hospitium

thumb|Scallop shell offering hospitality to pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago|Way of St James

Hospitium (; , xenia, προξενία) is the ancient Greco-Roman concept of hospitality as a divine right of the guest and a divine duty of the host, or hospes. Similar or broadly equivalent customs were and are also known in other cultures, though not always by that name. Among the Greeks and Romans, hospitium was of a twofold character: private and public.