 
In the 6th century b.c.. Cleisthenes led democracy in Athens, Solon talking improved laws, Pericles the exalted. The resident population in Athens was divided into classes of Census and from that Division are they citizens. The Athenian citizen was participating actively in the political life of the city, exercising a form of direct democracy. Head of democracy there was a leader, a first citizen, as he always Pericles. Citizens, convened periodically in the Assembly, decided by a show of hands on any matter relating to the city: politics, taxes and duties, religious festivals. In extraordinary meetings, Instead, We were discussing in relation to the war in case the enemy moving against the city, or in the event that you were to declare war on another city or people. Ostracism was one of the most important instruments of direct democracy in Athens: kept in the hands of citizens allowed to drive out from the city to the people who, aspiring to dictatorship, was threatening to democracy. The procedure required that all 6.000 citizens to meet at a certain place, as the "ceramic" in Athens, and that had an impact over a crock (Ostraka) the name of the citizen to ostracize. The final count provided the person who had obtained the largest number of shards: This was cleared by the city on the same day, conducted in a designated location (often were the Aegean Islands) in which he would assume his penalty for a period of five years. This democratic form recognized a great prestige to the one who was ostracized, because it was considered very important person, influential and powerful. Looking at the pieces found throughout Athens one remains marvelled by the names of those who were ostracised, among all Pericles and Themistocles. Heroes of the time which made great Athens, in a certain moment in history, they were considered by the people too dangerous for their own democratic order. For the Greek democracy was the institution that before anything else and more than any other person had to be protected.
In the picture you can see a real ostraka, found in the Agora of Athens, bearing the name of possible ostracized: Pericles.
Roberto
