ostracism

ostracism , ancient Athenian method of banishing a public figure. It was introduced after the fall of the family of Pisistratus . Each year the assembly took a preliminary vote to decide whether a vote of ostracism should be held. If a majority approved holding an ostracism, a day was set for the voting. When the polling took place, each voter put into an urn a potsherd ( ostrakon ) marked with the name of a person he wished ostracized. The man named on the most ostraka was exiled, unless fewer than 6,000 votes were cast (some authorities believe that a total of 6,000 votes was necessary to ostracize a person). The exile lasted normally 10 years with no confiscation. Aristides , Cimon , and others were recalled before 10 years were up. The last ostracism was probably that of Hyperbolus (416? BC), a demagogue of humble origin. Other cities used ostracism also. Numerous ostraka have been found in modern excavations, many bearing the names of Aristides and Themistocles.

ostracism A method of banishment in ancient ATHENS. At a stated meeting each year, the Athenian assembly voted on whether it wanted an ostracism that year. If the vote was affirmative, an ostracism was held two months later. Every citizen who so wished then wrote a name on a sherd of pottery (“ostrakon”), and provided that at least 6000 valid “ostraka” were counted, the man with the most against him had to leave Attica for ten years, though he was allowed to enjoy any income from his property there while absent. A vote to ostracize often functioned as a sort of “general election”, constituting a “vote of confidence” for the policies of the most powerful rival of the man thus named. Such trials of political strength were most notable in the ostracisms of Themistocles (c.471), Cimon (c.462), and Pericles' rival Thucydides (443). Ostracism was not resorted to after 417 or 416.

ostracism method of banishment in ancient Greece by voting with potsherds or tiles on which the name of the person proposed to be banished was written. XVI. — F. ostracisme or modL. ostracismus — Gr. ostrakismós, f. ostrakizein (whence ostracize XVII), f. óstrakon shell, tile, potsherd, rel. to ostakós crustacean, ostéon bone; see OSTEO-, -ISM.