PHREATIS, or PHREATIUM, in Grecian anti-
quity, was a court belonging to the civil government
of Athens, situated upon the sea-shore, in the Piraeus.
The name is derived from πρᾶξις praxis, because it stood
in a pit; or, as others suppose, from the hero Phreatus.
This court heard such causes as concerned persons
who had fled out of their own country for murder, or
those that fled for involuntary murder, and who had
afterwards committed a deliberate and wilful murder.
The first who was tried in this place was Teucer, on
a groundless suspicion that he had been accessory to
the death of Ajax. The accused was not allowed to
come to land, or so much as to cast anchor, but plead-
ed his cause in his bark; and if found guilty, was com-
mitted to the mercy of the winds and waves, or, as
some say, suffered there condign punishment; if inno-
cent, he was only cleared of the second fact, and, ac-
cording to custom, underwent a twelvemonth's ba-
nishment for the former. See Potter's Gr. Antiq. vol. i.
p. 111.