The theory and practice of ostracism in Plutarch’s lives

Abstract

This paper will examine Plutarch’s accounts of ostracism and explore more fully how he thought it worked in theory and in practice. Accounts of ostracism are found in six of the Lives, all of fifth-century Athenians, and in one of the Moralia. These accounts often relate the same event, and so they allow us to see how Plutarch presents the same material from different perspectives. In this way we may view, for example, the ostracism of Aristides as it is presented in his Life but also as it appears in the Life of his opponent, Themistocles.