EXILARCH

exilarch, in jewish history, "chief or prince of the captivity." the jews of babylonia, after the fall of the first temple, were termed by jeremiah and ezekiel the people of the "exile." hence the head of the babylonian jews was the exilarch (in aramaic _resh galutha_). the office was hereditary and carried with it considerable power. some traditions regarded the last king of davidic descent (jehoiachin) as the first exilarch, and all the later holders of the dignity claimed to be scions of the royal house of judah. under the arsacids and sassanids the office continued. in the 6th century an attempt was made to secure by force political autonomy for the jews, but the exilarch who led the movement (mar zutra) was executed. for some time thereafter the office was in abeyance, but under arabic rule there was a considerable revival of its dignity. from the middle of the 7th till the 11th centuries the exilarchs were all descendants of bostanai, through whom "the splendour of the office was renewed and its political position made secure" (bacher). the last exilarch of importance was david, son of zakkai, whose contest with seadiah (q.v.) had momentous consequences. hezekiah (c. 1040) was the last babylonian exilarch, though the title left its traces in later ages. benjamin of tudela (_itinerary_, p. 61) names an exilarch daniel b. hisdai in the 12th century. petahiah (_travels_, p. 17) records that this daniel's nephew succeeded to the office jointly with a r. samuel. the latter, according to petahiah, had a learned daughter who "gave instruction, through a window, remaining in the house while the disciples were below, unable to see her." our chief knowledge of the position and function of the exilarch concerns the period beginning with the arabic rule in persia. in the age succeeding the mahommedan conquest the exilarch was noted for the stately retinue that accompanied him, the luxurious banquets given at his abode, and the courtly etiquette that prevailed there. a brilliant account has come down of the ceremonies at the installation of a new exilarch. homage was paid to him by the rabbinical heads of the colleges (each of whom was called gaon, q.v.); rich gifts were presented; he visited the synagogue in state, where a costly canopy had been erected over his seat. the exilarch then delivered a discourse, and in the benediction or doxology (_qaddish_) his name was inserted. thereafter he never left his house except in a carriage of state and in the company of a large retinue. he would frequently have audiences of the king, by whom he was graciously received. he derived a revenue from taxes which he was empowered to exact. the exilarch could excommunicate, and no doubt had considerable jurisdiction over the jews. a spirited description of the glories of the exilarch is given in d'israeli's novel _alroy_. see neubauer, _mediaeval jewish chronicles_, ii. 68 seq.; zacuto, _yuhasin_; graetz, _geschichte_, vols. iv.-vi.; benjamin of tudela, _itinerary_, ed. adler, pp. 39 seq.; bacher, _jewish encyclopaedia_, vol. v. 288. (i. a.) exile (lat. _exsilium_ or _exilium_, from _exsul_ or exul, which is derived from _ex_, out of, and the root _sal_, to go, seen in _salire_, to leap, _consul_, &c.; the connexion with _solum_, soil, country is now generally considered wrong), banishment from one's native country by the compulsion of authority. in a general sense exile is applied to prolonged absence from one's country either through force of circumstances or when undergone voluntarily. among the greeks, in the homeric age, banishment ([greek: phuge]) was sometimes inflicted as a punishment by the authorities for crimes affecting the general interests, but is chiefly known in connexion with cases of homicide. with these the state had nothing to do; the punishment of the murderer was the duty and privilege of the relatives of the murdered man. unless the relatives could be induced to accept a money payment by way of compensation ([greek: poine], weregeld; see especially homer, _iliad_, xviii. 497), in which case the murderer was allowed to remain in the country, his only means of escaping punishment was flight to a foreign land. if, during his self-imposed exile, the relatives expressed their willingness to accept the indemnity, he was at liberty to return and resume his position in society. in later times banishment is (1) a legal punishment for particular offences; (2) voluntary. 1. banishment for life with confiscation of property was inflicted upon those who destroyed or uprooted the sacred olives at athens; upon those who remained neutral during a sedition (by a law of solon, which subsequently fell into abeyance); upon those who gave refuge to or received on board ship a man who had fled to avoid punishment; upon those who wounded with intent to kill and those who prompted them to such an act (it is uncertain whether in this case exile was for life or temporary); upon any one who wilfully murdered an alien; for impiety. certain political crimes were also similarly punished--treason, laconism, sycophancy (see sycophant), attempts to subvert existing decrees. for the peculiar form of banishment called ostracism, see separate article. in cases of voluntary homicide the punishment was death; but (except in cases of parricide) the murderer could leave the country unmolested after the first day of the trial. he was bound to remain outside attica, and when on foreign soil was not allowed to appear at the public games, to enter the temples or take part in sacrifices; but provided that he adhered to the prescribed regulations, he was accorded a certain amount of protection. even when a general amnesty was proclaimed, he was not allowed to return; if he did so, he might at once be put to death. temporary exile (the period of which is uncertain) without confiscation, was the punishment for involuntary homicide. as soon as the relatives of the deceased became reconciled to the man who had slain him, the latter was permitted to return; further, since banishment was only temporary, it is reasonable to suppose that the law insisted upon such reconciliation. 2. citizens sometimes voluntarily left the country for other reasons (debt, inability to pay a fine). since extradition was only demanded in cases of high treason or other serious offences against the state, the fugitive was not interfered with. he was at liberty to return after a certain time had elapsed. little is known about exile as it affected sparta and other greek towns, but it is probable that the same conditions prevailed as at athens. at rome, in early times, exile was not a punishment, but rather a means of escaping punishment. before judgment had been finally pronounced it was open to any roman citizen condemned to death to escape the penalty by voluntary exile (_solum vertere exsilii causa_). to prevent his return, he was interdicted from the use of fire and water; if he broke the interdict and returned, any one had the right to put him to death. the _aquae et ignis_ (to which _et tecti_ "shelter" is sometimes added) _interdictio_ is variously explained as exclusion from the necessaries of life, from the symbols of civic communion, or from "the marks of a pure society, which the criminal would defile by his further use of them." subsequently (probably at the time of the gracchi) it became a recognized legal penalty, practically equivalent to "exile," taking the place of capital punishment. the criminal was permitted to withdraw from the city _after_ sentence was pronounced; but in order that this withdrawal might as far as possible bear the character of a punishment, his departure was sanctioned by a decree of the people which declared his exile permanent. authorities are not agreed whether this exile by interdiction entailed loss of _civitas_; according to some this did not ensue until (as in earlier times) the criminal had assumed the citizenship of the state in which he had taken refuge and thereby lost his rights as a citizen of rome, while others hold that it was not until the time of tiberius (a.d. 23) that _capitis deminutio media_ became the direct consequence of trial and conviction. _interdictio_ was the punishment for treason, murder, arson and other serious offences which came under the cognizance of the _quaestiones perpetuae_ (permanent judicial commissions for certain offences); confiscation of property was only inflicted in extreme cases. under the empire _interdictio_ gradually fell into disuse and a new form of banishment, introduced by augustus, called _deportatio_, generally _in insulam_, took its place. for some time the two probably existed side by side. _deportatio_ consisted in transportation for life to an island (or some place prescribed on the mainland, not of italy), accompanied by loss of _civitas_ and all civil rights, and confiscation of property. the most dreaded places of exile were the islands of gyarus, sardinia, an oasis in the desert (_quasi in insulam_) of libya; crete, cyprus and rhodes were considered more tolerable. large bodies of persons were also transported in this manner; thus tiberius sent 4000 freedmen to sardinia for jewish or egyptian superstitious practices. _deportatio_ was originally inflicted upon political criminals, but in course of time became more particularly a means of removing those whose wealth and popularity rendered them objects of suspicion. it was also a punishment for the following offences: adultery, murder, poisoning, forgery, embezzlement, sacrilege and certain cases of immorality. _relegatio_ was a milder form of _deportatio_. it either excluded the person banished from one specified district only, with permission to choose a residence elsewhere, or the place of exile was fixed. _relegatio_ could be either temporary or for life, but it did not in either case carry with it loss of _civitas_ or property, nor was the exile under military surveillance, as in the case of _deportatio_. thus, ovid, when in exile at tomi, says (_tristia_, v. ii): "he (i.e. the emperor) has not deprived me of life, nor of wealth, nor of the rights of a citizen ... he has simply ordered me to leave my home." he calls himself _relegatus_, not _exsul_. in later writers the word _exsilium_ is used in the sense of all its three forms--_aquae et ignis interdictio_, _deportatio_ and _relegatio_. in england the first enactment legalizing banishment dates from the reign of elizabeth (39 eliz. c. 4), which gave power to banish from the realm "such rogues as are dangerous to the inferior people." a statute of charles ii. (18 car. ii. c. 3) gave power to execute or to transport to america for life the mosstroopers of cumberland and northumberland. banishment or transportation for criminal offences was regulated by an act of 1824 (5 geo. iv. s. 84) and finally abolished by the penal servitude acts 1853 and 1857 (see further deportation). the word exile has sometimes, though wrongly, been applied to the sending away from a country of those who are not natives of it, but who may be temporary or even permanent residents in it (see alien; expatriation; expulsion). bibliography.--j.j. thonissen, _le droit penal de la republique athenienne_ (brussels, 1875); g.f. schomann, _griechische altertumer_ (4th ed., 1897), p. 46; t. mommsen, _ronmisches strafrecht_ (1899), pp. 68, 964, and _romisches staatsrecht_ (1887), iii. p. 48; l.m. hartmann, _de exilio apud rumanos_ (berlin, 1887); f. von holtzendorff-vietmansdorf, _die deportationsstrafe im romischen alterthum_ (leipzig, 1859); articles in smith's _dict. of greek and roman antiquities_ (3rd ed., 1890) and daremberg and saglio's _dict. des antiquites_ (c. lecrivain and g. humbert).