quit the city w’ithin ten days ; for fix 
thoufand voices, at leaft, were requifite to banifti an 
Athenian by the oftracifm. 
The Athenians, without doubt, forefaw' the inconve¬ 
niences to which this law was fubjefr; but they chofe ra¬ 
ther, as Cornelius Nepos hath remarked, fometimes to 
expofe the innocent to an unjuft cenfure, than to live in 
continual alarms. Yet, as they were fenfible that the 
injuftice of confounding virtue and vice would have been 
too flagrant, they foftened as much as they could the 
rigour of oftracifm. It was not aggravated with the cir- 
cumftances which were moll dilhonourable and Ihocking 
in the ordinary mode of exile. They did not eonfifeate 
the goods of thofe who were banilhed by oftracifm. They 
enjoyed the produce of their effefts in the places into 
which they were banilhed ; and they were banilhed only 
for a certain time. But, in the common banilhment, the 
goods of the exiles were always confifcated, and no hopes 
were given them of ever returning to Athens. 
This punilhment, far from conveying the idea of in¬ 
famy, became, at Athens, a proof of merit, by the ob¬ 
jects on which it was inflidled; as Ariftides the fophift 
juftly obferves, in his fecond declamation againft the 
Gorgias of Plato, that oftracifm was not an effefl of the 
vindictive fpirit of the people againft thofe whom it con¬ 
demned ; that it was only meant to prune the luxuriant 
growth of tranfeendant merit; that it condemned to an 
exile of ten years only thofe illuftrious men who were 
accufed of being exalted far above other citizens by their 
confpicuous virtue ; and that none of that public indig¬ 
nation was Ihown to the exiles by oftracifm, which com¬ 
monly breaks out againft criminals. 
Such were the mitigations with which this law was in¬ 
troduced among the Athenians ; and by them we fee that 
they were fenfible of all the inconveniences to which it 
was fubjeft. They w'ere indeed too enlightened a people 
not to forefee the many inftances of injuftice which it 
might produce ; that, if in fome refpefts it would be fa¬ 
vourable to liberty, in others it would be its enemy, by 
condemning citizens without allowing them a previous 
defence, and by making a capricious and envious people 
arbiters of the fate of great men. But, however great 
thefe inconveniences were, this law would ftill have been 
of fervice to the Hate, if the people by whom it was in¬ 
ftituted had always had difeernment to give it force on 
fuch occafions only as endangered liberty. But the 
people of Athens, naturally jealous and envious, at 
length availed themfelves of it to remove men of eminent 
merit from the ftate, by whofe prefence they were re¬ 
proved or intimidated. The fear of tyranny was com¬ 
monly but a fpecious pretext with which they veiled their 
malignity. The repeated victories which they had gained 
over the Perfians, had rendered them, fays Plutarch, 
proud and infolent. Intoxicated with their profperity, 
they arrogated all its glory to themfelves ; they were jea¬ 
lous of thofe citizens whofe political and military talents 
were the fubjefts of public eulogium. They thought the 
glory acquired by great men diminiflied their own repu¬ 
tation. An Athenian no fooner dillinguiflied himfelf by 
a fplendid afition, than he was marked out as a vidlim by 
public 
