HOSPITIUM. The power the Greeks possessed of travelling safely among other Greek states depended on the feeling which made hospitality a matter of religion, and looked on strangers as under the protection of Zeus Xenios. A stranger was received and protected during his stay. Violation of the duties of hospitality was likely to provoke the wrath of the gods; but it does not appear that anything beyond this religious sanction existed to guard the rights of a traveller. There is, however, no ground for the common statement that a stranger was ipso facto considered as an enemy. In truth he was a guest. The roads were all sacred; he who passed over them was the guest of the land; he found along their courses statues of the tutelary deity of the road, generally Hermes; and the offerings of food, <kc., in front of these he was at liberty to appropriate. Hence the word tpμaιov was used in the sense of a lucky find. (See Curtius, “Griech. Wegebau,” Berlin Λbhandl., 1854.) When the guest parted from his host he was often presented with gifts (£«αα), and sometimes a die (αστράγαλος) was broken between them. Each then took a part, a family connexion was established, and the broken die served as a symbol of recognition; thus the members of each family found in the other hosts and protectors in case of need. As the foreigner was not recognized by the law of the state in which he travelled, he could appear in a court of justice only through his host. Similar customs seem to have existed among the Italian races. In Rome there was a tie recognized by the law between host and guest, almost as strong as that which connected patron and client. Jupiter Hospitalis watched over the jus hospitii. As in Greece the connexion often became hereditary; and a tessera hospitalis ...