Asylia: Territorial Inviolability in the Hellenistic World (Volume 22) (Hellenistic Culture and Society)

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. In the Hellenistic period certain Greek temples and cities came to be declared "sacred and inviolable," meaning immune from war. A famous passage of Tacitus describes the appeals of many cities for Roman confirmation of the title. The evidence for this phenomenon - mainly inscriptions and coins - is scattered in the published record, but the material has never been collected and presented in one publication until now. In Asylia: Territorial Inviolability in the Hellenistic World, Kent J. Rigsby lays out these documents and discusses their historical implications. Rigsby argues that while a hopeful intention of military neutrality lay behind this diplomatic gesture, the declarations of asylum did not in fact change the military behavior of the Greeks; declared inviolability in effect became primarily a civic and religious honor for which cities across the Greek world competed during the third to first centuries B.C. Of the many civic titles for which Greek cities competed by Roman Imperial times, this was the first. In the Hellenistic period certain Greek temples and cities came to be declared "sacred and inviolable," meaning immune from war. A famous passage of Tacitus describes the appeals of many cities for Roman confirmation of the title. The evidence for this phenomenon - mainly inscriptions and coins - is scattered in the published record, but the material has never been collected and presented in one publication until now. In Asylia: Territorial Inviolability in the Hellenistic World, Kent J. Rigsby lays out these documents and discusses their historical implications. Rigsby argues that while a hopeful intention of military neutrality lay behind this diplomatic gesture, the declarations of asylum did not in fact change the military behavior of the Greeks; declared inviolability in effect became primarily a civic and religious honor for which cities across the Greek world competed during the third to first centuries B.C. Of the many civic titles for which Greek cities competed by Roman Imperial times, this was the first. 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.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997.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 evidenc