<P> Cleisthenes also may have introduced ostracism (first used in 487 BC), whereby a vote from more than 6,000 of the citizens would exile a citizen for 10 years . The initial trend was to vote for a citizen deemed a threat to the democracy (e.g., by having ambitions to set himself up as tyrant). However, soon after, any citizen judged to have too much power in the city tended to be targeted for exile (e.g., Xanthippus in 485 / 84 BC). Under this system, the exiled man's property was maintained, but he was not physically in the city where he could possibly create a new tyranny . One later ancient author records that Cleisthenes himself was the first person to be ostracized . </P> <P> Cleisthenes called these reforms isonomia ("equality vis à vis law", iso - = equality; nomos = law), instead of demokratia . Cleisthenes' life after his reforms is unknown as no ancient texts mention him thereafter . </P>

N. the political assembly of citizens of an ancient greek state