Athenian Ostracism and its Original Purpose

Marek Węcowski is Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of Warsaw and member of the Academic Board of the Polish Archaeological Institute at Athens. He studied in Warsaw and in Paris at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He was a junior fellow at Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies and a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Princeton University. His research interests include archaic Greek poetry, Greek historiography, archaic and classical Greek history, and Athenian democracy. He is the author of The Rise of the Greek Aristocratic Banquet (OUP, 2014).

• IntroductionPart I: Key Issues in the Study of Athenian Ostracism1: Ostracism before Ostracism?2: Towards a Reconstruction of Ostracism in Athens: The Facts3: Towards a Reconstruction of Ostracism in Athens: The ProceduresPart II: Towards an Interpretation of the Original Aims of Athenian Ostracism4: The Historical Context of the Cleisthenian Law about Ostracism5: The Prisoner's Dilemma: Ostracism and Competition among Athenian Political ÉlitesEpilogue and Conclusions: The Decline and Fall of Athenian Ostracism

This is an impressive work of great diligence and serious scholarship which will undoubtedly receive much fuller consideration in the appropriate journals. Notably, the evidence is well and fully presented, and the editor is to be commended upon his even handed assessment of the many disputed issues.