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.

References

Some of the longer ancient passages:

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From Aristotle Constitution of the Athenians:

Related Topics:
Aristotle - Constitution of the Athenians

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• Athenian Constitution 22

From Plutarch's 'Lives':

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• Life of Pericles 11-12
• Life of Pericles 14
• Life of Cimon 17
• Life of Aristides 7
• Life of Alcibiades 13
• Life of Nicias 11
• A list, differing slightly from that given above, of known ostracisms and many of the key Greek passages translated, from John Paul Adams's site at CSU Northridge.

Note that the ancient sources on ostracism are mostly 4th century or much later and often limited to brief descriptions such as notes by lexicographers. Most of the narrative and analytical passages of any length come from Plutarch writing five centuries later and with little sympathy for democratic practices. There are no contemporary accounts that can take one into the experiences of participants: a dense account of Athenian democracy can only be made on the basis of the much fuller sources available in the 4th century (especially the Attic orators) after ostracism had fallen into disuse. We are largely dealing with a 4th-century memory of the institution.

Related Topics:
4th century - Lexicographers - Attic orators

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• Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd edition(Oxford 1996): ostracism
• Ostraka, Mabel Lang (Athens 1990)
• Ostracism at Athens, Eugene Vanderpool (Cincinnati 1970)
• The Origins of Ostracism, A Synthesis, Rudi Thomsen (Copenhagen 1972)
• 'The Ostracism of Hyberbolus', J.P. Rhodes, in Ritual, Finance, Politics: Athenian Democratic Accounts presented to David Lewis, edd. R. Osborne, S. Hornblower (Oxford 1994), p. 85-99
• The Athenian Democracy in the age of Demosthenes, Mogens Herman Hansen (Oxford 1987)
• Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric , Ideology and the Power of the People, Josiah Ober (Princeton 1989)

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