Ostracism

Soon after their victory over the Persians at the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., the Athenians began the practice of ostracism, a form of election designed to curb the power of any rising tyrant. They were probably inspired at least in part by the fact that their old tyrant Hippias, who had been thrown out years before, accompanied the Persian fleet to Marathon, hoping to be reinstalled in power in Athens once again.

The procedure of ostracism was simple. Once a year the people would meet in the Agora and take a vote to determine if anyone was becoming too powerful and was in a position to establish a tyranny. If a simple majority voted yes, they met again in the Agora two months later. At this second meeting each citizen carried with him an ostrakon (potsherd) on which he had scratched the name of the person he wished ostracized. if at least 6,000 votes were cast, the man with the most votes lost and was exiled for ten years.

The procedure was used frequently in the 480's and less often thereafter. While an interesting idea, it did not really work to curb ambition in the long run, for a prominent man, if powerful enough, could use it to eliminate his chief rival. Such an occurrence is recorded in 443 B.C., when Perikles was facing vociferous criticism of his policies, especially his building program. An ostracism was held, which resulted in the exile of his main opponent, Thucydides the son of Melesias (not Thucydides the historian). Plutarch describes the final ostracism and the abandonment of the procedure in 417 B.C.:

Now the sentence of ostracism was not a chastisement of base practices, instead it was speciously called a humbling and docking of oppressive prestige and power; but it was really a merciful exorcism of the spirit of jealous hate, which thus vented its malignant desire to injure, not in some irreparable evil, but in a mere change of residence for ten years. And when ignoble men of the baser sort came to be subjected to this penalty it ceased to be inflicted at all, and Hyperbolos was the last to be thus ostracized. It is said that Hyperbolos was ostracized for the following reason. Alkibiades and Nikias had the greatest power in the state and were at odds. Accordingly, when the people were about to exercise the ostracism, and were clearly going to vote against one or the other of these two men, they came to terms with one another, united their opposing factions, and effected the ostracism of Hyperbolos. The people were incensed at this for they felt that the institution had been insulted and abused, and so they abandoned it utterly and put an end to it. (Life of Aristeides 73-4)

Useless immediately after the counting, the actual ostraka were simply discarded in the street or any convenient hole. Like most baked pottery, ostraka are virtually indestructible; excavations in Athens have produced over 11,000 examples. More than any literary text, the ostraka bring to life a sense of Athenian power politics as waged centuries ago. They preserve the names of all the well-known statesmen as well as several unknown aspirants to political power.