"Ostracism (Greek: ὀστρακισμός, ostrakismos) was an Athenian democratic procedure in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the citizen, ostracism was often used preemptively."
"Each year the Athenians were asked in the assembly whether they wished to hold an ostracism. If they voted 'yes', then an ostracism would be held. Citizens gave the name of those they wished to be ostracised to a scribe. The person with the most votes would be banished."
"The person nominated had ten days to leave the city. If he attempted to return, the penalty was death."
"Ostracism was crucially different from Athenian law at the time; there was no charge, and no defence could be mounted by the person expelled."
"The two stages of the ostracism procedure ran in the reverse order from that used under almost any trial system—here it is as if a jury are first asked 'Do you want to find someone guilty?', and subsequently asked 'Whom do you wish to accuse?'."
"Ostracism was an automatic procedure that required no initiative from any individual, with the vote simply occurring on the wish of the people — a diffuse exercise of power."
"A pharmakós (Greek: φαρμακός, plural pharmakoi) in Ancient Greek religion was the ritualistic sacrifice or exile of a human scapegoat or victim."
"A slave, a disabled person, or a criminal was chosen and expelled from the community at times of disaster (famine, invasion or plague) or at times of crisis. It was believed that this would bring about purification."
"Some records state that pharmakoi were actually sacrificed (thrown from a cliff or burned), but many modern scholars reject this, arguing that the earliest source for the pharmakos (the iambic satirist Hipponax) shows the pharmakoi being beaten and stoned, but not executed."
"Some scholars have connected the practice of ostracism, in which a prominent person was exiled from Athens after a vote, with the pharmakos custom. However, the ostracism exile was only for a fixed time, as opposed to the finality of the pharmakos execution or expulsion."
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