The first ostracism
Athenians vote with potsherds on whom to exile for 10 years
Once a year Athenians could scratch the name of the most dangerous politician on a potsherd, an ostrakon; with a quorum of 6,000 votes he went into exile for ten years. The first victim was Hipparchus in 487 BC, and the word 'ostracism' lives on.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 5th century BC
Did you know
A well by the Acropolis held 190 potsherds bearing Themistocles' name, written in just 14 hands. They seem to have been prepared to hand out to voters at an ostracism, more like modern how-to-vote cards than outright fraud. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Asia
- c. 500 BC Sun Tzu's The Art of War — 13 years earlier
- c. 483 BC Death of the Buddha — 4 years later
- 479 BC Death of Confucius — 8 years later
Alive at the time
- Gautama Buddha (aged 76)
- Confucius (aged 64)
- Darius the Great (aged 63)
- Leonidas I (aged 53)
- Xerxes I (aged 31)
- Sophocles (aged 10)
- Pericles (aged 8)
- Heraclitus (aged 48)
- Themistocles (aged 37)