Ostracism

• Cleisthenes is credited for introducing ostracism - the first recorded ostracism was in 487, some twenty years after his reforms
• Ostracism was clearly intended to be a safeguard against the return of tyranny
• under the rules of ostracism, each year the assembly was allowed to banish one public figure for a period of ten years
• a candidate for ostracism was thought to have become too powerful and could pose a threat to the democratic system
• when the ten years were up, the man could return to Attica with the full rights of a citizen