El confinamiento de los prisioneros de guerra y rehenes en la Roma republicana

Abstract

During the last centuries of the Republic, Rome received great amount of hostages and prisoners of war. The hostages were part of the diplomatic negotiations between the Romans and their enemies and served as assurances for the postwar arrangements, while the prisoners of war were consequence of their victories in the battlefield. Although the legal status of both groups was different, the way they have to follow from their homeland to their final destination under Roman rule has important similarities. They were put under arrest, lead to Rome and confined in a place decreed by the Senate. This article follows the path of those hostages and prisoners of war that arrived at Rome in the last two centuries of the Republic and pretends to offer a new view about the conditions in which they were detained.