origine jusqu’à nos jours (Paris, 1892); Sir H. Burdett, Hospitals
and Asylums of the World, with large portfolio of plans to a uniform
scale (London, 1893) (a supplement is published every year bringing
the information up to date, entitled Burdett’s Hospitals and Charities);
J. S. Billings, The Principles of Ventilation, Heating and their Practical
Application (New York, 1893); Galton, Healthy Hospitals (London,
1893); Tollet, Les Hôpitaux au XIXᵉ siècle (Paris, 1894); Billings
and Hurd, Suggestions to Hospital and Asylum Visitors (Philadelphia,
1895); Oswald Kuhn, “Hospitals,” Handbuch der Architektur,
4th part, 5th half-volume, part i. (Stuttgart, 1897); Plans for the
Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore, 1875); Report of State Board
of Health for Massachusetts for 1879. (H. Bt.)
HOSPITIUM (Gr. ξενία, προξενία), “hospitality,” among the
Greeks and Romans, was of a twofold character: (1) private;
(2) public.
(1) In Homeric times all strangers without exception were regarded as being under the protection of Zeus Xenios, the god of strangers and suppliants. It is doubtful whether, as is commonly assumed, they were considered as ipso facto enemies; they were rather guests. Immediately on his arrival, the stranger was clothed and entertained, and no inquiry was made as to his name or antecedents until the duties of hospitality had been fulfilled. When the guest parted from his host he was often presented with gifts (ξένια), and sometimes a die (ἀστράγαλος) 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. 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. Similar customs seem to have existed among the Italian races. Amongst the Romans, private hospitality, which had existed from the earliest times, was more accurately and legally defined than amongst the Greeks, the tie between host and guest being almost as strong as that between patron and client. It was of the nature of a contract, entered into by mutual promise, the clasping of hands, and exchange of an agreement in writing (tabula hospitalis) or of a token (tessera or symbolum), and was rendered hereditary by the division of the tessera. The advantages thus obtained by the guest were, the right of hospitality when travelling and, above all, the protection of his host (representing him as his patron) in a court of law. The contract was sacred and inviolable, undertaken in the name of Jupiter Hospitalis, and could only be dissolved by a formal act.
(2) This private connexion developed into a custom according to which a state appointed one of the citizens of a foreign state as its representative (πρόξενος) to protect any of its citizens travelling or resident in his country. Sometimes an individual came forward voluntarily to perform these duties on behalf of another state (ἐθελοπρόξενος). The proxenus is generally compared to the modern consul or minister resident. His duties were to afford hospitality to strangers from the state whose proxenus he was, to introduce its ambassadors, to procure them admission to the assembly and seats in the theatre, and in general to look after the commercial and political interests of the state by which he had been appointed to his office. Many cases occur where such an office was hereditary; thus the family of Callias at Athens were proxeni of the Spartans. We find the office mentioned in a Corcyraean inscription dating probably from the 7th century B.C., and it continued to grow more important and frequent throughout Greek history. There is no proof that any direct emolument was ever attached to the office, while the expense and trouble entailed by it must often have been very great. Probably the honours which it brought with it were sufficient recompense. These consisted partly in the general respect and esteem paid to a proxenus, and partly in many more substantial honours conferred by special decree of the state whose representative he was, such as freedom from taxation and public burdens, the right of acquiring property in Attica, admission to the senate and popular assemblies, and perhaps even full citizenship. Public hospitium seems also to have existed among the Italian races; but the circumstances of their history prevented it from becoming so important as in Greece. Cases, however, occur of the establishment of public hospitality between two cities (Rome and Caere, Livy v. 50), and of towns entering into a position of clientship to some distinguished Roman, who then became patronus of such a town. Foreigners were frequently granted the right of public hospitality by the senate down to the end of the republic. The public hospes had a right to entertainment at the public expense, admission to sacrifices and games, the right of buying and selling on his own account, and of bringing an action at law without the intervention of a Roman patron.
A full bibliography of the subject will be found in the article in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités, to which may be added R. von Jhering, Die Gastfreundschaft im Altertum (1887); see also Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (3rd ed., 1890).
HOSPODAR, a term of Slavonic origin, meaning “lord”
(Russ. gospodar). It is a derivative of gospod, “lord,” and
is akin to gosudar, which primarily means “sovereign,” and is
now also used in Russia as a polite form of address, equivalent
to “sir.” The pronunciation as hospodar of a word written
gospodar in all but one of the Slavonic languages which retain
the Cyrillic alphabet is not, as is sometimes alleged, due to the
influence of Little Russian, but to that of Church Slavonic.
In both of these g is frequently pronounced h. In Little Russian
the title hospodar is specially applied to the master of a house
or the head of a family. The rulers of Walachia and Moldavia
were styled hospodars from the 15th century to 1866. At the
end of this period, as the title had been held by many vassals
of Turkey, its retention was considered inconsistent with the
growth of Rumanian independence. It was therefore discarded
in favour of domn (dominus, “lord”), which continued to be
the official princely title up to the proclamation of a Rumanian
kingdom in 1881.
HOST. (1) (Through the O. Fr. oste or hoste, modern hôte,
from Lat. hospes, a guest or host; hospes being probably from
an original hostipes, one who feeds a stranger or enemy, from
hostis and the root of pascere), one who receives another into
his house and provides him with lodging and entertainment,
especially one who does this in return for payment. The word
is thus transferred, in biology, to an animal or plant upon which
a parasite lives. (2) (From Lat. hostis, a stranger or enemy;
in Med. Latin a military expedition), a very large gathering
of men, armed for war, an army, and so used generally of any
multitude. In biblical use the word is applied to the company
of angels in heaven; or to the sun, moon and stars, the “hosts
of heaven,” and also to translate “Jehovah Sabaoth,” the
Lord God of hosts, the lord of the armies of Israel or of the hosts
of heaven. (3) (From Lat. hostia, a victim or sacrifice), the
sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood in the Eucharist, more
particularly the consecrated wafer used in the service of the
mass in the Roman Church (see Eucharist).
HOSTAGE (through Fr. ostage, modern otage, from Late Lat. obsidaticum, the state of being an obses or hostage; Med. Lat. ostaticum, ostagium), a person handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war. The practice of taking hostages is very ancient, and has been used constantly in negotiations with conquered nations, and in cases such as surrenders, armistices and the like, where the two belligerents depended for its proper carrying out on each other’s good faith. The Romans were accustomed to take the sons of tributary princes and educate them at Rome, thus holding a security for the continued loyalty of the conquered nation and also instilling a possible future ruler with ideas of Roman civilization. This practice was also adopted in the early period of the British occupation of India, and by France in her relations with the Arab tribes in North Africa.[1] The position of a hostage was that of a prisoner of war,
- ↑ The sultan of Bagiemi, in Central Africa, in 1906 sent his nephew to undergo military training with a squadron of Spahis, and at the same time to serve as a guarantee of his fidelity to the French (Bulletin du Comité de l’Afrique française, Oct. 1906).
