The story of a bored citizen

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system1988
Hetairos (companion)
Posts: 740
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 11:20 am
Location: Athens, Greece

The story of a bored citizen

Post by system1988 »

Hi all!


Since Europe's political weathercast seems rainy, here is something from the world's first democracy. In the Athens ancient Agora excavations, almost 7000 potsherds (ostraca) were found; they were used as ballots in the 5th century in the process of ostracism which took its name from the ballots. The ostracism law, used from 487 BC to 417 BC was put into effect when the risk of a tyranny system being revived seemed near at hand. Each citizen wrote on his ballot the name of the man whom he feared would cause democracy harm. If as 6000 ballots were cast the proceeding was valid and them an whose name appeared most frequently was required to leave Athens for a period of 10 years. The name of the man was normally accompanied by that of his father or township, or both. Many great men like Themistokles, Kimon and Aristides were cast out likewise.

Well in the case of Aristides there's a commonly known story, unfortunately I cannot remember who told it. Aristides, who was Themistokle's political rival and had helped during the Persian Wars, was called "The Just". One morning, during the ostracism, he was approached by an illiterate Athenian and without the citizen knowing to whom he was talking to, aksed Aristides to write the name "Aristides" on the ballot. When Aristides asked the citizen why he wanted Aristides exiled the citizen told him "I have just had enough of him being called all the time Just!". Aristides, then wrote down his name on the ballot and was -if I remember right- ostracized the same day.

I have posted a photo here:

http://s1246.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... sort=3&o=1

so you can see the ballots with the names of famous politicians and on the center of the photo lies the potsherd with Aristides' name on it. The fact that many potshers among the 7000 have the same writing style makes us hypothesize that there was a clan which had taken upon itself the task of writing down the names of the politicians and then distribute it among the illiterate voters. The first democracy had its black stains as well.
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