A Government seizing the citizens of another country.

In ancient Greece, there was a law under which, if a citizen of Greece was killed while in another country, and the government of that country did not offer up the killer for Greek justice, three citizens from the offending country could be seized and punished for the crime.

From the Greek andro- ('man') and -lepsis ('seizure').

See also androlepsia, and the Roman variant, clarigatio.

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