Ostracism
The Ostracism was a judicial practice in Athens, Greece, during antiquity.
Procedure
In the sixth month of each year, the citizen-council called the boule asked the citizens of Athens whether there should be an ostracism. If yes, the vote was held during the eight month.[1]
The citizens wrote the name of the person they wished to ostracize on a pottery fragment. These votes were placed in an urn until counted. If at least 6,000 citizens voted, the ostracism was valid, and the man with the most votes was then ostracized, meaning exiled. He had ten days to leave, and had to remain away for a decade, but did keep his citizenship as well as property. In a case of emergency, the ostracism could be recalled.[1]
Notable octracisms
Notable figures who were ostracized included Themistokles, Alkibiades, and Thucydides, who used his time away from Athenian politics to write the "History of the Peloponnesian War."[1]
Around 431 BCE, the Spartan misthios Kassandra witnessed the ostracization process of Anaxagoras, a philosopher and a friend of the statesman Perikles.[2]