1st century
3rd century
A01=Kent J. Rigsby
asylum
Author_Kent J. Rigsby
Category=NHC
Category=NHD
changing military behavior
civic honor
coins
declarations
declared inviolability
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
evidence
greece
greek cities
greek temples
greek world
hellenistic period
historical implications
immune to civil authority
immune to violence
inscriptions
institution of asylum
military neutrality
religion
religious honor
Product details
- ISBN 9780520200982
- Weight: 1134g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 28 Mar 1997
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
Kent J. Rigsby is Professor of Classical Studies at Duke University.
