Ancient Emigration

[Laurence]

My question is:

In ancient Europe and Asia, how much freedom would 'citizens' have in travelling between countries to live and work? I'm interested in around 1200BC-1200AD mostly.

 

[2WayParadox]

Citizen is a problematic term in that time frame. Most international travel would be done by merchants and both over land and by sea, the danger of pirates was very real.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

What would you like the title changed to?

 

[Laurence]

Citizen is a problematic term in that time frame. Most international travel would be done by merchants and both over land and by sea, the danger of pirates was very real.

I see! Who would these merchants align themselves to, if anyone? How likely would it have been to be allowed to legally emigrate?

What would you like the title changed to?

'Ancient Emigration' please!

 

[ThinkerX]

I see! Who would these merchants align themselves to, if anyone? How likely would it have been to be allowed to legally emigrate?

Some things you need to take into account:

1) Your time period and locations are very broad, covering a wide range of societies with different approaches. It includes the sophisticated civilizations of ancient Rome and China, middle age feudalism, and tribalism. You need to be more specific.

2) People do not emigrate without cause, be it poverty, disease or famine, or being hauled away somewhere else against their will (slavery).

3) Much emigration in ancient times was collective, rather than individual: entire tribes moving into new areas (which contributed to the collapse of the Roman Empire), or entire nations being enslaved and transported elsewhere. Collective concerns trumped individual ones.

4) Most of these societies were highly restrictive by todays standards: effectively ruled by strongmen. Ordinary people had very little freedom; indeed the ruling castes tended to equate 'freedom' with 'rebellion,' and acted accordingly. That said, a freedman in Rome probably would have had the most leeway in emigration.

 

[Laurence]

Some things you need to take into account:

1) Your time period and locations are very broad, covering a wide range of societies with different approaches. It includes the sophisticated civilizations of ancient Rome and China, middle age feudalism, and tribalism. You need to be more specific.

2) People do not emigrate without cause, be it poverty, disease or famine, or being hauled away somewhere else against their will (slavery).

3) Much emigration in ancient times was collective, rather than individual: entire tribes moving into new areas (which contributed to the collapse of the Roman Empire), or entire nations being enslaved and transported elsewhere. Collective concerns trumped individual ones.

4) Most of these societies were highly restrictive by todays standards: effectively ruled by strongmen. Ordinary people had very little freedom; indeed the ruling castes tended to equate 'freedom' with 'rebellion,' and acted accordingly. That said, a freedman in Rome probably would have had the most leeway in emigration.

1) Sorry for being vague; my world contains a mix iron age civilisations and tribal-like civilistations.

2) I don't necessarily mean mass-emigration, but what you see in many fantasy novels, where the protagonist and possibly a group travels from country to country during his or his quest. By what year would this not need to be done in secret or as some mission from a ruler?

Thanks dude!

 

[ThinkerX]

2) I don't necessarily mean mass-emigration, but what you see in many fantasy novels, where the protagonist and possibly a group travels from country to country during his or his quest. By what year would this not need to be done in secret or as some mission from a ruler?

That would depend on the MC's social status. Serf or a bondsman taking off on a long journey? Probably get declared an outlaw...unless he or she was part of the retinue of a caste that could travel. Again, a lot of this depends on the type of society the MC hails from, as well as his exact nominal status. Entertainer? Probably not a problem. Caravan guard, wagon driver or mule skinner...that would work. Petty trader, official envoy, or some such? Again no issue.

 

[skip.knox]

ThinkerX has it. Travel was not restricted (mainly because doing so would have required the machinery of modern governments). Practical matters tended to weigh more heavily.

For example, you did not have to travel very far before you began to have problems with the language. Travel a bit further and diet also could be an issue. You could easily transgress local customs, getting you into various forms of hot water. Which brings up one of the more significant travel issues: if you got into legal trouble, you'd probably not be tried according to your own laws. All this made travel a rather unattractive proposition, which in turn meant the people who did travel--and by "travel" here I mean leave your own region of language/custom/diet--did so only out of necessity.

The big exception to all this is the Roman Empire. Maybe also the Chinese Empire, and maybe other empires as well. I only know Europe. Anyway, a Roman citizen could travel anywhere in the Empire. The diet might change, local customs could vary, but the citizen would always know he would by tried by Roman law, and he'd always be able to find someone who spoke Latin. In the cities, anyway. In the time frame you give, I know of no other than the Roman where that was true.

To answer your specific question, you could easily create a group of adventurers who traveled without molestation, certainly without secrecy, from most anywhere to most anywhere, any time in the centuries you give. The fun will come in creating awkward moments or even outright hostility based on those things I mentioned above--diet, customs, laws, language.

After all, Conan went all over the place. He ran into all sorts of adventures, but not merely because he was a foreigner.

 

[CupofJoe]

Religion would also be a reason for travel, at least toward the end of the time period you describe. A pilgrimage to a holy site may be the only chance someone without rank and/or money could get more than a few days away from where they were born.
At least in Christianity [I don't know about Islam but there was probably something similar] the churches had the organisation to transport - house - feed - protect people over hundreds and even thousands of miles...
I can imagine that not all those pilgrims were utterly devout... and just wanted a way out if only for a while.
For many societies [and even recently] "travel" is a very modern concept. As a child I knew a man that had only once been to a city 25 miles away and never seen the sea that was 35 miles away. He had lived and worked on a farm for 70+ years...

 

[2WayParadox]

Islam has the Hadj, a pilgrimage to Mekka that should be done at least once in life.

But it's true that travel was a foreign concept. It makes sense. Over 70% of the population were farmers and for most of our history, agriculture has been laborious and inefficient. Farmers had to stay close to their lands to take care of everything that needed doing. Planting, plowing, weeding, harvesting. Add to that the slow travel speeds, and you start to see why a quest-like journey is actually something that likely has never happened. I really wonder if the solitary adventurer or the band of adventurers ever existed in reality.

 

[Laurence]

Thanks for the great responses, everyone.

I wasn't planning on incorporating religion into my story but disguising my protagonist's mission as some sort of pilgrimage is very tempting.

 

[Shreddies]

I wasn't planning on incorporating religion into my story but disguising my protagonist's mission as some sort of pilgrimage is very tempting.

You do not necessarily need religion for a pilgrimage. You could have an old tradition that requires apprentices of a certain trade to visit notable locations and landmarks related to a legendary historical figure or saga.

Maybe something like a skald?

 

[Jabrosky]

In the case of Conan, I would place him and several of Robert E. Howard's other heroes in the genre of white male protagonists visiting far-off, commonly tropical parts of the world in pursuit of adventure. They had their literary heyday once Europeans and their colonists were still exploring the rest of the planet, though there were precedents before then. For example, Perseus's love interest was a princess of "Aethiopia" (aka Kush in Sudanese Nubia) whom he rescued from a sea monster, whereas Saint George fought that dragon in "Lybia" (which in ancient usage meant all of Africa west of the Nile). Whether or not most people could have afforded it, there have always been stories about heroes adventuring in exotic lands.

 

[skip.knox]

Routiers. They were mercenary bands all over southern France during the Hundred Years War, cut loose on those unfortunate occasions when peace broke out.

Another example would be the Normans in Apulia. There were also plenty of bandit bands that were not entirely sedentary. Along the lines of a more quest-like journey, I think of the Reisen (crusades) to Lithuania that were very nearly an annual affair during the early 1300s, with knights coming from as far as England.

Then there were society's original bad boys, musicians. Think troubadors or minnensingers.

My point is, there were plenty of people traveling. They did not travel for pleasure; there was no tourism, although the crusades did open up a form of that. We have complaints from clerics that some "pilgrims" paid little attention to religion, took in many sights along the way, and in general behaved as if they were going to a picnic. I always think of these as the first tourists.

The issue was not could or did people travel. They could and did. The interesting part comes in investigating the difficulties entailed and how these varied by condition and chance.

 

[2WayParadox]

A caveat to this would be wealthy people going for adventure/prospect/travel. Or people sponsored by wealthy people to perform a task like that.

 

[Laurence]

Would people on an errand from a noble generally have to have had some kind of paper stating that they're allowed to be in said country?

 

[X Equestris]

Would people on an errand from a noble generally have to have had some kind of paper stating that they're allowed to be in said country?

They might have some document with the noble's seal on it as proof they are indeed working for said noble.

 

[2WayParadox]

That would depend on the country and the areas that they have to access. If they're going into heavily guarded areas or regions that are under tight control, then they might need border documents etc.

I mostly had scientifically minded travel in mind when I stated that comment, like Columbus or Darwin. Since they travelled on boats, they might've needed documents to be allowed to dock in certain places. It would obviously help al ot if there's a naval empire that the noble is connected to, so that his name can be used in any harbor affiliated to the empire (think Britain).

 

[Jabrosky]

Wait a minute...a handsome discussion about pre-industrial long-distance travel woefully underpopulated by Vikings?

Those guys sure got around in search of new raiding grounds. It's almost common knowledge they made it all the way to North America. Of course it helped that their ships were designed for speed and could sail across even the shallowest water, but they do provide a classic historical precedent for warlike raiders traveling vast distances in pursuit of plunder.

 

[2WayParadox]

Their raiding only lasted that long before they discovered that trade and later settling was more lucrative.
And I think the topic speaks more of travel in smaller groups or by individuals, that's not of a seasonal nature.