ostracizein

Ostracizein is the ancient Greek verb for the act of banishing a citizen from the city-state by popular vote. The noun ostracism refers to the practice itself. The term derives from ostrakon, meaning a shard of pottery on which voters inscribed the name of the person to be ostracized; the practice gave the English word ostracize.

In Athens, ostracism emerged as a political mechanism to prevent the rise of individuals who threatened the democracy’s balance of power. The process involved a popular vote in which citizens wrote the name of a candidate on an ostrakon. If a designated threshold—often around 6,000 votes—was reached, the candidate was ostracized for ten years. The penalty was civil rather than criminal: the exile did not lose citizenship, but was required to leave Athens and its surroundings and could not return during the ban. Property rights were generally not automatically forfeited, though the exiled person could not participate in civic life for the duration.

Notable examples include prominent leaders such as Themistocles and Cimon, who were ostracized at various times as a means for the Assembly to curb concentration of power without formal prosecutions. The practice served as a political check within the Athenian democracy and reflected a preference for collective regulation over individual punishment. Ostracism waned in use during the late classical period and was eventually abandoned.

In modern usage, the verb ostracize carries a broader sense of social exclusion from a group, derived from the historical practice, though it lacks the formal ritual and legal structure of ancient ostracism.