Asylia : territorial inviolability in the Hellenistic world / Kent J. Rigsby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rigsby, Kent J., 1945-

Series:

Hellenistic culture and society ; 22.

Hellenistic culture and society ; 22

Language:

English

Greek, Modern (1453-)

Subjects (All):

Asylum, Right of (Greek law).

Asylum, Right of (Greek law)--Religious aspects.

Sacred space--Greece--History.

Sacred space.

History.

Greece.

Physical Description:

xvii, 672 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley ; Los Angeles : University of California Press, 1996.

Language Note:

In English with some Greek.

Summary:

In the Hellenistic period certain Greek temples and cities came to be declared "sacred and inviolable." "Asylia" was the practice of declaring religious places precincts of asylum, meaning they were immune to violence and civil authority. The evidence for this phenomenon--mainly inscriptions and coins--is scattered in the published record. The material has never been collected and presented in one publication until now. Kent J. Rigsby lays out these documents and discusses their historical implications in a substantial introduction. He argues that while a hopeful intention of military neutrality lay behind the institution of asylum, the declarations did not in fact change military behavior. Instead, "declared inviolability" became a civic and religious honor for which cities across the Greek world competed during the third to first centuries B.C.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

0520200985

OCLC:

32700458