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1 The institution of ostracism was incorporated in one of the laws of Cleisthenes, and was passed in 507 B.C. but first used, according to Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 22), twenty years later, "when the people had gained self-confidence." Professor T. Leslie Shear has kindly allowed me to see an as yet unpublished paper of his, "Ostracism and the Ostraka from the Agora," which he prepared in 1941. Whereas Carcopino for the second edition of his L'Ostracisme athénien (1935) had 62 examples of the ballots used in Athenian ostracophoria (the balloting), the collection from the Agora now totals 503, and in 1937 a well on the North Slope yielded an additional 191 pieces. There are names of persons who were never ostracized and of many persons who are otherwise unknown. The accuracy of Aristotle's statement that the institution was first used in 487 B.C. is borne out against Walker's theory (Camb. Anc. Hist. 4, p. 152) that there may well have been instances of its use before the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.
2 The period was ten years (Diodorus has probably confused the Athenian institution with a similar one of Syracuse where the term of exile was five years (cp. chap. 87.1)), and a total of 6000 votes was required.
3 The ostracism of Themistocles took place in the period 472-470 B.C. (Walker in the Camb. Anc. Hist. 5, pp. 62 f.), and this attack on him by the Spartans a year or so later. Thucydides (Thuc. 1.135) states that he was to be recalled to Athens for trial, whether before the Assembly (so E. Meyer) or the Areopagus (Wilamowitz) is not clear. Modern writers generally reject Diodorus' account that his trial was to have been before the General Congress of the Hellenic League. It is not impossible, however, that such a suggestion was first made by the Spartans, but was not pressed when the Athenians offered to recall him to Athens for trial. Plutarch (Plut. Arist. 21) states that a Hellenic League to prosecute the war against the Persians, meeting annually, was established in 479. It is clear that Diodorus was thinking of the General Congress of this league and not of that of the Peloponnesian League (cp. J. A. O. Larsen in Class. Phil. 28 (1933), pp. 263-265).
4 Cp. chap. 27.2.
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- Cross-references to this page
(2):
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), EXSI´LIUM
- Smith's Bio, Clei'sthenes
- Cross-references in notes from this page (3):