Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Exostra

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

EXO'STRA (ἐχώστρα). A wooden bridge or platform projected from a movable tower to the walls of a besieged town, over which the assailants passed on to the ramparts. Veg. Mil. iv. 21. and 17.

2. A machine employed upon the stage of the ancient theatres, for the purpose of revealing to the spectators the results of certain actions which could not be perpetrated before their eyes, such, for instance, as a murder, or any other atrocity which might wound their moral or religious feelings. The precise character of the machine, and the manner in which it was made to operate, is not thoroughly ascertained; further than the fact, that it was pushed forward from behind the scenes, and made to turn round by springs and wheels, so as to expose to view the object required; a dead body, for example, indicative of a murder or a suicide. Cic. Prov. Cons. 6. Jul. Pollux, iv. 128, 129.