The title says it all. I did a search and came up with nothing, so I thought I'd ask here. This will be a good topic for my office's weekly Thursday political discussion/debate.
Thank in advance!
There was ostracism in Ancient Athens.
If a demagogue was considered too powerful, the citizens voted if 8000 ostricia were cast, the "winner" was exiled.
8000 was either the number of votes required in total or for one person. Scholars disagree.
Aristotle described what he claimed was the establishment of ostracism in 5th Century Athens
"Eleven years afterwards came their victory in the battle of Marathon; and in the archonship of Phaenippus, two years after the victory, the people being now in high courage, they put in force for the first time the law about ostracism, which had been enacted owing to the suspicion felt against the men in the positions of power because Peisistratus when leader of the people and general set himself up as tyrant."
Athens, Constitution of the Athenians, 22.3.
Even amongst the Athenians, it was not held once a decade, but yearly, by the ecclesia (who could, technically, pass over this opportunity).
Romans did have a form of exile, for example; Lepidus, Cato, even, arguably, Pompey and the Senate. However, from what I can recall, these types of exile were often self imposed, and/or politically or militarily practical (apologies, I do not have any Latin sources readily to hand - aside from a blanket of Appian, The Civil War, and Plutarch, Parallel Lives: Pompey & Caesar).