manufactures of cotton and woollen goods, cigars and leather, and tanneries, dyeworks and gypsum quarries. In recent years Osterode has become celebrated as a health resort.
ÖSTERSUND, a town of Sweden, capital of the district (län) of Jemtland, on the east shore of Storsjö (Great Lake), 364 m. N. by W. of Stockholm by rail. Pop. (1900) 6866. It lies at an elevation of about 1000 ft. and is the metropolis of a mountainous and beautiful district. Immediately facing the town is the lofty island of Frös, with which it is connected by a bridge 1148 ft. long. A runic stone commemorates the building of a bridge here by a Christian missionary, Austmader, son of Gudfast. Östersund was founded in 1786. It has a considerable trade in timber, and a local trade by steamers on Storsjö. Electricity is obtained for lighting and other purposes by utilizing the abundant water-power in the district.
OSTERVALD, JEAN FRÉDÉRIC (1663–1747), Swiss Protestant divine, was born at Neuchâtel on the 25th of November 1663. He was educated at Zürich and at Saumur (where he graduated), studied theology at Orleans under Claude Pajon, at Paris under Jean Claude and at Geneva under Louis Tronchin, and was ordained to the ministry in his native place in 1683. As preacher, pastor, lecturer and author, he attained a position of great influence in his day, he and his friends, J. A. Turretin of Geneva and S. Werenfels (1657–1740) of Basel, forming what was once called the “Swiss triumvirate.” He was thought to show a leaning towards Socinianism and Arminianism. He died on the 14th of April 1747.
His principal works are Traité des sources de la corruption qui règne aujourd’hui parmi les Chrétiens (1700), translated into English, Dutch and German, practically a plea for a more ethical and less doctrinal type of Christianity; Catéchisme ou instruction dans la religion chrétienne (1702), also translated into English, Dutch and German; Traité contre l’impureté (1707); Sermons sur divers textes (1722–1724); Theologiae compendium (1739); and Traduction de la Bible (1724). All his writings attained great popularity among French Protestants; many were translated into various languages; and “Ostervald’s Bible,” a revision of the French translation, in particular, was long well known and much valued in Britain.
OSTIA, an ancient town and harbour of Latium, Italy, at
the mouth of the river Tiber on its left bank. It lies 14 m. S.W.
from Rome by the Via Ostiensis, a road of very ancient origin
still followed by a modern road which preserves some traces of
the old pavement and remains of several ancient bridges. It
was the first colony ever founded by Rome—according to the
Romans themselves, by Ancus Martius—and took its name
from its position at the mouth (ostium) of the river. Its origin
is connected with the establishment of the salt-marshes (salinae—see
Salaria, Via) which only ceased to exist in 1875, though it
acquired importance as a harbour in very early times. When
it began to have magistrates of its own is not known: nor indeed
have we any inscriptions from Ostia that can be certainly attributed
to the Republican period. Under the empire, on the other
hand, it had the ordinary magistrates of a colony, the chief
being duoviri, charged with the administration of justice, whose
place was taken every fifth year by duoviri censoria potestate
quinquennales, then quaestores (or financial officials) and then
aediles (building officials). There were also the usual decuriones
(town councillors) and Augustales. We learn much as to these
magistrates from the large number of inscriptions that have been
found (over 2000 in Ostia and Portus taken together) and also
as to the cults. Vulcan was the most important—perhaps in
early times the only—deity worshipped at Ostia, and the priesthood
of Vulcan was held sometimes by Roman senators. The
Dioscuri too, as patrons of mariners, were held in honour. Later
we find the worship of Isis and of Cybele, the latter being especially
flourishing, with large corporations of dendrophori (priests who
carried branches of trees in procession) and cannofori (basket carriers);
the worship of Mithras, too, had a large number of
followers. There was a temple of Serapis at Portus. No traces
of Jewish worship have been found at Ostia, but at Portus
a considerable number of Jewish inscriptions in Greek have
come to light.
Of the church in Ostia there is no authentic record before the 4th century A.D., though there are several Christian inscriptions of an earlier date; but the first bishop of Ostia of whom we have any certain knowledge dates from A.D. 313. The see still continues, and is indeed held by the dean of the sacred college of cardinals. A large number of the inscriptions are also connected with the various guilds—firemen (centonarii), carpenters and metal workers (fabri), boatmen, lightermen and others (see J. P. Waltzing, Les Corporations professionelles, Brussels and Liége) .
Until Trajan formed the port of Centumcellae (Civitavecchia) Ostia was the best harbour along the low sandy coast of central Italy between Monte Argentario and Monte Circeo. It is mentioned in 354 B.C. as a trading port, and became important as a naval harbour during the Punic Wars. Its commerce increased with the growth of Rome, and this, and the decay of agriculture in Italy, which obliged the capital to rely almost entirely on imported corn (the importation of which was, from 267 B.C. onwards, under the charge of a special quaestor stationed at Ostia), rendered the possession of Ostia the key to the situation on more than one occasion (87 B.C., A.D. 409 and 537). The inhabitants of the colony were thus regarded as a permanent garrison, and at first freed from the obligations of ordinary military service, until they were later on obliged to serve in the fleet. Ostia, however, was by no means an ideal harbour; the mouth of the Tiber is exposed to the south-west wind, which often did damage in the harbour itself; in A.D. 62 no less than 200 ships with their cargoes were sunk, and there was an important guild of divers (urinatores) at Ostia. The difficulties of the harbour were increased by the continued silting up, produced by the enormous amount of solid material brought down by the river. Even in Strabo’s time (v. 3. 5, p. 231) the harbour of Ostia had become dangerous: he speaks of it as a “city without a harbour owing to the silting up brought about by the Tiber . . . : the ships anchor at considerable risk in the roads, but the love of gain prevails: for the large number of lighters which receive the cargoes and reload them renders the time short before they can enter the river, and having lightened a part of their cargoes they sail in and ascend to Rome.”
Caesar had projected remedial measures, but (as in so many cases) had never been able to carry them out, and it was not until the time of Claudius that the problem was approached. That emperor constructed a large new harbour on the right bank, 212 m. N. of Ostia, with an area of 170 acres enclosed by two curving moles, with an artificial island, supporting a lofty lighthouse, in the centre of the space between them. This was connected with the Tiber by an artificial channel, and by this work Claudius, according to the inscriptions which he erected in A.D. 46, freed the city of Rome from the danger of inundation. The harbour was named by Nero, Portus Augusti.
Trajan found himself obliged in A.D. 103, owing to the silting up of the Claudian harbour, and the increase of trade, to construct another port further inland—a hexagonal basin enclosing an area of 97 acres with enormous warehouses—communicating with the harbour of Claudius and with the Tiber by means of the channel already constructed by Claudius, this channel being prolonged so as to give also direct access to the sea. This became blocked in the middle ages, but was reopened by Paul V. in 1612, and is still in use. Indeed it forms the right arm of the Tiber, by which navigation is carried on at the present day, and is known as the Fossa Trajana. The island between the two arms acquired the name of Insula Sacra (still called Isola Sacra) by which Procopius mentions it.
Ostia thus lost a considerable amount of its trade, but its importance still continued to be great. The 2nd and 3rd centuries, indeed, are the high-water mark of its prosperity: and it still possessed a mint in the 4th century A.D. During the Gothic wars, however, trade was confined to Portus, and the ravages of pirates led to its gradual abandonment. Gregory IV. constructed in 830 a fortified enceinte, called Gregoriopolis, in the eastern portion of the ancient city, and the Saracens were signally defeated here under Leo IV. (847–856). The battle is represented in Giulio Romano’s fresco from Raphael’s design in the Stanza dell’ Incendio in the Vatican.
