Nearly all of Athens' most prominent politicians were targets. Ostracism could be a guard against any one of them gaining too much power and influence. Though the number of citizens could sometimes be as high as 60,000, a much smaller group of men was actively involved in Athenian politics. Ostracisms occurred during the heyday of Athenian democracy, which allowed direct participation in governance for the city-state's citizenry, a population that excluded women, enslaved workers and foreign-born residents. A candidate had to have at least 6,000 votes cast against him to be ostracized and historical records suggest that this occurred at least a dozen times. If yes, then they would set a date for the event. From early times, it seems to be used against individuals who were maybe not guilty of a criminal offense, so couldn't be brought to court, but who had in some other way violated or transgressed against community norms and posed a threat to civic order.” Athenians would first take a vote on whether there should be an ostracophoria, or an election to ostracize. “We're told it originated as a way to get rid of potential tyrants. “It was a negative popularity contest,” says historian James Sickinger of Florida State University. Called ostraca, each shard was scrawled with the name of a candidate the voter wanted to see exiled from the city for the next 10 years.įrom about 487 to 416 B.C., ostracism was a process by which Athenian citizens could banish someone without a trial. These intentionally broken pieces of pottery were the ancient equivalent of scraps of paper, but rather than being used to usher someone into office, they were used to give fellow citizens the boot. In the 1960s, archaeologists made a remarkable discovery in the history of elections: they found a heap of about 8,500 ballots, likely from a vote tallied in 471 B.C., in a landfill in Athens.
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