term "xenelasia" as synonymous with barbarity, an entirely uncivilised condition. He has this to say in the Laws [XII, 950a-b]: "Not to welcome any visitor and never to go out [of your homeland] is, besides, something quite impossible and would, at the same time, be seen in the eyes of other men as a savage and unsocial form of behaviour. It would bring upon you the odious name of someone who hunts down foreigners (xenolasiais) and would earn you the reputation of having rough and brutal manners". op cit. Notes "The anxiety of the Dorians, and the Spartans in particular, to keep up the pure Doric character and the customs of their ancestors, is strongly shown by the prohibition to travel, and the exclusion of foreigners, an institution common both to Spartans and Cretans,…" References Sources Harpers Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, edited by Harry Thurston Peck, Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1896, 1962. see entry Xenelasia. Zaikov A. V. Spartan xenelasiai. (In Russian + German summary.) Published in: Antichnaya Drevnost' i Srednie Veka. Ekaterinburg: The Ural State University, 1999. № 30. Pp. 6–25. (in Russian: Зайков А. В. Спартанские ксенеласии // Античная древность и средние века. Екатеринбург: Уральский государственный университет, 1999. Вып. 30. С. 6–25. ). Politics by region Ancient Greek law Doris (Greece) Dorian Crete Government of Sparta Greek words and phrases Xenophobia Isolationism