Ostracisme

In de periode van ongeveer 485 tot 415, dus zo'n zeventig jaar, bestond in Athene het schervengericht of ostracisme. Het ostracisme dankt zijn naam aan de ostraka (scherven) die gebruikt werden als stembriefjes.

Elk jaar kon de volksvergadering (ekklesia) besluiten om bij stemming een burger aan te wijzen die voor tien jaar Athene moest verlaten.

Als tenminste 6000 Atheners aan de stemming deelnamen moest degene met de meeste stemmen de stad verlaten. Hij behield wel zijn vermogen en zijn burgerrecht.

Een van de beroemdste slachtoffers van dit ostracisme was Themistocles (zie de scherf hieronder).

Bron over ostracisme: Philochorus (Atthis):

"Ostracism is as follows: The Demos takes a vote before the 8th Prytany, as to whether it seemed best to hold an ostracism. When the response is positive, the Agora is fenced off with barricades; ten entrances were left open, through which they entered according to Phyle and deposited their potsherds, keeping face-down what they had written. The Nine Archons and the Boule presided. After they added up the results, whoever received the largest number, and it had to be not less than 6,000, was required to pay the penalty: he had to settle his private affairs within ten days and to depart from the City for ten years (though it later was made five years); he still received the income from his property, but he could not come nearer than Geraistos, the promontory of Euboea. Hyperbolus was the sole undistinguished person to suffer ostracism, on account of the degeneracy of his habits, not because he was suspected of aiming at tyranny. After him the practice was abandoned, which had begun when Kleisthenes was legislating, when he expelled the tyrants, so that he might toss out their friends as well.