Athenian Ostracism by Ostraka

In 5th-century BC Athens, citizens could hold an annual vote to decide whether to conduct ostracism and then scratch a name on pottery shards called ostraka. The city used this process to neutralize potential tyrants or dangerously popular figures, and the person with the most votes had to leave Athens for 10 years. The term "ostracize" comes from those shards, and the practice ran roughly from 487 to 416 BC.

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