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# Amide
In organic chemistry, an **amide**, also known as an **organic amide** or a **carboxamide**, is a compound with the general formula `{{chem2|R\sC(\dO)\sNR′R″}}`{=mediawiki}, where R, R\', and R″ represent any group, typically organyl groups or hydrogen atoms. The amide group is called a peptide bond when it is part of the main chain of a protein, and an isopeptide bond when it occurs in a side chain, as in asparagine and glutamine. It can be viewed as a derivative of a carboxylic acid (`{{chem2|R\sC(\dO)\sOH}}`{=mediawiki}) with the hydroxyl group (`{{chem2|\sOH}}`{=mediawiki}) replaced by an amino group (`{{chem2|\sNR′R″}}`{=mediawiki}); or, equivalently, an acyl (alkanoyl) group (`{{chem2|R\sC(\dO)\s}}`{=mediawiki}) joined to an amino group.
Common amides are formamide (`{{chem2|H\sC(\dO)\sNH2}}`{=mediawiki}), acetamide (`{{chem2|H3C\sC(\dO)\sNH2}}`{=mediawiki}), benzamide (`{{chem2|C6H5\sC(\dO)\sNH2}}`{=mediawiki}), and dimethylformamide (`{{chem2|H\sC(\dO)\sN(\sCH3)2}}`{=mediawiki}). Some uncommon examples of amides are *N*-chloroacetamide (`{{chem2|H3C\sC(\dO)\sNH\sCl}}`{=mediawiki}) and chloroformamide (`{{chem2|Cl\sC(\dO)\sNH2}}`{=mediawiki}).
Amides are qualified as primary, secondary, and tertiary according to the number of acyl groups bounded to the nitrogen atom.
## Nomenclature
The core `{{chem2|\sC(\dO)\s(N)}}`{=mediawiki} of amides is called the **amide group** (specifically, **carboxamide group**).
In the usual nomenclature, one adds the term \"amide\" to the stem of the parent acid\'s name. For instance, the amide derived from acetic acid is named acetamide (CH~3~CONH~2~). IUPAC recommends ethanamide, but this and related formal names are rarely encountered. When the amide is derived from a primary or secondary amine, the substituents on nitrogen are indicated first in the name. Thus, the amide formed from dimethylamine and acetic acid is *N*,*N*-dimethylacetamide (CH~3~CONMe~2~, where Me = CH~3~). Usually even this name is simplified to dimethylacetamide. Cyclic amides are called lactams; they are necessarily secondary or tertiary amides.
## Applications
Amides are pervasive in nature and technology. Proteins and important plastics like nylons, aramids, Twaron, and Kevlar are polymers whose units are connected by amide groups (polyamides); these linkages are easily formed, confer structural rigidity, and resist hydrolysis. Amides include many other important biological compounds, as well as many drugs like paracetamol, penicillin and LSD. Low-molecular-weight amides, such as dimethylformamide, are common solvents.
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# Amide
## Structure and bonding {#structure_and_bonding}
The lone pair of electrons on the nitrogen atom is delocalized into the Carbonyl group, thus forming a partial double bond between nitrogen and carbon. In fact the O, C and N atoms have molecular orbitals occupied by delocalized electrons, forming a conjugated system. Consequently, the three bonds of the nitrogen in amides is not pyramidal (as in the amines) but planar. This planar restriction prevents rotations about the N linkage and thus has important consequences for the mechanical properties of bulk material of such molecules, and also for the configurational properties of macromolecules built by such bonds. The inability to rotate distinguishes amide groups from ester groups which allow rotation and thus create more flexible bulk material.
The C-C(O)NR~2~ core of amides is planar. The C=O distance is shorter than the C-N distance by almost 10%. The structure of an amide can be described also as a resonance between two alternative structures: neutral (A) and zwitterionic (B).
:
It is estimated that for acetamide, structure A makes a 62% contribution to the structure, while structure B makes a 28% contribution (these figures do not sum to 100% because there are additional less-important resonance forms that are not depicted above). There is also a hydrogen bond present between the hydrogen and nitrogen atoms in the active groups. Resonance is largely prevented in the very strained quinuclidone.
In their IR spectra, amides exhibit a moderately intense *ν*~CO~ band near 1650 cm^−1^. The energy of this band is about 60 cm~−1~ lower than for the *ν*~CO~ of esters and ketones. This difference reflects the contribution of the zwitterionic resonance structure.
### Basicity
Compared to amines, amides are very weak bases. While the conjugate acid of an amine has a p*K*~a~ of about 9.5, the conjugate acid of an amide has a p*K*~a~ around −0.5. Therefore, compared to amines, amides do not have acid--base properties that are as noticeable in water. This relative lack of basicity is explained by the withdrawing of electrons from the amine by the carbonyl. On the other hand, amides are much stronger bases than carboxylic acids, esters, aldehydes, and ketones (their conjugate acids\' p*K*~a~s are between −6 and −10).
The proton of a primary or secondary amide does not dissociate readily; its p*K*~a~ is usually well above 15. Conversely, under extremely acidic conditions, the carbonyl oxygen can become protonated with a p*K*~a~ of roughly −1. It is not only because of the positive charge on the nitrogen but also because of the negative charge on the oxygen gained through resonance.
### Hydrogen bonding and solubility {#hydrogen_bonding_and_solubility}
Because of the greater electronegativity of oxygen than nitrogen, the carbonyl (C=O) is a stronger dipole than the N--C dipole. The presence of a C=O dipole and, to a lesser extent a N--C dipole, allows amides to act as H-bond acceptors. In primary and secondary amides, the presence of N--H dipoles allows amides to function as H-bond donors as well. Thus amides can participate in hydrogen bonding with water and other protic solvents; the oxygen atom can accept hydrogen bonds from water and the N--H hydrogen atoms can donate H-bonds. As a result of interactions such as these, the water solubility of amides is greater than that of corresponding hydrocarbons. These hydrogen bonds also have an important role in the secondary structure of proteins.
The solubilities of amides and esters are roughly comparable. Typically amides are less soluble than comparable amines and carboxylic acids since these compounds can both donate and accept hydrogen bonds. Tertiary amides, with the important exception of *N*,*N*-dimethylformamide, exhibit low solubility in water.
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# Amide
## Reactions
Amides do not readily participate in nucleophilic substitution reactions. Amides are stable to water, and are roughly 100 times more stable towards hydrolysis than esters. Amides can, however, be hydrolyzed to carboxylic acids in the presence of acid or base. The stability of amide bonds has biological implications, since the amino acids that make up proteins are linked with amide bonds. Amide bonds are resistant enough to hydrolysis to maintain protein structure in aqueous environments but are susceptible to catalyzed hydrolysis.
Primary and secondary amides do not react usefully with carbon nucleophiles. Instead, Grignard reagents and organolithiums deprotonate an amide N-H bond. Tertiary amides do not experience this problem, and react with carbon nucleophiles to give ketones; the amide anion (NR~2~^−^) is a very strong base and thus a very poor leaving group, so nucleophilic attack only occurs once. When reacted with carbon nucleophiles, *N*,*N*-dimethylformamide (DMF) can be used to introduce a formyl group.
Here, phenyllithium **1** attacks the carbonyl group of DMF **2**, giving tetrahedral intermediate **3**. Because the dimethylamide anion is a poor leaving group, the intermediate does not collapse and another nucleophilic addition does not occur. Upon acidic workup, the alkoxide is protonated to give **4**, then the amine is protonated to give **5**. Elimination of a neutral molecule of dimethylamine and loss of a proton give benzaldehyde, **6**.
:
### Hydrolysis
Amides hydrolyse in hot alkali as well as in strong acidic conditions. Acidic conditions yield the carboxylic acid and the ammonium ion while basic hydrolysis yield the carboxylate ion and ammonia. The protonation of the initially generated amine under acidic conditions and the deprotonation of the initially generated carboxylic acid under basic conditions render these processes non-catalytic and irreversible. Electrophiles other than protons react with the carbonyl oxygen. This step often precedes hydrolysis, which is catalyzed by both Brønsted acids and Lewis acids. Peptidase enzymes and some synthetic catalysts often operate by attachment of electrophiles to the carbonyl oxygen.
Reaction name Product Comment
-------------------------------- ---------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------
Dehydration Nitrile Reagent: phosphorus pentoxide; benzenesulfonyl chloride; TFAA/py
Hofmann rearrangement Amine with one fewer carbon atom Reagents: bromine and sodium hydroxide
Amide reduction Amines, aldehydes Reagent: lithium aluminium hydride followed by hydrolysis
Vilsmeier--Haack reaction Aldehyde (via imine) `{{chem2|POCl3}}`{=mediawiki}, aromatic substrate, formamide
Bischler--Napieralski reaction Cyclic aryl imine `{{chem2|POCl3}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{chem2|SOCl2}}`{=mediawiki}, etc.
Tautomeric chlorination Imidoyl chloride Oxophilic halogenating agents, e.g. COCl~2~ or SOCl~2~
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# Amide
## Synthesis
### From carboxylic acids and related compounds {#from_carboxylic_acids_and_related_compounds}
Amides are usually prepared by coupling a carboxylic acid with an amine. The direct reaction generally requires high temperatures to drive off the water:
:
:
Esters are far superior`{{explain|date=March 2025}}`{=mediawiki} substrates relative to carboxylic acids.`{{better source needed|date=March 2025}}`{=mediawiki}
Further \"activating\" both acid chlorides (Schotten-Baumann reaction) and anhydrides (Lumière--Barbier method) react with amines to give amides:
:
:
:
Peptide synthesis use coupling agents such as HATU, HOBt, or PyBOP.
### From nitriles {#from_nitriles}
The hydrolysis of nitriles is conducted on an industrial scale to produce fatty amides. Laboratory procedures are also available.
### Specialty routes {#specialty_routes}
Many specialized methods also yield amides. A variety of reagents, e.g. tris(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl) borate have been developed for specialized applications.
Reaction name Substrate Details
--------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beckmann rearrangement Cyclic ketone Reagent: hydroxylamine and acid
Schmidt reaction Ketones Reagent: hydrazoic acid
Willgerodt--Kindler reaction Aryl alkyl ketones Sulfur and morpholine
Passerini reaction Carboxylic acid, ketone or aldehyde
Ugi reaction Isocyanide, carboxylic acid, ketone, primary amine
Bodroux reaction Carboxylic acid, Grignard reagent with an aniline derivative ArNHR\'
Chapman rearrangement Aryl imino ether For *N*,*N*-diaryl amides. The reaction mechanism is based on a nucleophilic aromatic substitution.
Leuckart amide synthesis Isocyanate Reaction of arene with isocyanate catalysed by aluminium trichloride, formation of aromatic amide.
Ritter reaction Alkenes, alcohols, or other carbonium ion sources Secondary amides via an addition reaction between a nitrile and a carbonium ion in the presence of concentrated acids.
Photolytic addition of formamide to olefins Terminal alkenes A free radical homologation reaction between a terminal alkene and formamide
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# Abydos (Hellespont)
**Abydos** (*Ἄβυδος*, *Abydus*) was an ancient city and bishopric in Mysia.`{{refn|Abydos is placed either within Mysia,<ref>For Abydos within Mysia, see
*Grainger (1997), p. 675
*Allen & Neil (2003), p. 189
*Bean (1976), p. 5
</ref> or the [[Troad]].<ref name="Brill"/>|group=nb}}`{=mediawiki} It was located at the Nara Burnu promontory on the Asian coast of the Hellespont (the straits of Dardanelles), opposite the ancient city of Sestos, and near the city of Çanakkale in Turkey. Abydos was founded in c. 670 BC at the most narrow point in the straits, and thus was one of the main crossing points between Europe and Asia, until its replacement by the crossing between Lampsacus and Kallipolis in the 13th century, and the abandonment of Abydos in the early 14th century.
In Greek mythology, Abydos is presented in the myth of Hero and Leander as the home of Leander. The city is also mentioned in *Rodanthe and Dosikles*, a novel written by Theodore Prodromos, a 12th-century writer, in which Dosikles kidnaps Rodanthe at Abydos.
## Archaeology
In 1675, the site of Abydos was first identified, and was subsequently visited by numerous classicists and travellers, such as Robert Wood, Richard Chandler, and Lord Byron. The city\'s acropolis is known in Turkish as Mal Tepe.
Following the city\'s abandonment, the ruins of Abydos were scavenged for building materials from the 14th to the 19th century, and remains of walls and buildings continued to be reported until at least the 19th century, however, little remains and the area was declared a restricted military zone in the early 20th century, thus little to no excavation has taken place.
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# Abydos (Hellespont)
## History
### Classical period {#classical_period}
Abydos is mentioned in the *Iliad* as a Trojan ally, and, according to Strabo, was occupied by Bebryces and later Thracians after the Trojan War. It has been suggested that the city was originally a Phoenician colony as there was a temple of Aphrodite Porne (Aphrodite the Harlot) within Abydos. Abydos was settled by Milesian colonists contemporaneously with the foundation of the cities of Priapos and Prokonnesos in c. 670 BC. Strabo related that Gyges, King of Lydia, granted his consent to the Milesians to settle Abydos; it is argued that this was carried out by Milesian mercenaries to act as a garrison to prevent Thracian raids into Asia Minor. The city became a thriving centre for tuna exportation as a result of the high yield of tuna in the Hellespont.
Abydos was ruled by Daphnis, a pro-Persian tyrant, in the 520s BC, but was occupied by the Persian Empire in 514. Darius I destroyed the city following his Scythian campaign in 512. Abydos participated in the Ionian Revolt in the early 5th century BC, however, the city returned briefly to Persian control as, in 480, at the onset of the Second Persian invasion of Greece, Xerxes I and the Persian army passed through Abydos on their march to Greece crossing the Hellespont on Xerxes\' Pontoon Bridges. After the failed Persian invasion, Abydos became a member of the Athenian-led Delian League, and was part of the Hellespontine district. Ostensibly an ally, Abydos was hostile to Athens throughout this time, and contributed a *phoros* of 4-6 talents. Xenophon documented that Abydos possessed gold mines at Astyra or Kremaste at the time of his writing.
During the Second Peloponnesian War, a Spartan expedition led by Dercylidas arrived at Abydos in early May 411 BC and successfully convinced the city to defect from the Delian League and fight against Athens, at which time he was made harmost (commander/governor) of Abydos. A Spartan fleet was defeated by Athens at Abydos in the autumn of 411 BC. Abydos was attacked by the Athenians in the winter of 409/408 BC, but was repelled by a Persian force led by Pharnabazus, satrap (governor) of Hellespontine Phrygia. Dercylidas held the office of harmost of Abydos until at least c. 407. According to Aristotle, Abydos had an oligarchic constitution at this time. At the beginning of the Corinthian War in 394 BC, Agesilaus II, King of Sparta, passed through Abydos into Thrace. Abydos remained an ally of Sparta throughout the war and Dercylidas served as harmost of the city from 394 until he was replaced by Anaxibius in c. 390; the latter was killed in an ambush near Abydos by the Athenian general Iphicrates in c. 389/388. At the conclusion of the Corinthian War, under the terms of the Peace of Antalcidas in 387 BC, Abydos was annexed to the Persian Empire. Within the Persian Empire, Abydos was administered as part of the satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia, and was ruled by the tyrant Philiscus in 368. In c. 360 BC, the city came under the control of the tyrant Iphiades.
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# Abydos (Hellespont)
## History
### Hellenistic period {#hellenistic_period}
Abydos remained under Persian control until it was seized by a Macedonian army led by Parmenion, a general of Philip II, in the spring of 336 BC. In 335, whilst Parmenion besieged the city of Pitane, Abydos was besieged by a Persian army led by Memnon of Rhodes, forcing Parmenion to abandon his siege of Pitane and march north to relieve Abydos. Alexander ferried across from Sestos to Abydos in 334 and travelled south to the city of Troy, after which he returned to Abydos. The following day, Alexander left Abydos and led his army north to Percote. Alexander later established a royal mint at Abydos, as well as at other cities in Asia Minor.
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, Abydos, as part of the satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia, came under the control of Leonnatus as a result of the Partition of Babylon. At the Partition of Triparadisus in 321 BC, Arrhidaeus succeeded Leonnatus as satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia.
In 302, during the Fourth War of the Diadochi, Lysimachus, King of Thrace, crossed over into Asia Minor and invaded the kingdom of Antigonus I. Unlike the neighbouring cities of Parium and Lampsacus which surrendered, Abydos resisted Lysimachus and was besieged. Lysimachus was forced to abandon the siege, however, after the arrival of a relief force sent by Demetrius, son of King Antigonus I. According to Polybius, by the third century BC, the neighbouring city of Arisbe had become subordinate to Abydos. The city of Dardanus also came under the control of Abydos at some point in the Hellenistic period. Abydos became part of the Seleucid Empire after 281 BC. The city was conquered by Ptolemy III Euergetes, King of Egypt, in 245 BC, and remained under Ptolemaic control until at least 241, as Abydos had become part of the Kingdom of Pergamon by c. 200 BC.
During the Second Macedonian War, Abydos was besieged by Philip V, King of Macedonia, in 200 BC, during which many of its citizens chose to commit suicide rather than surrender. Marcus Aemilius Lepidus met with Philip V during the siege to deliver an ultimatum on behalf of the Roman senate. Ultimately, the city was forced to surrender to Philip V due to a lack of reinforcements. The Macedonian occupation ended after the Peace of Flamininus at the end of the war in 196 BC. At this time, Abydos was substantially depopulated and partially ruined as a result of the Macedonian occupation.
In the spring of 196 BC, Abydos was seized by Antiochus III, *Megas Basileus* of the Seleucid Empire, who refortified the city in 192/191 BC. Antiochus III later withdrew from Abydos during the Roman-Seleucid War, thus allowing for the transportation of the Roman army into Asia Minor by October 190 BC. Dardanus was subsequently liberated from Abydene control, and the Treaty of Apamea of 188 BC returned Abydos to the Kingdom of Pergamon. A gymnasium was active at Abydos in the 2nd century BC.
### Roman period {#roman_period}
Attalus III, King of Pergamon, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome upon his death in 133 BC, and thus Abydos became part of the province of Asia. The gold mines of Abydos at Astyra or Kremaste were near exhaustion at the time was Strabo was writing. The city was counted amongst the *telonia* (custom houses) of the province of Asia in the *lex portorii Asiae* of 62 AD, and formed part of the *conventus iuridicus Adramytteum*. Abydos is mentioned in the *Tabula Peutingeriana* and Antonine Itinerary. The mint of Abydos ceased to function in the mid-3rd century AD.
It is believed that Abydos, with Sestos and Lampsacus, is referred to as one of the \"three large capital cities\" of the Roman Empire in *Weilüe*, a 3rd-century AD Chinese text. The city was the centre for customs collection at the southern entrance of the Sea of Marmara, and was administered by a *komes ton Stenon* (count of the Straits) or an *archon* from the 3rd century to the 5th century AD.
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# Abydos (Hellespont)
## History
### Medieval period {#medieval_period}
Pope Martin I rested at Abydos in the summer of 653 whilst en route to Constantinople. As a result of the administrative reforms of the 7th century, Abydos came to be administered as part of the theme of Opsikion. The office of *kommerkiarios* of Abydos is first attested in the mid-7th century, and was later sometimes combined with the office of *paraphylax*, the military governor of the fort, introduced in the 8th century, at which time the office of *komes ton stenon* is last mentioned.
After the 7th century AD, Abydos became a major seaport. Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, during his campaign against Constantinople, crossed over into Thrace at Abydos in July 717. The office of *archon* at Abydos was restored in the late 8th century and endured until the early 9th century. In 801, Empress Irene reduced commercial tariffs collected at Abydos. Emperor Nikephoros I, Irene\'s successor, introduced a tax on slaves purchased beyond the city. The city later also became part of the theme of the Aegean Sea and was the seat of a *tourmarches*.
Abydos was sacked by an Arab fleet led by Leo of Tripoli in 904 AD whilst en route to Constantinople. The revolt of Bardas Phokas was defeated by Emperor Basil II at Abydos in 989 AD. In 992, the Venetians were granted reduced commercial tariffs at Abydos as a special privilege. In the early 11th century, Abydos became the seat of a separate command and the office of *strategos* (governor) of Abydos is first mentioned in 1004 with authority over the northern shore of the Hellespont and the islands of the Sea of Marmara.
In 1024, a Rus\' raid led by a certain Chrysocheir defeated the local commander at Abydos and proceeded to travel south through the Hellespont. Following the Battle of Manzikert, Abydos was seized by the Seljuk Turks, but was recovered in 1086 AD, in which year Leo Kephalas was appointed *katepano* of Abydos. Abydos\' population likely increased at this time as a result of the arrival of refugees from northwestern Anatolia who had fled the advance of the Turks. In 1092/1093, the city was attacked by Tzachas, a Turkish pirate. Emperor Manuel I Komnenos repaired Abydos\' fortifications in the late 12th century.
By the 13th century AD, the crossing from Lampsacus to Kallipolis had become more common and largely replaced the crossing from Abydos to Sestos. During the Fourth Crusade, in 1204, the Venetians seized Abydos, and, following the Sack of Constantinople and the formation of the Latin Empire later that year, Emperor Baldwin granted the land between Abydos and Adramyttium to his brother Henry of Flanders. Henry of Flanders passed through Abydos on 11 November 1204 and continued his march to Adramyttium. Abydos was seized by the Empire of Nicaea, a successor state of the Eastern Roman Empire, during its offensive in 1206--1207, but was reconquered by the Latin Empire in 1212--1213. The city was later recovered by Emperor John III Vatatzes. Abydos declined in the 13th century, and was eventually abandoned between 1304 and 1310/1318 due to the threat of Turkish tribes and disintegration of Roman control over the region.
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# Abydos (Hellespont)
## Ecclesiastical history {#ecclesiastical_history}
The bishopric of Abydus appears in all the *Notitiae Episcopatuum* of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the mid-7th century until the time of Andronikos III Palaiologos (1341), first as a suffragan of Cyzicus and then from 1084 as a metropolitan see without suffragans. The earliest bishop mentioned in extant documents is Marcian, who signed the joint letter of the bishops of Hellespontus to Emperor Leo I in 458, protesting about the murder of Proterius of Alexandria. A letter of Peter the Fuller (471--488) mentions a bishop of Abydus called Pamphilus. Ammonius signed the decretal letter of the Council of Constantinople in 518 against Severus of Antioch and others. Isidore was at the Third Council of Constantinople (680--681), John at the Trullan Council (692), Theodore at the Second Council of Nicaea (787). An unnamed bishop of Abydus was a counsellor of Emperor Nikephoros II in 969.
Seals attest Theodosius as bishop of Abydos in the 11th century, and John as metropolitan bishop of Abydos in the 11/12th century. Abydos remained a metropolitan see until the city fell to the Turks in the 14th century. The diocese is currently a titular see of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and Gerasimos Papadopoulos was titular Bishop of Abydos from 1962 until his death in 1995. Simeon Kruzhkov was bishop of Abydos from May to September 1998. Kyrillos Katerelos was consecrated bishop of Abydos in 2008.
In 1222, during the Latin occupation, the papal legate Giovanni Colonna united the dioceses of Abydos and Madytos and placed the see under direct Papal authority. No longer a residential bishopric, Abydus is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see
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# Alan Kay
**Alan Curtis Kay** (born May 17, 1940) is an American computer scientist who pioneered work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface (GUI) design. At Xerox PARC he led the design and development of the first modern windowed computer desktop interface. There he also led the development of the influential object-oriented programming language Smalltalk, both personally designing most of the early versions of the language and coining the term \"object-oriented.\" He has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society of Arts. He received the Turing Award in 2003.
## Early life and work {#early_life_and_work}
In an interview on education in America with the Davis Group Ltd., Kay said:
Originally from Springfield, Massachusetts, Kay\'s family relocated several times due to his father\'s career in physiology before ultimately settling in the New York metropolitan area.
He attended Brooklyn Technical High School. Having accumulated enough credits to graduate, he then attended Bethany College in Bethany, West Virginia, where he majored in biology and minored in mathematics.
Kay then taught guitar in Denver, Colorado for a year. He was drafted in the United States Army, then qualified for officer training in the United States Air Force, where he became a computer programmer after passing an aptitude test.
After his discharge, he enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder and earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in mathematics and molecular biology in 1966.
In the autumn of 1966, he began graduate school at the University of Utah College of Engineering. He earned a Master of Science in electrical engineering in 1968, then a Doctor of Philosophy in computer science in 1969. His doctoral dissertation, *FLEX: A Flexible Extendable Language*, described the invention of a computer language named FLEX. While there, he worked with \"fathers of computer graphics\" David C. Evans (who had recently been recruited from the University of California, Berkeley to start Utah\'s computer science department) and Ivan Sutherland (best known for writing such pioneering programs as Sketchpad). Kay credits Sutherland\'s 1963 thesis for influencing his views on objects and computer programming. As he grew busier with research for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), he ended his musical career.
In 1968, he met Seymour Papert and learned of the programming language Logo, a dialect of Lisp optimized for educational purposes. This led him to learn of the work of Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner, Lev Vygotsky, and of constructionist learning, further influencing his professional orientation. On December 9 of that same year he was present in San Francisco for the Mother of all Demos, a landmark computer demonstration by Douglas Engelbart. Even though he was sick with a high fever on that day, the event was very influential in Kay\'s career. He recalled later: \"It was one of the greatest experiences in my life\".
In 1969, Kay became a visiting researcher at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in anticipation of accepting a professorship at Carnegie Mellon University. Instead, in 1970, he joined the Xerox PARC research staff in Palo Alto, California. Through the decade, he developed prototypes of networked workstations using the programming language Smalltalk.
Along with some colleagues at PARC, Kay is one of the fathers of the idea of object-oriented programming (OOP), which he named. Some original object-oriented concepts, including the use of the words \'object\' and \'class\', had been developed for Simula 67 at the Norwegian Computing Center. Kay said:
> I\'m sorry that I long ago coined the term \"objects\" for this topic because it gets many people to focus on the lesser idea. The big idea is \"messaging\".
While at PARC, Kay conceived the Dynabook concept, a key progenitor of laptop and tablet computers and the e-book. He is also the architect of the modern overlapping windowing graphical user interface (GUI). Because the Dynabook was conceived as an educational platform, he is considered one of the first researchers into mobile learning; many features of the Dynabook concept have been adopted in the design of the One Laptop Per Child educational platform, with which Kay is actively involved.
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# Alan Kay
## Subsequent work {#subsequent_work}
From 1981 to 1984, Kay was Chief Scientist at Atari. In 1984, he became an Apple Fellow. After the closure of the Apple Advanced Technology Group in 1997, he was recruited by his friend Bran Ferren, head of research and development at Disney, to join Walt Disney Imagineering as a Disney Fellow. He remained there until Ferren left to start Applied Minds Inc with Imagineer Danny Hillis, leading to the cessation of the Fellows program.
In 2001, Kay founded Viewpoints Research Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to children, learning, and advanced software development. For their first ten years, Kay and his Viewpoints group were based at Applied Minds in Glendale, California, where he and Ferren worked on various projects. Kay served as president of the Institute until its closure in 2018.
In 2002 Kay joined HP Labs as a senior fellow, departing when HP disbanded the Advanced Software Research Team on July 20, 2005. He has been an adjunct professor of computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles, a visiting professor at Kyoto University, and an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Kay served on the advisory board of TTI/Vanguard.
### Squeak, Etoys, and Croquet {#squeak_etoys_and_croquet}
In December 1995, while still at Apple, Kay collaborated with many others to start the open source Squeak version of Smalltalk. As part of this effort, in November 1996, his team began research on what became the Etoys system. More recently he started, with David A. Smith, David P. Reed, Andreas Raab, Rick McGeer, Julian Lombardi, and Mark McCahill, the Croquet Project, an open-source networked 2D and 3D environment for collaborative work.
### Tweak
In 2001, it became clear that the Etoy architecture in Squeak had reached its limits in what the Morphic interface infrastructure could do. Andreas Raab, a researcher in Kay\'s group then at Hewlett-Packard, proposed defining a \"script process\" and providing a default scheduling mechanism that avoided several more general problems. The result was a new user interface, proposed to replace the Squeak Morphic user interface. Tweak added mechanisms of islands, asynchronous messaging, players and costumes, language extensions, projects, and tile scripting. Its underlying object system is class-based, but to users (during programming) it acts as if it were prototype-based. Tweak objects are created and run in Tweak project windows.
### The Children\'s Machine {#the_childrens_machine}
In November 2005, at the World Summit on the Information Society, the MIT research laboratories unveiled a new laptop computer for educational use around the world. It has many names, including the \$100 Laptop, the One Laptop per Child program, the Children\'s Machine, and the XO-1. The program was founded and is sustained by Kay\'s friend Nicholas Negroponte, and is based on Kay\'s Dynabook ideal. Kay is a prominent co-developer of the computer, focusing on its educational software using Squeak and Etoys.
### Reinventing programming {#reinventing_programming}
Kay has lectured extensively on the idea that the computer revolution is very new, and all of the good ideas have not been universally implemented. His lectures at the OOPSLA 1997 conference, and his ACM Turing Award talk, \"The Computer Revolution Hasn\'t Happened Yet\", were informed by his experiences with Sketchpad, Simula, Smalltalk, and the bloated code of commercial software.
On August 31, 2006, Kay\'s proposal to the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) was granted, funding Viewpoints Research Institute for several years. The proposal title was \"STEPS Toward the Reinvention of Programming: A compact and Practical Model of Personal Computing as a Self-exploratorium\". STEPS is a recursive acronym that stands for \"STEPS Toward Expressive Programming Systems\". A sense of what Kay is trying to do comes from this quote, from the abstract of a seminar at Intel Research Labs, Berkeley: \"The conglomeration of commercial and most open source software consumes in the neighborhood of several hundreds of millions of lines of code these days. We wonder: how small could be an understandable practical \'Model T\' design that covers this functionality? 1M lines of code? 200K LOC? 100K LOC? 20K LOC?\"
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# Alan Kay
## Personal life {#personal_life}
Kay is a former professional jazz guitarist, composer, and theatrical designer.
He also is an amateur classical pipe organist.
## Awards and honors {#awards_and_honors}
Kay has received many awards and honors, including:
- UdK 01-Award in Berlin, Germany for pioneering the GUI; J-D Warnier Prix D\'Informatique; NEC C&C Prize (2001)
- Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology in Telluride, Colorado (2002)
- ACM Turing Award \"For pioneering many of the ideas at the root of contemporary object-oriented programming languages, leading the team that developed Smalltalk, and for fundamental contributions to personal computing\" (2003)
- Kyoto Prize; Charles Stark Draper Prize with Butler W. Lampson, Robert W. Taylor and Charles P. Thacker (2004)
- UPE Abacus Award, for individuals who have provided extensive support and leadership for student-related activities in the computing and information disciplines (2012)
- Honorary doctorates:
: -- Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm (2002)
: -- Georgia Institute of Technology (2005)
: -- Columbia College Chicago awarded Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa (2005)
: -- Laurea Honoris Causa in Informatica, Università di Pisa, Italy (2007)
: -- University of Waterloo (2008)
: -- Kyoto University (2009)
: -- Universidad de Murcia (2010)
: -- University of Edinburgh (2017)
- Honorary Professor, Berlin University of the Arts
- Elected fellow of:
: -- American Academy of Arts and Sciences
: -- National Academy of Engineering for inventing the concept of portable personal computing. (1997)
: -- Royal Society of Arts
: -- Computer History Museum \"for his fundamental contributions to personal computing and human-computer interface development.\" (1999)
: -- Association for Computing Machinery \"For fundamental contributions to personal computing and object-oriented programming.\" (2008)
: -- Hasso Plattner Institute (2011)
His other honors include the J-D Warnier Prix d\'Informatique, the ACM Systems Software Award, the NEC Computers & Communication Foundation Prize, the Funai Foundation Prize, the Lewis Branscomb Technology Award, and the ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education
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# ALGOL
**ALGOL** (`{{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|l|g|ɒ|l|,_|-|g|ɔː|l}}`{=mediawiki}; short for \"**Algorithmic Language**\") is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in textbooks and academic sources for more than thirty years.
In the sense that the syntax of most modern languages is \"Algol-like\", it was arguably more influential than three other high-level programming languages among which it was roughly contemporary: FORTRAN, Lisp, and COBOL. It was designed to avoid some of the perceived problems with FORTRAN and eventually gave rise to many other programming languages, including PL/I, Simula, BCPL, B, Pascal, Ada, and C.
ALGOL introduced code blocks and the `begin`\...`end` pairs for delimiting them. It was also the first language implementing nested function definitions with lexical scope. Moreover, it was the first programming language which gave detailed attention to formal language definition and through the *Algol 60 Report* introduced Backus--Naur form, a principal formal grammar notation for language design.
There were three major specifications, named after the years they were first published:
- ALGOL 58 -- originally proposed to be called *IAL*, for *International Algebraic Language*.
- ALGOL 60 -- first implemented as *X1 ALGOL 60* in 1961. Revised 1963.
- ALGOL 68 -- introduced new elements including flexible arrays, slices, parallelism, operator identification. Revised 1973.
ALGOL 68 is substantially different from ALGOL 60 and was not well received,`{{according to whom|date=May 2023}}`{=mediawiki} so reference to \"Algol\" is generally understood to mean ALGOL 60 and its dialects.
## History
ALGOL was developed jointly by a committee of European and American computer scientists in a meeting in 1958 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (cf. ALGOL 58). It specified three different syntaxes: a reference syntax, a publication syntax, and an implementation syntax, syntaxes that permitted it to use different keyword names and conventions for decimal points (commas vs periods) for different languages.
ALGOL was used mostly by research computer scientists in the United States and in Europe; commercial applications were hindered by the absence of standard input/output facilities in its description, and the lack of interest in the language by large computer vendors (other than Burroughs Corporation). ALGOL 60 did however become the standard for the publication of algorithms and had a profound effect on future language development.
John Backus developed the *Backus normal form* method of describing programming languages specifically for ALGOL 58. It was revised and expanded by Peter Naur for ALGOL 60, and at Donald Knuth\'s suggestion renamed Backus--Naur form.
Peter Naur: \"As editor of the ALGOL Bulletin I was drawn into the international discussions of the language and was selected to be member of the European language design group in November 1959. In this capacity I was the editor of the ALGOL 60 report, produced as the result of the ALGOL 60 meeting in Paris in January 1960.\"
The following people attended the meeting in Paris (from 11 to 16 January):
- Friedrich Ludwig Bauer, Peter Naur, Heinz Rutishauser, Klaus Samelson, Bernard Vauquois, Adriaan van Wijngaarden, and Michael Woodger (from Europe)
- John Warner Backus, Julien Green, Charles Katz, John McCarthy, Alan Jay Perlis, and Joseph Henry Wegstein (from the US).
Alan Perlis gave a vivid description of the meeting: \"The meetings were exhausting, interminable, and exhilarating. One became aggravated when one\'s good ideas were discarded along with the bad ones of others. Nevertheless, diligence persisted during the entire period. The chemistry of the 13 was excellent.\"
### Legacy
A significant contribution of the ALGOL 58 Report was to provide standard terms for programming concepts: statement, declaration, type, label, primary, block, and others.
ALGOL 60 inspired many languages that followed it. Tony Hoare remarked: \"Here is a language so far ahead of its time that it was not only an improvement on its predecessors but also on nearly all its successors.\" The Scheme programming language, a variant of Lisp that adopted the block structure and lexical scope of ALGOL, also adopted the wording \"Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme\" for its standards documents in homage to ALGOL.
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# ALGOL
## Properties
ALGOL 60 as officially defined had no I/O facilities; implementations defined their own in ways that were rarely compatible with each other. In contrast, ALGOL 68 offered an extensive library of *transput* (input/output) facilities.
ALGOL 60 allowed for two evaluation strategies for parameter passing: the common call-by-value, and call-by-name. Call-by-name has certain effects in contrast to call-by-reference. For example, without specifying the parameters as *value* or *reference*, it is impossible to develop a procedure that will swap the values of two parameters if the actual parameters that are passed in are an integer variable and an array that is indexed by that same integer variable. Think of passing a pointer to swap(i, A\[i\]) in to a function. Now that every time swap is referenced, it is reevaluated. Say i := 1 and A\[i\] := 2, so every time swap is referenced it will return the other combination of the values (\[1,2\], \[2,1\], \[1,2\] and so on). A similar situation occurs with a random function passed as actual argument.
Call-by-name is known by many compiler designers for the interesting \"thunks\" that are used to implement it. Donald Knuth devised the \"man or boy test\" to separate compilers that correctly implemented \"recursion and non-local references.\" This test contains an example of call-by-name.
ALGOL 68 was defined using a two-level grammar formalism invented by Adriaan van Wijngaarden and which bears his name. Van Wijngaarden grammars use a context-free grammar to generate an infinite set of productions that will recognize a particular ALGOL 68 program; notably, they are able to express the kind of requirements that in many other programming language standards are labelled \"semantics\" and have to be expressed in ambiguity-prone natural language prose, and then implemented in compilers as *ad hoc* code attached to the formal language parser.
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# ALGOL
## Examples and portability {#examples_and_portability}
### Code sample comparisons {#code_sample_comparisons}
#### ALGOL 60 {#algol_60}
(The way the bold text has to be written depends on the implementation, e.g. \'INTEGER\'---quotation marks included---for integer. This is known as stropping.)
**`procedure`**` Absmax(a) Size:(n, m) Result:(y) Subscripts:(i, k);`\
` `**`value`**` n, m; `**`array`**` a; `**`integer`**` n, m, i, k; `**`real`**` y;`\
**`comment`**` The absolute greatest element of the matrix a, of size n by m,`\
` is copied to y, and the subscripts of this element to i and k;`\
**`begin`**\
` `**`integer`**` p, q;`\
` y := 0; i := k := 1;`\
` `**`for`**` p := 1 `**`step`**` 1 `**`until`**` n `**`do`**\
` `**`for`**` q := 1 `**`step`**` 1 `**`until`**` m `**`do`**\
` `**`if`**` abs(a[p, q]) > y `**`then`**\
` `**`begin`**` y := abs(a[p, q]);`\
` i := p; k := q`\
` `**`end`**\
**`end`**` Absmax`
Here is an example of how to produce a table using Elliott 803 ALGOL.
` FLOATING POINT ALGOL TEST'`\
` BEGIN REAL A,B,C,D'`\
` READ D'`\
` FOR A:= 0.0 STEP D UNTIL 6.3 DO`\
` BEGIN`\
` PRINT ``{{abbr|PUNCH(3)|sends output to the teleprinter rather than the tape punch.}}`{=mediawiki}`,££L??'`\
` B := SIN(A)'`\
` C := COS(A)'`\
` PRINT PUNCH(3),``{{abbr|SAMELINE|suppresses the carriage return + line feed normally printed between arguments.}}`{=mediawiki}`,``{{abbr|ALIGNED(1,6)|controls the format of the output with one digit before and six after the decimal point.}}`{=mediawiki}`,A,B,C'`\
` END`\
` END'`
#### ALGOL 68 {#algol_68}
The following code samples are ALGOL 68 versions of the above ALGOL 60 code samples.
ALGOL 68 implementations used ALGOL 60\'s approaches to stropping. In ALGOL 68\'s case tokens with the bold typeface are reserved words, types (modes) or operators.
**`proc`**` abs max = ([,]`**`real`**` a, `**`ref`**` `**`real`**` y, `**`ref`**` `**`int`**` i, k)`**`real`**`:`\
**`comment`**` The absolute greatest element of the matrix a, of size ⌈a by 2⌈a`\
`is transferred to y, and the subscripts of this element to i and k; `**`comment`**\
**`begin`**\
` `**`real`**` y := 0; i := ⌊a; k := 2⌊a;`\
` `**`for`**` p `**`from`**` ⌊a `**`to`**` ⌈a `**`do`**\
` `**`for`**` q `**`from`**` 2⌊a `**`to`**` 2⌈a `**`do`**\
` `**`if`**` `**`abs`**` a[p, q] > y `**`then`**\
` y := `**`abs`**` a[p, q];`\
` i := p; k := q`\
` `**`fi`**\
` `**`od`**\
` `**`od`**`;`\
` y`\
**`end`**` # abs max #`
Note: lower (⌊) and upper (⌈) bounds of an array, and array slicing, are directly available to the programmer.
`floating point algol68 test:`\
`(`\
` `**`real`**` a,b,c,d;`\
` `\
` # `*`printf`*` – sends output to the `**`file`**` `*`stand out`*`. #`\
` # `*`printf($p$);`*` – selects a `*`new page`*` #`\
` printf(($pg$,"Enter d:")); `\
` read(d);`\
` `\
` `**`for`**` step `**`from`**` 0 `**`while`**` a:=step*d; a <= 2*pi `**`do`**\
` printf($l$); # `*`$l$`*` - selects a `*`new line`*`. #`\
` b := sin(a);`\
` c := cos(a);`\
` printf(($z-d.6d$,a,b,c)) # formats output with 1 digit before and 6 after the decimal point. #`\
` `**`od`**\
`)`
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# ALGOL
## Examples and portability {#examples_and_portability}
### Timeline: Hello world {#timeline_hello_world}
The variations and lack of portability of the programs from one implementation to another is easily demonstrated by the classic hello world program.
#### ALGOL 58 (IAL) {#algol_58_ial}
ALGOL 58 had no I/O facilities.
#### ALGOL 60 family {#algol_60_family}
Since ALGOL 60 had no I/O facilities, there is no portable hello world program in ALGOL. The next three examples are in Burroughs Extended Algol. The first two direct output at the interactive terminal they are run on. The first uses a character array, similar to C. The language allows the array identifier to be used as a pointer to the array, and hence in a REPLACE statement. `{{sxhl|2=m2|1=
BEGIN
FILE F(KIND=REMOTE);
EBCDIC ARRAY E[0:11];
REPLACE E BY "HELLO WORLD!";
WRITE(F, *, E);
END.
}}`{=mediawiki} A simpler program using an inline format: `{{sxhl|2=m2|1=
BEGIN
FILE F(KIND=REMOTE);
WRITE(F, <"HELLO WORLD!">);
END.
}}`{=mediawiki} An even simpler program using the Display statement. Note that its output would end up at the system console (\'SPO\'):
An alternative example, using Elliott Algol I/O is as follows. Elliott Algol used different characters for \"open-string-quote\" and \"close-string-quote\", represented here by `{{color box|rgba(255,255,255,0)|border=silver|[[‘]]}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{color box|rgba(255,255,255,0)|border=silver|[[Single quotation mark|’]]}}`{=mediawiki}. `{{sxhl|2=pascal|1=
program HiFolks;
begin
print ‘Hello world’
end;
}}`{=mediawiki} Below is a version from Elliott 803 Algol (A104). The standard Elliott 803 used five-hole paper tape and thus only had upper case. The code lacked any quote characters so £ (UK Pound Sign) was used for open quote and ? (Question Mark) for close quote. Special sequences were placed in double quotes (e.g£. £L?? produced a new line on the teleprinter).
` HIFOLKS'`\
` BEGIN`\
` PRINT £HELLO WORLD£L??'`\
` END'`
The ICT 1900 series Algol I/O version allowed input from paper tape or punched card. Paper tape \'full\' mode allowed lower case. Output was to a line printer. The open and close quote characters were represented using \'(\' and \')\' and spaces by %.
` 'BEGIN'`\
` WRITE TEXT('('HELLO%WORLD')');`\
` 'END'`
#### ALGOL 68 {#algol_68_1}
**ALGOL 68** code was published with reserved words typically in lowercase, but bolded or underlined.
**`begin`**\
` printf(($gl$,"Hello, world!"))`\
**`end`**
In the language of the \"Algol 68 Report\" the input/output facilities were collectively called the \"Transput\".
### Timeline of ALGOL special characters {#timeline_of_algol_special_characters}
The ALGOLs were conceived at a time when character sets were diverse and evolving rapidly; also, the ALGOLs were defined so that only *uppercase* letters were required.
1960: IFIP -- The Algol 60 language and report included several mathematical symbols which are available on modern computers and operating systems, but, unfortunately, were unsupported on most computing systems at the time. For instance: ×, ÷, ≤, ≥, ≠, ¬, ∨, ∧, ⊂, ≡, ␣ and ⏨.
1961 September: ASCII -- The ASCII character set, then in an early stage of development, had the \\ (Back slash) character added to it in order to support ALGOL\'s Boolean operators /\\ and \\/.
1962: ALCOR -- This character set included the unusual \"᛭\" runic cross character for multiplication and the \"⏨\" Decimal Exponent Symbol for floating point notation.
1964: GOST -- The 1964 Soviet standard GOST 10859 allowed the encoding of 4-bit, 5-bit, 6-bit and 7-bit characters in ALGOL.
1968: The \"Algol 68 Report\" -- used extant ALGOL characters, and further adopted →, ↓, ↑, □, ⌊, ⌈, ⎩, ⎧, ○, ⊥, and ¢ characters which can be found on the IBM 2741 keyboard with *typeball* (or *golf ball*) print heads inserted (such as the APL golf ball). These became available in the mid-1960s while ALGOL 68 was being drafted. The report was translated into Russian, German, French, and Bulgarian, and allowed programming in languages with larger character sets, e.g., Cyrillic alphabet of the Soviet BESM-4. All ALGOL\'s characters are also part of the Unicode standard and most of them are available in several popular fonts.
2009 October: Unicode -- The `⏨` (Decimal Exponent Symbol) for floating point notation was added to Unicode 5.2 for backward compatibility with historic Buran programme ALGOL software.
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# ALGOL
## ALGOL implementations {#algol_implementations}
To date there have been at least 70 augmentations, extensions, derivations and sublanguages of Algol 60.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| \|Name | \|Year | \|Author | \|Country | \|Description | \|Target CPU |
+===========================================================================================================================================+=============+=================================================================================================================================+===========================================+==================================================================================================================================================================+=============================================================+
| ZMMD-implementation | 1958 | Friedrich L. Bauer, Heinz Rutishauser, Klaus Samelson, Hermann Bottenbruch | | implementation of ALGOL 58 | Z22\ |
| | | | | | (later Zuse\'s Z23 was delivered with an Algol 60 compiler) |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| X1 ALGOL 60 | 1960 August | Edsger W. Dijkstra and Jaap A. Zonneveld | | First implementation of ALGOL 60 | Electrologica X1 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Elliott ALGOL | 1960s | C. A. R. Hoare | | Subject of the 1980 Turing Award Lecture | Elliott 803, Elliott 503, Elliott 4100 series |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| JOVIAL | 1960 | Jules Schwartz | | A DOD HOL prior to Ada | Various (see article) |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Burroughs Algol\ | 1961 | Burroughs Corporation (with participation by Hoare, Dijkstra, and others) | | Basis of the Burroughs (and now Unisys MCP based) computers | Burroughs Large Systems and their midrange also. |
| (Several variants) | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Case ALGOL | 1961 | Case Institute of Technology | | Simula was originally contracted as a simulation extension of the Case ALGOL | UNIVAC 1107 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| GOGOL | 1961 | William M. McKeeman | | For ODIN time-sharing system | PDP-1 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| RegneCentralen ALGOL | 1961 | Peter Naur, Jørn Jensen | | Implementation of full Algol 60 | DASK at Regnecentralen |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dartmouth ALGOL 30 | 1962 | Thomas Eugene Kurtz et al. | | | LGP-30 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| USS 90 Algol | 1962 | L. Petrone | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| ALGOL 60 | 1962 | Bernard Vauquois, Louis Bolliet | | Institut d\'Informatique et Mathématiques Appliquées de Grenoble (IMAG) and Compagnie des Machines Bull | Bull Gamma 60 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Algol Translator | 1962 | G. van der Mey and W.L. van der Poel | | Staatsbedrijf der Posterijen, Telegrafie en Telefonie | ZEBRA |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Kidsgrove Algol | 1963 | F. G. Duncan | | | English Electric Company KDF9 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| VALGOL | 1963 | Val Schorre | | A test of the META II compiler compiler | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Whetstone | 1964 | Brian Randell and L. J. Russell | | Atomic Power Division of English Electric Company. Precursor to Ferranti Pegasus, National Physical Laboratories ACE and English Electric DEUCE implementations. | English Electric Company KDF9 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| NU ALGOL | 1965 | | | | UNIVAC |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| ALGEK | 1965 | | | АЛГЭК, based on ALGOL-60 and COBOL support, for economical tasks | Minsk-22 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| ALGOL W | 1966 | Niklaus Wirth | | Proposed successor to ALGOL 60 | IBM System/360 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| MALGOL | 1966 | publ. A. Viil, M Kotli & M. Rakhendi, | | | Minsk-22 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| ALGAMS | 1967 | GAMS group (ГАМС, группа автоматизации программирования для машин среднего класса), cooperation of Comecon Academies of Science | Comecon | | Minsk-22, later ES EVM, BESM |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| ALGOL/ZAM | 1967 | | | | Polish ZAM computer |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Simula 67 | 1967 | Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard | | Algol 60 with classes | UNIVAC 1107 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Triplex-ALGOL Karlsruhe | 1967/1968 | | Karlsruhe, `{{flag|Germany}}`{=mediawiki} | ALGOL 60 (1963) with triplex numbers for interval arithmetic | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Chinese Algol](https://web.archive.org/web/20080722231533/http://hopl.murdoch.edu.au/showlanguage.prx?exp=7288&language=Chinese%20Algol) | 1972 | | | Chinese characters, expressed via the Symbol system | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| DG/L | 1972 | | | | DG Eclipse family of Computers |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| S-algol | 1979 | Ron Morrison | | Addition of orthogonal datatypes with intended use as a teaching language | PDP-11 with a subsequent implementation on the Java VM |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
The Burroughs dialects included special Bootstrapping dialects such as ESPOL and NEWP. The latter is still used for Unisys MCP system software
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# Asgard
In Nordic mythology, **Asgard** (Old Norse: ***Ásgarðr***; \"Garden of the Æsir\") is a location associated with the gods. It appears in several Old Norse sagas and mythological texts, including the Eddas, however it has also been suggested to be referred to indirectly in some of these sources. It is described as the fortified home of the Æsir gods and is often associated with gold imagery and contains many other locations known in Nordic mythology such as Valhöll, Iðavöllr and Hlidskjálf.
In some euhemeristic accounts, Asgard is portrayed as being a city in Asia or Troy, however in other accounts that likely more accurately reflect its conception in Old Norse religion, it is depicted as not conforming to a naturalistic geographical position. In these latter accounts, it is found in a range of locations such as over the rainbow bridge Bifröst, in the middle of the world and over the sea.
## Etymology
The compound word *Ásgarðr* combines Old Norse *`{{linktext|áss}}`{=mediawiki}* (\"god\") and *label=none* (\"enclosure\"). Possible anglicisations include: Ásgarthr, Ásgard, Ásegard, Ásgardr, Asgardr, Ásgarth, Asgarth, Esageard, and Ásgardhr.
## Attestations
### The Poetic Edda {#the_poetic_edda}
Asgard is named twice in Eddic poetry. The first case is in *Hymiskviða*, when Thor and Týr journey from Asgard to Hymir\'s hall to obtain a cauldron large enough to brew beer for a feast for Ægir and the gods. The second instance is in *Þrymskviða* when Loki is attempting to convince Thor to dress up as Freyja in order to get back Mjölnir by claiming that without his hammer to protect them, jötnar would soon be living in Asgard.
*Grímnismál* contains among its cosmological descriptions, a number of abodes of the gods, such as Álfheim, Nóatún and Valhalla, which some scholars have identified as being in Asgard. Asgard is not mentioned at any point in the poem. Furthermore, *Völuspá* references Iðavöllr, one of the most common meeting places of Æsir gods, which in *Gylfaginning*, Snorri locates in the centre of Asgard.
### The Prose Edda {#the_prose_edda}
#### Prologue
The Prose Edda\'s euhemeristic prologue portrays the Æsir gods as people who travelled from the East to northern territories. According to Snorri, Asgard represented the town of Troy before Greek warriors overtook it. After the defeat, Trojans moved to northern Europe, where they became a dominant group due to their \"advanced technologies and culture\". Eventually, other tribes began to perceive the Trojans and their leader Trór (Thor in Old Norse) as gods.
#### Gylfaginning
In *Gylfaginning*, Snorri Sturluson describes how during the creation of the world, the gods made the earth and surrounded it with the sea. They made the sky from the skull of Ymir and settled the *jötnar* on the shores of the earth. They set down the brows of Ymir, forming Midgard, and in the centre of the world they built Asgard, which he identifies as Troy:
+----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Old Norse text | Brodeur translation |
+================+====================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================+
| | Next they made for themselves in the middle of the world a city which is called Ásgard; men call it Troy. There dwelt the gods and their kindred; and many tidings and tales of it have come to pass both on earth and aloft. There is one abode called Hlidskjálf, and when Allfather sat in the high-seat there, he looked out over the whole world and saw every man\'s acts, and knew all things which he saw. |
+----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
After Asgard is made, the gods then built a hof named Glaðsheimr at Iðavöllr, in the centre of the burg, or walled city, with a high seat for Odin and twelve seats for other gods. It is described as like gold both on the inside and the outside, and as the best of all buildings in the world. They also built Vingólf for the female gods, which is described as both a hall and a hörgr, and a forge with which they crafted objects from gold. After Ragnarök, some gods such as Váli and Baldr will meet at Iðavöllr where Asgard once stood and discuss matters together. There they will also find in the grass the golden chess pieces that the Æsir had once owned.
Later, the section describes how an unnamed jötunn came to the gods with his stallion, Svaðilfari and offered help in building a burg for the gods in three winters, asking in return for the sun, moon, and marriage with Freyja. Despite Freyja\'s opposition, together the gods agree to fulfill his request if he completes his work in just one winter. As time goes on, the gods grow desperate as it becomes apparent that the jötunn will construct the burg on time. To their surprise, his stallion contributes much of the progress, swiftly moving boulders and rocks. To deal with the problem, Loki comes up with a plan whereupon he changes his appearance to that of a mare, and distracts Svaðilfari to slow down construction. Without the help of his stallion, the builder realises he cannot complete his task in time and goes into a rage, revealing his identity as a jötunn. Thor then kills the builder with Mjöllnir, before any harm to the gods is done. The chapter does not explicitly name Asgard as the fortress but they are commonly identified by scholars.
In *Gylfaginning*, the central cosmic tree Yggdrasil is described as having three roots that hold it up; one of these goes to the Æsir, which has been interpreted as meaning Asgard. In *Grímnismál*, this root instead reaches over the realm of men. The bridge Bifröst is told to span from the heavens to the earth and over it the Æsir cross each day to hold council beneath Yggdrasil at the Urðarbrunnr. Based on this, Bifröst is commonly interpreted as the bridge to Asgard.
#### Skáldskaparmál
Asgard is mentioned briefly throughout *Skáldskaparmál* as the name for the home of the Æsir, as in *Gylfaginning*. In this section, a number of locations are described as lying within Asgard including Valhalla, and in front of its doors, the golden grove Glasir. It also records a name for Thor as \'Defender of Ásgard\' (*verjandi Ásgarðs*).
### Ynglinga Saga {#ynglinga_saga}
In the *Ynglinga* saga, found in Heimskringla, Snorri describes Asgard as a city in Asia, based on a perceived, but erroneous, connection between the words for Asia and Æsir. In the opening stanzas of the Saga of the Ynglings, Asgard is the capital of Asaland, a section of Asia east of the river Tana-kvísl or Vana-Kvísl (kvísl is \"arm\"), which Snorri explains is the river Tanais (now Don), flowing into the Black Sea. Odin then leaves to settle in the northern part of the world and leaves his brothers Vili and Vé to rule over the city. When the euhemerised Odin dies, the account states that the Swedes believed he had returned to Asgard and would live there forever.
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# Asgard
## Interpretation and discussion {#interpretation_and_discussion}
Cosmology in Old Norse religion is presented in a vague and often contradictory manner when viewed from a naturalistic standpoint. Snorri places Asgard in the centre of the world, surrounded by Midgard and then the lands inhabited by *jötnar*, all of which are finally encircled by the sea. He also locates the homes of the gods in the heavens. This had led to the proposition of a system of concentric circles, centred on Asgard or Yggdrasil, and sometimes with a vertical axis, leading upwards towards the heavens. There is debate between scholars over whether the gods were conceived of as living in the heavens, with some aligning their views with Snorri, and others proposing that he at times presents the system in a Christian framework and that this organisation is not seen in either Eddic or skaldic poetry. The concept of attempting to create a spatial cosmological model has itself been criticised by scholars who argue that the oral traditions did not form a naturalistic, structured system that aimed to be internally geographically consistent. An alternative proposal is that the world should be conceived of as a number of realms connected by passages that cannot be typically traversed. This would explain how Asgard can be located both to the east and west of the realm of men, over the sea and over Bifröst.
It has been noted that the tendency to link Asgard to Troy is part of a wider European cultural practice of claiming Trojan origins for one\'s culture, first seen in the *Aeneid* and also featuring in Geoffrey of Monmouth\'s *Historia regum Britanniae* for the founding of Britain.
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# Asgard
## Depictions in popular culture {#depictions_in_popular_culture}
Both Asgard and Valhalla have been portrayed many times in popular culture
### In film {#in_film}
Asgard is depicted in the 1989 film comedy film *Erik the Viking* as a frozen wasteland dominated by the Halls of Valhalla on a high plateau. In the film the Æsir are depicted as spoilt children
### In comics {#in_comics}
Thor first appeared in the Marvel Universe within comic series *Journey into Mystery* in the issues #83 during August 1962. Following this release, he becomes one of the central figures in the comics along with Loki and Odin. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor and Loki make their first appearance together in the 2011 film *Thor*. After that, Thor becomes a regular character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reappears in several films, including the *Avengers* series. Asgard becomes the central element of the film *Thor: Ragnarok*, where it is destroyed following the Old Norse mythos. These and other Norse mythology elements also appear in video games, TV series, and books based in and on the Marvel Universe, although these depictions do not closely follow historical sources.
### In video games {#in_video_games}
Asgard is an explorable realm in the video game *God of War: Ragnarök*, a sequel to 2018\'s Norse-themed *God of War*.
In the *Assassin\'s Creed Valhalla* video game, Asgard is featured as part of a \"vision quest\"
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# Álfheimr
In Norse cosmology, **Álfheimr** (Old Norse: `{{IPA|non|ˈɑːlvˌhɛimz̠|}}`{=mediawiki}, \"Land of the Elves\" or \"Elfland\"; anglicized as **Alfheim**), also called **\"Ljósálfheimr\"** (*Ljósálf\[a\]heimr* `{{IPA|non|ˈljoːsˌɑːlv(ɑ)ˌhɛimz̠|}}`{=mediawiki}, \"home of the Light Elves\"), is home of the Light Elves.
## Attestations
Álfheim as an abode of the Elves is mentioned only twice in Old Norse texts.
### Grímnismál
The Eddic poem *Grímnismál* describes twelve divine dwellings beginning the stanza 5 with:
+----------------+---------------------------------------------+
| Old Norse text | Bellows translation |
+================+=============================================+
| : | : Ydalir call they the place where Ull |
| | : A hall for himself hath set; |
| : | : And Alfheim the gods to Freyr once gave |
| | : As a tooth-gift in ancient times. |
| : | |
| | |
| : | |
| | |
| : | |
| | |
| : | |
+----------------+---------------------------------------------+
A tooth-gift is a gift given to an infant on the cutting of the first tooth.
### Gylfaginning
In the 12th century Eddic prose *Gylfaginning*, Snorri Sturluson relates it in the stanza 17 as the first of a series of abodes in heaven:
+----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Old Norse text | Brodeur translation |
+================+==========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================+
| | Many places are there, and glorious. That which is called Álfheimr is one, where dwell the peoples called Light-Elves; but the Dark-Elves dwell down in the earth, and they are unlike in appearance, but by far more unlike in nature. The Light-Elves are fairer to look upon than the sun, but the Dark-Elves are blacker than pitch. |
+----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Later in the section, in speaking of a hall in the Highest Heaven called Gimlé that shall survive when heaven and earth have died, explains:
+----------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Old Norse text | Brodeur translation |
+================+===========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================+
| | It is said that another heaven is to the southward and upward of this one, and it is called Andlangr; but the third heaven is yet above that, and it is called Vídbláinn, and in that heaven we think this abode is. But we believe that none but Light-Elves inhabit these mansions now
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# Alabama River
The **Alabama River**, in the U.S. state of Alabama, is formed by the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, which unite about 6 mi north of Montgomery, near the town of Wetumpka.
Over a course of approximately 319 mi, the river meanders west towards Selma, then southwest until, about 45 mi from Mobile, it unites with the Tombigbee, forming the Mobile and Tensaw rivers, which discharge into Mobile Bay.
## Description
The run of the Alabama is highly meandering. Its width varies from 50 to, and its depth from 3 to. Its length as measured by the United States Geological Survey is 318.5 mi, and by steamboat measurement, 420 mi.
The river crosses the richest agricultural and timber districts of the state. Railways connect it with the mineral regions of north-central Alabama.
After the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, the principal tributary of the Alabama is the Cahaba River, which is about 194 mi long and joins the Alabama River about 10 mi below Selma. The Alabama River\'s main tributary, the Coosa River, crosses the mineral region of Alabama and is navigable for light-draft boats from Rome, Georgia, to about 117 mi above Wetumpka (about 102 mi below Rome and 26 mi below Greensport), and from Wetumpka to its junction with the Tallapoosa. The channel of the river has been considerably improved by the federal government.
The navigation of the Tallapoosa River -- which has its source in Paulding County, Georgia, and is about 265 mi long -- is prevented by shoals and a 60 ft fall at Tallassee, a few miles north of its junction with the Coosa. The Alabama is navigable throughout the year.
The river played an important role in the growth of the economy in the region during the 19th century as a source of transportation of goods, which included slaves. The river is still used for transportation of farming produce; however, it is not as important as it once was due to the construction of roads and railways.
Documented by Europeans first in 1701, the Alabama, Coosa, and Tallapoosa rivers were central to the homeland of the Creek Indians before their removal by United States forces to the Indian Territory in the 1830s.
## Lock and dams {#lock_and_dams}
The Alabama River has three lock and dams between Montgomery and the Mobile River. The Robert F. Henry Lock & Dam is located at river mile 236.2, the Millers Ferry Lock & Dam is located at river mile 133.0, and the Claiborne Lock & Dam is located at river mile 72.5. These dams create R.E. \"Bob\" Woodruff Lake, William Dannely Reservoir, and Claiborne Lake respectively.
## Gallery
Image:USACE Claiborne Lock and Dam.jpg\|Claiborne Lock and Dam on the Alabama River, approximately 5 mi upriver from Claiborne, Monroe County Image:USACE Robert F Henry Lock and Dam.jpg\|Robert F. Henry Lock and Dam on the Alabama River, approximately 15 mi east of Selma Image:Cesam249.jpg\|Millers Ferry Lock and Dam on the Alabama River in Wilcox County, approximately 9.5 mi northwest of Camden Image:Alabama River RM192 Selma.JPG\|Alabama River in Dallas County looking upstream towards Selma. Image:Alabama River at Benton Park.JPG\|The Alabama River in Lowndes County as seen from Benton Park in Benton, Alabama. Image:Edmund Pettus Bridge over Alabama River.jpg\|The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma overlooking the Alabama River. <File:Selma> December 2018 11 (Alabama River).jpg\|The Alabama River in Selma <File:Riverfront> Park December 2018 07 (Alabama River)
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# Alain de Lille
**Alain de Lille** (**Alan of Lille**; Latin: *Alanus ab Insulis*; c. 1128`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}1202/1203) was a French theologian and poet. He was born in Lille some time before 1128. His exact date of death remains unclear as well, with most research pointing toward it being between 14 April 1202 and 5 April 1203. He is known for writing a number of works based upon the teachings of the liberal arts, with one of his most renowned poems, *De planctu Naturae* (\"The Complaint of Nature\"), focusing on sexual conduct among humans. Although Alain was widely known during his lifetime, little is known about his personal life.
As a theologian, Alain de Lille opposed scholasticism in the second half of the 12th century. His philosophy is characterized by rationalism and mysticism. Alain claimed that reason, guided by prudence, could discover most truths about the physical order without help; but in order to understand religious truth and to know God, the wise must be believers.
## Life
Little is known of his life. Alain entered the schools no earlier than the late 1140s; first attending the school at Paris, and then at Chartres. He probably studied under masters such as Peter Abelard, Gilbert of Poitiers, and Thierry of Chartres. This is known through the writings of John of Salisbury, who is thought to have been a contemporary student of Alain of Lille. Alain\'s earliest writings were probably written in the 1150s, and probably in Paris. He spent many years as a professor of theology at the University of Paris and he attended the Lateran Council in 1179. Though the only accounts of his lectures seem to show a sort of eccentric style and approach, he was said to have been good friends with many other masters at the school in Paris, and taught there, as well as some time in southern France, into his old age. He afterwards inhabited Montpellier (he is sometimes called *Alanus de Montepessulano*), lived for a time outside the walls of any cloister, and finally retired to Cîteaux, where he died in 1202.
He had a very widespread reputation during his lifetime, and his knowledge caused him to be called *Doctor Universalis*. Many of Alain\'s writings cannot be exactly dated, and the circumstances surrounding his writing are often unknown as well. It does seem clear that his first notable work, *Summa Quoniam Homines*, was completed between 1155 and 1165, with the most conclusive date being 1160, and was probably developed through his lectures at the school in Paris. Among his numerous works two poems entitle him to a distinguished place in the Latin literature of the Middle Ages; one of these, the *De planctu Naturae*, is an ingenious satire on the vices of humanity. He created the allegory of grammatical \"conjugation\" which was to have its successors throughout the Middle Ages. The *Anticlaudianus*, a treatise on morals as allegory, the form of which recalls the pamphlet of Claudian against Rufinus, is agreeably versified and relatively pure in its latinity.
## Theology and philosophy {#theology_and_philosophy}
As a theologian Alain de Lille shared in the mystic reaction of the second half of the 12th century against the scholastic philosophy. His mysticism, however, is far from being as absolute as that of the Victorines. In the *Anticlaudianus* he sums up as follows: Reason, guided by prudence, can unaided discover most of the truths of the physical order; for the apprehension of religious truths it must trust to faith. This rule is completed in his treatise, *Ars catholicae fidei*, as follows: Theology itself may be demonstrated by reason. Alain even ventures an immediate application of this principle, and tries to prove geometrically the dogmas defined in the Christian creed. This bold attempt is entirely factitious and verbal, and it is only his employment of various terms not generally used in such a connection (axiom, theorem, corollary, etc.) that gives his treatise its apparent originality.
Alan\'s philosophy was a sort of mixture of Aristotelian logic and Neoplatonic philosophy. The Platonist seemed to outweigh the Aristotelian in Alan, but he felt strongly that the divine is all intelligibility and argued this notion through much Aristotelian logic combined with Pythagorean mathematics.
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# Alain de Lille
## Works and attributions {#works_and_attributions}
One of Alain\'s most notable works was one he modeled after Boethius' *Consolation of Philosophy*, to which he gave the title *De planctu Naturae*, or *The Plaint of Nature*, and which was most likely written in the late 1160s. In this work, Alan uses prose and verse to illustrate the way in which nature defines its own position as inferior to that of God. He also attempts to illustrate the way in which humanity, through sexual perversion and specifically homosexuality, has defiled itself from nature and God. In *Anticlaudianus*, another of his notable works, Alan uses a poetical dialogue to illustrate the way in which nature comes to the realization of her failure in producing the perfect man. She has only the ability to create a soulless body, and thus she is \"persuaded to undertake the journey to heaven to ask for a soul,\" and \"the Seven Liberal Arts produce a chariot for her\... the Five Senses are the horses\". The *Anticlaudianus* was translated into French and German in the following century, and toward 1280 was re-worked into a musical anthology by Adam de la Bassée. One of Alan\'s most popular and widely distributed works is his manual on preaching, *Ars Praedicandi*, or *The Art of Preaching*. This work shows how Alan saw theological education as being a fundamental preliminary step in preaching and strove to give clergyman a manuscript to be \"used as a practical manual\" when it came to the formation of sermons and art of preaching.
Alain wrote three very large theological textbooks, one being his first work, *Summa Quoniam Homines*. Another of his theological textbooks that strove to be more minute in its focus, is his *De Fide Catholica*, dated somewhere between 1185 and 1200, Alan sets out to refute heretical views, specifically that of the Waldensians and Cathars. In his third theological textbook, *Regulae Caelestis Iuris*, he presents a set of what seems to be theological rules; this was typical of the followers of Gilbert of Poitiers, of which Alan could be associated. Other than these theological textbooks, and the aforementioned works of the mixture of prose and poetry, Alan of Lille had numerous other works on numerous subjects, primarily including Speculative Theology, Theoretical Moral Theology, Practical Moral Theology, and various collections of poems.
Alain de Lille has often been confounded with other persons named Alain, in particular with another Alanus (Alain, bishop of Auxerre), Alan, abbot of Tewkesbury, Alain de Podio, etc. Certain facts of their lives have been attributed to him, as well as some of their works: thus the *Life of St Bernard* should be ascribed to Alain of Auxerre and the *Commentary upon Merlin* to Alan of Tewkesbury. Alan of Lille was not the author of a *Memoriale rerum difficilium*, published under his name, nor of *Moralium dogma philosophorum*, nor of the satirical *Apocalypse of Golias* once attributed to him; and it is exceedingly doubtful whether the *Dicta Alani de lapide philosophico* really issued from his pen. On the other hand, it now seems practically demonstrated that Alain de Lille was the author of the *Ars catholicae fidei* and the treatise *Contra haereticos*.
In his sermons on capital sins, Alain argued that sodomy and homicide are the most serious sins, since they call forth the wrath of God, which led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. His chief work on penance, the *Liber poenitenitalis* dedicated to Henry de Sully, exercised great influence on the many manuals of penance produced as a result of the Fourth Lateran Council. Alain\'s identification of the sins against nature included bestiality, masturbation, oral and anal intercourse, incest, adultery and rape. In addition to his battle against moral decay, Alan wrote a work against Islam, Judaism and Christian heretics dedicated to William VIII of Montpellier.
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# Alain de Lille
## List of known works {#list_of_known_works}
-
- *Anticlaudianus*
- *Rhythmus de Incarnatione et de Septem Artibus*
- *De Miseria Mundi*
- *Quaestiones Alani Textes*
- *Summa Quoniam Homines*
- *Regulae Theologicae*
- *Hierarchia Alani*
- *De Fide Catholica: Contra Haereticos, Valdenses, Iudaeos et Paganos*
- *De Virtutibus, de Vitiis, de Donis Spiritus Sancti*
- *Liber Parabolarum*
- *Distinctiones Dictionum Theologicalium*
- *Elucidatio in Cantica Canticorum*
- *Glosatura super Cantica*
- *Expositio of the Pater Noster*
- *Expositiones of the Nicene and Apostolic Creeds*
- *Expositio Prosae de Angelis*
- *Quod non-est celebrandum bis in die*
- *Liber Poenitentialis*
- *De Sex Alis Cherubim*
- *Ars Praedicandi*
- *Sermones*
## Translations
- Alan of Lille, *A Concise Explanation of the Song of Songs in Praise of the Virgin Mary*, trans Denys Turner, in Denys Turner, *Eros and Allegory: Medieval Exegesis of the Song of Songs*, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1995), 291--308
- *The Plaint of Nature*, translated by James J Sheridan, (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1980)
- *Anticlaudian: Prologue, Argument and Nine Books*, edited by W. H
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# Dodo (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
**The Dodo** is a fictional character appearing in Chapters 2 and 3 of the 1865 book *Alice\'s Adventures in Wonderland* by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). The Dodo is a caricature of the author. A popular but unsubstantiated belief is that Dodgson chose the particular animal to represent himself because of his stammer, and thus would accidentally introduce himself as \"Do-do-dodgson\".
Historically, the dodo was a flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. It became extinct in the mid 17th century during the colonisation of the island by the Dutch.
## *Alice\'s Adventures in Wonderland* {#alices_adventures_in_wonderland}
In this passage Lewis Carroll incorporated references to the original boating expedition of 4 July 1862 during which Alice\'s Adventures were first told, with Alice as herself, and the others represented by birds: the Lory was Lorina Liddell, the Eaglet was Edith Liddell, the Dodo was Dodgson, and the Duck was Rev. Robinson Duckworth. In order to get dry after a swim, the Dodo proposes that everyone run a Caucus race -- where the participants run in patterns of any shape, starting and leaving off whenever they like, so that everyone wins. At the end of the race, Alice distributes comfits from her pocket to all as prizes. However this leaves no prize for herself. The Dodo inquires what else she has in her pocket. As she has only a thimble, the Dodo requests it from her and then awards it to Alice as her prize. The Caucus Race, as depicted by Carroll, is a satire on the political caucus system, mocking its lack of clarity and decisiveness.
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# Dodo (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
## Interpretations
### Disney animated film version {#disney_animated_film_version}
In the Disney film, the Dodo plays a much greater role in the story than in the book. He is merged with the character of Pat the Gardener, which leads to him sometimes being nicknamed Pat the Dodo, but this name is never mentioned in the film. The Dodo is also the leader of the caucus race. He has the appearance and personality of a sea captain. The Dodo is voiced by Bill Thompson and animated by Milt Kahl.
Dodo is first seen as Alice is floating on the sea in a bottle. Dodo is seen singing, but when Alice asks him for help, he does not notice her. On shore, Dodo is seen on a rock, organizing a caucus race. This race involves running around until one gets dry, but the attempts are hampered by incoming waves.
Dodo is later summoned by the White Rabbit, when the rabbit believes a monster, actually Alice having magically grown to a giant size, is inside his home. Dodo brings Bill the Lizard, and attempts to get him to go down the chimney. Bill refuses at first, but Dodo is able to convince him otherwise. However, the soot causes Alice to sneeze, sending Bill high up into the sky. Dodo then decides to burn the house down, much to the chagrin of the White Rabbit. He begins gathering wood, such as the furniture, for this purpose. However, Alice is soon able to return to a smaller size and exit the house by eating a carrot from the White Rabbit\'s garden.
The White Rabbit soon leaves, while Dodo asks for matches, not realizing that the situation has been resolved. He then asks Alice for a match, but when she doesn\'t have any, Dodo complains about the lack of cooperation and uses his pipe to light the fire.
The Dodo later appears briefly at the end of the film, conducting another Caucus Race while Alice is being chased by the Queen of Hearts and her card soldiers.
In *Alice\'s Wonderland Bakery*, appears Captain Dodo, being unknown if he is the same character from the film, or a descendant as is the case of other characters from Wonderland in the series (the plot placed several decades after the events in the film). Captain Dodo also has a son named Jojo.
### Tim Burton\'s *Alice in Wonderland* version {#tim_burtons_alice_in_wonderland_version}
In Tim Burton\'s adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, the Dodo\'s appearance retains the subtle apparent nature from John Tenniel\'s illustration. He bears a down of brilliant blue and wears a navy blue waistcoat and white spats along with glasses and a cane. He is one of Alice\'s good-willed advisers, taking first note of her abilities as the true Alice. He is also one of the oldest inhabitants. His name is **Uilleam**, and he is portrayed by Michael Gough. He goes with the White Rabbit, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and Dormouse to take Alice to Caterpillar to decide whether Alice is the real one. He is later captured by the Red Queen\'s forces. When Alice came to the Red Queen\'s castle, he was seen at the Red Queen\'s castle yard as a caddy for the Queen\'s croquet game. After the Red Queen orders the release of the Jubjub bird to kill all her subjects from rebelling, he is then seen briefly running from it when the Tweedles went to hide from it and escaped but was snatched by the Jubjub and was never seen again throughout the film.
His name may be based on a lecture on William the Conqueror from Chapter Three of the original novel. The character is voiced by Michael Gough in his final feature film role before his death in 2011. Gough came out of retirement to appear in the film but the character only speaks three lines, so Gough managed to record in one day
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# Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
**Albert II** (*Albrecht*; 28 March 1522`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}8 January 1557) was the margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (Brandenburg-Bayreuth) from 1527 to 1553. He was a member of the Franconian branch of the House of Hohenzollern. Because of his bellicose nature,`{{says who|date=February 2020}}`{=mediawiki} Albert was given the cognomen *Bellator* (\"the Warlike\") during his lifetime. Posthumously, he became known as *Alcibiades*.
## Biography
Albert was born in Ansbach and, losing his father Casimir in 1527, he came under the regency of his uncle George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a strong adherent of Protestantism.
In 1541, he received Bayreuth as his share of the family lands, but as the chief town of his principality was Kulmbach, he is sometimes referred to as the Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. His restless and turbulent nature marked him out for a military career; and having collected a small band of soldiers, he assisted Emperor Charles V in his war with France in 1543.
The Peace of Crépy in September 1544 deprived him of this employment, but he won a considerable reputation, and when Charles was preparing to attack the Schmalkaldic League, he took pains to win Albert\'s assistance.
Sharing in the attack on the Electorate of Saxony, Albert was taken prisoner at Rochlitz in March 1547 by Elector John Frederick of Saxony, but was released as a result of the Emperor\'s victory at the Battle of Mühlberg in the succeeding April.
He then followed the fortunes of his friend Elector Maurice of Saxony, deserted Charles, and joined the league which proposed to overthrow the Emperor by an alliance with King Henry II of France.
He took part in the subsequent campaign, but when the Peace of Passau was signed in August 1552 he separated himself from his allies and began a crusade of plunder in Franconia, which led to the Second Margrave War.
Having extorted a large sum of money from the citizens of Nuremberg, he quarrelled with his supporter, the French King, and offered his services to the Emperor. Charles, anxious to secure such a famous fighter, gladly assented to Albert\'s demands and gave the imperial sanction to his possession of the lands taken from the bishops of Würzburg and Bamberg; and his conspicuous bravery was of great value to the Emperor on the retreat from the Siege of Metz in January 1553.
When Charles left Germany a few weeks later, Albert renewed his depredations in Franconia. These soon became so serious that a league was formed to crush him, and Maurice of Saxony led an army against his former comrade.
The rival forces met at Sievershausen on 9 July 1553, and after a combat of unusual ferocity Albert was put to flight. Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, then took command of the troops of the league, and after Albert had been placed under the Imperial ban in December 1553 he was defeated by Duke Henry, and compelled to flee to France. He there entered the service of Henry II of France and had undertaken a campaign to regain his lands when he died at Pforzheim on 8 January 1557.
He is defined by Thomas Carlyle as \"a failure of a Fritz,\" with \"features\" of a Frederick the Great in him, \"but who burnt away his splendid qualities as a mere temporary shine for the able editors, and never came to anything, full of fire, too much of it wildfire, not in the least like an Alcibiades except in the change of fortune he underwent\". He was buried at Heilsbronn Münster. His hymn \"Was mein Got will, das g\'scheh allzeit\" was translated as \"The will of God is always best\"
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# Albert the Bear
**Albert the Bear** (*Albrecht der Bär*; `{{c.}}`{=mediawiki} 1100 -- 18 November 1170) was the first margrave of Brandenburg from 1157 to his death and was briefly duke of Saxony between 1138 and 1142.
## Life
Albert was the only son of Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, and Eilika, daughter of Magnus Billung, Duke of Saxony. He inherited his father\'s valuable estates in northern Saxony in 1123, and on his mother\'s death, in 1142, succeeded to one-half of the lands of the house of Billung. Albert was a loyal vassal of his relation, Lothar I, Duke of Saxony, from whom, about 1123, he received the Margraviate of Lusatia, to the east; after Lothar became King of the Germans, he accompanied him on a disastrous expedition to Bohemia against the upstart, Soběslav I, Duke of Bohemia in 1126 at the Battle of Kulm, where he suffered a short imprisonment.
Albert\'s entanglements in Saxony stemmed from his desire to expand his inherited estates there. After the death of his brother-in-law, Henry II, Margrave of the Nordmark, who controlled a small area on the Elbe called the Saxon Northern March, in 1128, Albert, disappointed at not receiving this fief himself, attacked Udo V, Count of Stade, the heir, and was consequently deprived of Lusatia by Lothar. Udo, however, was said to have been assassinated by servants of Albert on 15 March 1130 near Aschersleben. In spite of this, Albert went to Italy in 1132 in the train of the king, and his services there were rewarded in 1134 by the investiture of the Northern March, which was again without a ruler.
In 1138 Conrad III, the Hohenstaufen King of the Germans, deprived Albert\'s cousin and nemesis, Henry the Proud, of his Saxon duchy, which was awarded to Albert if he could take it. After some initial success in his efforts to take possession, Albert was driven from Saxony, and also from his Northern March by a combined force of Henry and Jaxa of Köpenick, and compelled to take refuge in south Germany. Henry died in 1139 and an arrangement was found. Henry\'s son, Henry the Lion, received the duchy of Saxony in 1142. In the same year, Albert renounced the Saxon duchy and received the counties of Weimar and Orlamünde.
Once he was firmly established in the Northern March, Albert\'s covetous eye lay also on the thinly populated lands to the north and east. For three years he was occupied in campaigns against the Slavic Wends, who as pagans were considered fair game, and whose subjugation to Christianity was the aim of the Wendish Crusade of 1147 in which Albert took part. Albert was a part of the army that besieged Demmin, and at the end of the war, recovered Havelberg, which had been lost since 983. Diplomatic measures were more successful, and by an arrangement made with the last of the Wendish princes of Brandenburg, Pribislav-Henry of the Hevelli, Albert secured this district when the prince died in 1150. Taking the title \"Margrave in Brandenburg\", he pressed the crusade against the Wends, extended the area of his mark, encouraged Dutch and German settlement in the Elbe-Havel region (Ostsiedlung), established bishoprics under his protection, and so became the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1157, which his heirs --- the House of Ascania --- held until the line died out in 1320.
In 1158 a feud with Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, was interrupted by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On his return in 1160, he, with the consent of his sons, Siegfried not being mentioned, donated land to the Knights of Saint John in memory of his wife, Sofia, at Werben on the Elbe. Around this same time, he minted a pfennig in memory of his deceased wife. In 1162 Albert accompanied Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to Italy, where he distinguished himself at the storming of Milan.
In 1164 Albert joined a league of princes formed against Henry the Lion, and peace being made in 1169, Albert divided his territories among his six sons. He died on 18 November 1170, and was buried at Ballenstedt.
## Cognomen
Albert\'s personal qualities won for him the cognomen of *the Bear,* \"not from his looks or qualities, for he was a tall handsome man, but from the cognisance on his shield, an able man, had a quick eye as well as a strong hand, and could pick what way was straightest among crooked things, was the shining figure and the great man of the North in his day, got much in the North and kept it, got Brandenburg for one there, a conspicuous country ever since,\" says Thomas Carlyle, who called Albert \"a restless, much-managing, wide-warring man.\" He was also called \"the Handsome.\"
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# Albert the Bear
## Marriage and children {#marriage_and_children}
Albert was married in 1124 to Sophie of Winzenburg (died 25 March 1160) and they had the following children:
1. Otto I, Margrave of Brandenburg (1126/1128--7 March 1184)
2. Count Hermann I of Orlamünde (died 1176), father of Siegfried III, Count of Weimar-Orlamünde
3. Siegfried (died 24 October 1184), Bishop of Brandenburg from 1173 to 1180, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, the first ranked prince, from 1180 to 1184
4. Heinrich (died after 1185), a canon in Magdeburg
5. Count Albert of Ballenstedt (died after 6 December 1172)
6. Count Dietrich of Werben (died after 5 September 1183)
7. Count Bernhard of Anhalt (1138/1142--9 February 1212), Duke of Saxony from 1180 to 1212 as Bernard III
8. Hedwig (d. 1203), married to Otto II, Margrave of Meissen
9. Gertrude, married in c. 1153 to Duke Děpold of Moravia
10. Unknown daughter, married c. 1153 to Vladislav of Olomouc, the eldest son of Soběslav I, Duke of Bohemia
11. Adelheid (died before 1162), a nun in Lamspringe
12. Unknown daughter, married before 1146 Otto the Younger, son of Otto of Salm
13. Sybille (died c
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# Abner
In the Hebrew Bible, **Abner** (*אַבְנֵר* `{{transliteration|he|ʾAḇnēr}}`{=mediawiki}) was the cousin of King Saul and the commander-in-chief of his army. His name also appears as `{{Script/Hebrew|אבינר בן נר}}`{=mediawiki} \"Abiner son of Ner\", where the longer form Abiner means \"my father is Ner\".
## Biblical narrative {#biblical_narrative}
Abner is initially mentioned incidentally in Saul\'s history, first appearing as the son of Ner, Saul\'s uncle, and the commander of Saul\'s army. He then comes to the story again as the commander who introduced David to Saul following David\'s killing of Goliath. He is not mentioned in the account of the disastrous battle of Gilboa when Saul\'s power was crushed. Seizing the youngest but only surviving of Saul\'s sons, Ish-bosheth, also called Eshbaal, Abner set him up as king over Israel at Mahanaim, east of the Jordan. David, who was accepted as king by Judah alone, was meanwhile reigning at Hebron, and for some time war was carried on between the two parties.
The only engagement between the rival factions told at length was preceded by an encounter at Gibeon between 12 chosen men from each side, in which all 24 seem to have perished. In the general engagement which followed, Abner was defeated and put to flight. He was closely pursued by Asahel, brother of Joab, who is said to have been \"light of foot as a wild roe\". As Asahel would not desist from the pursuit, though warned, Abner was compelled to slay him in self-defense, planting his spear in the ground and allowing Asahel to impale himself. This originated a deadly feud between the leaders of the opposite parties, for Joab, as next of kin to Asahel, was by the law and custom of the country the avenger of his blood. However, according to Josephus, in *Antiquities*, book 7, chapter 1, Joab had forgiven Abner for the death of his brother, Asahel, the reason being that Abner had slain Asahel honorably in combat after he had first warned Asahel and tried to knock the wind out of him with the butt of his spear. thumb\|250px\|Abner with Rizpah For some time afterward, the war was carried on, the advantage being invariably on the side of David. At length, Ish-bosheth lost the main prop of his tottering cause by accusing Abner of sleeping with Rizpah, one of Saul\'s concubines, an alliance which, according to contemporary notions, would imply pretensions to the throne.
Abner was indignant at the rebuke, and immediately opened negotiations with David, who welcomed him on the condition that his wife Michal should be restored to him. This was done, and the proceedings were ratified by a feast. Almost immediately after, however, Joab, who had been sent away, perhaps intentionally, returned and slew Abner at the gate of Hebron. The ostensible motive for the assassination was a desire to avenge Asahel, and this would be a sufficient justification for the deed according to the moral standard of the time (although Abner should have been safe from such a revenge killing in Hebron, which was a City of Refuge). The conduct of David after the event was such as to show that he had no complicity in the act, though he could not venture to punish its perpetrators.
David had Abner buried in Hebron, as stated in 2 Samuel 3:31--32, \"And David said to all the people who were with him, \'Rend your clothes and gird yourselves with sackcloth, and wail before Abner.\' And King David went after the bier. And they buried Abner in Hebron, and the king raised his voice and wept on Abner\'s grave, and all the people wept.\"
Shortly after Abner\'s death, Ish-bosheth was assassinated as he slept, and David became king of the reunited kingdoms.
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# Abner
## Rabbinical literature {#rabbinical_literature}
Midrashic writings establish Abner as the son of the Witch of En-dor (Pirḳe R. El. xxxiii.), and the hero par excellence in the Haggadah (Yalḳ., Jer. 285; Eccl. R. on ix. 11; Ḳid. 49b). Conscious of his extraordinary strength, he exclaimed: \"If I could only catch hold of the earth, I could shake it\" (Yalḳ. l.c.)---a saying which parallels the famous utterance of Archimedes, \"Had I a fulcrum, I could move the world.\" According to the Midrash (Eccl. R. l.c.) it would have been easier to move a wall six yards thick than one of the feet of Abner, who could hold the Israelitish army between his knees. Yet when his time came, Joab smote him. But even in his dying hour, Abner seized his foe like a ball of thread, threatening to crush him. Then the Israelites came and pleaded for Joab\'s life, saying: \"If thou killest him we shall be orphaned, and our women and all our belongings will become a prey to the Philistines.\" Abner answered: \"What can I do? He has extinguished my light\" (has wounded me fatally). The Israelites replied: \"Entrust thy cause to the true judge \[God\].\" Then Abner released his hold upon Joab and fell dead to the ground (Yalḳ. l.c.).
The rabbis agree that Abner deserved this violent death, though opinions differ concerning the exact nature of the sin that entailed so dire a punishment on one who was, on the whole, considered a \"righteous man\" (Gen. R. lxxxii. 4). Some reproach him that he did not use his influence with Saul to prevent him from murdering the priests of Nob (Yer. Peah, i. 16a; Lev. R. xxvi. 2; Sanh. 20a)---convinced as he was of the innocence of the priests and of the propriety of their conduct toward David, Abner holding that as leader of the army David was privileged to avail himself of the Urim and Thummim (I Sam. xxii. 9--19). Instead of contenting himself with passive resistance to Saul\'s command to murder the priests (Yalḳ., Sam. 131), Abner ought to have tried to restrain the king. Others maintain that Abner did make such an attempt, but in vain, and that his one sin consisted in that he delayed the beginning of David\'s reign over Israel by fighting him after Saul\'s death for two years and a half (Sanh. l.c.). Others, again, while excusing him for this---in view of a tradition founded on Gen. xlix. 27, according to which there were to be two kings of the house of Benjamin---blame Abner for having prevented a reconciliation between Saul and David on the occasion when the latter, in holding up the skirt of Saul\'s robe (I Sam. xxiv. 11), showed how unfounded was the king\'s mistrust of him. Saul was inclined to be pacified; but Abner, representing to him that David might have found the piece of the garment anywhere---possibly caught on a thorn---prevented the reconciliation (Yer. Peah, l.c., Lev. R. l.c., and elsewhere). Moreover, it was wrong in Abner to permit Israelitish youths to kill one another for sport (II Sam. ii. 14--16). No reproach, however, attaches to him for the death of Asahel, since Abner killed him in self-defense (Sanh. 49a).
It is characteristic of the rabbinical view of the Bible narratives that Abner, the warrior pure and simple, is styled \"Lion of the Law\" (Yer. Peah, l.c.), and that even a specimen is given of a halakic discussion between him and Doeg as to whether the law in Deut. xxiii. 3 excluded Ammonite and Moabite women from the Jewish community as well as men. Doeg was of the opinion that David, being descended from the Moabitess Ruth, was not fit to wear the crown, nor even to be considered a true Israelite; while Abner maintained that the law affected only the male line of descent. When Doeg\'s dialectics proved more than a match for those of Abner, the latter went to the prophet Samuel, who not only supported Abner in his view, but utterly refuted Doeg\'s assertions (Midr. Sam. xxii.; Yeb. 76b et seq.).
One of the most prominent families (Ẓiẓit ha-Kesat) in Jerusalem in the middle of the first century of the common era claimed descent from Abner (Gen. R. xcviii.).
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# Abner
## Tomb of Abner {#tomb_of_abner}
The site known as the Tomb of Abner is located not far from the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and receives visitors throughout the year. Many travelers have recorded visiting the tomb over the centuries. Benjamin of Tudela, who began his journeys in 1165, wrote in the journal, \"The valley of Eshkhol is north of the mountain upon which Hebron stood, and the cave of Makhpela is east thereof. A bow-shot west of the cave is the sepulchre of Abner the son of Ner.\"
A rabbi in the 12th century records visiting the tomb as reprinted in Elkan Nathan Adler\'s book *Jewish Travellers in the Middle Ages: 19 Firsthand Accounts*. The account states, \"I, Jacob, the son of R. Nathaniel ha Cohen, journeyed with much difficulty, but God helped me to enter the Holy Land, and I saw the graves of our righteous Patriarchs in Hebron and the grave of Abner the son of Ner.\" Adler postulates that the visit must have occurred prior to Saladin\'s capture of Jerusalem in 1187.
Rabbi Moses Basola records visiting the tomb in 1522. He states, \"Abner\'s grave is in the middle of Hebron; the Muslims built a mosque over it.\" Another visitor in the 1500s states that \"at the entrance to the market in Hebron, at the top of the hill against the wall, Abner ben Ner is buried, in a church, in a cave.\" This visit was recorded in Sefer Yihus ha-Tzaddiqim (Book of Genealogy of the Righteous), a collection of travelogues from 1561. Abraham Moshe Lunz reprinted the book in 1896.
Menahem Mendel of Kamenitz, considered the first hotelier in the Land of Israel, wrote about the Tomb of Abner is his 1839 book *Korot Ha-Itim*, which was translated into English as *The Book of the Occurrences of the Times to Jeshurun in the Land of Israel.* He states*, \"*Here I write of the graves of the righteous to which I paid my respects. Hebron -- Described above is the character and order of behavior of those coming to pray at the Cave of ha-Machpelah. I went there, between the stores, over the grave of Avner ben Ner and was required to pay a Yishmaeli -- the grave was in his courtyard -- to allow me to enter.\"
The author and traveler J. J. Benjamin mentioned visiting the tomb in his book *Eight Years in Asia and Africa* (1859, Hanover). He states, \"On leaving the Sepulchre of the Patriarchs, and proceeding on the road leading to the Jewish quarter, to the left of the courtyard, is seen a Turkish dwelling house, by the side of which is a small grotto, to which there is a descent of several steps. This is the tomb of Abner, captain of King Saul. It is held in much esteem by the Arabs, and the proprietor of it takes care that it is always kept in the best order. He requires from those who visit it a small gratuity.\"
The British scholar Israel Abrahams wrote in his 1912 book *The Book of Delight and Other Papers*, \"Hebron was the seat of David\'s rule over Judea. Abner was slain here by Joab, and was buried here -- they still show Abner\'s tomb in the garden of a large house within the city. By the pool at Hebron were slain the murderers of Ishbosheth\...\" Over the years the tomb fell into disrepair and neglect. It was closed to the public in 1994. In 1996, a group of 12 Israeli women filed a petition with the Supreme Court requesting the government to reopen the Tomb of Abner. More requests were made over the years and eventually arrangements were made to have the site open to the general public`{{dubious|a) The source is a biased blog; b) It says that JEWS are allowed in on 10 days o.t.y., not "the gen. public". Prove or amend.|date=August 2016}}`{=mediawiki} on ten days throughout the year corresponding to the ten days that the Isaac Hall of the Cave of the Patriarchs is open. In early 2007 new mezuzot were affixed to the entrance of the site.
## In popular culture {#in_popular_culture}
- 1960, *David and Goliath* (film) -- Abner is portrayed by Massimo Serato. In this version, Abner tries to murder David (Ivica Pajer) when he returns in triumph after killing Goliath. However, here Abner is slain by King Saul (Orson Welles).
- 1961, *A Story of David* (film) -- Abner is portrayed by Welsh actor David Davies.
- 1976, *The Story of David* (television series) -- Younger version of Abner is portrayed by Israeli actor Yehuda Efroni. Older version of Abner is portrayed by British actor Brian Blessed.
- 1985, *King David* (film) -- Abner is portrayed by English actor John Castle. King David portrayed by Richard Gere.
- 1997, *King David* (musical) -- written by Tim Rice and Alan Menken. Abner is portrayed by American actor Timothy Shew.
- 1997, *David* (television drama) -- Abner is portrayed by Richard Ashcroft.
- 2009, *Kings* (television series) -- Abner portrayed by Wes Studi as General Linus Abner. The series is set in a multi-ethnic Western culture similar to that in the present-day United States, but with characters drawn from the Bible.
- 2012, *Rei Davi* (Brazilian television series) -- Abner is portrayed by Iran Malfitano
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# Acropolis
thumb\|upright=1.5\|Acropolis of Athens in Athens, Greece An **acropolis** was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, yet nearly every Greek city had an acropolis of its own. Acropolises were used as religious centers and places of worship, forts, and places in which the royal and high-status resided. Acropolises became the nuclei of large cities of classical ancient times, and served as important centers of a community. Some well-known acropolises have become the centers of tourism in present-day, and they are a rich source of archaeological information of ancient Greece, especially, the Acropolis of Athens.
## Origin
An acropolis is defined by the Greek definition of *italic=no*, *akropolis*; from *akros* (*italic=no*) or *akron* (*italic=no*) meaning "highest; edge; extremity", and *polis* (*italic=no*) meaning "city." The plural of *acropolis* (*italic=no*) is *acropolises*, also commonly as *acropoleis* and *acropoles*, and *italic=no* in Greek. The term acropolis is also used to describe the central complex of overlapping structures, such as plazas and pyramids, in many Maya cities, including Tikal and Copán. Acropolis is also the term used by archaeologists and historians for the urban Castro culture settlements located in Northwestern Iberian hilltops.
It is primarily associated with the Greek cities of Athens, Argos (with Larisa), Thebes (with Cadmea), Corinth (with its Acrocorinth), and Rhodes (with its Acropolis of Lindos). It may also be applied generically to all such citadels including Rome, Carthage, Jerusalem, Celtic Bratislava, Asia Minor, or Castle Rock in Edinburgh. An example in Ireland is the Rock of Cashel. In Central Italy, many small rural communes still cluster at the base of a fortified habitation known as *rocca\]\]* of the commune. Other parts of the world have developed other names for the high citadel, or *\[\[alcázar\]\]*, which often have reinforced a naturally strong site. Because of this, many cultures have included acropolises in their societies, however, do not use the same name for them.
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# Acropolis
## Differing acropolises {#differing_acropolises}
The acropolis of a city was used in many ways, with regards to ancient time and through references. Because an acropolis was built at the highest part of a city, it served as a highly functional form of protection, a fortress, and was as well as a home to the royal of a city and a centre for religion through the worshipping of different gods. There have been many classical and ancient acropolises, including the most commonly-known, Acropolis of Athens, as well as the Tepecik Acropolis at Patara, Ankara Acropolis, Acropolis of La Blanca, Acropolis at the Maya Site in Guatemala, and the Acropolis at Halieis.
The most famous example is the Athenian Acropolis, which is a collection of structures featuring a citadel on the highest part of land in ancient (and modern-day) Athens, Greece. Many notable structures at the site were constructed in the 5th century BCE, including the Propylaea, Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena. The Temple is also commonly known as the Parthenon, which is derived from the divine Athena Parthenos. There were often dances, music and plays held at the acropolis, which it served as a community centre for the city of Athens. It became a prime tourist destination by the 2nd century AD during the Roman Empire and was known as \"the Greece of Greece,\" as coined by an unknown poet. Although originating in the mainland of Greece, use of the acropolis model quickly spread to Greek colonies such as the Dorian Lato on Crete during the Archaic Period.
The Tepecik Acropolis at Patara served as a harbor to nearby communities and naval forces, such as Antigonos I Monopthalmos and Demetrios Poliorketes, and combined land and sea. Its fortification wall and Bastion date back to the Classical period. The acropolis was constructed in the fourth century BCE by the Hekatomnids that ultimately led to its seizure in 334 BCE by Alexander the Great. The acropolis contributed significantly to the overall development that took place during the Hellenistic empires. This acropolis was the earliest place of settlement, probably dating back to the third millennium BCE. During excavations that took place in 1989, ceramic items, terracotta figurines, coins, bone and stone objects were found that date to the fourth century BCE. The fortification wall and bastion that are built at this acropolis uses a style of masonry, commonly known as the Greek word *italic=no* (meaning \"woven\"). This style of masonry was likely used for weight-bearing purposes.
The Acropolis at Halieis dates back to the Neolithic and Classical periods. It included a fortified wall, sanctuary of Apollo (two temples, an altar, a race course), and necropolis (cemetery). This acropolis was the highest point of fortification on the south edge at Halieis. There was a small open-air cult space, including an altar and monuments.
The Ankara Acropolis, which was set in modern-day Turkey, is a historically prominent space that has changed over time through the urban development of the country from the Phrygian period. This acropolis was well known as a spot for holy worshipping, and was symbolic of the time. It has also been a place that has historically recognized the legislative changes that Turkey has faced.
The Acropolis of La Blanca was created in Guatemala as a small ancient Maya settlement and archaeological site that is located adjacent to the Salsipuedes River. This acropolis developed as a place of residence for the city of La Blanca\'s rulers. Its main period of usage was during the Classical period of 600 AD to 850 AD, as the city developed as a commercial place of trade among a number of nearby settlements.
The Mayan Acropolis site in Guatemala included a burial site and vaulted tombs of the highest status royal. This funerary structure was integrated into this sacred landscape, and illustrated the prosperity of power between the royal figures of Pedras Negras in Guatemala.
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# Acropolis
## Modern-day uses {#modern_day_uses}
### Tourism
Acropolises today have become the epicenters of tourism and attraction sites in many modern-day Greek cities. The Athenian Acropolis, in particular, is the most famous, and has the best vantage point in Athens, Greece. Today, tourists can purchase tickets to visit the Athenian Acropolis, including walking, sightseeing, and bus tours, as well as a classic Greek dinner.
### Cultural ties {#cultural_ties}
Because of its classical Hellenistic and Greco-Roman style, the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistrano\'s Great Stone Church in California, United States has been called an American Acropolis. The civilization developed its religious, educational, and cultural aspects of the acropolis, and is used today as a location that holds events, such as operas.
The neighborhood of Morningside Heights in New York City is commonly referred to as the \"Academic Acropolis\" due to its high elevation and the concentration of educational institutions in the area, including Columbia University and its affiliates, Barnard College, Teachers College, Union Theological Seminary and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Manhattan School of Music; Bank Street College of Education; and New York Theological Seminary. The analogy is also aided by the neoclassical architecture of the Columbia University campus, which was designed by McKim, Mead & White in the early 20th century.
### Excavations
Much of the modern-day uses of acropolises have been discovered through excavations that have developed over the course of many years. For example, the Athenian Acropolis includes a Great Temple that holds the Parthenon, a specific space for ancient worship. Through today\'s findings and research, the Parthenon treasury is able to be recognized as the west part of the structure (the Erechtheion), as well as the Parthenon itself. Most excavations have been able to provide archaeologists with samples of pottery, ceramics, and vessels. The excavation of the Acropolis of Halieis produced remains that provided context that dated the Acropolis at Halieis from the Final Neolithic period through the first Early Helladic period
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# Aga Khan I
**Prince Hasan Ali Shah** (*translit=Ḥasan ʿAlī Shāh*; 1804 -- 12 April 1881), known as **Aga Khan I** (*translit=Āqā Khān Awwal*), was the 46th hereditary imam of the Nizari Isma\'ilis. He served as the governor of Kerman and a prominent leader in Iran and later in the Indian subcontinent. He was the first Nizari imam to hold the title Aga Khan.
## Early life and family {#early_life_and_family}
Hasan Ali Shah was born in 1804 in Kahak, Iran to Shah Khalil Allah III, the 45th Ismaili Imam, and Bibi Sarkara, the daughter of Muhammad Sadiq Mahallati (d. 1815), a poet and a Ni'mat Allahi Sufi. Shah Khalil Allah moved to Yazd in 1815, probably out of concern for his Indian followers, who used to travel to Persia to see their Imam and for whom Yazd was a much closer and safer destination than Kahak. Meanwhile, his wife and children (Including Hasan Ali) continued to live in Kahak off the revenues obtained from the family holdings in the Mahallat (*Maḥallāt*) region. Two years later, in 1817, Shah Khalil Allah was killed in Yazd during a brawl between some of his followers and local shopkeepers. He was succeeded by his eldest son Hasan Ali Shah, also known as Muhammad Hasan, who became the 46th Imam.
While Khalil Allah resided in Yazd, his land holdings in Kahak were being managed by his son-in-law, Imani Khan Farahani, husband of his daughter Shah Bibi. After Khalil Allah\'s death, a conflict ensued between Imani Khan Farahani and the local Nizaris (followers of Imam Khalil Allah), as a result of which Khalil Allah\'s widow and children found themselves left unprovided for. The young Imam and his mother moved to Qumm, but their financial situation worsened. The dowager decided to go to the Qajar court in Tehran to obtain justice for her husband\'s death and was eventually successful. Those who had been involved in the Shah Khalil Allah\'s murder were punished. Not only that, but the Persian king Fath Ali Shah gave his own daughter, princess Sarv-i-Jahan Khanum, in marriage to the young Imam Hasan Ali Shah and provided a princely dowry in land holdings in the Mahallat region. King Fath Ali Shah also appointed Hasan Ali Shah as governor of Qumm and bestowed upon him the honorific of \"Aga Khan\". Thus did the title of \"Aga Khan\" enter the family. Hasan Ali Shah become known as Aga Khan Mahallati, and the title of Aga Khan was inherited by his successors. Aga Khan I\'s mother later moved to India where she died in 1851. Until Fath Ali Shah\'s death in 1834, the Imam Hasan Ali Shah enjoyed a quiet life and was held in high esteem at the Qajar court.
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# Aga Khan I
## Governorship of Kerman {#governorship_of_kerman}
Soon after the accession of Muhammad Shah Qajar to the throne of his grandfather, Fath Ali Shah, Hasan Ali Shah was appointed governor of Kerman in 1835. At the time, Kerman was held by the rebellious sons of Shuja al-Saltana, a pretender to the Qajar throne. The region witnessed frequently raids by the Afghans. Hasan Ali Shah managed to restore order in Kerman, as well as in Bam and Narmashir, which were also held by rebellious groups. Hasan Ali Shah sent a report of his success to Tehran, but did not receive any material appreciation for his achievements.
Despite the service he rendered to the Qajar government, Hasan Ali Shah was dismissed from the governorship of Kerman in 1837, less than two years after his arrival there, and was replaced by Firuz Mirza Nusrat al-Dawla, a younger brother of Muhammad Shah Qajar. Refusing to accept his dismissal, Hasan Ali Shah withdrew with his forces to the citadel at Bam. Along with his two brothers, he made preparations to resist the government forces that were sent against him. He was besieged at Bam for some fourteen months. When it was clear that continuing the resistance was of little use, Hasan Ali Shah sent one of his brothers to Shiraz in order to speak to the governor of Fars to intervene on his behalf and arrange for safe passage out of Kerman. With the governor having interceded, Hasan Ali Shah surrendered and emerged from the citadel of Bam only to be double-crossed. He was seized and his possessions were plundered by the government troops. Hasan Ali Shah and his dependents were sent to Kerman and remained as prisoners there for eight months. He was eventually allowed to go to Tehran near the end of 1838-39 where he was able to present his case before the Shah. The Shah pardoned him on the condition that he return peacefully to Mahallat. Hasan Ali Shah remained in Mahallat for about two years. He managed to gather an army in Mahallat which alarmed Muhammad Shah, who travelled to Delijan near Mahallat to determine the truth of the reports about Hasan Ali Shah. Hasan Ali Shah was on a hunting trip at the time, but he sent a messenger to request permission of the monarch to go to Mecca for the hajj pilgrimage. Permission was given, and Hasan Ali Shah\'s mother and a few relatives were sent to Najaf and other holy cities in Iraq in which the shrines of his ancestors, the Shiite Imams are found.
Prior to leaving Mahallat, Hasan Ali Shah equipped himself with letters appointing him to the governorship of Kerman. Accompanied by his brothers, nephews and other relatives, as well as many followers, he left for Yazd, where he intended to meet some of his local followers. Hasan Ali Shah sent the documents reinstating him to the position of governor of Kerman to Bahman Mirza Baha al-Dawla, the governor of Yazd. Bahman Mirza offered Hasan Ali Shah lodging in the city, but Hasan Ali Shah declined, indicating that he wished to visit his followers living around Yazd. Hajji Mirza Aqasi sent a messenger to Bahman Mirza to inform him of the spuriousness of Hasan Ali Shah\'s documents and a battle between Bahman Mīrzā and Hasan Ali Shah broke out in which Bahman Mirza was defeated. Other minor battles were won by Hasan Ali Shah before he arrived in Shahr-e Babak, which he intended to use as his base for capturing Kerman. At the time of his arrival in Shahr-e Babak, a formal local governor was engaged in a campaign to drive out the Afghans from the city\'s citadel, and Hasan Ali Shah joined him in forcing the Afghans to surrender.
Soon after March 1841, Hasan Ali Shah set out for Kerman. He managed to defeat a government force consisting of 4,000 men near Dashtab, and continued to win a number of victories before stopping at Bam for a time. Soon, a government force of 24,000 men forced Hasan Ali Shah to flee from Bam to Rigan on the border of Baluchistan, where he suffered a decisive defeat. Hasan Ali Shah decided to escape to Afghanistan, accompanied by his brothers and many soldiers and servants.
## Afghanistan
Fleeing Iran, Hasan Ali Shah arrived in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1841 -- a town that had been occupied by an Anglo-Indian army in 1839 in the First Anglo-Afghan War. A close relationship developed between Hasan Ali Shah and the British, which coincided with the final years of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838--1842). After his arrival, Hasan Ali Shah wrote to Sir William Macnaghten, discussing his plans to seize and govern Herat on behalf of the British. Although the proposal seemed to have been approved, the plans of the British were thwarted by the uprising of Dost Muhammad\'s son Muhammad Akbar Khan, who defeated and annihilated the British-Indian garrison at Gandamak on its retreat from Kabul in January 1842.
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## Sindh
Hasan Ali Shah soon proceeded to Sindh, where he rendered further services to the British. The British were able to annex Sindh and for his services, Hasan Ali Shah received an annual pension of £2,000 from General Charles James Napier, the British conqueror of Sindh, with whom he had a good relationship.
## Bombay
In October 1844, Hasan Ali Shah left Sindh for the city of Bombay in the Bombay Presidency, British India passing through Cutch and Kathiawar where he spent some time visiting the communities of his followers in the area. After arriving in Bombay in February 1846, the Persian government demanded his extradition from India. The British refused and only agreed to transfer Hasan Ali Shah\'s residence to Calcutta, where it would be harder for him to launch new attacks against the Persian government. The British also negotiated the safe return of Hasan Ali Shah to Persia, which was in accordance with his own wish. The government agreed to Hasan Ali Shah\'s return provided that he would avoid passing through Baluchistan and Kirman and that he was to settle peacefully in Mahallat. Hasan Ali Shah was eventually forced to leave for Calcutta in April 1847, where he remained until he received news of the death of Muhammad Shah Qajar. Hasan Ali Shah left for Bombay and the British attempted to obtain permission for his return to Persia. Although some of his lands were restored to the control of his relatives, his safe return could not be arranged, and Hasan Ali Shah was forced to remain a permanent resident of India. While in India, Hasan Ali Shah continued his close relationship with the British, and was even visited by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) when he was on a state visit to India. The British came to address Hasan Ali Shah as His Highness. Hasan Ali Shah received protection from the British government in British India as the spiritual head of an important Muslim community.
## Khoja reassumption and dispute {#khoja_reassumption_and_dispute}
The vast majority of his Khoja Ismaili followers in India welcomed him warmly, but some dissident members, sensing their loss of prestige with the arrival of the Imam, wished to maintain control over communal properties. Because of this, Hasan Ali Shah decided to secure a pledge of loyalty from the members of the community to himself and to the Ismaili form of Islam. Although most of the members of the community signed a document issued by Hasan Ali Shah summarizing the practices of the Ismailis, a group of dissenting Khojas surprisingly asserted that the community had always been Sunni. This group was outcast by the unanimous vote of all the Khojas assembled in Bombay. In 1866, these dissenters filed a suit in the Bombay High Court against Hasan Ali Shah, claiming that the Khojas had been Sunni Muslims from the very beginning. The case, commonly referred to as the Aga Khan Case, was heard by Sir Joseph Arnould. The hearing lasted several weeks, and included testimony from Hasan Ali Shah himself. After reviewing the history of the community, Justice Arnould gave a definitive and detailed judgement against the plaintiffs and in favour of Hasan Ali Shah and other defendants. The judgement was significant in that it legally established the status of the Khojas as a community referred to as Shia Nizari Ismailis, and of Hasan Ali Shah as the spiritual head of that community. Hasan Ali Shah\'s authority thereafter was not seriously challenged again.
## Final years {#final_years}
Hasan Ali Shah spent his final years in Bombay with occasional visits to Pune. Maintaining the traditions of the Iranian nobility to which he belonged, he kept excellent stables and became a well-known figure at the Bombay racecourse. Hasan Ali Shah died after an imamate of sixty-four years in April 1881. He was buried in a specially built shrine at Hasanabad in the Mazagaon area of Bombay. He was survived by three sons and five daughters. Hasan Ali Shah was succeeded as Imam by his eldest son Aqa Ali Shah, who became Aga Khan II.
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# Aga Khan I
## Titles and honours {#titles_and_honours}
The titles *Prince* and *Princess* are used by the Aga Khans and their children by virtue of their descent from Shah Fath Ali Shah of the Persian Qajar dynasty. The princely title was officially recognised by the British government to the entire family of the Aga Khan in 1938.
The title of \'His Highness\' was initially granted by the British Monarch to the Ismaili Imams dating back in mid 1800s, to the first Aga Khan, in recognition as a religious leader of global importance and his role as spiritual head of the Ismaili community resides in Commonwealth countries
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# Aga Khan III
**Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah** (2 November 1877`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}11 July 1957), known as **Aga Khan III**, was the 48th imam of the Nizari Ism\'aili branch of Shia Islam. He was one of the founders and the first permanent president of the All-India Muslim League (AIML).
His goal was the advancement of Muslim agendas and the protection of Muslim rights in British India. The League, until the late 1930s, was not a large organisation but represented landed and commercial Muslim interests as well as advocating for British education during the British Raj. Shah advocated for the recognition of Muslims in India as a distinct political and cultural community, a position that would later align with the principles underlying the two-nation theory. Even after he resigned as president of the AIML in 1912, he still exerted a major influence on its policies and agendas. He was nominated to represent India at the League of Nations in 1932 and served as President of the 18th Assembly of The League of Nations (1937--1938).
## Early life {#early_life}
He was born in Karachi, Sindh (now in Pakistan), in 1877 under the British Raj, to Aga Khan II (who had emigrated from Persia) and his third wife, Nawab A\'lia Shamsul-Muluk, a granddaughter of Fath Ali Shah of Persia. After attending Eton College, he studied at the University of Cambridge.
## Career
In 1885, at the age of seven, he succeeded his father as Imam of the Shi\'a Isma\'ili Muslims. The title of the Knight Commander of the Indian Empire (KCIE) was conferred upon him by Queen Victoria in 1897, and he was promoted to Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list and invested as such by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on October 24, 1902. He was made a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (GCSI) by George V (1912) and appointed a GCMG in 1923. He received recognition for his public services from the German Emperor, the Sultan of Turkey, the Shah of Persia, and other potentates.
In 1906, Shah was a founding member and first president of the All India Muslim League, a political party that pushed for the creation of an independent Muslim nation in the north-west regions of India, then under British colonial rule, and later established the country of Pakistan in 1947.
During the three Round Table Conferences (India) in London from 1930 to 1932, he played an important role in bringing about Indian constitutional reforms. In 1934, he was made a member of the Privy Council.
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# Aga Khan III
## Imamat
The first half of the 20th century was a period of significant development for the Ismā\'īlī community. Numerous institutions for social and economic development were established in the Indian subcontinent and in East Africa. Ismaili communities have marked the jubilees of their Imāms with public commemorations. These events, while not religious observances, have often been accompanied by the establishment or expansion of community institutions in areas such as health, education, and economic development.
Shah commemorated three ceremonial jubilees during his tenure as Imam of the Nizari Ismaili community: the Golden Jubilee in 1937, the Diamond Jubilee in 1946, and the Platinum Jubilee in 1954. These events included ritual weighings of the Imam in gold, diamonds, and platinum (the latter symbolically). The material proceeds were directed toward funding institutions and initiatives, primarily in health, education, and social welfare, in various regions including Asia and Africa.
In India and later in Pakistan, social development institutions were established. They included institutions such as the Diamond Jubilee Trust and Platinum Jubilee Investments Limited, which in turn assisted the growth of various types of cooperative societies. *Diamond Jubilee High School for Girls* was established throughout the remote northern areas of what is now Pakistan. In addition, scholarship programmes, established at the time of the Golden Jubilee to give assistance to needy students, were progressively expanded. In East Africa, major social welfare and economic development institutions were established. Those involved in social welfare included the accelerated development of schools and community centres and a hospital in Nairobi. Among the economic development institutions established in East Africa were companies such as the Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust (now Diamond Trust of Kenya) and the Jubilee Insurance Company, which are quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and have become major players in national development.
Shah implemented a series of organisational reforms intended to enable Ismāʿīlī communities to administer their own communal affairs through formal structures and regulations. These were built on the Muslim tradition of a communitarian ethic on the one hand and a responsible individual conscience with the freedom to negotiate one\'s own moral commitment and destiny on the other. In 1905, he ordained the first Ismā\'īlī Constitution for the social governance of the community in East Africa. The new administration for the community\'s affairs was organised into a hierarchy of councils at the local, national, and regional levels. The constitution also set out rules in such matters as marriage, divorce, and inheritance, guidelines for mutual cooperation and support among Ismā\'īlīs, and their interface with other communities. Similar constitutions were promulgated in India, and all were periodically revised to address emerging needs and circumstances in diverse settings.
In 1905, Shah was involved in the Haji Bibi case, where he was questioned about the origin of his followers. In his rejoinder, in addition to enumerating his followers in Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Syria and other places, he also noted that "In Hindustan and Africa there are many Guptis who believe in me... I consider them Shi'i Imami Ismailis; by caste they are Hindus".
Following the Second World War, far-reaching social, economic and political changes profoundly affected a number of areas where Ismāʿīlīs resided. In 1947, British rule in the Indian Subcontinent was replaced by the sovereign, independent nations of India, Pakistan and later Bangladesh, resulting in the migration of millions people and significant loss of life and property. In the Middle East, the Suez crisis of 1956 as well as the preceding crisis in Iran, demonstrated the sharp upsurge of nationalism, which was as indicative of the region\'s social and economic aspirations as of its political independence. Africa was also set on its course to decolonisation, swept by what Harold Macmillan, the then British prime minister, termed the \"wind of change\". By the early 1960s, most of East and Central Africa, where the majority of the Ismāʿīlī population on the continent resided, including Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire, had attained their political independence.
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# Aga Khan III
## Religious and social views {#religious_and_social_views}
Shah was deeply influenced by the views of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan. Sir Khan was the founder of what would eventually become the Aligarh Muslim University. Shah later became a supporter of the institution, contributing funds and advocating for its role in Muslim education. Shah himself can be considered an Islamic modernist and an intellectual of the Aligarh movement.
From a religious perspective, the Aga Khan followed a modernist approach to Islam. He believed there to be no contradiction between religion and modernity, and supported Muslims in their endeavour to embrace modernity. Although he opposed a wholesale replication of Western society by Muslims, Shah did believe increased contact with the West would be overall beneficial to Muslim society. He was intellectually receptive to Western philosophy and ideas, and believed engagement with them could lead to a revival and renaissance within Islamic thought.
Like several other Islamic modernists of his time, Shah was critical of the traditional religious establishment (the Ulamā), particularly their emphasis on formalism, legalism, and literal interpretations of scripture. Instead, he advocated for renewed ijtihād (independent reasoning) and ijmāʿ (consensus), the latter of which he understood in a modernist way to mean consensus-building. According to him, Muslims should go back to the original sources, especially the Qurʾān, in order to discover the true essence and spirit of Islam. Once the principles of the faith were discovered, they would be seen to be universal and modern. Islam, in his view, had an underlying liberal and democratic spirit. He also called for full civil and religious liberties, peace and disarmament, and an end to all wars.
Shah opposed sectarianism, which he believed sapped the strength and unity of the Muslim community. In specific, he called for a rapprochement between Sunnism and Shīʿism. This view did not imply a belief that religious distinctions would disappear; he continued to emphasize the importance of doctrinal commitment, instructing his Ismāʿīlī followers to remain dedicated to their own teachings. However, he believed in unity through accepting diversity, and by respecting differences of opinion. On his view, there was strength to be found in the diversity of Muslim traditions.
He called for social reform in Muslim society, and he was able to implement them within his own Ismāʿīlī community. Shah argued that Islamic principles supported social justice and the alleviation of poverty, and he advocated for efforts aimed at reducing economic inequality. Like Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Shah was concerned that Muslims had fallen behind the Hindu community in terms of education. He was an advocate for compulsory and universal primary education, and also for the creation of higher institutions of learning.
In terms of women\'s rights, Shah was more progressive in his views than Sir Sayyid and many other Islamic modernists of his time. Shah advocated for women\'s rights not solely on the basis of their roles as mothers or wives, but as a matter of individual empowerment and social equity. He endorsed the spiritual equality of men and women in Islam, and he also called for full political equality. This included the right to vote and the right to an education. In regards to the latter issue, he endorsed compulsory primary education for girls. He also encouraged women to pursue higher university-level education, and saw nothing wrong with co-educational institutions. Whereas Sir Sayyid prioritized the education of boys over girls, Shah instructed his followers that if they had a son and daughter, and if they could only afford to send one of them to school, they should send the daughter over the boy.
Shah campaigned against the institution of purda and zenāna, which he felt were oppressive and un-Islamic institutions. He completely banned the purda and the face veil for his Ismāʿīlī followers. Shah also restricted polygamy in his community, encouraged marriage to widows, and banned child marriage. He also made marriage and divorce laws more equitable to women.
Today, the Ismāʿīlī community maintains a network of institutions focused on education, healthcare, and economic development, many of which were established during or after the tenure of Shah.
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# Aga Khan III
## Racehorse ownership and equestrianism {#racehorse_ownership_and_equestrianism}
He was an owner of Thoroughbred racing horses, including a record equaling five winners of The Derby (Blenheim, Bahram, Mahmoud, My Love, Tulyar) and a total of sixteen winners of British Classic Races. Shah was a British flat racing Champion Owner thirteen times. According to Ben Pimlott, biographer of Queen Elizabeth II, Shah presented the British monarch with a filly called *Astrakhan*, who won at Hurst Park Racecourse in 1950.
In 1926, Shah gave a cup (the Aga Khan Trophy) to be awarded to the winners of an international team show jumping competition held at the annual horse show of the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin, Ireland, every first week in August. It attracts competitors from all of the main show jumping nations and is carried live on Irish national television.
## Marriages and children {#marriages_and_children}
- He married, on November 2, 1896, in Pune, India, Shahzadi Begum, his first cousin and a granddaughter of Aga Khan I.
- He married in 1908, Cleope Teresa Magliano (1888--1926). They had two sons: Prince Giuseppe Mahdi Khan (d. February 1911) and Prince Aly Khan (1911--1960). She died in 1926, following an operation on December 1, 1926.
- He married, on 7 December 1929 (civil), in Aix-les-Bains, France, and 13 December 1929 (religious), in Bombay, India, Andrée Joséphine Carron (1898--1976). A co-owner of a dressmaking shop in Paris, she became known as Princess Andrée Aga Khan. By this marriage, he had one son, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (1933--2003). The couple was divorced in 1943.
- He married, on October 9, 1944, in Geneva, Switzerland, Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan (Yvonne Blanche Labrousse) (15 February 1906`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}1 July 2000). According to an interview she gave to an Egyptian journalist, her first name was Yvonne, though she is referred to as Yvette in most published references. The daughter of a tram conductor and a dressmaker, she was working as Aga Khan\'s social secretary at the time of their marriage. She converted to Islam and became known as *Om Habibeh* (Little Mother of the Beloved). In 1954, her husband bestowed upon her the title \"Mata Salamat\".
### Publications
He authored several books and papers, including India in Transition (1918), which addresses the political conditions in pre-Partition India, and his autobiography, The Memoirs of Aga Khan: World Enough and Time (1954). In his book India in Transition, Shah proposed the idea of a South Asiatic Federation in which India would be reorganized into autonomous states within a federal framework. His proposal was among the early detailed plans advocating federalism in colonial India.
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# Aga Khan III
## Death and succession {#death_and_succession}
Shah was succeeded by his grandson, Karim al-Husseini, who became the 49th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims and assumed the title Aga Khan IV. At the time of his death on 11 July 1957, he was surrounded by his family members in Versoix. His last words were repeating the verses of the Quran.
On July 12, a solicitor brought Shah\'s will from London to Geneva and read it before the family:
> \"Ever since the time of my ancestor Ali, the first Imam, that is to say over a period of thirteen hundred years, it has always been the tradition of our family that each Imam chooses his successor at his absolute and unfettered discretion from amongst any of his descendants, whether they be sons or remote male issue and in these circumstances and in view of the fundamentally altered conditions in the world in very recent years due to the great changes which have taken place including the discoveries of atomic science, I am convinced that it is in the best interest of the Shia Muslim Ismailia Community that I should be succeeded by a young man who has been brought up and developed during recent years and in the midst of the new age and who brings a new outlook on life to his office as Imam.\
> For these reasons, I appoint my grandson Karim, the son of my own son, Aly Salomone Khan to succeed to the title of Aga Khan and to the Imam and Pir of all Shia Ismailian followers.\
> I desire that my successor shall, during the first seven years of his Imamat, be guided on questions of general Imamat Policy, by my said wife, Yvette called Yve Blanche Labrousse Om Habibeh, the Begum Aga Khan, who has been familiar for many years with the problems facing my followers, and in whose wise judgment, I place the greatest confidence. I warn my successor to the Imamat, never to do anything during his Imamat that would reduce the responsibility of the Imam for the maintenance of the true Shia Imami Ismaili faith, as developed historically from the time of my ancestor Ali, the founder until my own.\"
He is buried in the Mausoleum of Aga Khan, on the Nile in Aswan, Egypt (at 24.088254 32.878722).
## Legacy
Pakistan Post issued a special \'Birth Centenary of Agha Khan III\' postage stamp in his honor in 1977. Pakistan Post again issued a postage stamp in his honor in its \'Pioneers of Freedom\' series in 1990.
## Honours
- 21 May 1898 Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, KCIE
- 1901 First Class of the Royal Prussian Order of the Crown -- *in recognition of the valuable services rendered by His Highness to the Imperial German Government in the settlement of various matters with the Mohammedan population of German East Africa*
- 26 June 1902 Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, GCIE
- 12 December 1911 Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India, GCSI
- 30 May 1923 Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, GCVO -- *on the occasion of the King\'s birthday*
- 1 January 1934 Appointed a member of His Majesty\'s Most Honourable Privy Council by King George V
- 1 January 1955 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, GCMG --
- 14 November 1960 Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator, GCIH
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# Agasias
**Agasias** was the name of several people in classical history, including two Greek sculptors.
- Agasias of Arcadia, a warrior mentioned by Xenophon
- Agasias, son of Dositheus, Ephesian sculptor of the Borghese Gladiator
- Agasias, son of Menophilus (`{{fl.|probably c
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# Agathon
**Agathon** (`{{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|g|ə|θ|ɒ|n}}`{=mediawiki}; *Ἀγάθων\]\]*; c. 448) was an Athenian tragic poet whose works have been lost. He is best known for his appearance in Plato\'s *Symposium,* which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for his first tragedy at the Lenaia in 416. He is also a prominent character in Aristophanes\' comedy the *Thesmophoriazusae*.
## Life and career {#life_and_career}
Agathon was the son of Tisamenus, and the lover of Pausanias, with whom he appears in both the *Symposium* and Plato\'s *Protagoras*. Together with Pausanias, around 407 BC he moved to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedon, who was recruiting playwrights; it is here that he probably died around 401 BC. Agathon introduced certain innovations into the Greek theater: Aristotle tells us in the *Poetics* (1451^b^21) that the characters and plot of his *Anthos* were original and not, following Athenian dramatic orthodoxy, borrowed from mythological or historical subjects. Agathon was also the first playwright to write choral parts which were apparently independent from the main plot of his plays.
Agathon is portrayed by Plato as a handsome young man, well dressed, of polished manners, courted by the fashion, wealth, and wisdom of Athens, and dispensing hospitality with ease and refinement. The epideictic speech in praise of love which Agathon recites in the *Symposium* is full of beautiful but artificial rhetorical expressions, and has led some scholars to believe he may have been a student of Gorgias. In the *Symposium,* Agathon is presented as the friend of the comic poet Aristophanes, but this alleged friendship did not prevent Aristophanes from harshly criticizing Agathon in at least two of his comic plays: the *Thesmophoriazousae* and the (now lost) *Gerytades*. In the later play *Frogs*, Aristophanes softens his criticisms, but even so, it may be only for the sake of punning on Agathon\'s name (ἁγαθός \"good\") that he makes Dionysus call him a \"good poet\".
Agathon was also a friend of Euripides, another recruit to the court of Archelaus of Macedon.
## Physical appearance {#physical_appearance}
Agathon\'s extraordinary physical beauty is brought up repeatedly in the sources; the historian W. Rhys Roberts observes that \"ὁ καλός Ἀγάθων (*ho kalos Agathon*) has become almost a stereotyped phrase.\" The most detailed surviving description of Agathon is in the *Thesmophoriazousae,* in which Agathon appears as a pale, clean-shaven young man dressed in women\'s clothes. Scholars are unsure how much of Aristophanes\' portrayal is fact and how much mere comic invention.
After a close reading of the *Thesmophoriazousae,* the historian Jane McIntosh Snyder observed that Agathon\'s costume was almost identical to that of the famous lyric poet Anacreon, as he is portrayed in early 5th-century vase-paintings. Snyder theorizes that Agathon might have made a deliberate effort to mimic the sumptuous attire of his famous fellow poet, although by Agathon\'s time, such clothing, especially the κεκρύφαλος (*kekryphalos*, an elaborate covering for the hair) had long fallen out of fashion for men. According to this interpretation, Agathon is mocked in the *Thesmophoriazousae* not only for his notorious effeminacy, but also for the pretentiousness of his dress: \"he seems to think of himself, in all his elegant finery, as a rival to the old Ionian poets, perhaps even to Anacreon himself.\"
## Plato\'s epigram {#platos_epigram}
Agathon is the subject of an epigram attributed to Plato:
> τὴν ψυχὴν Ἀγάθωνα φιλῶν ἐπὶ χείλεσιν εἶχον· ἦλθε γὰρ ἡ τλήμων ὡς διαβησομένη.
One translation reads:
> My soul was on my lips as I was kissing Agathon. Poor soul! she came hoping to cross over to him.
The epigram was probably not composed by Plato. Stylistic evidence suggests that the poem (with most of Plato\'s other alleged epigrams) was actually written sometime after Plato had died: its form is that of the Hellenistic erotic epigram, which did not become popular until after 300 BC. According to 20th-century scholar Walther Ludwig, the poems were spuriously inserted into an early biography of Plato sometime between 250 BC and 100 BC and adopted by later writers from this source. It is unlikely Plato would write a love epigram about Agathon, who was approximately twenty years older than he.
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# Agathon
## Known plays {#known_plays}
Of Agathon\'s plays, only six titles and thirty-one fragments have survived:
- *Aerope*
- *Alcmeon*
- *Anthos* or *Antheus* (\"The Flower\")
- *Mysoi* (\"Mysians\")
- *Telephos* (\"Telephus\")
- *Thyestes*
Fragments in A Nauck, *Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta* (1887)
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# Agesilaus II
**Agesilaus II** (`{{IPAc-en|ə|ˌ|dʒ|ɛ|s|ə|ˈ|l|eɪ|ə|s}}`{=mediawiki}; *Ἀγησίλαος* `{{transliteration|grc|Agēsílāos}}`{=mediawiki}; 445/4 -- 360/59 BC) was king of Sparta from c. 400 to c. 360 BC. Generally considered the most important king in the history of Sparta, Agesilaus was the main actor during the period of Spartan hegemony that followed the Peloponnesian War (431--404 BC). Although brave in combat, Agesilaus lacked the diplomatic skills to preserve Sparta\'s position, especially against the rising power of Thebes, which reduced Sparta to a secondary power after its victory at Leuctra in 371 BC.
Despite the traditional secrecy fostered by the Spartiates, the reign of Agesilaus is particularly well-known thanks to the works of his friend Xenophon, who wrote a large history of Greece (the *Hellenica*) covering the years 411 to 362 BC, therefore extensively dealing with Agesilaus\' rule. Xenophon furthermore composed a panegyric biography of his friend, perhaps to clean his memory from the criticisms voiced against him. Another historical tradition---much more hostile to Agesilaus than Xenophon\'s writings---has been preserved in the *Hellenica Oxyrhynchia*, and later continued by Diodorus of Sicily. Moreover, Plutarch wrote a biography of Agesilaus in his *Parallel Lives*, which contains many elements deliberately omitted by Xenophon.
## Early life {#early_life}
### Youth
Agesilaus\' father was King Archidamos II (r. 469--427), who belonged to the Eurypontid dynasty, one of the two royal families of Sparta. Archidamos already had a son from a first marriage with Lampito (his own step-aunt) named Agis. After the death of Lampito, Archidamos remarried in the early 440s with Eupolia, daughter of Melesippidas, whose name indicates an aristocratic status. The dates of Agesilaus\' birth, death, and reign are disputed. The only secured information is that he was 84 at his death. The majority opinion is to date his birth to 445/4, but a minority of scholars move it a bit later, c.442. Most of the other dates of Agesilaus are similarly disputed, with the minority moving them about two years later than the majority. Agesilaus also had a sister named Kyniska (the first woman in ancient history to achieve an Olympic victory). The name Agesilaus was rare and harks back to Agesilaus I, one of the earliest kings of Sparta.
Agesilaus was born lame, a fact that should have cost him his life, since in Sparta deformed babies were thrown into a chasm. As he was not heir-apparent, he might have received some leniency from the tribal elders who examined male infants, or perhaps the first effects of the demographic decline of Sparta were already felt at the time, and only the most severely impaired babies were killed.
Starting at the age of 7, Agesilaus had to go through the rigorous education system of Sparta, called the *agoge*. Despite his disability, he brilliantly completed the training, which massively enhanced his prestige, especially after he became king. Indeed, as heirs-apparent were exempted of the *agoge*, few Spartan kings had gone through the same training as the citizens; another notable exception was Leonidas, the embodiment of the \"hero-king\". Between 433 and 428, Agesilaus also became the younger lover of Lysander, an aristocrat from the circle of Archidamos, whose family had some influence in Libya.
### Spartan prince {#spartan_prince}
Little is known of Agesilaus\' adult life before his reign, principally because Xenophon---his friend and main biographer---only wrote about his reign. Due to his special status, Agesilaus likely became a member of the Krypteia, an elite corps of young Spartans going undercover in Spartan territory to kill some helots deemed dangerous. Once he turned 20 and became a full citizen, Agesilaus was elected to a common mess, presumably that of his elder half-brother Agis II, who had become king in 427, of which Lysander was perhaps a member.
Agesilaus probably served during the Peloponnesian War (431--404) against Athens, likely at the Battle of Mantinea in 418. Agesilaus married Kleora at some point between 408 and 400. Despite the influence she apparently had on her husband, she is mostly unknown. Her father was Aristomenidas, an influential noble with connections in Thebes.
Thanks to three treaties signed with Persia in 412--411, Sparta received funding from the Persians, which it used to build a fleet that ultimately defeated Athens. This fleet was essentially led by Lysander, whose success gave him an enormous influence in the Greek cities of Asia as well as in Sparta, where he even schemed to become king. In 403 the two kings, Agis and Pausanias, acted together to relieve him from his command.
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# Agesilaus II
## Reign
### Accession to the throne (400--398 BC) {#accession_to_the_throne_400398_bc}
Agis II died while returning from Delphi between 400 and 398. After his funeral, Agesilaus contested the claim of Leotychidas, the son of Agis II, using the widespread belief in Sparta that Leotychidas was an illegitimate son of Alcibiades---a famous Athenian statesman and nephew of Pericles, who had gone into exile in Sparta during the Peloponnesian War, and then seduced the queen. The rumours were strengthened by the fact that even Agis only recognised Leotychidas as his son on his deathbed.
Diopeithes, a supporter of Leotychidas, however quoted an old oracle telling that a Spartan king could not be lame, thus refuting Agesilaus\' claim, but Lysander cunningly returned the objection by saying that the oracle had to be understood figuratively. The lameness warned against by the oracle would therefore refer to the doubt on Leotychidas\' paternity, and this reasoning won the argument. The role of Lysander in the accession of Agesilaus has been debated among historians, principally because Plutarch makes him the main instigator of the plot, while Xenophon downplays Lysander\'s influence. Lysander doubtless supported Agesilaus\' accession because he hoped that the new king would in return help him to regain the importance that he lost in 403.
### Conspiracy of Cinadon (399 BC) {#conspiracy_of_cinadon_399_bc}
The Conspiracy of Cinadon took place during the first year of Agesilaus\' reign, in the summer of 399. Cinadon was a *hypomeion*, a Spartan who had lost his citizen status, presumably because he could not afford the price of the collective mess---one of the main reasons for the dwindling number of Spartan citizens in the Classical Era, called *oliganthropia*. It is probable that the vast influx of wealth coming to the city after its victory against Athens in 404 triggered inflation in Sparta, which impoverished many citizens with a fixed income, like Cinadon, and caused their downgrade. Therefore, the purpose of the plot was likely to restore the status of these disfranchised citizens. However, the plot was uncovered and Cinadon and its leaders executed---probably with the active participation of Agesilaus, but no further action was taken to solve the social crisis at the origin of the conspiracy. The failure of Agesilaus to acknowledge the critical problem suffered by Sparta at the time has been criticised by modern historians.
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# Agesilaus II
## Reign
### Invasion of Asia Minor (396--394 BC) {#invasion_of_asia_minor_396394_bc}
According to the treaties signed in 412 and 411 between Sparta and the Persian Empire, the latter became the overlord of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor. In 401, these cities and Sparta supported the bid of Cyrus the Younger (the Persian Emperor\'s younger son and a good friend of Lysander) against his elder brother, the new emperor Artaxerxes II, who nevertheless defeated Cyrus at Cunaxa. As a result, Sparta remained at war with Artaxerxes, and supported the Greek cities of Asia, which fought against Tissaphernes, the satrap of Lydia and Caria. In 397 Lysander engineered a large expedition in Asia headed by Agesilaus, likely to recover the influence he had over the Asian cities at the end of the Peloponnesian War. In order to win the approval of the Spartan assembly, Lysander built an army with only 30 Spartiates (full Spartan citizens), so the risk would be limited; the bulk of the army consisted of 2,000 neodamodes (freed helots) and 6,000 Greek allies. In addition, Agesilaus obtained the support of the oracles of Zeus at Olympia and Apollo at Delphi.
#### The sacrifice at Aulis (396 BC) {#the_sacrifice_at_aulis_396_bc}
Lysander and Agesilaus had intended the expedition to be a Panhellenic enterprise, but Athens, Corinth, and especially Thebes, refused to participate. In Spring 396, Agesilaus came to Aulis (in Boeotian territory) to sacrifice on the place where Agamemnon had done so just before his departure to Troy at the head of the Greek army in the *Iliad*, thus giving a grandiose aspect to the expedition. However he did not inform the Boeotians and brought his own seer to perform the sacrifice, instead of the local one. Learning this, the Boeotians prevented him from sacrificing and further humiliated him by casting away the victim; they perhaps intended to provoke a confrontation, as the relations between Sparta and Thebes had become execrable. Agesilaus then left to Asia, but Thebes remained hateful to him for the rest of his life.
#### Campaign in Asia (396--394 BC) {#campaign_in_asia_396394_bc}
Once Agesilaus landed in Ephesus, the Spartan main base, he concluded a three months\' truce with Tissaphernes, likely to settle the affairs among the Greek allies. He integrated some of the Greek mercenaries formerly hired by Cyrus the Younger (the Ten Thousand) in his army. They had returned from Persia under the leadership of Xenophon, who also remained in Agesilaus\' staff. In Ephesus, Agesilaus\' authority was nevertheless overshadowed by Lysander, who was reacquainted with many of his supporters, men he had placed in control of the Greek cities at the end of the Peloponnesian War. Angered by his local aura, Agesilaus humiliated Lysander several times to force him to leave the army, despite his former relationship and Lysander\'s role in his accession to the throne. Plutarch adds that after Agesilaus\' emancipation from him, Lysander returned to his undercover scheme to make the monarchy elective. After Lysander\'s departure, Agesilaus raided Phrygia, the satrapy of Pharnabazus, until his advance guard was defeated not far from Daskyleion by the superior Persian cavalry. He then wintered at Ephesus, where he trained a cavalry force, perhaps on the advice of Xenophon, who had commanded the cavalry of the Ten Thousand. In 395, the Spartan king managed to trick Tissaphernes into thinking that he would attack Caria, in the south of Asia Minor, forcing the satrap to hold a defence line on the Meander river. Instead, Agesilaus moved north to the important city of Sardis. Tissaphernes hastened to meet the king there, but his cavalry sent in advance was defeated by Agesilaus\' army. After his victory at the Battle of Sardis, Agesilaus became the first king to be given the command of both land and sea. He delegated the naval command to his brother-in-law Peisander, whom he appointed navarch despite his inexperience; perhaps Agesilaus wanted to avoid the rise of a new Lysander, who owed his prominence to his time as navarch. After his defeat, Tissaphernes was executed and replaced as satrap by Tithraustes, who gave Agesilaus 30 talents to move north to the satrapy of Pharnabazus (Persian satraps were often bitter rivals). Augesilaus\' Phrygian campaign of 394 was fruitless, as he lacked the siege equipment required to take the fortresses of Leonton Kephalai, Gordion, and Miletou Teichos.Xenophon tells that Agesilaus then wanted to campaign further east in Asia and sow discontent among the subjects of the Achaemenid empire, or even to conquer Asia. Plutarch went further and wrote that Agesilaus had prepared an expedition to the heart of Persia, up to her capital of Susa, thus making him a forerunner of Alexander the Great. It is very unlikely that Agesilaus really had such a grand campaign in mind; regardless, he was soon forced to return to Europe in 394.
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# Agesilaus II
## Reign
### Corinthian War (395--387 BC) {#corinthian_war_395387_bc}
Although Thebes and Corinth had been allies of Sparta throughout the Peloponnesian War, they were dissatisfied by the settlement of the war in 404, with Sparta as leader of the Greek world. Sparta\'s imperialist expansion in the Aegean greatly upset its former allies, notably by establishing friendly regimes and garrisons in smaller cities. Through large gifts, Tithraustes also encouraged Sparta\'s former allies to start a war in order to force the recall of Agesilaus from Asia---even though the influence of Persian gold has been exaggerated. The initiative came from Thebes, which provoked a war between their ally Ozolian Locris and Phocis in order to bring Sparta to the latter\'s defence. Lysander and the other king Pausanias entered Boeotia, which enabled the Thebans to bring Athens in the war. Lysander then besieged Haliartus without waiting for Pausanias and was killed in a Boeotian counter-attack. In Sparta, Pausanias was condemned to death by Lysander\'s friends and went into exile. After its success at Haliartus, Thebes was able to build a coalition against Sparta, with notably Argos and Corinth, where a war council was established, and securing the defection of most of the cities of northern and central Greece. Unable to wage war on two fronts and with the loss of Lysander and Pausanias, Sparta had no choice but to recall Agesilaus from Asia. The Asian Greeks fighting for him said they wanted to continue serving with him, while Agesilaus promised he would return to Asia as soon as he could. Agesilaus returned to Greece by land, crossing the Hellespont and from there along the coast of the Aegean Sea. In Thessaly he won a cavalry battle near Narthacium against the Pharsalians who had made an alliance with Thebes. He then entered Boeotia by the Thermopylae, where he received reinforcements from Sparta. Meanwhile, Aristodamos---the regent of the young Agiad king Agesipolis---won a major victory at Nemea near Argos, which was offset by the disaster of the Spartan navy at Cnidus against the Persian fleet led by Conon, an exiled Athenian general. Agesilaus lied to his men about the outcome of the battle of Knidos to avoid demoralising them as they were about to fight a large engagement against the combined armies of Thebes, Athens, Argos and Corinth. The following Battle of Coronea was a classic clash between two lines of hoplites. The anti-Spartan allies were rapidly defeated, but the Thebans managed to retreat in good order, despite Agesilaus\' activity on the front line, which caused him several injuries. The next day the Thebans requested a truce to recover their dead, therefore conceding defeat, although they had not been bested on the battlefield. Agesilaus appears to have tried to win an honourable victory, by risking his life and being merciful with some Thebans who had sought shelter in the nearby Temple of Athena Itonia. He then moved to Delphi, where he offered one tenth of the booty he had amassed since his landing at Ephesus, and returned to Sparta.
No pitched battle took place in Greece in 393. Perhaps Agesilaus was still recovering from his wounds, or he was deprived of command because of the opposition of Lysander\'s and Pausanias\' friends, who were disappointed by his lack of decisive victory and his appointment of Peisander as navarch before the disaster of Knidos. The loss of the Spartan fleet besides allowed Konon to capture the island of Kythera, in the south of the Peloponnese, from where he could raid Spartan territory. In 392, Sparta sent Antalcidas to Asia in order to negotiate a general peace with Tiribazus, the satrap of Lydia, while Sparta would recognise Persia\'s sovereignty over the Asian Greek cities. However, the Greek allies also sent emissaries to Sardis to refuse Antalcidas\' plan, and Artaxerxes likewise rejected it. A second peace conference in Sparta failed the following year because of Athens. A personal enemy of Antalcidas, Agesilaus likely disapproved these talks, which show that his influence at home had waned. Plutarch says that he befriended the young Agiad king Agesipolis, possibly to prevent his opponents from coalescing behind him.
By 391 Agesilaus had apparently recovered his influence as he was appointed at the head of the army, while his half-brother Teleutias became navarch. The target was Argos, which had absorbed Corinth into a political union the previous year. In 390 BC he made several successful expeditions into Corinthian territory, capturing Lechaeum and Peiraion. The loss, however, of a battalion (mora), destroyed by Iphicrates, neutralised these successes, and Agesilaus returned to Sparta. In 389 BC he conducted a campaign in Acarnania, but two years later the Peace of Antalcidas, warmly supported by Agesilaus, put an end to the war, maintaining Spartan hegemony over Greece and returning the Greek cities of Asia Minor to the Achaemenid Empire. In this interval, Agesilaus declined command over Sparta\'s aggression on Mantineia, and justified Phoebidas\' seizure of the Theban Cadmea so long as the outcome provided glory to Sparta.
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# Agesilaus II
## Reign
### Decline
When war broke out afresh with Thebes, Agesilaus twice invaded Boeotia (in 378 and 377 BC), although he spent the next five years largely out of action due to an unspecified but apparently grave illness. In the congress of 371 an altercation is recorded between him and the Theban general Epaminondas, and due to his influence, Thebes was peremptorily excluded from the peace, and orders given for Agesilaus\'s royal colleague Cleombrotus to march against Thebes in 371. Cleombrotus was defeated and killed at the Battle of Leuctra and the Spartan supremacy overthrown.
In 370 Agesilaus was engaged in an embassy to Mantineia, and reassured the Spartans with an invasion of Arcadia. He preserved an unwalled Sparta against the revolts and conspiracies of helots, perioeci and even other Spartans; and against external enemies, with four different armies led by Epaminondas penetrating Laconia that same year.
#### Asia Minor expedition (366 BC) {#asia_minor_expedition_366_bc}
In 366 BC, Sparta and Athens, dissatisfied with the Persian king\'s support of Thebes following the embassy of Philiscus of Abydos, decided to provide careful military support to the opponents of the Achaemenid king. Athens and Sparta provided support for the revolting satraps in the Revolt of the Satraps, in particular Ariobarzanes: Sparta sent a force to Ariobarzanes under an aging Agesilaus, while Athens sent a force under Timotheus, which was however diverted when it became obvious that Ariobarzanes had entered frontal conflict with the Achaemenid king. An Athenian mercenary force under Chabrias was also sent to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tachos, who was also fighting against the Achaemenid king. According to Xenophon, Agesilaus, in order to gain money for prosecuting the war, supported the satrap Ariobarzanes of Phrygia in his revolt against Artaxerxes II in 364 (Revolt of the Satraps).
Again, in 362, Epaminondas almost succeeded in seizing the city of Sparta with a rapid and unexpected march. The Battle of Mantinea, in which Agesilaus took no part, was followed by a general peace: Sparta, however, stood aloof, hoping even yet to recover her supremacy.
#### Expedition to Egypt {#expedition_to_egypt}
Sometime after the Battle of Mantineia, Agesilaus went to Egypt at the head of a mercenary force to aid the king Nectanebo I and his regent Teos against Persia. In the summer of 358, he transferred his services to Teos\'s cousin and rival, Nectanebo II, who, in return for his help, gave him a sum of over 200 talents. On his way home Agesilaus died in Cyrenaica, around the age of 84, after a reign of some 41 years. His body was embalmed in wax, and buried at Sparta.
He was succeeded by his son Archidamus III.
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# Agesilaus II
## Legacy
Agesilaus was of small stature and unimpressive appearance, and was lame from birth. These facts were used as an argument against his succession, an oracle having warned Sparta against a \"lame reign.\" Most ancient writers considered him a highly successful leader in guerrilla warfare, alert and quick, yet cautious---a man, moreover, whose personal bravery was rarely questioned in his own time. Of his courage, temperance, and hardiness, many instances are cited, and to these were added the less Spartan qualities of kindliness and tenderness as a father and a friend. As examples, there was the story of his riding a stick-horse with his children and upon being discovered by a friend desiring that the friend not mention what he had seen until he was the father of children; and because of the affection of his son Archidamus for Cleonymus, he saved Sphodrias, Cleonymus\' father, from execution for his incursion into Piraeus and dishonourable retreat in 378. Modern writers tend to be slightly more critical of Agesilaus\' reputation and achievements, reckoning him an excellent soldier, but one who had a poor understanding of sea power and siege-craft.
As a statesman he won himself both enthusiastic adherents and bitter enemies. Agesilaus was most successful in the opening and closing periods of his reign: commencing but then surrendering a glorious career in Asia; and in extreme age, maintaining his prostrate country. Other writers acknowledge his extremely high popularity at home, but suggest his occasionally rigid and arguably irrational political loyalties and convictions contributed greatly to Spartan decline, notably his unremitting hatred of Thebes, which led to Sparta\'s humiliation at the Battle of Leuctra and thus the end of Spartan hegemony. Historian J. B. Bury remarks that \"there is something melancholy about his career:\" born into a Sparta that was the unquestioned continental power of Hellas, the Sparta which mourned him eighty four years later had suffered a series of military defeats which would have been unthinkable to his forebears, had seen its population severely decline, and had run so short of money that its soldiers were increasingly sent on campaigns fought more for money than for defense or glory. Plutarch also describes how often, to remove the threat of instigators of internal dissension, Agesilaus would send his enemies abroad with governorships, where they often were corrupt and procured themselves enemies. Agesilaus would then protect them against these new enemies of theirs, so as to make them his friends. As a result, he no longer had to face internal opposition, as his enemies had henceforth become allies.
As for his personal life, though he had two daughters, Eupolia and Prolyta, and a wife, Cleora, he nonetheless had the habit of forming homosexual \"attachments for young men\".
Other historical accounts paint Agesilaus as a prototype for the ideal leader. His awareness, thoughtfulness, and wisdom were all traits to be emulated diplomatically, while his bravery and shrewdness in battle epitomised the heroic Greek commander. These historians point towards the unstable oligarchies established by Lysander in the former Athenian Empire and the failures of Spartan leaders (such as Pausanias and Kleombrotos) for the eventual suppression of Spartan power. The ancient historian Xenophon was a huge admirer and served under Agesilaus during the campaigns into Asia Minor.
Plutarch includes among Agesilaus\' 78 essays and speeches comprising the apophthegmata Agesilaus\' letter to the ephors on his recall: `{{blockquote|We have reduced most of Asia, driven back the barbarians, made arms abundant in Ionia. But since you bid me, according to the decree, come home, I shall follow my letter, may perhaps be even before it. For my command is not mine, but my country's and her allies'. And a commander then commands truly according to right when he sees his own commander in the laws and ephors, or others holding office in the state.}}`{=mediawiki}
And when asked whether Agesilaus wanted a memorial erected in his honour:
Agesilaus lived in the most frugal style alike at home and in the field, and though his campaigns were undertaken largely to secure booty, he was content to enrich the state and his friends and to return as poor as he had set forth
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# Antonio Agliardi
**Antonio Agliardi** (4 September 1832 -- 19 March 1915) was an Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal, archbishop, and papal diplomat.
## Biography
Agliardi was born at Cologno al Serio, in what is now the Province of Bergamo.
He studied theology and canon law, and after acting as parish priest in his native diocese for twelve years was sent by the pope to Canada as a bishop\'s chaplain. On his return he was appointed secretary to the Congregation of the Propaganda.
In 1884, he was created by Pope Leo XIII Archbishop of Caesarea *in partibus* and sent to India as an Apostolic Delegate to report on the establishment of the hierarchy there.
In 1887 he again visited India, to carry out the terms of the concordat arranged with Portugal. The same year he was appointed secretary of the Congregation *super negotiis ecclesiae extraordinariis*. In 1889 he became papal Apostolic Nuncio to Bavaria at Munich and in 1892 at Vienna. Allowing himself to be involved in the ecclesiastical disputes that divided Hungary in 1895, he was made the subject of formal complaint by the Hungarian government and in 1896 was recalled.
In the consistory of 1896 he was elevated to Cardinal-Priest of *Santi Nereo e Achilleo*. In 1899 he was made Cardinal Bishop of Albano. In 1903, he was named vice-chancellor of the Catholic Church, and became the Chancellor of the Apostolic Chancery in the Secretariat of State in 1908.
He died in Rome and was buried in Bergamo
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# Agnes of Merania
**Agnes of Merania** (1175 -- July 1201) was Queen of France by marriage to King Philip II.
She is called Marie by some of the French chroniclers.
## Biography
Agnes Maria was the daughter of Berthold, Duke of Merania and Agnes of Rochlitz.
In June 1196, Agnes married Philip II of France, who had repudiated his second wife Ingeborg of Denmark in 1193. Pope Innocent III espoused the cause of Ingeborg; but Philip did not submit until 1200, when, nine months after interdict had been added to excommunication, he consented to a separation from Agnes.
Agnes died, possibly in childbirth, in July of the next year, at the castle of Poissy, and was buried in the Convent of St. Corentin, near Nantes.
## Family
Agnes and Philip had two children:
- Mary, b. 1198
- Philip I, Count of Boulogne, b 1200
Both were legitimized by the Pope in 1201
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# Agrippina the Elder
(**Vipsania**) **Agrippina the Elder** (also, in Latin, *Agrippina Germanici*, \"Germanicus\'s Agrippina\"; c. 14 BC -- AD 33) was a prominent member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (a close supporter of the first Roman emperor, Augustus) and Augustus\' daughter, Julia the Elder. Her brothers Lucius and Gaius Caesar were the adoptive sons of Augustus, and were his heirs until their deaths in AD 2 and 4, respectively. Following their deaths, her second cousin Germanicus was made the adoptive son of Tiberius, Augustus\' stepson, as part of the succession scheme in the adoptions of AD 4 (in which Tiberius was adopted by Augustus). As a result of the adoption, Agrippina was wed to Germanicus in order to bring him closer to the Julian family.
Agrippina the Elder is known to have traveled with Germanicus throughout his career, taking her children wherever they went. In AD 14, Germanicus was deployed in Gaul as a governor and general, and, while there, the late Augustus sent her son Gaius to stay with her. Agrippina liked to dress him in a little soldiers\' outfit for which Gaius earned the nickname \"Caligula\" (\"little soldier\'s boots\"). After three years in Gaul, they returned to Rome, and her husband was awarded a triumph on 26 May AD 17 to commemorate his victories. The following year, Germanicus was sent to govern over the eastern provinces. While Germanicus was active in his administration, the governor of Syria Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso began feuding with him. During the feud, her husband died of illness on 10 October AD 19.
Germanicus was cremated in Antioch, and she transported his ashes to Rome where they were interred at the Mausoleum of Augustus. Agrippina was vocal in claims of her husband being murdered in order to promote Tiberius\' son, Drusus Julius Caesar (\"Drusus the Younger\"), as heir. Following the model of her stepgrandmother Livia, she spent the time following Germanicus\' death supporting the cause of her sons Nero and Drusus Caesar. This put her and her sons at odds with the powerful Praetorian prefect Lucius Aelius Sejanus, who began eliminating their supporters with accusations of treason and sexual misconduct in AD 26. Her family\'s rivalry with Sejanus would culminate with her and Nero\'s exile in AD 29. Nero was exiled to Pontia and she was exiled to the island of Pandateria, where she would remain until her death by starvation in AD 33.
## Name
Following the Roman custom of parents and children sharing the same nomen and cognomen, women in the same family would often share the same name. Accordingly, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa first daughter with Attica was named Vipsania Agrippina. To distinguish Agrippa and Julia\'s daughter from their granddaughter Julia Agrippina, historians refer to this daughter as \"Agrippina the Elder\" (Latin: *Agrippina Maior*). Likewise, Agrippina\'s daughter is referred to as \"Agrippina the Younger\" (*Minor*). Like her father, Agrippina the Elder avoided her nomen and has not been found to have used \"Vipsania\" in inscription. An inscription in Rhodiapolis records her with the nomen \"Julia\", although this appears to be a mistake.
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# Agrippina the Elder
## Background
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was an early supporter of Augustus (then \"Octavius\"). He was a key general in Augustus\' armies, commanding troops during the wars against Sextus Pompey and Mark Antony. From early in the emperor\'s reign, Agrippa was trusted to handle affairs in the eastern provinces and was even given the signet ring of Augustus, who appeared to be on his deathbed in 23 BC, a sign that he would become *princeps* were Augustus to die. It is probable that he was to rule until the emperor\'s nephew, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, came of age. However, Marcellus died that year of an illness that became an epidemic in Rome.
Now, with Marcellus dead, Augustus arranged for the marriage of Agrippa to his daughter Julia the Elder, who was previously the wife of Marcellus. Agrippa was given *tribunicia potestas* (\"the tribunician power\") in 18 BC, a power that only the emperor and his immediate heir could hope to attain. The tribunician power allowed him to control the Senate, and it was first given to Julius Caesar. Agrippa acted as tribune in the Senate to pass important legislation and, though he lacked some of the emperor\'s power and authority, he was approaching the position of co-regent.
After the birth of Agrippa\'s second son, Lucius, in 17 BC, Lucius and his brother Gaius were adopted together by Augustus. Around the time of their adoption in the summer, Augustus held the fifth ever *Ludi Saeculares* (\"Secular Games\"). Cassius Dio says the adoption of the boys coupled with the games served to introduce a new era of peace -- the *Pax Augusta*. It is not known what Agrippa thought of their adoption; however, following their adoption, Agrippa was dispatched to govern the eastern provinces, bringing his family with him.
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# Agrippina the Elder
## Early life and family {#early_life_and_family}
Agrippina was born in 14 BC to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder, before their return to Rome in 13 BC. She had several siblings, including half-sisters Vipsania Agrippina, Vipsania Attica, Vipsania Marcella and Vipsania Marcellina (from her father\'s marriages to Pomponia Caecilia Attica and Claudia Marcella Major); and four full siblings, with three brothers; Gaius, Lucius, and Postumus Agrippa (all were adopted by Augustus; Gaius and Lucius were adopted together following Lucius\' birth in 17 BC; Postumus in AD 4), and a sister Julia the Younger.
She was a prominent member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. On her mother\'s side, she was the younger granddaughter of Augustus. She was the Stepdaughter of Tiberius by her mother\'s marriage to him, and sister in law of Claudius, the brother of her husband Germanicus. Her son Gaius, better known as \"Caligula\", would be the third emperor, and her grandson Nero would be the last emperor of the dynasty.
In 13 BC, her father returned to Rome and was promptly sent to Pannonia to suppress a rebellion. Agrippa arrived there that winter (in 12 BC), but the Pannonians gave up that same year. Agrippa returned to Campania in Italy, where he fell ill and died soon after. After her father\'s death, she spent the rest of her childhood in Augustus\' household where access to her was strictly controlled.
Some of the currency issued in 13--12 BC, the *aurei* and *denarii*, make it clear that her brothers Gaius and Lucius were Augustus\' intended heirs. Their father was no longer available to assume the reins of power if the Emperor were to die, and Augustus had to make it clear who his intended heirs were in case anything should happen. Lucius\' and Gaius\' military and political careers would steadily advance until their deaths in AD 2 and 4, respectively.
The death of her brothers meant that Augustus had to find other heirs. Although he initially considered Agrippina\'s second cousin Germanicus a potential heir for a time, Livia convinced Augustus to adopt Tiberius, Livia\'s son from her first marriage with Tiberius Claudius Nero. Although Augustus adopted Tiberius, it was on condition that Tiberius first adopt Germanicus so that Germanicus would become second in the line of succession. It was a corollary to the adoption, probably in the next year, that Agrippina was married to Germanicus.
By her husband Germanicus, she had nine children: Nero Julius Caesar, Drusus Julius Caesar, Tiberius Julius Caesar, a child of unknown name (normally referenced as *Ignotus*), Gaius the Elder, the Emperor Caligula (Gaius the Younger), the Empress Agrippina the Younger, Julia Drusilla, and Julia Livilla. Only six of her children came of age; Tiberius and Ignotus died as infants, and Gaius the Elder in his early childhood.
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# Agrippina the Elder
## Marriage
Her husband\'s career in the military began in AD 6, with the Batonian War in Pannonia and Dalmatia. Throughout Germanicus\' military career, Agrippina is known to have traveled with her husband and their children. Germanicus\' career advanced steadily as he advanced in ranks following the *cursus honorum* until, in AD 12, he was made consul. The following year, he was given command over Gaul and the forces on the Rhine, totaling eight legions.
On 18 May AD 14, her one-year-old son Gaius was sent by Augustus from Rome to join her in Gaul. She was pregnant at the time and, while Germanicus was collecting taxes across Gaul, she remained at an unspecified separate location, presumably for her safety. Augustus sent her a letter with her son\'s party, which read: `{{Blockquote|Yesterday I arranged with Talarius and Asillinus to bring your boy Gaius on the fifteen day before the [[Kalends]] of June, if it be the will of the gods. I send with him besides one of my slaves who is a physician, and I have written to Germanicus to keep him if he wishes. Farewell, my Agrippina, and take care to come in good health to your Germanicus.<ref name=Mellor369>{{harvnb|Mellor|1998|p=369}}</ref>}}`{=mediawiki}
Later that year, on 19 August, Augustus died while away in Campania. As a result, Tiberius was made *princeps*. While Germanicus was administering the oath of fealty to Tiberius, a mutiny began among the forces on the Rhine. During the mutiny, Agrippina brought out their sixth child, Gaius, and made preparations to take him away to a safer town nearby. He was in a full army outfit including the legionary hobnailed boots (*caligae*). These military-booties earned Gaius the nickname \"Caligula\" (lit. \"little boots\"), and garnered sympathy for Agrippina and the child among the soldiery. Tacitus attributes her actions as having quelled the mutiny (Tacitus, *Annals* 1.40--4).
Once the mutiny was put to an end, Germanicus allowed the soldiers to deal with the ringleaders, which they did with brutal severity. He then led them against the Germanic tribes, perhaps in an effort to prevent future mutiny. Germanicus would remain in Gaul fighting against the Germanic tribes until AD 16, at which time he was recalled to Rome by Tiberius. His campaigns won him much renown among the Roman people, and he was awarded a triumph on 26 May AD 17.
### Widowhood
In AD 18, Agrippina left for the eastern provinces with her family. Germanicus was sent the east to govern the provinces, the same assignment her father was given years earlier. Agrippina was pregnant on their journey east and, on the way to Syria, she gave birth to her youngest daughter Julia Livilla on the island of Lesbos. Inscriptions celebrating her fertility have been found on the island.
Tiberius sent Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso to assist her husband, naming him governor of Syria. During their time there, Germanicus was active in his administration of the eastern regions. Piso did not get along well with Germanicus and their relationship only got worse. In AD 19, Germanicus ordered Piso to leave the province, which Piso began to do. On his way back to Rome, Piso stopped at the island of Kos off the coast of Syria. Around that time Germanicus fell ill and he died on 10 October AD 19 at Antioch. Rumours spread of Piso poisoning her husband on the emperor\'s orders.
After Germanicus\' cremation in the forum of Antioch, Agrippina personally carried the ashes of her husband to Rome. The transportation of the ashes witnessed national mourning. She landed at the port of Brundisium in southern Italy where she was met with huge crowds of sympathizers; a praetorian escort was provided by the emperor in light of her rank as the wife of a governor-general. As she passed each town, the people and local magistrates came out to show their respect. Drusus the Younger (son of Tiberius), Claudius, and the consuls journeyed to join the procession as well. Once she made it to Rome, her husband\'s ashes were interred at the Mausoleum of Augustus. Tiberius and Livia did not make an appearance.
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# Agrippina the Elder
## Life after Germanicus {#life_after_germanicus}
Her marriage to Germanicus had served to unite the imperial family. Agrippina may have suspected Tiberius\' involvement in the death of her husband and, with Germanicus dead, she no longer had any familial ties to the emperor. Historian Richard Alston says it is likely that either Tiberius or Livia were behind the exile of Agrippina\'s sister Julia the Younger and the death of Postumus. He notes the death of Agrippina\'s mother, who starved herself to death amidst her exile in AD 14, linking her death to Tiberius\' disdain for her.
Agrippina was vocal about her feelings claiming that Germanicus was murdered to promote Drusus the Younger as Tiberius\' heir, and worried that the birth of the Younger Drusus\' twin sons would displace her own sons in the line of succession.
At about this time, Tiberius\' Praetorian Prefect Sejanus was becoming powerful in Rome and began feuding with Drusus the Younger. While the exact causes of the feud are unknown, it ended when the Younger Drusus died of seemingly natural causes on 14 September AD 23. After the death of Tiberius\' son, Agrippina wanted to advance the careers of her sons, who were all potential heirs for Tiberius. It has been suggested that to achieve this, Agrippina commissioned the Great Cameo of France and presented it to Tiberius as a personalized gift that positioned the family of Germanicus around the emperor. The work was designed to convince Tiberius to choose her children as his heirs.
Ultimately, the death of Tiberius\' son elevated her own children to the position of heirs. Her sons were the logical choice, because they were the sons of Germanicus and Tiberius\' grandsons were too young. Nero was becoming popular in the Senate due in part, Tacitus says, to his resemblance with his father. The rise of her children was threatening to Sejanus\' position. Resultantly, Sejanus began spreading rumors about Agrippina in the imperial court. The coming years were marked with increasing hostility between Sejanus and Agrippina and her sons. This effectively caused factions to rise in the aristocracy between her family and Sejanus.
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# Agrippina the Elder
## Life after Germanicus {#life_after_germanicus}
### Political rivalry {#political_rivalry}
On New Year\'s Day, AD 24, Sejanus had the priests and magistrates add prayers for the health of Nero and Drusus in addition to those normally offered to the emperor on that day. Tiberius was not happy with this and he voiced his displeasure in the Senate. In addition, he questioned the priests of the Palatine. Some of the priests who offered the prayers were relatives of Agrippina and Germanicus. This made Tiberius suspicious of her and marked a change in his attitude toward her and her older sons, but not Caligula.
In AD 25, Sejanus requested Livilla\'s hand in marriage. Livilla was a niece of the emperor, which would have made him a member of the imperial family. While this did make his ambitions clear, his request was denied. The loss may have been huge for Sejanus had the dissensions in the imperial household not been deteriorating. Relations were so bad that Agrippina refused to eat at Tiberius\' dinner parties for fear of being poisoned. She also asked Tiberius if she could be allowed to remarry, which he also refused.
If either of them were allowed to remarry it would have threatened the line of succession that Tiberius was comfortable with. By refusing Sejanus\' request, Tiberius made it clear he was content with the children of Germanicus and his own grandchildren being his successors. Had Sejanus married Livilla, their children would have provided another line of possible successors. The implication of Agrippina\'s request was that she needed a man from outside the imperial family to serve as protector and step-father of possible imperial heirs, a powerful position. It was also an implied reprimand: Tiberius was meant to be the guardian of the imperial family.
Tiberius was in a tough position. He was faced with a conflict between his family and his friend. His solution was surprising. In AD 26, he left Rome altogether and retired to the island of Capri in the Bay of Naples. He cut himself off from the factions altogether and abandoned politics. He left Rome in the care of Sejanus. This allowed Sejanus to freely attack his rivals.
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# Agrippina the Elder
## Life after Germanicus {#life_after_germanicus}
### Downfall
With Tiberius away from Rome, the city would see a rise of politically motivated trials on the part of Sejanus and his supporters against Agrippina and her associates. Many of her friends and associates were subsequently accused of *maiestas* (\"treason\") by the growing number of accusers. It was also common to see charges of sexual misconduct and corruption. In AD 27, Agrippina found herself placed under house arrest in her suburban villa outside Herculaneum.
In AD 28, the Senate voted that altars to *Clementia* (mercy) and *Amicitia* (friendship) be raised. At that time, *Clementia* was considered a virtue of the ruling class, for only the powerful could give clemency. The altar of *Amicitia* was flanked by statues of Sejanus and Tiberius. By this time, his association with Tiberius was such that there were those in Roman society who erected statues in his honor and gave prayers and sacrifices in his honor. Sejanus\' birthday was honored as if he were a member of the imperial family. According to Richard Alston, \"Sejanus\' association with Tiberius must have at least indicated to the people that he would be further elevated.\"
Sejanus did not begin his final attack on Agrippina until after the death of Livia in AD 29. Tacitus reports a letter being sent to the Senate from Tiberius denouncing Agrippina for her arrogance and prideful attitude, and Nero for engaging in shameful sexual activities. The Senate would not begin these highly unpopular prosecutions against her or her son until it received clear instructions from Tiberius to do so. Despite public outcry, Agrippina and Nero were declared public enemies (*hostes*) following a repeat of the accusations by the emperor. They were both exiled; Nero to Pontia where he was killed or encouraged to commit suicide in AD 31, and Agrippina to the island of Pandateria (the same place her daughter was exiled to).
Suetonius says that while on the island of Pandateria, she lost an eye when she was beaten by a centurion. She would remain on the island until her death in AD 33. Accounts of her death vary. She is said to have died from starvation, but it is not certain whether or not it was self-imposed. Tacitus says food was withheld from her in an effort to make her death seem like a suicide.
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# Agrippina the Elder
## Post mortem {#post_mortem}
Her son Drusus was later also exiled on charges of sexual misdemeanors. Sejanus remained powerful until his sudden downfall and summary execution in October AD 31, just after the death of Nero, the exact cause for which remains unclear. Alston suggests that Sejanus may have been acting in Tiberius\' favor to remove Germanicus\' family from power, noting that Agrippina and Nero\'s brother Drusus were left in exile even after Sejanus\' death.
The deaths of Agrippina\'s older sons elevated her youngest son Caligula to the position of successor and he became *princeps* when Tiberius died in AD 37. Drusus the Younger\'s son Tiberius Gemellus was summoned to Capri by his grandfather Tiberius, where he and Caligula were made joint-heirs. When Caligula assumed power he made Gemellus his adopted son, but Caligula soon had Gemellus killed for plotting against him. According to Philo, Caligula\'s pretended reason was a conspiracy.
After he became emperor, Caligula took on the role of a dutiful son and brother in a public show of *pietas* (\"piety\"). He went out to the islands of Pontia and Pandateria in order to recover the remains of Agrippina and Nero. It was not easy to recover Nero\'s bones as they were scattered and buried. Moreover, he had a stormy passage; however, the difficulty in his task made his devotion seem even greater. The ashes were brought to Ostia, from where they were carried up the Tiber and brought to the Campus Martius, from where equestrians placed them on briers to join the ashes of Germanicus in the mausoleum of Augustus. The move was reminiscent of when Agrippina carried the ashes of her husband just over 17 years earlier. Agrippina\'s funerary urn still survives (`{{CIL|06|886}}`{=mediawiki}).
The tablet made of marble reads:
` "OSSA`\
` AGRIPPINAE M AGRIPPAE F`\
` DIVI AVG NEPTIS VXORIS`\
` GERMANICI CAESARIS`\
` MATRIS C CAESARIS AVG`\
` GERMANICI PRINCIPIS"`
which translates as \"Bones of Agrippina; daughter of Marcus Agrippa, granddaughter of Divus Augustus, wife of Germanicus Caesar, mother of Princeps Gaius Caesar Germanicus\".
## Personality
Agrippina was fiercely independent, a trait she shared with her mother. Dio described her as having ambitions to match her pedigree. However, Anthony A. Barrett notes that Agrippina was fully aware that a woman in ancient Rome could not hold power in her own right. Instead, Agrippina followed the model of Livia in promoting the careers of her children.
She and her daughter, Agrippina the Younger, are both described as being equally ambitious for their sons. Whereas the elder Agrippina\'s son failed to become emperor, the younger Agrippina\'s son, also named Nero, succeeds. In a contrast, Tacitus has Agrippina the Elder merely standing on a bridge waving the soldiers passing by, whereas her daughter eclipses her by presiding over a military tribunal and accepting gifts from foreign ambassadors.
Tacitus also records serious tension between Agrippina and Livia. He describes Livia as having visited \"stepmotherly provocations\" on Agrippina. He says of Agrippina: \"were it not that through her moral integrity and love for her husband she converted an otherwise ungovernable temper to the good\" (Tacitus, *Annals* 1.33). Despite being sympathetic to her as a victim of imperial oppression, he uses expressions like \"excitable\", \"arrogant\", \"proud\", \"fierce\", \"obstinate\", and \"ambitious\" to describe Agrippina. His comments are echoed by other sources.
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# Agrippina the Elder
## Historiography
Historian Lindsay Powell says Agrippina enjoyed a normal marriage and continued to show her devotion to Germanicus after his death. He says she was regarded by the Roman people as, quoting Tacitus, \"the glory of the country, the sole surviving offspring of Augustus, the solitary example of the good old times.\"
Alston cautions against accepting the stories of Agrippina\'s feud with Sejanus at face value, as these accounts reflect a tradition hostile to Tiberius and Sejanus. They may have been circulated by Agrippina\'s supporters or they may have emerged after Sejanus\' fall in AD 31. He adds: \"These stories are plausible, though not certain to be true.\"
### Suetonius
Augustus was proud of Agrippina. Suetonius claims that Augustus wrote her a letter praising her intellect and directing her education. Suetonius also records that Augustus, who held strict views on self-restraint and respectable speech, cautioned Agrippina not to speak \"offensively\". When she next appears, she is being chastised by Tiberius in Greek for making irritating remarks, and the tone of the Greek verse quoted by Tiberius suggests that she should have heeded the advice of her grandfather not to speak offensively.
### Tacitus
The *Annals* of Tacitus is a history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty beginning with the death of Augustus. In it, he portrays women as having a profound influence on politics. The women of the imperial family in particular are depicted by Tacitus as having a notable prominence in the public sphere as well as possessing a ferocity and ambition with which they pursue it. Tacitus presents them as living longer than the imperial men and thus being more wise as they advance in age. Among the most broad of his portrayals is that of Agrippina. He emphasizes their role in connecting genetically back to Augustus, a significant factor in the marriages of the emperors and princes of the dynasty. The Annals repeatedly has Agrippina competing for influence with Tiberius simply because she is related to Augustus biologically.
Tacitus presents Agrippina as being kindred to aristocratic males, and has her reversing gender roles, which showcases her assumption of male *auctoritas* (\"authority\") with metaphors of her dressing and undressing. In an example of Agrippina assuming *auctoritas*, he says: `{{Verse translation|lang=la|''Sed femina ingens animi munia ducis per eos dies induit militibusque, ut quis inops aut saucius, vestem et fomenta dilargita est. tradit C. Plinius, Germanicorum bellorum scriptorum, stetisse apud principium po[n]ti[s], laudes et grates reversis legionibus habentum''|But throughout those days, a ''femina'', mighty of spirit, donned the apparel of a [[dux]], and she distributed clothing or bandages to the soldiers, whoever might be needy or suffering. Gaius Plinius, the chronicler of the [[Early Imperial campaigns in Germania|German wars]], relates that she stood at the head of the bridge, offering congratulatory praises to the legions as they returned.|attr1=Tacitus, 1.69.1|attr2={{harvnb|L'Hoir|2006|pp=136–7}}}}`{=mediawiki}
Using the above epithet, \"*(femina) ingens animi*\" (\"..\[a woman\], great for her courage\"), he assigns a haughty attitude to Agrippina that compels her to explore the affairs of men. He records her as having reversed the natural order of things when she quelled the mutiny of the Rhine in AD 14. In so doing, he describes her as having usurped her husband\'s power, a power rightfully belonging only to a general.
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# Agrippina the Elder
## Portraiture
Portraits of Roman women from the Julio-Claudian dynasty display a freer hair treatment than those of traditional Roman men and are more keen on the sensitivity of recording on different textures. These changes in style served to make reproducing them more popular in the mid-first-century AD. Reproductions of her image would continue to be made into that period. In the portrait, she is given a youthful face despite the fact that she lived to middle age. Agrippina\'s hair is a mass of curls that covers both sides of her head and is long going down to her shoulders. Her portraiture can be contrasted with that of Livia who had a more austere Augustan hairstyle.
There are three different periods during the first-century AD when portraits were created for Agrippina: at the time of her marriage to Germanicus (which made her the mother of a potential emperor); when her son Caligula came into power in AD 37, and collected her ashes from the island of Pandateria for relocation to the Mausoleum of Augustus; and at the time of Claudius\' marriage to Agrippina the Younger, who wanted to connect himself to the lineage of Augustus by evoking Agrippina\'s image. Coins and inscriptions cannot act as a method of discerning her age, because her hairstyle remains unchanged in all the representations.
The easiest phase of portraits to identify are those dating to the time of Caligula, when a fair abundance of coins were minted with an image of his mother on them. It is a posthumous portrait of her with idealized features. In the phase following Claudius\' marriage, her features are made to more closely resemble those of her daughter. The goal was to strengthen Agrippina the Younger\'s connection with her mother. Finally, the portraits of her dating to the time of Tiberius are still idealized, but not as much as those from the period of Caligula\'s reign. Images of Agrippina from this period are the most lifelike.
## Cultural depictions {#cultural_depictions}
Agrippina is one of the few women from the Roman imperial period whose story was recounted in later centuries as an example of moral character. Her journey to deposit the ashes of her husband was popular with eighteenth century painters, including William Turner, Gavin Hamilton, and Benjamin West whose painting *Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus* (1768) began the trend.
She is also remembered in *De Mulieribus Claris*, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 1361`{{endash}}`{=mediawiki}62. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature. Other notable works of which include:
- *Agrippina Mourning over the ashes of Germanicus* (1775), an etching by Scottish painter Alexander Runciman.
- *The Caesars* (1968), a television series by Philip Mackie for Granada TV. She was played by Caroline Blakiston.
- *I, Claudius* (1976), a television series by Jack Pulman for the BBC. She was played by Fiona Walker
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# Arthur Aikin
**Arthur Aikin** (19 May 1773`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}15 April 1854) was an English chemist, mineralogist and scientific writer, and was a founding member of the Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry). He first became its treasurer in 1841, and later became the society\'s second president.
## Life
He was born at Warrington, Lancashire into a distinguished literary family of prominent Unitarians. The best known of these was his paternal aunt, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, a woman of letters who wrote poetry and essays as well as early children\'s literature. His father, Dr John Aikin, was a medical doctor, historian, and author. His grandfather, also called John (1713--1780), was a Unitarian scholar and theological tutor, closely associated with Warrington Academy. His sister Lucy (1781--1864) was a historical writer. Their brother Charles Rochemont Aikin was adopted by their famous aunt and brought up as their cousin.
Arthur Aikin studied chemistry under Joseph Priestley in the New College at Hackney, and gave attention to the practical applications of the science. In early life, he was a Unitarian minister for a short time. Aikin lectured on chemistry at Guy\'s Hospital for thirty-two years. He became the President of the British Mineralogical Society in 1801 for five years up until 1806 when the Society merged with the Askesian Society. From 1803 to 1808 he was editor of the *Annual Review*. In 1805 Aiken also became a proprietor of the London Institution, which was officially founded in 1806. He was one of the founders of the Geological Society of London in 1807 and was its honorary secretary in 1812--1817. He also gave lectures in 1813 and 1814. He contributed papers on the Wrekin and the Shropshire coalfield, among others, to the transactions of that society. His *Manual of Mineralogy* was published in 1814. Later he became the paid secretary of the Society of Arts and later was elected as a fellow. He was founder of the Chemical Society of London in 1841, being its first treasurer and, between 1843 and 1845, second president.
In order to support himself, outside of his work with the British Mineralogical Society, the London Institution and the Geological Society, Aiken worked as a writer, translator and lecturer to the public and to medical students at Guy\'s Hospital. His writing and journalism were useful for publicising foreign scientific news to the wider British public. He was also a member of the Linnean Society and in 1820 joined the Institution of Civil Engineers.
He was highly esteemed as a man of sound judgement and wide knowledge. Aikin never married, and died at Hoxton in London in 1854.
## Publications
- [*The natural history of the year; being an enlargement of Dr. Aikin\'s Calendar of nature*](https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-natural-history-of-t_aikin-arthur_1798/page/n1/mode/2up), 1798
- [*Journal of a Tour through North Wales and Part of Shropshire with Observations in Mineralogy and Other Branches of Natural History*](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_tpEGvJnP3lIC/page/n5/mode/2up) (London, 1797)
- [*Syllabus of a course of lectures on chemistry, by A. and C.R. Aikin*](https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_syllabus-of-a-course-of-_aikin-arthur_1799), 1799
- [*The Annual review and history of literature; for 1807*](https://archive.org/details/annualreviewand00aikigoog/page/n7/mode/2up), 1808
- [*A Manual of Mineralogy*](https://archive.org/details/amanualmineralo00aikigoog/page/n4/mode/2up) (1814; ed. 2, 1815)
- [*dictionary of chemistry and mineralogy, with an account of the processes employed in many of the most important chemical manufactures. To which are added a description of chemical apparatus, and various useful tables of weights and measures, chemical instruments, &c. &c*. Vol. I](https://archive.org/details/b22011638_0001/page/n3/mode/2up); [Vol. II](https://archive.org/details/b22011638_0002/page/n3/mode/2up) (with his brother C. R. Aikin), 2 vols. (London, 1807, 1814).
- [*An account of the most important recent discoveries and improvements in chemistry and mineralogy, to the present time : being an appendix to their Dictionary of chemistry and mineralogy*](https://archive.org/details/AnAccountOfTheMostImportantRecentDiscoveriesAndImprovementsInChemistryAndMineralogy/aikin-a-account-1814-RTL000985-LowRes/page/n5/mode/2up), 1814
For *Rees\'s Cyclopædia* he wrote articles about chemistry, geology and mineralogy, but the topics are not known
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# Aimoin of Fleury
**Aimoin of Fleury** (*Aimoinus (Annonius; Aemonius) Floriacensis*; c. 960) was a medieval French monk and chronicler active in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. He was born at Villefranche-de-Longchat, in Southwestern France, about 960. Early in his life he entered the monastery of Fleury, where he became a monk and then passed the greater part of his life. Between c. 980 and 985 Aimoin wrote about Saint Benedict in the Abbey of Fleury-sur-Loire. His chief work is the *Historia Francorum*, or *Libri V. de Gestis Francorum*, which deals with the history of the Franks from the earliest times to 653, and was continued by other writers until the middle of the 12th century. It was much in vogue during the Middle Ages, but its historical value is now regarded as slight. It was edited in the 19th century by G. Waitz and published in the *Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores*, Band xxvi (Hanover and Berlin, 1826--1892).
In 1004 Aimoin also wrote *Vita Abbonis, abbatis Floriacensis*, the last of a series of lives of the abbots of Fleury, all of which, except the life of Abbo, have been lost. This was published by J. Mabillon in the *Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti* (Paris, 1668--1701).
Aimoin\'s third work was the composition of books ii and iii of the *Miracula sancti Benedicti*, the first book of which was written by another monk of Fleury named Adrevald (c. 818 -- 878). This also appears in the *Acta sanctorum*
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# Alaric I
**Alaric I** (`{{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|l|ər|ɪ|k}}`{=mediawiki}; *𐌰𐌻𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍃*, *Alarīks\]\]* `{{lit.}}`{=mediawiki}\'ruler of all\'; *Alaricus*; c. 370 -- 411 AD) was the first king of the Visigoths, from 395 to 410. He rose to leadership of the Goths who came to occupy Moesia---territory acquired a couple of decades earlier by a combined force of Goths and Alans after the Battle of Adrianople.
Alaric began his career under the Gothic soldier Gainas and later joined the Roman army. Once an ally of Rome under the Roman emperor Theodosius, Alaric helped defeat the Franks and other allies of a would-be Roman usurper. Despite losing many thousands of his men, he received little recognition from Rome and left the Roman army disappointed. After the death of Theodosius and the disintegration of the Roman armies in 395, he is described as king of the Visigoths. As the leader of the only effective field force remaining in the Balkans, he sought Roman legitimacy, never quite achieving a position acceptable to himself or to the Roman authorities.
He operated mainly against the successive Western Roman regimes, and marched into Italy, where he died. He is responsible for the sack of Rome in 410; one of several notable events in the Western Roman Empire\'s eventual decline.
## Early life, federate status in the Balkans {#early_life_federate_status_in_the_balkans}
According to Jordanes, a 6th-century Roman bureaucrat of Gothic origin---who later turned his hand to history---Alaric was born on Peuce Island at the mouth of the Danube Delta in present-day Romania and belonged to the noble Balti dynasty of the Thervingian Goths. There is no way to verify this claim. Historian Douglas Boin does not make such an unequivocal assessment about Alaric\'s Gothic heritage and instead claims he came from either the Thervingi or the Greuthung tribes. When the Goths suffered setbacks against the Huns, they made a mass migration across the Danube, and fought a war with Rome. Alaric was probably a child during this period who grew up along Rome\'s periphery. Alaric\'s upbringing was shaped by living along the border of Roman territory in a region that the Romans viewed as a veritable \"backwater\"; some four centuries before, the Roman poet Ovid regarded the area along the Danube and Black Sea where Alaric was reared as a land of \"barbarians\", among \"the most remote in the vast world.\"
Alaric\'s childhood in the Balkans, where the Goths had settled by way of an agreement with Theodosius, was spent in the company of veterans who had fought at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, during which they had annihilated much of the Eastern army and killed Emperor Valens. Imperial campaigns against the Visigoths were conducted until a treaty was reached in 382. This treaty was the first *foedus* on imperial Roman soil and required these semi-autonomous Germanic tribes---among whom Alaric was raised---to supply troops for the Roman army in exchange for peace, control of cultivatable land, and freedom from Roman direct administrative control. Correspondingly, there was hardly a region along the Roman frontier during Alaric\'s day without Gothic slaves and servants of one form or another. For several subsequent decades, many Goths like Alaric were \"called up into regular units of the eastern field army\" while others served as auxiliaries in campaigns led by Theodosius against the western usurpers Magnus Maximus and Eugenius.
## Rebellion against Rome, rise to Gothic leadership {#rebellion_against_rome_rise_to_gothic_leadership}
A new phase in the relationship between the Goths and the empire resulted from the treaty signed in 382, as more and more Goths attained aristocratic rank from their service in the imperial army. Alaric began his military career under the Gothic soldier Gainas, and later joined the Roman army. He first appeared as leader of a mixed band of Goths and allied peoples, who invaded Thrace in 391 but were stopped by the half-Vandal, Roman general Stilicho. While the Roman poet Claudian belittled Alaric as \"a little-known menace\" terrorizing southern Thrace during this time, Alaric\'s abilities and forces were formidable enough to prevent the Roman emperor Theodosius from crossing the Hebrus River.
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# Alaric I
## Service under Theodosius I {#service_under_theodosius_i}
By 392, Alaric had entered Roman military service, which coincided with a reduction of hostilities between Goths and Romans. In 394, he led a Gothic force that helped Emperor Theodosius defeat the Frankish usurper Arbogast---fighting at the behest of Eugenius---at the Battle of Frigidus. Despite sacrificing around 10,000 of his men, who had been victims of Theodosius\' callous tactical decision to overwhelm the enemies\' front lines using Gothic *foederati*, Alaric received little recognition from the emperor. Alaric was among the few who survived the protracted and bloody affair. Many Romans considered it their \"gain\" and a victory that so many Goths had died during the Battle of Frigidus River. Alaric biographer Douglas Boin (2020) posited that seeing ten thousand of his (Alaric\'s) dead kinsmen likely elicited questions about what kind of ruler Theodosius actually had been and whether remaining in direct Roman service was best for men like him. Refused the reward he expected, which included a promotion to the position of magister militum and command of regular Roman units, Alaric mutinied and began to march against Constantinople.
On 17 January 395, Theodosius died of an illness, leaving his two young and incapable sons Arcadius and Honorius in Stilicho\'s guardianship. Modern writers regard Alaric as king of the Visigoths from 395. According to historian Peter Heather, it is not entirely clear in the sources if Alaric rose to prominence at the time the Goths revolted following Theodosius\'s death, or if he had already risen within his tribe as early as the war against Eugenius. Whatever the circumstances, Jordanes recorded that the new king persuaded his people to \"seek a kingdom by their own exertions rather than serve others in idleness.\"
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# Alaric I
## Semi-independent action in Eastern Roman interests, Eastern Roman recognition {#semi_independent_action_in_eastern_roman_interests_eastern_roman_recognition}
Whether or not Alaric was a member of an ancient Germanic royal clan---as claimed by Jordanes and debated by historians---is less important than his emergence as a leader, the first of his kind since Fritigern. Theodosius\'s death left the Roman field armies collapsing and the Empire divided again between his two sons, one taking the eastern and the other the western portion of the Empire. Stilicho made himself master of the West and attempted to establish control in the East as well, and led an army into Greece. Alaric rebelled again. Historian Roger Collins points out that while the rivalries created by the two halves of the Empire vying for power worked to Alaric\'s advantage and that of his people, simply being called to authority by the Gothic people did not solve the practicalities of their needs for survival. He needed Roman authority in order to be supplied by Roman cities.
Alaric took his Gothic army on what Stilicho\'s propagandist Claudian described as a \"pillaging campaign\" that began first in the East. Historian Thomas Burns\'s interpretation is that Alaric and his men were recruited by Rufinus\'s Eastern regime in Constantinople, and sent to Thessaly to stave off Stilicho\'s threat. No battle took place. Alaric\'s forces made their way down to Athens and along the coast, where he sought to force a new peace upon the Romans. In 396, he marched through Thermopylae and sacked Athens, where archaeological evidence shows widespread damage to the city. Stilicho\'s propagandist Claudian accuses his troops of plundering for the next year or so as far south as the mountainous Peloponnese peninsula, and reports that only Stilicho\'s surprise attack with his western field army (having sailed from Italy) stemmed the plundering as he pushed Alaric\'s forces north into Epirus. Zosimus adds that Stilicho\'s troops destroyed and pillaged too, and let Alaric\'s men escape with their plunder.
Stilicho was forced to send some of his Eastern forces home. They went to Constantinople under the command of one Gainas, a Goth with a large Gothic following. On arrival, Gainas murdered Rufinus, and was appointed magister militum for Thrace by Eutropius, the new supreme minister and the only eunuch consul of Rome, who, Zosimus claims, controlled Arcadius \"as if he were a sheep\". A poem by Synesius advises Arcadius to display manliness and remove a \"skin-clad savage\" (probably referring to Alaric) from the councils of power and his barbarians from the Roman army. We do not know if Arcadius ever became aware of this advice, but it had no recorded effect.
Stilicho obtained a few more troops from the German frontier and continued to campaign indecisively against the Eastern empire; again he was opposed by Alaric and his men. During the next year, 397, Eutropius personally led his troops to victory over some Huns who were marauding in Asia Minor. With his position thus strengthened he declared Stilicho a public enemy, and he established Alaric as *magister militum per Illyricum* Alaric thus acquired entitlement to gold and grain for his followers and negotiations were underway for a more permanent settlement. Stilicho\'s supporters in Milan were outraged at this seeming betrayal; meanwhile, Eutropius was celebrated in 398 by a parade through Constantinople for having achieved victory over the \"wolves of the North\". Alaric\'s people were relatively quiet for the next couple of years. In 399, Eutropius fell from power. The new Eastern regime now felt that they could dispense with Alaric\'s services and they nominally transferred Alaric\'s province to the West. This administrative change removed Alaric\'s Roman rank and his entitlement to legal provisioning for his men, leaving his army---the only significant force in the ravaged Balkans---as a problem for Stilicho.
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# Alaric I
## In search of Western Roman recognition; invading Italy {#in_search_of_western_roman_recognition_invading_italy}
### First invasion of Italy (c. 401--403) {#first_invasion_of_italy_401403}
According to historian Michael Kulikowski, sometime in the spring of 402 Alaric decided to invade Italy, but no sources from antiquity indicate to what purpose. Burns suggests that Alaric was probably desperate for provisions. Using Claudian as his source, historian Guy Halsall reports that Alaric\'s attack actually began in late 401, but since Stilicho was in *Raetia* \"dealing with frontier issues\" the two did not first confront one another in Italy until 402. Alaric\'s entry into Italy followed the route identified in the poetry of Claudian, as he crossed the peninsula\'s Alpine frontier near the city of Aquileia. For a period of six to nine months, there were reports of Gothic attacks along the northern Italian roads, where Alaric was spotted by Roman townspeople. Along the route on *Via Postumia*, Alaric first encountered Stilicho.
Two battles were fought. The first was at Pollentia on Easter Sunday, where Stilicho (according to Claudian) achieved an impressive victory, taking Alaric\'s wife and children prisoner, and more significantly, seizing much of the treasure that Alaric had amassed over the previous five years\' worth of plundering. Pursuing the retreating forces of Alaric, Stilicho offered to return the prisoners but was refused. The second battle was at Verona, where Alaric was defeated for a second time. Stilicho once again offered Alaric a truce and allowed him to withdraw from Italy. Kulikowski explains this confusing, if not outright conciliatory behavior by stating, \"given Stilicho\'s cold war with Constantinople, it would have been foolish to destroy as biddable and violent a potential weapon as Alaric might well prove to be\". Halsall\'s observations are similar, as he contends that the Roman general\'s \"decision to permit Alaric\'s withdrawal into *Pannonia* makes sense if we see Alaric\'s force entering Stilicho\'s service, and Stilicho\'s victory being less total than Claudian would have us believe\". Perhaps more revealing is a report from the Greek historian Zosimus---writing a half a century later---that indicates an agreement was concluded between Stilicho and Alaric in 405, which suggests Alaric being in \"western service at that point\", likely stemming from arrangements made back in 402. Between 404 and 405, Alaric remained in one of the four *Pannonian* provinces, from where he could \"play East off against West while potentially threatening both\".
Historian A.D. Lee observes, \"Alaric\'s return to the north-west Balkans brought only temporary respite to Italy, for in 405 another substantial body of Goths and other barbarians, this time from outside the empire, crossed the middle Danube and advanced into northern Italy, where they plundered the countryside and besieged cities and towns\" under their leader Radagaisus. Although the imperial government was struggling to muster enough troops to contain these barbarian invasions, Stilicho managed to stifle the threat posed by the tribes under Radagaisus, when the latter split his forces into three separate groups. Stilicho cornered Radagaisus near Florence and starved the invaders into submission. Meanwhile, Alaric---bestowed with codicils of *magister militum* by Stilicho and now supplied by the West---awaited for one side or the other to incite him to action as Stilicho faced further difficulties from more barbarians.
### Second invasion of Italy, agreement with Western Roman regime {#second_invasion_of_italy_agreement_with_western_roman_regime}
Sometime in 406 and into 407, more large groups of barbarians, consisting primarily of Vandals, Sueves and Alans, crossed the Rhine into Gaul while about the same time a rebellion occurred in Britain. Under a common soldier named Constantine it spread to Gaul. Burdened by so many enemies, Stilicho\'s position was strained. During this crisis in 407, Alaric again marched on Italy, taking a position in Noricum (modern Austria), where he demanded a sum of 4,000 pounds of gold to buy off another full-scale invasion. The Roman Senate loathed the idea of supporting Alaric; Zosimus observed that one senator famously declaimed *Non est ista pax, sed pactio servitutis* (\"This is not peace, but a pact of servitude\"). Stilicho paid Alaric the 4,000 pounds of gold nevertheless. This agreement, sensible in view of the military situation, fatally weakened Stilicho\'s standing at Honorius\'s court. Twice Stilicho had allowed Alaric to escape his grasp, and Radagaisus had advanced all the way to the outskirts of Florence.
### Renewed hostilities after Western Roman coup {#renewed_hostilities_after_western_roman_coup}
In the East, Arcadius died on 1 May 408 and was replaced by his son Theodosius II; Stilicho seems to have planned to march to Constantinople, and to install there a regime loyal to himself. He may also have intended to give Alaric a senior official position and send him against the rebels in Gaul. Before Stilicho could do so, while he was away at Ticinum at the head of a small detachment, a bloody coup against his supporters took place at Honorius\'s court. It was led by Honorius\'s minister, Olympius. Stilicho\'s small escort of Goths and Huns was commanded by a Goth, Sarus, whose Gothic troops massacred the Hun contingent in their sleep, and then withdrew towards the cities in which their own families were billeted. Stilicho ordered that Sarus\'s Goths should not be admitted, but, now without an army, he was forced to flee for sanctuary. Agents of Olympius promised Stilicho his life, but instead betrayed and killed him.
Alaric was again declared an enemy of the emperor. Olympius\'s men then massacred the families of the federate troops (as presumed supporters of Stilicho, although they had probably rebelled against him), and the troops defected *en masse* to Alaric. Many thousands of barbarian auxiliaries, along with their wives and children, joined Alaric in Noricum. The conspirators seem to have let their main army disintegrate and had no policy except hunting down supporters of Stilicho. Italy was left without effective indigenous defence forces thereafter.
As a declared \'enemy of the emperor\', Alaric was denied the legitimacy that he needed to collect taxes and hold cities without large garrisons, which he could not afford to detach. He again offered to move his men, this time to Pannonia, in exchange for a modest sum of money and the modest title of Comes, but he was refused because Olympius\'s regime regarded him as a supporter of Stilicho.
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# Alaric I
## In search of Western Roman recognition; invading Italy {#in_search_of_western_roman_recognition_invading_italy}
### First siege of Rome, agreed ransom {#first_siege_of_rome_agreed_ransom}
When Alaric was rebuffed, he led his force of around 30,000 men---many newly enlisted and understandably motivated---on a march toward Rome to avenge their murdered families. He moved across the Julian Alps into Italy, probably using the route and supplies arranged for him by Stilicho, bypassing the imperial court in Ravenna which was protected by widespread marshland and had a port, and in September 408 he menaced the city of Rome, imposing a strict blockade. No blood was shed this time; Alaric relied on hunger as his most powerful weapon. When the ambassadors of the Senate, entreating for peace, tried to intimidate him with hints of what the despairing citizens might accomplish, he laughed and gave his celebrated answer: \"The thicker the hay, the easier mowed!\" After much bargaining, the famine-stricken citizens agreed to pay a ransom of 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000 hides dyed scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper. Alaric also recruited some 40,000 freed Gothic slaves. Thus ended Alaric\'s first siege of Rome.
### Failed agreement with the Western Romans, Alaric sets up his own emperor {#failed_agreement_with_the_western_romans_alaric_sets_up_his_own_emperor}
After having provisionally agreed to the terms offered by Alaric for lifting the blockade, Honorius recanted; historian A.D. Lee highlights that one of the points of contention for the emperor was Alaric\'s expectation of being named head of the Roman Army, a post Honorius was not prepared to grant to Alaric. When this title was not bestowed onto Alaric, he proceeded to not only \"besiege Rome again in late 409, but also to proclaim a leading senator, Priscus Attalus, as a rival emperor, from whom Alaric then received the appointment\" he desired. Meanwhile, Alaric\'s newly appointed \"emperor\" Attalus, who seems not to have understood the limits of his power or his dependence on Alaric, failed to take Alaric\'s advice and lost the grain supply in Africa to a pro-Honorian *comes Africae*, Heraclian. Then, sometime in 409, Attalus---accompanied by Alaric---marched on Ravenna and after receiving unprecedented terms and concessions from the legitimate emperor Honorius, refused him and instead demanded that Honorius be deposed and exiled. Fearing for his safety, Honorius made preparations to flee to Ravenna when ships carrying 4,000 troops arrived from Constantinople, restoring his resolve. Now that Honorius no longer felt the need to negotiate, Alaric (regretting his choice of puppet emperor) deposed Attalus, perhaps to re-open negotiations with Ravenna.
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# Alaric I
## In search of Western Roman recognition; invading Italy {#in_search_of_western_roman_recognition_invading_italy}
### Sack of Rome {#sack_of_rome}
Negotiations with Honorius might have succeeded had it not been for another intervention by Sarus, of the Amal family, and therefore a hereditary enemy of Alaric and his house. He attacked Alaric\'s men. Why Sarus, who had been in imperial service for years under Stilicho, acted at this moment remains a mystery, but Alaric interpreted this attack as directed by Ravenna and as bad faith from Honorius. No longer would negotiations suffice for Alaric, as his patience had reached its end, which led him to march on Rome for a third and final time.
On 24 August 410, Alaric and his forces began the sack of Rome, an assault that lasted three days. After hearing reports that Alaric had entered the city---possibly aided by Gothic slaves inside---there were reports that Emperor Honorius (safe in Ravenna) broke into \"wailing and lamentation\" but quickly calmed once \"it was explained to him that it was the city of Rome that had met its end and not \'Roma\',\" his pet fowl. Writing from Bethlehem, St. Jerome (Letter 127.12, to the lady *Principia*) lamented: \"A dreadful rumour reached us from the West. We heard that Rome was besieged, that the citizens were buying their safety with gold ... The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken; nay, it fell by famine before it fell to the sword.\" Nonetheless, Christian writers also cited how Alaric ordered that anyone who took shelter in a Church was to be spared. When liturgical vessels were taken from the basilica of St. Peter and Alaric heard of this, he ordered them returned and had them ceremoniously restored in the church. If the account from the historian Orosius can be seen as accurate, there was even a celebratory recognition of Christian unity by way of a procession through the streets where Romans and barbarians alike \"raised a hymn to God in public\"; historian Edward James concludes that such stories are likely more political rhetoric of the \"noble\" barbarians than a reflection of historical reality.
According to historian Patrick Geary, Roman booty was not the focus of Alaric\'s sack of Rome; he came for needed food supplies. Historian Stephen Mitchell asserts that Alaric\'s followers seemed incapable of feeding themselves and relied on provisions \"supplied by the Roman authorities.\" Whatever Alaric\'s intentions were cannot be known entirely, but Kulikowski certainly sees the issue of available treasure in a different light, writing that \"For three days, Alaric\'s Goths sacked the city, stripping it of the wealth of centuries.\" The barbarian invaders were not gentle in their treatment of property as substantial damage was still evident into the sixth century. Certainly the Roman world was shaken by the fall of the Eternal City to barbarian invaders, but as Guy Halsall emphasizes, \"Rome\'s fall had less striking political effects. Alaric, unable to treat with Honorius, remained in the political cold.\" Kulikowski sees the situation similarly, commenting:
> But for Alaric the sack of Rome was an admission of defeat, a catastrophic failure. Everything he had hoped for, had fought for over the course of a decade and a half, went up in flames with the capital of the ancient world. Imperial office, a legitimate place for himself and his followers inside the empire, these were now forever out of reach. He might seize what he wanted, as he had seized Rome, but he would never be given it by right. The sack of Rome solved nothing and when the looting was over Alaric\'s men still had nowhere to live and fewer future prospects than ever before.
Still, the importance of Alaric cannot be \"overestimated\" according to Halsall, since he had desired and obtained a Roman command even though he was a barbarian; his real misfortune was being caught between the rivalry of the Eastern and Western empires and their court intrigue. According to historian Peter Brown, when one compares Alaric with other barbarians, \"he was almost an Elder Statesman.\" Nonetheless, Alaric\'s respect for Roman institutions as a former servant to its highest office did not stay his hand in violently sacking the city that had for centuries exemplified Roman glory, leaving behind physical destruction and social disruption, while Alaric took clerics and even the emperor\'s sister, Galla Placidia, with him when he left the city. Many other Italian communities beyond the city of Rome itself fell victim to the forces under Alaric, as Procopius (*Wars* 3.2.11--13) writing in the sixth century later relates:
> For they destroyed all the cities which they captured, especially those south of the Ionian Gulf, so completely that nothing has been left to my time to know them by, unless, indeed, it might be one tower or gate or some such thing which chanced to remain. And they killed all the people, as many as came in their way, both old and young alike, sparing neither women nor children. Wherefore even up to the present time Italy is sparsely populated.
Whether Alaric\'s forces wrought the level of destruction described by Procopius or not cannot be known, but evidence speaks to a significant population decrease, as the number of people on the food dole dropped from 800,000 in 408 to 500,000 by 419. Rome\'s fall to the barbarians was as much a psychological blow to the empire as anything else, since some Romans citizens saw the collapse as resulting from the conversion to Christianity, while Christian theologians like St.Augustine (writing *City of God*) responded in turn. Lamenting Rome\'s capture, famed Christian theologian Jerome, wrote how \"day and night\" he could not stop thinking of everyone\'s safety, and moreover, how Alaric had extinguished \"the bright light of all the world.\" Some contemporary Christian observers even saw Alaric---a professed Christian---as God\'s wrath upon a still pagan Rome.
### Move to southern Italy, death from disease {#move_to_southern_italy_death_from_disease}
Not only had Rome\'s sack been a significant blow to the Roman people\'s morale, they had also endured two years\' worth of trauma brought about by fear, hunger (due to blockades), and illness. However, the Goths were not long in the city of Rome, as only three days after the sack, Alaric marched his men south to Campania, from where he intended to sail to Sicily---probably to obtain grain and other supplies---when a storm destroyed his fleet. During the early months of 411, while on his northward return journey through Italy, Alaric took ill and died at Consentia in Bruttium. His cause of death was likely fever, and his body was, according to legend, buried under the riverbed of the Busento in accordance with the pagan practices of the Visigothic people. The stream was temporarily turned aside from its course while the grave was dug, wherein the Gothic chief and some of his most precious spoils were interred. When the work was finished, the river was turned back into its usual channel and the captives by whose hands the labour had been accomplished were put to death that none might learn their secret.
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# Alaric I
## Aftermath
Alaric was succeeded in the command of the Gothic army by his brother-in-law, Ataulf, who married Honorius\' sister Galla Placidia three years later. Following in the wake of Alaric\'s leadership, which Kulikowski claims, had given his people \"a sense of community that survived his own death\...Alaric\'s Goths remained together inside the empire, going on to settle in Gaul. There, in the province of Aquitaine, they put down roots and created the first autonomous barbarian kingdom inside the frontiers of the Roman empire.\" The Goths were able to settle in Aquitaine only after Honorius granted the once Roman province to them, sometime in 418 or 419. Not long after Alaric\'s exploits in Rome and Athaulf\'s settlement in Aquitaine, there is a \"rapid emergence of Germanic barbarian groups in the West\" who begin controlling many western provinces. These barbarian peoples included: Vandals in Spain and Africa, Visigoths in Spain and Aquitaine, Burgundians along the upper Rhine and southern Gaul, and Franks on the lower Rhine and in northern and central Gaul
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# Alaric II
**Alaric II** (*𐌰𐌻𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍃*, *Alareiks\]\]*, \'ruler of all\'; *Alaricus*; c. 458/466 -- August 507) was the King of the Visigoths from 484 until 507. He succeeded his father Euric as King of the Visigoths in Toulouse on 28 December 484; he was the great-grandson of the more famous Alaric I, who sacked Rome in 410. He established his capital at Aire-sur-l\'Adour (*Vicus Julii*) in Aquitaine. His dominions included not only the majority of Hispania (excluding its northwestern corner) but also Gallia Aquitania and the greater part of an as-yet undivided Gallia Narbonensis.
## Reign
Herwig Wolfram opens his chapter on the eighth Visigothic king, \"Alaric\'s reign gets no full treatment in the sources, and the little they do contain is overshadowed by his death in the Battle of Vouillé and the downfall of the Toulosan kingdom.\" One example is Isidore of Seville\'s account of Alaric\'s reign: consisting of a single paragraph, it is primarily about Alaric\'s death in that battle.
The earliest-documented event in Alaric\'s reign concerned providing refuge to Syagrius, the former ruler of the Domain of Soissons (in what is now northwestern France) who had been defeated by Clovis I, King of the Franks. According to Gregory of Tours\' account, Alaric was intimidated by Clovis into surrendering Syagrius to Clovis; Gregory then adds that \"the Goths are a timorous race.\" The Franks then imprisoned Syagrius, and once his control over Syagrius\' former kingdom was secure, Clovis had him beheaded. However, Wolfram points out that at the time \"Clovis got no farther than the Seine; only after several more years did the Franks succeed in occupying the rest of the Gallo-Roman buffer state north of the Loire.\" Any threat of war Clovis could make would only be effective if they were neighbors; \"it is nowhere written that Syagrius was handed over in 486 or 487.\"
Despite Frankish advances in the years that followed, Alaric was not afraid to take the military initiative when it presented itself. In 490, Alaric assisted his fellow Gothic king, Theodoric the Great, in his conquest of Italy by dispatching an army to raise Odoacer\'s siege of Pavia, where Theodoric had been trapped. Then when the Franks attacked the Burgundians in the decade after 500, Alaric assisted the ruling house, and according to Wolfram the victorious Burgundian king Gundobad ceded Avignon to Alaric. By 502 Clovis and Alaric met on an island in the Loire near Amboise for face-to-face talks, which led to a peace treaty.
In 506, the Visigoths captured the city of Dertosa in the Ebro valley. There they captured the Roman usurper Peter and had him executed.
## Battle of Vouillé and aftermath {#battle_of_vouillé_and_aftermath}
After a few years, however, Clovis violated the peace treaty negotiated in 502. Despite the diplomatic intervention of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths and father-in-law of Alaric, Clovis led his followers into Visigothic territory. Alaric was forced by his magnates to meet Clovis in the Battle of Vouillé (summer 507) near Poitiers; there the Goths were defeated and Alaric slain, according to Gregory of Tours, by Clovis himself.
The most serious consequence of this battle was not the loss of their possessions in Gaul to the Franks; with Ostrogothic help, much of the Gallic territory was recovered, Wolfram notes, perhaps as far as Toulouse. Nor was it the loss of the royal treasury at Toulouse, which Gregory of Tours writes Clovis took into his possession. As Peter Heather notes, the Visigothic kingdom was thrown into disarray \"by the death of its king in battle\". Alaric\'s heirs were his eldest son, the illegitimate Gesalec, and his younger son, the legitimate Amalaric, who was still a child. Gesalec proved incompetent, and in 511 King Theodoric assumed the throne of the kingdom ostensibly on behalf of Amalaric---Heather uses the word \"hijacked\" to describe his action. Although Amalaric eventually became king in his own right, the political continuity of the Visigothic kingdom was broken; \"Amalaric\'s succession was the result of new power structures, not old ones,\" as Heather describes it. With Amalaric\'s death in 531, the Visigothic kingdom entered an extended period of unrest which lasted until Leovigild assumed the throne in 569.
## Ability as king {#ability_as_king}
In religion Alaric was an Arian, like all the early Visigothic nobles, but he greatly mitigated the persecution policy of his father Euric toward the Catholics and authorized them to hold in 506 the council of Agde. He was on uneasy terms with the Catholic bishops of Arelate (modern Arles) as epitomized in the career of the Gallo-Roman Caesarius, bishop of Arles, who was appointed bishop in 503. Caesarius was suspected of conspiring with the Burgundians, whose king had married the sister of Clovis, to assist the Burgundians capture Arles. Alaric exiled him for a year to Bordeaux in Aquitania, then allowed him to return unharmed when the crisis had passed.
Alaric displayed similar wisdom in political affairs by appointing a commission headed by the referendary Anianus to prepare an abstract of the Roman laws and imperial decrees, which would form the authoritative code for his Roman subjects. This is generally known as the *Breviarium Alaricianum* or Breviary of Alaric.
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# Alaric II
## Legacy
The Montagne d\'Alaric (Alaric\'s Mountain), near Carcassonne, is named after the Visigoth king. Local rumour has it that he left a vast treasure buried in the caves beneath the mountain.
The Canal d\'Alaric (Alaric\'s Canal) in the Hautes-Pyrénées department is named after him
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# Alboin
**Alboin** (530s -- 28 June 572) was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effect on Italy and the Pannonian Basin; in the former, his invasion marked the beginning of centuries of Lombard rule, and in the latter, his defeat of the Gepids and his departure from Pannonia ended the dominance there of the Germanic peoples.
The period of Alboin\'s reign as king in Pannonia following the death of his father, Audoin, was one of confrontation and conflict between the Lombards and their main neighbours, the Gepids. The Gepids initially gained the upper hand, but in 567, thanks to his alliance with the Avars, Alboin inflicted a decisive defeat on his enemies, whose lands the Avars subsequently occupied. The increasing power of his new neighbours caused Alboin some unease however, and he therefore decided to leave Pannonia for Italy, hoping to take advantage of the Byzantine Empire\'s vulnerability in defending its territory in the wake of the Gothic War.
After gathering a large coalition of peoples, Alboin crossed the Julian Alps in 568, entering an almost undefended Italy. He rapidly took control of most of Venetia and Liguria. In 569, unopposed, he took northern Italy\'s main city, Milan. Pavia offered stiff resistance, however, and was taken only after a siege lasting three years. During that time Alboin turned his attention to Tuscany, but signs of factionalism among his supporters and Alboin\'s diminishing control over his army increasingly began to manifest themselves.
Alboin was assassinated on 28 June 572, in a coup d\'état instigated by the Byzantines. It was organized by the king\'s foster brother, Helmichis, with the support of Alboin\'s wife, Rosamund, daughter of the Gepid king whom Alboin had killed some years earlier. The coup failed in the face of opposition from a majority of the Lombards, who elected Cleph as Alboin\'s successor, forcing Helmichis and Rosamund to flee to Ravenna under imperial protection. Alboin\'s death deprived the Lombards of the only leader who could have kept the newborn Germanic entity together, the last in the line of hero-kings who had led the Lombards through their migrations from the vale of the Elbe to Italy. For many centuries following his death Alboin\'s heroism and his success in battle were celebrated in Saxon and Bavarian epic poetry.
## Etymology
The name Alboin derives from the Proto-Germanic roots \**albiz* (\"elf\") and \**winiz* (\"friend\"); it is thus cognate with the Old English name *Ælfwine*. He was known in Latin as *Alboinus* and in Greek as Ἀλβοΐνος (*Alboinos*). In modern Italian he is *Alboino* and in modern Lombard *Alboin*.
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# Alboin
## Father\'s rule {#fathers_rule}
The Lombards under King Wacho had migrated towards the east into Pannonia, taking advantage of the difficulties facing the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy following the death of its founder, Theodoric, in 526. Wacho\'s death in about 540 brought his son Walthari to the throne, but, as the latter was still a minor, the kingdom was governed in his stead by Alboin\'s father, Audoin, of the Gausian clan. Seven years later Walthari died, giving Audoin the opportunity to crown himself and overthrow the reigning Lethings.
Alboin was probably born in the 530s in Pannonia, the son of Audoin and his wife, Rodelinda. She may have been the niece of King Theodoric and betrothed to Audoin through the mediation of Emperor Justinian. Like his father, Alboin was raised a pagan, although Audoin had at one point attempted to gain Byzantine support against his neighbours by professing himself a Christian. Alboin took as his first wife the Christian Chlothsind, daughter of the Frankish King Chlothar. This marriage, which took place soon after the death of the Frankish ruler Theudebald in 555, is thought to reflect Audoin\'s decision to distance himself from the Byzantines, traditional allies of the Lombards, who had been lukewarm when it came to supporting Audoin against the Gepids. The new Frankish alliance was important because of the Franks\' known hostility to the Byzantine empire, providing the Lombards with more than one option. However, the *Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire* interprets events and sources differently, believing that Alboin married Chlothsind when already a king in or shortly before 561, the year of Chlothar\'s death.
Alboin first distinguished himself on the battlefield in a clash with the Gepids. At the Battle of Asfeld (552), he killed Turismod, son of the Gepid king Thurisind, in a victory that resulted in Emperor Justinian\'s intervention to maintain equilibrium between the rival regional powers. After the battle, according to a tradition reported by Paul the Deacon, to be granted the right to sit at his father\'s table, Alboin had to ask for the hospitality of a foreign king and have him donate his weapons, as was customary. For this initiation, he went to the court of Thurisind, where the Gepid king gave him Turismod\'s arms. Walter Goffart believes it is probable that in this narrative Paul was making use of an oral tradition, and is sceptical that it can be dismissed as merely a typical *topos* of an epic poem.
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# Alboin
## Reign in Pannonia {#reign_in_pannonia}
Alboin came to the throne after the death of his father, sometime between 560 and 565. As was customary among the Lombards, Alboin took the crown after an election by the tribe\'s freemen, who traditionally selected the king from the dead sovereign\'s clan. Shortly, in 565, a new war erupted with the Gepids, now led by Cunimund, Thurisind\'s son. The cause of the conflict is uncertain, as the sources are divided; the Lombard Paul the Deacon accuses the Gepids, while the Byzantine historian Menander Protector places the blame on Alboin, an interpretation favoured by historian Walter Pohl.
An account of the war by the Byzantine Theophylact Simocatta sentimentalises the reasons behind the conflict, claiming it originated with Alboin\'s vain courting and subsequent kidnapping of Cunimund\'s daughter Rosamund, that Alboin proceeded then to marry. The tale is treated with scepticism by Walter Goffart, who observes that it conflicts with the *Origo Gentis Langobardorum*, where she was captured only after the death of her father. The Gepids obtained the support of the Emperor in exchange for a promise to cede him the region of Sirmium, the seat of the Gepid kings. Thus in 565 or 566 Justinian\'s successor Justin II sent his son-in-law Baduarius as *magister militum* (field commander) to lead a Byzantine army against Alboin in support of Cunimund, ending in the Lombards\' complete defeat.
Faced with the possibility of annihilation, Alboin made an alliance in 566 with the Avars under Bayan I, at the expense of some tough conditions: the Avars demanded a tenth of the Lombards\' cattle, half of the war booty, and on the war\'s conclusion all of the lands held by the Gepids. The Lombards played on the pre-existing hostility between the Avars and the Byzantines, claiming that the latter were allied with the Gepids. Cunimund, on the other hand, encountered hostility when he once again asked the Emperor for military assistance, as the Byzantines had been angered by the Gepids\' failure to cede Sirmium to them, as had been agreed. Moreover, Justin II was moving away from the foreign policy of Justinian, and believed in dealing more strictly with bordering states and peoples. Attempts to mollify Justin II with tributes failed, and as a result the Byzantines kept themselves neutral if not outright supportive of the Avars.
In 567 the allies made their final move against Cunimund, with Alboin invading the Gepids\' lands from the northwest while Bayan attacked from the northeast. Cunimund attempted to prevent the two armies from joining up by moving against the Lombards and clashing with Alboin somewhere between the Tibiscus and Danube rivers. The Gepids were defeated in the ensuing battle, their king slain by Alboin, and Cunimund\'s daughter Rosamund taken captive, according to references in the *Origo*. The full destruction of the Gepid kingdom was completed by the Avars, who overcame the Gepids in the east. As a result, the Gepids ceased to exist as an independent people and were partly absorbed by the Lombards and the Avars. Sometime before 568, Alboin\'s first wife Chlothsind died, and after his victory against Cunimund Alboin married Rosamund, to establish a bond with the remaining Gepids. The war also marked a watershed in the geo-political history of the region, as together with the Lombard migration the following year, it signalled the end of six centuries of Germanic dominance in the Pannonian Basin.
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# Alboin
## Preparations and departure from Pannonia {#preparations_and_departure_from_pannonia}
Despite his success against the Gepids, Alboin had failed to greatly increase his power, and was now faced with a much stronger threat from the Avars. Historians consider this the decisive factor in convincing Alboin to undertake a migration, even though there are indications that before the war with the Gepids a decision was maturing to leave for Italy, a country thousands of Lombards had seen in the 550s when hired by the Byzantines to fight in the Gothic War. Additionally, the Lombards would have known of the weakness of Byzantine Italy, which had endured a number of problems after being retaken from the Goths. In particular the so-called Plague of Justinian had ravaged the region and conflict remained endemic, with the Three-Chapter Controversy sparking religious opposition and administration at a standstill after the able governor of the peninsula, Narses, was recalled. Nevertheless, the Lombards viewed Italy as a rich land which promised great booty, assets Alboin used to gather together a horde which included not only Lombards but many other peoples of the region, including Heruli, Suebi, Gepids, Thuringii, Bulgars, Sarmatians, the remaining Romans and a few Ostrogoths. But the most important group, other than the Lombards, were the Saxons, of whom 20,000 male warriors with their families participated in the trek. These Saxons were tributaries to the Frankish King Sigebert, and their participation indicates that Alboin had the support of the Franks for his venture.
The precise size of the heterogeneous group gathered by Alboin is impossible to know, and many different estimates have been made. Neil Christie considers 150,000 to be a realistic size, a number which would make the Lombards a more numerous force than the Ostrogoths on the eve of their invasion of Italy. Jörg Jarnut proposes 100,000--150,000 as an approximation; Wilfried Menghen in *Die Langobarden* estimates 150,000 to 200,000; while Stefano Gasparri cautiously judges the peoples united by Alboin to be somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000.
As a precautionary move Alboin strengthened his alliance with the Avars, signing what Paul calls a *foedus perpetuum* (\"perpetual treaty\") and what is referred to in the 9th-century *Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani* as a *pactum et foedus amicitiae* (\"pact and treaty of friendship\"), adding that the treaty was put down on paper. By the conditions accepted in the treaty, the Avars were to take possession of Pannonia and the Lombards were promised military support in Italy should the need arise; also, for a period of 200 years, the Lombards were to maintain the right to reclaim their former territories if the plan to conquer Italy failed, thus leaving Alboin with an alternative open. The accord also had the advantage of protecting Alboin\'s rear, as an Avar-occupied Pannonia would make it difficult for the Byzantines to bring forces to Italy by land. The agreement proved immensely successful, and relations with the Avars were almost uninterruptedly friendly during the lifetime of the Lombard Kingdom.
A further cause of the Lombard migration into Italy may have been an invitation from Narses. According to a controversial tradition reported by several medieval sources, Narses, out of spite for having been removed by Justinian\'s successor Justin II, called the Lombards to Italy. Often dismissed as an unreliable tradition, it has been studied with attention by modern scholars, in particular Neil Christie, who see in it a possible record of a formal invitation by the Byzantine state to settle in northern Italy as *foederati*, to help protect the region against the Franks, an arrangement that may have been disowned by Justin II after Narses\' removal.
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# Alboin
## Preparations and departure from Pannonia {#preparations_and_departure_from_pannonia}
### March to Italy {#march_to_italy}
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\"This Albuin led into Italy the Langobards who were invited by Narses (chief) of the secretaries. And Albuin, king of the Langobards, moved out of Pannonia in the month of April after Easter in the first indiction. In the second indiction, indeed, they began to plunder in Italy, but in the third indiction he became master of Italy.\"
***The Origin of the Nation of the Langobards***, Chapter V
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The Lombard migration started on Easter Monday, 2 April 568. The decision to combine the departure with a Christian celebration can be understood in the context of Alboin\'s recent conversion to Arian Christianity, as attested by the presence of Arian Gothic missionaries at his court. The conversion is likely to have been motivated mostly by political considerations, and intended to consolidate the migration\'s cohesion, distinguishing the migrants from the Catholic Romans. It also connected Alboin and his people to the Gothic heritage, and in this way obtained the support of the Ostrogoths serving in the Byzantine army as *foederati*. It has been speculated that Alboin\'s migration could have been partly the result of a call from surviving Ostrogoths in Italy.
The season chosen for leaving Pannonia was unusually early; the Germanic peoples generally waited until autumn before beginning the migration, giving themselves time to do the harvesting and replenish their granaries for the march. The reason behind the spring departure could be the anxiety induced by the neighbouring Avars, despite the friendship treaty. Nomadic peoples like the Avars also waited for autumn to begin their military campaigns, as they needed enough forage for their horses. A sign of this anxiety can also be seen in the decision taken by Alboin to ravage Pannonia, which created a safety zone between the Lombards and the Avars.
The road followed by Alboin to reach Italy has been the subject of controversy, as is the length of the trek. According to Neil Christie, the Lombards divided themselves into migrational groups, with a vanguard scouting the road, probably following the Poetovio -- Celeia -- Emona -- Forum Iulii route, while the wagons and most of the people proceeded slowly behind because of the goods and chattels they brought with them, and possibly also because they were waiting for the Saxons to join them on the road. By September raiding parties were looting Venetia, but it was probably only in 569 that the Julian Alps were crossed at the Vipava Valley; the eyewitness Secundus of Non gives the date as 20 or 21 May. The 569 date for the entry into Italy is not void of difficulties however, and Jörg Jarnut believes the conquest of most of Venetia had already been completed in 568. According to Carlo Guido Mor, a major difficulty remains in explaining how Alboin could have reached Milan on 3 September assuming he had passed the border only in the May of the same year.
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# Alboin
## Invasion of Italy {#invasion_of_italy}
### Foundation of the Duchy of Friuli {#foundation_of_the_duchy_of_friuli}
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| \"When Alboin without any hindrance had thence entered the territories of Venetia \[\...\] -- that is, the limits of the city or rather of the fortress of Forum Julii (Cividale) -- he began to consider to whom he should especially commit the first of the provinces that he had taken. \[\...\] he determined \[\...\] to put over the city of Forum Julii and over its whole district, his nephew Gisulf \[\...\] This Gisulf announced that he would not first undertake the government of the city and people unless Alboin would give him the \"faras\", that is, the families or stocks of the Langobards that he himself wished to choose. And this was done\" |
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| ***Paul the Deacon***\ |
| Historia Langobardorum, Book II, Ch. 9 |
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The Lombards penetrated into Italy without meeting any resistance from the border troops (*milities limitanei*). The Byzantine military resources available on the spot were scant and of dubious loyalty, and the border forts may well have been left unmanned. What seems certain is that archaeological excavations have found no sign of violent confrontation in the sites that have been excavated. This agrees with Paul the Deacon\'s narrative, who speaks of a Lombard takeover in Friuli \"without any hindrance\".
The first town to fall into the Lombards\' hands was Forum Iulii (Cividale del Friuli), the seat of the local *magister militum*. Alboin chose this walled town close to the frontier to be capital of the Duchy of Friuli and made his nephew and shield bearer, Gisulf, duke of the region, with the specific duty of defending the borders from Byzantine or Avar attacks from the east. Gisulf obtained from his uncle the right to choose for his duchy those *farae*, or clans, that he preferred.
Alboin\'s decision to create a duchy and designate a duke were both important innovations; until then, the Lombards had never had dukes or duchies based on a walled town. The innovation adopted was part of Alboin\'s borrowing of Roman and Ostrogothic administrative models, as in Late Antiquity the *comes civitatis* (city count) was the main local authority, with full administrative powers in his region. But the shift from count (*comes*) to duke (*dux*) and from county (*comitatus*) to duchy (*ducatus*) also signalled the progressive militarization of Italy. The selection of a fortified town as the centre for the new duchy was also an important change from the time in Pannonia, for while urbanized settlements had previously been ignored by the Lombards, now a considerable part of the nobility settled itself in Forum Iulii, a pattern that was repeated regularly by the Lombards in their other duchies.
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# Alboin
## Invasion of Italy {#invasion_of_italy}
### Conquest of Milan {#conquest_of_milan}
From Forum Iulii, Alboin next reached Aquileia, the most important road junction in the northeast, and the administrative capital of Venetia. The imminent arrival of the Lombards had a considerable impact on the city\'s population; the Patriarch of Aquileia Paulinus fled with his clergy and flock to the island of Grado in Byzantine-controlled territory.
From Aquileia, Alboin took the Via Postumia and swept through Venetia, taking in rapid succession Tarvisium (Treviso), Vicentia (Vicenza), Verona, Brixia (Brescia) and Bergomum (Bergamo). The Lombards faced difficulties only in taking Opitergium (Oderzo), which Alboin decided to avoid, as he similarly avoided tackling the main Venetian towns closer to the coast on the Via Annia, such as Altinum, Patavium (Padova), Mons Silicis (Monselice), Mantua and Cremona. The invasion of Venetia generated a considerable level of turmoil, spurring waves of refugees from the Lombard-controlled interior to the Byzantine-held coast, often led by their bishops, and resulting in new settlements such as Torcello and Heraclia.
Alboin moved west in his march, invading the region of Liguria (north-west Italy) and reaching its capital Mediolanum (Milan) on 3 September 569, only to find it already abandoned by the *vicarius Italiae* (vicar of Italy), the authority entrusted with the administration of the diocese of Annonarian Italy. Archbishop Honoratus, his clergy, and part of the laity accompanied the *vicarius Italiae* to find a safe haven in the Byzantine port of Genua (Genoa). Alboin counted the years of his reign from the capture of Milan when he assumed the title of *dominus Italiae* (Lord of Italy). His success also meant the collapse of Byzantine defences in the northern part of the Po plain, and large movements of refugees to Byzantine areas.
Several explanations have been advanced to explain the swiftness and ease of the initial Lombard advance in northern Italy. It has been suggested that the towns\' doors may have been opened by the betrayal of the Gothic auxiliaries in the Byzantine army, but historians generally hold that Lombard\'s success occurred because Italy was not considered by Byzantium as a vital part of the empire, especially at a time when the empire was imperilled by the attacks of Avars and Slavs in the Balkans and Sassanids in the east. The Byzantine decision not to contest the Lombard invasion reflects the desire of Justinian\'s successors to reorient the core of the Empire\'s policies eastward.
### Impact of the migration on Annonarian Italy {#impact_of_the_migration_on_annonarian_italy}
The impact of the Lombard migration on the Late Roman aristocracy was disruptive, especially in combination with the Gothic War; the latter conflict had finished in the north only in 562, when the last Gothic stronghold, Verona, was taken. Many men of means (Paul\'s *possessores*) either lost their lives or their goods, but the exact extent of the despoliation of the Roman aristocracy is a subject of heated debate. The clergy was also greatly affected. The Lombards were mostly pagans and displayed little respect for the clergy and Church property. Many churchmen left their sees to escape from the Lombards, like the two most senior bishops in the north, Honoratus and Paulinus. However, most of the suffragan bishops in the north sought an accommodation with the Lombards, as did in 569 the bishop of Tarvisium, Felix, when he journeyed to the Piave river to parley with Alboin, obtaining respect for the Church and its goods in return for this act of homage. It seems certain that many sees maintained an uninterrupted episcopal succession through the turmoil of the invasion and the following years. The transition was eased by the hostility existing among the northern Italian bishops towards the papacy and the empire due to the religious dispute involving the \"Three-Chapter Controversy\". In Lombard territory, churchmen were at least sure to avoid imperial religious persecution.
In the view of Pierre Riché, the disappearance of 220 bishops\' seats indicates that the Lombard migration was a crippling catastrophe for the Church. Yet according to Walter Pohl the regions directly occupied by Alboin suffered less devastation and had a relatively robust survival rate for towns, whereas the occupation of territory by autonomous military bands interested mainly in raiding and looting had a more severe impact, with the bishoprics in such places rarely surviving.
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# Alboin
## Invasion of Italy {#invasion_of_italy}
### Siege of Ticinum {#siege_of_ticinum}
The first attested instance of strong resistance to Alboin\'s migration took place at the town of Ticinum (Pavia), which he started to besiege in 569 and captured only after three years. The town was of strategic importance, sitting at the confluence of the rivers Po and Ticino and connected by waterways to Ravenna, the capital of Byzantine Italy and the seat of the Praetorian prefecture of Italy. Its fall cut direct communications between the garrisons stationed on the Alpes Maritimae and the Adriatic coast.
Careful to maintain the initiative against the Byzantines, by 570 Alboin had taken their last defences in northern Italy except for the coastal areas of Liguria and Venetia and a few isolated inland centres such as Augusta Praetoria (Aosta), Segusio (Susa), and the island of Amacina in the Larius Lucus (Lake Como). During Alboin\'s kingship the Lombards crossed the Apennines and plundered Tuscia, but historians are not in full agreement as to whether this took place under his guidance and if this constituted anything more than raiding. According to Herwig Wolfram, it was probably only in 578--579 that Tuscany was conquered, but Jörg Jarnut and others believe this began in some form under Alboin, although it was not completed by the time of his death.
Alboin\'s problems in maintaining control over his people worsened during the siege of Ticinum. The nature of the Lombard monarchy made it difficult for a ruler to exert the same degree of authority over his subjects as had been exercised by Theodoric over his Goths, and the structure of the army gave great authority to the military commanders or *duces*, who led each band (*fara*) of warriors. Additionally, the difficulties encountered by Alboin in building a solid political entity resulted from a lack of imperial legitimacy, as, unlike the Ostrogoths, they had not entered Italy as *foederati* but as enemies of the Empire.
The king\'s disintegrating authority over his army was also manifested in the invasion of Frankish Burgundy which from 569 or 570 was subject to yearly raids on a major scale. The Lombard attacks were ultimately repelled following Mummolus\' victory at Embrun. These attacks had lasting political consequences, souring the previously cordial Lombard-Frankish relations and opening the door to an alliance between the Empire and the Franks against the Lombards, a coalition agreed to by Guntram in about 571. Alboin is generally thought not to have been behind this invasion, but an alternative interpretation of the transalpine raids presented by Gian Piero Bognetti is that Alboin may actually have been involved in the offensive on Guntram as part of an alliance with the Frankish king of Austrasia, Sigebert I. This view is met with scepticism by scholars such as Chris Wickham.
The weakening of royal authority may also have resulted in the conquest of much of southern Italy by the Lombards, in which modern scholars believe Alboin played no role at all, probably taking place in 570 or 571 under the auspices of individual warlords. However it is far from certain that the Lombard takeover occurred during those years, as very little is known of Faroald and Zotto\'s respective rises to power in Spoletium (Spoleto) and Beneventum (Benevento).
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# Alboin
## Assassination
### Earliest narratives {#earliest_narratives}
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| \"When his wife Chlotsinda died, Albin married another wife whose father he had killed a short time before. For this reason, the woman always hated her husband and awaited an opportunity to avenge the wrong done to her father, and so it happened that she fell in love with one of the household slaves and poisoned her husband. When he died she went off with the slave but they were overtaken and put to death together.\" |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ***Gregory of Tours***\ |
| Historia Francorum, Book II, Ch. 41 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Ticinum eventually fell to the Lombards in either May or June 572. Alboin had in the meantime chosen Verona as his seat, establishing himself and his treasure in a royal palace built there by Theodoric. This choice may have been another attempt to link himself with the Gothic king.
It was in this palace that Alboin was killed on 28 June 572. In the account given by Paul the Deacon, the most detailed narrative on Alboin\'s death, history and saga intermingle almost inextricably. Much earlier and shorter is the story told by Marius of Aventicum in his *Chronica*, written about a decade after Alboin\'s murder. According to his version, the king was killed in a conspiracy by a man close to him, called Hilmegis (Paul\'s Helmechis), with the connivance of the queen. Helmichis then married the widow, but the two were forced to escape to Byzantine Ravenna, taking with them the royal treasure and part of the army, which hints at the cooperation of Byzantium. Roger Collins describes Marius as an especially reliable source because of his early date and his having lived close to Lombard Italy.
Also contemporary is Gregory of Tours\' account presented in the *Historia Francorum*, and echoed by the later Fredegar. Gregory\'s account diverges in several respects from most other sources. In his tale it is told how Alboin married the daughter of a man he had slain, and how she waited for a suitable occasion for revenge, eventually poisoning him. She had previously fallen in love with one of her husband\'s servants, and after the assassination tried to escape with him, but they were captured and killed. However, historians including Walter Goffart place little trust in this narrative. Goffart notes other similar doubtful stories in the *Historia* and calls its account of Alboin\'s demise \"a suitably ironic tale of the doings of depraved humanity\".
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# Alboin
## Assassination
### Skull cup {#skull_cup}
Elements present in Marius\' account are echoed in Paul\'s *Historia Langobardorum*, which also contains distinctive features. One of the best-known aspects unavailable in any other source is that of the skull cup. In Paul, the events that led to Alboin\'s downfall unfold in Verona. During a great feast, Alboin gets drunk and orders his wife Rosamund to drink from his cup, made from the skull of his father-in-law Cunimund after he had slain him in 567 and married Rosamund. Alboin \"invited her to drink merrily with her father\". This reignited the queen\'s determination to avenge her father. The tale has been often dismissed as a fable and Paul was conscious of the risk of disbelief. For this reason, he insists that he saw the skull cup personally during the 740s in the royal palace of Ticinum in the hands of king Ratchis. The use of skull cups has been noticed among nomadic peoples and, in particular, among the Lombards\' neighbours, the Avars. Skull cups are believed to be part of a shamanistic ritual, where drinking from the cup was considered a way to assume the dead man\'s powers. In this context, Stefano Gasparri and Wilfried Menghen see in Cunimund\'s skull cup the sign of nomadic cultural influences on the Lombards: by drinking from his enemy\'s skull Alboin was taking his vital strength. As for the offering of the skull to Rosamund, that may have been a ritual request of complete submission of the queen and her people to the Lombards, and thus a cause of shame or humiliation. Alternatively, it may have been a rite to appease the dead through the offering of a libation. In the latter interpretation, the queen\'s answer reveals her determination not to let the wound opened by the killing of her father be healed through a ritual act, thus openly displaying her thirst for revenge.
The episode is read in a radically different way by Walter Goffart. According to him, the whole story assumes an allegorical meaning, with Paul intent on telling an edifying story of the downfall of the hero and his expulsion from the promised land, because of his human weakness. In this story, the skull cup plays a key role as it unites original sin and barbarism. Goffart does not exclude the possibility that Paul had really seen the skull but believes that by the 740s the connection between sin and barbarism as exemplified by the skull cup had already been established.
### Death
In her plan to kill her husband Rosamund found an ally in Helmichis, the king\'s foster brother and *spatharius* (arms bearer). According to Paul the queen then recruited the king\'s *cubicularius* (bedchamberlain), Peredeo, into the plot, after having seduced him. When Alboin retired for his midday rest on 28 June, care was taken to leave the door open and unguarded. Alboin\'s sword was also removed, leaving him defenceless when Peredeo entered his room and killed him. Alboin\'s remains were allegedly buried beneath the palace steps.
Peredeo\'s figure and role is mostly introduced by Paul; the *Origo* had for the first time mentioned his name as \"Peritheus\", but there his role had been different, as he was not the assassin, but the instigator of the assassination. In the vein of his reading of the skull cup, Goffart sees Peredeo not as a historical figure but as an allegorical character: he notes a similarity between Peredeo\'s name and the Latin word *perditus*, meaning \"lost\", a representation of those Lombards who entered into the service of the Empire.
Alboin\'s death had a lasting impact, as it deprived the Lombards of the only leader they had that could have kept together the newborn Germanic entity. His end also represents the death of the last of the line of hero-kings that had led the Lombards through their migrations from the Elbe to Italy. His fame survived him for many centuries in epic poetry, with Saxons and Bavarians celebrating his prowess in battle, his heroism, and the magical properties of his weapons.
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# Alboin
## Aftermath
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| \"Helmegis then, upon the death of his king, attempted to usurp his kingdom, but he could not at all do this, because the Langobards, grieving greatly for the king\'s death, strove to make way with him. And straightway Rosemund sent word to Longinus, prefect of Ravenna, that he should quickly send a ship to fetch them. Longinus, delighted by such a message, speedily sent a ship in which Helmegis with Rosemund his wife embarked, fleeing at night.\" |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ***Paul the Deacon***\ |
| Historia Langobardorum, Book II, Ch. 29 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
To complete the coup d\'état and legitimize his claim to the throne, Helmichis married the queen, whose high standing arose not only from being the king\'s widow but also from being the most prominent member of the remaining Gepid nation, and as such her support was a guarantee of the Gepids\' loyalty to Helmichis. The latter could also count on the support of the Lombard garrison of Verona, where many may have opposed Alboin\'s aggressive policy and could have cultivated the hope of reaching an entente with the Empire. The Byzantines were almost certainly deeply involved in the plot. It was in their interest to stem the Lombard tide by bringing a pro-Byzantine regime into power in Verona, and possibly, in the long run, break the unity of the Lombards\' kingdom, winning over the dukes with honours and emoluments.
The coup ultimately failed, as it met with the resistance of most of the warriors, who were opposed to the king\'s assassination. As a result, the Lombard garrison in Ticinum proclaimed Duke Cleph the new king, and Helmichis, rather than going to war against overwhelming odds, escaped to Ravenna with Longinus\' assistance, taking with him his wife, his troops, the royal treasure and Alboin\'s daughter Albsuinda. In Ravenna, the two lovers became estranged and killed each other. Subsequently, Longinus sent Albsuinda and the treasure to Constantinople. thumb\|upright=1.5\|alt=A map of Italy divided in orange and green colors, with a green blot for \"Longobard\" an orange one for \"Byzantine\"\|Lombard and Byzantine territories at Alboin\'s death (572) Cleph kept the throne for only 18 months before being assassinated by a slave. Possibly he too was killed at the instigation of the Byzantines, who had every interest in avoiding a hostile and solid leadership among the Lombards. An important success for the Byzantines was that no king was proclaimed to succeed Cleph, opening a decade of interregnum, thus making them more vulnerable to attacks from the Franks and Byzantines. It was only when faced with the danger of annihilation by the Franks in 584 that the dukes elected a new king in the person of Authari, son of Cleph, who began the definitive consolidation and centralization of the Lombard kingdom while the remaining imperial territories were reorganized under the control of an exarch in Ravenna with the capacity to defend the country without the Emperor\'s assistance.
The consolidation of Byzantine and Lombard dominions had long-lasting consequences for Italy, as the region was from that moment on fragmented among multiple rulers until Italian unification in 1871
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# Alcaeus
**Alcaeus of Mytilene** (`{{IPAc-en|æ|l|ˈ|s|iː|ə|s}}`{=mediawiki}; *Ἀλκαῖος ὁ Μυτιληναῖος*, *Alkaios ho Mutilēnaios*; c. 625/620 -- c. 580 BC) was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. He was a contemporary of Sappho, with whom he may have exchanged poems. He was born into the aristocratic governing class of Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos, where he was involved in political disputes and feuds.
## Biography
The broad outlines of the poet\'s life are well known. He was born into the aristocratic, warrior class that dominated Mytilene, the strongest city-state on the island of Lesbos and, by the end of the seventh century BC, the most influential of all the North Aegean Greek cities, with a strong navy and colonies securing its trade-routes in the Hellespont. The city had long been ruled by kings born to the Penthilid clan but, during the poet\'s life, the Penthilids were a spent force and rival aristocrats and their factions contended with each other for supreme power. Alcaeus and his older brothers were passionately involved in the struggle but experienced little success. Their political adventures can be understood in terms of three tyrants who came and went in succession:
- Melanchrus -- he was overthrown sometime between 612 BC and 609 BC by a faction that, in addition to the brothers of Alcaeus, included Pittacus (later renowned as one of the Seven Sages of Greece); Alcaeus at that time was too young to be actively involved;
- Myrsilus -- it is not known when he came to power but some verses by Alcaeus (frag. 129) indicate that the poet, his brothers and Pittacus made plans to overthrow him and that Pittacus subsequently betrayed them; Alcaeus and his brothers fled into exile where the poet later wrote a drinking song in celebration of the news of the tyrant\'s death (frag. 332);
- Pittacus -- the dominant political figure of his time, he was voted supreme power by the political assembly of Mytilene and appears to have governed well (590--580 BC), even allowing Alcaeus and his faction to return home in peace.
Sometime before 600 BC, Mytilene fought Athens for control of Sigeion and Alcaeus was old enough to participate in the fighting. According to the historian Herodotus, the poet threw away his shield to make good his escape from the victorious Athenians then celebrated the occasion in a poem that he later sent to his friend, Melanippus. It is thought that Alcaeus travelled widely during his years in exile, including at least one visit to Egypt. His older brother, Antimenidas, appears to have served as a mercenary in the army of Nebuchadnezzar II and probably took part in the conquest of Askelon. Alcaeus wrote verses in celebration of Antimenides\'s`{{clarification needed|date=October 2024}}`{=mediawiki} return, including mention of his valour in slaying the larger opponent (frag. 350), and he proudly describes the military hardware that adorned their family home (frag. 357). `{{Quotation|Alcaeus was in some respects not unlike a [[Royalist]] soldier of the age of the [[Stuarts]]. He had the high spirit and reckless gaiety, the love of country bound up with belief in a caste, the licence tempered by generosity and sometimes by tenderness, of a cavalier who has seen good and evil days. — [[Richard Claverhouse Jebb]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=DbLHNxS6heMC&pg=PA3 R. C. Jebb, ''Greek Literature'', MacMillan and Co. 1878, p. 59]</ref>}}`{=mediawiki}
thumb\|right\|upright=1.8\|*Sappho and Alcaeus* by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. The Walters Art Museum. Alcaeus was a contemporary and a countryman of Sappho and, since both poets composed for the entertainment of Mytilenean friends, they had many opportunities to associate with each other on a quite regular basis, such as at the *Kallisteia*, an annual festival celebrating the island\'s federation under Mytilene, held at the \'Messon\' (referred to as *temenos* in frs. 129 and 130), where Sappho performed publicly with female choirs. Alcaeus\'s reference to Sappho in terms more typical of a divinity, as *holy/pure, honey-smiling Sappho* (fr. 384), may owe its inspiration to her performances at the festival. The Lesbian or Aeolic school of poetry \"reached in the songs of Sappho and Alcaeus that high point of brilliancy to which it never after-wards approached\" and it was assumed by later Greek critics and during the early centuries of the Christian era that the two poets were in fact lovers, a theme which became a favourite subject in art (as in the urn pictured above).
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# Alcaeus
## Poetry
The poetic works of Alcaeus were collected into ten books, with elaborate commentaries, by the Alexandrian scholars Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace sometime in the 3rd century BC, and yet his verses today exist only in fragmentary form, varying in size from mere phrases, such as *wine, window into a man* (fr. 333) to entire groups of verses and stanzas, such as those quoted below (fr. 346). Alexandrian scholars numbered him in their canonic nine (one lyric poet per Muse). Among these, Pindar was held by many ancient critics to be pre-eminent, but some gave precedence to Alcaeus instead. The canonic nine are traditionally divided into two groups, with Alcaeus, Sappho and Anacreon, being \'monodists\' or \'solo-singers\', with the following characteristics:
- They composed and performed personally for friends and associates on topics of immediate interest to them;
- They wrote in their native dialects (Alcaeus and Sappho in Aeolic dialect, Anacreon in Ionic);
- They preferred quite short, metrically simple stanzas or \'strophes\' which they re-used in many poems -- hence the \'Alcaic\' and \'Sapphic\' stanzas, named after the two poets who perfected them or possibly invented them.
The other six of the canonic nine composed verses for public occasions, performed by choruses and professional singers and typically featuring complex metrical arrangements that were never reproduced in other verses. However, this division into two groups is considered by some modern scholars to be too simplistic and often it is practically impossible to know whether a lyric composition was sung or recited, or whether or not it was accompanied by musical instruments and dance. Even the private reflections of Alcaeus, ostensibly sung at dinner parties, still retain a public function.
Critics often seek to understand Alcaeus in comparison with Sappho: `{{Quotation|If we compare the two, we find that Alcaeus is versatile, Sappho narrow in her range; that his verse is less polished and less melodious than hers; and that the emotions which he chooses to display are less intense.|David Campbell<ref name="David A 1982 page 287">David A. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric Poetry'', Bristol Classical Press (1982), p. 287</ref>}}`{=mediawiki} `{{Quotation|The Aeolian song is suddenly revealed, as a mature work of art, in the spirited stanzas of Alcaeus. It is raised to a supreme excellence by his younger contemporary, Sappho, whose melody is unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled, among all the relics of Greek verse.|Richard Jebb<ref>{{cite book|first=Richard |last=Jebb|title=Bacchylides: the poems and fragments|publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1905|page= 29 |url=https://archive.org/stream/bacchylidespoem00jebbgoog#page/n9/mode/1up}}</ref>}}`{=mediawiki} `{{Quotation|In the variety of his subjects, in the exquisite rhythm of his meters, and in the faultless perfection of his style, all of which appear even in mutilated fragments, he excels all the poets, even his more intense, more delicate and more truly inspired contemporary Sappho.|James Easby-Smith<ref name="digitized1"/>}}`{=mediawiki} The Roman poet, Horace, also compared the two, describing Alcaeus as \"more full-throatedly singing\" -- see Horace\'s tribute below. Alcaeus himself seems to underscore the difference between his own \'down-to-earth\' style and Sappho\'s more \'celestial\' qualities when he describes her almost as a goddess (as cited above), and yet it has been argued that both poets were concerned with a balance between the divine and the profane, each emphasising different elements in that balance.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus exhorts us to \"Observe in Alcaeus the sublimity, brevity and sweetness coupled with stern power, his splendid figures, and his clearness which was unimpaired by the dialect; and above all mark his manner of expressing his sentiments on public affairs\", while Quintilian, after commending Alcaeus for his excellence \"in that part of his works where he inveighs against tyrants and contributes to good morals; in his language he is concise, exalted, careful and often like an orator\"; goes on to add: \"but he descended into wantonness and amours, though better fitted for higher things\".
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# Alcaeus
## Poetry
### Poetic genres {#poetic_genres}
The works of Alcaeus are conventionally grouped according to five genres.
- **Political songs**: Alcaeus often composed on a political theme, covering the power struggles on Lesbos with the passion and vigour of a partisan, cursing his opponents, rejoicing in their deaths, delivering blood-curdling homilies on the consequences of political inaction and exhorting his comrades to heroic defiance, as in one of his \'ship of state\' allegories. Commenting on Alcaeus as a political poet, the scholar Dionysius of Halicarnassus once observed that \"if you removed the meter you would find political rhetoric\".
- **Drinking songs**: According to the grammarian Athenaeus, Alcaeus made every occasion an excuse for drinking and he has provided posterity several quotes in proof of it. Alcaeus exhorts his friends to drink in celebration of a tyrant\'s death, to drink away their sorrows, to drink because life is short and along the lines *in vino veritas*, to drink through winter storms and to drink through the heat of summer. The latter poem in fact paraphrases verses from Hesiod, re-casting them in Asclepiad meter and Aeolian dialect.
- **Hymns**: Alcaeus sang about the gods in the spirit of the Homeric hymns, to entertain his companions rather than to glorify the gods and in the same meters that he used for his \'secular\' lyrics. There are for example fragments in \'Sapphic\' meter praising the Dioscuri, Hermes and the river Hebrus (a river significant in Lesbian mythology since it was down its waters that the head of Orpheus was believed to have floated singing, eventually crossing the sea to Lesbos and ending up in a temple of Apollo, as a symbol of Lesbian supremacy in song). According to Pomponius Porphyrion, the hymn to Hermes was imitated by Horace in one of his own \'sapphic\' odes (C.1.10: *Mercuri, facunde nepos Atlantis*).
- **Love songs**: Almost all Alcaeus\'s amorous verses, mentioned with disapproval by Quintilian above, have vanished without trace. There is a brief reference to his love poetry in a passage by Cicero. Horace, who often wrote in imitation of Alcaeus, sketches in verse one of the Lesbian poet\'s favourite subjects -- Lycus of the black hair and eyes (C.1.32.11--12: *nigris oculis nigroque/crine decorum*). It is possible that Alcaeus wrote amorously about Sappho, as indicated in an earlier quote.
- **Miscellaneous**: Alcaeus wrote on such a wide variety of subjects and themes that contradictions in his character emerge. The grammarian Athenaeus quoted some verses about perfumed ointments to prove just how unwarlike Alcaeus could be and he quoted his description of the armour adorning the walls of his house as proof that he could be unusually warlike for a lyric poet. Other examples of his readiness for both warlike and unwarlike subjects are lyrics celebrating his brother\'s heroic exploits as a Babylonian mercenary and lyrics sung in a rare meter (Sapphic Ionic in minore) in the voice of a distressed girl, \"Wretched me, who share in all ills!\" -- possibly imitated by Horace in an ode in the same meter (C.3.12: *Miserarum est neque amori dare ludum neque dulci*). He also wrote Sapphic stanzas on Homeric themes but in un-Homeric style, comparing Helen of Troy unfavourably with Thetis, the mother of Achilles.
### A drinking poem (fr. 346) {#a_drinking_poem_fr._346}
The following verses demonstrate some key characteristics of the Alcaic style (square brackets indicate uncertainties in the ancient text): `{{Verse translation|italicsoff=y|
{{lang|grc|πώνωμεν· τί τὰ λύχν' ὀμμένομεν; δάκτυλος ἀμέρα·
κὰδ δ'ἄερρε κυλίχναις μεγάλαις [αιτα]ποικίλαισ·
οἶνον γὰρ Σεμέλας καὶ Δίος υἶος λαθικάδεον
ἀνθρώποισιν ἔδωκ'. ἔγχεε κέρναις ἔνα καὶ δύο
πλήαις κὰκ κεφάλας, [ἀ] δ' ἀτέρα τὰν ἀτέραν κύλιξ
ὠθήτω...}}<ref>David A. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric Poetry'', Bristol Classical Press (1982), p. 60</ref>
|
Let's drink! Why are we waiting for the lamps? Only an inch of daylight left.
Lift down the large cups, my friends, the painted ones;
for wine was given to men by the son of Semele and Zeus
to help them forget their troubles. Mix one part of water to two of wine,
pour it in up to the brim, and let one cup push the other along...<ref>Andrew M.Miller (trans.), ''Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation'', Hackett Publishing Co. (1996), p. 48</ref>}}`{=mediawiki}
The Greek meter here is relatively simple, comprising the Greater Asclepiad, adroitly used to convey, for example, the rhythm of jostling cups (*ἀ δ\' ἀτέρα τὰν ἀτέραν*). The language of the poem is typically direct and concise and comprises short sentences --- the first line is in fact a model of condensed meaning, comprising an exhortation (\"Let\'s drink!\"), a rhetorical question (\"Why are we waiting for the lamps?\") and a justifying statement (\"Only an inch of daylight left\"). The meaning is clear and uncomplicated, the subject is drawn from personal experience, and there is an absence of poetic ornament, such as simile or metaphor. Like many of his poems (e.g., frs. 38, 326, 338, 347, 350), it begins with a verb (in this case \"Let\'s drink!\") and it includes a proverbial expression (\"Only an inch of daylight left\") though it is possible that he coined it himself.
### A hymn (fr. 34) {#a_hymn_fr._34}
Alcaeus rarely used metaphor or simile and yet he had a fondness for the allegory of the storm-tossed ship of state. The following fragment of a hymn to Castor and Polydeuces (the Dioscuri) is possibly another example of this though some scholars interpret it instead as a prayer for a safe voyage. `{{poemquote|Hither now to me from your isle of Pelops,
You powerful children of Zeus and Leda,
Showing yourselves kindly by nature, Castor
And Polydeuces!
Travelling abroad on swift-footed horses,
Over the wide earth, over all the ocean,
How easily you bring deliverance from
Death's gelid rigor,
Landing on tall ships with a sudden, great bound,
A far-away light up the forestays running,
Bringing radiance to a ship in trouble,
Sailed in the darkness!}}`{=mediawiki}
The poem was written in Sapphic stanzas, a verse form popularly associated with his compatriot, Sappho, but in which he too excelled, here paraphrased in English to suggest the same rhythms. There were probably another three stanzas in the original poem but only nine letters of them remain. The \'far-away light\' (*Πήλοθεν λάμπροι*) is a reference to St. Elmo\'s Fire, an electrical discharge supposed by ancient Greek mariners to be an epiphany of the Dioscuri, but the meaning of the line was obscured by gaps in the papyrus until reconstructed by a modern scholar; such reconstructions are typical of the extant poetry (see Scholars, fragments and sources below). This poem does not begin with a verb but with an adverb (Δευτέ) but still communicates a sense of action. He probably performed his verses at drinking parties for friends and political allies -- men for whom loyalty was essential, particularly in such troubled times.
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# Alcaeus
## Tributes from other poets {#tributes_from_other_poets}
### Horace
The Roman poet Horace modelled his own lyrical compositions on those of Alcaeus, rendering the Lesbian poet\'s verse-forms, including \'Alcaic\' and \'Sapphic\' stanzas, into concise Latin -- an achievement he celebrates in his third book of odes. In his second book, in an ode composed in Alcaic stanzas on the subject of an almost fatal accident he had on his farm, he imagines meeting Alcaeus and Sappho in Hades: `{{Verse translation|lang=la|
quam paene furvae regna [[Proserpina]]e
et iudicantem vidimus [[Aeacus|Aeacum]]
:sedesque descriptas piorum et
::Aeoliis fidibus querentem
Sappho puellis de popularibus
et te sonantem plenius aureo,
:Alcaee, plectro dura navis,
::dura fugae mala, dura belli! <ref>Horace ''Od.'' 2.13.21–8</ref>
|
How close the realm of dusky Proserpine
Yawned at that instant! I half glimpsed the dire
Judge of the dead, the blest in their divine
Seclusion, Sappho on the Aeolian lyre,
Mourning the cold girls of her native isle,
And you, Alcaeus, more full-throatedly
Singing with your gold quill of ships, exile
And war, hardship on land, hardship at sea.<ref name="classics116"/>}}`{=mediawiki}
### Ovid
Ovid compared Alcaeus to Sappho in Letters of the Heroines, where Sappho is imagined to speak as follows: `{{Verse translation|
nec plus Alcaeus consors patriaeque lyraeque
:laudis habet, quamvis grandius ille sonet.
|
Nor does Alcaeus, my fellow-countryman and fellow-poet,
:receive more praise, although he resounds more grandly.<ref>Ovid ''Her''.15.29s, cited and translated by David A. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus'', Loeb Classical Library (1982), p
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# Alcamenes
**Alcamenes** (*Ἀλκαμένης*) was an ancient Greek sculptor of Lemnos and Athens, who flourished in the 2nd half of the 5th century BC. He was a younger contemporary of Phidias and noted for the delicacy and finish of his works, among which a Hephaestus and an Aphrodite of the Gardens were conspicuous.
Pausanias says that he was the author of one of the pediments of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, but this seems a chronological and stylistic impossibility. Pausanias also refers to a statue of Ares by Alcamenes that was erected on the Athenian agora, which some have related to the Ares Borghese. However, the temple of Ares to which he refers had only been moved from Acharnes and re-sited in the Agora in Augustus\'s time, and statues known to derive from Alcamenes\' statue show the god in a breastplate, so the identification of Alcamenes\' Ares with the Ares Borghese is not secure.
At Pergamum there was discovered in 1903 a Hellenistic copy of the head of the Hermes \"Propylaeus\" of Alcamenes. As, however, the deity is represented in a Neo-Attic, archaistic and conventional character, this copy cannot be relied on as giving us much information as to the usual style of Alcamenes, who was almost certainly a progressive and original artist.
It is safer to judge him by the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon, in which he must almost certainly have taken a share under the direction of Phidias. He is said to be the most eminent sculptor in Athens after the departure of Phidias for Olympia, but enigmatic in that none of the sculptures associated with his name in classical literature can be securely connected with existing copies
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# Alcidamas
**Alcidamas** (*Ἀλκιδάμας*), of Elaea, in Aeolis, was a Greek sophist and rhetorician, who flourished in the 5th-4th century BC [1](https://dlib.bc.edu/islandora/object/bc-ir:100196/datastream/PDF/view).
## Life
He was the pupil and successor of Gorgias and taught at Athens at the same time as Isocrates, to whom he was a rival and opponent. We possess two declamations under his name: *On Sophists* (Περὶ Σοφιστῶν), directed against Isocrates and setting forth the superiority of extempore over written speeches (a more recently discovered fragment of another speech against Isocrates is probably of later date); *Odysseus* (perhaps spurious) in which Odysseus accuses Palamedes of treachery during the siege of Troy.
According to Alcidamas, the highest aim of the orator was the power of speaking *ex tempore* on every conceivable subject. Aristotle (*Rhet.* iii. 3) criticizes his writings as characterized by pomposity of style and an extravagant use of poetical epithets and compounds and far-fetched metaphors.
Of other works only fragments and the titles have survived: *Messeniakos*, advocating the freedom of the Messenians and containing the sentiment that \"God has left all men free; nature has made no man a slave\"; a *Eulogy of Death*, in consideration of the wide extent of human sufferings; a *Techne* or instruction-book in the art of rhetoric; and a *Phusikos logos*. Lastly, his *Mouseion* (a word invoking the Muses) seems to have contained the narrative of the *Contest of Homer and Hesiod*, of which the version that has survived is the work of a grammarian in the time of Hadrian, based on Alcidamas. This hypothesis of the contents of the *Mouseion*, originally suggested by Nietzsche (*Rheinisches Museum* 25 (1870) & 28 (1873)), appears to have been confirmed by three papyrus finds`{{mdash}}`{=mediawiki}one 3rd century BC (*Flinders Petrie Papyri*, ed. Mahaffy, 1891, pl. xxv.), one 2nd century BC (Basil Mandilaras, \'A new papyrus fragment of the *Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi*\' *Platon* 42 (1990) 45--51) and one 2nd or 3rd century AD (University of Michigan pap. 2754: Winter, J. G., \'A New Fragment on the Life of Homer\' *TAPA* 56 (1925) 120--129 [2](http://images.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?rgn1=apis_inv;op2=And;rgn2=ic_all;op3=And;rgn3=ic_all;c=apis;q1=2754;back=back1152510816;size=50;subview=detail;resnum=1;view=entry;lastview=reslist;cc=apis;entryid=x-1622;viewid=2754V.TIF))
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# Aldine Press
The **Aldine Press** was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was dated and printed under his name appeared in 1495.
The Aldine Press is famous in the history of typography, among other things, for the introduction of italics. The press was the first to issue printed books in the small octavo size, similar to that of a modern paperback, and intended for portability and ease of reading. According to Curt F. Bühler, the press issued 132 books during twenty years of activity under Aldus Manutius. After Manutius\' death in 1515, the press was continued by his wife Maria and her father Andrea Torresani (`{{interlanguage link|Andrea Torresano|qid=Q3616075}}`{=mediawiki}), until Manutius\' son Paulus (1512--1574) took over. His grandson Aldus Manutius the Younger then ran the firm until his death in 1597. Today, the antique books printed by the Aldine Press in Venice are referred to as *Aldines*, as are the letterforms and typefaces pioneered by the Aldine Press.
The press enjoyed a monopoly of works printed in Greek in the Republic of Venice, effectively giving it copyright protection. Protection outside the Republic was more problematic, however. The firm maintained an agency in Paris, but its commercial success was affected by many counterfeit editions, produced in Lyon and elsewhere.
## Beginnings
Aldus Manutius, the founder of the Aldine Press, was originally a humanist scholar and a teacher. Manutius met Andrea Torresani, who had acquired publishing equipment from the widow of Nicholas Jenson. The ownership of the press was originally split in two, with one half belonging to Pier Francesco Barbarigo, the nephew of Agostino Barbarigo, who was the doge at the time, and the other half belonging to Torresani. Manutius owned one fifth of Torresani\'s share of the press. Manutius was mainly in charge of the scholarship and editing, leaving financial and operating concerns to Barbarigo and Torresani. In 1496, Manutius established his own location of the press in a building called the *Thermae* in the Sestiere di San Polo on the campo Sant\'Agostin in Venice, today *numero civico* (house number) 2343 San Polo on the *Calle della Chiesa* (Alley of the Church), now the location of the restaurant *Due Colonne*. Though there are two commemorative plaques located on the building *numero civico* 2311 *Rio Terà Secondo*, historians regard them to be erroneously placed based on contemporaneous letters addressed to Manutius. The first erroneous plaque had been placed by Abbot don Vincenzo Zenier in 1828.
Manutius lived and worked in the *Thermae* in order to produce published books from the Aldine Press. This was also the location of the \"New Academy\", where a group of Manutius\' friends, associates, and editors came together to translate Greek and Latin texts. In 1505, Manutius married Maria, the daughter of Torresani. Torresani and Manutius were already business partners, but the marriage combined the two partners\' shares in the publishing business. After the marriage, Manutius lived at Torresani\'s house. Shrinking in popularity, in 1506 the Aldine Press was moved to Torresani\'s house in the parish of San Paternian. It was later demolished in 1873 and was covered by a bank building in the Venice square, *Campo Manin*.
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# Aldine Press
## Accomplishments
The press was started by Manutius due to a combination of his love of classics and the need for preservation of Hellenic studies. During its initial era, the press printed new copies of Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek and Latin classics.
The first edition of Plato\'s works (known as the Aldine edition) was dedicated to Pope Leo X and included the poem of Musurus and the life of Plato by Diogenes Laertius, which were also included in the first two editions of Plato\'s works printed in Basel. The two Basel editions were introduced by a Latin preface written by the German humanist Simon Grynaeus, a scholar of Greek, who dedicated the work to the humanist Thomas More.
Manutius also printed dictionaries and grammars to help people interpret the books, used by scholars wanting to learn Greek, who would employ learned Greeks in order to teach them directly. Historian Elizabeth Eisenstein claims that the fall of Constantinople in 1453 had placed under threat the importance and survival of Greek scholarship, but that publications such as those by the Aldine Press secured it once more. Erasmus was one of the scholars learned in Greek with whom the Aldine Press partnered in order to provide accurately translated text. The Aldine Press also expanded into modern languages, mainly Italian and French.
### Humanist typefaces {#humanist_typefaces}
Manutius eventually took on a project to improve upon the Humanistic font designs of Jenson\'s typefaces, hiring Francesco Griffo to design and cut typefaces for his print editions of classical literature. Humanistic fonts, based on the formal hand of Renaissance humanist scribes and notaries, had been in development from the time movable print arrived in Italy, notably by the French printer Nicolas Jenson in 1470. Griffo developed his own further refinements of style, resulting in one of the earliest roman typefaces produced.
### Italic typeface {#italic_typeface}
Adapting this admired and influential roman-faced font, Manutius and Griffo went on to produce a cursive variant, the first of what is now known as italic type. The word *italic* is derived from early Italian versions of italic faces, which were designed primarily in order to save on the cost of paper. The Aldine Press first used italic type in a woodcut of Saint Catherine of Siena in 1500. Their 1501 edition of Virgil\'s *Opera* was the first book to be printed in italic type. The roman typeface and italic form created and pioneered by Manutius and Griffo were highly influential in typographic development.
### Portable books (or *libelli portatiles*) {#portable_books_or_libelli_portatiles}
Beginning in 1505, Manutius produced plain texts in a portable form, using the term *enchiridion*, meaning \"handbook\" (later misnamed \"pocketbook\"). The octavo was the first version of the editio minor. Although these new, portable books were not cheap, the books of the Aldine Press did not force upon their buyers a substantial investment comparable to that of large volumes of text and commentary during this era. These books consisted on an edited text issued without commentary, printed in a typeface mimicking chancery script (the cursive handwriting of the humanist), produced in a small book which could sit comfortably in the hand. The editio minor, in many ways, brought financial and logistical benefits to those interested in the classics. An individual no longer had to go to the book, but rather the book came along with them.
### Imprint and motto {#imprint_and_motto}
In 1501, Aldus used as his publisher\'s device the image of a dolphin wrapped around an anchor. \"The dolphin and anchor device owed its origins most immediately to Pietro Bembo. Aldus told Erasmus six years later that Bembo had given him a silver coin minted under the Roman Emperor Vespasian bearing an image of this device. The image of the dolphin and anchor on the coin came with the saying \"Festina Lente\", meaning \"make haste slowly.\" This would later become the motto for the Aldine Press.
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# Aldine Press
## After 1515 {#after_1515}
Manutius died on February 6, 1515. Following his death, the firm was run by Torresani and his daughter Maria, the widow of Manutius. The name of the press was changed in 1508 to \"In the House of Aldus and Andrea Torresano,\" and kept this name until 1529. In 1533, Paulus Manutius managed the firm, starting it up again and changing its name to \"Heirs of Aldus and Andrea Torresano\". In 1539, the imprint changed to \"Sons of Aldo Manuzio\". In 1567, Aldus Manutius the Younger (grandson of Aldus Manutius) took over and maintained the business until his death.
## Publications
A partial list of publications from the Aldine Press, cited from *Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting than Bronze*.
- *Musarum Panagyris,* Aldus Manutius, sometime between March 1487 and March 1491.
- *Erotemata cum interpretatione Latina,* Constantine Lascaris, 8 March 1495.
- *Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, quod et in Latinam Linguam ad verbum tralatum est,* Musaeus, before November 1495 (Greek text) and 1497--98 (Latin text).
- *Dictionarium Graecum,* Johannes Crastonus, December 1497.
- *Institutiones Graecae grammatices,* Urban Valeriani, January 1497.
- *Rudimenta grammatices latinae linguae,* Aldus Manutius, June 1501.
- *Poetae Christiani veteres*, June 1502.
- *Institutionum grammaticarum libri quatuor,* Aldus Manutius, December 1514.
- *Suda*, February 1514.
Works published from the Greeks. Manutius printed thirty editiones principes of Greek texts, allowing these texts to escape the fragility of the manuscript tradition.
- *Eclogae triginta\...,* Theocritus, February 1496.
- *Theophrastus de historia plantarum\...,* Aristotle, 1 June 1497.
- *De mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum\...,* Iamblichus, September 1497.
- *Aristophanis Comoediae novem,* Aristophanes, 15 July 1498.
- *Omnia opera Angeli Politiani\...,* Angeloa Ambrogini Poliziano, July 1498.
- *Herodoti libri novem quibus musarum indita sunt nomina,* Herodotus, September 1502.
- *Omnia Platonis opera,* Plato, May 1513.
- *Oratores Graeci*, May 1513.
- *Deipnosophistae,* Athenaeus, August 1514.
Latin works
- *Scriptores astronomici veteres,* Firmicus Maternus, 17 October 1499.
- *Petri Bembi de Aetna ad Angelum Chabrielem liber,* Pietro Bembo, February 1496.
- *Diaria de Bello Carolino,* Alessandro Benedetti, 1496 (the first published work of the Aldine Press using the humanist typeface).
- *Libellus de epidemia, quam vulgo morgum Gallicum vocant,* Niccolò Leoniceno, June 1497.
- *Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,* Francesco Colonna, December 1499.
- *Epistole devotissime de Sancta Catharina da Siena,* St. Catherina of Siena, 19 September 1500.
- *Opera,* Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil), April 1501.
- *Opera,* Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace), May 1501.
- *Rhetoricorum ad C. Herennium\...libri,* Marcus Tullius Cicero, (Cicero) March 1514.
Libelli Portatiles
- *Le cose volgari de Messer Francesco Petrarcha,* Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), July 1501.
- *Opera,* Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius, January 1502.
- *Epistolae ad familiares,* Marcus Tullius Cicero (Cicero), April 1502.
- *Le terze rime,* Dante Alighieri, August 1502.
- *Pharsalia,* Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Lucan), April 1502.
- *Tragaediae septem cum commentariis,* Sophocles, August 1502.
- *Tragoediae septendecim,* Euripides, February 1503.
- *Fastorum\...libri, de tristibus\..., de ponto,* Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid), February 1503.
- *Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum in septem libros,* Greek Anthology, November 1503.
- *Opera,* Homer, sometime after 31 October 1504.
- *Urania sive de stellis,* Joannes Jovianus Pontanus, May & August 1505.
- *Vita, et Fabellae Aesopi\...,* Aesop, October 1505.
- *Epistolarum libri decem,* Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, November 1508.
- *Commentariorum de Bello Gallico libri,* Gaius Julius Caesar, December 1513.
- *Odes,* Pindar, January 1513.
- *Sonetti et Canzoni. Triumphi,* Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), August 1514.
### Archives
The most nearly complete collection of Aldine editions ever brought together was originally housed in the Althorp library of the 2nd Earl Spencer, and is now in the John Rylands Library, Manchester.
In North America, the most substantial Aldine holdings can be found in the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine Collection at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas at Austin, and the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University
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# Alexander I of Epirus
**Alexander I of Epirus** (*Ἀλέξανδρος Α\'*; c. 370 BC -- 331 BC), also known as **Alexander Molossus** (*Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μολοσσός*), was a king of Epirus (343/2--331 BC) of the Aeacid dynasty. As the son of Neoptolemus I and brother of Olympias, Alexander I was an uncle, and a brother-in-law, of Alexander the Great. He was also an uncle to Pyrrhus of Epirus.
## Biography
Neoptolemus I ruled jointly with his brother Arybbas. When Neoptolemus died in c. 357 BC, his son Alexander was only a child and Arrybas became the sole king. In c. 350 BC, Alexander was brought to the court of Philip II of Macedon in order to protect him. In 343/2 in his late 20s, Philip made him king of Epirus, after dethroning his uncle Arybbas.
When Olympias was repudiated by her husband in 337 BC, she went to her brother, and endeavoured to induce him to make war on Philip. Alexander, however, declined the contest, and formed a second alliance with Philip by agreeing to marry the daughter of Philip (Alexander\'s niece) Cleopatra. During the wedding in 336 BC, Philip was assassinated by Pausanias of Orestis.
In 334 BC, Alexander I, at the request of the Greek colony of Taras (in Magna Graecia), crossed over into Italy, to aid them in battle against several Italic tribes, including the Lucanians and Bruttii. After a victory over the Samnites and Lucanians near Paestum in 332 BC, he made a treaty with the Romans. He then took Heraclea from the Lucanians, Terina from the Bruttii, and Sipontum on the Adriatic coast. Through the treachery of some Lucanian exiles, he was compelled to engage under unfavourable circumstances in the Battle of Pandosia and was killed by a Lucanian. He left a son, Neoptolemus, and a daughter, Cadmea.
In a famous passage, Livy speculates on what would have been the outcome of a military showdown between Alexander the Great and the Roman Republic. He reports that as Alexander of Epirus lay mortally wounded on the battlefield at Pandosia he compared his fortunes to those of his famous nephew and said that the latter \"waged war against women\"
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# Alexander Balas
**Alexander I Theopator Euergetes**, surnamed **Balas** (*Alexandros Balas*), was the ruler of the Seleucid Empire from 150 BC to August 145 BC. Picked from obscurity and supported by the neighboring Roman-allied Kingdom of Pergamon, Alexander landed in Phoenicia in 152 BC and started a civil war against Seleucid King Demetrius I Soter. Backed by mercenaries and factions of the Seleucid Empire unhappy with the existing government, he defeated Demetrius and took the crown in 150 BC. He married the princess Cleopatra Thea to seal an alliance with the neighboring Ptolemaic kingdom. His reign saw the steady retreat of the Seleucid Empire\'s eastern border, with important eastern satrapies such as Media being lost to the nascent Parthian Empire. In 147 BC, Demetrius II Nicator, the young son of Demetrius I, began a campaign to overthrow Balas, and civil war resumed. Alexander\'s ally, Ptolemaic king Ptolemy VI Philometor, moved troops into Coele-Syria to support Alexander, but then switched sides and threw his support behind Demetrius II. At the Battle of the Oenoparus River in Syria, he was defeated by Ptolemy VI and he died shortly afterward.
## Life
### Origins and mission to Rome {#origins_and_mission_to_rome}
Alexander Balas claimed to be the son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Laodice IV and heir to the Seleucid throne. The ancient sources, Polybius and Diodorus say that this claim was false and that he and his sister Laodice VI were really natives of Smyrna of humble origin. However, Polybius became friends with Balas\'s rival King Demetrius I when both were hostages in Rome, so Polybius is not an unbiased source on this matter. Modern scholars disagree about whether the story of Attalus finding a commoner who looked the part is true or was propaganda put about by Alexander\'s opponents.
According to Diodorus, Alexander was originally put forward as a candidate for the Seleucid throne by Attalus II of Pergamum. Attalus had been disturbed by the Seleucid king Demetrius I\'s interference in Cappadocia, where he had dethroned king Ariarathes V. Boris Chrubasik is sceptical, noting that there is little subsequent evidence for Attalid involvement with Alexander. However, Selene Psoma has proposed that a large set of coins minted in a number of cities under Attalid control in this period was produced by Attalus II in order to fund Alexander\'s bid for the kingship.
Alexander and his sister were maintained in Cilicia by Heracleides, a former minister of Antiochus IV and brother of Timarchus, an usurper in Media who had been executed by the reigning king Demetrius I Soter. In 153 BC, Heracleides brought Alexander and his sister to Rome, where he presented Alexander to the Roman Senate, which recognised him as the legitimate Seleucid king and agreed to support him in his bid to take the throne. Polybius mentions that Attalus II and Demetrius I also met with the Senate at this time but does not state how this was connected to the recognition of Alexander - if at all.
### War with Demetrius I (152--150 BC) {#war_with_demetrius_i_152150_bc}
After recruiting mercenaries, Alexander and Heracleides departed to Ephesus. From there, they invaded Phoenicia by sea, seizing Ptolemais Akko. Numismatic evidence shows that Alexander had also gained control of Seleucia Pieria, Byblos, Beirut and Tyre by 151 BC. On this coinage, Alexander heavily advertised his (claimed) connection to Antiochus IV, depicting Zeus Nicephorus on his coinage as Antiochus had done. He also assumed the title of *Theopator* (\'Divinely Fathered\'), which recalled Antiochus\' epithet *Theos Epiphanes* (\'God Manifest\'). The coinage also presented Alexander Balas in the guise of Alexander the Great, with pronounced facial features and long flowing hair. This was intended to emphasise his military prowess to his soldiers.
Alexander and Demetrius I competed with another to win over Jonathan Apphus, the leader of the ascendant faction in Judaea. Jonathan was won over to Alexander\'s side by the grant of a high position in the Seleucid court and the high priesthood in Jerusalem. Reinforced by Jonathan\'s hardened soldiers, Alexander fought a decisive battle with Demetrius in July 150 BC, in which Demetrius was killed. By autumn, Alexander\'s kingship was recognised throughout the Seleucid realm.
### Reign (150--147 BC) {#reign_150147_bc}
Alexander gained control of Antioch at this time and his chancellor, Ammonius, murdered all the courtiers of Demetrius I, as well as his wife Laodice and his eldest son Antigonus. Ptolemy VI Philometor of Egypt entered into an alliance with Alexander, which was sealed by Alexander\'s marriage to his daughter Cleopatra Thea. The wedding took place at Ptolemais, with Ptolemy VI and Jonathan Apphus in attendance. Alexander took the opportunity to shower honours on Jonathan, whom he treated as his main agent in Judaea. The marriage was advertised by a special coinage issue, depicting the royal pair side by side - only the second depiction of a queen on Seleucid coinage. She is shown with divine attributes (a cornucopia and a calathus) and is depicted in front of the king. Some scholars have seen Alexander as little more than a Ptolemaic puppet, arguing that this coinage emphasises Cleopatra\'s dominance over him and that the chancellor Ammonius was a Ptolemaic agent. Other scholars argue that the alliance was advertised as an important one, but that the arguments for Alexander\'s subservience have been overstated.
### Collapse of the East {#collapse_of_the_east}
Meanwhile, the Seleucid positions in the eastern Upper Satrapies, already weakened by the previous kings\' failure to contain the Parthians and the Greco-Bactrians, suffered almost complete collapse. The Parthians under Mithridates I took advantage of the general instability to invade Media. The region had been lost to Seleucid control by the middle of 148 BC. At around the same time the local nobles in Elymais and Persis asserted their own ephemeral independence, only to be soon also subdued by the Parthians. By 148 BC at the latest the Parthians also secured their hold over Hyrcania at the coast of the Caspian Sea. By 147 BC the Parthians stood at the doorsteps of Babylonia, one of the Seleucid empire\'s hearthlands and location of one of its two capital cities, Seleucia-on-Tigris.
Alexander is not recorded to do anything of note to stem the steady erosion of Seleucid power in the East. Ancient historians hostile to him depict him as too distracted by a life of debauchery to take action to stop the Parthians, unlike earlier Seleucid Kings who would mount expeditions to the eastern satrapies to deter the Parthians. He was reputed to hand the administration over to two commanders, Hierax and Diodotus, neither of whom seemed to care for anything but their own interests. This representation is at least partially a product of his opponents\' propaganda, but it is true that under Alexander, the Seleucid Empire continued to see its reach and power slip away.
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# Alexander Balas
## Life
### War with Demetrius II and death (147--145 BC) {#war_with_demetrius_ii_and_death_147145_bc}
In early 147 BC Demetrius\' son Demetrius II returned to Syria with a force of Cretan mercenaries led by a man called Lasthenes. Much of Coele Syria was lost to him immediately, possibly as a result of the succession of the regional commander. Jonathan attacked Demetrius\'s position from the south, seizing Jaffa and Ashdod, while Alexander Balas was occupied with a revolt in Cilicia. In 145 BC Ptolemy VI of Egypt invaded Syria, ostensibly in support of Alexander Balas. In practice, Ptolemy\'s intervention came at a heavy cost; with Alexander\'s permission, he took control of all the Seleucid cities along the coast, including Seleucia Pieria. He may also have started minting his own coinage in the Syrian cities.
While he was at Ptolemais Akko, however, Ptolemy switched sides. According to Josephus, Ptolemy discovered that Alexander\'s chancellor, Ammonius, had been plotting to assassinate him, but when he demanded that Ammonius be punished, Alexander refused. Ptolemy remarried his Cleopatra Thea to Demetrius II and continued his march northward. Alexander\'s commanders of Antioch, Diodotus and Hierax, surrendered the city to Ptolemy.
Alexander returned from Cilicia with his army, but Ptolemy VI and Demetrius II defeated his forces in a Battle of the Oenoparus River. Earlier, Alexander had sent his infant son Antiochus to an Arabian dynast called Zabdiel Diocles. Alexander now fled to Arabia in order to join up with Zabdiel, but he was killed. Sources disagree about whether the killer was a pair of his own generals who had decided to switch sides or Zabdiel himself. Alexander\'s severed head was brought to Ptolemy, who also died shortly after from wounds sustained in the battle.
Zabdiel continued to look after Alexander\'s infant son Antiochus, until 145 BC when the general Diodotus declared him king, in order to serve as the figurehead of a rebellion against Demetrius II. In 130 BC, another claimant to the throne, Alexander Zabinas, would also claim to be Alexander Balas\' son; almost certainly spuriously. Alexander is the title character of the oratorio *Alexander Balus*, written in 1747 by George Frideric Handel.
## Epithets
On some of his coins he is called \"Epiphanes\" (splendid, glorious) and \"Nicephorus\" (bringer of victory) after his pretended father and on others \"Euergetes\" (benefactor) and \"Theopator\" (of divine descent). In Septuagint it was also called \"Epiphanes\"
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