OSTRACISM, a peculiar political institution in Athens, designed by Clisthenes as a safeguard against any citizen acquiring too great power and aspiring to make himself tyrant of the state. Before it could be carried into effect, a decree of the people had to be passed that an ostracism was necessary. If this was done, the voting was fixed for a special day in the agora. The votes were given according to tribes; and each citizen wrote on an oyster shell (δστpaκov) the name of the person who he thought should be ostracized. The person who obtained the majority was exiled for ten years, provided the votes against him were 6000. If no person were designated on so many shells, the proceedings were at an end. The ostracized person might return at the end of his term of banishment, having then the full rights of citizenship, or his term might be shortened by a special vote of the people. The institution was intended as a precaution in view of the weakness of the central Government, which, having no standing army at its disposal, was liable to be disturbed or overturned by a sudden attack arranged by a powerful partisan. When party strife ran high, ostracism was frequently resorted to with the consent of the two parties, in order to test their strength; but when an ostracism had been arranged in 416 b.c. the parties subsequently compromised their dispute and directed their votes against an insignificant person named Hyperbolus. After this the institution fell into disuse. According to Aristotle and Philochorus, the people were required every year in the first assembly of the sixth prytany to determine whether or not an ostracism should take place. The same institution is said to have been in use at Argos, Miletus, and Megara, and a similar one called petalismus was employed ...at Syracuse for a short time during the 5th century B.c.; the latter was named from the olive leaves (τr∈ταλα) used instead of oyster-shells.
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