Ostracism

Ostracism was a procedure under the Athenian democracy where a prominent citizen could be expelled from the city for ten years. Not considered a penalty, the expulsion could be pre-emptive, to remove someone thought to be a threat to the state (or who just seemed too powerful), or it might be a way of diffusing a major confrontation between rival politicians. But the command that it made was a neutral one: We think it better you not be here for a time.

Falls into disuse

The last ostracism, that of Hyperbolos in or near 415 BC, is elaborately narrated by Plutarch (in three separate lives): Hyperbolos is pictured urging the people to expel one of his rivals, but they, Nicias and Alcibiades, laying aside their own hostility for a moment, use their combined influence to have him ostracised instead. But then, says Plutarch, the people, disgusted, abandon the procedure forever. Whatever the value of this story, it cannot provide a sufficient explanation for ostracism's obsolescence.

Related Topics:
Hyperbolos - Nicias - Alcibiades

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In part ostracism lapsed as a procedure at the end of the fifth century because it was replaced by the graphe paranomon, a regular court action under which a much larger number of politicians might be targeted, instead of just one a year as with ostracism, and with greater severity. But it may already have come to seem like an anachronism as factional alliances organised around Big Men became increasingly less significant in the later period, and power was more specifically located in the interaction of the individual speaker with the power of the assembly and the courts. The threat to the democratic system in the late 5th century came not from tyranny but from oligarchic coups (two brief seizures of power, in 411 by "the Four Hundred" and in 404 BC by "the Thirty"), which were not dependent on single powerful individuals: ostracism was not an effective defence against the oligarchic threat and it was not so used.

Related Topics:
Fifth century - Graphe paranomon - Assembly - Courts - Tyranny - Oligarchic - 411 - "the Four Hundred" - 404 BC - "the Thirty"

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Other cities are known to have set up forms of ostracism on the Athenian model, namely Megara, Miletos, Argos and Syracuse. In the last of these it was referred to as petalismos, because the names were written on olive leaves. Little is known about these institutions.

Related Topics:
Megara - Miletos - Argos - Syracuse - Olive

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