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rgcrosby.bsky.social
@rgcrosby.bsky.social
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One of the founding acts of Rome was to create a space in the most visible and sacred part of the city where refugees from neighboring states could seek asylum, gain citizenship, and receive property, no questions asked; everyone welcomed and benefited from it. Dionysius of Halicarnassus 2.15.3-4:
Secondly, finding that many of the cities in Italy were very badly governed, both by tyrannies and by oligarchies, he undertook to welcome and attract to himself the fugitives from these cities, who were very numerous, paying no regard either to their calamities or to their fortunes, provided only they were free men. His purpose was to increase the power of the Romans and to lessen that of their neighbours; but he invented a specious pretext tor his course, making it appear that he was showing honour to a god. For he consecrated the place between the Capitol and the citadel which is now called in the language of the Romans “the space between the two groves,”1—a term that was really descriptive at that time of the actual conditions, as the place was shaded by thick woods on both sides where it joined the hills,—and made it an asylum for suppliants. And building a temple there,—but to what god or divinity he dedicated it I cannot say for certain,—he engaged, under the colour of religion, to protect those who fled to it from suffering any harm at the hands of their enemies; and if they chose to remain with him, he promised them citizenship and a share of the land he should take from the enemy. And people came flocking thither from all parts, fleeing from their calamities at home; nor had they afterwards any thought of removing to any other place, but were held there by daily instances of his sociability and kindness.
January 22, 2025 at 1:39 PM
rgcrosby.bsky.social
November 14, 2024 at 11:32 AM