# Staying in church to avoid arrest?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staying-in-church-to-avoid-arrest/801727>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 15, 2017, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staying-in-church-to-avoid-arrest/801727 "2017-11-15T22:49:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staying-in-church-to-avoid-arrest/801727/21 "2017-11-18T15:46:54Z")

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> [@Evan\_Drake](#):
>
> Sanctuary was recognised much earlier in Greek and Roman temples’ [**asylums**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_%28antiquity%29). Oddly, with the Greeks a slave could run there for ill-usage and the owner would have to agree to sell him/her. Kind of like running to Canada or Mexico in 19th century America.

Since this thread was first posted I have been trying to remember a Greek play that I read a quarter century ago about someone (and I was thinking for sure that it was Iolaus) seeking refuge at a temple and risking stirring up a war over it. I was finally able to dig it up again today–[_Heracleidae_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Heracles) by [Euripides](http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/heracleidae.html).

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