Proxeny
Proxenyorproxenia(Greek:προξενία) inancient Greecewas an arrangement whereby a citizen (chosen by the city) hosted foreign ambassadors at his own expense, in return for honorary titles from the state. The citizen was calledproxenos(πρόξενος;plural:proxenoiorproxeni,"instead of a foreigner" ) orproxeinos(πρόξεινος). The proxenydecrees,which amount toletters patentandresolutions of appreciationwere issued by one state to a citizen of another for service asproxenos,a kind ofhonorary consullooking after the interests of the other state's citizens. A common phrase iseuergetes(benefactor) andproxenos(πρόξεινος τε ειη και ευεργέτης).
A proxenos would use whatever influence he had in his own city to promote policies of friendship or alliance with the city he voluntarily represented. For example,CimonwasSparta's proxenos atAthensand during his period of prominence in Athenian politics, previous to the outbreak of theFirst Peloponnesian War,he strongly advocated a policy of cooperation between the two states. Cimon was known to be so fond of Sparta that he named one of his sonsLacedaemonius(as Sparta was known asLacedaemonin antiquity).[2][3]
Being another city's proxenos did not preclude taking part in war against that city, should it break out – since the proxenos' ultimate loyalty was to his own city. However, a proxenos would naturally try his best to prevent such a war and to resolve the differences that were threatening to cause it. And once peace negotiations were on the way, a proxenos' contacts and goodwill in the enemy city could be profitably used by his city.
The position of proxenos for a particular city was often hereditary in a particular family.
A 2024 study in theJournal of Economic Historylinked the presence of proxeny arrangements to increases in trade flows.[4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^IGII2 141 Honours for Straton king of Sidon.
- ^The History of the Peloponnesian WarbyThucydides,Donald Lateiner,Richard Crawley,page 33.ISBN0-486-43762-0
- ^Who's Who in the Greek Worldby John Hazel, page 56.ISBN0-415-12497-2
- ^Creanza, Pier Paolo (2024)."Institutions, Trade, and Growth: The Ancient Greek Case of Proxenia".The Journal of Economic History.doi:10.1017/S0022050723000505.ISSN0022-0507.
Bibliography
[edit]- Monceaux, P.,Les Proxénies Grecques(Paris, 1885).
- Walbank, M.,Athenian Proxenies of the Fifth Century B.C.(Toronto, 1978).
- Marek, C.,Die Proxenie(Frankfurt am Main, 1984) (Europäische Hochschulschriften: Reihe 3, Geschichte und ihre Hilfswissenschaften, 213).
- Gerolymatos, A.,Espionage and Treason: A Study of the Proxeny in Political and Military Intelligence Gathering in Classical Greece(Amsterdam, 1986).
- Knoepfler, D.,Décrets Érétrians de Proxénie et de Citoyenneté(Lausanne, 2001) (Eretria Fouilles et Researches, 11).
- Gastaldi, Enrica Culasso,Le prossenie ateniesi del IV secolo a.C.: gli onorati asiatici(Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 2004) (Fonti e studi di storia antica, 10).
- Encyclopædia Britannica
External links
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