Article Sidebar
The article revisits the refugee policies of Ancient Athens and Ancient Rome and highlights how exploring them reveals the value of the contemporary acquis of international law for actively addressing refugee crises triggered by military invasion. The nexus between refugee flows, the undermining of ancient civilizations, and the value of legal corpuses has long been overlooked by contemporary literature. It is a gap that the article intends to fill by inquiring possible explanations for Athens’ and Rome’s failures in managing the Attican and Gothic refugee crisis. The article offers a historical analysis of the abovementioned refugee crises. The contribution of this article is two-fold: the article not only calls attention to the unpreparedness and lack of foresight in the refugee policies of the Ancient Athenians and Romans, but it also highlights how certain mistakes could have been avoided and why these failures remain relevant to modern society from an international law perspective. The results of the analysis are supported robustly by the triangulation of ancient testimonies with modern academic references.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
Ammianus, M. (1939). The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus (J. C. Rolfe, Trans.; Vol. 3). Loeb Classical Library edition. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Ammian/31*.html
Atkinson, C. (2017). Adrianople: Before and After. Explorations, 12, 5–18.
Axarlis, N. (1998, April 15). Plague Victims Found: Mass Burial in Athens—Archaeology Magazine Archive. Online News. https://archive.archaeology.org/online/news/kerameikos.html
Azoulay, V. (2014). Pericles of Athens. Princeton University Press.
Barnes, T. D. (1993). Review Article: Ammianus Marcellinus and His World. Classical Philology, 88(1), 55–70.
Beard, M. (2015, October 16). Ancient Rome and Today’s Migrant Crisis. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/ancient-rome-and-todays-migrant-crisis-1445005978
Bengtsson, M. (2016). How to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. NursingPlus Open, 2, 8–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npls.2016.01.001
Brown, C., Nardin, T., & Rengger, N. (Eds.). (2002). International Relations in Political Thought: Texts from the Ancient Greeks to the First World War. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511808784
Brown, P. (1967). The Later Roman Empire. The Economic History Review, 20(2), 327–343. https://doi.org/10.2307/2592161
Burleson, C. (2007). The EU Emissions Trading System Proposal: History Often Rhymes. The Air and Space Lawyer, 21(3), 1,23-27.
Comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects, A/55/305–S/2000/809 (2000). https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/brahimi%20report%20peacekeeping.pdf
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, A/RES/39/46 (1984). https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cat.aspx
Couch, H. N. (1935). Some Political Implications of the Athenian Plague. Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 66, 92–103. https://doi.org/10.2307/283290
de Wet, B. X. (1969). The so-called Defensive Policy of Pericles. Acta Classica, 12, 103–119.
Declaration of Kenneth Howard Anderson JR., 04-CV-00400-JBW-JMA, United States District Court Eastern District of New York, Agent Orange Case, Judgment, 1 (2005). https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_cou_us_rule101
Duff, T. (1999). The Accuracy of Thoukydides. The International History Review, 21(3), 690–695.
Eaton, J. M. (2020). Leading the Roman Army: Soldiers and Emperors, 31 BC – 235 AD. Pen and Sword Military.
Eisenberg, R. (2009). The Battle of Adrianople: A Reappraisal. Hirundo, 8, 108–120.
Euripides. (2009). The Heracleidae (E. P. Coleridge, Trans.; Digital Edition). The Internet Classics Archive. http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/heracleidae.html
Fornara, C. W. (1992). Studies in Ammianus Marcellinus: I: The Letter of Libanius and Ammianus’ Connection with Antioch. Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte, 41(3), 328–344.
Garland, R. (2020, October 12). Asylum Seekers in Ancient Greece: Requirements and Amnesty. The Great Courses Daily. https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/asylum-seekers-in-ancient-greece-requirements-and-amnesty/
Gibbon, E. (2011). Chapter 26: Manners of the Pastoral Nations—Progress of the Huns from China to Europe—Flight of the Goths—They Pass the Danube—Gothic War—Defeat and Death of Valens—Gratian Invests Theodosius with the Eastern Empire—His Character and Success Peace and Settlement of the Goths. In P. Atkinson (Ed.), The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (Online Edition). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. https://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume1/chap26.htm
Goldsworthy, A. (2014, March 21). The Roman Empire Loses Its Grip at Adrianople in AD 378. Historynet. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/Thucydides-the-World-s-First-Great-1272
Hoffman, F. (2016, December 7). Thucydides: Reading Between the Lines. War on the Rocks. https://warontherocks.com/2016/12/thucydides-reading-between-the-lines/
Hughes, I. (2013). Imperial Brothers: Valentinian, Valens and the Disaster at Adrianople. Pen and Sword.
Human Rights Committee. (2020). CCPR - Human Rights Committee—Statement on derogations from the Covenant inconnection with the COVID-19 pandemic (CCPR/C/128/2; pp. 41–43). https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/TB/COVID19/External_TB_statements_COVID19.pdf
International Committee of the Red Cross. (n.d.). Customary IHL - Rule 55. Access for Humanitarian Relief to Civilians in Need. Retrieved 18 January 2022, from https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docindex/v1_rul_rule55
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, A/RES/21/2200 (1966). https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, A/RES/21/2200 (1966). https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cescr.aspx
Jones, A. H. M. (1986). The Later Roman Empire, 284-602: A Social Economic and Administrative Survey. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Karatzogianni, A. (2012). Ancient Athens as a Model of Hegemonic Decline. In From Innovative Democracy to Warfare State: Ancient Athens as a Model of Hegemonic Decline (pp. 191–206). Routledge Handbooks Online. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315613741.ch8
Littman, R. J. (2009). The plague of Athens: Epidemiology and paleopathology. The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, New York, 76(5), 456–467. https://doi.org/10.1002/msj.20137
Martínez, J. (2017). Political consequences of the Plague of Athens. 22(1), 135–146. https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2017-1-12
Merelli, A. (2016, May 7). 1,700 years ago, the mismanagement of a migrant crisis cost Rome its empire. Quartz. https://qz.com/677380/1700-years-ago-the-mismanagement-of-a-migrant-crisis-cost-rome-its-empire/
Moatti, C. (2006). Translation, Migration, and Communication in the Roman Empire: Three Aspects of Movement in History. Classical Antiquity, 25(1), 109–140. https://doi.org/10.1525/ca.2006.25.1.109
Morens, D. M., & Littman, R. J. (1992). Epidemiology of the Plague of Athens. Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-2014), 122, 271–304. https://doi.org/10.2307/284374
New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, A/RES/71/1 (2016). https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_71_1.pdf
Nickel, H. (1973). The Dawn of Chivalry. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 32(5), 150–152. https://doi.org/10.2307/3269236
Nowrasteh, A. (2018, March 26). Immigration and Naturalization in the Western Tradition. Cato Institute. https://www.cato.org/blog/immigration-naturalization-western-tradition
OHCHR. (2021). OHCHR | Complaints Procedures. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/TBPetitions/Pages/HRTBPetitions.aspx
Pritchard, D. M. (2020). The Armed Forces. In J. Neils & D. Rogers (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Athens (pp. 1–10). Cambridge University Press. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_30483c3/UQ30483c3_OA.pdf?Expires=1631865191&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ&Signature=SgW5UZ4zjEE2adO5OYQvUNuG7k6Z6E1TJw~djhJCb2EUsVyS6FmF0V7nTmJ1EFh4BB4el4a26vCqePv~c46iIYaBGzu1Iwi3SISc2hG1nayNysPYwgHaWzFMQfJJaOhWYDQKYbdMhTC~bJLButY5Br16DdxorHLilyQeCvmTA0ZyGCTdEZhaMPok7LqWMILofiJ2It-tqY~oRa59EFBCRl07t7bmTiWCHfPxLlFjVmSCl5vocsk2W22xCivq2B18iTX51uxjpqOWUKDQGaDZ0FDBVQ6zWg6XDdJOTd8ZSIYflGbwvwUPwlaj8SluZ8JV~j-RGT55-GOt9IsDXEpcIA__
Rasilla, I. de la. (2021, February 12). The history of international law matters: Looking beyond the tyranny of the present in international law. Völkerrechtsblog. https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/the-history-of-international-law-matters/
Retief, F. P., & Cilliers, L. (1998). The epidemic of Athens, 430-426 BC. South African Medical Journal = Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif Vir Geneeskunde, 88(1), 50–53.
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Vol. 2187, No. 38544 (1998). https://www.icc-cpi.int/resource-library/documents/rs-eng.pdf
Rourke, J. T. (2007). Chapter 3: Levels of Analysis and Foreign Policy. In International Politics on the World Stage (12th ed., pp. 64–100). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Rubinstein, L. (2018). Immigration and Refugee Crises in Fourth-Century Greece: An Athenian Perspective. The European Legacy, 23(1–2), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2018.1423785
Russell, J. C. (1958). Late Ancient and Medieval Population. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 48(3), 1–152. https://doi.org/10.2307/1005708
Schumacher, V. (2019). Comparing Ancient to Modern: How Ancient Greece and Rome Provide Insight for Citizenship and Immigration in the 21st Century [CPHAB Senior Thesis]. Xavier University.
Smith, N. (2012, July 3). Metics and Immigration in Ancient Athens. Brewminate: We’re Never Far from Where We Were. https://brewminate.com/metics-and-immigration-in-ancient-athens/
Smith, W. (2020, June 4). An immigrant’s bitterness leads to the fall of Rome in ‘Alaric the Goth’—The Boston Globe. BostonGlobe.Com. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/04/arts/an-immigrants-bitterness-leads-fall-rome-alaric-goth/
Soupios, M. A. (2004). Impact of the plague in Ancient Greece. Infectious Disease Clinics of North America, 18(1), 45–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0891-5520(03)00101-6
Spence, I. G. (1990). Perikles and the Defence of Attika during the Peloponnesian War. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 110, 91–109. https://doi.org/10.2307/631734
Sun Tzu. (2000). Sun Tzu on the Art of War (L. Giles, Trans.). AllandaleOnline Publishing.
Swift, L. (2015, October 2). If only we could ask Euripides about refugees. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/if-only-we-could-ask-euripides-about-refugees-48352
Temporary Refuge No. 19, A/35/12/Add.1 (1980). https://www.unhcr.org/excom/exconc/3ae68c443b/temporary-refuge.html
Thucydides. (2003). The History of the Peloponnesian War (A. Imrie & D. Widger, Eds.; R. Crawley, Trans.). The Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7142/7142-h/7142-h.htm
UN CESCR, General Comment No. 12: Substantive Issues Arising in the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, 20th Sess, adopted 12 May 1999, UN Doc E/C.12/1999/5, online: https://undocs.org/E/C.12/1999/5
UN CESCR, General Comment No. 14: The right to the highest attainable standard of health (article 12 of the Internatoinal Covenant on Economc, Social, and Cultural Rights), 22th Sess, adopted 11 August 2000, UN Doc E/C.12/2000/4, online: https://undocs.org/E/C.12/2000/4
UNHCR. (2021). Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (60 Years Edition). The UN Refugee Agency. https://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, A/RES/217(III) (1948). https://www.ohchr.org/en/udhr/documents/udhr_translations/eng.pdf
Wade-Gery, H. T. (1948). What Happened in Pylos? American Journal of Archaeology, 52(1), 115–118. https://doi.org/10.2307/500558
Westlake, H. D. (1945). Seaborne Raids in Periclean Strategy. The Classical Quarterly, 39(3–4), 75–84. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800022618
Willard, E. (Hart). (1851). Universal history in perspective. New York, Barnes. http://archive.org/details/universalhistory00will
Wolpert, S. (2014, March 21). Thucydides, the World’s First Great Historian, is Underappreciated, Argues UCLA Classicist Steven Lattimore. UCLA. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/Thucydides-the-World-s-First-Great-1272
Zaretsky, R. (2020, March 23). The Plague That Killed Athenian Democracy. Slate. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/thucydides-plague-athens-coronavirus.html