Hortus, Garden. (From a Painting at Herculaneum.)
Hortus, Garden. (From a Painting at Herculaneum.)
HOSPĬTĬUM (ξενία,προξενία), hospitality, was in Greece, as well as at Rome, of a two-fold nature, either private or public, in so far as it was either established between individuals, or between two states. (Hospitium privatumandhospitium publicum,ξενίαandπροξενία.) In ancient Greece the stranger, as such (ξένοςandhostis), was looked upon as an enemy; but whenever he appeared among another tribe or nation without any sign of hostile intentions, he was considered not only as one who required aid, but as a suppliant, and Zeus was the protecting deity of strangers and suppliants (Ζεὺς ξένιος). On his arrival, therefore, the stranger was kindly received, and provided with every thing necessary to make him comfortable. It seems to have been customary for the host, on the departure of the stranger, to break a die (ἀστράγαλος) in two, one half of which he himself retained, while the other half was given to the stranger; and when at any future time they or their descendants met, they had a means of recognising each other, and the hospitable connection was renewed. Hospitality thus not only existed between the persons who had originally formed it, but was transferred as an inheritance from father to son. What has been said hitherto, only refers tohospitium privatum; but of far greater importance was thehospitium publicum(προξενία, sometimes simplyξενία) or public hospitality, which existed between two states, or between an individual or a family on the one hand, and a whole state on the other. Of the latter kind of public hospitality many instances are recorded, such as that between the Peisistratids and Sparta, in which the people of Athens had no share. The hospitium publicum among the Greeks arose undoubtedly from the hospitium privatum, and it may have originated in two ways. When the Greek tribes were governed by chieftains or kings, the private hospitality existing between the ruling families of two tribes may have produced similar relations between their subjects, which, after the abolition of the kingly power, continued to exist between the new republics as a kind of politicalinheritance of former times. Or a person belonging to one state might have either extensive connections with the citizens of another state, or entertain great partiality for the other state itself, and thus offer to receive all those who came from that state either on private or public business, and to act as their patron in his own city. This he at first did merely as a private individual, but the state to which he offered this kind service would naturally soon recognise and reward him for it. When two states established public hospitality, and no individuals came forward to act as the representatives of their state, it was necessary that in each state persons should be appointed to show hospitality to, and watch over the interests of, all persons who came from the state connected by hospitality. The persons who were appointed to this office as the recognised agents of the state for which they acted were calledproxeni(πρόξενοι), but those who undertook it voluntarilyetheloproxeni(ἐθελοπρόξενοι). The office ofproxenus, which bears great resemblance to that of a modern consul or minister-resident, was in some cases hereditary in a particular family. When a state appointed a proxenus, it either sent out one of its own citizens to reside in the other state, or it selected one of the citizens of this state, and conferred upon him the honour of proxenus. The former was, in early times, the custom of Sparta, where the kings had the right of selecting from among the Spartan citizens those whom they wished to send out as proxeni to other states. But in subsequent times this custom seems to have been given up, for we find that at Athens the family of Callias were the proxeni of Sparta, and at Argos, the Argive Alciphron. The principal duties of a proxenus were to receive those persons, especially ambassadors, who came from the state which he represented; to procure for them admission to the assembly, and seats in the theatre; to act as the patron of the strangers, and to mediate between the two states if any disputes arose. If a stranger died in the state, the proxenus of his country had to take care of the property of the deceased.—The hospitality of the Romans was, as in Greece, either hospitium privatum or publicum. Private hospitality with the Romans, however, seems to have been more accurately and legally defined than in Greece. The character of ahospes,i.e.a person connected with a Roman by ties of hospitality, was deemed even more sacred, and to have greater claims upon the host, than that of a person connected by blood or affinity. The relation of a hospes to his Roman friend was next in importance to that of a cliens. The obligations which the connection of hospitality with a foreigner imposed upon a Roman, were to receive in his house his hospes when travelling; and to protect, and, in case of need, to represent him as his patron in the courts of justice. Private hospitality thus gave to the hospes the claims upon his host which the client had on his patron, but without any degree of the dependence implied in the clientele. Private hospitality was established between individuals by mutual presents, or by the mediation of a third person, and hallowed by religion; for Jupiter hospitalis was thought to watch over the jus hospitii, as Zeus xenios did with the Greeks, and the violation of it was as great a crime and impiety at Rome as in Greece. When hospitality was formed, the two friends used to divide between themselves atessera hospitalis, by which, afterwards, they themselves or their descendants—for the connection was hereditary as in Greece—might recognise one another. Hospitality, when thus once established, could not be dissolved except by a formal declaration (renuntiatio), and in this case the tessera hospitalis was broken to pieces. Public hospitality seems likewise to have existed at a very early period among the nations of Italy; but the first direct mention of public hospitality being established between Rome and another city, is after the Gauls had departed from Rome, when it was decreed that Caere should be rewarded for its good services by the establishment of public hospitality between the two cities. The public hospitality after the war with the Gauls gave to the Caerites the right of isopolity with Rome, that is, the civitas without the suffragium and the honores. [Colonia.] In the later times of the republic we no longer find public hospitality established between Rome and a foreign state; but a relation which amounted to the same thing was introduced in its stead, that is, towns were raised to the rank of municipia, and thus obtained the civitas without the suffragium and the honores; and when a town was desirous of forming a similar relation with Rome, it entered into clientela to some distinguished Roman, who then acted as patron of the client-town. But the custom of granting the honour of hospes publicus to a distinguished foreigner by a decree of the senate, seems to have existed down to the end of the republic. His privileges were the same as those of a municeps, that is, he had the civitas, but not the suffragium or the honores. Public hospitality was, like the hospitium privatum, hereditary in the family of the person to whom it had been granted.
HỸĂCINTHĬA (ὑακίνθια), a great nationalfestival, celebrated every year at Amyclae by the Amyclaeans and Spartans, probably in honour of the Amyclaean Apollo and Hyacinthus together. This Amyclaean Apollo, however, with whom Hyacinthus was assimilated in later times, must not be confounded with Apollo, the national divinity of the Dorians. The festival was called after the youthful hero Hyacinthus, who evidently derived his name from the flower hyacinth (the emblem of death among the ancient Greeks), and whom Apollo accidentally struck dead with a quoit. The Hyacinthia lasted for three days, and began on the longest day of the Spartan month Hecatombeus, at the time when the tender flowers, oppressed by the heat of the sun, drooped their languid heads. On the first and last day of the Hyacinthia sacrifices were offered to the dead, and the death of Hyacinthus was lamented. During these two days, nobody wore any garlands at the repasts, nor took bread, but only cakes and similar things, and when the solemn repasts were over, everybody went home in the greatest quiet and order. The second day, however, was wholly spent in public rejoicings and amusements, such as horse-races, dances, processions, &c. The great importance attached to this festival by the Amyclaeans and Lacedaemonians is seen from the fact, that the Amyclaeans, even when they had taken the field against an enemy, always returned home on the approach of the season of the Hyacinthia, that they might not be obliged to neglect its celebration; and that in a treaty with Sparta,B.C.421, the Athenians, in order to show their good-will towards Sparta, promised every year to attend the celebration of this festival.
HYBRĔŌS GRĂPHĒ (ὕβρεως γραφή), an action prescribed by the Attic law for wanton and contumelious injury to the person, whether in the nature of indecent (δι’ αἰσχρουργίας) or other assaults (διὰ πληγῶν). The severity of the sentence extended to confiscation or death.
HYDRAULIS (ὕδραυλις), an hydraulic organ, invented by Ctesibius of Alexandria, who lived aboutB.C.200. Its pipes were partly of bronze, and partly of reed. The number of its stops, and consequently of its rows of pipes, varied from one to eight. It continued in use so late as the ninth century of our era. The organ was well adapted to gratify the Roman people in the splendid entertainments provided for them by the emperors and other opulent persons. Nero was very curious about organs, both in regard to their musical effect and their mechanism. A contorniate coin of this emperor, in the British Museum, shows an organ with a sprig of laurel on one side, and a man standing on the other.
Hydraulis, water-organ. (Coin of Nero in British Museum.)
Hydraulis, water-organ. (Coin of Nero in British Museum.)
HYDRĬAPHŎRĬA (ὑδριαφορία), was the carrying of a vessel with water (ὑδρία), which service the married alien (μέτοικοι) women had to perform to the married part of the female citizens of Athens, when they walked to the temple of Athena in the great procession at the Panathenaea.
HỸPORCHĒMA (ὑπόρχημα), a lively kind of mimic dance which accompanied the songs used in the worship of Apollo, especially among the Dorians. A chorus of singers at the festivals of Apollo usually danced around the altar, while several other persons were appointed to accompany the action of the song with an appropriate mimic performance (ὑπορχεῖσθαι). The hyporchema was thus a lyric dance, and often passed into the playful and comic.