Ostracism
event · 2 works · 2 mentions · 5 anchored passages
also in the atlas: Ostracism the idea
ostracism · the law concerning ostracism · the ostracism
in the texts
Constitution of the Athenians
The institution of ostracism from its enactment by Cleisthenes through its early applications and eventual mass recall.
In the twelfth year after this, having won the battle at Marathon, in the archonship of Phaenippus, after letting two years pass after the victory, the people being now confident, they used for the first time the law concerning ostracism, which had been enacted out of suspicion of those in positions of power, because Pisistratus, being a popular leader and general, had become tyrant.
In the fourth year they recalled all the ostracized, in the archonship of Hypsechides, because of the expedition of Xerxes;
For it happened that the tyranny had effaced the laws of Solon through disuse, and Cleisthenes laid down other new ones aiming at the multitude, among which was enacted the law concerning ostracism.
Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated
The Athenian practice of banishing citizens by popular vote, cited as an ineffectual historical remedy against political corruption.
The Athenians, unwilling to surrender the blessings of life, but sensible of the evil, endeavoured to restrain it, by the ineffectual expedient of the ostracism.