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HOSPITIUM (Gr. evia, IrpoEevia)
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See also:HOSPITIUM (Gr. evia, IrpoEevia) , " hospitality," among the Greeks and See also:Romans, was of a twofold See also:character : (I) private ; (2) public. (I) In Homeric times all strangers without exception were regarded as being under the See also:protection of See also:Zeus Xenios, the See also:god of strangers and suppliants. It is doubtful whether, as is commonly assumed, they were considered as ipso facto enemies; they were rather guests. Immediately on his arrival, the stranger was clothed and entertained, and no inquiry was made as to his name or antecedents until the duties of hospitality had been fulfilled. When the See also:guest parted from his See also:host he was often presented with gifts (EEvia), and sometimes a See also:die (avrpayaXos) was broken between them. Each then took a See also:part, a See also:family connexion was established, and the broken die served as a See also:symbol of recognition; thus the members of each family found in the other hosts and protectors in See also:case of need. Violation of the duties of hospitality was likely to provoke the wrath of the gods; but it does not appear that any-thing beyond this religious See also:sanction existed to guard the rights of a traveller. Similar customs seem to have existed among the See also:Italian races. Amongst the Romans, private hospitality, which had existed from the earliest times, was more accurately and legally defined than amongst the Greeks, the tie between host and guest being almost as strong as that between See also:patron and client. It was of the nature of a See also:contract, entered into by mutual promise, the clasping of hands, and See also:exchange of an agreement in See also:writing (tabula hospitalis) or of a token (tessera or symbolum), and was rendered hereditary by the See also:division of the tessera. The advantages thus obtained by the guest were, the right of hospitality when travelling and, above all, the protection of his host (representing him as his patron) in a See also:court of See also:law. The contract was sacred and inviolable, undertaken in the name of See also:Jupiter Hospitalis, and could only be dissolved by a formal See also:act. (2) This private connexion See also:developed into a See also:custom according to which a See also:state appointed one of the citizens of a See also:foreign state as its representative (rrpbEevos) to protect any of its citizens travelling or See also:resident in his See also:country. Sometimes an individual came forward voluntarily to perform these duties on behalf of another state (i9ekozrpbievos). The proxenus is generally compared to the See also:modern See also:consul or See also:minister resident. His duties were to afford hospitality to strangers from the state whose proxenus he was, to introduce its ambassadors, to procure them See also:admission to the See also:assembly and seats in the See also:theatre, and in See also:general to look after the commercial and See also:political interests of the state by which he had been appointed to his See also:office. Many cases occur where such an office was hereditary; thus the family of See also:Callias at See also:Athens were proxeni of the Spartans. We find the office mentioned in a Corcyraean inscription dating probably from the 7th See also:century B.C., and it continued to grow more important and frequent throughout See also:Greek See also:history. There is no See also:proof that any See also:direct emolument was ever attached to the office, while the expense and trouble entailed by it must often have been very See also:great. Probably the honours which it brought with it were sufficient recompense. These consisted partly in the general respect and esteem paid to a proxenus, and partly in many more substantial honours conferred by See also:special See also:decree of the state whose representative he was, such as freedom from See also:taxation and public burdens, the right of acquiring See also:property in See also:Attica, admission to the See also:senate and popular assemblies, and perhaps even full citizenship. Public hospitium seems also to have existed among the Italian races; but thecircumstances of their history prevented it from becoming so important as in See also:Greece. Cases, however, occur of the See also:establishment of public hospitality between two cities (See also:Rome and See also:Caere, See also:Livy v. 5o), and of towns entering into a position of clientship to some distinguished See also:Roman, who then became patronus of such a See also:town. Foreigners were frequently granted the right of public hospitality by the senate down to the end of the re-public. The public hospes had a right to entertainment at the public expense, admission to sacrifices and See also:games, the right of buying and selling on his own See also:account, and of bringing an See also:action at law without the intervention of a Roman patron.
A full bibliography of the subject will be found in the See also:article in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire See also:des antiquites, to which may be added R. von See also:Jhering. Die Gastfreundschaft See also:im Altertum (1887); see also See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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