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# Athenian laws on tyranny and ostracism and the difference in how they worked
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-afinakh-sushchestvoval-dostatochno-zhestokii-zakon-protiv-tiranii-po-kotoromu-chelovek-pytavshiisia-zakhvatit-edinolichnuiu-vlast-vmeste-so-vsem-svoim-rodom-podvergalsia-atimii/
- Published: 2017-05-23T09:12:26.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:57:56.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Science, Society

Athens had a rather cruel law against tyranny, under which a man who attempted to seize sole power, together with his entire family, was subjected to atimia. Atimia in the archaic sense meant the withdrawal of the state's protection, a declaration of outlawry, in effect a licence for lynching. Its classical sense is a milder variant: simply the deprivation of civil rights, most often partial and temporary.

The law against tyranny had been in force in Athens since the seventh century BC and is linked with the rising of Cylon. Its essential flaw, however, was that it could be applied only after the fact, that is, once the attempt to seize power had been made and suppressed. The law required one to wait until the man had raised a rebellion and set it going. And what is to be done if the attempt at rebellion succeeded? Then the law remains merely a law and in no way affects the real state of affairs.

For this reason the law on tyranny is sometimes identified or confused with another law, that on ostracism, which did allow the danger of tyranny to be eliminated before it came to pass. Ideally, the law on ostracism created conditions in which tyranny could not arise at all. In brief, its essence was that a man who began to soar too high was simply banished. In one version, 6,000 votes were required for this. As such, the law fell out of use at the end of the fifth century BC. The law against tyranny, however, remained on the books for quite a long time afterwards, presumably because it was less readily articulated.