Peter Jones

Ancient & modern – 5 March 2005

A classicist draws on ancient wisdom to illuminate contemporary follies

issue 05 March 2005

The problems relating to asylum-seekers have hit the headlines again. The concept of asylum is ancient, and the problems not new. Asylum derives from the ancient Greek asulos, ‘inviolable’ (noun asulia). Its basic meaning was ‘protection against the right of reprisal, especially seizure of goods’, and it could be granted to a wide range of individuals, e.g.,

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