Asylum (antiquity)

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Asylia
)

In

ancient Levant
.

Ancient Israel and Judah

Main article: Cities of Refuge

The Cities of Refuge were certain

east of the Jordan River,[1] and Kedesh, Shechem, and Hebron on the western side.[2] There is also an instance of Adonijah, after a failed coup, seeking refuge from the newly anointed Solomon by grasping the horns of a sacrificial alter.[3]

Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece the temples, altars, sacred groves, and statues of the gods generally possessed the privileges of protecting slaves, debtors, and criminals, who fled to them for refuge. The laws, however, do not appear to have recognised the right of all such sacred places to afford the protection which was claimed, but to have confined it to a certain number of temples, or altars, which were considered in a more especial manner to have the asylia (Servius ad Virg. Aen. ii. 761.).

There were several places in

Theseum, or temple of Theseus, in the city, which was chiefly intended for the protection of the ill-treated slaves, who could take refuge in this place, and compel their masters to sell them to some other person (Plut
. Theseus, 36; Schol. ad Aristoph. Equit. 1309; Hesych. and Suidas, s.v.).

The other places in Athens which possessed the

Calauria (Pint. Demosth. 29); and the temple of Athena Alea in Tegea
(Paus. iii. 5. § 6).

It would appear, however, that all sacred places were supposed to protect an individual to a certain extent, even if their right to do so was not recognised by the laws of the state, in which they were situated. In such cases, however, as the law gave no protection, it seems to have been considered lawful to use any means in order to compel the individuals who had taken refuge to leave the

Pausanias of Sparta. The 464 BC Sparta earthquake
has been viewed by the contemporaries as divine vengeance for the Spartan ephors' murder of helots in violation of the asylum in the Tainaron temple.

In ancient Greece the term asylia was also applied to the security from plunder and piracy (asylia on land and sea), which was sometimes granted by one state to another, or even to single individuals (See Bb'ckh, Corp. Inscrip. i. p. 725.).

Ancient Rome

An ahistorical fresco imagining refugees seeking the asylum of Romulus, from the founding of Rome frieze[4] in the elaborate architectural setting of the Palazzo Magnani, Bologna (late 16th century)

The asylum (temple of the god Asylaeus) that Romulus is said to have opened at Rome on the Capitoline Hill, between its two summits, in order to increase the population of the city[5] was, according to the legend, a place of refuge for the inhabitants of other states, rather than a sanctuary for those who had violated the laws of the city. In the republican and early imperial times, a right of asylum, such as existed in the Greek states, does not appear to have been recognised by Roman law. Livy seems to speak of the right of asylum as peculiar to the Greeks.[6]

By a constitutio of

Justinian
's Institutes (1. tit. 8. s. 2), with a slight alteration; the words ad aedem sacram are substituted for ad fana deorum, since the jus asyli was in his time extended to churches.

Those slaves who took refuge at the statue of an emperor were considered to inflict disgrace on their master, as it was reasonably supposed that no slave would take such a step, unless he had received very bad usage from his master. If it could be proved that any individual had instigated the slave of another to flee to the statue of an emperor, he was liable to an action corrupti servi.[8] The right of asylum seems to have been generally, but not entirely, confined to slaves.[9]

In the time of

Roman senate, by the command of the emperor, limited the jus asyli to a few cities, but did not entirely abolish it, as Suetonius (Tiberius 37) has erroneously stated.[10]

Ancient Hawai'i

In the culture of ancient Hawai'i, certain places were designated pu'uhonua, which has been translated "place of refuge". A pu'uhonua was a sanctuary; a criminal who had violated the strict kapu code, or a defeated warrior or a non-combatant in a war could take shelter in a pu'uhonua, free from reprisal. Anyone, no matter their social status or crime, was free to enter, if they could reach the site before being overtaken by their pursuers. The resident priests would put to death anyone who pursued someone into the sanctuary. After being purified by a priest, the person was then free to leave, absolved of any crime.[11]

One of the best preserved pu'uhonua is

mana (spiritual power) was believed to protect the area. Each pu'uhonua was similarly protected by a deified ancestor.[11]

After unifying the islands in 1810,

Kamehameha the Great abolished most of the pu'uhonua and established new ones, although the one at Honaunau was untouched. The kapu system itself was officially abolished in a taboo-breaking ceremony by King Kamehameha II and his court in 1819, after which the importance of pu'uhonua declined, since there was no longer a need for their powers of absolution.[11]

See also

Further reading

  • Kirchheimer, Otto (1959). "Asylum". American Political Science Review. 53 (4): 985–1016.

References

  1. ^ Deuteronomy 4:43 and Joshua 20:8
  2. ^ Joshua 20:7
  3. ^ "Bible Gateway passage: 1 Kings 1:50-53 - New American Standard Bible". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  4. ^ By Agostino, Ludovico, and Annibale Carracci.
  5. ^ Livy. i. 8; Velleius Paterculus i. 8; Dionysius of Halicarnassus ii. 15.
  6. ^ Livy, xxxv. 51: Temphim esi Apollinis Delium … eo jure sancto quo sunt templa quae asyla Graeci ap pellant.
  7. ^ Gains, i. 53.
  8. ^ Dig. 4-7. tit. 11. s. 5.
  9. ^ Dig. 48. tit. 19. s. 28. § 7. Comp. Osiander, De Asylis Gentilium, in Gronov. Thesaur. vol. vi.; Simon, Sur les Asyles, in Mem. de PA cad. des Inscript. vol. iii.; Bringer, De Asylorum Origine, Uau9 et Abusu Lugd. Bat. 1828; C. Neu, De Asylis Gott. 1837; respecting the right of asylum in the churches under the Christian emperors, see Rein, Das Criminalrecht der Romer, p. 896.
  10. ^ See also Tacitus, Ann. iii. 60—63, iv. 14 and Ernesti's Ex cursus to Suet. Tib. 37.
  11. ^ a b c "A Cultural History of Three Traditional Hawaiian Sites on the West Coast of Hawai'i Island". National Park Service.
  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
    Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
    . London: John Murray.
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