On the Coast of Malabar a certain temple situated to the south-east of Calicut affords protection to thieves and adulterous women belonging to the Brahmin caste, but this privilege is reckoned among the sixty-four anatcharams, or “abuses,” which were introduced by Brahmanism.[168] Among the Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush there are several “cities of refuge,” the largest being the village of Mergrom, which is almost entirely peopled by chiles, or descendants of persons who have slain some fellow tribesman.[169] In the Caucasus holy groves offer refuge to criminals, as also to animals, which cannot be shot there.[170]
[168] Graul, Reise nach Ostindien, iii. 332, 335.
[169] Scott Robertson, Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, p. 441.
[170] Hahn, Kaukasische Reisen, p. 122.
In Greece many sanctuaries possessed the right of asylum down to the end of paganism, and any violation of this right was supposed to be severely punished by the deity.[171] According to an old tradition, Romulus established a sanctuary, dedicated to some unknown god or spirit, on the slope of the Capitoline Hill, proclaiming that all who resorted to it, whether bond or free, should be safe.[172] This tradition, and also some other statements made by Latin writers,[173] seem to indicate that from ancient times certain sacred places in Rome gave shelter to refugees; but it was only in a comparatively late period of Roman history that the right of sanctuary, under Greek influence, became a recognised institution of some importance.[174] This right was expressly conferred upon the temple which in the year 42 B.C. was built in honour of Cæsar;[175] and other imperial temples, as also the statues of emperors, laid claim to the same privilege.[176] When Christianity became the religion of the State a similar claim was made by the churches; but a legal right of asylum was only granted to them by Honorius in the West and Theodosius in the East.[177] Subsequently it was restricted by Justinian, who decreed that all manslayers, adulterers, and kidnappers of women who fled to a church should be taken out of it.[178]
[171] Tacitus, Annales, iii. 60 sqq. Farnell, op. cit. i. 73. Westcott, op. cit. p. 115. Schmidt, Die Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 285. Bulmerincq, op. cit. p. 35 sqq. Fuld, loc. cit. p. 118 sqq.
[172] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanæ, ii. 15. Livy, i. 8. 5 sq. Plutarch, Romulus, ix. 5. Strabo, v. 3. 2, p. 230.
[173] Valerius Maximus, Facta dictaque memorabilia, viii. 9. 1. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanæ, vi. 45. Cicero, De lege agraria oratio secunda, 14 (36). See also Hartung, Die Religion der Römer, ii. 58 sq.
[174] See Tacitus, Annales, iii. 36; Plautus, Rudens, 723; Dio Cassius, Historia Romana, xlvii. 19; Bulmerincq, op. cit. p. 58 sqq.; Mommsen, Römisches Strafrecht, p. 458 sq.
[175] Dio Cassius, xlvii. 19.