Ostracism

Ostracism was a procedure in ancient Athenian democracy that allowed any citizen to be banished from the city for a decade. Although some cases reflected genuine public anger, it was often used preemptively to remove individuals considered a threat to the state or potential tyrants. The term still refers to various forms of social exclusion today.

The word comes from *ostraka*—pottery sherds used as voting tokens. Broken pottery was cheap and plentiful, serving as a kind of scrap paper, unlike expensive imported papyrus from Egypt. Each year, the assembly was asked whether to hold an ostracism, with the question posed in the sixth month of the civic calendar (January or February). According to Philochorus, the process had two stages, was open to all citizens, overseen by outside officials, required a specific quorum, and regulated penalties.

If a majority agreed, the ostracism took place two months later. In a section of the agora called the *perischoinisma*, citizens gave names to a scribe (since many were illiterate), who scratched them onto shards. The shards were stacked face-down to keep votes anonymous. Ostracism served as a political tool to eliminate rivals, reflecting the Athenian belief in civic engagement and collective decision-making. Nine Archontes and the council of five hundred supervised; the Archontes counted the shards and sorted them into piles. The person with the most votes was banished, provided a quorum was met. According to Plutarch, at least 6,000 votes were needed for the ostracism to be valid; a fragment of Philochorus suggests 6,000 votes had to be cast against the banished person. Plutarch’s figure is generally preferred, as it matches the quorum for citizenship grants later.

The ostracized had ten days to leave; returning meant death. Their property was not confiscated, and they lost no status. After ten years, they could return without stigma. The assembly could recall someone early—before the Persian invasion of 479 BC, an amnesty allowed at least two ostracized leaders, Xanthippus and Aristides, to return. Similarly, Cimon, ostracized in 461 BC, was recalled during an emergency.

Ostracism was not used throughout the entire Athenian democracy (circa 506–322 BC) but only in the fifth century BC. Aristotle’s *Constitution of the Athenians* credits Cleisthenes with its establishment around 506 BC. The first expulsion did not occur until 487 BC—nearly 20 years later. Over the next 60 years, about 12 or more individuals followed. The known list includes: Hipparchos (487), Megacles (486), Kallixenos (485), Xanthippus (484), Aristides (482), Themistocles (471), Cimon (461), Alcibiades (460), Menon (457), Thucydides (442), Callias (440s), Damon (440s), and Hyperbolus (416). Around 12,000 political ostraka have been excavated in the Athenian agora and Kerameikos. Megacles is named on 4,647 of these, but for a second undated ostracism not listed above. The known expulsions fall into three phases: the 480s BC, mid-century (461–443 BC), and 417–415 BC, suggesting ostracism fell in and out of fashion.

The last known ostracism was Hyperbolus around 417 BC. No use is recorded after the Peloponnesian War, when democracy was restored in 403 BC following the oligarchic coup of the Thirty. However, the procedure remained on the books; the question was put to the assembly each year, but they chose not to hold one.

Ostracism differed crucially from Athenian law: there was no charge, and the expelled person could not mount a defense. The two stages ran in reverse order from a typical trial—as if a jury were first asked, “Do you want to find someone guilty?” and then, “Whom do you wish to accuse?” Its most peculiar feature was the judicial framework: it could occur at most once a year and only for one person. It resembled the Greek *pharmakos* (scapegoat), though that practice usually targeted a lowly community member.