**Irial Glynn**

School of History, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland; irial.glynn@ucd.ie

Received: 11 June 2020; Accepted: 28 June 2020; Published: 9 July 2020

**Abstract:** Eliza Gettel's paper on the displacement of the Delians in the second century BCE does an excellent job of examining an ancient case study of displacement through the lens of contemporary conceptions of displacement and asylum. In this paper, I try, as a modern historian of asylum, to reflect on the applicability of modern classifications to a case study over 2000 years old. First, I discuss the compatibility of the ancient with the modern. Subsequently, I engage much more deliberately with the arguments Gettel presents in her paper. Finally, I introduce a contemporary case study involving the displacement of people from the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean that I argue shares some similarities with that of the Delians, with both cases highlighting the often-neglected agency of the displaced.

**Keywords:** displacement; refugee definition; Delians; Chagos Islands

This Special Issue on the displacement of people from the ancient world to the present encourages authors to go beyond their comfort zones by attempting to "create dialogue across practices, disciplines and temporalities".1 Eliza Gettel's paper on the displacement of the Delians in the second century BCE does an excellent job of achieving just that by examining an ancient case study of displacement through the lens of contemporary conceptions of displacement and asylum. In attempting to take up this baton, I try, as a modern historian of asylum, to reflect on the applicability of modern classifications to a case study over 2000 years old.
