The Romance of IT ords. OSTRACISE
To-day, when a person has been expelled from society, or “sent to Coventry,” we say that person has been ostracised. The word owes its origin to a peculiar practice carried out in ancient Athens to preserve the democratic government there. If any citizen became so powerful that it was feared he would overthrow the Government, an ostracism was asked from the Athenian Senate and the Public Assembly. If granted the citizens each deposited a shell or potsherd (a broken piece- of earthenware) on which, was written the name of any person of .whom they entertained apprehensions, and if 6000 concurred in voting against the same Individual, he was required to go into honourable banishment for ten years, retaining, however, all his property.
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 120, 14 February 1935, Page 7
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128The Romance of IT ords. OSTRACISE Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 120, 14 February 1935, Page 7
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