Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/379

 OSTIARIUS

347

OSTROGOTHS

The united dioceses have 16 parishes, with 34,000 inhabitants, 5 religious houses of men and 5 of nuns, 1 educational establishment for male students, and 3 for girls.

Cappelletti, Le Chiese d' Italia, I; Borgia, Istoria della Chiesa eciUadi Vdlctri (Nocera, 1723).

U. Benigni. Ostiarius. See Porter.

Ostiensis. See Henry of Segtisio, Blessed.

Ostiensis, surname of Leo Marsicantjs, Benedic- tine chronicler, b. about 1045; d. 22 May, 1115, 1116, or 1117. He belonged to an old noble family, and at the age of fourteen entered Monte Cassino, where his talents soon won him the regard of Abbot Desiderius, later Pope Victor III. Desitlerius entrusted his edu- cation to the future Cardinal Aldemar. On the com- pletion of his studies, Ostiensis became librarian and archivist of the monastery, and, as such, his main task was to settle, in accordance with the exi.sting doc- uments, all disputes concerning landed property in which the monastery became involved. Abbot Oderi- sius, who succeeded Desiderius, urged Ostiensis to write a history of the monastery, but, on account of his numerous duties, he was unable to give himself en- tirely to the work. Paschal II created him Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. In the conflict between the pope and Henry V, Ostiensis vigorously defended the papacy. His unfinished chronicle, originally called "Legenda gancti Bencdicti longa", treats the period between 529 and 1075; Petrus Diaconus continued it to 1139. Trustworthy and impartial, the chronicle is a valuable mine of information for the history of Lower Italy, but as the documents on which the narrative rests are still extant, it has no special importance for our knowledge of the time. It was first edited under the title, "Chronica sacri monasterii Casinensis auctore Leone cardinali episcopo Ostiensi", by Abbot Angelus de Nuce (Paris, 166S); then by Wattenbach in "Monu- menta Germania;: Scriptores", VII, 574-727, and Migne in "P. L.", CLXXIII, 479-763. Ostiensis has left several lesser works: "Narratio de consecratione ecclesiarum a Desiderio et Oderisio in Monte Casino sedificatarum" (P. L., CLXXIII, 997-1002), and "Vita sancti Mennatis eremitse et confessoris" (edited In part, P. L., CLXXIII, 989-92).

GATTnLA. Hist, abbatia Casinensis (Veoice, 1733), 879; Pott- hast, Bibl. hist, medii mi, I (Berlin, 1896), 718; Wattenbach, DeiUschlands GeschichtsqueUen, II (Berlin. 1894), 236-8.

Patricius Schlager.

Ostracine, titular see and suffragan of Pelusium in Augustamnica prima. Pliny (Hist, naturalis, V, xiv) places the town sixty-five miles from Pelusium. Ptol- emy (IV, v, 6) locates it in Cassiotis, between Mount Cassius and Rhinocolura. We learn from Josephus ("Bellum Jud.", IV, xi, 5) that Vespasian stopped there with his army on the way from Egypt into Pales- tine; the city then had no ramparts. It received its water from the Delta by a canal. A Roman garrison was stationed there. Hierocles, George of Cyprus, and other geographers always mention it as in Au- gustamnica. Le Quien (Oriens christianus, II, 545) speaks of three bishops, Theoctistus, Serapion, and Abraham, who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries. There is at present in this region, near the sea, a small town called Straki, which probably replaced Ostracine.

Am^lineau, La Glographie de VEgypte d I'ipogue copte (Paris, 1893), 288.

S. Vailhe.

Ostraka, Chrlstian, inscriptions on clay, wood, metal, and other hard materials. Like papyri, they are valuable esi)ecially as the literary sources for early Christianity. They are found chiefly in Oriental coun- tries, especially Egypt. The greatest number are pieces of clay or scraps of pots inscribed with colours or ink. The oldest Christian ostraka, like the papj-ri, are Greek and date from the fifth century. Next come

the Coptic and Arabian ostraka. Some of the texts not yet deciphered include several Nubian ostraka in a language spoken in the old Christian negro-king- doms in the vicinity of Aloa on the Blue Nile. In these inscriptions Greek letters are used, with some other signs. As to contents, ostraka are either profane or ecclesiastical. Potsherds were often used for cor- respondence in place of the less durable papyrus; oc- casionally the recipient wrote the answer on the back of the potsherd. Ostraka were also used for mercan- tile purposes, as bills, receipts, etc. C. M. Kaufmann and J. C. Ewald Falls, wliile excavating the town of Menas in the Libyan desert, discovered ostraka of this class — the oldest Christian potsherds in the Greek lan- guage (fifth century) — and H. J. Bell and F. G. Ken- yon of the British Museum deciphered them. They refer to the vine-culture of the sanctuaries of Menas and represent, for the most part, short vouchers for money or provisions. The currency is based upon gold solidi issued by Constantine; the date is reck- oned by the year of indiction. Of historical interest is the assistance given to invalid workmen, the employ- ment of the lower clergy, the manner of provisioning the workmen, and especially the statements about the harvest periods in the Libyan district. The series of Coptic ostraka which deals with the clergy and the monasteries in the Nile valley is particularly extensive. We find references to all phases of administration and popular life.

The ecclesiastical ostraka, in a narrow sense, con- tain Biblical citations from the New Testament, pray- ers, extracts from the synaxaria (lives of the saints), and are partly of a liturgic character. Greek, which was then the language of the Church, is much used, with the Coptic. Among the samples published by W. E. Crum, the be.st judge of Coptic dialects, there is a local confession of faith from the sixth century, besides the Preface and Sanctus of the Mass, prayers from the Liturgy of St. Basil and of St. Mark, a part of thedidas- calia of Schentlte of Athribis, a Greek confession, and an excommunication, also in Greek. Particularly re- markable are those ostraka which contain liturgical songs. They represent our present song-books for which purpose rolls of papyrus were less suited than the more durable potsherds; in some cases wooden books were used. Among the pieces translated by Crum we find petitions for ordination in which the petitioner promises to learn by heart one of the Gos- pels, and a reference to an ancient abstinence move- ment, against which is directed a decree that the con- secration-wine should be pure or at least three-fourths pure.

A complete collection of Greek, Coptic, and Arabic ostraka from the beginnings of the Christian epoch does not exist. The most important may be found in Wilken, Griechische Ostraka aits Aegitpten und Nubien (2 vols., Leipzig, 1899) ; Crum, Coptic Ostraka from the Collections of the Egypt Exploration Fund, the Cairo Museum and others (London, 1902).

Carl Maria Kaufmann.

Ostrogoths, one of the two chief tribes of the Goths, a Germanic people. Their traditions relate that the Goths originally lived on both sides of the Baltic Sea, in Scandinavia and on the Continent. Their oldest habitations recorded in history were sit- uated on the right bank of the Vistula. They left these, all or in part, about the middle of the second century, and settled near the Black Sea, between the Don and Danube. Thence they emerged frequently to attack and pillage the cities of Greece and Asia Minor, and fought continuously with the Romans and the neighbouring Germanic tribes. The emperor Decius fell in battle with them in 251. Crossing the Danube into Thracia in 269 they were defeated by Claudius; Aurelian drove them back across the Danube and gave them Dacia. We now find the Ostrogoths east of the River Dniester, and the Visigoths to the west. During the reign of Constantine they again attempted to cross