Ostracism in Ancient Athens

Stories from Ancient Greece – Aristides and Ostracism

Some of the earliest known examples of people being canceled date back over two
thousand years. In the 5th century B.C., the Ancient Greeks used to practice ostracism,
where wrongdoers were sent into exile by popular vote. Cleisthenes – the “father of
Athenian democracy” – is widely regarded to have created the punishment.

Every year, the people of Athens would be asked if they wanted to ostracize anyone. If
they voted in favor, they would meet in the public agora to hold an election. Under the
watchful eye of the council, citizens would etch the name of the person they wanted to
be thrown out of the city into a shard of broken pottery. Each fragment was known as
‘ostrakon’ – from which the word ostracism was born.

The shards were collected in an urn and counted. It took at least 6000 total votes for the
process to be valid. Athenian officials would then sort the shards into piles, and whoever
received the most votes was banished from the city. They were given ten days to
prepare themselves and warned that they would be killed if they tried to return. The
punishment would last for ten years, after which they would be allowed back into
Athens.

Records suggest that around thirteen men were ostracized from Athens between 487
and 416 B.C. Some of those were pardoned and returned to the city before they had
served their full decade, like Xanthippus and Aristides who were let back in to help fight
the Persians in 479 B.C.
One of the most notable people to be kicked out of Athens was renowned politician
Themistocles. It is said that Themistocles’ power went to his head and that he was
ostracized to curb his arrogance. As the historian Plutarch explained, ostracism “was
not a penalty, but a way of pacifying and alleviating that jealousy which delights to
humble the eminent, breathing out its malice into this disfranchisement.” [1]