The term Hostage, today, has a very precise meaning, which we can broadly define as, a physical person held prisoner, for economic or political reasons, or for other reasons, but in the ancient world, the term hostage or rather, what today we translate with the term hostage, it had a slightly different meaning from the modern concept of hostage, let's say that the hostage in the ancient world, especially in the Greek-Roman world, was partly a prisoner, partly a guest, partly a mediator, but of course, it wasn't like that all the time and everywhere.
Per la Treccani l'ostaggio è "cittadino di uno stato nemico che un belligerante tiene in proprio potere e contro il quale minaccia di prendere determinate misure..."
Much depended on the hostage, on his political talents and on his dowry, and the relations of power and relations that concerned the hostage's civilization and that of which he was hostage had a considerable weight in determining the conditions of the hostage, but, let's go in order and start from the term hostage and its etymology.
The etymology of the word Hostage
We now know that the etymology of the word hostage derives from the old French hostage , whose roots go back to late ancient Latin, a time span that goes from the end of the fourth to the ninth century AD, the hostage of old French is an evolution of the older term hospitatĭcum, which, in turn, is derived from the older hospes -pĭtis , who literally literally, political guest.
In the ancient world, the word hostage has a strong connection with politics, a concept that is linked to the concept of hospitality, and it is precisely in this combination of hospitality and politics that the heart of the hostage concept lies.
The term indicates to us a political hospitality, more precisely a hospitality interested and motivated by political interests, but it also tells us something else, since we are in an era of politics, war and diplomacy, they are concepts that are interconnected and very close to each other, much more than than they are today.
Hostages from Egypt to Rome
I the concept of hostage in the ancient world has no universal value, different peoples have different ideas and conceptions of hostage and prisoner, and if in some ancient civilizations these two concepts coincided, in others, they were very distant from each other, and not infrequently, at different times, in the same civilization , the concept of hostage is applied and interpreted differently.
The hostage in ancient Egypt
In ancient Egypt, at least until the Alexandrian conquest of the civilization of the Nile delta , the hostage was considered purely a political prisoner whose role in society was profoundly different from the prisoner of war. The task of the Egyptian political prisoner, of the hostage in ancient Egypt, was to guarantee the pharaoh the fidelity and loyalty of the vassal kingdoms, and for this purpose, members of the pharaoh's noble feudal families were periodically sent to the pharaoh's court, where they lived as guests, and often held public offices, in exchange for the guarantee of fidelity and loyalty of their families to the pharaoh. A different and less fortunate fate instead fell to the prisoners of war.
A well-known example of a hostage in the Egyptian world comes to us from the book of Genesis in the Old Testament through the story of patriarch Joseph , de facto a tribal chief who swears allegiance and loyalty to the Pharaoh of Egypt in exchange for political protection for his people, in an era in which the Canaanite region , and the entire Near East, was controlled by different warrior peoples fighting each other and at the same time in war with Egypt.
The hostage in ancient Greece
Similarly to the Egyptian concept, even in pre-Roman Greece the hostage fulfilled a purely political function, however we do not know if the Greeks acquired the concept of hostage from the Egyptians or if they developed it independently. We now know that in primitive civilizations the concept of hostage, as well as that of slavery, are very frequent, even in peoples who had no contact with each other, and this is because the concept of hostage and the institution of slavery have been encountered. even in populations that have not had any contact with the ancient Mediterranean civilizations, such as the Mesoamerican civilizations.
In ancient Greece, at least in the Archaic period, the hostage performed a function similar to that of the Egyptian hostage, we know this through some myths related to the Minoan civilization , such as the myth of the Minotaur whose story speaks to us, obviously between the lines, of political hostages whose sacrifice is necessary for the maintenance of peace probably between a dominant people and its feudal lords. In the classical age, however, the concept of hostage changes, assuming slightly different traits according to the various polis, but the basic concept remains unchanged, the hostage continues to be a political prisoner whose task is to guarantee peace between two peoples, to sanction a truce or seal covenants. The hostage thus no longer becomes the intermediary of an alliance, but also the guarantor of truces, agreements and negotiations, moreover it is the guarantor of compliance with the rules of war, the latter element would later be inherited by Roman civilization.
The hostage conceived by Greek civilization is a man or woman of high rank, a nobleman, a politician, a philosopher or a scholar, whose presence is also used to impose precise political decisions. In this sense the case of Philip II of Macedon , taken to Thebes as a hostage, is particularly interesting. Philip II was a noble, whose presence in Thebes ensured the Greek polis respect for a peace between Macedonia and Thebes and prevented the Macedonians from taking hostile positions towards Thebes or establishing alliances with his enemies. Philip II is sent to Thebes as a hostage and spends more than 30 years of his own in the Greek polis, a period of time in which the Macedonian noble would have learned the language, customs, politics and, above all, the military tactics used in Thebes. , knowledge that he would have brought with him once he returned to Macedonia.
The story of Philip II of Macedon is very interesting when analyzed in relation to Aristotle's ideas on imprisonment, hostages and slavery, and it is no coincidence that Philip would have chosen Plato's pupil as tutor for his heir Alexander III. , better known as Alexander the Great.
Slavery for Aristotle
Slavery, for Aristotle, is an educational and civilizing institution, which is used to facilitate the process of conversion and acquisition, by the prisoners, of the uses and customs, as well as of the language, of the dominant civilization. The slave for Aristotle is a barbarian who must be re-educated and instructed so that he can acquire the knowledge to live as a Greek man. This concept of slavery has many traits in common with Philip II's hostage experience, whose long years in Greece allowed him to acquire everything he needed to look like a Greek man, and once back in Macedonia, he wanted the best possible education and training for his children, so that they would be welcomed in Greece by Greek men and not by barbarian kings.
The hostage in Roman civilization
Unlike the Greek civilization, which considered itself to be at the apex of civilization in the ancient world, and therefore tended to impose its own cultural model, an element that often resulted in wars, clashes and secular rivalries between the polis, in the Roman world, at least in the first centuries, there was a strong desire for self-improvement, which most often resulted in the acquisition of social and cultural models and patterns, as well as technological ones, from the numerous civilizations with which Rome came into contact, which have led Rome to absorb, imitate and improve everything from mythology to architecture to military technology.
The myth of Clelia and Porsenna
The first and oldest instance of hostage in Roman civilization is found in archaic mythology, and among the many myths in which the concept of hostage is referred to, the myth of Clelia and Porsenna is perhaps one of the best known and most important.
There are two versions of this myth, probably linked to the fact that, over time, the concept of hostage in the Roman world has undergone variations, and the myth of Clelia helps us, with its two variants, to reconstruct these different ideas. hostage.
In the oldest of the versions of the myth , Clelia, together with nine other girls, was delivered to Porsenna, the Etruscan lucumone of Chiusi (the lucumone was the highest political office for an Etruscan polis) by the Romans, following a peace between the two cities. In this version of the myth, Clelia encouraged the other nine girls to escape from Porsenna's camp and while the girls forded the Tiber, she remained on guard on the bank, where she was tracked down by a guard from Porsenna or Porsenna himself, and these, impressed by the woman's courage, he decided to reward her by giving her freedom.
In this version of the myth, if he is a foreign gentleman, Porsenna is told as a good and wise man, who frees Clelia by recognizing her courage and valor and then retires, does not chase the other girls across the river, and continues to honor the pact stipulated with Rome, while Clelia is told as a strong, brave and courageous woman, who is freed for her resourcefulness and courage.
A message of this type could appear as an invitation to the hostages to try to escape, imitating Clelia, and if this tale is part of the tradition, this can only mean one thing, namely that the hostages in archaic rome, were not prisoners, but guests. .
In the other and more recent version of the myth of Clelia , told to us by Tito Livio and by Aurelio Vittore , initially Clelia is delivered alone to the closed lucumone, but manages to escape and return to Rome, once discovered she was returned to Porsenna together with other hostages that the Romans had Porsenna and Porsenna choose, she let Clelia choose the others hostages, and once the truce ended and returned to Rome, the city erected an equestrian statue in honor of Clelia.
In this second version, of which we have traces as early as the fourth century BC. with Aurelio Vittore, the figure of the hostage the hostage has changed and unlike in the past, his escape can cause the breaking of a pact, therefore the hostage is forced to remain hostage for as long as necessary, even if this does not mean necessarily imprisonment. As we see in the myth of her, Clelia is returned to Porsenna, but he does not punish the girl for her escape, but on the contrary takes charge of her protection, and allows her to choose her own company. Porsenna, in this version of the myth, allows Clelia to continue living as a Roman woman, unlike what happens to Philip II of Macedon.
The case of Polybius
However, that of Celia and Porsenna is a myth, but there are other stories of Roman hostages, in the ancient world, which can help us to better understand the dimension of the hostage in Roman times and one of these is the case of Polybius, the Greek historian hostage of Rome.
Plibio, during his stay in Rome, as a hostage, in the second century, in the midst of the Third Punic War , he enjoyed great esteem, appreciation and freedom in the future imperial capital. The story of Polybius came to us directly from the pen of Polybius, whose story provides us with a unique look at the institution of the hostage in the second century BC. since it comes directly from a hostage.
What is particularly striking in the case of Polybius is the great bond of friendship that Polybius built with the Scipioni , a friendship that would have made him one of the most authoritative and appreciated ancient sources, as regards the story of the Third Punic War , a war that committed Rome and Carthage, the Scipios against the Barca, against Hannibal and eventually led to the inevitable destruction of Carthage , whose stake, as reported by Polybius, would have caused tears and suffering in Scipio the African that, among the flames that devoured the city, glimpsed the decline that sooner or later reaches every great civilization, including its Rome.
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The presence of Polybius as a hostage in Rome is of a purely political nature, the Greek historian was taken to Rome at a time when Rome was extending its protection far beyond the Italian peninsula, pushing more and more to the east, and was looking with interest at the territories of the Greek polis, polis that did not always take a favorable view of the imperialist presence of Rome, and that indeed, precisely during the third Punic war, on several occasions offered asylum and help to Hannibal, bitter enemy of the Scipios and of Rome.
The presence of Polybius in Rome was mainly used to prevent too many polis from passing over to Hannibal's side. The Greek hostage in Rome he was therefore a political guest, formally detained by force, but without too many limitations and constraints, who was guaranteed full freedom and whose function was to act as guarantor of peace between the two peoples, in particular, his task served to ensure that there were no acts of hostility, nor threats to the security of Rome and its soldiers in Greece, by the Hellenic population. There was a sort of mutual commitment between Rome and Polybius, whereby the host undertook to guarantee the hostage everything he needed and the hostage undertook to guarantee peace and ensure that in his homeland , there were no uprisings or revolts, and that indeed, if possible, there was collaboration with Rome.
The evolution of the concept of Hostage
With the fall of Rome, the concept of hostage changes over time, without straying too far from the Greek-Roman concept of hostage. In the Middle Ages, the hostage became the cornerstone of alliances and friendships, and in the modern age, the re-educational concept of the slave institution was rediscovered, especially in relation to the clashes with the Ottoman Empire.
In the ancient world, what was the role of the hostage was not codified, and it is probably the absence of a formal and universal codification of the concept of hostage in the ancient world that has led to various evolutions. However, that of the hostage was a known concept, an institution recognized in that set of unwritten laws and rules that constituted the Jus ad bellum , the right to war, and Jus in bellorum the law in war, and it is precisely from the legacy left by that world and from that set of theories, concepts and legal notions that the concept of hostage would have come down to us, passing through the corpus iuris civilis of Emperor Justinian and the writings on the right to war and the right in war by numerous jurists and philosophers of the medieval and modern age, from Sant’Agostino d'Ippona to Francisco de Vitoria , from Thomas Aquinas to Ugo Grozio , up to the writings of philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes and Immanuel Kant, and jurists such as Emmeric de Vattel whose ideas would have inspired Franz Lieber in the drafting of the Lieber Code , commissioned by Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War and the almost contemporary first Geneva Convention of 1864 wanted by Henri Dunant .
The one who in the ancient world was the hostage is now conventionally recognized as a " prisoner of war "Whose rights were formalized for the first time with the Geneva Convention of 1864 and with the Lieber code .
Bibliography
Tito Livio , Ab Urbe condita libri .
M.Liverani , Beyond the Bible. Ancient history of Israel.
E. Lo Cascio , Roman history. Anthology of sources
G.Geraci, A.Marcone , Sources for the Roman stoira
C. Mossé , Dictionary of Greek Civilization