ostracon - noun - An inscribed potsherd.
The greeks used this tool to get rid of politicians. It was actually quite a painful process. The assembly (read: the citizens) would enscribe the name of the politician they wanted out of office on a piece of pottery and drop it in a bowl in the senate. When the shards of pottery were counted, if the appropriate number was met, the politician was banished from Athens for 10 years.
-- source: History channel, wikipedia
1 comment:
I had already used 'ostracize,' but this doesn't count as a duplicate.
It's surprising that the Athenians ostracized some of their greats - after they became great! Miltiades, who commanded the Athenians against the Persians (490 B.C.), and Solon, one of the Seven Wise Men, were just two. Maybe they didn't want them to develop big heads or something.
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