Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- 1 A methodological introduction: this study and its limitations -- Times and places -- Comparison and relativism -- Sources, process, and doctrines -- Texts and sources -- The modern critique of ancient international law -- 2 State relations in ancient civilizations -- The concepts of State and State system and their relevance to antiquity -- The ancient Near East: Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt -- Sumer and Mesopotamia -- The great Near Eastern empires, 1400-1150 BCE -- Syria and Palestine, 966-700 BCE -- The Greek city-States, 500-338 BCE -- Rome and its competitors, 358-168 BCE -- 3 Religion and the sources of a law of nations in antiquity -- The metaphysics of ancient international law -- Good faith and breaking faith -- Four fragments -- The plague prayers of King Mursilis -- The fable of Fabius -- Darius' heralds -- The speech of the Plataean deputies -- Religion -- Nationalism and universalism -- Making and breaking oaths -- Ancient Near Eastern oath-taking -- Greek and Roman oaths -- Ritual and custom -- Reason and rhetoric -- Conclusion -- 4 Making friends: diplomats and foreign visitors in ancient times -- The reception and protection of diplomats and embassies -- Some general concepts -- The formalities of diplomacy -- Terminology and types -- Instructions, credentials, and receptions -- Permanent missions and rupture of relations -- Privileges and immunities of diplomats -- The status and protection of alien visitors -- Agreements: xenoi, asylia, isopoliteia, and symbola -- The proxenia institution -- Western Mediterranean analogues -- Ritualized friendship in an ancient law of nations -- 5 Making faith: treaty practices amongst ancient peoples -- Beginnings of the ancient treaty tradition in the Near East.

General suppositions and the earliest texts -- The Babylonians, Hittites, and Assyrians -- The Egyptians and the treaty with the Hittites of 1280 BCE -- Ancient Israelite practice -- The Greek city-States -- Terminology and types of treaties -- Peace treaties -- Alliances and philiai -- Alliances: symmachia versus epimachia -- Leagues and federations -- Amphictyonies -- The nature of Greek treaty-making -- Negotiation, ratification, and publication -- Treaty oaths, deceit, and hostage-taking -- Treaty amendment and termination -- Western Mediterranean departures in treaty-making -- Patterns of treaty-making by Western Mediterranean cultures -- Carthaginian practices -- Roman treaty forms -- Formalities and enforcement of Roman treaties -- Ancient treaty-making: enforcement, sophistication, tradition, and universality -- 6 Making war: the commencement and conduct of hostilities in ancient times -- Declarations of war -- Justifications for commencing hostilities -- The Israelite distinction between obligatory and optional war -- Greek grounds for declaring war and the problem of neutrality -- Roman just war and casus belli -- The rituals for starting a war and the legal consequences of an outbreak of hostilities -- Ancient Greek practice -- The Roman ius fetiale and its significance -- Laws of war -- Restraint in warfare -- Immunities in warfare -- The sacred and the neutralized -- Truces -- Granting quarter and taking prisoners -- Burial rites -- After the war -- Managing conflict in antiquity -- 7 Civilization and community in the ancient mind -- I -- A -- B -- C -- II -- A -- B -- III -- Topical bibliography -- Primary sources -- Inscription and archeological materials -- Literary materials -- Scriptural and legal materials -- Secondary works -- General works -- Ancient states and statecraft -- General works on ancient international law.

General works on international law -- International law as a primitive legal system -- Ancient laws -- Ancient religions -- Ancient warfare -- Historiography and the ancient craft of history -- Works detailing specific issues or doctrines in ancient international law -- Diplomacy -- Treaties -- International arbitration -- The laws of war -- Index.