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# Alexander of Pherae
**Alexander** (*Ἀλέξανδρος*) was Tyrant or Despot of Pherae in Thessaly, ruling from 369 to c. 356 BC. Following the assassination of Jason, the tyrant of Pherae and Tagus of Thessaly, in 370 BC, his brother Polyphron ruled for a year, but he was then poisoned by Alexander who assumed power himself. Alexander governed tyrannically and was constantly seeking to control Thessaly and the kingdom of Macedonia. He also engaged in piratical raids on Attica. Alexander was murdered by Tisiphonus, Lycophron and Peitholaus, the brothers of his wife, Thebe, as it was said that she lived in fear of her husband and hated Alexander\'s cruel and brutal character.
## Reign
The accounts of how Alexander came to power vary somewhat in minor points. Diodorus Siculus tells us that upon the assassination of the tyrant Jason of Pherae, in 370 BC, his brother Polydorus ruled for a year, but he was then poisoned by Alexander, another brother. However, according to Xenophon, Polydorus was murdered by his brother Polyphron, who was, in turn, murdered by his nephew Alexander ---son of Jason, in 369 BC. Plutarch relates that Alexander worshipped the spear he slew his uncle with as if it were a god. Alexander governed tyrannically, and according to Diodorus, differently from the former rulers, but Polyphron, at least, seems to have set him the example. The states of Thessaly, which had previously acknowledged the authority of Jason of Pherae, were not so willing to submit to Alexander the tyrant, (especially the old family of the Aleuadae of Larissa, who had most reason to fear him). Therefore, they applied for help from Alexander II of Macedon.
Alexander prepared to meet his enemy in Macedonia, but the king anticipated him, and, reaching Larissa, was admitted into the city. Alexander withdrew to Pherae whilst the Macedonian King placed a garrison in Larissa, as well as in Crannon, which had also come over to him. But once the bulk of the Macedonian army had retired, the states of Thessaly feared the return and vengeance of Alexander, and so sent for aid to Thebes, whose policy it was to put a check on any neighbour who might otherwise become too formidable. Thebes accordingly dispatched Pelopidas to the aid of Thessaly. On arrival of Pelopidas at Larissa, whence according to Diodorus, he dislodged the Macedonian garrison, Alexander presented himself and offered submission. When Pelopidas expressed indignation at the tales of Alexander\'s profligacy and cruelty, Alexander took alarm and fled.
These events appear to refer to the early part of 368 BC. In the summer of that year Pelopidas was again sent into Thessaly, in consequence of fresh complaints against Alexander. Accompanied by Ismenias, he went merely as a negotiator, without any military force, and was seized by Alexander and thrown into prison. The scholar William Mitford suggested that Pelopidas was taken prisoner in battle, but the language of Demosthenes hardly supports such an inference. The Thebans sent a large army into Thessaly to rescue Pelopidas, but they could not keep the field against the superior cavalry of Alexander, who, aided by auxiliaries from Athens, pursued them with great slaughter. The destruction of the whole Theban army is said to only have been averted by the ability of Epaminondas, who was serving in the campaign, but not as general.
In 367 BC, Alexander carried out a massacre of the citizens of Scotussa. A fresh Theban expedition into Thessaly, under Epaminondas resulted, according to Plutarch, in a three-year truce and the release of prisoners, including Pelopidas. During the next three years, Alexander seemed to renew his attempts to subdue the states of Thessaly, especially Magnesia and Phthiotis, for upon the expiry of the truce, in 364 BC, they again applied to Thebes for protection from him. The Theban army under Pelopidas is said to have been dismayed by an eclipse on 13 July 364 BC, and Pelopidas, leaving the bulk of his army behind, entered Thessaly at the head of three hundred volunteer horsemen and some mercenaries. At Cynoscephalae, the Thebans defeated Alexander, but Pelopidas was killed. This was closely followed by another Theban victory under Malcites and Diogiton. Alexander was then forced to restore the conquered towns to the Thessalians, confine himself to Pherae, join the Boeotian League, and become a dependent ally of Thebes.
If the death of Epaminondas in 362 freed Athens from fear of Thebes, it appears at the same time to have exposed it to further aggression from Alexander, who made a piratical raid on Tinos and other cities of the Cyclades, plundering them, and making slaves of the inhabitants. He also besieged Peparethus, and \"even landed troops in Attica itself, and seized the port of Panormus, a little eastward of Sounion.\" The Athenian admiral Leosthenes defeated Alexander and managed to relieve Peparethus, but Alexander escaped from being blockaded in Panormus, took several Attic triremes, and plundered the Piraeus.
## Death
The murder of Alexander is assigned by Diodorus to 357/356 BC. Plutarch gives a detailed account of it, with a lively picture of the palace. Guards watched throughout the night, except at Alexander\'s bedchamber, which was at the top of a ladder with a ferocious chained dog guarding the door. Thebe, Alexander\'s wife and cousin (or half-sister, as the daughter of Jason of Pherae), concealed her three brothers (Tisiphonus, Lycophron and Peitholaus) in the house during the day, had the dog removed when Alexander had gone to rest, and, having covered the steps of the ladder with wool, brought up the young men to her husband\'s chamber. Though she had taken away Alexander\'s sword, they feared to set about the deed until she threatened to wake him. Her brothers then entered and killed Alexander. His body was cast into the streets, and exposed to every indignity.
Of Thebe\'s motive for the murder different accounts are given. Plutarch states it to have been fear of her husband, together with hatred of Alexander\'s cruel and brutal character, and ascribes these feelings principally to the representations of Pelopidas, when she visited him in his prison. In Cicero the deed is ascribed to jealousy. Other accounts have it that Alexander had taken Thebe\'s youngest brother as his eromenos and tied him up. Exasperated by his wife\'s pleas to release the youth, he murdered the boy, which drove her to revenge.
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# Alexander of Pherae
## Other
It is written in Plutarch\'s Second Oration On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great (see *Moralia*), and in Claudius Aelianus\' *Varia Historia* that Alexander left a tragedy in a theatre because he did not wish to weep at fiction when unmoved by his own cruelty. This suggests that while Alexander was a tyrant, perhaps his iron heart could be softened. The actor was threatened with punishment because Alexander was so moved while watching
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# Alexander II of Epirus
**Alexander II** (Greek: Άλέξανδρος) was a king of Epirus, and the son of Pyrrhus and Lanassa, the daughter of the Sicilian tyrant Agathocles.
## Reign
He succeeded his father as king in 272 BC, and continued the war which his father had begun with Antigonus II Gonatas, whom he succeeded in driving from the kingdom of Macedon. He was, however, dispossessed of both Macedon and Epirus by Demetrius II of Macedon, the son of Antigonus II; upon which he took refuge amongst the Acarnanians. By their assistance and that of his own subjects, who entertained a great attachment for him, he recovered Epirus. It appears that he was in alliance with the Aetolians.
Alexander married his paternal half-sister Olympias, by whom he had two sons, Pyrrhus ΙΙ, Ptolemy ΙΙ and a daughter, Phthia. Beloch places the death of King Alexander II \"about 255\", and supports this date with an elaborate chain of reasoning. On the death of Alexander, Olympias assumed the regency on behalf of her sons, and married Phthia to Demetrius. There are extant silver and copper coins of this king. The former bear a youthful head covered with the skin of an elephant\'s head. The reverse represents Pallas holding a spear in one hand and a shield in the other, and before her stands an eagle on a thunderbolt
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# Alexander Jagiellon
**Alexander Jagiellon** (*Aleksander Jagiellończyk*; *Aleksandras Jogailaitis*; 5 August 1461 -- 19 August 1506) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1492 and King of Poland from 1501 until his death in 1506. He was the fourth son of Casimir IV and a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty. Alexander was elected grand duke of Lithuania upon the death of his father and became king of Poland upon the death of his elder brother John I Albert.
## Early life {#early_life}
Alexander was born as the fourth son of King Casimir IV Jagiellon and Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of the King Albert II of Germany. At the time of his father\'s death in 1492, his eldest brother Vladislaus had already become king of Bohemia (1471) and Hungary and Croatia (1490), and the next oldest brother, Saint Casimir, had died (1484) after leading an ascetic and pious life in his final years, resulting in his eventual canonization. While the third oldest brother, John I Albert was chosen by the Polish nobility (*szlachta*) to be the next king of Poland, the Lithuanians instead elected Alexander to be their next grand duke. Alexander maintained a Lithuanian court and multiple Lithuanian priests served in his royal chapel of the Polish royal court.
## Grand Duke of Lithuania (1492--1506) {#grand_duke_of_lithuania_14921506}
The greatest challenge that Alexander faced upon assuming control of the grand duchy was an attack on Lithuania by Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia and his allies, the Crimean Khanate\'s Tatars, which commenced shortly after his accession. Ivan III considered himself the heir to the lands of Kievan Rus\', and was striving to take back the territory previously gained by Lithuania. Unable to successfully stop the incursions, Alexander sent a delegation to Moscow to make a peace settlement, which was signed in 1494 and ceded extensive land over to Ivan. In an additional effort to instill a peace between the two countries, Alexander was betrothed to Helena, the daughter of Ivan III; they were married in Vilnius on 15 February 1495. The peace did not last long, however, as Ivan III resumed hostilities in 1500. The most Alexander could do was to garrison Smolensk and other strongholds and employ his wife Helena to mediate another truce between him and her father after the disastrous Battle of Vedrosha (1500). In the terms of this truce, which was concluded on 25 March 1503, Lithuania had to surrender about a third of its territory to the nascent expansionist Russian state; Alexander pledged not to touch lands including Moscow, Novgorod, Ryazan, and others, while a total of 19 cities were ceded. Historian Edvardas Gudavičius said:
> \"The war of 1492--1494 was a kind of reconnaissance mission conducted by the united Russia. \[The terms of\] the ceasefire of 1503 showed the planned political aggression of Russia, its undoubted military superiority. The concept of the sovereign of all Russia, put forward by Ivan III, did not leave room for the existence of the Lithuanian state\".
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# Alexander Jagiellon
## Grand Duke of Lithuania (1492--1506) {#grand_duke_of_lithuania_14921506}
### Also King of Poland (1501--1506) {#also_king_of_poland_15011506}
On 17 June 1501, Alexander\'s older brother John I Albert died suddenly, and Alexander was crowned king of Poland on 12 December of that year. Alexander\'s shortage of funds immediately made him subservient to the Polish Senate and *szlachta*, who deprived him of control of the mint (then one of the most lucrative sources of revenue for the Polish kings), curtailed his prerogatives, and generally endeavored to reduce him to a subordinate position. In 1505, the *Sejm* of the Kingdom of Poland passed the Act of *Nihil novi*, which forbade the king to issue laws without the consent of the nobility, represented by the two legislative chambers, except for laws governing royal cities, crown lands, mines, fiefdoms, royal peasants, and Jews. This was another step in Poland\'s progression towards a \"Noble\'s Democracy\".
During Alexander\'s reign, Poland suffered additional humiliation at the hands of her subject principality, Moldavia. Only the death of Stephen, the great *hospodar* of Moldavia, enabled Poland still to hold her own on the Danube river. Meanwhile, the liberality of Pope Julius II, who issued no fewer than 29 bulls in favor of Poland and granted Alexander Peter\'s Pence and other financial help, enabled him to restrain somewhat the arrogance of the Teutonic Order.
Alexander Jagiellon never felt at home in Poland, and bestowed his favor principally upon his fellow Lithuanians, the most notable of whom was the wealthy Lithuanian magnate Michael Glinski, who justified his master\'s confidence by his great victory over the Tatars at Kletsk (5 August 1506), news of which was brought to Alexander on his deathbed in Vilnius.
According to Giedrė Mickūnaitė, interwar Lithuanian historians assumed that Alexander was the last ruler of the Gediminid dynasty who understood the Lithuanian language, yet did not speak it, but there is a lack of sources regarding that.
In 1931, during the refurbishment of Vilnius Cathedral, the forgotten sarcophagus of Alexander was discovered, and has since been put on display.
## Gallery
<File:Johann> Haller, Commune Incliti Poloniae regni privilegium constitutionum et indultuum publicitus decretorum approbatorumque (1506, cropped).jpg\|King Alexander in Polish Senate, 1506. <File:Kanclerz.jpg%7CAlexander> and his *kanclerz* Jan Łaski. <File:St>. Anne\'s Church Exterior 2, Vilnius, Lithuania - Diliff.jpg\|Gothic St. Anne\'s Church in Vilnius was constructed on his initiative in 1495--1500. <File:Krakow> Wawel 20070804 0930.jpg\|In 1504 he ordered to rebuild the Wawel in a Renaissance style. <File:Crown> and sword of Grand Duke Aleksandras Jogailaitis, Vilnius, 1931.jpg\|Crown and sword of Alexander Jagiellon <File:Lithuanian> Denar of Aleksandras Jogailaitis with Vytis (Waykimas) and the Polish Eagle.jpg\|Lithuanian coin with the coat of arms of Lithuania and Poland <File:Seal> of Aleksandras Jogailaitis with the Polish Eagle, Lithuanian Vytis (Waykimas) and other coats of arms, 1504.jpg\|Seal of Alexander Jagiellon, 1504 <File:Alexander> of Poland.PNG\|Fantasy portrait by Bacciarelli <File:Coat> of arms of Aleksandras Jogailaitis from the speech of Erasmus Vitellius in Rome, 1501 (cropped).jpg\|Coat of arms <File:Sword> of Aleksandras Jogailaitis, exhibited in the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius in 2023
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# Alexander I of Scotland
**Alexander I** (medieval Gaelic: *Alaxandair mac Maíl Coluim*; modern Gaelic: *Alasdair mac Mhaol Chaluim*; c. 1078 -- 23 April 1124), posthumously nicknamed **The Fierce**, was the King of Alba (Scotland) from 1107 to his death. He was the fifth son of Malcolm III and his second wife, Margaret, sister of Edward Ætheling, a prince of the pre-conquest English royal house.
He succeeded his brother, King Edgar, and his successor was his brother David. He was married to Sybilla of Normandy, an illegitimate daughter of Henry I of England.
## Life
Alexander was the fifth (some sources say fourth) son of Malcolm III and his wife Margaret of Wessex, grandniece of Edward the Confessor. Alexander was named after Pope Alexander II.
He was the younger brother of King Edgar, who was unmarried, and his brother\'s heir presumptive by 1104 (and perhaps earlier). In that year, he was the senior layman present at the examination of the remains of Saint Cuthbert at Durham prior to their re-interment. He held lands in Scotland north of the Forth and in Lothian.
On the death of Edgar in 1107, Alexander succeeded to the Scottish crown but, in accordance with Edgar\'s instructions, their brother David was granted an appanage in southern Scotland. Edgar\'s will granted David the lands of the former kingdom of Strathclyde or Cumbria and this was apparently agreed in advance by Edgar, Alexander, David and their brother-in-law Henry I of England. In 1113, perhaps at Henry\'s instigation, and with the support of his Anglo-Norman allies, David demanded and received, additional lands in Lothian along the Upper Tweed and Teviot. David did not receive the title of king, but of \"prince of the Cumbrians\", and his lands remained under Alexander\'s final authority.
The dispute over Tweeddale and Teviotdale does not appear to have damaged relations between Alexander and David, although it was unpopular in some quarters. A Gaelic poem laments:
> It\'s bad what Malcolm\'s son has done,\
> dividing us from Alexander;\
> he causes, like each king\'s son before,\
> the plunder of stable Alba.
The dispute over the eastern marches does not appear to have caused lasting trouble between Alexander and Henry of England. In 1114, he joined Henry on campaign in Wales against Gruffudd ap Cynan of Gwynedd. Alexander\'s marriage with Henry\'s illegitimate daughter Sybilla of Normandy may have occurred as early as 1107, or as late as 1114.
William of Malmesbury\'s account attacks Sybilla, but the evidence argues that Alexander and Sybilla were a devoted but childless couple and Sybilla was of noteworthy piety. Sybilla died in unrecorded circumstances at *Eilean nam Ban* (Kenmore on Loch Tay) in July 1122 and was buried at Dunfermline Abbey. Alexander did not remarry and Walter Bower wrote that he planned an Augustinian Priory at the *Eilean nam Ban* dedicated to Sybilla\'s memory, and he may have taken steps to have her venerated.
Alexander had at least one illegitimate child, Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair, who was later involved in a revolt against David I in the 1130s. He was imprisoned at Roxburgh for many years afterwards, perhaps until his death sometime after 1157.
Alexander was, like his brothers Edgar and David, a notably pious king. He was responsible for foundations at Scone and Inchcolm, the latter founded in thanks for his survival of a tempest at sea nearby. He had the two towers built which flanked the great western entrance of Dunfermline Abbey, where his mother was buried.
His mother\'s chaplain and hagiographer Thurgot was named Bishop of Saint Andrews (or *Cell Rígmonaid*) in 1107, presumably by Alexander\'s order. The case of Thurgot\'s would-be successor Eadmer shows that Alexander\'s wishes were not always accepted by the religious community, perhaps because Eadmer had the backing of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Ralph d\'Escures, rather than Thurstan of York. Alexander also patronised Saint Andrews, granting lands intended for an Augustinian Priory, which may have been the same as that intended to honour his wife.
For all his religiosity, Alexander was not remembered as a man of peace. John of Fordun says of him: `{{Blockquote|Now the king was a lettered and godly man; very humble and amiable towards the clerics and regulars, but terrible beyond measure to the rest of his subjects; a man of large heart, exerting himself in all things beyond his strength.<ref>Fordun, V, xxviii ([[William Forbes Skene|Skene's]] edition).</ref>}}`{=mediawiki}
He manifested the terrible aspect of his character in his reprisals in the Province of Moray. Andrew of Wyntoun\'s *Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland* says that Alexander was holding court at Invergowrie when he was attacked by \"men of the Isles\". Walter Bower says the attackers were from Moray and Mearns. Alexander pursued them north, to \"Stockford\" in Ross (near Beauly) where he defeated them. This, says Wyntoun, is why he was named the \"Fierce\". The dating of this is uncertain, as are his enemies\' identities. However, in 1116 the Annals of Ulster report: \"Ladhmann son of Domnall, grandson of the king of Scotland, was killed by the men of Moray.\" The king referred to is Alexander\'s father, Malcolm III, and Domnall was Alexander\'s half brother. The Province or Kingdom of Moray was ruled by the family of Macbeth (Mac Bethad mac Findláich) and Lulach (Lulach mac Gille Coemgáin): not overmighty subjects, but a family who had ruled Alba within little more than a lifetime. Who the Mormaer or King was at this time is not known; it may have been Óengus of Moray or his father, whose name is not known. As for the Mearns, the only known Mormaer of Mearns, Máel Petair, had murdered Alexander\'s half-brother Duncan II (Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim) in 1094.
Alexander died in April 1124 at his court at Stirling; his brother David, probably the acknowledged heir since the death of Sybilla, succeeded him.
## Fictional portrayals {#fictional_portrayals}
Alexander was depicted in a fantasy novel, *Pater Nostras Canis Dirus: The Garrison Effect* (2010). Alexander is depicted as troubled by his lack of direct heirs, having no child with his wife Sybilla of Normandy. He points out that his father-in-law Henry I of England is asking them for a grandson
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# Alexander of Aphrodisias
**Alexander of Aphrodisias** (*translit=Alexandros ho Aphrodisieus*; `{{floruit|200}}`{=mediawiki} AD) was a Peripatetic philosopher and the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek commentators on the writings of Aristotle. He was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria and lived and taught in Athens at the beginning of the 3rd century, where he held a position as head of the Peripatetic school. He wrote many commentaries on the works of Aristotle, extant are those on the *Prior Analytics*, *Topics*, *Meteorology*, *Sense and Sensibilia*, and *Metaphysics*. Several original treatises also survive, and include a work *On Fate*, in which he argues against the Stoic doctrine of necessity; and one *On the Soul*. His commentaries on Aristotle were considered so useful that he was styled, by way of pre-eminence, \"the commentator\" (*ὁ ἐξηγητής*).
## Life and career {#life_and_career}
Alexander was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria (present-day Turkey) and came to Athens towards the end of the 2nd century. He was a student of the two Stoic, or possibly Peripatetic, philosophers Sosigenes and Herminus, and perhaps of Aristotle of Mytilene. At Athens he became head of the Peripatetic school and lectured on Peripatetic philosophy. Alexander\'s dedication of *On Fate* to Septimius Severus and Caracalla, in gratitude for his position at Athens, indicates a date between 198 and 209. A recently published inscription from Aphrodisias confirms that he was head of one of the Schools at Athens and gives his full name as Titus Aurelius Alexander. His full nomenclature shows that his grandfather or other ancestor was probably given Roman citizenship by the emperor Antoninus Pius, while proconsul of Asia. The inscription honours his father, also called Alexander and also a philosopher. This fact makes it plausible that some of the suspect works that form part of Alexander\'s corpus should be ascribed to his father.
### Commentaries
Alexander composed several commentaries on the works of Aristotle, in which he sought to escape a syncretistic tendency and to recover the pure doctrines of Aristotle. His extant commentaries are on *Prior Analytics* (Book 1), *Topics*, *Meteorology*, *Sense and Sensibilia*, and *Metaphysics* (Books 1--5). The commentary on the *Sophistical Refutations* is deemed spurious, as is the commentary on the final nine books of the *Metaphysics*. The lost commentaries include works on the *De Interpretatione*, *Posterior Analytics*, *Physics*, *On the Heavens*, *On Generation and Corruption*, *On the Soul*, and *On Memory*. Simplicius of Cilicia mentions that Alexander provided commentary on the quadrature of the lunes, and the corresponding problem of squaring the circle. In April 2007, it was reported that imaging analysis had discovered an early commentary on Aristotle\'s *Categories* in the Archimedes Palimpsest, and Robert Sharples suggested Alexander as the most likely author.
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# Alexander of Aphrodisias
## Life and career {#life_and_career}
### Original treatises {#original_treatises}
There are also several extant original writings by Alexander. These include: *On the Soul*, *Problems and Solutions*, *Ethical Problems*, *On Fate*, and *On Mixture and Growth*. Three works attributed to him are considered spurious: *Medical Questions*, *Physical Problems*, and *On Fevers*. Additional works by Alexander are preserved in Arabic translation, these include: *On the Principles of the Universe*, *On Providence*, and *Against Galen on Motion*.
*On the Soul* (*De anima*) is a treatise on the soul written along the lines suggested by Aristotle in his own *De anima*. Alexander contends that the undeveloped reason in man is material (*nous hylikos*) and inseparable from the body. He argued strongly against the doctrine of the soul\'s immortality. He identified the active intellect (*nous poietikos*), through whose agency the potential intellect in man becomes actual, with God. A second book is known as the *Supplement to On the Soul* (*Mantissa*). The *Mantissa* is a series of twenty-five separate pieces of which the opening five deal directly with psychology. The remaining twenty pieces cover problems in physics and ethics, of which the largest group deals with questions of vision and light, and the final four with fate and providence. The *Mantissa* was probably not written by Alexander in its current form, but much of the actual material may be his.
*Problems and Solutions* (*Quaestiones*) consists of three books which, although termed \"problems and solutions of physical questions,\" treat of subjects which are not all physical, and are not all problems. Among the sixty-nine items in these three books, twenty-four deal with physics, seventeen with psychology, eleven with logic and metaphysics, and six with questions of fate and providence. It is unlikely that Alexander wrote all of the *Quaestiones*, some may be Alexander\'s own explanations, while others may be exercises by his students.
*Ethical Problems* was traditionally counted as the fourth book of the *Quaestiones*. The work is a discussion of ethical issues based on Aristotle, and contains responses to questions and problems deriving from Alexander\'s school. It is likely that the work was not written by Alexander himself, but rather by his pupils on the basis of debates involving Alexander.
*On Fate* is a treatise in which Alexander argues against the Stoic doctrine of necessity. In *On Fate* Alexander denied three things - necessity (*ἀνάγκη*), the foreknowledge of fated events that was part of the Stoic identification of God and Nature, and determinism in the sense of a sequence of causes that was laid down beforehand (*προκαταβεβλημένα αἴτια*) or predetermined by antecedents (*προηγούμενα αἴτια*). He defended a view of moral responsibility we would call libertarianism today.
*On Mixture and Growth* discusses the topic of mixture of physical bodies. It is both an extended discussion (and polemic) on Stoic physics, and an exposition of Aristotelian thought on this theme.
*On the Principles of the Universe* is preserved in Arabic translation. This treatise is not mentioned in surviving Greek sources, but it enjoyed great popularity in the Muslim world, and a large number of copies have survived. The main purpose of this work is to give a general account of Aristotelian cosmology and metaphysics, but it also has a polemical tone, and it may be directed at rival views within the Peripatetic school. Alexander was concerned with filling the gaps of the Aristotelian system and smoothing out its inconsistencies, while also presenting a unified picture of the world, both physical and ethical. The topics dealt with are the nature of the heavenly motions and the relationship between the unchangeable celestial realm and the sublunar world of generation and decay. His principal sources are the *Physics* (book 7), *Metaphysics* (book 12), and the Pseudo-Aristotelian *On the Universe*.
*On Providence* survives in two Arabic versions. In this treatise, Alexander opposes the Stoic view that divine Providence extends to all aspects of the world; he regards this idea as unworthy of the gods. Instead, providence is a power that emanates from the heavens to the sublunar region, and is responsible for the generation and destruction of earthly things, without any direct involvement in the lives of individuals.
## Influence
By the 6th century Alexander\'s commentaries on Aristotle were considered so useful that he was referred to as \"the commentator\" (*ὁ ἐξηγητής*). His commentaries were greatly esteemed among the Arabs, who translated many of them, and he is heavily quoted by Maimonides.
In 1210, the Church Council of Paris issued a condemnation, which probably targeted the writings of Alexander among others.
In the early Renaissance his doctrine of the soul\'s mortality was adopted by Pietro Pomponazzi (against the Thomists and the Averroists), and by his successor Cesare Cremonini. This school is known as Alexandrists.
Alexander\'s band, an optical phenomenon, is named after him.
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# Alexander of Aphrodisias
## Modern editions {#modern_editions}
Several of Alexander\'s works were published in the Aldine edition of Aristotle, Venice, 1495--1498; his *De Fato* and *De Anima* were printed along with the works of Themistius at Venice (1534); the former work, which has been translated into Latin by Grotius and also by Schulthess, was edited by J. C. Orelli, Zürich, 1824; and his commentaries on the *Metaphysica* by H. Bonitz, Berlin, 1847. In 1989 the first part of his *On Aristotle\'s Metaphysics* was published in English translation as part of the Ancient commentators project. Since then, other works of his have been translated into English
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# Alexander Aetolus
**Alexander Aetolus** (*Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Αἰτωλός*, *Alexandros ho Aitōlos*) or **Alexander the Aetolian** was a Hellenistic Greek poet and grammarian, who worked at the Library of Alexandria and composed poetry in a variety of genres, now almost entirely lost. He is the only known Aetolian poet of antiquity.
## Life and works {#life_and_works}
Alexander was a native of Pleuron in Aetolia. A contemporary of Callimachus and Theocritus, he was born c. 315 BC, and according to the Suda the names of his parent were Satyros and Stratokleia. By the 280s he was one of a group of literary scholars working at the Library of Alexandria, where Ptolemy II Philadelphus commissioned him to organize and correct the texts of the tragedies and satyr plays in the collection of the Library. Later, along with Antagoras and Aratus, he spent time at the court of the Macedonian king Antigonus II Gonatas.
In addition to his work as a scholar, Alexander was a versatile poet who produced verse in a variety of meters and genres, although only about 70 lines of his work survive, mostly in short fragments quoted by later sources. He was admired for his tragedies, which earned him a place among the seven Alexandrian tragedians who constituted the so-called Tragic Pleiad. One of his tragedies (or perhaps a satyr play), the *Astragalistai* (\"Knucklebone-players\"), described the killing of a fellow student by the young Patroklos. Alexander also wrote epics or *epyllia*, of which a few names and short fragments survive: the *Halieus* (\"Fisherman\"), about the sea-god Glaukos, and the *Krika* or *Kirka* (perhaps \"Circe\"?) The longest surviving example of his work is a 34-line excerpt from the *Apollo*, a poem in elegiac couplets, which tells the story of Antheus and Cleoboea. A few other elegiac fragments are quoted by other authors, and two epigrams in the Greek Anthology are usually considered his work. Ancient sources also describe him as a writer of *kinaidoi* (obscene verses, known euphemistically as \"Ionic poems\") in the manner of Sotades. A short fragment in anapestic tetrameters compares the gruff and sullen personality of Euripides with the honeyed quality of his poetry.
## Editions
- A. Meineke, [*Analecta alexandrina*](https://archive.org/details/analectaalexand00meingoog/page/215/) (Berlin 1843), pp. 215--251.
- J. U. Powell, [*Collectanea alexandrina: Reliquiae minores poetarum graecorum aetatis ptolemaicae, 323--146 A.C.*](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002326711&seq=145) (Oxford 1925), pp. 121--129.
- E. Magnelli, *Alexandri Aetoli testimonia et fragmenta* (Florence 1999).
- J. L. Lightfoot, *Hellenistic Collection* (Loeb Classical Library: Cambridge, Mass. 2009), pp. 99--145 (with English translation)
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# Alexandrists
The **Alexandrists** were a school of Renaissance philosophers who, in the great controversy on the subject of personal immortality, adopted the explanation of the *De Anima* given by Alexander of Aphrodisias.
According to the orthodox Thomism of the Catholic Church, Aristotle rightly regarded reason as a facility of the individual soul. Against this, the Averroists, led by Agostino Nifo, introduced the modifying theory that universal reason in a sense individualizes itself in each soul and then absorbs the active reason into itself again. These two theories respectively evolved the doctrine of individual and universal immortality, or the absorption of the individual into the eternal One.
The Alexandrists, led by Pietro Pomponazzi, assailed these beliefs and denied that either was rightly attributed to Aristotle. They held that Aristotle considered the soul as a material and therefore a mortal entity which operates during life only under the authority of universal reason. Hence the Alexandrists denied that Aristotle viewed the soul as immortal, because in their view, since they believed that Aristotle viewed the soul as organically connected with the body, the dissolution of the latter involves the extinction of the former
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# Alexis (poet)
**Alexis** (*Ἄλεξις*; `{{floruit}}`{=mediawiki} 350s`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}288 BC) was a Greek comic poet of the Middle Comedy period. He was born in Thurii (in present-day Calabria, Italy) in Magna Graecia and taken early to Athens, where he became a citizen, being enrolled in the deme *Oion* (*Οἶον*) and the tribe Leontides. It is thought he lived to the age of 106 and died on the stage while being crowned. According to the *Suda*, a 10th-century encyclopedia, Alexis was the paternal uncle of the dramatist Menander and wrote 245 comedies, of which only fragments now survive, including some 130 preserved titles.
## Life
He appears to have been rather addicted to the pleasures of the table, according to Athenaeus. He had a son named Stephanus (Στέφανος) who was also a comic poet.
He won his first Lenaean victory in the 350s BC, most likely, where he was sixth after Eubulus, and fourth after Antiphanes. While being a Middle Comic poet, Alexis was contemporary with several leading figures of New Comedy, such as Philippides, Philemon, Diphilus, and even Menander. There is also some evidence that, during his old age, he wrote plays in the style of New Comedy.
Plutarch says that he lived to the age of 106 and 5 months, and that he died on the stage while being crowned victor. He was certainly alive after 345 BC, for Aeschines mentions him as alive in that year. He was also living at least as late as 288 BC, from which his birth date is calculated. According to the *Suda* he wrote 245 comedies, of which only fragments including some 130 titles survive. His plays include *Meropis*, *Ankylion*, *Olympiodoros*, *Parasitos* (exhibited in 360 BC, in which he ridiculed Plato), *Agonis* (in which he ridiculed Misgolas), and the *Adelphoi* and the *Stratiotes*, in which he satirized Demosthenes, and acted shortly after 343 BC. Also *Hippos* (316 BC) (in which he referred to the decree of Sophocles against the philosophers), *Pyraunos* (312 BC), *Pharmakopole* (306 BC), *Hypobolimaios* (306 BC), and *Ankylion*.
Because he wrote a lot of plays, the same passages often appear in more than 3 plays. It was said that he also borrowed from Eubulus and many other playwrights in some of his plays. According to Carytius of Pergamum, Alexis was the first to use the part of the parasite. Alexis was known in Roman times; Aulus Gellius noted that Alexis\' poetry was used by Roman comedians, including Turpilius and possibly Plautus.
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# Alexis (poet)
## Surviving titles and fragments {#surviving_titles_and_fragments}
Only fragments have survived from any of Alexis\'s plays -- about 340 in all, totaling about 1,000 lines. They attest to the author\'s wit and refinement, which Athenaeus praises. The surviving fragments also show that Alexis invented a great many words, mostly compound words, that he used normal words in an unusual way, and made strange and unusual forms of common words. The main sources of the fragments of Alexis are Stobaeus and Athenaeus.
The following 139 titles of Alexis\'s plays have been preserved: `{{div col|colwidth=22em}}`{=mediawiki}
- *Achaiis* (\"The Achaean Woman\")
- *Adelphoi* (\"The Brothers\")
- *Agonis*, or *Hippiskos*
- *Aichmalotos* (\"The Prisoner of War\")
- *Aiopoloi* (\"Goat-Herders\")
- *Aisopos* (\"Aesop\")
- *Aleiptria* (\"Female Physical Trainer\")
- *Ampelourgos* (\"The Vine-Dresser\")
- *Amphotis*
- *Ankylion*
- *Anteia*
- *Apeglaukomenos*
- *Apobates* (\"The Trick Rider\")
- *Apokoptomenos*
- *Archilochos*
- *Asklepiokleides*
- *Asotodidaskalos* (\"Teacher of Debauchery\")
- *Atalante*
- *Atthis*
- *Bomos* (\"The Altar\")
- *Bostrychos* (\"Lock of Hair\")
- *Brettia* (\"The Bruttian Woman\")
- *Choregis*
- *Daktylios* (\"The Ring\")
- *Demetrios*, or *Philetairus*
- *Diapleousai* (\"Women Sailing Across The Sea\")
- *Didymoi* (\"The Twins\")
- *Dis Penthon* (\"Twice Grieving\")
- *Dorkis*, or *Poppyzousa* (\"Lip-Smacking Woman\")
- *Dropides*
- *Eis To Phrear* (\"Into The Well\")
- *Eisoikizomenos* (\"The Banished Man\")
- *Ekkeryttomenos*
- *Ekpomatopoios* (\"The Cup-Maker\")
- *Epidaurios* (\"The Man From Epidaurus\")
- *Epikleros* (\"The Heiress\")
- *Epistole* (\"The Letter\")
- *Epitropos* (\"The Guardian\", or \"Protector\")
- *Eretrikos* (\"Man From Eretria\")
- *Erithoi* (\"Weavers\"), or *Pannychis* (\"All-Night Festival\")
- *Galateia* (\"Galatea\")
- *Graphe* (\"The Document\")
- *Gynaikokratia* (\"Government By Women\")
- *Helene* (\"Helen\")
- *Helenes Arpage* (\"Helen\'s Capture\")
- *Helenes Mnesteres* (\"Helen\'s Suitors\")
- *Hellenis* (\"The Greek Woman\")
- *Hepta Epi Thebais* (\"Seven Against Thebes\")
- *Hesione* (\"Hesione\")
- *Hippeis* (\"Knights\")
- *Homoia*
- *Hypnos* (\"Sleep\")
- *Hypobolimaios* (\"The Changeling\")
- *Iasis* (\"The Cure, or Remedy\")
- *Isostasion*
- *Kalasiris*
- *Karchedonios* (\"The Man From Carthage\")
- *Katapseudomenos* (\"The False Accuser\")
- *Kaunioi* (\"The Men From Kaunos\")
- *Keryttomenos* (\"The Proclaimed Man\")
- *Kitharodos* (\"The Citharode\")
- *Kleobouline* (\"Cleobuline\")
- *Knidia* (\"The Woman From Cnidus\")
- *Koniates* (\"Plasterer\")
- *Kouris* (\"The Lady Hairdresser\")
- *Krateuas*, or *Pharmakopoles* (\"Pharmacist\")
- *Kybernetes* (\"The Pilot or Helmsman\")
- *Kybeutai* (\"The Dice-Players\")
- *Kyknos* (\"The Swan\")
- *Kyprios* (\"The Man from Cyprus\")
- *Lampas* (\"The Torch\")
- *Lebes* (\"The Cauldron\")
- *Leukadia* (\"Woman From Leucas\"), or *Drapetai* (\"Female Runaways\")
- *Leuke* (\"Leprosy,\" or possibly \"The White Poplar\")
- *Lemnia* (\"The Woman From Lemnos\")
- *Linos* (\"Linus\")
- *Lokroi* (\"The Locrians\")
- *Lykiskos*
- *Mandragorizomene* (\"Mandrake-Drugged Woman\")
- *Manteis* (\"Diviners,\" or \"Seers\")
- *Meropis* (\"Meropis\")
- *Midon* (\"Midon\")
- *Milesia* (\"Milesian Woman\")
- *Milkon* (\"Milcon\")
- *Minos* (\"Minos\")
- *Mylothros* (\"The Miller\")
- *Odysseus Aponizomenos* (\"Odysseus Washing Himself\")
- *Odysseus Hyphainon* (\"Odysseus Weaving Cloth\")
- *Olympiodoros*
- *Olynthia* (\"The Woman From Olynthos\")
- *Opora* (\"Autumn\")
- *Orchestris* (\"The Dancing-Girl\")
- *Orestes* (\"Orestes\")
- *Pallake* (\"The Concubine\")
- *Pamphile*
- *Pankratiastes*
- *Parasitos* (\"The Parasite\")
- *Pezonike*
- *Phaidon*, or *Phaidrias*
- *Phaidros* (\"Phaedrus\")
- *Philathenaios* (\"Lover of the Athenian People\")
- *Philiskos*
- *Philokalos*, or *Nymphai* (\"Nymphs\")
- *Philotragodos* (\"Lover of Tragedies\")
- *Philousa* (\"The Loving Woman\")
- *Phryx* (\"The Phrygian\")
- *Phygas* (\"The Fugitive\")
- *Poietai* (\"Poets\")
- *Poietria* (\"The Poetess\")
- *Polykleia* (\"Polyclea\")
- *Ponera* (\"The Wicked Woman\")
- *Pontikos* (\"The Man From Pontus\")
- *Proskedannymenos*
- *Protochoros* (\"First Chorus\")
- *Pseudomenos* (\"The Lying Man\")
- *Pylaia*
- *Pyraunos*
- *Pythagorizousa* (\"Female Disciple of Pythagoras\")
- *Rhodion*, or *Poppyzousa* (\"Lip-Smacking Woman\")
- *Sikyonios* (\"The Man From Sicyon\")
- *Skeiron*
- *Sorakoi*
- *Spondophoros* (\"The Libation-Bearer\")
- *Stratiotes* (\"The Soldier\")
- *Synapothneskontes* (\"Men Dying Together\")
- *Syntrechontes*
- *Syntrophoi*
- *Syrakosios* (\"Man From Syracuse\")
- *Tarantinoi* (\"Men From Tarentum\")
- *Thebaioi* (\"Men From Thebes\")
- *Theophoretos* (\"Possessed by a God\")
- *Thesprotoi* (\"Men From Thesprotia\")
- *Theteuontes* (\"Serfs\")
- *Thrason* (\"Thrason\")
- *Titthe* (\"The Wet-Nurse\")
- *Tokistes* (\"Money-Lender\"), or *Katapseudomenos* (\"The False Accuser\")
- *Traumatias* (\"The Wounded Man\")
- *Trophonios* (\"Trophonius\")
- *Tyndareos* (\"Tyndareus\")
## Editions of fragments {#editions_of_fragments}
- Augustus Meineke. *Poetarum Graecorum comicorum fragmenta*, (1855).
- Theodor Kock. *Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta*, i. (1880).
- Colin Austin and Rudolf Kassel. *Poetae Comici Graeci*. vol. 2
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# Alexios II Komnenos
**Alexios II Komnenos** (*Aléxios Komnēnós*; 14 September 1169`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}September 1183), Latinized **Alexius II Comnenus**, was Byzantine emperor from 1180 to 1183. He ascended to the throne as a minor. For the duration of his short reign, the imperial power was *de facto* held by regents.
## Biography
### Early years {#early_years}
Born in the purple at Constantinople, Alexios was the long-awaited son of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (who gave him a name that began with the letter alpha as a fulfillment of the AIMA prophecy) and Maria of Antioch. In 1171 he was crowned co-emperor, and in 1175 he accompanied his father at Dorylaion in Asia Minor in order to have the city rebuilt. On 2 March 1180, at the age of ten, he was married to Agnes of France aged eight, daughter of King Louis VII of France. She was thereafter known as Anna, and after Alexios\' murder three years later, Anna would be remarried to the person responsible, Andronikos, then aged 65.
### Regency of Maria and Alexios {#regency_of_maria_and_alexios}
When Manuel I died in September 1180, Alexios II succeeded him as emperor. At this time, however, he was an uneducated boy with only amusement in mind. The imperial regency was then undertaken by the dowager empress and the *prōtosebastos* Alexios Komnenos (a namesake cousin of Alexios II), who was popularly believed to be her lover.
The regents depleted the imperial treasury by granting privileges to Italian merchants and to the Byzantine aristocracy. When Béla III of Hungary and Kilij Arslan II of Rum began raiding within the Byzantine western and eastern borders respectively, the regents were forced to ask for help to the pope and to Saladin. Furthermore, a party supporting Alexios II\'s right to reign, led by his half-sister Maria Komnene and her husband the *caesar* John, stirred up riots in the streets of the capital.
The regents managed to defeat the party on April 1182, but Andronikos Komnenos, a first cousin of Manuel I, took advantage of the disorder to aim at the crown. He entered Constantinople, received with almost divine honours, and overthrew the government. His arrival was celebrated by a massacre of the Latins in Constantinople, especially the Venetian merchants, which he made no attempt to stop.
### Regency of Andronikos and death {#regency_of_andronikos_and_death}
On 16 May 1182 Andronikos, posing as Alexios\' protector, officially restored him on the throne. As for 1180, the young emperor was uninterested in ruling matters, and Andronikos effectively acted as the power behind the throne, not allowing Alexios any voice in public affairs. One after another, Andronikos suppressed most of Alexios\' defenders and supporters: his half-sister Maria Komnene, the *caesar* John, his loyal generals Andronikos Doukas Angelos, Andronikos Kontostephanos and John Komnenos Vatatzes, while Empress Dowager Maria was put in prison.
In 1183, Alexios was compelled to condemn his own mother to death. In September 1183, Andronikos was formally proclaimed emperor before the crowd on the terrace of the Church of Christ of the Chalkè. Probably by the end of the same month, Andronikos ordered Alexios\' assassination; the young emperor was secretly strangled with a bow-string and his body thrown in the Bósporos.
In the years following Alexios\' mysterious disappearance, many young men resembling him tried to claim the throne. In the end, none of those *pseudo-Alexioi* managed to become emperor.
## Portrayal in fiction {#portrayal_in_fiction}
Alexios is a character in the historical novel *Agnes of France* (1980) by Greek writer Kostas Kyriazis. The novel describes the events of the reigns of Manuel I, Alexios II, and Andronikos I through the eyes of Agnes
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# Hymn to Proserpine
\"**Hymn to Proserpine**\" is a poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne, published in *Poems and Ballads* in 1866. The poem is addressed to the goddess Proserpina, the Roman equivalent of Persephone, but laments the rise of Christianity for displacing the pagan goddess and her pantheon.
The epigraph at the beginning of the poem is the phrase *Vicisti, Galilaee*, Latin for \"You have conquered, O Galilean\", the supposed dying words of the Emperor Julian. He had tried to reverse the official endorsement of Christianity by the Roman Empire. The poem is cast in the form of a lament by a person professing the paganism of classical antiquity and lamenting its passing, and expresses regret at the rise of Christianity.
The line \"Time and the Gods are at strife\" inspired the title of Lord Dunsany\'s *Time and the Gods*.
The poem is quoted by Sue Bridehead in Thomas Hardy\'s 1895 novel *Jude the Obscure*, and also by Edward Ashburnham in Ford Madox Ford\'s *The Good Soldier*
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# The Triumph of Time
\"**The Triumph of Time**\" is a poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne, published in *Poems and Ballads* in 1866. It is in adapted ottava rima and is full of elaborate use of literary devices, particularly alliteration. The theme, which purports to be autobiographical, is that of rejected love. The speaker deplores the ruin of his life, and in tones at times reminiscent of *Hamlet*, craves oblivion, for which the sea serves as a constant metaphor
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# April 28
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April 28
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# Alger of Liège
**Alger of Liège** (1055--1131), known also as Alger of Cluny and Algerus Magister, was a learned clergyman and canonist from Liège, author of several notable works.
Alger was first deacon and scholaster of church of St Bartholomew in his native Liège and was then appointed (c. 1100) as a canon in St. Lambert\'s Cathedral. Moreover, he acted as the personal secretary of bishop Otbert from 1103. He declined offers from German bishops and finally retired to the monastery of Cluny after 1121, where he died at a high age, leaving behind a solid reputation for piety and intelligence.`{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Alger of Liége|volume=1|page=642}}`{=mediawiki} This cites:
- Migne, *Patrol Ser. Lat.* vol. clxxx. pp. 739--972
- Herzog-Hauck, *Realencyk. für prot. Theol.*, art, by S. M. Deutsch.
He played a leading role in the trial of Rupert of Deutz in 1116.
His *History of the Church of Liège*, and many of his other works, are lost. The most important remaining are:
1. *De Misericordia et Justitia* (On Mercy and Justice), a collection of biblical extracts and sayings of Church Fathers with commentary (an important work for the history of church law and discipline), which is to be found in the *Anecdota* of Martène, vol. v. This work has been suggested as influential on Gratian\'s Decretum
2. *De Sacramentis Corporis et Sanguinis Domini*; a treatise, in three books, against the Berengarian heresy, highly commended by Peter of Cluny and Erasmus, who published it in 1530. In this book, Alger also took on Rupert of Deutz\' views on the Eucharist and predestination.
3. *De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio*; given in Bernard Pez\'s *Anecdota*, vol. iv.
4. *De Sacrificio Missae*; given in the *Collectio Scriptor. Vet.* of Angelo Mai, vol. ix. p. 371.
5. *De dignitate ecclesie Leodiensis*, which established the reciprocal obligations of the primary and secondary churches; inserted in the Liber officiorum ecclesie Leodiensis (1323).
A biography was written by Nicholas of Liège: De Algero veterum testimonia
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# Alyattes
**Alyattes** (Lydian language: *𐤥𐤠𐤩𐤥𐤤𐤯𐤤𐤮\]\]* `{{Transliteration|xld|Walweteś}}`{=mediawiki}; *Ἀλυάττης\]\]* `{{Transliteration|grc|Aluáttēs}}`{=mediawiki}; reigned c. 635 -- c. 585 BC), sometimes described as **Alyattes I**, was the fourth king of the Mermnad dynasty in Lydia, the son of Sadyattes, grandson of Ardys, and great-grandson of Gyges. He died after a reign of 57 years and was succeeded by his son Croesus.
Alyattes was the first monarch who issued coins, made from electrum (and his successor Croesus was the first to issue gold coins). Alyattes is therefore sometimes mentioned as the originator of coinage, or of currency.
## Name
The most likely etymology for the name `{{Transliteration|grc|Aluáttēs}}`{=mediawiki} derives it, via a form with initial digamma *Ϝαλυάττης* (`{{Transliteration|grc|Waluáttēs}}`{=mediawiki}), itself originally from a Lydian `{{Transliteration|xld|Walweteś}}`{=mediawiki} (Lydian alphabet: *𐤥𐤠𐤩𐤥𐤤𐤯𐤤𐤮\]\]*). The name `{{Transliteration|xld|Walweteś}}`{=mediawiki} meant \"lion-ness\" (i.e. the state of being a lion), and was composed of the Lydian term `{{Transliteration|xld|walwe}}`{=mediawiki} (*𐤥𐤠𐤩𐤥𐤤\]\]*), meaning \"lion\", to which was added an abstract suffix `{{Transliteration|xld|-at(t)a-}}`{=mediawiki} (*𐤠𐤯𐤠-*).
## Chronology
thumb\|upright=1.5\|Electrum trite, Alyattes, Lydia, 610--560 BC. (inscribed *KUKALI\[M\]*) Dates for the Mermnad kings are uncertain and are based on a computation by J. B. Bury and Russell Meiggs (1975) who estimated c.687--c.652 BC for the reign of Gyges. Herodotus 1.16, 1.25, 1.86 gave reign lengths for Gyges\'s successors, but there is uncertainty about these as the total exceeds the timespan between 652 (probable death of Gyges, fighting the Cimmerians) and 547/546 (fall of Sardis to Cyrus the Great). Bury and Meiggs concluded that Ardys and Sadyattes reigned through an unspecified period in the second half of the 7th century BC, but they did not propose dates for Alyattes except their assertion that his son Croesus succeeded him in 560 BC. The timespan 560--546 BC for the reign of Croesus is almost certainly accurate.
However, based on an analysis of sources contemporary with Gyges, such as Neo-Assyrian records, Anthony Spalinger has convincingly deduced dated Gyges\'s death to 644 BCE, and Alexander Dale has consequently dated Alyattes\'s reign as starting in c. 635 BCE and ending in 585 BCE.
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# Alyattes
## Life and reign {#life_and_reign}
Alyattes was the son of the king Sadyattes of Lydia and his sister and queen, Lyde of Lydia, both the children of the king Ardys of Lydia. Alyattes ascended to the kingship of Lydia during period of severe crisis: during the 7th century BCE, the Cimmerians, a nomadic people from the Eurasian Steppe who had invaded Western Asia, attacked Lydia several times but had been repelled by Alyattes\'s great-grandfather, Gyges. In 644 BCE, the Cimmerians, led by their king Lygdamis, attacked Lydia for the third time. The Lydians were defeated, Sardis was sacked, and Gyges was killed, following which he was succeeded by his son Ardys. In 637 BCE, during the seventh regnal year of Ardys, the Thracian Treres tribe who had migrated across the Thracian Bosporus and invaded Anatolia, under their king Kobos, and in alliance with the Cimmerians and the Lycians, attacked Lydia. They defeated the Lydians again and for a second time sacked the Lydian capital of Sardis, except for its citadel. It is probable that Ardys was killed during this Cimmerian attack or was deposed in 637 BC for being unable to protect Lydia from the Cimmerian attacks, and Ardys\'s son and successor Sadyattes might have also been either killed during another Cimmerian attack in 653 BCE or deposed that year for his inability to successfully protect Lydia from the Cimmerian incursions. Alyattes thus succeeded his father Sadyattes amidst extreme turmoil in 635 BCE.
### Initial relations with the Ionians {#initial_relations_with_the_ionians}
Alyattes started his reign by continuing the hostilities with the Ionian city of Miletus started by Sadyattes. Alyattes\'s war with Miletus consisted largely of a series of raids to capture the Milesians\' harvest of grain, which were severely lacking in the Lydian core regions. These hostilities lasted until Alyattes\'s sixth year (c. 630 BCE), when he finally made peace with the city\'s tyrant Thrasybulus, and a treaty of friendship as well as one of military alliance was concluded between Lydia and Miletus whereby, since Miletus lacked auriferous and other metallurgic resources while cereals were scarce in Lydia, trade of Lydian metal in exchange of Milesian cereal was initiated to seal these treaties, according to which Miletus voluntarily provided Lydia with military auxiliaries and would profit from the Lydian control of the routes in inner Anatolia, and Lydia would gain access to the markets and maritime networks of the Milesians in the Black Sea and at Naucratis. Herodotus\'s account of Alyattes\'s illness, caused by Lydian troops\' destruction of the temple Athena in Assesos, and which was cured after he heeded the Pythia and rebuilt two temples of Athena in Assesos and then made peace with Miletus, is a largely legendary account of these events which appears to not be factual. This legendary account likely arose as a result of Alyattes\'s offerings to the sanctuary of Delphi.
Unlike with the other Greek cities of Anatolia, Alyattes always maintained very good relations with Ephesus, to whose ruling dynasty the Mermnads were connected by marriage: Alyattes\'s great-grandfather had married one of his daughters to the Ephesian tyrant Melas the Elder: Alyattes\'s grandfather Ardys had married his daughter Lyde to a grandson of Melas the Elder named Miletus (Lyde would later marry her own brother Sadyattes, and Alyattes would be born from this marriage); and Alyattes himself married one of his own daughters to the then tyrant of Miletus, a descendant of Miletus named Melas the Younger, and from this union would be born Pindar of Ephesus. One of the daughters of Melas the Younger might have in turn married Alyattes and become the mother of his less famous son, Pantaleon. Thanks to these close ties, Ephesus had never been subject to Lydian attacks and was exempt from paying tribute and offering military support to Lydia, and both the Greeks of Ephesus and the Anatolian peoples of the region, that is the Lydians and Carians, shared in common the temple of an Anatolian goddess equated by the Greeks to their own goddess Artemis. Lydia and Ephesus also shared important economic interests which allowed Ephesus to hold an advantageous position between the maritime trade routes of the Aegean Sea and the continental trade routes going through inner Anatolia and reaching Assyria, thus acting as an intermediary between the Lydian kingdom which controlled access to the trade routes leading to the inside of Asia and the Greeks inhabiting the European continent and the Aegean islands, and allowing Ephesus to profit from the goods transiting across its territory without fear of any military attack by the Lydians. These connections in turn provided Lydia with a port through which it could have access to the Mediterranean Sea.
### Offerings to Delphi {#offerings_to_delphi}
Like his great-grandfather Gyges, Alyattes also dedicated lavish offerings to the oracle of the god Apollo at Delphi. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Alyattes\'s offerings consisted of a large silver crater and an iron crater-stand which had been made by welding by Glaucus of Chios, thus combining Lydian and Ionian artistic traditions.
Alyattes\'s offering to Delphi might have been sent to please the sanctuary of Apollo and the Delphains, especially the priests, to impress the Greek visitors of the sanctuary, and to influence the oracle to advise to Periander of Corinth, an ally of Thrasybulus of Miletus, to convince the latter to make peace with Alyattes.
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# Alyattes
## Life and reign {#life_and_reign}
### Lyde of Lydia story {#lyde_of_lydia_story}
According to *Tractatus de mulieribus* (citing Xenophilos of Sardeis, who wrote the history of Lydia), Lyde was the wife and sister of Sadyattes, the ancestor of Croesus. Lyde\'s son, Alyattes, when he inherited the kingdom from his father, committed the terrible crime of tearing the clothes of respectable people and spitting on many. She too held her son back as much as she could and placated those who were insulted with kind words and actions. She showed all his compassion to her son and made him feel great love for himself. When she believes that he is loved enough and abstains from food and other things, citing his illness as an excuse, Xenophilos accompanies his mother that he does not eat in the same way and has changed enough to be extremely honest and fair (someone).Alyattes after seeing this becomes a changed man.
### Relations with Caria {#relations_with_caria}
In the south, Alyattes continued what had been the Lydian policy since Gyges\'s reign of maintaining alliances with the city-states of the Carians, with whom the Lydians also had strong cultural connections, such as sharing the sanctuary of the god Zeus of Mylasa with the Carians and the Mysians because they believed these three peoples descended from three brothers. These alliances between the Lydian kings and the various Carian dynasts required the Lydian and Carian rulers had to support each other, and to solidify these alliances, Alyattes married a woman from the Carian aristocracy with whom he had a son, Croesus, who would eventually succeed him. These connections established between the Lydian kings and the Carian city-states ensured that the Lydians were able to control Caria through alliances with Carian dynasts ruling over fortified settlements, such as Mylasa and Pedasa, and through Lydian aristocrats settled in Carian cities, such as in Aphrodisias.
### Wars against the Cimmerians {#wars_against_the_cimmerians}
Alyattes had inherited more than one war from his father, and soon after his ascension and early during his reign, with Assyrian approval and in alliance with the Lydians, the Scythians under their king Madyes entered Anatolia, expelled the Treres from Asia Minor, and defeated the Cimmerians so that they no longer constituted a threat again, following which the Scythians extended their domination to Central Anatolia until they were themselves expelled by the Medes from Western Asia in the 600s BCE. This final defeat of the Cimmerians was carried out by the joint forces of Madyes, whom Strabo credits with expelling the Treres and Cimmerians from Asia Minor, and of Alyattes, whom Herodotus of Halicarnassus and Polyaenus claim finally defeated the Cimmerians.
In Polyaenus\' account of the defeat of the Cimmerians, he claimed that Alyattes used \"war dogs\" to expel them from Asia Minor, with the term \"war dogs\" being a Greek folkloric reinterpretation of young Scythian warriors who, following the Indo-European passage rite of the *kóryos*, would ritually take on the role of wolf- or dog-warriors.
Immediately after this first victory of his over the Cimmerians, Alyattes expelled from the Lydian borderlands a final remaining pocket of Cimmerian presence who had been occupying the nearby city of Antandrus for one century, and to facilitate this he re-founded the city of Adramyttium in Aeolis. Alyattes installed his son Croesus as the governor of Adramyttium, and he soon expelled these last remaining Cimmerians from Asia Minor. Adramyttium was moreso an important site for Lydia because it was situated near Atarneus and Astyra, where rich mines were located.
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# Alyattes
## Life and reign {#life_and_reign}
### Eastern conquests {#eastern_conquests}
Alyattes turned towards Phrygia in the east. The kings of Lydia and of the former Phrygian kingdom had already entertained friendly relations before the destruction of the latter by the Cimmerians. After defeating the Cimmerians, Alyattes took advantage of the weakening of the various polities all across Anatolia by the Cimmerian raids and used the lack of a centralised Phrygian state and the traditionally friendly relations between the Lydian and Phrygian elites to extend Lydian rule eastwards to Phrygia. Lydian presence in Phrygia is archaeologically attested by the existence of a Lydian citadel in the Phrygian capital of Gordion, as well as Lydian architectural remains in northwest Phrygia, such as in Dascylium, and in the Phrygian Highlands at Midas City. Lydian troops might have been stationed in the aforementioned locations as well as in Hacıtuğrul, Afyonkarahisar, and Konya, which would have provided to the Lydian kingdom access to the produce and roads of Phrygia. The presence of a Lydian ivory plaque at Kerkenes Daǧ suggests that Alyattes\'s control of Phrygia might have extended to the east of the Halys River to include the city of Pteria, with the possibility that he may have rebuilt this city and placed a Phrygian ruler there: Pteria\'s strategic location would have been useful in protecting the Lydian Empire from attacks from the east, and its proximity to the Royal Road would have made of the city an important centre from which caravans could be protected. Phrygia under Lydian rule would continue to be administered by its local elites, such as the ruler of Midas City who held Phrygian royal titles such as `{{Transliteration|xpg|lawagetai}}`{=mediawiki} (king) and `{{Transliteration|xpg|wanaktei}}`{=mediawiki} (commander of the armies), but were under the authority of the Lydian kings of Sardis and had a Lydian diplomatic presence at their court, following the framework of the traditional vassalage treaties used since the period of the Hittite and Assyrian empires, and according to which the Lydian king imposed on the vassal rulers a \"treaty of vassalage\" which allowed the local Phrygian rulers to remain in power, in exchange of which the Phrygian vassals had the duty to provide military support and sometimes offer rich tribute to the Lydian kingdom. The status of Gordion and Dascylium is however less clear, and it is uncertain whether they were also ruled by local Phrygian kings vassal to the Lydian king, or whether they were directly ruled by Lydian governors.
With the defeat of the Cimmerians having created a power vacuum in Anatolia, Alyattes continued his expansionist policy in the east, and of all the peoples to the west of the Halys River whom Herodotus claimed Alyattes\'s successor Croesus ruled over - the Lydians, Phrygians, Mysians, Mariandyni, Chalybes, Paphlagonians, Thyni and Bithyni Thracians, Carians, Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians, and Pamphylians - it is very likely that a number of these populations had already been conquered under Alyattes, especially since information is attested only about the relations between the Lydians and the Phrygians in both literary and archaeological sources, and there is no available data concerning relations between the other mentioned peoples and the Lydian kings. The only populations Herodotus claimed were independent of the Lydian Empire were the Lycians, who lived in a mountainous country which would not have been accessible to the Lydian armies, and the Cilicians, who had already been conquered by Neo-Babylonian Empire. Modern estimates nevertheless suggest that it is not impossible that the Lydians might have subjected Lycia, given that the Lycian coast would have been important for the Lydians because it was close to a trade route connecting the Aegean region, the Levant, and Cyprus.
At some point in the later years of his reign, Alyattes conducted a military campaign in Caria, although the reason for this intervention is yet unknown. Alyattes\'s son Croesus, as governor of Adramyttium, had to provide his father with Ionian Greek mercenaries for this war.
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# Alyattes
## Life and reign {#life_and_reign}
### Later wars against the Ionians {#later_wars_against_the_ionians}
In 600 BCE, Alyattes resumed his military activities in the west, and the second Ionian city he attacked was Smyrna despite the Lydian kings having previously established good relations with the Smyrniotes in the aftermath of a failed attack of Gyges on the city, leading to the Lydians using the port of Smyrna to export their products and import grain, Lydian craftsmen being allowed to settle in Smyrniot workshops, and Alyattes having provided funding to the inhabitants of the city for the construction of their temple of Athena. Alyattes was thus able to acquire a port which gave the Lydian kingdom permanent access to the sea and a stable source of grain to feed the population of his kingdom through this attack. Smyrna was placed under the direct rule of a member of the Mermnad dynasty, and Alyattes had new fortification walls built for Smyrna from around 600 to around 590 BCE. Although under direct Lydian rule Smyrna\'s temple of Athena and its houses were rebuilt and the city was not forced to provide the Lydian kingdom with military troops or tribute, Smyrna itself was in ruins, and it would only be around 580 BCE, under the reign of Alyattes\'s son Croesus, that Smyrna would finally start to recover.
Alyattes also initially initiated friendly relations with the Ionian city of Colophon, which included a military alliance according to which the city had to offer the service of its famous and feared cavalry, which was itself made up of the aristocracy of Colophon, to the Lydian kingdom should Alyattes request their help. Following the capture of Smyrna, Alyattes attacked the Ionian city of Clazomenae, but the inhabitants of the city managed to successfully repel him with the help of the Colophonian cavalry. Following Alyattes\'s defeat, the Lydian kingdom and the city of Clazomenae concluded a reconciliation agreement which allowed Lydian craftsmen to operate in Clazomenae and allowed the kingdom of Lydia itself to participate in maritime trade, most especially in the olive oil trade produced by the craftsmen of Clazomenae, but also to use the city\'s port to export products manufactured in Lydia proper. Soon after capturing Smyrna and his failure to capture Clazomenae, Alyattes summoned the Colophonian cavalry to Sardis, where he had them massacred in violation of hospitality laws and redistributed their horses to Lydian cavalrymen, following which he placed Colophon itself under direct Lydian rule. The reason for Alyattes\'s breaking of the friendly relations with Colophon are unknown, although the archaeologist John Manuel Cook has suggested that Alyattes might have concluded a treaty of friendship and a military alliance with Colophon to secure the city\'s non-interference in his military operations against the other Greek cities on the western coast of Asia Minor, but Colophon first violated these agreements with Alyattes by supporting Clazomenae with its cavalry against Alyattes\'s attack, prompting the Lydian king to retaliate by massacring the mounted aristocracy of Colophon.
The status of the other Ionian Greek cities on the western coast of Asia Minor, that is Teos, Lebedus, Teichiussa, Melie, Erythrae, Phocaea and Myus, is still uncertain for the period of Alyattes\'s reign, although they would all eventually be subjected by his son Croesus.
### War against the Medes {#war_against_the_medes}
Alyattes\'s eastern conquests extended the Lydian Empire till the Upper Euphrates according to the scholar Igor Diakonoff, who identified Alyattes with the Biblical Gog. This expansionism brought the Lydian Empire in conflict in the 590s BCE with the Medes, an Iranian people who had expelled the majority of the Scythians from Western Asia after participating in the destruction of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. After the majority of the Scythians were expelled by the Medes during that decade out of Western Asia and into the Pontic Steppe, a war broke out between the Median Empire and another group of Scythians, probably members of a splinter group who had formed a kingdom in what is now Azerbaijan. These Scythians left Median-ruled Transcaucasia and fled to Sardis, because the Lydians had been allied to the Scythians. After Alyattes refused to accede to the demands of the Median king Cyaxares that these Scythian refugees be handed to him, a war broke out between the Median and Lydian Kingdoms in 590 BCE which was waged in eastern Anatolia beyond Pteria. This war lasted five years, until a solar eclipse occurred in 585 BCE during a battle (hence called the Battle of the Eclipse) opposing the Lydian and Median armies, which both sides interpreted as an omen to end the war. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II and the king Syennesis of Cilicia acted as mediators in the ensuing peace treaty, which was sealed by the marriage of Cyaxares\'s son Astyages with Alyattes\'s daughter Aryenis, and the possible wedding of a daughter of Cyaxares with either Alyattes or with his son Croesus. The border between the Lydian and Median empires was fixed at a yet undetermined location in eastern Anatolia; the Graeco-Roman historians\' traditional account of the Halys River as having been set as the border between the two kingdoms appears to have been a retroactive narrative construction based on symbolic role assigned by Greeks to the Halys as the separation between Lower Asia and Upper Asia as well as on the Halys being a later provincial border within the Achaemenid Empire.
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# Alyattes
## Life and reign {#life_and_reign}
### Death
Alyattes died shortly after the Battle of the Eclipse, in 585 BCE itself, following which Lydia faced a power struggle between his son Pantaleon, born from a Greek woman, and his other son Croesus, born from a Carian noblewoman, out of which the latter emerged successful. The tomb of Alyattes is located in Sardis at the site now called Bin Tepe, in a large tumulus measuring sixty metres in height and of a diameter of two hundred and fifty metres. The tomb consisted of an antechamber and a chamber with a door separating them, was built of well fitted and clamped large marble blocks, its walls were finely finished on the inside, and it contained a now lost crepidoma. The tomb of Alyattes was excavated by the Prussian Consul General Ludwig Peter Spiegelthal in 1853, and by American excavators in 1962 and the 1980s, although by then it had been broken in and looted by tomb robbers who left only alabastra and ceramic vessels. Before it was plundered, the tomb of Alyattes would likely have contained burial gifts consisting of furniture made of wood and ivory, textiles, jewellery, and large sets of solver and gold bowls, pitchers, craters, and ladles.
He created the first coins in history made from electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver. The weight of either precious metal could not just be weighed so they contained an imprint that identified the issuer who guaranteed the value of its contents. Today we still use a token currency, where the value is guaranteed by the state and not by the value of the metal used in the coins. Almost all coins used today descended from his invention after the technology passed into Greek usage through Hermodike II - a Greek princess from Cyme who was likely one of his wives (assuming he was referred to a dynastic \'Midas\' because of the wealth his coinage amassed and because the electrum was sourced from Midas\' famed river Pactolus); she was also likely the mother of Croesus (see croeseid symbolism). He standardised the weight of coins (1 stater = 168 grains of wheat). The coins were produced using an anvil die technique and stamped with a lion\'s head, the symbol of the Mermnadae.
## Tomb
thumb\|upright=1.5\|Section of the tomb of Alyattes. It is \"one of the largest tumuli ever built\", with a diameter of 360 meters and a height of 61 meters. thumb\|upright=1.5\|Tomb of Alyattes, 19th century. thumb\|upright=1.5\|Tomb of Alyattes today. Alyattes\' tomb still exists on the plateau between Lake Gygaea and the river Hermus to the north of the Lydian capital Sardis --- a large mound of earth with a substructure of huge stones. (38.5723401, 28.0451151) It was excavated by Spiegelthal in 1854, who found that it covered a large vault of finely cut marble blocks approached by a flat-roofed passage of the same stone from the south. The sarcophagus and its contents had been removed by early plunderers of the tomb. All that was left were some broken alabaster vases, pottery and charcoal. On the summit of the mound were large phalli of stone.
Herodotus described the tomb:
Some authors have suggested that Buddhist stupas were derived from a wider cultural tradition from the Mediterranean to the Indus valley, and can be related to the funeral conical mounds on circular bases that can be found in Lydia or in Phoenicia from the 8th century B.C., such as the tomb of Alyattes.
<File:Alyattes> tumulus reconstitution.jpg\|Alyattes tumulus reconstitution <File:Alyattes> tomb entrance.jpg\|Alyattes tomb entrance <File:Alyattes> tomb passage.jpg\|Alyattes tomb passageway <File:Alyattes> tomb inner vault
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# Alypius of Antioch
**Alypius of Antioch** was a geographer and a vicarius of Roman Britain, probably in the late 350s AD. He replaced Flavius Martinus after that vicarius\' suicide. His rule is recorded is Ammianus XXIII 1, 3.
## Life
He came from Antioch and served under Constantius II and was probably appointed to ensure that nobody with western associations was serving in Britain during a time of mistrust, rebellion and suppression symbolised by the brutal acts of the imperial notary Paulus Catena. He may have had to deal with the insurrection of the usurper named Carausius II.
Alypius was afterwards commissioned to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem as part of Julian\'s systematic attempt to reverse the Christianization of the Roman Empire by restoring pagan and, in this case, Jewish practices. Among the letters of Julian are two (29 and 30) addressed to Alypius; one inviting him to Rome, the other thanking him for a geographical treatise, which no longer exists
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# Afonso II of Portugal
**Afonso II** (*italic = no*; 23 April 1185`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}25 March 1223), also called **Afonso the Fat** (*Afonso o Gordo*) and **Afonso the Leper** (*Afonso o Gafo*), was King of Portugal from 1211 until 1223. Afonso was the third monarch of Portugal.
Afonso was the second but eldest surviving son of Sancho I of Portugal and Dulce of Aragon. Afonso succeeded his father on 27 March 1211.
## Reign
As a king, Afonso II set a different approach of government. Hitherto, his father Sancho I and his grandfather Afonso I were mostly concerned with military issues either against the neighbouring Kingdom of Castile or against the Moorish lands in the south. Afonso did not pursue territory enlargement policies and managed to ensure peace with Castile during his reign. Despite this, some towns were conquered from the Moors by the private initiative of noblemen and clergy, as when Bishop Soeiro Viegas initiated the conquest of Alcácer do Sal. This does not mean that he was a weak or somehow cowardly man. The first years of his reign were marked instead by internal disturbances between Afonso and his brothers and sisters. The king managed to keep security within Portuguese borders only by outlawing and exiling his kin.
Since military issues were not a government priority, Afonso established the state\'s administration and centralized power on himself. He designed the first set of Portuguese written laws. These were mainly concerned with private property, civil justice, and minting. Afonso also sent ambassadors to European kingdoms outside the Iberian Peninsula and began amicable commercial relations with most of them.
In 1220, Afonso instituted inquirições to investigate the nature of holdings and to recover whatever had been illegally taken from the crown. This issue was in response to the church\'s rein over Portuguese land as they supported Afonso\'s fight in the civil war with Sancho II. These included examination of local noble titles and rights, including investigation of properties, lands and incomes against royal charters that had been issued.
Other reforms included the always delicate matters with the pope. In order to get the independence of Portugal recognized by Rome, his grandfather, Afonso I, had to legislate an enormous number of privileges to the Church. These eventually created a state within the state. With Portugal\'s position as a country firmly established, Afonso II endeavoured to weaken the power of the clergy and to apply a portion of the enormous revenues of the Catholic Church to purposes of national utility. These actions led to a serious diplomatic conflict between the pope and Portugal. After being excommunicated for his audacities by Pope Honorius III, Afonso II promised to make amends to the church, but he died in Coimbra on 25 March 1223 before making any serious attempts to do so.
King Afonso was buried originally at the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra where his body remained for nearly ten years. His remains were transferred subsequently to Alcobaça Monastery, as he had stipulated in his will. He and his wife, Queen Urraca, were buried at its Royal Pantheon.
## Marriage and descendants {#marriage_and_descendants}
In 1206, he married Urraca, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England. The couple were both descendants of King Alfonso VI of León. The offspring of this marriage were:
- Sancho II (8 September 1207`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}4 January 1248), king of Portugal;
- Afonso III (5 May 1210`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}16 February 1279), king of Portugal;
- Eleanor (1211--1231), queen of Denmark
- Ferdinand (1218--1246), lord of Serpa
Out of wedlock, he had two illegitimate sons:
- João Afonso (d. 9 October 1234), buried in the Alcobaça monastery;
- Pedro Afonso (d. after 1249), who accompanied his brother King Afonso in the conquest of Faro in 1249. He had an illegitimate daughter named Constança Peres
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# Afonso III of Portugal
**Afonso III** (*italic = no*; 5 May 1210`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}16 February 1279), called **the Boulonnais** (Port. *o Bolonhês*), was King of Portugal and the first to use the title *King of Portugal and the Algarve*, from 1249. He was the second son of King Afonso II of Portugal and his wife, Urraca of Castile; he succeeded his brother, King Sancho II of Portugal, who died on 4 January 1248.
## Early life {#early_life}
Afonso was born in Coimbra. As the second son of King Afonso II of Portugal, he was not expected to inherit the throne, which was destined to go to his elder brother Sancho.
He lived mostly in France, where he married Countess Matilda II of Boulogne in 1238, thereby becoming count of Boulogne, Mortain, Aumale and Dammartin-en-Goële *jure uxoris*.
## Reign
In 1245, conflicts between his brother, the king, and the church became unbearable. Pope Innocent IV ordered Sancho II to be removed from the throne and to be replaced by the Count of Boulogne. Afonso did not refuse the papal order and consequently marched to Portugal. Since Sancho was not a popular king the order was not hard to enforce, and he fled into exile to Toledo, Castile, where he died on 4 January 1248. Until his brother\'s death and his own eventual coronation, Afonso retained and used the title of *Visitador, Curador e Defensor do Reino* (Overseer, Curator and Defender of the Kingdom).
In order to ascend the throne Afonso abdicated his rights to the county of Boulogne in 1248. In 1253, he divorced Matilda in order to marry Beatrice of Castile, illegitimate daughter of Alfonso X, King of Castile, and Mayor Guillén de Guzmán.
Determined not to make the same mistakes as his brother, Afonso III paid special attention to what the middle class, composed of merchants and small land owners, had to say. In 1254, in the city of Leiria, he held the first session of the *Cortes*, a general assembly comprising the nobility, the middle class and representatives of all municipalities. He also made laws intended to restrain the upper classes from abusing the least favored part of the population. Remembered as a notable administrator, Afonso III founded several towns, granted the title of city to many others and reorganized public administration.
Afonso showed extraordinary vision for the time. Progressive measures taken during his kingship include: representatives of the commons, besides the nobility and clergy, were involved in governance; the end of preventive arrests such that henceforward all arrests had to be first presented to a judge to determine the detention measure; and fiscal innovation, such as negotiating extraordinary taxes with the mercantile classes and direct taxation of the Church, rather than debasement of the coinage. These may have led to his excommunication by the Holy See and possibly precipitated his death, and his son Denis\'s premature rise to the throne at only 18 years old.
Secure on the throne, Afonso III then proceeded to make war with the Muslim communities that still thrived in the south. In his reign the Algarve became part of the kingdom, following the capture of Faro.
### Final years and death {#final_years_and_death}
Following his success against the Moors, Afonso III had to deal with a political situation concerning the country\'s borders with Castile. The neighbouring kingdom considered that the newly acquired lands of the Algarve should be Castilian, not Portuguese, which led to a series of wars between the two kingdoms. Finally, in 1267, the Treaty of Badajoz was signed in Badajoz, determining that the southern border between Castile and Portugal should be the River Guadiana, as it is today.
Afonso died in Alcobaça, Coimbra or Lisbon, aged 68.
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# Afonso III of Portugal
## Marriages and descendants {#marriages_and_descendants}
Afonso\'s first wife was Matilda II, Countess of Boulogne, daughter of Renaud, Count of Dammartin, and Ida, Countess of Boulogne. They had no surviving children. He divorced Matilda in 1253 and, in the same year, married Beatrice of Castile, illegitimate daughter of Alfonso X, King of Castile, and Mayor Guillén de Guzmán.
Name Birth Death Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ ------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**By Matilda II of Boulogne** (c. 1202--1262; married in 1238)
**By Beatrice of Castile** (1242--1303; married in 1253)
Blanche 25 February 1259 17 April 1321 Lady of Las Huelgas
Denis 9 October 1261 7 January 1325 Succeeded him as Denis, 6th King of Portugal. Married Infanta Elizabeth of Aragon.
Afonso 8 February 1263 2 November 1312 Lord of Portalegre. Married Infanta Violante Manuel (daughter of Manuel of Castile).
Sancha 2 February 1264
Maria 1265
Vicente 1268 1268
Fernando 1269 1269
**By Madragana (Mor Afonso)** (c. lk=no-?)
Martim Afonso Chichorro a\. 1313 Natural son; Married to Inês Lourenço de Valadares.
Urraca Afonso ? Natural daughter. Married twice: 1st to Pedro Anes de Riba Vizela, 2nd to João Mendes de Briteiros.
**By Maria Peres de Enxara** (?-?)
Afonso Dinis a\. 1310 Natural son; Married to D. Maria Pais Ribeira, Lady of the House of Sousa.
**By Elvira Esteves** (?-?)
Leonor Afonso (nun) ? 1259 Natural daughter; Nun in the Monastery of Santa Clara of Santarém.
**Other natural offspring**
Fernando Afonso ? ? Natural son; Knight of the Order of the hospital.
Gil Afonso 1250 31 December 1346 Natural son; Knight of the Order of the hospital.
Rodrigo Afonso 1258 about 12 May 1272 Natural son; Prior of the city of Santarém.
Leonor Afonso 1291 Natural daughter. Married twice: 1st to D. Estevão Anes de Sousa (without issue), 2nd to D. Gonçalo Garcia de Sousa, Count of Neiva (without issue).
Urraca Afonso (nun) 1250 4 November 1281 Natural daughter; Nun in the Monastery of Lorvão
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# Afonso IV of Portugal
**Afonso IV** (*italic = no*; 8 February 1291`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}28 May 1357), called **the Brave** (*links=no*), was King of Portugal from 1325 until his death in 1357. He was the only legitimate son of King Denis of Portugal and Elizabeth of Aragon.
## Early life {#early_life}
Afonso, born in Lisbon, was the rightful heir to the Portuguese throne. However, he was not Denis\' favourite son, even nearly beginning conflict against him. Instead, the old king preferred his illegitimate son, Afonso Sanches. The notorious rivalry between the half-brothers led to civil war several times. On 7 January 1325, Afonso IV\'s father died and he became king, whereupon he exiled his rival, Afonso Sanches, to Castile, and stripped him of all the lands and fiefdom given by their father. From Castile, Afonso Sanches orchestrated a series of attempts to usurp the crown. After a few failed attempts at invasion, the brothers signed a peace treaty, arranged by Afonso IV\'s mother, Elizabeth.
In 1309, Afonso married Beatrice of Castile, daughter of King Sancho IV of Castile and María de Molina. The first-born of this union was a daughter, Maria of Portugal.
## King of Portugal and Algarve {#king_of_portugal_and_algarve}
In 1325 Alfonso XI of Castile entered a child-marriage with Constanza Manuel of Castile, the daughter of one of his regents. Two years later, he had the marriage annulled so he could marry Afonso\'s daughter, Maria of Portugal. Maria became Queen of Castile in 1328 upon her marriage to Alfonso XI, who soon became involved publicly with a mistress. Constanza was imprisoned in a castle in Toro while her father, Don Juan Manuel, waged war against Alfonso XI until 1329. Eventually, the two reached a peaceful accord after mediation by Juan del Campo, Bishop of Oviedo; this secured Constanza\'s release from prison.
The public humiliation of his daughter led Afonso IV to have his son and heir, Peter I of Portugal, marry the no less aggrieved Castilian *infanta*, Constanza. Afonso subsequently started a war against Castile, peace arriving four years later, through the intervention of the *infanta* Maria herself. A year after the peace treaty was signed in Seville, Portuguese troops played an important role in defeating the Moors at the Battle of Río Salado in October 1340.
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# Afonso IV of Portugal
## Later life {#later_life}
Political intrigue marked the last part of Afonso IV\'s reign, although Castille was torn by civil war after Alfonso XI died. Henry of Trastámara challenged the new King Peter of Castile, who sent many Castilian nobles into exile in Portugal. Afonso\'s son Peter fell in love with his new wife\'s lady-in-waiting, Inês de Castro. Inês was the daughter of an important noble family from Galicia, with links (albeit illegitimate) to both the royal houses of Castile and Portugal. Her brothers were aligned with the Trastamara faction, and became favorites of Peter, much to the dismay of others at the Portuguese court, who considered them Castilian upstarts. When Constanza died weeks after giving birth to their third child, Peter began living openly with Inês, recognized all her children as his and refused to marry anyone other than Inês herself. His father refused to go to war again against Castile, hoping the heir apparent\'s infatuation would end, and tried to arrange another dynastic marriage for him.
The situation became worse as the years passed and the aging Afonso lost control over his court. His grandson and Peter\'s only legitimate son, Ferdinand I of Portugal, was a sickly child, while Inês\' illegitimate children thrived. Worried about his legitimate grandson\'s life, and the growing power of Castile within Portugal\'s borders, Afonso ordered Inês de Castro first imprisoned in his mother\'s old convent in Coimbra, and then murdered in 1355. He expected his son to give in and marry a princess, but Peter became enraged upon learning of his wife\'s decapitation in front of their young children. Peter put himself at the head of an army and devastated the country between the Douro and the Minho rivers before he was reconciled to his father in early 1357. Afonso died almost immediately after, in Lisbon in May.
Afonso IV\'s nickname *the Brave* alludes to his martial exploits. However, his most important accomplishments were the relative peace enjoyed by the country during his long reign and the support he gave to the Portuguese Navy. Afonso granted public funding to raise a proper commercial fleet and ordered the first Portuguese maritime explorations. The conflict with Pedro, and the explorations he initiated, eventually became the foundation of the Portuguese national epic, *Os Lusíadas* by Luís de Camões.
The dramatic circumstances of the relationship between father, son and Inês was used as the basis for the plot of more than twenty operas and ballets. The story with its tragic dénouement is immortalized in several plays and poems in Portuguese, such as *Os Lusíadas* by Luís de Camões (canto iii, stanzas 118--135), and in Spanish, including *Nise lastimosa* and *Nise laureada* (1577) by Jerónimo Bermúdez, *Reinar despues de morir* by Luis Vélez de Guevara, as well as a play by French playwright Henry de Montherlant called *La Reine morte* (*The Dead Queen*). Mary Russell Mitford also wrote a drama based on the story entitled *Inez de Castro*. *Inês de Castro* is a novel by Maria Pilar Queralt del Hierro in Spanish and Portuguese.
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# Afonso IV of Portugal
## Marriage and descendants {#marriage_and_descendants}
On 12 September 1309, Afonso married Beatrice of Castile, daughter of Sancho IV of Castile, and María de Molina, and had four sons and three daughters. Afonso broke the tradition of previous kings and did not have any children out of wedlock.
- Maria of Portugal, Queen of Castile (1313`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}18 January 1357), was the wife of Alfonso XI of Castile, and mother of the future King Peter of Castile. Due to the affair of her husband with his mistress Eleanor de Guzmán \"it was an unfortunate union from the start, contributing to dampening the relations of both kingdoms\";
- Afonso (1315--1317), died in his infancy. Buried at the disappeared Convento das Donas of the Dominican Order in Santarém;
- Denis (born 12 February 1317), died a few months after his birth, and was buried in Alcobaça Monastery;
- Peter I of Portugal (8 April 1320`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}18 January 1367), the first surviving male offspring, he succeeded his father. When his wife Constanza died in 1345, Beatrice took care of the education of the two orphans, the *infantes* Maria and Ferdinand, who later reigned as King Ferdinand I of Portugal;
- Isabel (21 December 1324`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}11 July 1326), buried at the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra;
- John (23 September 1326`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}21 June 1327), buried at the Monastery of São Dinis de Odivelas;
- Eleanor of Portugal, Queen of Aragon (1328--1348), born in the same year as her sister Maria\'s wedding, she married King Peter IV of Aragon in November 1347 and died a year after her marriage, succumbing to the Black Death
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# Afonso VI of Portugal
*Dom* **Afonso VI** (`{{IPA|pt|ɐˈfõsu}}`{=mediawiki}; 21 August 1643`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}12 September 1683), known as \"**the Victorious**\" (*o Vitorioso*), was the second king of Portugal of the House of Braganza from 1656 until his death. He was initially under the regency of his mother, Luisa de Guzmán, until 1662, when he removed her to a convent and took power with the help of his favourite, D. Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 3rd Count of Castelo Melhor.
Afonso\'s reign saw the end of the Restoration War (1640--68) and Spain\'s recognition of Portugal\'s independence. He also negotiated a French alliance through his marriage. In 1668, his brother Pedro II conspired to have him declared incapable of ruling, and took supreme *de facto* power as regent, although nominally Afonso was still sovereign. Queen Maria Francisca, Afonso\'s wife, received an annulment and subsequently married Pedro. Afonso spent the rest of his life and reign practically a prisoner.
## Early life {#early_life}
Afonso was the second of three sons born to King John IV and Queen Luisa. At the age of three, he experienced an illness that resulted in paralysis on the right side of his body. The condition was believed to have also affected his intellectual abilities.`{{sfb|Davidson|1908|p=14}}`{=mediawiki} His father created him 10th Duke of Braganza.
After the death of his eldest brother Teodósio, Prince of Brazil in 1653, Afonso became the heir apparent to the throne of the kingdom. He also received the crown-princely title 2nd Prince of Brazil.
## Reign
thumb\|right\|upright 1.30\|*Portrait of Infante D. Afonso with a Black page*, by José de Avelar Rebelo, 1653 He succeeded his father, John IV, in 1656 at the age of thirteen. His mother, Luisa de Guzmán, was named regent in his father\'s will.
Luisa\'s regency continued even after Afonso came of age because he was considered mentally unfit for governing. In addition to lacking intellect, the king exhibited wild and disruptive behavior. In 1662, after Afonso terrorized Lisbon at night alongside his favorites, Luisa and her council responded by banishing some of the king\'s companions that were associated with the raids. Angered, Afonso took power with the help of Castelo Melhor and Luisa\'s regency came to an end. She subsequently retired to a convent, where she died in 1666.
Afonso appointed Castelo Melhor as his private secretary (*escrivão da puridade*). He proved to be a competent minister. His astute military organization and sensible general appointments resulted in decisive military victories over the Spanish at Elvas (14 January 1659), Ameixial (8 June 1663) and Montes Claros (17 June 1665), culminating in the final Spanish recognition of sovereignty of Portugal\'s new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza, on 13 February 1668 in the Treaty of Lisbon.
### Colonial affairs {#colonial_affairs}
Colonial affairs saw the Dutch conquest of Jaffna, Portugal\'s last colony in Portuguese Ceylon (1658), and the cession of Bombay and Tangier to England (23 June 1661) as dowry for Afonso\'s sister, Infanta Catherine of Braganza, who had married King Charles II of England.
### Marriage
Melhor successfully arranged for Afonso to marry Maria Francisca of Savoy, a relative of the Duke of Savoy, in 1666, but the marriage was short-lived. Maria Francisca filed for an annulment in 1667 based on the impotence of the king. The church granted her the annulment, and she married Afonso\'s brother, Peter II, Duke of Beja.
## Downfall
Also in 1667, Pedro managed to gain enough support to force Afonso to relinquish control of the government to him, and he became prince regent in 1668. While Pedro never formally usurped the throne, Afonso was king in name only for the rest of his life.`{{sfb|Davidson|1908|p=236}}`{=mediawiki} For seven years after Peter\'s coup, Afonso was kept on the island of Terceira in the Azores. His health broken by this captivity, he was eventually permitted to return to the Portuguese mainland, but he remained powerless and kept under guard. At Sintra he died in 1683.
The room where he was imprisoned is preserved at Sintra National Palace
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# Alfonso II of Asturias
**Alfonso II** of Asturias (c. 760`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}842), nicknamed **the Chaste** (*el Casto*), was the king of Asturias during two different periods: first in the year 783 and later from 791 until his death in 842. Upon his death, Nepotian, a family member of undetermined relation, attempted to usurp the crown in place of the future Ramiro I.
During his reign, which covered a span of 51 years, Alfonso discovered the supposed tomb of St. James the Great (called *Santiago* in Spanish) in the town of Compostela, which later became known as the city of Santiago de Compostela. He was the son of Fruela I and Munia, a Basque woman captured and brought back to Asturias by the former following a military campaign.
## Early life {#early_life}
He was born in Oviedo in 759 or 760. He was put under the guardianship of his aunt Adosinda after his father\'s death, but one tradition relates his being put in the Monastery of San Xulián de Samos. He was the governor of the palace during the reign of Adosinda\'s husband Silo. On Silo\'s death, he was elected king by Adosinda\'s allies, but the magnates raised his uncle Mauregatus to the throne instead. Alfonso fled to Álava where he found shelter with his maternal relatives. Mauregatus was succeeded by Bermudo I, Alfonso\'s cousin, who abdicated after his defeat at the Battle of the Burbia River.
## Alfonso proclaimed king {#alfonso_proclaimed_king}
Alfonso was subsequently elected king on 14 September 791. Poets of a later generation invented the story of the secret marriage between his sister Ximena and Sancho, count of Saldana, and the feats of their son Bernardo del Carpio. Bernardo is the hero of a **\[\[cantar de gesta\]\]** written to please the anarchical spirit of the nobles.
Alfonso moved the capital from Pravia, where Silo had located it, to Oviedo, the city of his father\'s founding and his birth. There he constructed churches and a palace. He built the churches of San Tirso, where he is buried, and of San Julián de los Prados (aka Santullano), high above overlooking the nascent city.
## Andalusian raids into Asturias {#andalusian_raids_into_asturias}
On accession to the throne, Hisham I, son of Abd al-Rahman I, commenced a string of military campaigns in the eastern Pyrenees and to the north-west. In 794, a raid spearheaded by Abd al-Karim dealt a major military blow to Alfonso II on the eastern fringes of the Kingdom of Asturias (Cantabria and Castile). The Asturian king asked for the assistance of the Basque Frankish vassal Belasco, master of Álava and bordering regions at the time. Abd al-Karim advanced deeper west into Asturias and pillaged the region, while his brother Abd al-Malik ventured into the western Asturian lands.
## Relations with Charlemagne and the Papacy {#relations_with_charlemagne_and_the_papacy}
Under pressure from his enemies, Alfonso II reached out to Charlemagne, sending delegations to Toulouse and Aix-la-Chapelle in 796, 797, and 798. These diplomatic efforts, proffered by Froia and later Basiliscus, may have aimed to strengthen his legitimacy and the Asturian government against ongoing internal unrest------*viz.*, troubles in Galicia------and external attacks of the Ibn Mugait brothers, the generals Abd al-Karim and Abd al-Malik.
Alfonso was acknowledged as a king by Charlemagne and the Pope, and Asturias as a kingdom for the first time in the Royal Frankish Annals. The king showed an interest in the Frankish cult of Saint Martin of Tours, and he encouraged Carolingian Church influence in Asturias.
Alfonso\'s envoys to Charlemagne\'s courts may have also dealt with the adoptionist controversy, which had brought Bermudo\'s kingdom into Charlemagne\'s view. It seems that Carolingian support did much to spur his raid into Andalusian territory up to Lisbon, which was captured and sacked by his troops in 798.
## Later events {#later_events}
Also, during Alfonso\'s reign, the alleged resting place of St. James was revealed. Tradition relates that in 814, the body of Saint James was discovered in Compostela and that Alfonso was the first pilgrim to the shrine at Libredón.
In 825, he defeated Saracen forces at Narón (near Ferrol) and also in year 825 Anceo (in the hills equidistant from Pontevedra and Vigo), and, thanks to these victories, the \"repopulation\" of parts of Galicia, León, and Castile was started--- with charters confirming the possession of the territories
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# Amarasimha
**Amarasimha** (IAST: **`{{IAST|Amara-siṃha}}`{=mediawiki}**, c. CE 375) was a Sanskrit grammarian and poet from ancient India, of whose personal history hardly anything is known. He is said to have been \"one of the nine gems that adorned the throne of Vikramaditya,\" and according to the evidence of Xuanzang, this is the Chandragupta Vikramaditya (Chandragupta II) who flourished about CE 375. Other sources describe him as belonging to the period of Vikramaditya of 7th century. Most of Amarasiṃha\'s works were lost, with the exception of the celebrated *Amara-Kosha* (IAST: *`{{IAST|Amarakośa}}`{=mediawiki}*) (*Treasury of Amara*). The first reliable mention of the *Amarakosha* is in the Amoghavritti of Shakatayana composed during the reign of Amoghavarsha (814-867 CE)
The *Amarakosha* is a lexicon of Sanskrit words in three books, and hence is sometimes called the *Trikāṇḍī* or the \"Tripartite\". It is also known as \"Namalinganushasana\". The *Amarakosha* contains 10,000 words, and is arranged, like other works of its class, in metre, to aid the memory.
The first chapter of the *Kosha* was printed at Rome in Tamil character in 1798. An edition of the entire work, with English notes and an index by Henry Thomas Colebrooke appeared at Serampore in 1808. The Sanskrit text was printed at Calcutta in 1831. A French translation by ALA Loiseleur-Deslongchamps was published at Paris in 1839. B. L. Rice compiled the text in Kannada script with meanings in English and Kannada in 1927
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# Ambergris
thumb\|upright=1.3\|Ambergris in dried form
**Ambergris** (`{{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|m|b|ər|g|r|iː|s|}}`{=mediawiki} or `{{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|m|b|ər|g|r|ɪ|s|}}`{=mediawiki}; *ambra grisea*; *ambre gris*), ***ambergrease***, or **grey amber** is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor. It acquires a sweet, earthy scent as it ages, commonly likened to the fragrance of isopropyl alcohol without the vaporous chemical astringency.
Ambergris has been highly valued by perfume makers as a fixative that allows the scent to last much longer, although it has been mostly replaced by synthetic ambroxide. It is sometimes used in cooking.
Dogs are attracted to the smell of ambergris and are sometimes used by ambergris searchers.
## Etymology
The English word *amber* derives from Middle Persian ʾmbl, traveling via Arabic *ʿanbar* (*rtl=yes*), Middle Latin *ambar,* and Middle French *ambre* to be adopted in Middle English in the 14th century.
The word \"ambergris\" comes from the Old French *ambre gris* or \"grey amber\". The addition of \"grey\" came about when, in the Romance languages, the sense of the word \"amber\" was extended to Baltic amber (fossil resin), as white or yellow amber (*ambre jaune*), from as early as the late 13th century. This fossilized resin subsequently became the dominant (and now exclusive) sense of \"amber\", leaving \"ambergris\" as the word for the whale secretion.
The archaic alternate spelling \"ambergrease\" arose as an eggcorn from the phonetic pronunciation of \"ambergris,\" encouraged by the substance\'s waxy texture.
## Formation
Ambergris is formed from a secretion of the bile duct in the intestines of the sperm whale, and can be found floating on the sea or washed up on coastlines. It is sometimes found in the abdomens of dead sperm whales. Because the beaks of giant squids have been discovered within lumps of ambergris, scientists have hypothesized that the substance is produced by the whale\'s gastrointestinal tract to ease the passage of hard, sharp objects that it may have eaten.
Ambergris is passed like fecal matter. It is speculated that an ambergris mass too large to be passed through the intestines is expelled via the mouth, but this remains under debate. Another theory states that an ambergris mass is formed when the colon of a whale is enlarged by a blockage from intestinal worms and cephalopod parts resulting in the death of the whale and the mass being excreted into the sea. Ambergris takes years to form. Christopher Kemp, the author of *Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History of Ambergris*, says that it is only produced by sperm whales, and only by an estimated one percent of them. Ambergris is rare; once expelled by a whale, it often floats for years before making landfall. The slim chances of finding ambergris and the legal ambiguity involved led perfume makers away from ambergris, and led chemists on a quest to find viable alternatives.
Ambergris is found primarily in the Atlantic Ocean and on the coasts of South Africa; Brazil; Madagascar; the East Indies; The Maldives; China; Japan; India; Australia; New Zealand; and the Molucca Islands. Most commercially collected ambergris comes from the Bahamas in the Atlantic, particularly New Providence. In 2021, fishermen found a 127 kg (280-pound) piece of ambergris off the coast of Yemen, valued at US\$1.5 million. Fossilised ambergris from 1.75 million years ago has also been found.
## Physical properties {#physical_properties}
Ambergris is found in lumps of various shapes and sizes, usually weighing from 15 g to 50 kg or more. When initially expelled by or removed from the whale, the fatty precursor of ambergris is pale white in color (sometimes streaked with black), soft, with a strong fecal smell. Following months to years of photodegradation and oxidation in the ocean, this precursor gradually hardens, developing a dark grey or black color, a crusty and waxy texture, and a peculiar odor that is at once sweet, earthy, marine, and animalic. Its scent has been generally described as a vastly richer and smoother version of isopropanol without its stinging harshness. In this developed condition, ambergris has a specific gravity ranging from 0.780 to 0.926 (meaning it floats in water). It melts at about 62 C to a fatty, yellow resinous liquid; and at 100 C it is volatilised into a white vapor. It is soluble in ether, and in volatile and fixed oils.
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# Ambergris
## Chemical properties {#chemical_properties}
Ambergris is relatively nonreactive to acid. White crystals of a terpenoid known as ambrein, discovered by Leopold Ružička and Fernand Lardon in 1946, can be separated from ambergris by heating raw ambergris in alcohol, then allowing the resulting solution to cool. Breakdown of the relatively scentless ambrein through oxidation produces ambroxide and ambrinol, the main odor components of ambergris.
<File:Ambrein.svg%7CAmbrein> <File:Ambrox.svg%7CAmbroxide> <File:Ambrinol.svg%7CAmbrinol>
Ambroxide is now produced synthetically and used extensively in the perfume industry.
## Applications
Ambergris has been mostly known for its use in creating perfume and fragrance much like musk. Perfumes based on ambergris still exist. Ambergris has historically been used in food and drink. A serving of eggs and ambergris was reportedly King Charles II of England\'s favorite dish. A recipe for Rum Shrub liqueur from the mid 19th century called for a thread of ambergris to be added to rum, almonds, cloves, cassia, and the peel of oranges in making a cocktail from *The English and Australian Cookery Book*. It has been used as a flavoring agent in Turkish coffee and in hot chocolate in 18th century Europe. The substance is considered an aphrodisiac in some cultures.
Ancient Egyptians burned ambergris as incense, while in modern Egypt ambergris is used for scenting cigarettes. `{{anchor|Chinese }}`{=mediawiki}The ancient Chinese called the substance \"dragon\'s spittle fragrance\". During the Black Death in Europe, people believed that carrying a ball of ambergris could help prevent them from contracting plague. This was because the fragrance covered the smell of the air which was believed to be a cause of plague.
During the Middle Ages, Europeans used ambergris as a medication for headaches, colds, epilepsy, and other ailments.
## Legality
From the 18th to the mid-19th century, the whaling industry prospered. By some reports, nearly 50,000 whales, including sperm whales, were killed each year. Throughout the 19th century, \"millions of whales were killed for their oil, whalebone, and ambergris\" to fuel profits, and they soon became endangered as a species as a result. Due to studies showing that the whale populations were being threatened, the International Whaling Commission instituted a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982. Although ambergris is not harvested from whales, many countries also ban the trade of ambergris as part of the more general ban on the hunting and exploitation of whales.
Urine, faeces, and ambergris (that has been naturally excreted by a sperm whale) are waste products not considered parts or derivatives of a CITES species and are therefore not covered by the provisions of the convention.
Countries where ambergris trade is illegal include:
- Australia -- Under federal law, the export and import of ambergris for commercial purposes is banned by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The various states and territories have additional laws regarding ambergris.
- United States -- The possession and trade of ambergris is prohibited by the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
- India -- Sale or possession is illegal under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972
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# Ambiorix
**Ambiorix** (Gaulish \"king of the surroundings\", or \"king-protector\") (`{{floruit}}`{=mediawiki} 54--53 BC) was, together with Cativolcus, prince of the Eburones, leader of a Belgic tribe of north-eastern Gaul (Gallia Belgica), where modern Belgium is located. In the 19th century, Ambiorix became a Belgian national hero because of his resistance against Julius Caesar, as written in Caesar\'s *Commentarii de Bello Gallico*.
## Name
It is generally accepted that *Ambiorix* is a Gaulish personal name formed with the prefix *ambio-* attached to *rix* (\'king\'), but the meaning of the first element is debated. Some scholars translate *Ambiorix* as the \'king of the surroundings\' or \'king of the enclosure\', by interpreting *ambio-* as a thematized form of *ambi-* (\'around, on both sides\') meaning \'surroundings\' or else \'enclosure\' (cf. Old Irish *imbe* \'enclosure\'). Alternatively, Fredrik Otto Lindeman renders *Ambiorix* as the \'protector-king\', by deriving *ambio-* from the Proto-Indo-European compound *\*h₂mbhí-péh₂* (\'protector\'; cf. Old Indic *adhi-pá-* \'protector, ruler, master, king\').
## Biography
### Early history {#early_history}
In 57 BCE, Julius Caesar conquered parts of Gaul and also Belgica (Belgium, modern-day Northern France, Luxembourg, part of present-day Netherlands below the Rhine River; and the north-western portion of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). There were several tribes in the country who fought against each other frequently. The Eburones were ruled by Ambiorix and Catuvolcus. In 54 BCE, Caesar\'s troops urgently needed more food, and so the local tribes were forced to give up part of their harvest, which had not been good that year. Understandably, the starving Eburones were reluctant to do so and Caesar ordered that camps be built near the Eburones\' villages. Each centurion was ordered to make sure the food supplies were delivered to the Roman soldiers. This created resentment among the Eburones.
Although Julius Caesar had freed him from paying tribute to the Atuatuci, Ambiorix joined Catuvolcus in the winter of 54 BCE in an uprising against the Roman forces under Quintus Titurius Sabinus and Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta.
### Resisting the Romans {#resisting_the_romans}
Because a drought had disrupted his grain supply, Caesar was forced to winter his legions among the rebellious Belgic tribes. Roman troops led by Sabinus and Cotta were wintering among the Eburones when they were attacked by them, led by Ambiorix and Cativolcus. Ambiorix deceived the Romans, telling them the attack was made without his consent, and further advised them to flee as a large Germanic force was preparing to cross the Rhine. Trusting Ambiorix, Sabinus and Cotta\'s troops left the next morning. A short distance from their camp, the Roman troops were ambushed by the Eburones and massacred.
Elsewhere, another Roman force under Quintus Tullius Cicero, younger brother of the orator Marcus, were wintering amongst the Nervii. Leading a coalition of rebellious Belgic tribes, Ambiorix surrounded Cicero\'s camp. After a long while, a Roman messenger was finally able to slip through the Belgic lines and get word of the uprising to Caesar. Mobilizing his legions, Caesar immediately marched to Cicero\'s aid. As they approached the besieged Roman camp, the Belgae moved to engage Caesar\'s troops. Vastly outnumbered, Caesar ordered his troops to appear confused and frightened, and they successfully lured the Belgae to attack them on ground favourable to the Romans. Caesar\'s forces launched a fierce counterattack, and soon put the Belgae to flight. Later, Caesar\'s troops entered Cicero\'s camp to find most of the men wounded.
Meanwhile, Indutiomarus, a leader of the Treveri, began to harass Labienus\'s camp daily, eventually provoking Labienus to send out his cavalry with specific orders to kill Indutiomarus. They did so, and routed the remnants of Indutiomarus\'s army. Caesar personally remained in Gaul for the remainder of winter due to the renewed Gallic threat.
### Caesar\'s revenge {#caesars_revenge}
When the Roman Senate became aware of the latest events, Caesar swore to destroy all the Belgic tribes. Ambiorix had killed fifteen cohorts. A Belgic attack on Cicero, then stationed with a legion in the territory of the Nervii, failed due to the timely appearance of Caesar. The Roman campaigns against the Belgae took a few years, but eventually the tribes were slaughtered or driven out and their fields burned. The Eburones disappeared from history after this genocidal event. According to the writer Florus, Ambiorix and his men succeeded in escaping across the Rhine and vanished from history.
## Legacy
Caesar wrote about Ambiorix in his commentary about his battles against the Gauls, *De Bello Gallico*. In this text he also famously wrote: \"Of these \[three regions\], the Belgae are the bravest.\" (\"\... *Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae* \...\").
Ambiorix remained a relatively obscure figure until the nineteenth century. The independence of Belgium in 1830 spurred a search for national heroes. In Caesar\'s *De Bello Gallico*, Ambiorix and his deeds were rediscovered. In 1841, the Belgian poet Joannes Nolet de Brauwere Van Steeland wrote a lyrical epic about Ambiorix. Furthermore, on 5 September 1866 a statue of Ambiorix was erected on the main market square in Tongeren, Belgium, referred to by Caesar as Atuatuca, i.e. Atuatuca Tungrorum.
Today, Ambiorix is one of the most famous characters in Belgian history. Many companies, bars and friteries have named themselves after him, and in many Belgian comics such as Suske en Wiske and Jommeke he plays a guest role. There was also a short-lived comic called *Ambionix*, which featured a scientist teleporting a Belgic chief, loosely based on Ambiorix, to modern-day Belgium
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# Alfred of Beverley
**Alfred of Beverley** was an English chronicler, and sacrist of the collegiate church of St John the Evangelist and St John of Beverley wrote a history of Britain and England in nine chapters (c. 1148- c.1151) from its supposed foundation by the Trojan Brutus, down to the death of Henry I in 1135. Alfred\'s chief sources, in addition to Bede\'s *Historia Ecclesiastica de Gentis Anglorum ,* are Geoffrey of Monmouth\'s *Historia Regum Britanniae,* Henry of Huntingdon\'s *Historia Anglorum, The Chronicle of John of Worcester,* and the *Historia Regum*, attributed to Symeon of Durham.
## Biography
Alfred of Beverley, was a priest of Beverley, and is described in the preface to his book as \"treasurer of the church of Beverley\" and \"Master Alfred, sacrist of the church of Beverley\".
Alfred of Beverley speaks of himself as contemporary with the removal of the Flemings from the north of England to Ross in Herefordshire in 1112, and writes that he compiled his chronicle \"when the church was silent, owing to the number of persons excommunicated under the decree of the council of London\", an apparent reference to the council held at Mid-Lent, 1143. His attention, by his own account, was first drawn to history by the publication (before 1139) of Geoffrey of Monmouth\'s Historia Regum Britanniae, and he looked forward to following up the chronicle which bears his name, and which largely depends on Geoffrey\'s work, with a collection of excerpts from the credible portions of the Historia Regum Britanniae, but no trace of such a work is extant.
Alfred of Beverley\'s chronicle is entitled *Aluredi Beverlacensis Annales sive Historia de gestis Regum Britanniæ libris ix. ad annum 1129*. It is largely devoted to the fabulous history of Britain, and is mainly borrowed from Bede, Henry of Huntingdon, and Symeon of Durham, when Geoffrey of Monmouth is not laid under contribution. Alfred quotes occasionally from Suetonius, Orosius, and Nennius, and names many Roman authors whom he had consulted in vain for references to Britain. The chronicle is of no real use to the historical student, since it adds no new fact to the information to be found in well-known earlier authorities.
According to Sidney Lee (1885) the best manuscript of Alfred\'s *Annales* was among the Hengwrt MSS. belonging to W. W. E. Wynne, Esq., of Peniarth, Merionethshire, and had not been printed. Hearne printed the 'Annales' in 1716 from an inferior Bodleian MS. (Rawl. B. 200)
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# August 31
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# Autpert Ambrose
**Autpert Ambrose (Ambroise)** (*\'\'\'Ambrosius Autpertus\'\'\'*) (ca. 730 -- 784) was a Frankish Benedictine monk. An abbot of San Vincenzo al Volturno in South Italy in the time of Desiderius, king of the Lombards, Autpert wrote a considerable number of works on the Bible and religious subjects generally. Among these are commentaries on the Apocalypse, on the Psalms, and on the Song of Songs; a life of the founders of the monastery of San Vincenzo (*Vita Paldonis, Tasonis et Tatonis*); and a *Conflictus vitiorum et virtutum* (Combat between the Virtues and the Vices). Jean Mabillon calls him \"sanctissimus\" because of his great virtue and the Bollandists gave him the title \"saint\". His cultus has been approved.
## Biography
Autpert Ambrose was born in Gaul, probably Provence, at the beginning of the eighth century. He moved to Italy and entered the Benedictine monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno, near Benevento, in Southern Italy, where he received his intellectual and spiritual formation and was ordained a priest sometime before 761. He became abbot on 4 October 777. In 774 Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards, but had not subjugated the Duchy of Benevento: Autpert\'s election aggravated the disputes between French and Lombard monks, and on 28 December 778 he was forced to leave the monastery to the Lombard Poto and flee to Spoleto. Summoned to Rome by Charlemagne to resolve the conflict, he died on the way, perhaps murdered, in 784. Information about his life is available primarily from the fragmentary *Chronicon Vulturnense* written by a monk named John, and from brief autobiographical references in some of his own writings. The same chronicle places him in the court of Charlemagne. This is apparently an error due to the confusion of Autpert with a certain Aspertus or Asbertus, who was chancellor of Prince Arnolfus from 888 to 892.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI gave a homily about him in Saint Peter\'s square. In this homily, Autpert\'s death date is given as 784 (older scholarship had given a date between 778 and 779).
## Works
Autpert\'s most famous work is his lengthy *Expositio in Apocalypsin* which is dependent upon a variety of patristic authors whom Autpert explicitly acknowledges, including Jerome, Victorinus, Ticonius, Augustine of Hippo, Primasius of Hadrumetum, and Gregory the Great. In fact, this commentary is one of the sources for a partial reconstruction of the lost Apocalypse commentary of the Donatist Ticonius. It is prefaced by a letter to Pope Stephen III in which Autpert defends himself from his detractors. His *Vita sanctorum patrum Paldonis, Tatonis et Tasonis* is an account of the three founders of the monastery at Volturno who through their pious lives offer an example of the imitation of Christ. His *Libellus de conflictu vitiorum atque virtutum* emphasizes monastic themes such as fear of God, obedience, and fidelity. Other works include *Oratio contra septem vitia*, *Sermo de cupiditate*, *Sermo in purificatione sanctae Mariae*, *Homilia de transfiguratione Domini*, and *Sermo de adsumptione sanctae Mariae*. Several additional sermons, known to have existed, have not survived. His extant sermons are marked by a strong mystical imprint. His commentaries on Leviticus, the Song of Songs, and the Psalms, mentioned in the *Chronicon Vulturnese*, are also not extant. Whether or not Autpert is the author of the hymn *Ave maris stella* is debated. The reason for this possible attribution is that Mary plays a significant theological role in both his sermons and Apocalypse commentary. She is not only a figure of the Church but also its most excellent member. As mother of Christ, she is also mother of the elect.
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# Autpert Ambrose
## *Expositio in Apocalypsin* {#expositio_in_apocalypsin}
Autpert\'s masterpiece is considered his *Expositio in Apocalypsin*, a lengthy commentary on the Book of Revelation. Autpert refers to various early Christian writers in order to give his commentary authority. In addition, he uses the writers to correct heresy where he believed it to exist. Although he is very careful not to depart from the tradition of the Church or from orthodox teaching, his work is no mere string of patristic quotations. Throughout his Apocalypse commentary Christ is mystically identified with the Church, so much so that the Church actually begins with the birth of Christ. In addition, there is only one Church in heaven and on earth, not two. To those knowing the truth there is manifest one and the same Church, neither divided nor separated, which reigns with Christ in heaven, encompassing those members who have completed their struggle, and which reigns with Christ on earth, encompassing those members who continue in battle. The first resurrection (cf. Rev. 20:5b--6a), which implies a second, refers to the reign of Christ for a thousand years and the reign of the just with him. The second resurrection refers not to the resurrection of the flesh from dust but rather to the life of the soul rising from the abandonment of sin. The second death (cf. Rev. 20:6b) is eternal damnation. Gog and Magog (cf. Rev. 20:8) refer to the nations all over the earth which are agents of the devil persecuting the Church. The book of life (cf. Rev. 20:12) is the Old and New Testament, whose contemplation brings the elect to the light of day and the love of neighbour. The city of God continuously grows in number through the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit, and at the end of the present age the Last Judgment of God will come through his son Jesus Christ
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# Ambrose Traversari
**Ambrogio Traversari**, also referred to as **Ambrose of Camaldoli** (1386`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}20 October 1439), was an Italian monk and theologian who was a prime supporter of the papal cause in the 15th century. He is honored as a saint by the Camaldolese Order.
## Biography
Traversari was born near Forlì, in the village of Portico di Romagna in 1386. At the age of 14 he entered the Camaldolese Order in the Monastery of St. Mary of the Angels in Florence, and soon acquired a reputation as a leading theologian and Hellenist. In his study of Greek literature his master was Emmanuel Chrysoloras. Traversari worked primarily as a scholar until he became prior general of the Order in 1431.
Traversari emerged as a leading advocate of papal primacy. This attitude he showed clearly when he attended the Council of Basel as legate of Pope Eugene IV and defended the primacy of the pope, calling upon the council not to \"rend asunder Christ\'s seamless robe\". He was next sent by Eugene to the Emperor Sigismund to ask his aid in the pope\'s efforts to end this council, which for five years had been encroaching on papal prerogatives. Eugene transferred the council from Basel to Ferrara on 18 September 1437.
So strong was Traversari\'s hostility to some of the delegates that he described Basel as a western Babylon. He likewise supported the pope at Ferrara and Florence, and worked hard in the attempt to reconcile the Eastern and Western Churches. But in this council, and later, in that of Florence, Traversari, by his efforts and charity toward some indigent Greek bishops, greatly helped to bring about a union of the two Churches, the decree for which, 6 July 1439, he was called on to prepare a draft.
Ambrose Traversari died soon after. His feastday is celebrated by the Camaldolese Order on 20 November.
## Character
According to the author of his biography in the eleventh edition of the *Encyclopædia Britannica*: \"Ambrose is interesting as typical of the new humanism which was growing up within the church. Thus while among his own colleagues he seemed merely a hypocritical and arrogant priest, in his relations with his brother humanists, such as Cosimo de\' Medici, he appeared as the student of classical antiquities and especially of Greek theological authors\".
## Works
His works include a treatise on the Holy Eucharist, one on the Procession of the Holy Spirit, many lives of saints, as well as a history of his term as prior general of the Camaldolese. He also translated from Greek into Latin a life of John Chrysostom (Venice, 1533); the *Spiritual Wisdom* of John Moschus; *The Ladder of Divine Ascent* of John Climacus (Venice, 1531), P.G., LXXXVIII. Between 1424 and 1433 he worked on the translation of the *Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers* by Diogenes Laërtius, which came to be widely circulated in manuscript form. He also translated four books against the errors of the Greeks, by Manuel Kalekas, Patriarch of Constantinople, a Dominican friar (Ingolstadt, 1608), P.G., CLII, col. 13-661, a work known only through Ambrose\'s translation.
He also translated many homilies of John Chrysostom; the writings of Dionysius Areopagita (1436); Basil of Caesarea\'s treatise on virginity; thirty-nine discourses of Ephrem the Syrian, and many other works of the Fathers and writers of the Greek Church. Jean Mabillon\'s *Letters and Orations of St. Ambrose of Camaldoli* was published in Florence in 1759.
Selected works:
- *Hodoeporicon*, diary of a journey visiting the monasteries of Italy
- *Epistolarium*, correspondence
- translations of
- Palladius, *Life of Chrysostom*
- Ephraem Syrus, *Nineteen Sermons of Ephraem Syrus*
- Basil of Caesarea, *On Virginity*
- Diogenes Laërtius, *Vitae philosophorum* (*Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers*)
- Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (1436)
A number of his manuscripts remain in the library of Saint Mark in Venice
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# Ambrosians
**Ambrosians** are members of one of the religious brotherhoods which at various times since the 14th century have sprung up in and around Milan, Italy. In the 16th century, a sect of Anabaptist Ambrosians was founded.
## Orders
Only the oldest of the Catholic Ambrosians, the *Fratres S. Ambrosii ad Nemus*, had anything more than a very local significance. This order is known from a bull of Pope Gregory XI addressed to the monks of the church of St Ambrose outside Milan.
Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, certainly did not found religious orders, though he took an interest in the monastic life and watched over its beginnings in his diocese, providing for the needs of a monastery outside the walls of Milan, as Saint Augustine recounts in his *Confessions*. Ambrose also made successful efforts to improve the moral life of women in the Milan of his time by promoting the permanent institution of Virgins, as also of widows. His exhortations and other interventions have survived in various writings:
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Ambrose was the only Father of the Church to leave behind so many writings on the subject and his attentions naturally enough led to the formation of communities which later became formal monasteries of women.
It is against this background that two religious orders or congregations---one of men and one of women, when founded in the Milan area during the 13th and 15th centuries---took Saint Ambrose as their patron and hence adopted his name.
### Order of St Ambrose {#order_of_st_ambrose}
The first of the groups to adopt the name of St Ambrose was formed in a cave in a wood (Latin nemus, a term later used in their name) outside Milan by three rich Milanese nobles, Alessandro Crivelli, Antonio Petrasancta, and Alberto Besozzo, who were joined by numerous others, including lay hermits and priests and came over time to adopt a cenobitic form of life. Their chosen initial locality was associated traditionally with St Ambrose. In 1375 Pope Gregory XI approved them as an order with the obligation of following the Rule of St Augustine, and celebration the liturgy according to the Ambrosian Rite. Initially the various houses founded were quasi autonomous and had no formal bond between them. Subsequently Pope Eugene IV, in a bull of 4 October 1441, formed them into an order on the mendicant model, with the name \"Fratres Sancti Ambrosii ad Nemus\" The brethren were ruled by a rector general, elected by a general chapter meeting every three years, and assisted in his duties by two \"visitors\". Upon election the rector general was instituted by the Archbishop of Milan. The friars wore a habit consisting of a brown tunic, scapular, and hood. The priests of the congregation undertook preaching and other tasks of the ministry but were not allowed to accept the charge of parishes. The original house adjacent to the then Milanese church of San Primo was constituted as the order\'s main seat. There was another important house at Parabiago, a town located to the North West of Milan, and outside the Milan diocese only two other houses existed, both in Rome: San Clemente and San Pancrazio.
In 1579 Saint Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, successfully reformed their discipline, which had grown lax. In 1589 Pope Sixtus V united to the Congregation of St Ambrose the houses of a group known as the \"Brothers of the Apostles of the Poor Life\" (or \"Apostolini\" or \"Brothers of St. Barnabas\"), whose houses were located in the province of Genoa and in the March of Ancona. This was an order that had been founded by Giovanni Scarpa at the end of the 15th century. The union was confirmed by Pope Paul V in 1606, at which time the congregation added the name of St. Barnabas to its title, adopted new constitutions and divided its houses into four provinces. Two of these, were in effect the two communities in Rome already mentioned, San Clemente and San Pancrazio.
Published works have survived from the pen of Ascanio Tasca and Michele Mulozzani, each of whom was superior-general, and of Zaccaria Visconti, Francesco-Maria Guazzi and Paolo Fabulotti. Although various Ambrosians were given the title of Blessed in recognition of their holiness: Antonio Gonzaga of Mantua, Filippo of Fermo, and Gerardo of Monza, the order was eventually dissolved by Pope Innocent X in 1650.
### Nuns
The Nuns of St Ambrose (Ambrosian Sisters) wore a habit of the same colour as the Brothers of St Ambrose, conformed to their constitutions, and followed the Ambrosian Rite, but were independent in government. Pope Sixtus IV gave the nuns canonical status in 1474. Their one monastery was on the top of Monte Varese, near Lago Maggiore, on the spot where their foundress, the Blessed Catarina Morigia (or Catherine of Palanza), had first led a solitary life. Other early nuns were the Blessed Juliana of Puriselli, Benedetta Bimia, and Lucia Alciata. The nuns were esteemed by St Charles Borromeo.
Another group of cloistered \"Nuns of St Ambrose\", also called the Annunciatae (Italian: *Annunziate*) of Lombardy or \"Sisters of St Marcellina\", were founded in 1408 by three young women of Pavia, Dorothea Morosini, Eleonora Contarini, and Veronica Duodi. Their houses, scattered throughout Lombardy and Venetia, were united into a congregation by St Pius V, under the Rule of St Augustine with a mother-house, residence of the prioress general, at Pavia. One of the nuns in this group was Saint Catharine Fieschi Adorno, who died on September 14, 1510.
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# Ambrosians
## Orders
### Oblates of St. Ambrose and of St. Charles {#oblates_of_st._ambrose_and_of_st._charles}
In some sense also \"Ambrosians\" are the members of a diocesan religious society founded by St Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan. All priests or destined to become priests, they took a simple vow of obedience to their bishop. The model for this was a society that already existed at Brescia, under the name of \"Priests of Peace\". In August 1578 the new society was inaugurated, being entrusted with the church of the Holy Sepulchre and given the name of \"Oblates of St. Ambrose.\" They later received the approbation of Gregory XIII. St Charles died in 1584. These Oblates were dispersed by Napoleon I in 1810, while another group called the Oblates of Our Lady of Rho escaped this fate. In 1848 they were reorganized and given the name of \"Oblates of St. Charles\" and reassigned the house of the Holy Sepulchre. In the course of the 19th century similar groups were founded in a number of countries, including the \"Oblates of St Charles\", established in London by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman
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# Ambrosiaster
**Ambrosiaster** or **Pseudo-Ambrose** is the name given to the unknown author of a commentary on the epistles of Saint Paul, written some time between 366 and 384 AD. The name \"Ambrosiaster\" in Latin means \"would-be Ambrose\". Various conjectures have been made as to Ambrosiaster\'s true identity, and several other works have been attributed to the same author, with varying degrees of certainty.
## Identity
Pseudo-Ambrose was the name given by Erasmus to refer to the author of a volume containing the first complete Latin commentary on the Pauline epistles.
Attempts to identify Ambrosiaster with known authors has continued, but with no success. Because Augustine cites Ambrosiaster\'s commentary on Romans 5:12 under the name of \"Hilary\", many critics have attempted to identify Ambroasiaster with one of the many writers named \"Hilary\" active in the period. In 1899, Germain Morin suggested that the writer was Isaac, a converted Jew and writer of a tract on the Trinity and Incarnation, who was exiled to Spain in 378--380 and then relapsed to Judaism. Morin afterwards abandoned this theory of the authorship in favour of Decimus Hilarianus Hilarius, proconsul of Africa in 377. Alternatively, Paolo Angelo Ballerini attempted to sustain the traditional attribution of the work to Ambrose, in his complete edition of that Father\'s work. This is extremely problematic, though, since it would require Ambrose to have written the book before he became a bishop, and then added to it in later years, incorporating later remarks of Hilary of Poitiers on Romans. No identifications, therefore, have acquired lasting popularity with scholars, and Ambrosiaster\'s identity remains a mystery.
Internal evidence from the documents has been taken to suggest that the author was active in Rome during the period of Pope Damasus, and, almost certainly, a member of the clergy.
## Works
### Commentary on Paul {#commentary_on_paul}
The *Commentary on Thirteen Pauline Letters* is considered valuable as evidence of the state of the Latin text of Paul\'s epistles before the appearance of the Vulgate of Jerome, and as an example of Pauline interpretation prior to Augustine of Hippo. It was traditionally ascribed to Ambrose, but in 1527, Erasmus threw doubt on the accuracy of this ascription, and the anonymous author came to be known as \"Ambrosiaster\". It was once thought that Erasmus coined this name; however, René Hoven, in 1969, showed that this was incorrect, and that credit should actually be given to the Maurists. Later scholars have followed Hoven in this assessment, although it has also been suggested that the name originated with Franciscus Lucas Brugensis.
### Other works {#other_works}
Several other works which now survive only as fragments have been attributed to this same author. These include a commentary on Matthew 24, and discussions on the parable of the leaven, the denial of Peter, and Jesus\'s arrest. In 1905, Alexander Souter established that Ambrosiaster was also the author of the *Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti,* a lengthy collection of exegetical and polemical tractates which manuscripts have traditionally ascribed to Augustine.
Other works ascribed to the same author, less definitely, are the *Lex Dei sive Mosaicarum et Romanorum legum collatio*, *De bello judaico*, and the fragmentary *Contra Arianos* sometimes ascribed to the pseudo-Hilary and the *sermo 246* of pseudo-Augustine. They mention Simon Magus.
## Influence
Many scholars argue that Ambrosiaster\'s works were essentially Pelagian, although this is disputed. Pelagius cited him extensively. For example, Alfred Smith argued that Pelagius got his views on predestination and original sin from Ambrosiaster. However, Augustine also made use of Ambrosiaster\'s commentaries
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# Ammonius Hermiae
**Ammonius Hermiae** (`{{IPAc-en|ə|ˈ|m|oʊ|n|i|ə|s}}`{=mediawiki}; *Ammonius, son of Hermias*; c. 440 -- between 517 and 526) was a Greek philosopher from Alexandria in the eastern Roman empire during Late Antiquity. A Neoplatonist, he was the son of the philosophers Hermias and Aedesia, the brother of Heliodorus of Alexandria and the grandson of Syrianus. Ammonius was a pupil of Proclus in Roman Athens, and taught at Alexandria for most of his life, having obtained a public chair in the 470s.
According to Olympiodorus of Thebes\'s *Commentaries* on Plato\'s *Gorgias* and *Phaedo* texts, Ammonius gave lectures on the works of Plato, Aristotle, and Porphyry of Tyre, and wrote commentaries on Aristotelian works and three lost commentaries on Platonic texts. He is also the author of a text on the astrolabe published in the *Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum*, and lectured on astronomy and geometry. Ammonius taught numerous Neoplatonists, including Damascius, Olympiodorus of Thebes, John Philoponus, Simplicius of Cilicia, and Asclepius of Tralles. Also among his pupils were the physician Gessius of Petra and the ecclesiastical historian Zacharias Rhetor, who became the bishop of Mytilene.
As part of the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire, the Alexandrian school was investigated by the Roman imperial authorities; Ammonius made a compromise with the Patriarch of Alexandria, Peter III, voluntarily limiting his teaching in return for keeping his own position. This alienated a number of his colleagues and pupils, including Damascius, who nonetheless called him \"the greatest commentator who ever lived\" in his own *Life of Isidore of Alexandria*.
## Life
Ammonius\' father Hermias died when he was a child, and his mother Aedesia raised him and his brother Heliodorus in Alexandria. When they reached adulthood, Aedesia accompanied her sons to Athens where they studied under Proclus. Eventually, they returned to Alexandria where Ammonius, as head of the Neoplatonist school in the city, lectured on Plato and Aristotle for the rest of his life. According to Damascius, during the persecution of the pagans at Alexandria in the late 480s, Ammonius made concessions to the Christian authorities so that he could continue his lectures. Damascius, who scolds Ammonius for the agreement that he made, does not say what the concessions were, but they may have involved limitations on the doctrines he could teach or promote. He was still teaching in 515; Olympiodorus heard him lecture on Plato\'s *Gorgias* in that year. He was also an accomplished astronomer; he lectured on Ptolemy and is known to have written a treatise on the astrolabe.
## Writings
Of his reputedly numerous writings, only his commentary on Aristotle\'s *De Interpretatione* survives intact. A commentary on Porphyry\'s *Isagoge* may also be his, but it is somewhat corrupt and contains later interpolations.
In *De Interpretatione*, Ammonius contends that divine foreknowledge makes void the contingent. Like Boethius in his second *Commentary* and in *The Consolation of Philosophy,* this argument maintains the effectiveness of prayer. Ammonius cites Iamblichus, who said \"knowledge is intermediate between the knower and the known, since it is the activity of the knower concerning the known.\"
In addition, there are some notes of Ammonius\' lectures written by various students which also survive:
- On Aristotle\'s *Categories* (anonymous writer)
- On Aristotle\'s *Prior Analytics I* (anonymous writer)
- On Aristotle\'s *Metaphysics 1--7* (written by Asclepius)
- On Nicomachus\' *Introduction to Arithmetic* (written by Asclepius)
- On Aristotle\'s *Prior Analytics* (written by John Philoponus)
- On Aristotle\'s *Posterior Analytics* (written by John Philoponus)
- On Aristotle\'s *On Generation and Corruption* (written by John Philoponus)
- On Aristotle\'s *On the Soul* (written by John Philoponus)
There is Greek-language work called *Life of Aristotle*, which is usually ascribed to Ammonius, but \"is more probable that it is the work of Joannes Philoponus, the pupil of Ammonius, to whom it is ascribed in some MSS.\"
## English translations {#english_translations}
- *Ammonius: On Aristotle Categories*, translated by S. M. Cohen and G. B. Matthews. London and Ithaca 1992.
- *Ammonius: On Aristotle\'s On Interpretation 1--8*, translated by D. Blank. London and Ithaca 1996.
- *Ammonius: On Aristotle\'s On Interpretation 9, with Boethius: On Aristotle\'s On Interpretation 9*, translated by D. Blank (Ammonius) and N. Kretzmann (Boethius). London and Ithaca 1998
- *John Philoponus: On Aristotle On Coming-to-be and Perishing 1.1--5*, translated by C. J. F. Williams. London and Ithaca 1999
- *John Philoponus: On Aristotle On Coming-to-be and Perishing 1.6--2.4*, translated by C. J. F. Williams. London and Ithaca 1999.
- *John Philoponus: On Aristotle On the Soul 2.1--6*, translated by W. Charlton. London and Ithaca 2005
- *John Philoponus: On Aristotle On the Soul 2.7--12*, translated by W. Charlton. London and Ithaca 2005
- *John Philoponus: On Aristotle On the Soul 3.1--8*, translated by W. Charlton. London and Ithaca 2000
- *John Philoponus: On Aristotle On the Intellect (de Anima 3.4--8)*, translated by W. Charlton. London and Ithaca 1991
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# Book of Amos
The **Book of Amos**is the third of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Christian Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh and the second in the Greek Septuagint. The Book of Amos has nine chapters. According to the Bible, Amos was an older contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah, and was active c. 750 BC during the reign of Jeroboam II (788--747 BC) of Samaria (Northern Israel), while Uzziah was King of Judah. Amos is said to have lived in the kingdom of Judah but preached in the northern Kingdom of Israel where themes of social justice, God\'s omnipotence, and divine judgment became staples of prophecy. In recent years, scholars have grown more skeptical of The Book of Amos' presentation of Amos' biography and background. It is known for its distinct "sinister tone and violent portrayal of God."
## Structure
According to Michael D. Coogan, the Book of Amos can be structured as follows:
- Oracles against the nations (1:3--2:6)
- Oracle concerning prophecy (3:3--8)
- Addresses to groups in Israel
- Women of Samaria (4:1--3)
- Rich people in Samaria (6:1--7)
- Rich people in Jerusalem (8:4--8)
- Five visions of God\'s judgment on Israel, interrupted by a confrontation between Amos and his listeners at Bethel (7:10--17):
- Locusts (7:1--3)
- Fire (7:4--6)
- A plumb line (7:7--9)
- A basket of fruit (8:1--3)
- God besides the altar (9:1--8a)
- Epilogue (9:8b--15)
## Summary
The book opens with a historical note about the prophet, then a short oracle announcing Yahweh\'s judgment (repeated in the Book of Joel). The prophet denounces the crimes committed by the gentile (non-Jewish) nations, and tells Israel that even they have sinned and are guilty of the same crimes, and reports five symbolic visions prophesying the destruction of Israel. Included in this, with no apparent order, are an oracle on the nature of prophecy, snippets of hymns, oracles of woe, a third-person prose narrative concerning the prophet, and an oracle promising restoration of the House of David, which had not yet fallen in the lifetime of Amos.
## Composition
Amos prophesied during the reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah; this places him in the first half of the 8th century BC. According to the book\'s superscription (Amos 1:1) he was from Tekoa, a town in Judah south of Jerusalem, but his prophetic mission was in the northern kingdom. He is called a \"shepherd\" and a \"dresser of sycamore trees\", but the book\'s literary qualities suggest a man of education rather than a poor farmer.
Scholars have long recognized that Amos utilized an ancient hymn within his prophecy, verses of which are found at 4:13, 5:8--9, 8:8, and 9:5--6. This hymn is best understood as praising Yahweh for his judgment, demonstrated in his destructive power, rather than praise for creation. Scholarship has also identified \'Sumerian City Lament\' (SCL) motifs within Amos and particularly the hymn, offering the possibility that Amos used SCL as a literary template for his prophecy of Jerusalem\'s destruction. The Amos hymn has also been discussed in terms of a \"covenant curse\" which was used to warn Israel of the consequences of breaking the covenant, and in particular a \"Flood covenant-curse\" motif, first identified by D.R. Hillers. Recent scholarship has shown Amos\'s hymn is an ancient narrative text, has identified a new verse at 7.4; and has compared the hymn to the Genesis Flood account and Job 9:5--10.
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# Book of Amos
## Themes
The central idea of the book of Amos is that God puts his people on the same level as the surrounding nations -- God expects the same purity of them all. As it is with all nations that rise up against the kingdom of God, even Israel and Judah will not be exempt from the judgment of God because of their idolatry and unjust ways. The nation that represents Yahweh must be made pure of anything or anyone that profanes the name of God; his name must be exalted.
Amos is the first prophet to use the term \"the Day of the Lord\". This phrase becomes important within future prophetic and apocalyptic literature. For the people of Israel \"The Day of the Lord\" is the day when God will fight against his and their enemies, and it will be a day of victory for Israel. However, Amos and other prophets include Israel as an enemy of God, as Israel is guilty of injustice toward the innocent, poor, and young women. To Amos \"The Day of the Lord\" will be a day of doom.
Other major ideas proposed in the book of Amos include justice and concern for the disadvantaged, and that Yahweh is God of all nations (not just Israel), and is likewise the judge of all nations, and is also a God of moral righteousness. Also that Yahweh created all people, and the idea that Israel\'s covenant with God did not exempt them from accountability for sin; as well as that God elected and liberated Israel so that he would be known throughout the world. And that if God destroys the unjust, a remnant will remain, and that God is free to judge whether to redeem Israel
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# Amphipolis
**Amphipolis** (*translit=Amfipoli*; *translit=Amphipolis*) was an important ancient Greek polis (city), and later a Roman city, whose large remains can still be seen. It gave its name to the modern municipality of Amphipoli, in the Serres regional unit of northern Greece.
Amphipolis was originally a colony of ancient Athenians and was the site of the battle between the Spartans and Athenians in 422 BC. It was later the place where Alexander the Great prepared for campaigns leading to his invasion of Asia in 335 BC. Alexander\'s three finest admirals, Nearchus, Androsthenes and Laomedon, resided in Amphipolis. After Alexander\'s death, his wife Roxana and their son Alexander IV were imprisoned and murdered there in 311 BC.
Excavations in and around the city have revealed important buildings, ancient walls and tombs. The finds are displayed at the archaeological museum of Amphipolis. At the nearby vast Kasta burial mound, an ancient Macedonian tomb has recently been revealed. The Lion of Amphipolis monument nearby is a popular destination for visitors.
It was located within the region of Edonis.
## History
### Origins
Throughout the 5th century BC, Athens sought to consolidate its control over Thrace, which was strategically important because of its raw materials (the gold and silver of the Pangaion hills and the dense forests that provided timber for naval construction), and the sea routes vital for Athens\' supply of grain from Scythia. A first unsuccessful attempt at colonisation was in 497 BC by the Milesian Tyrant Histiaeus. After the defeat of the Persians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, the Athenian general Kimon managed to occupy Eion a few kilometres south on the coast in 476 BC, and turned it into a military base and commercial port. The Athenians founded a first colony at *Ennea-Hodoi* ('Nine Ways') in 465 BC, but the first ten thousand colonists were massacred by the Thracians. A second attempt took place in 437 BC on the same site under general Hagnon which was successful. The city and its first impressive and elaborately built walls of 7.5 km length date from this time. The new Athenian colony quickly became of considerable size and wealth.
The new settlement took the name of Amphipolis (literally, \"around the city\"), a name which is the subject of much debate about its etymology. Thucydides claims the name comes from the fact that the Strymon River flows \"around the city\" on two sides; however a note in the *Suda* (also given in the lexicon of Photius) offers a different explanation apparently given by Marsyas, son of Periander: that a large proportion of the population lived \"around the city\". However, a more probable explanation is the one given by Julius Pollux: that the name indicates the vicinity of an isthmus.
Amphipolis quickly became the main power base of the Athenians in Thrace and, consequently, a target of choice for their Spartan adversaries. In 424 BC during the Peloponnesian War the Spartan general Brasidas captured Amphipolis.
Two years later in 422 BC, a new Athenian force under the general Cleon failed once more during the Battle of Amphipolis at which both Kleon and Brasidas lost their lives. Brasidas survived long enough to hear of the defeat of the Athenians and was buried at Amphipolis with impressive pomp. From then on he was regarded as the founder of the city and honoured with yearly games and sacrifices.
The Athenian population remained very much in the minority in the city and hence Amphipolis remained an independent city and an ally of the Athenians, rather than a colony or member of the Athens-led Delian League. It entered a new phase of prosperity as a cosmopolitan centre.
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# Amphipolis
## History
### Macedonian rule {#macedonian_rule}
The city itself kept its independence until the reign of king Philip II (`{{reign|359|336 BC}}`{=mediawiki}) despite several Athenian attacks, notably because of the government of Callistratus of Aphidnae. In 357 BC, Philip succeeded where the Athenians had failed and conquered the city, thereby removing the obstacle which Amphipolis presented to Macedonian control over Thrace. According to the historian Theopompus, this conquest came to be the object of a secret accord between Athens and Philip II, who would return the city in exchange for the fortified town of Pydna, but the Macedonian king betrayed the accord, refusing to cede Amphipolis and laying siege to Pydna as well.
The city was not immediately incorporated into the Macedonian kingdom, and for some time preserved its institutions and a certain degree of autonomy. The border of Macedonia was not moved further east; however, Philip sent a number of Macedonian governors to Amphipolis, and in many respects the city was effectively \"Macedonianized\". Nomenclature, the calendar and the currency (the gold stater, created by Philip to capitalise on the gold reserves of the Pangaion hills, replaced the Amphipolitan drachma) were all replaced by Macedonian equivalents. In the reign of Alexander the Great, Amphipolis was an important naval base, and the birthplace of three of the most famous Macedonian admirals: Nearchus, Androsthenes and Laomedon, whose burial place is most likely marked by the famous lion of Amphipolis.
The importance of the city in this period is shown by Alexander the Great\'s decision that it was one of the six cities at which large luxurious temples costing 1,500 talents were built. Alexander prepared for campaigns here against Thrace in 335 BC and his army and fleet assembled near the port before the invasion of Asia. The port was also used as naval base during his campaigns in Asia. After Alexander\'s death, his wife Roxana and their young son Alexander IV were exiled by Cassander and later murdered here.
Throughout Macedonian sovereignty Amphipolis was a strong fortress of great strategic and economic importance, as shown by inscriptions. Amphipolis became one of the main stops on the Macedonian royal road (as testified by a border stone found between Philippi and Amphipolis giving the distance to the latter), and later on the *Via Egnatia*, the principal Roman road which crossed the southern Balkans. Apart from the ramparts of the lower town, the gymnasium and a set of well-preserved frescoes from a wealthy villa are the only artifacts from this period that remain visible. Though little is known of the layout of the town, modern knowledge of its institutions is in considerably better shape thanks to a rich epigraphic documentation, including a military ordinance of Philip V and an ephebarchic law from the gymnasium.
### Conquest by the Romans {#conquest_by_the_romans}
After the final victory of Rome over Macedonia in the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC, Amphipolis became the capital of one of the four mini-republics, or *merides*, which were created by the Romans out of the kingdom of the Antigonids which succeeded Alexander\'s empire in Macedon. These *merides* were gradually incorporated into the Roman client state, and later province, of Thracia. According to the *Acts of the Apostles*, the apostles Paul and Silas passed through Amphipolis in the early AD 50s, on their journey between Philippi and Thessalonica; where hence they proselytized to the Greeks, including `{{Wikt-lang|ang|aporetic}}`{=mediawiki} Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.
In the 1st c. BC the city was badly damaged in the Thracian revolt against Roman rule.
### Revival in Late Antiquity {#revival_in_late_antiquity}
During the period of Late Antiquity, Amphipolis benefited from the increasing economic prosperity of Macedonia, as is evidenced by the large number of Christian churches that were built. Significantly however, these churches were built within a restricted area of the town, sheltered by the walls of the acropolis. This has been taken as evidence that the large fortified perimeter of the ancient town was no longer defendable, and that the population of the city had considerably diminished.
Nevertheless, the number, size and quality of the churches constructed between the 5th and 6th centuries are impressive. Four basilicas adorned with rich mosaic floors and elaborate architectural sculptures (such as the ram-headed column capitals -- see picture) have been excavated, as well as a church with a hexagonal central plan which evokes that of the basilica of St Vitalis in Ravenna. It is difficult to find reasons for such municipal extravagance in such a small town. One possible explanation provided by the historian André Boulanger is that an increasing 'willingness' on the part of the wealthy upper classes in the late Roman period to spend money on local gentrification projects (which he terms *euergetism*, from the Greek verb *εὐεργετέω*; meaning \'I do good\') was exploited by the local church to its advantage, which led to a mass gentrification of the urban centre and of the agricultural riches of the city\'s territory. Amphipolis was also a diocese under the metropolitan see of Thessalonica -- the Bishop of Amphipolis is first mentioned in 533. The bishopric is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.
### Final decline of the city {#final_decline_of_the_city}
The Slavic invasions of the late 6th century gradually encroached on the back-country Amphipolitan lifestyle and led to the decline of the town, during which period its inhabitants retreated to the area around the acropolis. The ramparts were maintained to a certain extent, thanks to materials plundered from the monuments of the lower city, and the large unused cisterns of the upper city were occupied by small houses and the workshops of artisans. Around the middle of the 7th century, a further reduction of the inhabited area of the city was followed by an increase in the fortification of the town, with the construction of a new rampart with pentagonal towers cutting through the middle of the remaining monuments. The acropolis, the Roman baths, and especially the episcopal basilica were crossed by this wall.
The city was probably abandoned in the eighth century, as the last bishop was attested at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. Its inhabitants probably moved to the neighbouring site of ancient Eion, port of Amphipolis, which had been rebuilt and refortified in the Byzantine period under the name "Chrysopolis". This small port continued to enjoy some prosperity, before being abandoned during the Ottoman period. The last recorded sign of activity in the region of Amphipolis was the construction of a fortified tower to the north in 1367 by the *megas primikerios* John and the *stratopedarches* Alexios to protect the land that they had given to the monastery of Pantokrator on Mount Athos.
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# Amphipolis
## Archaeology
The site was discovered and described by many travellers and archaeologists during the 19th century, including E. Cousinéry (1831) (engraver), Leon Heuzey (1861), and P. Perdrizet (1894--1899). However, excavations did not truly begin until after the Second World War. The Greek Archaeological Society under D. Lazaridis excavated in 1972 and 1985, uncovering a necropolis, the city wall (see photograph), the basilicas, and the acropolis. Further excavations have since uncovered the river bridge, the gymnasium, Greek and Roman villas and numerous tombs etc.
Parts of the lion monument and tombs were discovered during World War I by Bulgarian and British troops whilst digging trenches in the area. In 1934, M. Feyel, of the École française d\'Athènes (EfA), led an epigraphical mission to the site and uncovered further remains of the lion monument (a reconstruction was given in the *Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique*, a publication of the EfA which is available on line).
The silver ossuary containing the cremated remains of Brasidas and a gold crown (see image) was found in a tomb in pride of place under the Agora.
### The Tomb of Amphipolis {#the_tomb_of_amphipolis}
In 2012 Greek archaeologists unearthed a large tomb within the Kasta Hill, the biggest burial mound in Greece, northeast of Amphipolis. The large size and quality of the tumulus indicates the prominence of the burials made there, and its dating and the connections of the city with Alexander the Great suggest important occupants. The perimeter wall of the tumulus is 497 m long, and is made of limestone covered with marble.
The tomb comprises three chambers separated by walls. There are two sphinxes just outside the entrance to the tomb. Two of the columns supporting the roof in the first section are in the form of Caryatids, in the 4th century BC style. The excavation revealed a pebble mosaic directly behind the Caryatids and in front of the Macedonian marble door leading to the \"third\" chamber. The mosaic shows the allegory of the abduction of Persephone by Hades, but the persons depicted are Philip and Olympias of Macedon. Hades\' chariot is drawn by two white horses and led to the underworld by Hermes. The mosaic verifies the Macedonian character of the tomb. As the head of one of the sphinxes was found inside the tomb behind the broken door, it is clear that there were intruders, probably in antiquity.
Fragments of bones from 5 individuals were found in the cist tomb, the most complete of which is a 60+ year old woman in the deepest layer. Dr. Katerina Peristeri, the archaeologist heading the excavation of the tomb, dates the tomb to the late 4th century BC, the period after the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC). One theory is that the tomb was built for the mother of Alexander the Great, Olympias.
Restoration of the tomb is due for completion in 2023 in the course of which building materials of the grave site which were later used by the Romans elsewhere will be rebuilt in their original location.
### The city walls {#the_city_walls}
The original 7.5 km long walls are generally visible, particularly the northern section which is preserved to a height of 7.5m. 5 preserved gates can be seen and notably the gate in front of the wooden bridge.
In early Christian times another, inner, wall was built around the acropolis.
### The ancient wooden bridge of Amphipolis {#the_ancient_wooden_bridge_of_amphipolis}
The ancient bridge that crossed the river Strymon was mentioned by Thucydides, was strategic as it controlled access between Macedonia and the Chalkidike in the west to Thrace in the east, and was important for the economy and trade. It was therefore incorporated into the city walls.
It was discovered in 1977 and is a unique find for Greek antiquity. The hundreds of wooden piles have been carbon-dated and show the vast life of the bridge with some piles dating from 760 BC, and others used till about 1800 AD.
### The Gymnasium {#the_gymnasium}
This was a major public building for the military and gymnastic training of youth as well as for their artistic and intellectual education. It was built in the 4th c. BC and includes a palaestra, the rectangular court surrounded by colonnades with adjoining rooms for many athletic functions. The covered stoa or xystos for indoor training in inclement weather is a long portico 75m long and 7m wide to allow 6 runners to compete simultaneously. There was also a parallel outdoor track, *paradromida*, for training in good weather and a system of cisterns for water supply.
During the Macedonian era it became a major institution.
The stone stela bearing the rules of the gymnasium was found in the north wing, detailing the duties and powers of the master and the education of the athletes.
After it was destroyed in the 1st c. BC in the Thracian rebellion against Roman rule, it was rebuilt in Augustus\'s time in the 1st c. AD along with the rest of the city.
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# Amphipolis
## Amphipolitans
- Demetrius of Amphipolis, student of Plato
- Zoilus (400--320 BC), grammarian, cynic philosopher
- Pamphilus (painter), head of Sicyonian school and teacher of Apelles
- Aetion, sculptor
- Philippus of Amphipolis, historian
- Nearchus, admiral
- Erigyius, general
- Damasias of Amphipolis 320 BC Stadion Olympics
- Hermagoras of Amphipolis (c. 225 BC), stoic philosopher, follower of Persaeus
- Apollodorus of Amphipolis, appointed joint military governor of Babylon and the other satrapies as far as Cilicia by Alexander the Great
- Xena -- In the television series *Xena: Warrior Princess*, Amphipolis is the main character\'s home village
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# Amram
In the Book of Exodus, **Amram** (`{{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|m|r|æ|m}}`{=mediawiki}; `{{Hebrew Name|עַמְרָם|‘Amram|ʻAmrām|"Exalted people"{{\}}`{=mediawiki}\"The people are exalted\"}}) is the husband of Jochebed and father of Aaron, Moses and Miriam.
## In the Holy Scriptures {#in_the_holy_scriptures}
In addition to being married to Jochebed, Amram is also described in the Bible as having been related to Jochebed prior to the marriage, although the exact relationship is uncertain; some Greek and Latin manuscripts of the Septuagint state that Jochebed was Amram\'s father\'s cousin, and others state that Amram was Jochebed\'s cousin, but the Masoretic Text states that she was his father\'s sister. He is praised for his faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Textual scholars attribute the biblical genealogy to the Book of Generations, a hypothetically reconstructed document theorized to originate from a similar religiopolitical group and date to the priestly source. According to critical scholars, the Torah\'s genealogy for Levi\'s descendants, is actually an aetiological myth reflecting the fact that there were four different groups among the Levites -- the Gershonites, Kohathites, Merarites, and Aaronids; Aaron -- the eponymous ancestor of the Aaronids -- could not be portrayed as a brother to Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, as the narrative about the birth of Moses (brother of Aaron), which textual scholars attribute to the earlier Elohist source, mentions only that *both* his parents were Levites (without identifying their names). Critical scholars suspect that the Elohist account offers both matrilineal and patrilineal descent from Levites in order to magnify the religious credentials of Moses.
## Family tree {#family_tree}
## In rabbinical and apocryphal literature {#in_rabbinical_and_apocryphal_literature}
In the Apocryphal *Testament of Levi*, it is stated that Amram was born as a grandson of Levi when Levi was 64 years old. The Exodus Rabbah argues that when the Pharaoh instructed midwives to throw male children into the Nile, Amram divorced Jochebed, who was three months pregnant with Moses at the time, arguing that there was no justification for the Israelite men to father children if they were just to be killed; however, the text goes on to state that Miriam, his daughter, chided him for his lack of care for his wife\'s feelings, persuading him to recant and marry Jochebed again. According to the Talmud, Amram promulgated the laws of marriage and divorce amongst the Jews in Egypt; the Talmud also argues that Amram had extreme longevity, which he used to ensure that doctrines were preserved through several generations.
Despite the legend of his divorce and remarriage, Amram was also held to have been entirely sinless throughout his life and was rewarded for this by his corpse remaining without any signs of decay. The other three ancient Israelites who died without sin, being Benjamin, Jesse and Chileab.
According to the Book of Jubilees, Amram was among the Israelites who took the bones of Jacob\'s sons (excluding those of Joseph) to Canaan for burial in the cave of Machpelah. Most of the Israelites then returned to Egypt but some remained in Canaan. Those who remained included Amram, who only returned somewhere up to forty years later.
One of the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q544, Manuscript B) is written from Amram\'s point of view, and hence has been dubbed the *Visions of Amram*. The document is dated to the 2nd century BC and, in the form of a vision, briefly discusses dualism and the Watchers: `{{Blockquote|I saw Watchers in my vision, the dream-vision. Two men were fighting over me...holding a great contest over me. I asked them, 'Who are you, that you are thus empowered over me?' They answered, 'We have been empowered and rule over all mankind.' They said to me, 'Which of us do you choose to rule you?' I raised my eyes and looked. One of them was terrifying in his appearance, like a serpent, his cloak, many-colored yet very dark....And I looked again, and in his appearance, his visage like a [[Viperidae|viper]]....I replied to him, 'This Watcher, who is he?' He answered, 'This Watcher...his three names are [[Belial]] and Prince of Darkness and King of Evil.' I said (to the other Watcher), 'My lord, what dominion (have you?)' He answered, 'You saw (the viper), and he is empowered over all Darkness, while I (am empowered over all Light.)...My three names are [[Michael (archangel)|Michael]], Prince of Light and King of Righteousness.<ref>translation by Prof
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# Amyntas I of Macedon
**Amyntas I** (*Ἀμύντας*) was king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from at least 512/511 until his death in 498/497 BC. Although there were a number of rulers before him, Amyntas is the first king of Macedonia for which we have any reliable historical information. During Amyntas\' reign, Macedonia became a vassal state of the Achaemenid Empire in 510 BC.
## Background
Amyntas was a member of the Argead dynasty and the son of King Alcetas.`{{snf|Herodotus|loc=[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126:book=8:chapter=139:section=1 8.139.1]}}`{=mediawiki} According to Herodotus, Amyntas was the sixth king of Macedonia. He had two children with an unnamed spouse:`{{snf|Carney|2000|p=250}}`{=mediawiki} Alexander I and Gygaea.`{{snf|Carney|2000|p=16}}`{=mediawiki}
## Reign
### Relationship with the Persian Empire {#relationship_with_the_persian_empire}
In 513 BC, Persian forces led by Darius I crossed the Bosporus in a successful expedition against the Scythians, securing a frontier on the Danube in the process. Darius then returned to Sardis in Asia Minor and ordered his cousin Megabazus to conquer the rest of Thrace. Megabazus marched westward into the Strymon Basin in 512 or 511 BC, subjugating a number of tribes along the way, including the Paeonions, whom he had deported to Asia. Amyntas may have taken advantage of this power vacuum by crossing the Axios River and seizing their former territory around Amphaxitis.
In keeping with Persian practice, Megabazus dispatched seven envoys around 510 BC to meet Amyntas, most likely at the palace in Aegae, to demand \"earth and water.\" Although the exact meaning of this request remains unclear, it appears that Amyntas met Megabazus\' demands and invited the envoys to a feast. The Persians, according to Herodotus, requested the company of women after dinner, which Amyntas agreed to despite Macedonian customs. The women, identified as \"concubines and wedded wives,\" sat across the table at first, but moved next to the envoys at their insistence. Flushed with wine, they began to fondle the women, but Amyntas remained silent out of fear of Persian power.`{{snf|Herodotus|loc=[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D5%3Achapter%3D18%3Asection%3D1 5.18]}}`{=mediawiki}
Alexander, enraged by their actions, asked his father to leave and let him handle the situation. Amyntas advised caution, but eventually left, and Alexander sent the women away as well, assuring his guests that they were only washing themselves. In their place, \"beardless men\" disguised as women and armed with daggers returned to the party and murdered all seven envoys. The Persians began looking for the missing embassy, but Alexander covered it up by marrying his sister Gygaea to the general Bubares and paying him a large bribe.`{{snf|Herodotus|loc=[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D5%3Achapter%3D20%3Asection%3D1 5.20]}}`{=mediawiki}
Modern historians are generally skeptical of the veracity of this story. It could have been fabricated by Herodotus to illustrate Alexander\'s cunning personality, or he could have simply repeated what he heard while visiting Macedonia. Furthermore, Amyntas, no matter how weak or foolish, is unlikely to have entrusted such a delicate diplomatic situation to his young son. Gygaea\'s marriage to Bubares is recognized as historical; Amyntas most likely arranged it himself or Alexander handled it after his father\'s death.`{{snf|Carney|2000|p=16}}`{=mediawiki}
Historian Eugene Borza argued that by rejecting the murder of the Persian ambassadors, there is no longer any evidence that Macedonia was a vassal-state during Amyntas\' reign. In accordance with this argument, Mardonius, not Megabazus, would actually subjugate the Macedonians in 492 BC. Nicholas Hammond, on the other hand, asserted that Macedonia remained a loyal subject as part of the satrapy of Skudra until the Persian defeat at Platea in 479 BC.
### Amyntas and Athens {#amyntas_and_athens}
Amyntas was the first Macedonian ruler to have diplomatic relations with other states. In particular, he entered into an alliance with Hippias of Athens, and when Hippias was driven out of Athens he offered him the territory of Anthemus on the Thermaic Gulf with the object of taking advantage of the feuds between the Greeks. Hippias refused the offer and also rejected the offer of Iolcus, as Amyntas probably did not control Anthemus at that time, but was merely suggesting a plan of joint occupation to Hippias.
## Family tree {#family_tree}
Modern historians disagree on a number of details concerning the genealogy of the Argead dynasty. Robin Lane Fox, for example, refutes Nicholas Hammond\'s claim that Ptolemy of Aloros was Amyntas II\'s son, arguing that Ptolemy was neither his son nor an Argead. Consequently, the chart below does not account for every chronological, genealogical, and dynastic complexity. Instead, it represents one common reconstruction of the early Argeads advanced by historians such as Hammond, Elizabeth D. Carney, and Joseph Roisman.`{{snf|Carney|2000|p=250}}`{=mediawiki}
- **(1)** Amyntas I (`{{nowrap|{{reign|{{circa|513}}|497 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- **(2)** Alexander I (`{{nowrap|{{reign|497|454 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- **(3)** Perdiccas II (`{{nowrap|{{reign|454|413/2 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- **(4)** Archelaus (`{{nowrap|{{reign|413/2|400/399 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- **(5)** Orestes (`{{nowrap|{{reign|400/399|398/7 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- *Argaeus II* (`{{nowrap|{{reign|388/7|387/6 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- *Pausanias*
- unnamed daughter Derdas of Elimea
- unnamed daughter Amyntas II
- **(6)** Aeropus II (`{{nowrap|{{reign|398/7|394/3 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- **(8)** Pausanias (`{{nowrap|{{reign|394/3|393/2 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- unnamed son
- Menelaus
- **(7)** Amyntas II (`{{nowrap|{{reign|single=394/3 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- **(11)** *Ptolemy of Aloros* (`{{nowrap|{{reign|368|365 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- Amyntas
- Arrhidaeus
- **(9)** Amyntas III (`{{nowrap|{{reign|393/2|370 BC}}}}`{=mediawiki})
- *From whom Philip II and Alexander III is descended
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# Amyntas III of Macedon
**Amyntas III** (*Ἀμύντας*) was king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 393/2 to 388/7 BC and again from 387/6 to 370 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty through his father Arrhidaeus, a son of Amyntas, one of the sons of Alexander I. His most famous son is Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.
## Family
Polygamy was used by Macedonian kings both before and after Amyntas to secure marriage alliances and produce enough heirs to offset losses from intra-dynastic conflict. Consequently, Amyntas took two wives: Eurydice and Gygaea. He first married Eurydice, daughter of Sirras and maternal granddaughter of the Lynkestian king Arrhabaeus, probably in a Macedonian effort to strengthen the alliance with both the Illyrians and Lynkestians or to detach the Lynkestians from their historical alliance with the Illyrians, after the Macedonian defeat by Illyrians or an Illyrian-Lynkestian invasion in 393 BC. Through Eurydice, Amyntas had three sons, all of whom became kings of Macedonia one after the other, and a daughter: Alexander II, Perdiccas III, Philip II, and Eurynoe.
The Roman historian Justin relates several, possibly apocryphal, stories about Eurydice and Eurynoe. He claims that Eurynoe prevented her mother and her lover (unnamed, but likely Ptolemy of Aloros) from assassinating Amyntas late in his reign by revealing the plan to her father. However, Eurynoe is not referred to by name in any other source and, moreover, is unlikely to have known the details of this supposedly secret plot. According to Justin, Amyntas spared Eurydice because they shared children, but that she would later help murder Alexander and Perdiccas in order to place Ptolemy on the throne. Alexander was in fact killed by friends of Ptolemy at a festival in 368 BC, but the extent to which Eurydice knew of or participated in this plot is opaque. Perdiccas, on the other hand, assassinated Ptolemy in 365 BC only to be killed in battle by the Illyrians in 359 BC.
Amyntas most likely married Gygaea soon after marrying Eurydice, because Gygaea\'s children made no attempt to claim the throne before the 350s BC, implying that they were younger than Eurydice\'s children. Additionally, both Diodorus and Justin call Alexander II the eldest son of Amyntas. Through Gygaea, Amyntas had three more sons: Archelaus, Arrhidaeus, and Menelaus. Unlike Eurydice\'s children, none of Gygaea\'s sons ascended to the throne and were all killed by their half-brother Philip II.
Amyntas also adopted the Athenian general Iphicrates around 386 BC in recognition of his military services and marital ties with the Thracian king, Cotys I.
## Lineage and accession {#lineage_and_accession}
Amyntas became king at a troubled time for Macedonia and the Argead dynasty. The unexpected death of his great-grandfather King Alexander I in 454 BC triggered a dynastic crisis between his five sons: Perdiccas II, Menelaus, Philip, Alcetas, and Amyntas\' grandfather, Amyntas. Perdiccas would eventually emerge victorious, extinguishing the line of Philip. The elder Amyntas evidently retired to his lands at some point in the conflict and took no part in the exercise of power. Archelaus, Perdiccas\' son, ascended to the throne around 413 BC and allegedly murdered Alcetas and his son, thus eliminating that family branch as well. However, Archelaus would himself be killed, possibly murdered, in 400 or 399 BC by his lover Craterus. His death prompted another succession crisis, resulting in five kings ruling in less than seven years, with nearly all ending violently. As Diodorus tells us, the younger Amyntas seized the throne at this point in 393/2 BC after assassinating the previous king Pausanias. Following his accession, Macedonia experienced no major internal political problems for the entirety of Amyntas\' reign.
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# Amyntas III of Macedon
## King of Macedon {#king_of_macedon}
Shortly after he became king in 393 or 392, he was driven out by the Illyrians, but in the following year, with the aid of the Thessalians, he recovered his kingdom. Medius, head of the house of the Aleuadae of Larissa, is believed to have provided aid to Amyntas in recovering his throne. The mutual relationship between the Argeadae and the Aleuadae dates to the time of Archelaus.
To shore up his country against the threat of the Illyrians, Amyntas established an alliance with the Chalcidian League led by Olynthus. In exchange for this support, Amyntas granted them rights to Macedonian timber, which was sent back to Athens to help fortify their fleet. With money flowing into Olynthus from these exports, their power grew. In response, Amyntas sought additional allies. He established connections with Kotys, chief of the Odrysians. Kotys had already married his daughter to the Athenian general Iphicrates. Prevented from marrying into Kotys\' family, Amyntas soon adopted Iphicrates as his son.
After the King\'s Peace of 387 BC, Sparta was anxious to re-establish its presence in northern Greece. In 385 BC, Bardylis and his Illyrians attacked Epirus instigated and aided by Dionysius I of Syracuse, in an attempt to restore the Molossian king Alcetas I of Epirus to the throne. When Amyntas sought Spartan aid against the growing threat of Olynthus, the Spartans eagerly responded. That Olynthus was backed by Athens and Thebes, rivals to Sparta for the control of Greece, provided them with an additional incentive to break up this growing power in the north. Amyntas thus concluded a treaty with the Spartans, who assisted him in a war against Olynthus. First Spartan-Macedonian forces suffered two defeats but in 379 BC they managed to destroy Olynthus. He also entered into a league with Jason of Pherae, and assiduously cultivated the friendship of Athens. In 371 BC at a Panhellenic congress of the Lacedaemonian allies, he voted in support of the Athenians\' claim and joined other Greeks in voting to help Athens to recover possession of Amphipolis.
With Olynthus defeated, Amyntas was now able to conclude a treaty with Athens and keep the timber revenues for himself. Amyntas shipped the timber to the house of the Athenian Timotheus, in Piraeus.
Amyntas died aged 50, leaving his throne to his eldest son, Alexander II
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# Anah
**Anah** or **Ana** (*ʿĀna*, *ܐܢܐ*), formerly also known as **Anna**, is an Iraqi town on the Euphrates approximately midway between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Persian Gulf. Anah lies from west to east on the right bank along a bend of the river just before it turns south towards Hīt.
## Name
The town was called **^(d)^Ha-na-at`{{sup|KI}}`{=mediawiki}** in cuneiform texts from the Old Babylonian period, **A-na-at** of the land Suhum by the scribes of Tukulti-Ninurta `{{c.|lk=no|885}}`{=mediawiki} BC, and **An-at** by the scribes of Assur-nasir-pal II in 879 BC. The name has been connected with the widely worshipped war goddess Anat. It was known as **Anathō** (*Άναθω*)`{{what?|date=February 2024}}`{=mediawiki} to Isidore Charax and **Anatha** to Ammianus Marcellinus; early Arabic writers described it variously as **ʾĀna** or (as if plural) **ʾĀnāt**.`{{what?|date=February 2024}}`{=mediawiki}
## History
### Antiquity
The earliest references to Anah are probably found in letters of the period of Zimri-Lim of Mari.
Under Hammurapi of Babylon the town was under Babylonian control, being included in the governorate of Sūḫu. Later, the town was under Assyrian rule.
At the beginning of the 8th century BC, Šamaš-rēša-uṣur and his son Ninurta-kudurrī-uṣur succeeded in creating an independent political entity, and called themselves \"governors of Sūḫu and Mari\". The land of Sūḫu occupied a quite extensive region on the Middle Euphrates, approximately from the area near Falluja in the southeast to the area of Ḫindanu (modern Tell Jabiriyah, near Al-Qa\'im) in the northwest. Important evidence for this period was recovered during English and Iraqi salvage excavation campaigns at Sur Jurʿeh and on the island of ʿAna (Anah) in the early 1980s.
Xenophon recorded that the army of Cyrus the Younger resupplied during a campaign in 401 BC at \"Charmande\" near the end of a 90-parasang march between Korsote and Pylae, which likely intends Anah.`{{fact|date=February 2024}}`{=mediawiki}
Anatha was the site where the Roman emperor Julian first met opposition in his AD 363 expedition against the Sassanid Empire. He got possession of the place and relocated its inhabitants.
### Middle Ages {#middle_ages}
In 657, during the Muslim conquest of Iraq, Ali\'s lieutenants Ziyad and Shureih were refused passage across the Euphrates at Anah. Later, in 1058, Anah was the place of exile of the caliph Qaim when al-Basasiri was in power. In the 14th century, Anah was the seat of the catholicos who served as primate over the Persian Christians. Throughout early Islamic rule, it was a prosperous trade town, well known for its date palms and gardens; in the 14th century, Mustafi wrote of the fame of its palm groves. Medieval Arab poets celebrated Anah\'s wine; Between the 14th and 17th centuries, Anah served as a headquarters for a host of regional Arab tribes.
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# Anah
## History
### Ottoman rule {#ottoman_rule}
Starting around 1535, the town served as the de facto capital of the Abu Rish bedouin emirs, whom the Ottomans appointed as governors of several **sancak**s (provinces) as well as *çöl beyis* or \"desert emirs\". In 1574, Leonhart Rauwolff found the town divided into two parts, the Turkish \"so surrounded by the river that you cannot go into it but by boats\" and the larger Arab section along one of the banks. In 1610, Texeira said Anah lay on both banks of the river, with which Pietro Della Valle agreed. In that year, Della Valle found the Scot George Strachan resident at Anah, working as the physician to the emir and studying Arabic; he also found some \"sun worshippers\" (actually Alawites) still living there. Della Valle and Texeira called Anah the principal Arab town on the Euphrates, controlling a major route west from Baghdad and territory reaching Palmyra.
About 1750, the Ottomans installed a rudimentary administration to run Anah and its district. After roughly a century, a more organized local government was put in place, whereby Anah became the center of a kaza belonging to the Baghdad Vilayet.
At the beginning of the 19th century, G.A. Olivier found only 25 men in service of the local prince, with residents fleeing daily to escape from bedouin attacks against which he offered no protection. He described the city as a single long street of five or six miles along a narrow strip of land between the river and a ridge of rocky hills. W. F. Ainsworth, chronicling the British Euphrates expedition, reported that in 1835 the Arabs inhabited the northwest part of the town, the Christians the center, and the Jews the southeast. The same year, the steamer *Tigris* went down in a storm just above Anah, near where Julian\'s force had suffered from a similar storm.
By the mid-19th century, the houses were separated from one another by fruit gardens, which also filled the riverine islands near the town. The most easterly island contained a ruined castle, while the ruins of ancient Anatho extended a further two miles along the left bank. It marked the boundary between the olive (north) and date (south) growing regions in the area. With the positioning of Turkish troops in the town around 1890, the locals no longer had to pay blackmail (**huwwa**) to the bedouins. Through the early 20th century, coarse cotton cloth was the only manufacture. In 1909 Anah had an estimated population of 15,000 and 2,000 houses. Most of the inhabitants were Sunni Muslim Arabs, though a small Jewish community lived on the town\'s southern edge.
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# Anah
## History
### Kingdom of Iraq {#kingdom_of_iraq}
In 1918, the town was captured by British forces and by 1921, became incorporated into the Kingdom of Iraq. It remained an administrative center of a qadaa, part of the larger Ramadi-based liwa of Dulaym. Anah\'s *qadaa* also included the subdistricts of Hīt, al-Qa\'im and Jubba. The townspeople\'s long feud with the inhabitants of Rawa was settled diplomatically by 1921. Its territory to the west was dominated by the subtribes of Anizzah, while to the east the Jarba branch of the Shammar held sway.
Most of Anah\'s building were located among a dense belt of date palms and was \"reckoned as healthy and picturesque\", according to historian S. H. Longrigg. The date palms were irrigated by water wheels. There were also more scattered dwelling in the mid-stream islands of the Euphrates near the town center. The women of the town were well known for their beauty and the weaving of cotton and wool textiles. The men, many of whom were compelled to emigrate to lack of living space, were largely engaged as boatmen and transporters of water to Baghdad. The town had relatively high educational standards, with eight schools built there by 1946.
F. R. Chesney reported about 1800 houses, two mosques, and 16 waterwheels. One minaret is particularly old. Northedge reported the locals commonly attributed it to the 11th century but opined that it was more likely from about a century after that. It rose from one of the islands and belonged to the local mosque. Dr. Muayad Said described it as an octagonal body \"enhanced by alcoves, some of which are blind\" and noted earlier conservation work undertaken in 1935, 1963 and 1964. When the valley was flooded by the Haditha Dam in 1984/85, the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities cut it into sections and removed it to the new Anah, where it was re-erected to a height of 28 m at the end of the 1980s.
ISIS captured the town in 2014. On September 19, 2017, an offensive to retake the town from ISIS control began. After two days of fighting the town was recaptured by the Iraqi army.
## Climate
Anah has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification *BWh*). Most rain falls in the winter. The average annual temperature in Anah is 20.7 °C. About 127 mm of precipitation falls annually
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# Ānanda
**Ānanda** (Pali and Sanskrit: आनंद; 5th`{{en dash}}`{=mediawiki}4th century BCE) was the primary attendant of the Buddha and one of his ten principal disciples. Among the Buddha\'s many disciples, Ānanda stood out for having the best memory. Most of the texts of the early Buddhist *Sutta-Piṭaka* (*सुत्त पिटक*; *सूत्र-पिटक*, *Sūtra-Piṭaka*) are attributed to his recollection of the Buddha\'s teachings during the First Buddhist Council. For that reason, he is known as the **Treasurer of the Dhamma**, with *Dhamma* (*धर्म*, *dharma*) referring to the Buddha\'s teaching. In Early Buddhist Texts, Ānanda was the first cousin of the Buddha. Although the early texts do not agree on many parts of Ānanda\'s early life, they do agree that Ānanda was ordained as a monk and that Puṇṇa Mantānīputta (*पूर्ण मैत्रायणीपुत्र*, Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra) became his teacher. Twenty years in the Buddha\'s ministry, Ānanda became the attendant of the Buddha, when the Buddha selected him for this task. Ānanda performed his duties with great devotion and care, and acted as an intermediary between the Buddha and the laypeople, as well as the *saṅgha* (*lit=monastic community*). He accompanied the Buddha for the rest of his life, acting not only as an assistant, but also a secretary and a mouthpiece.
Scholars are skeptical about the historicity of many events in Ānanda\'s life, especially the First Council, and consensus about this has yet to be established. A traditional account can be drawn from early texts, commentaries, and post-canonical chronicles. Ānanda had an important role in establishing the order of *bhikkhunīs* (*lit=female mendicant*), when he requested the Buddha on behalf of the latter\'s foster-mother Mahāpajāpati Gotamī (*महाप्रजापती गौतमी*, *Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī*) to allow her to be ordained. Ānanda also accompanied the Buddha in the last year of his life, and therefore was witness to many tenets and principles that the Buddha conveyed before his death, including the well-known principle that the Buddhist community should take his teaching and discipline as their refuge, and that he would not appoint a new leader. The final period of the Buddha\'s life also shows that Ānanda was very much attached to the Buddha\'s person, and he saw the Buddha\'s passing with great sorrow.
Shortly after the Buddha\'s death, the First Council was convened, and Ānanda managed to attain enlightenment just before the council started, which was a requirement. He had a historical role during the council as the living memory of the Buddha, reciting many of the Buddha\'s discourses and checking them for accuracy. During the same council, however, he was chastised by Mahākassapa (*महाकाश्यप*, *Mahākāśyapa*) and the rest of the *saṅgha* for allowing women to be ordained and failing to understand or respect the Buddha at several crucial moments. Ānanda continued to teach until the end of his life, passing on his spiritual heritage to his pupils Sāṇavāsī (*शाणकवासी*, *Śāṇakavāsī*) and Majjhantika (*मध्यान्तिक*, *Madhyāntika*), among others, who later assumed leading roles in the Second and Third Councils. Ānanda died 20 years after the Buddha, and *stūpas* (monuments) were erected at the river where he died.
Ānanda is one of the most loved figures in Buddhism. He was widely known for his memory, erudition and compassion, and was often praised by the Buddha for these matters. He functioned as a foil to the Buddha, however, in that he still had worldly attachments and was not yet enlightened, as opposed to the Buddha. In the Sanskrit textual traditions, Ānanda is considered the patriarch of the Dhamma who stood in a spiritual lineage, receiving the teaching from Mahākassapa and passing them on to his own pupils. Ānanda has been honored by *bhikkhunīs* since early medieval times for his merits in establishing the nun\'s order. In recent times, the composer Richard Wagner and Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore were inspired by stories about Ānanda in their work.
## Name
The word *ānanda* (आनंद) means \'bliss, joy\' in Pāli and in Sanskrit. Pāli commentaries explain that when Ānanda was born, his relatives were joyous about this. Texts from the Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition, however, state that since Ānanda was born on the day of the Buddha\'s enlightenment, there was great rejoicing in the city`{{em dash}}`{=mediawiki}hence the name.
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# Ānanda
## Accounts
### Previous lives {#previous_lives}
According to the texts, in a previous life, Ānanda made an aspiration to become a Buddha\'s attendant. He made this aspiration in the time of a previous Buddha called Padumuttara, many eons (*link=no*, Sanskrit: `{{Transliteration|sa|kalpa}}`{=mediawiki}) before the present age. He met the attendant of Padumuttara Buddha and aspired to be like him in a future life. After having done many good deeds, he made his resolution known to the Padumuttara Buddha, who confirmed that his wish will come true in a future life. After having been born and reborn throughout many lifetimes, and doing many good deeds, he was born as Ānanda in the time of the current Buddha Gotama.
### Early life {#early_life}
Ānanda was born in the same time period as the Buddha (formerly Prince Siddhattha), which scholars place at 5th`{{en dash}}`{=mediawiki}4th centuries BCE. Tradition says that Ānanda was the first cousin of the Buddha, his father being the brother of Suddhodana (*link=no*), the Buddha\'s father. In the Pāli and Mūlasarvāstivāda textual traditions, his father was Amitodana (*link=no*), but the *Mahāvastu* states that his father was Śuklodana`{{em dash}}`{=mediawiki}both are brothers of Suddhodana. The Mahāvastu also mentions that Ānanda\'s mother\'s name was Mṛgī (Sanskrit; lit. \'little deer\'; Pāli is unknown). The Pāli tradition has it that Ānanda was born on the same day as Prince Siddhatta (*link=no*), but texts from the Mūlasarvāstivāda and subsequent Mahāyāna traditions state Ānanda was born at the same time the Buddha attained enlightenment (when Prince Siddhattha was 35 years old), and was therefore much younger than the Buddha. The latter tradition is corroborated by several instances in the Early Buddhist Texts, in which Ānanda appears younger than the Buddha, such as the passage in which the Buddha explained to Ānanda how old age was affecting him in body and mind. It is also corroborated by a verse in the Pāli text called *Theragāthā*, in which Ānanda stated he was a \"learner\" for 25 years, after which he attended to the Buddha for another 25 years.Following the Pāli, Mahīśasaka and Dharmaguptaka textual traditions, Ānanda became a monk in the second year of the Buddha\'s ministry, during the Buddha\'s visit to Kapilavatthu (*link=no*). He was ordained by the Buddha himself, together with many other princes of the Buddha\'s clan (*link=no*, *link=no*), in the mango grove called Anupiya, part of Malla territory. According to a text from the Mahāsaṅghika tradition, King Suddhodana wanted the Buddha to have more followers of the *khattiya* caste (*lit=warrior-noble, member of the ruling class*), and less from the brahmin (priest) caste. He therefore ordered that any *khattiya* who had a brother to follow the Buddha as a monk, or have his brother do so. Ānanda used this opportunity, and asked his brother Devadatta to stay at home, so that he could leave for the monkhood. The later timeline from the Mūlasarvāstivāda texts and the Pāli *Theragāthā*, however, have Ānanda ordain much later, about twenty-five years before the Buddha\'s death`{{em dash}}`{=mediawiki}in other words, twenty years in the Buddha\'s ministry. Some Sanskrit sources have him ordain even later. The Mūlasarvāstivāda texts on monastic discipline (Pāli and *link=no*) relate that soothsayers predicted Ānanda would be the Buddha\'s attendant. In order to prevent Ānanda from leaving the palace to ordain, his father brought him to Vesālī (*link=no*) during the Buddha\'s visit to Kapilavatthu, but later the Buddha met and taught Ānanda nonetheless. On a similar note, the Mahāvastu relates, however, that Mṛgī was initially opposed to Ānanda joining the holy life, because his brother Devadatta had already ordained and left the palace. Ānanda responded to his mother\'s resistance by moving to Videha (*link=no*) and lived there, taking a vow of silence. This led him to gain the epithet Videhamuni (*link=no*), meaning \'the silent wise one from Videha\'. When Ānanda did become ordained, his father had him ordain in Kapilavatthu in the Nigrodhārāma monastery (*link=no*) with much ceremony, Ānanda\'s preceptor (*link=no*; Sanskrit: `{{Transliteration|sa|upādhyāya}}`{=mediawiki}) being a certain Daśabāla Kāśyapa.
According to the Pāli tradition, Ānanda\'s first teachers were Belaṭṭhasīsa and Puṇṇa Mantānīputta. It was Puṇṇa\'s teaching that led Ānanda to attain the stage of *sotāpanna* (*link=no*), an attainment preceding that of enlightenment. Ānanda later expressed his debt to Puṇṇa. Another important figure in the life of Ānanda was Sāriputta (*link=no*), one of the Buddha\'s main disciples. Sāriputta often taught Ānanda about the finer points of Buddhist doctrine; they were in the habit of sharing things with one another, and their relationship is described as a good friendship. In some Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, an attendant of Ānanda is also mentioned who helped motivate Ānanda when he was banned from the First Buddhist Council. He was a \"Vajjiputta\" (*link=no*), i.e. someone who originated from the Vajji confederacy. According to later texts, an enlightened monk also called Vajjiputta (*link=no*) had an important role in Ānanda\'s life. He listened to a teaching of Ānanda and realized that Ānanda was not enlightened yet. Vajjiputta encouraged Ānanda to talk less to laypeople and deepen his meditation practice by retreating in the forest, advice that very much affected Ānanda.
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# Ānanda
## Accounts
### Attending to the Buddha {#attending_to_the_buddha}
left\|thumb \|18th-century Burmese sculpture of Ānanda \|alt=Wooden sculpture of monk sitting in a mermaid pose, reclining \|upright
In the first twenty years of the Buddha\'s ministry, the Buddha had several personal attendants. However, after these twenty years, when the Buddha was aged 55, the Buddha announced that he had need for a permanent attendant. The Buddha had been growing older, and his previous attendants had not done their job very well. Initially, several of the Buddha\'s foremost disciples responded to his request, but the Buddha did not accept them. All the while Ānanda remained quiet. When he was asked why, he said that the Buddha would know best whom to choose, upon which the Buddha responded by choosing Ānanda.`{{refn|group=note |According to the Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition, Ānanda was born at the same time the Buddha became enlightened, and was therefore younger than the other leading disciples. The reason that the other disciples were not chosen may be because they were too old for the task.<ref name="Mohr" />}}`{=mediawiki} Ānanda agreed to take on the position, on the condition that he did not receive any material benefits from the Buddha. Accepting such benefits would open him up to criticism that he chose the position because of ulterior motives. He also requested that the Buddha allow him to accept invitations on his behalf, allow him to ask questions about his doctrine, and repeat any teaching that the Buddha had taught in Ānanda\'s absence. These requests would help people trust Ānanda and show that the Buddha was sympathetic to his attendant. Furthermore, Ānanda considered these the real advantages of being an attendant, which is why he requested them.
The Buddha agreed to Ānanda\'s conditions, and Ānanda became the Buddha\'s attendant, accompanying the Buddha on most of his wanderings. Ānanda took care of the Buddha\'s daily practical needs, by doing things such as bringing water and cleaning the Buddha\'s dwelling place. He is depicted as observant and devoted, even guarding the dwelling place at night. Ānanda takes the part of interlocutor in many of the recorded dialogues. He tended the Buddha for a total of 25 years, a duty which entailed much work. His relationship with the Buddha is depicted as warm and trusting: when the Buddha grew ill, Ānanda had a sympathetic illness; when the Buddha grew older, Ānanda kept taking care of him with devotion.
Ānanda sometimes literally risked his life for his teacher. At one time, the rebellious monk Devadatta tried to kill the Buddha by having a drunk and wild elephant released in the Buddha\'s presence. Ānanda stepped in front of the Buddha to protect him. When the Buddha told him to move, he refused, although normally he always obeyed the Buddha. Through a supernatural accomplishment (*link=no*; *link=no*) the Buddha then moved Ānanda aside and subdued the elephant, by touching it and speaking to it with loving-kindness.
Ānanda often acted as an intermediary and secretary, passing on messages from the Buddha, informing the Buddha of news, invitations, or the needs of lay people, and advising lay people who wanted to provide gifts to the *saṅgha*. At one time, Mahāpajāpatī, the Buddha\'s foster-mother, requested to offer robes for personal use for the Buddha. She said that even though she had raised the Buddha in his youth, she never gave anything in person to the young prince; she now wished to do so. The Buddha initially insisted that she give the robe to the community as a whole rather than to be attached to his person. However, Ānanda interceded and mediated, suggesting that the Buddha had better accept the robe. Eventually the Buddha did, but not without pointing out to Ānanda that good deeds like giving should always be done for the sake of the action itself, not for the sake of the person. thumb \|Sculpture of Ānanda from Wat Khao Rup Chang, Songkhla, Thailand \|alt=Sculpture of a monk with East Asian traits, holding an alms bowl. \|upright The texts say that the Buddha sometimes asked Ānanda to substitute for him as teacher, and was often praised by the Buddha for his teachings. Ānanda was often given important teaching roles, such as regularly teaching Queen Mallikā, Queen Sāmāvatī, (*link=no*) and other people from the ruling class. Once Ānanda taught a number of King Udena (*link=no*)\'s concubines. They were so impressed by Ānanda\'s teaching, that they gave him five hundred robes, which Ānanda accepted. Having heard about this, King Udena criticized Ānanda for being greedy; Ānanda responded by explaining how every single robe was carefully used, reused and recycled by the monastic community, prompting the king to offer another five hundred robes. Ānanda also had a role in the Buddha\'s visit to Vesālī. In this story, the Buddha taught the well-known text *Ratana Sutta* to Ānanda, which Ānanda then recited in Vesālī, ridding the city from illness, drought and evil spirits in the process. Another well-known passage in which the Buddha taught Ānanda is the passage about spiritual friendship (*link=no*). In this passage, Ānanda stated that spiritual friendship is half of the holy life; the Buddha corrected Ānanda, stating that such friendship is the entire holy life. In summary, Ānanda worked as an assistant, intermediary and a mouthpiece, helping the Buddha in many ways, and learning his teachings in the process.
#### Resisting temptations {#resisting_temptations}
Ānanda was attractive in appearance. A Pāli account related that a *bhikkhunī* (nun) became enamored with Ānanda, and pretended to be ill to have Ānanda visit her. When she realized the error of her ways, she confessed her mistakes to Ānanda. Other accounts relate that a low-caste woman called Prakṛti (also known in China as `{{zh|t=[[:zh:摩登伽女|摩登伽女]]|p=Módēngqiénǚ|labels=no}}`{=mediawiki}) fell in love with Ānanda, and persuaded her mother Mātaṅgī to use a black magic spell to enchant him. This succeeded, and Ānanda was lured into her house, but came to his senses and called upon the help of the Buddha. The Buddha then taught Prakṛti to reflect on the repulsive qualities of the human body, and eventually Prakṛti was ordained as a *bhikkhunī*, giving up her attachment for Ānanda. In an East Asian version of the story in the *Śūraṃgama sūtra*, the Buddha sent Mañjuśrī to help Ānanda, who used recitation to counter the magic charm. The Buddha then continued by teaching Ānanda and other listeners about the Buddha nature.
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# Ānanda
## Accounts
### Establishing the nun\'s order {#establishing_the_nuns_order}
`{{See also|Bhikkhuni#History}}`{=mediawiki} In the role of mediator between the Buddha and the lay communities, Ānanda sometimes made suggestions to the Buddha for amendments in the monastic discipline. Most importantly, the early texts attribute the inclusion of women in the early *saṅgha* (monastic order) to Ānanda. Fifteen years after the Buddha\'s enlightenment, his foster mother Mahāpajāpatī came to see him to ask him to be ordained as the first Buddhist *bhikkhunī*. Initially, the Buddha refused this. Five years later, Mahāpajāpatī came to request the Buddha again, this time with a following of other Sākiya women, including the Buddha\'s former wife Yasodharā (*link=no*). They had walked 500 km, looked dirty, tired and depressed, and Ānanda felt pity for them. Ānanda therefore confirmed with the Buddha whether women could become enlightened as well. Although the Buddha conceded this, he did not allow the Sākiya women to be ordained yet. Ānanda then discussed with the Buddha how Mahāpajāpatī took care of him during his childhood, after the death of his real mother. Ānanda also mentioned that previous Buddhas had also ordained *bhikkhunīs*. In the end, the Buddha allowed the Sākiya women to be ordained, being the start of the *bhikkhunī* order. Ānanda had Mahāpajāpati ordained by her acceptance of a set of rules, set by the Buddha. These came to be known as the *garudhamma*, and they describe the subordinate relation of the *bhikkhunī* community to that of the *bhikkhus* or monks. Scholar of Asian religions Reiko Ohnuma argues that the debt the Buddha had toward his foster-mother Mahāpajāpati may have been the main reason for his concessions with regard to the establishment of a *bhikkhunī* order.
Many scholars interpret this account to mean that the Buddha was reluctant in allowing women to be ordained, and that Ānanda successfully persuaded the Buddha to change his mind. For example, Indologist and translator I.B. Horner wrote that \"this is the only instance of his \[the Buddha\] being over-persuaded in argument\". However, some scholars interpret the Buddha\'s initial refusal rather as a test of resolve, following a widespread pattern in the Pāli Canon and in monastic procedure of repeating a request three times before final acceptance. Some also argue that the Buddha was believed by Buddhists to be omniscient, and therefore is unlikely to have been depicted as changing his mind. Other scholars argue that other passages in the texts indicate the Buddha intended all along to establish a *bhikkhunī* order. Regardless, during the acceptance of women into the monastic order, the Buddha told Ānanda that the Buddha\'s Dispensation would last shorter because of this. At the time, the Buddhist monastic order consisted of wandering celibate males, without many monastic institutions. Allowing women to join the Buddhist celibate life might have led to dissension, as well as temptation between the sexes. The *garudhamma*, however, were meant to fix these problems, and prevent the dispensation from being curtailed.upright\|thumb \|The early texts attribute the inclusion of women in the early monastic order to Ānanda. \|alt=Taiwanese nun\|left
There are some chronological discrepancies in the traditional account of the setting up of the *bhikkhunī* order. According to the Pāli and Mahīśasaka textual traditions, the *bhikkhunī* order was set up five years after the Buddha\'s enlightenment, but, according to most textual traditions, Ānanda only became attendant twenty years after the Buddha\'s enlightenment. Furthermore, Mahāpajāpati was the Buddha\'s foster mother, and must therefore have been considerably older than him. However, after the *bhikkhunī* order was established, Mahāpajāpati still had many audiences with the Buddha, as reported in Pāli and Chinese Early Buddhist Texts. Because of this and other reasons, it could be inferred that establishment of the *bhikkhunī* order actually took place *early* in the Buddha\'s ministry. If this is the case, Ānanda\'s role in establishing the order becomes less likely. Some scholars therefore interpret the names in the account, such as *Ānanda* and *Mahāpajāpati*, as symbols, representing groups rather than specific individuals.
According to the texts, Ānanda\'s role in founding the *bhikkhunī* order made him popular with the *bhikkhunī* community. Ānanda often taught *bhikkhunīs*, often encouraged women to ordain, and when he was criticized by the monk Mahākassapa, several *bhikkhunīs* tried to defend him. According to Indologist Oskar von Hinüber, Ānanda\'s pro-*bhikkhunī* attitude may well be the reason why there was frequent discussion between Ānanda and Mahākassapa, eventually leading Mahākasapa to charge Ānanda with several offenses during the First Buddhist Council. Von Hinüber further argues that the establishment of the *bhikkhunī* order may have well been initiated by Ānanda `{{em|after}}`{=mediawiki} the Buddha\'s death, and the introduction of Mahāpajāpati as the person requesting to do so is merely a literary device to connect the ordination of women with the person of the Buddha, through his foster mother. Von Hinüber concludes this based on several patterns in the early texts, including the apparent distance between the Buddha and the *bhikkhunī* order, and the frequent discussions and differences of opinion that take place between Ānanda and Mahākassapa. Some scholars have seen merits in von Hinüber\'s argument with regard to the pro- and anti-factions, but as of 2017, no definitive evidence has been found for the theory of establishment of the *bhikkhuni* order after the Buddha\'s death. Buddhist studies scholar Bhikkhu Anālayo has responded to most of von Hinuber\'s arguments, writing: \"Besides requiring too many assumptions, this hypothesis conflicts with nearly \'all the evidence preserved in the texts together\'\",`{{refn |group=note |Anālayo cites von Hinüber with this phrase.}}`{=mediawiki} arguing that it was monastic discipline that created a distance between the Buddha and the *bhikkhunīs*, and even so, there were many places in the early texts where the Buddha did address *bhikkhunīs* directly.
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# Ānanda
## Accounts
### The Buddha\'s death {#the_buddhas_death}
thumb \|upright \|Sculpture at Vulture Peak, Rajgir, India, depicting the Buddha consoling Ānanda \|alt=Sculpture of the Buddha holding hand on head monk at the right side of the Buddha, the latter monk smiling Despite his long association with and close proximity to the Buddha, the texts describe that Ānanda had not become enlightened yet. Because of that, a fellow monk Udāyī (*link=no*) ridiculed Ānanda. However, the Buddha reprimanded Udāyī in response, saying that Ānanda would certainly be enlightened in this life.`{{refn |group=note |[[Anguttara Nikaya|AN]] 3.80}}`{=mediawiki}
The Pāli *Mahā-parinibbāna Sutta* related the last year-long trip the Buddha took with Ānanda from Rājagaha (*Rājagṛha*) to the small town of Kusinārā (*link=no*) before the Buddha died there. Before reaching Kusinārā, the Buddha spent the retreat during the monsoon (*link=no*, *link=no*) in Veḷugāma (*Veṇugrāmaka*), getting out of the Vesālī area which suffered from famine. Here, the eighty-year old Buddha expressed his wish to speak to the *saṅgha* once more. The Buddha had grown seriously ill in Vesālī, much to the concern of some of his disciples. Ānanda understood that the Buddha wished to leave final instructions before his death. The Buddha stated, however, that he had already taught everything needed, without withholding anything secret as a teacher with a \"closed fist\" would. He also impressed upon Ānanda that he did not think the *saṅgha* should be reliant too much on a leader, not even himself. He then continued with the well-known statement to take his teaching as a refuge, and oneself as a refuge, without relying on any other refuge, also after he would be gone. Bareau argued that this is one of the most ancient parts of the text, found in slight variation in five early textual traditions:
The same text contains an account in which the Buddha, at numerous occasions, gave a hint that he could prolong his life to a full eon through a supernatural accomplishment, but this was a power that he would have to be `{{em|asked}}`{=mediawiki} to exercise.`{{refn |group=note |There was some debate between the [[early Buddhist schools]] as to what ''eon'' means in this context, some schools arguing it meant a full human lifespan, others that an enlightened being was capable of producing a "new life-span by the sole power of his meditation".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jaini |first=P. S. |year=1958 |title=Buddha's Prolongation of Life |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |volume=21 |issue=3 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X0006016X |pages=547{{en dash}}8, 550|s2cid=170582903 }}</ref>}}`{=mediawiki} Ānanda was distracted, however, and did not take the hint. Later, Ānanda did make the request, but the Buddha replied that it was already too late, as he would die soon. Māra, the Buddhist personification of evil, had visited the Buddha, and the Buddha had decided to die in three months. When Ānanda heard this, he wept. The Buddha consoled him, however, pointing out that Ānanda had been a great attendant, being sensitive to the needs of different people. If he was earnest in his efforts, he would attain enlightenment soon. He then pointed out to Ānanda that all conditioned things are impermanent: all people must die. In the final days of the Buddha\'s life, the Buddha traveled to Kusinārā. The Buddha had Ānanda prepare a place for lying down between two sal trees, the same type of tree under which the mother of the Buddha gave birth. The Buddha then had Ānanda invite the Malla clan from Kusinārā to pay their final respects. Having returned, Ānanda asked the Buddha what should be done with his body after his death, and he replied that it should be cremated, giving detailed instructions on how this should be done. Since the Buddha prohibited Ānanda from being involved himself, but rather had him instruct the Mallas to perform the rituals, these instructions have by many scholars been interpreted as a prohibition that monastics should not be involved in funerals or worship of *stūpas* (structures with relics). Buddhist studies scholar Gregory Schopen has pointed out, however, that this prohibition only held for Ānanda, and only with regard to the Buddha\'s funeral ceremony. It has also been shown that the instructions on the funeral are quite late in origin, in both composition and insertion into the text, and are not found in parallel texts, apart from the *Mahāparinibbāna Sutta*. Ānanda then continued by asking how devotees should honor the Buddha after his death. The Buddha responded by listing four important places in his life that people could pay their respects to, which later became the four main places of Buddhist pilgrimage. Before the Buddha died, Ānanda recommended the Buddha to move to a more meaningful city instead, but the Buddha pointed out that the town was once a great capital. Ānanda then asked who will be next teacher after the Buddha would be gone, but the Buddha replied that his teaching and discipline would be the teacher instead. This meant that decisions should be made by reaching consensus within the *saṅgha*, and more generally, that now the time had come for the Buddhist monastics and devotees to take the Buddhist texts as authority, now that the Buddha was dying.
The Buddha gave several instructions before his death, including a directive that his former charioteer Channa (*link=no*) be shunned by his fellow monks, to humble his pride. In his final moments, the Buddha asked if anyone had any questions they wished to pose to him, as a final chance to allay any doubts. When no-one responded, Ānanda expressed joy that all of the Buddha\'s disciples present had attained a level beyond doubts about the Buddha\'s teaching. However, the Buddha pointed out that Ānanda spoke out of faith and not out of meditative insight`{{em dash}}`{=mediawiki}a final reproach. The Buddha added that, of all the five hundred monks that are surrounding him now, even the \"latest\" or \"most backward\" (*link=no*) had attained the initial stage of *sotapanna*. Meant as an encouragement, the Buddha was referring to Ānanda. During the Buddha\'s *final Nirvana*, Anuruddha was able to use his meditative powers to understand which stages the Buddha underwent before attaining final Nirvana. However, Ānanda was unable to do so, indicating his lesser spiritual maturity. After the Buddha\'s death, Ānanda recited several verses, expressing a sense of urgency (*link=no*), deeply moved by the events and their bearing: \"Terrible was the quaking, men\'s hair stood on end, / When the all-accomplished Buddha passed away.\"
Shortly after the council, Ānanda brought the message with regard to the Buddha\'s directive to Channa personally. Channa was humbled and changed his ways, attained enlightenment, and the penalty was withdrawn by the *saṅgha*. Ānanda traveled to Sāvatthī (*link=no*), where he was met with a sad populace, who he consoled with teachings on impermanence. After that, Ānanda went to the quarters of the Buddha and went through the motions of the routine he formerly performed when the Buddha was still alive, such as preparing water and cleaning the quarters. He then saluted and talked to the quarters as though the Buddha was still there. The Pāli commentaries state that Ānanda did this out of devotion, but also because he was \"not yet free from the passions\".
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# Ānanda
## Accounts
### The First Council {#the_first_council}
thumb \|upright=1 \|According to Buddhist texts, the First Buddhist Council was held in Rājagaha. \|alt=Stupa, located at present-day Rajgir, at that time called Rajagaha *Main article: First Buddhist Council*
#### Ban
According to the texts, the First Buddhist Council was held in Rājagaha. In the first *vassa* after the Buddha had died, the presiding monk Mahākassapa (*link=no*) called upon Ānanda to recite the discourses he had heard, as a representative on this council. There was a rule issued that only enlightened disciples (*arahants*) were allowed to attend the council, to prevent mental afflictions from clouding the disciples\' memories. Ānanda had, however, not attained enlightenment yet, in contrast with the rest of the council, consisting of 499 *arahants*. Mahākassapa therefore did not allow Ānanda to attend yet. Although he knew that Ānanda\'s presence in the council was required, he did not want to be biased by allowing an exception to the rule. The Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition adds that Mahākassapa initially allowed Ānanda to join as a sort of servant assisting during the council, but then was forced to remove him when the disciple Anuruddha saw that Ānanda was not yet enlightened.
Ānanda felt humiliated, but was prompted to focus his efforts to reach enlightenment before the council started. The Mūlasarvāstivāda texts add that he felt motivated when he remembered the Buddha\'s words that he should be his own refuge, and when he was consoled and advised by Anuruddha and Vajjiputta, the latter being his attendant. On the night before the event, he tried hard to attain enlightenment. After a while, Ānanda took a break and decided to lie down for a rest. He then attained enlightenment right there, right then, halfway between standing and lying down. Thus, Ānanda was known as the disciple who attained awakening \"in none of the four traditional poses\" (walking, standing, sitting, or lying down). The next morning, to prove his enlightenment, Ānanda performed a supernatural accomplishment by diving into the earth and appearing on his seat at the council (or, according to some sources, by flying through the air). Scholars such as Buddhologist André Bareau and scholar of religion Ellison Banks Findly have been skeptical about many details in this account, including the number of participants on the council, and the account of Ānanda\'s enlightenment just before the council. Regardless, today, the story of Ānanda\'s struggle on the evening before the council is still told among Buddhists as a piece of advice in the practice of meditation: neither to give up, nor to interpret the practice too rigidly.
#### Recitations
The First Council began when Ānanda was consulted to recite the discourses and to determine which were authentic and which were not. Mahākassapa asked of each discourse that Ānanda listed where, when, and to whom it was given, and at the end of this, the assembly agreed that Ānanda\'s memories and recitations were correct, after which the discourse collection (*link=no*, *link=no*) was considered finalized and closed. Ānanda therefore played a crucial role in this council, and texts claim he remembered 84,000 teaching topics, among which 82,000 taught by the Buddha and another 2,000 taught by disciples. Many early Buddhist discourses started with the words \"Thus have I heard\" (*link=no*, *link=no*), which according to most Buddhist traditions, were Ānanda\'s words, indicating that he, as the person reporting the text (*link=no*), had first-hand experience and did not add anything to it. Thus, the discourses Ānanda remembered later became the collection of discourses of the Canon, and according to the Haimavāta, Dharmaguptaka and Sarvāstivāda textual traditions (and implicitly, post-canonical Pāli chronicles), the collection of Abhidhamma (*Abhidhamma Piṭaka*) as well. Scholar of religion Ronald Davidson notes, however, that this is not preceded by any account of Ānanda learning Abhidhamma. According to some later Mahāyāna accounts, Ānanda also assisted in reciting Mahāyāna texts, held in a different place in Rājagaha, but in the same time period. The Pāli commentaries state that after the council, when the tasks for recitation and memorizing the texts were divided, Ānanda and his pupils were given the task to remember the Dīgha Nikāya.
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# Ānanda
## Accounts
### The First Council {#the_first_council}
#### Charges
During the same council, Ānanda was charged for an offense by members of the *saṅgha* for having enabled women to join the monastic order. Besides this, he was charged for having forgotten to request the Buddha to specify which offenses of monastic discipline could be disregarded; for having stepped on the Buddha\'s robe; for having allowed women to honor the Buddha\'s body after his death, which was not properly dressed, and during which his body was sullied by their tears; and for having failed to ask the Buddha to continue to live on. Ānanda did not acknowledge these as offenses, but he conceded to do a formal confession anyway, \"\... in faith of the opinion of the venerable elder monks\"`{{em dash}}`{=mediawiki}Ānanda wanted to prevent disruption in the *saṅgha*. With regard to having women ordained, Ānanda answered that he had done this with great effort, because Mahāpajāpati was the Buddha\'s foster-mother who had long provided for him. With regard to not requesting the Buddha to continue to live, many textual traditions have Ānanda respond by saying he was distracted by Māra, though one early Chinese text has Ānanda reply he did not request the Buddha to prolong his life, for fear that this would interfere with the next Buddha Maitreya\'s ministry.
According to the Pāli tradition, the charges were laid after Ānanda had become enlightened and done all the recitations; but the Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition has it that the charges were laid before Ānanda became enlightened and started the recitations. In this version, when Ānanda heard that he was banned from the council, he objected that he had not done anything that went against the teaching and discipline of the Buddha. Mahākassapa then listed seven charges to counter Ānanda\'s objection. The charges were similar to the five given in Pāli. Other textual traditions list slightly different charges, amounting to a combined total of eleven charges, some of which are only mentioned in one or two textual traditions. Considering that an enlightened disciple was seen to have overcome all faults, it seems more likely that the charges were laid before Ānanda\'s attainment than after.
Indologists von Hinüber and Jean Przyluski argue that the account of Ānanda being charged with offenses during the council indicate tensions between competing early Buddhist schools, i.e. schools that emphasized the discourses (*link=no*, *link=no*) and schools that emphasized monastic discipline. These differences have affected the scriptures of each tradition: e.g. the Pāli and Mahīśāsaka textual traditions portray a Mahākassapa that is more critical of Ānanda than that the Sarvāstivāda tradition depicts him, reflecting a preference for discipline above discourse on the part of the former traditions, and a preference for discourse for the latter. Another example is the recitations during the First Council. The Pāli texts state that Upāli, the person who was responsible for the recitation of the monastic discipline, recited `{{em|before}}`{=mediawiki} Ānanda does: again, monastic discipline above discourse. Analyzing six recensions of different textual traditions of the *Mahāparinibbāna Sutta* extensively, Bareau distinguished two layers in the text, an older and a newer one, the former belonging to the compilers that emphasized discourse, the latter to the ones that emphasized discipline; the former emphasizing the figure of Ānanda, the latter Mahākassapa. He further argued that the passage on Māra obstructing the Buddha was inserted in the fourth century BCE, and that Ānanda was blamed for Māra\'s doing by inserting the passage of Ānanda\'s forgetfulness in the third century BCE. The passage in which the Buddha was ill and reminded Ānanda to be his own refuge, on the other hand, Bareau regarded as very ancient, pre-dating the passages blaming Māra and Ānanda. In conclusion, Bareau, Przyluski and Horner argued that the offenses Ānanda were charged with were a later interpolation. Findly disagrees, however, because the account in the texts of monastic discipline fits in with the *Mahāparinibbāna Sutta* and with Ānanda\'s character as generally depicted in the texts.
#### Historicity
Tradition states that the First Council lasted for seven months. Scholars doubt, however, whether the entire canon was really recited during the First Council, because the early texts contain different accounts on important subjects such as meditation. It may be, though, that early versions were recited of what is now known as the *Vinaya-piṭaka* and *Sutta-piṭaka*. Nevertheless, many scholars, from the late 19th century onward, have considered the historicity of the First Council improbable. Some scholars, such as orientalists Louis de La Vallée-Poussin and D.P. Minayeff, thought there must have been assemblies after the Buddha\'s death, but considered only the main characters and some events before or after the First Council historical. Other scholars, such as Bareau and Indologist Hermann Oldenberg, considered it likely that the account of the First Council was written after the Second Council, and based on that of the Second, since there were not any major problems to solve after the Buddha\'s death, or any other need to organize the First Council. Much material in the accounts, and even more so in the more developed later accounts, deal with Ānanda as the unsullied intermediary who passes on the legitimate teaching of the Buddha. On the other hand, archaeologist Louis Finot, Indologist E. E. Obermiller and to some extent Indologist Nalinaksha Dutt thought the account of the First Council was authentic, because of the correspondences between the Pāli texts and the Sanskrit traditions. Indologist Richard Gombrich, following Bhikkhu Sujato and Bhikkhu Brahmali\'s arguments, states that \"it makes good sense to believe \... that large parts of the Pali Canon do preserve for us the *Buddha-vacana*, \'the Buddha\'s words\', transmitted to us via his disciple Ānanda and the First Council\".
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# Ānanda
## Accounts
### Role and character {#role_and_character}
Ānanda was recognized as one of the most important disciples of the Buddha. In the lists of the disciples given in the *Aṅguttara Nikāya*`{{refn |group=note |Page i. xiv.}}`{=mediawiki} and *Saṃyutta Nikāya*, each of the disciples is declared to be foremost in some quality. Ānanda is mentioned more often than any other disciple: he is named foremost in conduct, in attention to others, in power of memory, in erudition and in resoluteness. Ānanda was the subject of a sermon of praise delivered by the Buddha just before the Buddha\'s death, as described in the *Mahāparinibbāna Sutta*:`{{refn |group=note |[[Digha Nikāya|DN]] 16.}}`{=mediawiki} it is a sermon about a man who is kindly, unselfish, popular, and thoughtful toward others. In the texts he is depicted as compassionate in his relations with lay people, a compassion he learnt from the Buddha. The Buddha relays that both monastics and lay people were pleased to see Ānanda, and were pleased to hear him recite and teach the Buddha\'s teaching. Moreover, Ānanda was known for his organizational skills, assisting the Buddha with secretary-like duties. In many ways, Ānanda did not only serve the personal needs of the Buddha, but also the needs of the still young, growing institute of the *saṅgha*.
Moreover, because of his ability to remember the many teachings of the Buddha, he is described as foremost in \"having heard much\" (*link=no*, Sanskrit: `{{Transliteration|sa|bahuśruta}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{Lang-zh|p=Duowen Diyi}}`{=mediawiki}). Ānanda was known for his exceptional memory, which is essential in helping him to remember the Buddha\'s teachings. He also taught other disciples to memorize Buddhist doctrine. For these reasons, Ānanda became known as the \"Treasurer of the Dhamma\" (*link=no*, Sanskrit: `{{Transliteration|sa|Dharma-bhaṇḍāgārika}}`{=mediawiki}), *Dhamma* (Sanskrit: `{{Transliteration|sa|Dharma}}`{=mediawiki}) referring to the doctrine of the Buddha. Being the person who had accompanied the Buddha throughout a great part of his life, Ānanda was in many ways the living memory of the Buddha, without which the *saṅgha* would be much worse off. Besides his memory skills, Ānanda also stood out in that, as the Buddha\'s cousin, he dared to ask the Buddha direct questions. For example, after the death of Mahāvira and the depicted subsequent conflicts among the Jain community, Ānanda asked the Buddha how such problems could be prevented after the Buddha\'s death. However, Findly argues that Ānanda\'s duty to memorize the Buddha\'s teachings accurately and without distortion, was \"both a gift and a burden\". Ānanda was able to remember many discourses verbatim, but this also went hand-in-hand with a habit of not reflecting on those teachings, being afraid that reflection might distort the teachings as he heard them. At multiple occasions, Ānanda was warned by other disciples that he should spend less time on conversing to lay people, and more time on his own practice. Even though Ānanda regularly practiced meditation for long hours, he was less experienced in meditative concentration than other leading disciples. Thus, judgment of Ānanda\'s character depends on whether one judges his accomplishments as a monk or his accomplishments as an attendant, and person memorizing the discourses. left\|thumb \|East Javanese relief of Ānanda, depicted weeping \|alt=Monk in forest rubbing in his eye. \|upright=1.2 From a literary and didactic point of view, Ānanda often functioned as a kind of foil in the texts, being an unenlightened disciple attending to an enlightened Buddha. Because the run-of the-mill person could identify with Ānanda, the Buddha could through Ānanda convey his teachings to the mass easily. Ānanda\'s character was in many ways a contradiction to that of the Buddha: being unenlightened and someone who made mistakes. At the same time, however, he was completely devoted to service to the Buddha. The Buddha is depicted in the early texts as both a father and a teacher to Ānanda, stern but compassionate. Ānanda was very fond of and attached to the Buddha, willing to give his life for him. He mourned the deaths of both the Buddha and Sāriputta, with whom he enjoyed a close friendship: in both cases Ānanda was very shocked. Ānanda\'s faith in the Buddha, however, constituted more of a faith in a person, especially the Buddha\'s person, as opposed to faith in the Buddha\'s teaching. This is a pattern which comes back in the accounts which lead to the offenses Ānanda was charged with during the First Council. Moreover, Ānanda\'s weaknesses described in the texts were that he was sometimes slow-witted and lacked mindfulness, which became noticeable because of his role as attendant to the Buddha: this involved minor matters like deportment, but also more important matters, such as ordaining a man with no future as a pupil, or disturbing the Buddha at the wrong time. For example, one time Mahākassapa chastised Ānanda in strong words, criticizing the fact that Ānanda was travelling with a large following of young monks who appeared untrained and who had built up a bad reputation. In another episode described in a Sarvāstivāda text, Ānanda is the only disciple who was willing to teach psychic powers to Devadatta, who later would use these in an attempt to destroy the Buddha. According to a Mahīśāsaka text, however, when Devadatta had turned against the Buddha, Ānanda was not persuaded by him, and voted against him in a formal meeting. Ānanda\'s late spiritual growth is much discussed in Buddhist texts, and the general conclusion is that Ānanda was slower than other disciples due to his worldly attachments and his attachment to the person of the Buddha, both of which were rooted in his mediating work between the Buddha and the lay communities.
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# Ānanda
## Accounts
### Passing on the teaching {#passing_on_the_teaching}
After the Buddha\'s death, some sources say Ānanda stayed mostly in the West of India, in the area of Kosambī (*link=no*), where he taught most of his pupils. Other sources say he stayed in the monastery at Veḷuvana (*link=no*). Several pupils of Ānanda became well-known in their own right. According to post-canonical Sanskrit sources such as the Divyavadāna and the Aśokavadāna, before the Buddha\'s death, the Buddha confided to Ānanda that the latter\'s student Majjhantika (*link=no*) would travel to Udyāna, Kashmir, to bring the teaching of the Buddha there. Mahākassapa made a prediction that later would come true that another of Ānanda\'s future pupils, Sāṇavāsī (*link=no*), would make many gifts to the *saṅgha* at Mathurā, during a feast held from profits of successful business. After this event, Ānanda would successfully persuade Sāṇavāsī to become ordained and be his pupil. Ānanda later persuaded Sāṇavāsī by pointing out that the latter had now made many material gifts, but had not given \"the gift of the Dhamma\". When asked for explanation, Ānanda replied that Sāṇavāsī would give the gift of Dhamma by becoming ordained as a monk, which was reason enough for Sāṇavāsī to make the decision to get ordained.
### Death and relics {#death_and_relics}
thumb \|Partially recovered Indian bas-relief depicting the death of Ānanda. The traditional Buddhist accounts relate that he attained final Nirvana in mid-air above the river Rohīni, leaving relics for followers on both sides of the river.\|alt=Relief with monk meditating at the right, and on the left, half of a skeleton, a kneeling crowned figure and a second figure holding a parasol above the crowned figure \|upright=1.5
Though no Early Buddhist Text provides a date for Ānanda\'s death, according to the Chinese pilgrim monk Faxian (337`{{en dash}}`{=mediawiki}422 CE), Ānanda went on to live 120 years. Following the later timeline, however, Ānanda may have lived to 75`{{en dash}}`{=mediawiki}85 years. Buddhist studies scholar L. S. Cousins dated Ānanda\'s death twenty years after the Buddha\'s.
Ānanda was teaching till the end of his life. According to Mūlasarvāstivāda sources, Ānanda heard a young monk recite a verse incorrectly, and advised him. When the monk reported this to his teacher, the latter objected that \"Ānanda has grown old and his memory is impaired \...\" This prompted Ānanda to attain final Nirvana. He passed on the \"custody of the \[Buddha\'s\] doctrine\" to his pupil Sāṇavāsī and left for the river Ganges. However, according to Pāli sources, when Ānanda was about to die, he decided to spend his final moments in Vesālī instead, and traveled to the river Rohīni. The Mūlasarvāstivāda version expands and says that before reaching the river, he met with a seer called Majjhantika (following the prediction earlier) and five hundred of his followers, who converted to Buddhism. Some sources add that Ānanda passed the Buddha\'s message on to him. When Ānanda was crossing the river, he was followed by King Ajātasattu (*Ajātaśatrū*), who wanted to witness his death and was interested in his remains as relics. Ānanda had once promised Ajāsattu that he would let him know when he would die, and accordingly, Ānanda had informed him. On the other side of the river, however, a group of Licchavis from Vesālī awaited him for the same reason. In the Pāli, there were also two parties interested, but the two parties were the Sākiyan and the Koliyan clans instead. Ānanda realized that his death on either side of the river could anger one of the parties involved. Through a supernatural accomplishment, he therefore surged into the air to levitate and meditate in mid-air, making his body go up in fire, with his relics landing on both banks of the river, or in some versions of the account, splitting in four parts. In this way, Ānanda had pleased all the parties involved. In some other versions of the account, including the Mūlasarvāstivāda version, his death took place on a barge in the middle of the river, however, instead of in mid-air. The remains were divided in two, following the wishes of Ānanda.
Majjhantika later successfully carried out the mission following the Buddha\'s prediction. The latter\'s pupil Upagupta was described to be the teacher of King Aśoka (3rd century BCE). Together with four or five other pupils of Ānanda, Sāṇavāsī and Majjhantika formed the majority of the Second Council, with Majjhantika being Ānanda\'s last pupil. Post-canonical Pāli sources add that Sāṇavāsī had a leading role in the Third Buddhist Council as well. Although little is historically certain, Cousins thought it likely at least one of the leading figures on the Second Council was a pupil of Ānanda, as nearly all the textual traditions mention a connection with Ānanda.
Ajāsattu is said to have built a *stūpa* on top of the Ānanda\'s relics, at the river Rohīni, or according to some sources, the Ganges; the Licchavis had also built a *stūpa* at their side of the river. The Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang (602`{{en dash}}`{=mediawiki}64 CE) later visited *stūpas* on both sides of the river Rohīni. Faxian also reported having visited *stūpas* dedicated to Ānanda at the river Rohīni, but also in Mathurā. Moreover, according to the Mūlasarvāstivāda version of the Saṃyukta Āgama, King Aśoka visited and made the most lavish offerings he ever made to a *stūpa*: He explained to his ministers that he did this because \"\[t\]he body of the Tathāgata is the body of dharma(s), pure in nature. He \[Ānanda\] was able to retain it/them all; for this reason the offerings \[to him\] surpass \[all others\]\"`{{em dash}}`{=mediawiki}*body of dharma* here referred to the Buddha\'s teachings as a whole.
In Early Buddhist Texts, Ānanda had reached final Nirvana and would no longer be reborn. But, in contrast with the early texts, according to the Mahāyāna Lotus Sūtra, Ānanda would be born as a Buddha in the future. He would accomplish this slower than the present Buddha, Gotama Buddha, had accomplished this, because Ānanda aspired to becoming a Buddha by applying \"great learning\". Because of this long trajectory and great efforts, however, his enlightenment would be extraordinary and with great splendor.
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# Ānanda
## Legacy
Ānanda is depicted as an eloquent speaker, who often taught about the self and about meditation. There are numerous Buddhist texts attributed to Ānanda, including the *Atthakanāgara Sutta*, about meditation methods to attain Nirvana; a version of the *Bhaddekaratta Sutta* (*link=no*, `{{zh |p=shanye}}`{=mediawiki}), about living in the present moment; the *Sekha Sutta*, about the higher training of a disciple of the Buddha; the *Subha Suttanta*, about the practices the Buddha inspired others to follow. In the *Gopaka-Mogallānasutta*, a conversation took place between Ānanda, the brahmin Gopaka-Mogallāna and the minister Vassakara, the latter being the highest official of the Magadha region. During this conversation, which occurred shortly after the Buddha\'s death, Vassakara asked whether it was decided yet who would succeed the Buddha. Ānanda replied that no such successor had been appointed, but that the Buddhist community took the Buddha\'s teaching and discipline as a refuge instead. Furthermore, the *saṅgha* did not have the Buddha as a master anymore, but they would honor those monks who were virtuous and trustworthy. Besides these *suttas*, a section of the *Theragāthā* is attributed to Ānanda. Even in the texts attributed to the Buddha himself, Ānanda is sometimes depicted giving a name to a particular text, or suggesting a simile to the Buddha to use in his teachings.
In East Asian Buddhism, Ānanda is considered one of the ten principal disciples. In many Indian Sanskrit and East Asian texts, Ānanda is considered the second patriarch of the lineage which transmitted the teaching of the Buddha, with Mahākassapa being the first and Majjhantika or Saṇavāsī being the third. There is an account dating back from the Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda textual traditions which states that before Mahākassapa died, he bestowed the Buddha\'s teaching on Ānanda as a formal passing on of authority, telling Ānanda to pass the teaching on to Ānanda\'s pupil Saṇavāsī. Later, just before Ānanda died, he did as Mahākassapa had told him to. Buddhist studies scholars Akira Hirakawa and Bibhuti Baruah have expressed skepticism about the teacher`{{en dash}}`{=mediawiki}student relationship between Mahākassapa and Ānanda, arguing that there was discord between the two, as indicated in the early texts. Regardless, it is clear from the texts that a relationship of transmission of teachings is meant, as opposed to an *upajjhāya*`{{en dash}}`{=mediawiki}student relationship in a lineage of ordination: no source indicates Mahākassapa was Ānanda\'s *upajjhāya*. In Mahāyāna iconography, Ānanda is often depicted flanking the Buddha at the right side, together with Mahākassapa at the left. In Theravāda iconography, however, Ānanda is usually not depicted in this manner, and the motif of transmission of the Dhamma through a list of patriarchs is not found in Pāli sources. thumb \|upright \|8th`{{en dash}}`{=mediawiki}9th century Chinese painting, depicting two monks dressed in robes made of pieces. Pāli tradition has it that Ānanda designed the Buddhist monk\'s robe, based on the structure of rice fields.\|alt=Painting with two monks, one with Central Asian traits, holding his index finger against his thumb; one with East Asian traits, holding his hands folded in front.
Because Ānanda was instrumental in founding the *bhikkhunī* community, he has been honored by *bhikkhunīs* for this throughout Buddhist history. The earliest traces of this can be found in the writings of Faxian and Xuan Zang, who reported that *bhikkhunīs* made offerings to a *stūpa* in Ānanda\'s honor during celebrations and observance days. On a similar note, in 5th`{{en dash}}`{=mediawiki}6th-century China and 10th-century Japan, Buddhist texts were composed recommending women to uphold the semi-monastic eight precepts in honor and gratitude of Ānanda. In Japan, this was done through the format of a penance ritual called *keka* (`{{lang-zh|悔過}}`{=mediawiki}). By the 13th century, in Japan a cult-like interest for Ānanda had developed in a number of convents, in which images and *stūpas* were used and ceremonies were held in his honor. Presently, opinion among scholars is divided as to whether Ānanda\'s cult among *bhikkhunīs* was an expression of their dependence on male monastic tradition, or the opposite, an expression of their legitimacy and independence.
Pāli Vinaya texts attribute the design of the Buddhist monk\'s robe to Ānanda. As Buddhism prospered, more laypeople started to donate expensive cloth for robes, which put the monks at risk for theft. To decrease its commercial value, monks therefore cut up the cloth offered, before they sew a robe from it. The Buddha asked Ānanda to think of a model for a Buddhist robe, made from small pieces of cloth. Ānanda designed a standard robe model, based on the rice fields of Magadha, which were divided in sections by banks of earth. Another tradition that is connected to Ānanda is *paritta* recitation. Theravāda Buddhists explain that the custom of sprinkling water during *paritta* chanting originates in Ānanda\'s visit to Vesālī, when he recited the *Ratana Sutta* and sprinkled water from his alms bowl. A third tradition sometimes attributed to Ānanda is the use of Bodhi trees in Buddhism. It is described in the text *Kāliṅgabodhi Jātaka* that Ānanda planted a Bodhi tree as a symbol of the Buddha\'s enlightenment, to give people the chance to pay their respects to the Buddha. This tree and shrine came to be known as the Ānanda Bodhi Tree, said to have grown from a seed from the original Bodhi Tree under which the Buddha is depicted to have attained enlightenment. Many of this type of Bodhi Tree shrines in Southeast Asia were erected following this example. Presently, the Ānanda Bodhi Tree is sometimes identified with a tree at the ruins of Jetavana, Sāvatthi, based on the records of Faxian.
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# Ānanda
## In art {#in_art}
Between 1856 and 1858 Richard Wagner wrote a draft for an opera libretto based on the legend about Ānanda and the low-caste girl Prakṛti. He left only a fragmentary prose sketch of a work to be called *Die Sieger*, but the topic inspired his later opera *Parsifal*. Furthermore, the draft was used by composer Jonathan Harvey in his 2007 opera Wagner Dream. In Wagner\'s version of the legend, which he based on orientalist Eugène Burnouf\'s translations, the magical spell of Prakṛti\'s mother does not work on Ānanda, and Prakṛti turns to the Buddha to explain her desires for Ānanda. The Buddha replies that a union between Prakṛti and Ānanda is possible, but Prakṛti must agree to the Buddha\'s conditions. Prakṛti agrees, and it is revealed that the Buddha means something else than she does: he asks Prakṛti to ordain as a *bhikkhunī*, and live the celibate life as a kind of sister to Ānanda. At first, Prakṛti weeps in dismay, but after the Buddha explains that her current situation is a result of karma from her previous life, she understands and rejoices in the life of a *bhikkhunī*. Apart from the spiritual themes, Wagner also addresses the faults of the caste system by having the Buddha criticize it.
Drawing from Schopenhauer\'s philosophy, Wagner contrasts desire-driven salvation and true spiritual salvation: by seeking deliverance through the person she loves, Prakṛti only affirms her *will to live* (*italic=yes*), which is blocking her from attaining deliverance. By being ordained as a *bhikkhunī* she strives for her spiritual salvation instead. Thus, the early Buddhist account of Mahāpajāpati\'s ordination is replaced by that of Prakṛti. According to Wagner, by allowing Prakṛti to become ordained, the Buddha also completes his own aim in life: \"\[H\]e regards his existence in the world, whose aim was to benefit all beings, as completed, since he had become able to offer deliverance`{{em dash}}`{=mediawiki}without mediation`{{em dash}}`{=mediawiki}also to woman.\"
The same legend of Ānanda and Prakṛti was made into a short prose play by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, called *Chandalika*. *Chandalika* deals with the themes of spiritual conflict, caste and social equality, and contains a strong critique of Indian society. Just like in the traditional account, Prakṛti falls in love with Ānanda, after he gives her self-esteem by accepting a gift of water from her. Prakṛti\'s mother casts a spell to enchant Ānanda. In Tagore\'s play, however, Prakṛti later regrets what she has done and has the spell revoked
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# Anaxarchus
**Anaxarchus** (`{{IPAc-en|ˌ|æ|n|ə|ɡ|ˈ|z|ɑr|k|ə|s}}`{=mediawiki}; *Ἀνάξαρχος*; c. 380 -- c. 320 BC) was a Greek philosopher of the school of Democritus. Together with Pyrrho, he accompanied Alexander the Great into Asia. The reports of his philosophical views suggest that he was a forerunner of the Greek skeptics.
## Life
Anaxarchus was born at Abdera in Thrace. He was the companion and friend of Alexander the Great in his Asiatic campaigns. His relationship with Alexander, however, was ambiguous, owing to contradictory sources. Some paint Anarxchus as a flatterer, among them Plutarch, who tells a story that at Bactra, in 327 BC in a debate with Callisthenes, Anaxarchus advised all to worship Alexander as a god even during his lifetime. In contrast, others paint Anaxarchus as scathingly ironic towards the monarch. According to Diogenes Laertius, in response to Alexander\'s claim to have been the son of Zeus-Ammon, Anaxarchus pointed to his bleeding wound and remarked, \"See the blood of a mortal, not ichor, such as flows from the veins of the immortal gods.\"
When Alexander was trying to show that he was divine so that the Greeks would perform proskynesis to him, Anaxarchus said that Alexander could \"more justly be considered a god than Dionysus or Heracles\" (Arrian, 104)
Diogenes Laertius says that Anaxarchus earned the enmity of Nicocreon, the tyrant of Cyprus, with an inappropriate joke against tyrants in a banquet in Tyre in 331 BC. Later, when Anaxarchus was forced to land in Cyprus against his will, Nicocreon ordered him to be pounded to death in a mortar. The philosopher endured this torture with fortitude, taunting the king with, \"just pound the bag of Anaxarchus, you do not pound Anaxarchus\". When Nicocreon threatened to cut out his tongue, Anaxarchus himself bit it out and spat it in his face.
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# Anaxarchus
## Philosophy
Very little is known about his philosophical views. It is thought that he represents a link between the atomism of Democritus, and the skepticism of his own apprentice Pyrrho. He also shares ethical traits with the Cynic and Cyrenaic schools.
Anaxarchus is said to have studied under Diogenes of Smyrna, who in turn studied under Metrodorus of Chios, who used to declare that he knew nothing, not even the fact that he knew nothing. According to Sextus Empiricus, Anaxarchus \"compared existing things to a scene-painting and supposed them to resemble the impressions experienced in sleep or madness.\" It was under the influence of Anaxarchus that Pyrrho is said to have adopted \"a most noble philosophy, . . . taking the form of agnosticism and suspension of judgement.\" Anaxarchus is said to have praised Pyrrho\'s \"indifference and sang-froid.\" He is said to have possessed \"fortitude and contentment in life,\" which earned him the epithet *eudaimonikos* (\"fortunate\").
His skepticism seems to have been pragmatical, postulating that against the uncertainty of existence, the only viable stance is to pursue happiness or *eudaimonia*, for which it is necessary to cultivate indifference or *adiaphora*. According to him, the effort to differentiate truth from falseness through the senses is both useless and detrimental to happiness.
He wrote a work named *About the Monarchs*. In it, he spouses that knowledge is useless without the ability to know when to speak and what to say in every occasion.
Plutarch reports that he told Alexander the Great that there was an infinite number of worlds, causing the latter to become dejected because he had not yet conquered even one
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# Ancyra (planthopper)
***Ancyra*** is a small genus of planthoppers of the family Eurybrachidae and the only genus in the tribe **Ancyrini**. Species in this genus occur in southeast Asia.`{{r|flow}}`{=mediawiki}
## Description
Members of the genus are well known for having a pair of prolonged filaments at the tips of the forewings that arise near a pair of small glossy spots; this creates the impression of a pair of antennae, with corresponding \"eyes\" (a remarkable case of automimicry).`{{r|wickler1968}}`{=mediawiki} The \"false head\" effect is further reinforced by the bugs\' habit of walking backwards when it detects movement nearby, so as to misdirect predators to strike at its rear, rather than at its actual head.
## Taxonomy
The genus *Ancyra* was first named in 1845 by Scottish zoologist Adam White.`{{r|white1845|flow}}`{=mediawiki} It is the only genus of the tribe Ancyrini (subfamily Platybrachinae, family Eurybrachidae).`{{r|flowtribe}}`{=mediawiki} The type species is *Ancyra appendiculata*, the species name meaning *bearing appendages*
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# Anaximenes of Lampsacus
**Anaximenes of Lampsacus** (`{{IPAc-en|ˌ|æ|n|æ|k|ˈ|s|ɪ|m|ə|ˌ|n|iː|z}}`{=mediawiki}; *Ἀναξιμένης ὁ Λαμψακηνός*; c. 380`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}320 BC) was a Greek rhetorician and historian. He was one of the teachers of Alexander the Great and accompanied him on his campaigns.
## Family
His father was named Aristocles (*Ἀριστοκλῆς*). His nephew (son of his sister), was also named Anaximenes and was a historian.
## Rhetorical works {#rhetorical_works}
Anaximenes was a pupil of Diogenes the Cynic and Zoilus and, like his teacher, wrote a work on Homer. As a rhetorician, he was a determined opponent of Isocrates and his school. He is generally regarded as the author of the *Rhetoric to Alexander*, an *Art of Rhetoric* included in the traditional corpus of Aristotle\'s works. Quintilian seems to refer to this work under Anaximenes\' name in *Institutio Oratoria* [3.4.9](https://web.archive.org/web/20110721082137/http://honeyl.public.iastate.edu/quintilian/3/chapter4.html#9), as the Italian Renaissance philologist Piero Vettori first recognized. This attribution has, however, been disputed by some scholars.
The [hypothesis](https://books.google.com/books?id=UdyFQ4a9HOMC&pg=PR58) to Isocrates\' *Helen* mentions that Anaximenes, too, had written a *Helen*, \"though it is more a defense speech (*apologia*) than an encomium,\" and concludes that he was \"the man who has written about Helen\" to whom Isocrates refers (Isoc. *Helen* 14). Jebb entertained the possibility that this work survives in the form of the *Encomium of Helen* ascribed to Gorgias: \"It appears not improbable that Anaximenes may have been the real author of the work ascribed to Gorgias.\"
According to Pausanias ([6.18.6](https://books.google.com/books?id=hsLNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA310)), Anaximenes was \"the first who practised the art of speaking extemporaneously.\" He also worked as a logographer, having written the speech prosecuting Phryne according to Diodorus Periegetes (quoted by Athenaeus [XIII.591e](http://www.attalus.org/old/athenaeus13c.html#591)). The \"ethical\" fragments preserved in Stobaeus\' *Florilegium* may represent \"some philosophical book.\"
According to Suda, no rhetor before Anaximenes had invented improvised speeches.
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# Anaximenes of Lampsacus
## Historical works {#historical_works}
Anaximenes wrote a history of Greece in twelve books, stretching from the gods\' origins to the death of Epaminondas at the Battle of Mantinea (*Hellenica*, *Πρῶται ἱστορίαι*), and a history of Philip of Macedon (*Philippica*). He was a favorite of Alexander the Great, whom he accompanied in his Persian campaigns, and wrote a third historical work on Alexander (however, Pausanias [6.18.6](https://books.google.com/books?id=hsLNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA310) expresses doubt about his authorship of an epic poem on Alexander). He was one of the eight exemplary historiographers included in the Alexandrian canon.
Didymus reports that the work transmitted as speech 11 of Demosthenes (*Against the Letter of Philip*) could be found in almost identical form in Book 7 of Anaximenes\' *Philippica*, and many scholars regard the work as a historiographic composition by Anaximenes. The *Letter of Philip* (speech 12) to which speech 11 seems to respond may also be by Anaximenes, or it may be an authentic letter by Philip, perhaps written with the aid of his advisers. The more ambitious theory of Wilhelm Nitsche, which assigned to Anaximenes a larger part of the Demosthenic corpus (speeches 10-13 and 25, letters 1--4, proems), can be rejected.
Anaximenes was hostile to Theopompus, whom he sought to discredit with a libelous parody, *Trikaranos*, published in Theopompus\' style and under his name, attacking Athens, Sparta, and Thebes. Pausanias wrote: \"*He imitated the style of Theopompus with perfect accuracy, inscribed his name upon the book and sent it round to the cities. Though Anaximenes was the author of the treatise, hatred of Theopompus grew throughout the length of Greece.*\"
Plutarch criticizes Anaximenes, together with Theopompus and Ephorus, for the \"rhetorical effects and grand periods\" these historians implausibly gave to men in the midst of urgent battlefield circumstances (*Praecepta gerendae reipublicae* \[<https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Praecepta_gerendae_reipublicae>\*.html#T803b 803b\]).
## Saving Lampsacus {#saving_lampsacus}
The people of Lampsacus were pro-Persian, or were suspected of doing so and Alexander was furiously angry, and threatened to do them massive harm. They sent Anaximenes to intercede for them. Alexander knew why he had come, and swore by the gods that he would do the opposite of what he would ask, so Anaximenes said, \'Please do this for me, your majesty: enslave the women and children of Lampsacus, burn their temples, and raze the city to the ground.\' Alexander had no way round this clever trick, and since he was bound by his oath he reluctantly pardoned the people of Lampsacus.
## Statue at Olympia {#statue_at_olympia}
The people of Lampsacus dedicated a statue of him at Olympia, Greece.
## Editions and translations {#editions_and_translations}
- *Art of Rhetoric*
- edited by Immanuel Bekker, Oxford 1837 ([online](https://books.google.com/books?id=gtM9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA169))
- *[Anaximenis ars rhetorica](https://books.google.com/books?id=5ugDAAAAQAAJ)*, L. Spengel (ed.), Leipzig, Vergsbureau, 1847.
- *Rhetores Graeci*, L. Spengel (ed.), Lipsiae, sumptibus et typis B. G. Teubneri, 1853, [vol. 1 pp. 169-242](https://archive.org/details/rhetoresgraeci00spen).
- edited by Manfred Fuhrmann, Bibliotheca Teubneriana, Leipzig, 1966, 2nd ed. 2000, `{{ISBN|3-598-71983-3}}`{=mediawiki}
- edited by Pierre Chiron, Collection Budé, with French translation, Paris, 2002, `{{ISBN|2-251-00498-X}}`{=mediawiki}
- anonymous translation, London, 1686 ([online](https://books.google.com/books?id=r_6bkR_WpdQC&pg=PA213))
- translated by E.S. Forster, Oxford, 1924 ([online](https://archive.org/details/worksofaristotle11arisuoft), beginning on [p. 231](https://archive.org/stream/worksofaristotle11arisuoft#page/n229/mode/2up))
- Fragments
- Karl Müller, appendix to 1846 Didot edition of Arrian, *Anabasis et Indica* ([online](https://books.google.com/books?id=LeYGAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA33))
- Felix Jacoby, *Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker*, no. 72, with commentary in German
- Ludwig Radermacher, *Artium Scriptores*, Vienna, 1951, pp
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# Andocides
**Andocides** (`{{IPAc-en|ˌ|æ|n|ˈ|d|ɒ|s|ɪ|d|iː|z}}`{=mediawiki}; *Ἀνδοκίδης*, *Andokides*; `{{citation needed span |text={{Circa|440|370 BC}} |date=February 2024}}`{=mediawiki}) was a logographer (speech writer) in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the \"Alexandrian Canon\" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace in the third century BC.
## Life
Andocides was the son of Leogoras, and was born in Athens around 440 BC. He belonged to the ancient Eupatrid family of the Kerykes, who traced their lineage up to Odysseus and the god Hermes.
During his youth, Andocides seems to have been employed on various occasions as ambassador to Thessaly, Macedonia, Molossia, Thesprotia, Italy, and Sicily. Although he was frequently attacked for his political opinions, he maintained his ground until, in 415 BC, he became involved in the charge brought against Alcibiades for having profaned the mysteries and mutilated the Herms on the eve of the departure of the Athenian expedition against Sicily. It appeared particularly likely that Andocides was an accomplice in the latter of these crimes, which was believed to be a preliminary step towards overthrowing the democratic constitution, since the Herm standing close to his house in the phyle Aegeis was among the very few which had not been injured.
Andocides was accordingly seized and thrown into prison, but after some time recovered his freedom by a promise that he would become an informer and reveal the names of the real perpetrators of the crime; and on the suggestion of one Charmides or Timaeus, he mentioned four, all of whom were put to death. He is also said to have denounced his own father on the charge of profaning the mysteries, but to have rescued him again in the hour of danger - a charge he strenuously denied. But as Andocides was unable to clear himself from the charge, he was deprived of his rights as a citizen, and left Athens.
Andocides traveled about in various parts of Greece, and was chiefly engaged in commercial enterprise and in forming connections with powerful people. The means he employed to gain the friendship of powerful men were sometimes of the most disreputable kind; among which a service he rendered to a prince in Cyprus is mentioned in particular.
In 411 BC, Andocides returned to Athens on the establishment of the oligarchic government of the Four Hundred, hoping that a certain service he had rendered the Athenian ships at Samos would secure him a welcome reception. But no sooner were the oligarchs informed of the return of Andocides, than their leader Peisander had him seized, and accused him of having supported the party opposed to them at Samos. During his trial, Andocides, who perceived the exasperation prevailing against him, leaped to the altar which stood in the court, and there assumed the attitude of a supplicant. This saved his life, but he was imprisoned. Soon afterwards, however, he was set free, or escaped from prison.
Andocides then went to Cyprus, where for a time he enjoyed the friendship of Evagoras; but, by some circumstance or other, he exasperated his friend, and was consigned to prison. Here again he escaped, and after the restoration of democracy in Athens and the abolition of the Four Hundred, he ventured once more to return to Athens; but as he was still suffering under a sentence of civil disenfranchisement, he endeavored by means of bribes to persuade the prytaneis to allow him to attend the assembly of the people. The latter, however, expelled him from the city. It was on this occasion, in 411 BC, that Andocides delivered the speech still extant \"On his return\", on which he petitioned for permission to reside at Athens, but in vain. In his third exile, Andocides went to reside in Elis, and during the time of his absence from his native city, his house there was occupied by Cleophon, the leading demagogue.
Andocides remained in exile until after the overthrow of the tyranny of the Thirty by Thrasybulus, when the general amnesty then proclaimed made him hope that its benefit would be extended to him also. He himself says that he returned to Athens from Cyprus, where he claimed to have great influence and considerable property. Because of the general amnesty, he was allowed to remain at Athens, enjoyed peace for the next three years, and soon recovered an influential position. According to Lysias, it was scarcely ten days after his return that he brought an accusation against Archippus or Aristippus, which, however, he dropped on receiving a sum of money. During this period Andocides became a member of the boule, in which he appears to have possessed a great influence, as well as in the popular assembly. He was gymnasiarch at the Hephaestaea, was sent as architheorus to the Isthmian Games and Olympic Games, and was even entrusted with the office of keeper of the sacred treasury.
But in 400 BC, Callias, supported by Cephisius, Agyrrhius, Meletus, and Epichares, urged the necessity of preventing Andocides from attending the assembly, as he had never been formally freed from the civil disenfranchisement. Callias II also charged him with violating the laws respecting the temple at Eleusis. The orator pleaded his case in the oration still extant \"on the Mysteries\" (περὶ τῶν μυστηρίων), in which he argued that he had not been involved in the profanation of the mysteries or the mutilation of the herms, that he had not violated the laws of the temple at Eleusis, that anyway he had received his citizenship back as a result of the amnesty, and that Callias was really motivated by a private dispute with Andocides over inheritance. He was acquitted. After this, he again enjoyed peace until 394 BC, when he was sent as ambassador to Sparta regarding the peace to be concluded in consequence of Conon\'s victory off Cnidus. On his return, he was accused of illegal conduct during his embassy. The speech \"On the peace with the Lacedaemonians\" (περὶ τῆς πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους εἰρήνης), which is still extant, refers to this affair. It was delivered in 393 BC (though some scholars place it in 391 BC). Andocides was found guilty, and sent into exile for the fourth time. He never returned afterwards, and seems to have died soon after this blow.
Andocides appears to have fathered no children, since he is described at the age of 70 as being childless, although the scholiast on Aristophanes mentions Antiphon as a son of Andocides. The large fortune which he had inherited from his father, or acquired in his commercial undertakings, was greatly diminished in the latter years of his life.
## Oratory
As an orator, Andocides does not appear to have been held in very high esteem by the ancients, as he is seldom mentioned, though Valerius Theon is said to have written a commentary on his orations. We do not hear of his having been trained in any of the sophistical schools of the time, and he had probably developed his talents in the practical school of the popular assembly. Hence his orations have no mannerism in them, and are really, as Plutarch says, simple and free from all rhetorical pomp and ornament.
Sometimes, however, his style is diffuse, and becomes tedious and obscure. The best among his orations is that \"on the Mysteries\"; but, for the history of the time, all are of the highest importance.
Besides the three orations already mentioned, which are undoubtedly genuine, there is a fourth against Alcibiades (κατὰ Ἀλκιβιάδου), said to have been delivered by Andocides during the ostracism of 415 BC; but it is probably spurious, though it appears to contain genuine historical matter. Some scholars ascribed it to Phaeax, who took part in the ostracism, according to Plutarch. But it is more likely that it is a rhetorical exercise from the early fourth century BC, since formal speeches were not delivered during ostracisms and the accusation or defence of Alcibiades was a standing rhetorical theme. Besides these four orations we possess only a few fragments and some very vague allusions to other orations.
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# Andocides
## List of extant speeches {#list_of_extant_speeches}
### [On the Mysteries](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Andoc.+1+1) (*Περὶ τῶν μυστηρίων* \"*De Mysteriis*\"). {#on_the_mysteries_de_mysteriis.}
Andocides made the speech \"On the Mysteries\" as a defense against the accusations made against him by Athens for attending the Eleusinian Mysteries without permission, as he was prohibited under Isotimides\' order. The case\'s prosecutors had insisted that Andocides be put to death. His attendance at the Eleusinian Mysteries in Eleusis around 400 BCE was the main accusation made against him. Additionally, he was charged with unlawfully placing an olive branch on the altar of the Eleusinium at Athens during the Mysteries.
The speech can be split into two parts. In the first, Andocides asserted that the decree of Isotimides had no power to prevent him from attending the Eleusinian Mysteries because he was innocent of impiety and had not confessed to it. He would go on to declare that because of alterations made to the law in 403 BCE, the decree altogether was no longer legitimate.
In the second part of the speech, he would move on to claim that his prosecutors, namely Cephisius, Meletus, Epichares and Agyrrhius, were not legitimate by making allegations against them. Andocides asserted that Cephisius, Meletus, and Epichares had also committed crimes prior to the legal revisions, exposing their hypocrisy in bringing charges against him since they would also be at risk of being prosecuted. Andocides asserts that Agyrrhius is ineligible to prosecute them for their private conflicts.
This speech was successful in persuading the jury, as Andocides was sentenced to be innocent. Gagarin and MacDowell commented on the oration, saying that while the speech itself is rather rough on its wording, it is a genuine speech of Andocides fighting for his life and was "sufficiently clear and logical".
### [On His Return](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Andoc.+2+1) (*Περὶ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ καθόδου* \"*De Reditu*\"). {#on_his_return_de_reditu.}
"On His Return" was a speech made by Andocides in an attempt to be brought back to Athen after being exiled from the city-state in 415 BCE for impious acts. Despite commonly being considered as the second work in Andocides' orations, "On His Return" precedes \"On the Mysteries" in date. Andocides tries to return to the city-state in 411 BCE. To ensure his return would be welcomed, he had obtained some Macedonian timber and sold them to the Athenian fleet stationed at Samos. However, in an interesting turn of events, Andocides' goodwill would turn against him. The Four Hundred, an oligarchy, had just come into reign from a coup in 411 BCE, they were faced with objections from the sailors at Samos, who were mostly democratic. As a result, Andocides was imprisoned by Perisander, the leader of the Four Hundred.
"On His Return" was made after the downfall of the Four Hundred, with Andocides appealing to seek forgiveness and be reaccepted into Athenian society. Experts have distinctively noted that this oration has a tone different from "On The Mysteries", in which Andocides was more prone to admit his faults and put himself at a lower light. Saying that "I stood disgraced in the eyes of the gods" and addressing his crime as "such a piece of madness". However, his efforts were to no avail, as he only was readmitted into the Athenian society upon "On The Mysteries".
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# Andocides
## List of extant speeches {#list_of_extant_speeches}
### [On the Peace with Sparta](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Andoc.+3+1) (*Περὶ τῆς πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους εἰρήνης* \"*De Pace*\"). {#on_the_peace_with_sparta_de_pace.}
"On the Peace with Sparta" was given for advocating the acceptance of the terms of peace offered by Sparta during the Corinthian War between Sparta and a coalition consisting of the city-states Athens, Boeotia, Corinth and Argos. Andocides was selected as one of the four delegates that represented Athens in the negotiation of peace between them and Sparta. The delegation were given the authority to conclude the treaty in Sparta, Considering that Andocides was just reaccepted into Athens by "On The Mysteries" in 403 BCE. The delegation shows that Andocides had gained considerable popularity among the Athenians within eight years upon his return. Still, with the authority given, the team of delegates decided to bring the terms back to Athens for approval. The speech gives the historical context behind the offer of truce, and gives a list of arguments for the acceptance of Sparta\'s terms for peace. The terms that were given were closely related to the Spartan victory in the Peloponnesian War, after which rather unfair terms had been imposed on the Athenians by Sparta for peace. They include:
1. Athens would destroy Athenian town walls
2. Athens would give up the Delian League
3. Athens would shrink the Athenian navy except a mere twelve ships
4. Athens would Install the Thirty, an oppressive oligarchic regime
The peace terms offered by Sparta were mostly responses to the terms listed above, they include:
1. Athens would be allowed to rebuild their town walls
2. Athens would be able to expand their navy and control three islands at the north of the Aegean sea
3. Greeks cities would be independent, except those in Asia, which would be under Persian control.
In "On the Peace with Sparta", Andocides argues that such terms were satisfactory for the Athenian side, claiming that "it is better to make peace on fair terms than to continue fighting". However, the speech would fail to convince the Athenians, partly because of Andocides' aristocratic origins and oligarchic political stance. Andocides would flee from Athens and be exiled again for allegedly accepting bribes and making false reports. There is no information on his life after the exile.
Still, Gagarin and MacDowell commented that Andocides speaks like an professional orator in this speech, this seems to imply that he has received extensive training and gained considerable experience on public speaking.
### [Against Alcibiades](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Andoc.+4+1) (*Κατὰ Ἀλκιβιάδου* \"*Contra Alcibiadem*\")*.* {#against_alcibiades_contra_alcibiadem.}
This oration criticises Alcibiades for an ostracism which he and the speaker were in danger of falling victim to. An ostracism was a method of banishing a citizen for a decade. The oration claims that Alcibiades bought a female slave from one of the captives after the fall of Melos.
The speaker bashes Alcibiades for his questionable morals and acts, as shown in he recounting Alcibiades' actions during the Olympic games in 416 BCE, " Alcibiades will not endure it (defeat in Olympia) even at the hands of his fellow-citizens" and that "he does not treat his own fellow Athenians as his equals, but robs them, strikes them, throws them into prison, and extorts money from them".
However, this speech fails to meet its goal of ostracizing Alcibiades, as followers of him and Nicas rallied support for the two and instead urged people to vote against Hyperbolus, a less politically significant figure. This strategy is successful as Hyperbolus was banished instead of the two. This would mark the fall of the ostracism system, as it was controversial among the public that it could be manipulated in such a way, the system would be abandoned soon after this case.
Although attributed to Andocides, it has been widely agreed upon that Andocides was not the one who made this speech. For the reason that the author of the speech lacks the correct understanding of the procedures of an ostracism and Athenian politics in general, the style of the speech was also significantly different than that of Andocides. One popular theory of the authorship of the speech was that it was written by Phaeax, another orator in Athens at the time
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# An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
***An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding*** is a book by the Scottish empiricist philosopher David Hume, published in English in 1748 under the title *Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding* until a 1757 edition came up with the now-familiar name. It was a revision of an earlier effort, Hume\'s *A Treatise of Human Nature*, published anonymously in London in 1739--40. Hume was disappointed with the reception of the *Treatise*, which \"fell dead-born from the press,\" as he put it, and so tried again to disseminate his more developed ideas to the public by writing a shorter and more polemical work.
The end product of his labours was the *Enquiry*. The *Enquiry* dispensed with much of the material from the *Treatise*, in favor of clarifying and emphasizing its most important aspects. For example, Hume\'s views on personal identity do not appear. However, more vital propositions, such as Hume\'s argument for the role of habit in a theory of knowledge, are retained.
This book has proven highly influential, both in the years that would immediately follow and today. Immanuel Kant points to it as the book which woke him from his self-described \"dogmatic slumber.\" The *Enquiry* is widely regarded as a classic in modern philosophical literature.
## Content
The argument of the *Enquiry* proceeds by a series of incremental steps, separated into chapters which logically succeed one another. After expounding his epistemology, Hume explains how to apply his principles to specific topics.
### 1. Of the different species of philosophy {#of_the_different_species_of_philosophy}
In the first section of the Enquiry, Hume provides a rough introduction to philosophy as a whole. For Hume, philosophy can be split into two general parts: natural philosophy and the philosophy of human nature (or, as he calls it, \"moral philosophy\"). The latter investigates both actions and thoughts. He emphasizes in this section, by way of warning, that philosophers with nuanced thoughts will likely be cast aside in favor of those whose conclusions more intuitively match popular opinion. However, he insists, precision helps art and craft of all kinds, including the craft of philosophy.
### 2. Of the origin of ideas {#of_the_origin_of_ideas}
Next, Hume discusses the distinction between impressions and ideas. By \"impressions\", he means sensations, while by \"ideas\", he means memories and imaginings. According to Hume, the difference between the two is that ideas are less *vivacious* than impressions. For example, the idea of the taste of an orange is far inferior to the impression (or sensation) of actually eating one. Writing within the tradition of empiricism, he argues that impressions are the source of all ideas.
Hume accepts that ideas may be either the product of mere sensation or of the imagination working in conjunction with sensation. According to Hume, the creative faculty makes use of (at least) four mental operations that produce imaginings out of sense-impressions. These operations are *compounding* (or the addition of one idea onto another, such as a horn on a horse to create a unicorn); *transposing* (or the substitution of one part of a thing with the part from another, such as with the body of a man upon a horse to make a centaur); *augmenting* (as with the case of a giant, whose size has been augmented); and *diminishing* (as with Lilliputians, whose size has been diminished). (Hume 1974:317) In a later chapter, he also mentions the operations of *mixing*, *separating*, and *dividing*. (Hume 1974:340)
However, Hume admits that there is one objection to his account: the problem of *\"The Missing Shade of Blue\"*. In this thought-experiment, he asks us to imagine a man who has experienced every shade of blue except for one (see Fig. 1). He predicts that this man will be able to divine the color of this particular shade of blue, despite the fact that he has never experienced it. This seems to pose a serious problem for the empirical account, though Hume brushes it aside as an exceptional case by stating that one may experience a novel idea that itself is derived from combinations of previous impressions. (Hume 1974:319)
### 3. Of the association of ideas {#of_the_association_of_ideas}
In this chapter, Hume discusses how thoughts tend to come in sequences, as in trains of thought. He explains that there are at least three kinds of associations between ideas: *resemblance*, *contiguity* in space-time, and *cause-and-effect*. He argues that there must be some *universal principle* that must account for the various sorts of connections that exist between ideas. However, he does not immediately show what this principle might be. (Hume 1974:320-321)
### 4. Sceptical doubts concerning the operations of the understanding (in two parts) {#sceptical_doubts_concerning_the_operations_of_the_understanding_in_two_parts}
In the first part, Hume discusses how the objects of inquiry are either \"relations of ideas\" or \"matters of fact\", which is roughly the distinction between analytic and synthetic propositions. The former, he tells the reader, are proved by demonstration, while the latter are given through experience. (Hume 1974:322) In explaining how matters of fact are entirely a product of experience, he dismisses the notion that they may be arrived at through *a priori* reasoning. For Hume, every effect only follows its cause arbitrarily---they are entirely distinct from one another. (Hume 1974:324)
In part two, Hume inquires into how anyone can justifiably believe that experience yields any conclusions about the world:
:
: \"When it is asked, *What is the nature of all our reasonings concerning matter of fact?* the proper answer seems to be, that they are founded on the relation of cause and effect. When again it is asked, *What is the foundation of all our reasonings and conclusions concerning that relation?* it may be replied in one word, *experience*. But if we still carry on our sifting humor, and ask, *What is the foundation of all conclusions from experience?* this implies a new question, which may be of more difficult solution and explication.\" (Hume 1974:328)
He shows how a satisfying argument for the validity of experience can be based neither on demonstration (since \"it implies no contradiction that the course of nature may change\") nor experience (since that would be a circular argument). (Hume 1974:330-332) Here he is describing what would become known as the problem of induction.
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## Content
### 5. Sceptical solution of these doubts (in two parts) {#sceptical_solution_of_these_doubts_in_two_parts}
According to Hume, we assume that experience tells us something about the world because of *habit or custom*, which human nature forces us to take seriously. This is also, presumably, the \"principle\" that organizes the connections between ideas. Indeed, one of the many famous passages of the *Enquiry* is on the topic of the incorrigibility of human custom. In Section XII, *Of the academical or sceptical philosophy*, Hume will argue,
:
: *\"The great subverter of Pyrrhonism or the excessive principles of skepticism is action, and employment, and the occupations of common life. These principles may flourish and triumph in the schools; where it is, indeed, difficult, if not impossible, to refute them. But as soon as they leave the shade, and by the presence of the real objects, which actuate our passions and sentiments, are put in opposition to the more powerful principles of our nature, they vanish like smoke, and leave the most determined skeptic in the same condition as other mortals.\"* (Hume 1974:425)
In the second part, he provides an account of beliefs. He explains that the difference between belief and fiction is that the former produces a certain feeling of confidence which the latter doesn\'t. (Hume 1974:340)
### 6. Of probability {#of_probability}
This short chapter begins with the notions of probability and chance. For him, \"probability\" means a *higher chance* of occurring, and brings about a higher degree of subjective expectation in the viewer. By \"chance\", he means all those particular comprehensible events which the viewer considers possible in accord with the viewer\'s experience. However, further experience takes these equal chances, and forces the imagination to observe that certain chances arise more frequently than others. These gentle forces upon the imagination cause the viewer to have strong beliefs in outcomes. This effect may be understood as another case of *custom or habit* taking past experience and using it to predict the future. (Hume 1974:346-348)
### 7. Of the idea of necessary connection (in two parts) {#of_the_idea_of_necessary_connection_in_two_parts}
By \"necessary connection\", Hume means the power or force which necessarily ties one idea to another. He rejects the notion that any sensible qualities are necessarily conjoined, since that would mean we could know something prior to experience. Unlike his predecessors, Berkeley and Locke, Hume rejects the idea that volitions or impulses of the will may be inferred to necessarily connect to the actions they produce by way of some sense of the power of the will. He reasons that, 1. if we knew the nature of this power, then the mind-body divide would seem totally unmysterious to us; 2. if we had immediate knowledge of this mysterious power, then we would be able to intuitively explain why it is that we can control some parts of our bodies (e.g., our hands or tongues), and not others (e.g., the liver or heart); 3. we have no immediate knowledge of the powers which allow an impulse of volition to create an action (e.g., of the \"muscles, and nerves, and animal spirits\" which are the immediate cause of an action). (Hume 1974:353-354) He produces like arguments against the notion that we have knowledge of these powers as they affect the mind alone. (Hume 1974:355-356) He also argues in brief against the idea that causes are mere occasions of the will of some god(s), a view associated with the philosopher Nicolas Malebranche. (Hume 1974:356-359)
Having dispensed with these alternative explanations, he identifies the source of our knowledge of necessary connections as arising out of *observation of constant conjunction of certain impressions across many instances*. In this way, people know of necessity through rigorous custom or habit, and not from any immediate knowledge of the powers of the will. (Hume 1974:361)
### 8. Of liberty and necessity (in two parts) {#of_liberty_and_necessity_in_two_parts}
Here Hume tackles the problem of how liberty may be reconciled with metaphysical necessity (otherwise known as a compatibilist formulation of free will). Hume believes that all disputes on the subject have been merely verbal arguments---that is to say, arguments which are based on a lack of prior agreement on definitions. He first shows that it is clear that most events are deterministic, but human actions are more controversial. However, he thinks that these too occur out of necessity since an outside observer can see the same regularity that he would in a purely physical system. To show the compatibility of necessity and liberty, Hume defines liberty as the ability to act on the basis of one\'s will e.g. the capacity to will one\'s actions but not to will one\'s will. He then shows (quite briefly) how determinism and free will are compatible notions, and have no bad consequences on ethics or moral life.
### 9. Of the reason of animals {#of_the_reason_of_animals}
Hume insists that the conclusions of the Enquiry will be very powerful if they can be shown to apply to animals and not just humans. He believed that animals were able to infer the relation between cause and effect in the same way that humans do: through learned expectations. (Hume 1974:384) He also notes that this \"inferential\" ability that animals have is not through reason, but custom alone. Hume concludes that there is an innate faculty of instincts which both beasts and humans share, namely, the ability to reason experimentally (through custom). Nevertheless, he admits, humans and animals differ in mental faculties in a number of ways, including: differences in memory and attention, inferential abilities, ability to make deductions in a long chain, ability to grasp ideas more or less clearly, the human capacity to worry about conflating unrelated circumstances, a sagely prudence which arrests generalizations, a capacity for a greater inner library of analogies to reason with, an ability to detach oneself and scrap one\'s own biases, and an ability to converse through language (and thus gain from the experience of others\' testimonies). (Hume 1974:385, footnote 17.)
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# An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
## Content
### 10. Of miracles (in two parts) {#of_miracles_in_two_parts}
The next topic which Hume strives to give treatment is that of the reliability of human testimony, and of the role that testimony plays a part in epistemology. This was not an idle concern for Hume. Depending on its outcome, the entire treatment would give the epistemologist a degree of certitude in the treatment of miracles.
True to his empirical thesis, Hume tells the reader that, though testimony does have some force, it is never quite as powerful as the direct evidence of the senses. That said, he provides some reasons why we may have a basis for trust in the testimony of persons: because a) human memory can be relatively tenacious; and b) because people are inclined to tell the truth, and ashamed of telling falsities. Needless to say, these reasons are only to be trusted to the extent that they conform to experience. (Hume 1974:389)
And there are a number of reasons to be skeptical of human testimony, also based on experience. If a) testimonies conflict one another, b) there are a small number of witnesses, c) the speaker has no integrity, d) the speaker is overly hesitant or bold, or e) the speaker is known to have motives for lying, then the epistemologist has reason to be skeptical of the speaker\'s claims. (Hume 1974:390)
There is one final criterion that Hume thinks gives us warrant to doubt any given testimony, and that is f) if the propositions being communicated are miraculous. Hume understands a miracle to be any event which contradicts the laws of nature. He argues that the laws of nature have an overwhelming body of evidence behind them, and are so well demonstrated to everyone\'s experience, that any deviation from those laws necessarily flies in the face of all evidence. (Hume 1974:391-392)
Moreover, he stresses that talk of the miraculous has no surface validity, for four reasons. First, he explains that in all of history there has never been a miracle which was attested to by a wide body of disinterested experts. Second, he notes that human beings delight in a sense of wonder, and this provides a villain with an opportunity to manipulate others. Third, he thinks that those who hold onto the miraculous have tended towards barbarism. Finally, since testimonies tend to conflict with one another when it comes to the miraculous---that is, one man\'s religious miracle may be contradicted by another man\'s miracle---any testimony relating to the fantastic is self-denunciating. (Hume 1974:393-398)
Still, Hume takes care to warn that historians are generally to be trusted with confidence, so long as their reports on facts are extensive and uniform. However, he seems to suggest that historians are as fallible at interpreting the facts as the rest of humanity. Thus, if every historian were to claim that there was a solar eclipse in the year 1600, then though we might at first naively regard that as in violation of natural laws, we\'d come to accept it as a fact. But if every historian were to assert that Queen Elizabeth was observed walking around happy and healthy after her funeral, and then interpreted that to mean that they had risen from the dead, then we\'d have reason to appeal to natural laws in order to dispute their interpretation. (Hume 1974:400-402)
### 11. Of a particular providence and of a future state {#of_a_particular_providence_and_of_a_future_state}
Hume continues his application of epistemology to theology by an extended discussion on heaven and hell. The brunt of this chapter allegedly narrates the opinions, not of Hume, but of one of Hume\'s anonymous friends, who again presents them in an imagined speech by the philosopher Epicurus. His friend argues that, though it is possible to trace a cause from an effect, it is not possible to infer unseen effects from a cause thus traced. The friend insists, then, that even though we might postulate that there is a first cause behind all things---God---we can\'t infer anything about the afterlife, because we don\'t know anything of the afterlife from experience, and we can\'t infer it from the existence of God. (Hume 1974:408)
Hume offers his friend an objection: if we see an unfinished building, then can\'t we infer that it has been created by humans with certain intentions, and that it will be finished in the future? His friend concurs, but indicates that there is a relevant disanalogy that we can\'t pretend to know the contents of the mind of God, while we can know the designs of other humans. Hume seems essentially persuaded by his friend\'s reasoning. (Hume 1974:412-414)
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# An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
## Content
### 12. Of the academical or skeptical philosophy (in three parts) {#of_the_academical_or_skeptical_philosophy_in_three_parts}
The first section of the last chapter is well organized as an outline of various skeptical arguments. The treatment includes the arguments of atheism, Cartesian skepticism, \"light\" skepticism, and rationalist critiques of empiricism. Hume shows that even light skepticism leads to crushing doubts about the world which - while they ultimately are philosophically justifiable - may only be combated through the non-philosophical adherence to custom or habit. He ends the section with his own reservations towards Cartesian and Lockean epistemologies.
In the second section he returns to the topic of hard skepticism by sharply denouncing it.
:
: \"For here is the chief and most confounding objection to *excessive* skepticism, that no durable good can ever result from it; while it remains in its full force and vigor. We need only ask such a skeptic, *What his meaning is? And what he proposes by all these curious researches?* He is immediately at a loss, and knows not what to answer\... a Pyrrhonian cannot expect, that his philosophy will have any constant influence on the mind: or if it had, that its influence would be beneficial to society. On the contrary, he must acknowledge, if he will acknowledge anything, that all human life must perish, were his principles universally and steadily to prevail.\" (Hume 1974:426)
He concludes the volume by setting out the limits of knowledge once and for all. \"*When we run over libraries, persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask,*Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number?*No.*Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence?*No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.*\"
## Critiques and rejoinders {#critiques_and_rejoinders}
The criteria Hume lists in his examination of the validity of human testimony are roughly upheld in modern social psychology, under the rubric of the communication-persuasion paradigm. Supporting literature includes: the work of social impact theory, which discusses persuasion in part through the number of persons engaging in influence; as well as studies made on the relative influence of communicator credibility in different kinds of persuasion; and examinations of the trustworthiness of the speaker.
The \"custom\" view of learning can in many ways be likened to associationist psychology. This point of view has been subject to severe criticism in the research of the 20th century. Still, testing on the subject has been somewhat divided. Testing on certain animals like cats have concluded that they do not possess any faculty which allow their minds to grasp an insight into cause and effect. However, it has been shown that some animals, like chimpanzees, were able to generate creative plans of action to achieve their goals, and thus would seem to have a causal insight which transcends mere custom.
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# An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
## Legacy
Albert Einstein was a great admirer of Hume and remarked in a letter to Moritz Schlick that he had read Hume\'s book and the works of Ernst Mach \"with eagerness and admiration shortly before finding relativity theory\" and that \"very possibly, I wouldn\'t have come to the solution without those philosophical studies\"
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# André de Longjumeau
**André de Longjumeau** (also known as **Andrew of Longjumeau** in English) was a French diplomat and Dominican missionary and one of the most active Occidental diplomats in the East in the 13th century. He led two embassies to the Mongols: the first carried letters from Pope Innocent IV and the second bore gifts and letters from Louis IX of France to Güyük Khan. Well acquainted with the Middle East, he spoke Arabic and \"Chaldean\" (thought to be either Syriac or Persian).
## Mission for the holy Crown of Thorns {#mission_for_the_holy_crown_of_thorns}
André\'s first mission to the East was when he was asked by the French king Louis IX to go to Constantinople to obtain the crown of thorns that had been sold to him by the Latin emperor Baldwin II in 1238, who was anxious to obtain support for his empire. André was accompanied on this mission by a Dominican friar, brother Jacques.
## Papal mission to the Mongols (1245--1247) {#papal_mission_to_the_mongols_12451247}
André of Longjumeau led one of four missions dispatched to the Mongols by Pope Innocent IV. He left Lyon in the spring of 1245 for the Levant. He visited Muslim principalities in Syria and representatives of the Church of the East and Syriac Orthodox Church in Seljuk Persia, finally delivering the papal correspondence to a Mongol general near Tabriz. In Tabriz, André de Longjumeau met with a monk from the Far East named Simeon Rabban Ata, who had been put in charge by the Khan of protecting Christians in the Middle East.
## Second mission to the Mongols (1249--1251) {#second_mission_to_the_mongols_12491251}
At the Mongol camp near Kars, André had met a certain David, who in December 1248 appeared at the court of King Louis IX of France, who was preparing his armies in the allied Kingdom of Cyprus. André, who was now with the French King, interpreted David\'s words as a real or pretended offer of alliance from the Mongol general Eljigidei, and a proposal of a joint attack on Ayyubid Syria. In reply to this, the French sovereign dispatched André as his ambassador to Güyük Khan. Longjumeau went with his brother Jacques (also a Dominican) and several others -- John Goderiche, John of Carcassonne, Herbert \"Le Sommelier\", Gerbert of Sens, Robert (a clerk), a certain William, and an unnamed clerk of Poissy.
The party set out on 16 February 1249, with letters from King Louis and the papal legate, and lavish presents, including a chapel tent lined with scarlet cloth and embroidered with sacred pictures. From Cyprus they went to the port of Antioch in Syria, and thence traveled for a year to the Khan\'s court, going ten leagues (55.56 kilometers) per day. Their route led them through Persia, along the southern and eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, and certainly through Taraz, north-east of Tashkent.
Upon arrival at the supreme Mongol court -- either that on the Emil River (near Lake Alakol and the present Russo-Chinese frontier in the Altai Mountains), or more probably at or near Karakorum itself, southwest of Lake Baikal -- André found Güyük Khan dead, poisoned, as the envoy supposed, by Batu Khan\'s agents. The regent Oghul Qaimish, Güyük Khan\'s widow (the \"Camus\" of William of Rubruck), seems to have received him with presents and a dismissive letter for Louis IX. It is certain that before the friar had left \"Tartary\", Möngke, Güyük\'s successor, had been elected khagan.
André\'s report to his sovereign, whom he rejoined in 1251 at Caesarea Palaestina, appears to have been a mixture of history and fable; the latter affects his narrative of the Mongols\' rise to greatness, and the struggles of their leader Genghis Khan with the mythical Prester John, and in the supposed location of the Mongols\' homeland, close to the prison of Gog and Magog. On the other hand, the envoy\'s account of Mongol customs is fairly accurate, and his statements about Mongol Christianity and its prosperity, though perhaps exaggerated (e.g. as to the 800 chapels on wheels in the nomadic host) are likely factual.
Mounds of bones marked his road, witnesses of devastations that other historians record in detail. He found Christian prisoners from Germany in the heart of \"Tartary\" at Taraz and was compelled to observe the ceremony of passing between two fires, as a bringer of gifts to a dead Genghis Khan, gifts which were treated by the Mongols as evidence of submission. This insulting behavior, and the language of the letter with which André reappeared, marked the mission a failure: King Louis, says Jean de Joinville, \"se repenti fort\" (\"felt very sorry\").
## Death
The date and location of André\'s death is unknown.
We only know of André through references in other writers: see especially William of Rubruck\'s in *Recueil de voyages*, iv. (Paris, 1839), pp. 261, 265, 279, 296, 310, 353, 363, 370; Joinville, ed. Francisque Michel (1858, etc.), pp. 142, etc.; Jean Pierre Sarrasin, in same vol., pp. 254--235; William of Nangis in *Recueil des historiens des Gaules*, xx. 359--367; Rémusat, *Mémoires sur les relations politiques des princes chrétiens... avec les... Mongols* (1822, etc.), p. 52
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# Andriscus
**Andriscus** (*Ἀνδρίσκος*, *Andrískos*; `{{fl.}}`{=mediawiki} 154/153 BC -- 146 BC), also often referenced as **Pseudo-Philip**, was a Greek pretender who became the last independent king of Macedon in 149 BC as **Philip VI** (*Φίλιππος*, *Philipos*), based on his claim of being Philip, a now-obscure son of the last legitimate Macedonian king, Perseus. His reign lasted just one year and was toppled by the Roman Republic during the Fourth Macedonian War.
Ancient sources generally agree that he was originally a fuller from Adramyttium in Aeolis in western Anatolia. Around 153 BC, his ancestry was supposedly revealed to him, upon which he travelled to the court of his claimed uncle, the Seleucid monarch Demetrius I Soter, to request assistance in claiming his throne. Demetrius refused and had him sent to Rome, where he was judged harmless and exiled to a city in Italy; he managed to escape, and after gathering support, primarily from Thrace, he launched an invasion of Macedon, defeating Rome\'s clients and establishing his rule as king. The Romans naturally reacted militarily, triggering war; after some initial successes, Andriscus was defeated and captured by the praetor Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, who subdued Macedon once again.
He was imprisoned for two years before being paraded in Metellus\' triumph in 146 BC, after which he was executed. In the aftermath of his revolt, the Romans established the Roman province of Macedonia, ending Macedonian independence and establishing a permanent presence in the region.
## Origins and early life {#origins_and_early_life}
Details of his origins are vague and sometimes conflicting, though it is generally believed that he was a fuller from Adramyttium in Aeolis in western Anatolia. His exact date of birth is unknown, though according to his own story, he was \"of maturity\" when he made his claims of royalty in 154 BC, and had been raised by a Cretan in Adramyttium.
By his own claims, he was educated at Adramyttium until adolescence, until the Cretan died, after which he was raised with his foster mother. Upon reaching maturity, his mother (or foster mother, according to his claim) gave him a sealed parchment that was supposedly written by Perseus himself, along with the knowledge of the location of two hidden treasures, at Amphipolis and Thessalonica; he would later use these to advance his claims. Ancient sources are unanimous in calling him an impostor and dismiss the story as false; Niese suggests that there is a possibility of his claims being true, but generally agrees that he was a pretender; his main advantage in his claims was his close resemblance to Perseus.
Around 154/153 BC, he left Pergamon for Syria, where he declared his claim to be the illegitimate son of Perseus by a concubine. According to his own account, it was due to his mother (or foster mother) urging him to leave Pergamon to avoid the wrath of the pro-Roman Eumenes II.
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# Andriscus
## Claiming the throne {#claiming_the_throne}
### In Syria {#in_syria}
He first staked his claim in Syria. Livy and Cassius Dio write that he simply went from Pergamon to Syria and directly staked his claim before the Seleucid monarch, Demetrius I Soter. Diodorus Siculus offers a different account. According to him, Andriscus was already a mercenary in Demetrius\' army. Due to his resemblance to the former Macedonian king, his comrades started jokingly calling him \"son of Perseus\"; these jokes soon began becoming serious suspicions, and at one point, Andriscus himself decided to seize the opportunity and claimed that he was indeed the son of Perseus. Niese attempts to reconcile both accounts, suggesting that he might have travelled to Syria and then enlisted as a mercenary before staking his claim.
He appealed to the king to help him win back his \"ancestral\" throne, and found great popular support among the Seleucid populace, to the extent that there were riots in the capital, Antioch. Large segments of the Seleucid population were of Macedonian descent, nurturing strong anti-Roman sentiment since the Roman conquest of Macedon in the Third Macedonian War; they were eager to help the claimant.`{{refn|group=Note|Inviting Greek and Macedonian settlers to the Seleucid realm, and promoting the Hellenization of the realm, was a common policy of the Seleucids; this was the reason for large populations of Macedonian and Greek descent.<ref name="Steven C. Hause, William S. Maltby 2004 76">{{Cite book |last1=Steven C. Hause |url=https://archive.org/details/westerncivilizat0000haus |title=Western civilization: a history of European society |last2=William S. Maltby |publisher=Thomson Wadsworth |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-534-62164-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/westerncivilizat0000haus/page/76 76] |quote=The Greco-Macedonian Elite. The Seleucids respected the cultural and religious sensibilities of their subjects but preferred to rely on Greek or Macedonian soldiers and administrators for the day-to-day business of governing. The Greek population of the cities, reinforced until the second century BC by immigration from Greece, formed a dominant, although not especially cohesive, elite. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Victor, Royce M. 2010 55">{{Cite book |last=Victor, Royce M. |title=Colonial education and class formation in early Judaism: a postcolonial reading |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-567-24719-3 |page=55 |quote=Like other Hellenistic kings, the Seleucids ruled with the help of their "friends" and a Greco-Macedonian elite class separate from the native populations whom they governed.}}</ref>}}`{=mediawiki} They proceeded to such an extent that there were even calls for deposing the king if he did not help the pretender. Unmoved, or perhaps frightened, Demetrius had Andriscus arrested and sent to Rome.
### In Rome {#in_rome}
In Rome, he was brought before the Senate, where Dio writes that he stood \"in general contempt\" due to what was perceived to be his ordinary nature and transparently false claim. The Romans believed his claim to be fake, because the real Philip had died at Alba Fucens two years after his father Perseus. Considering him harmless, they simply exiled him to an Italian city, but he managed to escape; fleeing Italy, he went to the Greek world, to the city of Miletus.
### Gaining support {#gaining_support}
In Miletus, he tried to advance his claims further, attracting significant attention and sympathy. When the leaders of Miletus learned about this, they arrested him and sought advice from visiting Roman envoys on what to do with him; the envoys were contemptuous of the pretender and told the Miletans he was safe to release. He continued his travels through Ionia, meeting former acquaintances of Perseus and gaining an audience with Kallipa, a former concubine of Perseus who was now married to Athenaios, brother of the Pergamene king Attalus II Philadelphus. Being a Macedonian by birth, and due to her former connections to the Antigonids, she accepted his claim and agreed to help him, giving him money and slaves, and probably recommending that he travel to Thrace, where he would find a following.
He was also received favourably in Byzantium. He finally arrived in Thrace, where he met Teres III, who had married the granddaughter of Perseus and was the son of Cotys IV, who had once been an ally of Perseus. Teres and the other Thracian chieftains, especially a certain Barsabas, received him enthusiastically; he held a coronation ceremony at Teres\' court, was given a few hundred Thracian troops, and set off on his campaign.
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# Andriscus
## Conquest of Macedon {#conquest_of_macedon}
His first attempt to invade was unsuccessful, and he initially did not inspire much enthusiasm among the Macedonians; this made the Romans complacent about the pretender. However, he soon managed to encounter a force of Rome\'s Macedonian client republics, defeating them in Odomantice; he then invaded Macedon proper, defeating Rome\'s clients on the banks of the Strymon river. Amidst popular acclaim, he crowned himself king at the old Macedonian capital of Pella in 150/149 BC.
### Popular support {#popular_support}
Although the Macedonians\' initial attitude had been lukewarm, his successes won him popularity and widespread support in Macedon. Anti-Roman sentiment was common in Macedon; the populace was obliging in overthrowing the old regime. Support for Andriscus was not uniform --- there was significantly more hesitation among the gentry and upper classes, and somewhat more enthusiasm among the lower classes --- but the popular mood was largely in his favour. His claims were bolstered by his correct prediction of the locations of two treasures, which he claimed were specified in the \"sealed writing\" that had been handed to his caretakers by Perseus, and had later been given to him. Even if there were apprehensions about the veracity of his claim, Niese notes that \"one liked to believe what one wished; the re-establishment of Macedonia enabled liberation from the burden of Roman rule. The longer these burdens had been borne, the happier they \[the Macedonians\] were at the prospect of Macedonia under a king restored from the old lineage.\"
However, it has also been suggested that the extent of his support may not have been as widespread as often believed, and that a significant amount of the Macedonian populace remained pro-republican and pro-Roman. The relative lack of reprisals towards Macedon after his defeat, as compared to the destructions of Corinth and Carthage in the same period, has been suggested as evidence for this theory.
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# Andriscus
## Reign
### Military campaigns {#military_campaigns}
Andriscus\' reign was defined to a significant degree by his military campaigns, due to his being in a constant state of war with Rome. After his conquest of the Kingdom, he enlarged the army and began campaigns to conquer Thessaly, a key part of the realm of the old Antigonids. Initial resistance to him were from *ad hoc* forces of Roman allies in Greece, a few Roman units and legates in the region and some resistance from the remnants of Rome\'s client republics in Macedon, some elements of which seem to have survived for some time into his reign. Soon, however, the Romans sent a legion under the praetor Publius Juventius Thalna to defeat the pretender.
Thalna, however, appears to have underestimated Andriscus\' strength, not taking into account the fact that the king\'s army had grown dramatically since his enthronement. Andriscus attacked and fought him at an unspecified location in Thessaly (Dio gives it as \"near the borders of Macedon\"); details of the engagement are scarce, but Thalna was killed and his forces almost annihilated. It was the worst defeat Rome would suffer at the hands of the Macedonians; Florus remarks on the irony of how \"they that were invincible against real kings, were defeated by this imaginary and pretended king\". The victory greatly increased the king\'s prestige; he obtained an alliance with Carthage, and his domestic popularity was increased dramatically, allowing him to stamp out republican resistance and conquer Thessaly.
### Foreign policy {#foreign_policy}
At first, Andriscus attempted to negotiate his position with Rome, but when it became clear that they would not recognize his throne, he embarked on a strongly anti-Roman policy, He continued to cultivate his relations with his Thracian allies, to whom he owed his throne; they would continue to provide significant forces for him during his reign.
Foreign interest in relations with him increased dramatically after his victory over Thalna; as mentioned before, Carthage, which was under attack from Rome in the Third Punic War, allied itself to him and promised him money and ships, though these could not be sent before his ultimate defeat. Significant sympathy, possibly cultivated to a degree by him, arose in Greece; however, the Achaean League remained pro-Roman and continued to resist and fight him. King Attalus II Philadelphus of Pergamon remained staunchly pro-Roman; the Pergamenes were terrified of the prospect of a revived and strong Macedonia on their doorstep.
### Domestic policy {#domestic_policy}
Domestically, Andriscus implemented a strongly anti-Roman and anti-Republican policy. Ancient historians interpreted this as his cruelty and tyranny; it has been suggested that these were simply manifestations of his anti-Roman policy and his persecutions of his opponents, including pro-Roman republicans.
At the same time, it is also possible that he was indeed tyrannical. His persecutions increased significantly after his victory over Thalna, costing him significant popularity; this would have dire consequences for him later.
### Coinage
The extent and nature of Andriscus\' coinage is a matter of debate. It has been suggested that many of his coins were overstrikes of previous Antigonid, republican and Roman coinage. He issued a very small amount of silver drachmae, on which he pictured himself as a Hellenistic king, and added Herakles on the reverse. Only three coins of Andriscus are known, two of which are overstruck, one on a drachm of the Thessalian League, the other on a Roman denarius. It is therefore possible that he also used the denarii he seized as booty after his victory against Thalna to mint his own coins. The coins are also of poor quality, due to the short duration of his reign, the need to reuse old dies and the need to quickly produce wartime coinage.
Some non-royal coinage has also been discovered and dated to the period of his reign, possibly struck by the remnants of the pro-Roman republics. It has also been suggested that the king was more liberal than implied by the sources, and allowed some degree of independent coinage.
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# Andriscus
## Downfall and death {#downfall_and_death}
Thalna\'s defeat shook Roman prestige in the East, and made the Senate realize the full significance of the revolt. They organized a full consular army of two legions under praetor Quintus Caecilius Metellus, to defeat Andriscus and check, if not quell, his uprising. Arriving in Greece in 148 BC, Metellus marched along the Thessalian coast in a combined land and sea advance, while the allied Pergamene fleet threatened the coastal district of northern Macedonia. To protect himself against both offensives, Andriscus took up a defensive position with his main army at Pydna, where Metellus engaged him in battle. In the ensuing Battle of Pydna, Andrisus was decisively defeated. His harsh persecutions during his reign now showed their consequences; this single battle was enough to make him lose control of Macedon, as the people submitted to Metellus. He was forced to flee to Thrace, his original base of support, and began organizing a new army; however, Metellus pursued him swiftly and routed his forces before he could prepare them. Andriscus then fled to the Thracian princeling Byzes; however, Metellus managed to persuade the latter into becoming a Roman ally and handing Andriscus over as a prisoner, ending his reign.
He remained a prisoner over the next two years, while Metellus subdued any remaining Macedonian resistance, organized Macedon as a province and settled the Achaean War of 146 BC. When Metellus returned to Rome in 146 BC, he received the agnomen *Macedonicus* for his victory and was granted a triumph. Andriscus was brought in chains and paraded in the triumph, and later executed --- the last king to reign over Macedon.
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# Andriscus
## Assessment and legacy {#assessment_and_legacy}
Ancient sources are extremely hostile, not only to the origins and claims, but also of the character of Andriscus --- Diodorus calls him \"shot through with cruelty, greed and every base quality\"; Dio and Livy call him \"a man of the lowest kind\". They also describe him as cruel and tyrannical; accusations of tyranny probably reflect his harsh persecutions of pro-Roman and pro-republican elements in Macedon. At the same time, it is possible that he was indeed tyrannical, especially after his victory over Thalna, and perpetrated acts of terrorism and repression against his subjects.
His main legacy was that in the aftermath of his revolt, the Romans understood the strength of anti-Roman feeling that had arisen in Macedon, and realized that the old administration could not be sustained --- a thorough reorganization was necessary. Another reason why reorganization was necessary was that Andriscus\' persecutions had killed many pro-Roman republicans and thoroughly disrupted the old administrative structure; it would be difficult to re-establish it. Therefore, the Senate made Macedon a Roman province, with Metellus as its first governor
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# Andronikos I Komnenos
**Andronikos I Komnenos** (*Andrónikos Komnēnós*; `{{c.|1118/1120|lk=no}}`{=mediawiki} -- 12 September 1185), Latinized as **Andronicus I Comnenus**, was Byzantine emperor from 1183 to 1185. A nephew of John II Komnenos (`{{Reign}}`{=mediawiki}1118--1143), Andronikos rose to fame in the reign of his cousin Manuel I Komnenos (`{{Reign}}`{=mediawiki}1143--1180), during which his life was marked by political failures, adventures, scandalous romances, and rivalry with the emperor.
After Manuel\'s death in 1180, the elderly Andronikos rose to prominence as the accession of the young Alexios II Komnenos led to power struggles in Constantinople. In 1182, Andronikos seized power in the capital, ostensibly as a guardian of the young emperor. Andronikos swiftly and ruthlessly eliminated his political rivals, including Alexios II\'s mother and regent, Maria of Antioch. In September 1183, Andronikos was crowned as co-emperor and had Alexios murdered, assuming power in his own name. Andronikos staunchly opposed the powerful Byzantine aristocracy and enacted brutal measures to curb their influence. Although he faced several revolts and the empire became increasingly unstable, his reforms had a favorable effect on the common citizenry. The capture of Thessaloniki by William II of Sicily in 1185 turned the people of Constantinople against Andronikos, who was captured and brutally murdered.
Andronikos was the last Byzantine emperor of the Komnenos dynasty (1081--1185). He was vilified as a tyrant by later Byzantine writers, with one historian calling him \"**Misophaes**\" (*μισοφαής*, `{{lit|hater of sunlight}}`{=mediawiki}) in reference to the great number of enemies he had blinded. The anti-aristocratic policies pursued by Andronikos destroyed the Komnenian system implemented by his predecessors. His reforms and policies were reversed by the succeeding Angelos dynasty (1185--1204), which contributed to the collapse of imperial central authority. When the Byzantine Empire was temporarily overthrown in the Fourth Crusade (1204), Andronikos\' descendants established the Empire of Trebizond, where the Komnenoi continued to rule until 1461.
## Early life and character {#early_life_and_character}
Andronikos Komnenos was born in c. 1118--1120, the son of the *sebastokrator* Isaac Komnenos and his wife Irene. Andronikos had three siblings: the older brother John and two older sisters, one of which was named Anna. Andronikos was the nephew of the reigning emperor, John II Komnenos (`{{Reign}}`{=mediawiki}1118--1143), and grew up together with his cousin (and John\'s successor) Manuel I Komnenos (`{{Reign}}`{=mediawiki}1143--1180).
In 1130, Andronikos\'s father was involved in a conspiracy against John II while the emperor was away from Constantinople on campaign against the Sultanate of Rum. The conspiracy was uncovered but Isaac and his sons fled the capital and found refuge at the court of the Danishmendid emir Gümüshtigin Ghazi at Melitene. The family spent six years on the run, traveling to Trebizond, Armenian Cilicia, and eventually the Sultanate of Rum, before Isaac reconciled with John II and the emperor forgave him.
According to the historian Anthony Kaldellis, Andronikos was \"one of the most colorful and versatile personalities of the age\". He was tall, handsome, and brave, but a poor strategist, and was known for his good looks, intellect, charm, and elegance.
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# Andronikos I Komnenos
## Reign of Manuel I (1143--1180) {#reign_of_manuel_i_11431180}
### Imperial career {#imperial_career}
Manuel I Komnenos began his reign as emperor on good terms with Andronikos. Andronikos showed no signs of treachery towards his cousin and Manuel was fond of his company since the two were of similar age and had grown up together. Andronikos took offence when officials spoke badly of Manuel\'s governance and was lent Manuel\'s favorite horse while they were on military campaigns. Similar in personality, the friendship between Manuel and Andronikos only gradually transitioned into rivalry.
Manuel never succeeded in integrating Andronikos into the imperial family power network. Although talented and impressive as a person, Andronikos typically handled tasks entrusted to him carelessly. Relations between Manuel and Andronikos deteriorated in 1148, when Manuel appointed his favorite nephew John Doukas Komnenos as *protovestiarios* and *protosebastos*. These appointments were the last in a long line of extraordinary favors given to John and greatly wounded Andronikos, who from then on became involved in various intrigues against the emperor.
In 1151--1152, Manuel sent Andronikos with an army against Thoros II of Armenian Cilicia, who had conquered large parts of Byzantine-held Cilicia. The campaign was a dismal failure, as Thoros defeated Andronikos and occupied even more of Cilicia. Andronikos was nevertheless made governor of the portions that remained in imperial control.
In the winter of 1152--1153, the imperial court was at Pelagonia in Macedonia, perhaps for recreational hunting. During the stay there, Andronikos slept in the same tent as Eudokia Komnene, Manuel\'s niece and sister of John Komnenos Doukas, committing incest. When Eudokia\'s family attempted to catch the two in the act and assassinate Andronikos, he escaped by cutting a hole in the side of the tent with his sword. Manuel criticized the affair but Andronikos answered him that \"subjects should always follow their master\'s example\", alluding to well-founded rumors of the emperor himself having an incestuous relationship with Eudokia\'s sister Theodora.
Andronikos actively conspired against Manuel in the early 1150s, together with Baldwin III of Jerusalem and Mesud I of Rum. He was then removed from his command in Cilicia and transferred to oversee the governance of Branitzova and Naissus in the west. Not long thereafter, Andronikos promised to turn over these towns to Géza II of Hungary in return for aid in seizing the imperial throne. In 1155, Andronikos was imprisoned by Manuel in the imperial palace. According to Niketas Choniates, the imprisonment was a direct result of his plot to usurp the throne with Hungarian aid, and his affair with Eudokia. John Kinnamos, however, claims that Manuel knew of the intrigues and did not punish Andronikos until he uttered death threats to John Komnenos Doukas.
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# Andronikos I Komnenos
## Reign of Manuel I (1143--1180) {#reign_of_manuel_i_11431180}
### Escapes from prison {#escapes_from_prison}
Andronikos escaped from prison in 1159, while Manuel was away on campaign in Cilicia and Syria. Having discovered an ancient underground passage beneath his cell, he dug his way down using only his hands and managed to conceal the opening so that the guards were unable to find any damage to the cell. The escape was reported to Manuel\'s wife, Empress Bertha-Irene, and a great search was ordered in Constantinople. In Andronikos\'s stead, his wife was briefly imprisoned in the same cell. According to Niketas Choniates, Andronikos soon emerged up into the cell again, embraced and had sex with his wife, conceiving his second son John. Andronikos then escaped the capital but was caught in Melangeia in Thrace by a soldier named Nikaias and imprisoned again with stronger chains and more guards.
Andronikos escaped prison for a second time in 1164. He had pretended to be ill and was provided with a boy to see to his physical needs. Andronikos convinced the boy to make wax impressions of the keys to his cell and to bring these impressions to Andronikos\'s elder son, Manuel. Manuel forged copies of the keys, which the boy used to let Andronikos out. Andronikos spent three days hiding in tall grass near the palace, before trying to flee in a fishing boat alongside a fisherman named Chysochoöpolos. The two were caught by guards, but Andronikos convinced them that he was an escaped slave and was let go out of compassion. Andronikos then made his way to his home, said goodbye to his family, and fled the capital, traveling beyond the Carpathian Mountains.
Andronikos first spent some time in Halych, where he was briefly captured by Vlachs from Moldavia who intended to bring him back to Manuel. During his captivity, Andronikos pretended to suffer from infectious diarrhea, requiring frequent stops to dismount and defecate alone and at a distance. One night, he made a dummy out of his cloak, hat, and staff, in the position of a man defecating. While the Vlachs watched the dummy, Andronikos managed to escape. He then made his way to Galicia, where he was well received by Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl.
During his time at Yaroslav\'s court, Andronikos tried to recruit the Cumans to aid him in an invasion of the Byzantine Empire. Despite these efforts, Manuel sought to reconcile with him and managed to form an anti-Hungarian alliance with Yaroslav. When the Byzantines and Galicians joined forces in a combined invasion of Hungary in the 1160s, Andronikos led a force of Galicians and assisted Manuel during a siege of Semlin. The campaign was a success and Andronikos returned with Manuel to Constantinople. In 1166, Andronikos was removed from court for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to then designated heir, Béla III of Hungary, but was entrusted once again to govern Cilicia.
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# Andronikos I Komnenos
## Reign of Manuel I (1143--1180) {#reign_of_manuel_i_11431180}
### Exile
In 1167, Andronikos deserted his post in Cilicia and traveled to Antioch, where he seduced Philippa of Antioch. Philippa was the sister of both Manuel\'s second wife Maria and Bohemond III, the reigning prince of Antioch. The affair caused a scandal and threatened to jeopardize Manuel\'s foreign policy. Bohemond formally complained to the emperor that Andronikos was neglecting his duties in Cilicia and instead dallying with Philippa. Manuel was outraged and immediately recalled Andronikos, replacing him as governor in Cilicia with Constantine Kalamanos. Kalamanos was also dispatched to attempt to wed Philippa. Upon meeting Kalamanos, the princess refused to address him by name, berated him for being short, and derided Manuel as \"stupid and simple-minded\" for believing she would forsake Andronikos for a man from such an obscure family line. Andronikos refused to return home and instead fled with Philippa to Jerusalem, where King Amalric gave him Beirut as a fief to govern.
Andronikos left Philippa in 1168 and instead seduced the dowager queen Theodora Komnene, widow of Amalric\'s brother Baldwin III and daughter of Andronikos\'s cousin Isaac. Theodora was 21 years old at the time. The historian John Julius Norwich has described Theodora as the love of Andronikos\'s life, though their close relation made them unable to marry. Manuel was furious over this affair as well and again ordered Andronikos to return home. Fearing that Amalric would back Manuel, Andronikos feigned acceptance. He traveled to Acre without Theodora, though she suddenly arrived after him and the two eloped together to the court of Nur al-Din Zengi in Damascus. The arrival of a Byzantine prince and a dowager-queen of Jerusalem in Damascus became a sensation in the Muslim world and they were welcomed with much enthusiasm.
Andronikos and Theodora traveled from court to court for several years, making their way through Anatolia and the Caucasus. They were eventually received by George III of Georgia and Andronikos was granted estates in Kakhetia. In 1173 or 1174, Andronikos accompanied George on a military expedition to Shirvan up to the Caspian shores, where the Georgians recaptured the fortress of Shabaran from invaders from Darband for his cousin, the Shirvanshah Akhsitan I.
Andronikos and Theodora eventually settled in Koloneia in northeastern Anatolia, just beyond the frontier of the Byzantine Empire. Their peaceful life there came to an end when imperial officials captured Theodora and their two children and brought them to Constantinople. After over a decade in exile, Andronikos returned to Constantinople in 1180 and theatrically pleaded for forgiveness from Manuel with a chain around his neck, begging that Theodora and the children be returned. The two reconciled, and Andronikos was sent to govern Paphlagonia, where he lived with Theodora in a castle on the Black Sea coast. The arrangement was understood as internal exile and peaceful retirement. Theodora\'s ultimate fate is not known, though she likely died before Andronikos\'s return to imperial politics in 1182.
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# Andronikos I Komnenos
## Reign of Alexios II (1180--1183) {#reign_of_alexios_ii_11801183}
### Power struggle {#power_struggle}
Manuel died on 24 September 1180 and the throne was inherited by his eleven-year-old son, Alexios II Komnenos. A regency was set up for the young emperor, led by Manuel\'s widow, Maria of Antioch. Manuel had made his officials and nobles swear to obey Maria as regent, on the condition that she became a nun (which she did) and guarded the honor of the empire and their son. Maria was supported by Patriarch Theodosios Borradiotes and the *prōtosebastos* Alexios Komnenos, a nephew of Manuel. Despite this, she was in a dangerous position. She was of Latin (i.e. Catholic/Western European) origin and regent for a minor with ambitious relatives. Manuel had throughout his reign sought to integrate the empire into the world of the Latin states in the West and Levant through diplomacy. His efforts were largely unsuccessful, as Latin polities began to regard themselves as having a say in imperial politics and anti-Latin sentiment grew among the populace of the empire. Maria of Antioch was young and beautiful, leading to power struggles between officials who sought her favor. Little political attention was given to Alexios II, who as a child was devoted entirely to pursuits such as chariot races and hunting. The perceived pro-Latin stance of the regency and rumors that Maria and Alexios the *prōtosebastos* were lovers, as well as suspicions that the *prōtosebastos* planned to seize the throne for himself, led to the formation of a court faction opposed to the regency. Some of Maria\'s supporters also began to abandon her as the favors they sought were increasingly given to the *prōtosebastos*. The opposition was led by Manuel\'s daughter, Maria Komnene, her husband Renier of Montferrat, and Manuel\'s illegitimate son Alexios.
In early 1181, a plot to assassinate the *prōtosebastos* was uncovered and many were arrested. Maria Komnene and Renier sought asylum in the Hagia Sophia and were supported by Patriarch Theodosios and the clergy. The two conspirators turned the church into a stronghold and issued demands that the *prōtosebastos* be removed from office and that those arrested should be released. The citizenry of Constantinople were split between the two factions. Clashes erupted throughout the capital, lasting for two months. Maria Komnene, supported by the clergy, portrayed her revolt against the regency as a holy war. With the government focused on the power struggle, the empire swiftly lost territory to foreign enemies. Béla III of Hungary conquered Dalmatia and Sirmium, and Kilij Arslan II of Rum conquered Sozopolis and besieged Attaleia.
Peace was brokered in the capital by the *megas doux* Andronikos Kontostephanos and the patriarch but the conflict was not resolved. In 1182, Maria Komnene and other nobles sent for Andronikos in Paphlagonia, inviting him to the capital to assume the protection of Alexios II. Andronikos was by this time in his early sixties and regarded by some as an elder statesman. Because of his exile away from the affairs in the capital, he was seen as an impartial outsider who could champion the young emperor\'s best interests. Maria Komnene could also assume that he would be supportive of her since Andronikos\'s sons Manuel and John had been involved in her revolt. In the spring of 1182, Andronikos assembled an army and marched on Constantinople. He portrayed himself as a champion of Alexios II, accused Maria of Antioch and the *prōtosebastos* of conspiracy, and falsely claimed that Manuel had appointed him as one of Alexios II\'s regents. The general Andronikos Angelos was sent to intercept Andronikos but was defeated, fled back to Constantinople, and quickly defected to Andronikos out of fear of his failure being punished. Once Andronikos reached the Bosporus, public opinion in Constantinople was firmly on his side. The *prōtosebastos* organized a fleet to stop Andronikos, led by Kontostephanos, though Kontostephanos likewise defected to the rebel\'s side.
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# Andronikos I Komnenos
## Reign of Alexios II (1180--1183) {#reign_of_alexios_ii_11801183}
### Regent in Constantinople {#regent_in_constantinople}
With no military forces left to oppose Andronikos, the *prōtosebastos* was taken captive and taken across the Bosporus to Andronikos\'s camp, where he was blinded. Andronikos then ferried his troops to the city and took control virtually without opposition. He almost immediately made his way to the Pantokrator Monastery, apparently to pay his respects to the tomb of Manuel.
Soon after Andronikos gained control of Constantinople in April 1182, the Massacre of the Latins erupted in the city. Andronikos made no effort to stop the pogroms, instead referring to them as a \"defeat of the tyranny of the Latins\" and a \"restoration of Roman affairs\". There is no evidence that Andronikos was particularly anti-Latin on a personal level but the massacre was politically useful since anti-Latin sentiment had helped bring him to power and because many Latins in the city had supported Maria of Antioch\'s regency. The bulk of Constantinople\'s Latin population were either killed or forced to flee and the Latin quarters were plundered and set on fire. According to Eustathius of Thessalonica, approximately 60,000 people were killed though this number is likely exaggerated. A papal delegate visiting Constantinople was decapitated and his head was tied to the tail of a dog.
In May, Patriarch Theodosios formally handed Constantinople over to Andronikos. The patriarch and Andronikos ensured that Alexios II was formally crowned as emperor on 16 May 1182. Andronikos carried the young emperor into Hagia Sophia on his shoulders and acted as a devoted supporter. Andronikos soon dealt with his political rivals as well as all major schemers during Maria of Antioch\'s regency, including those who had supported him. The blinded *prōtosebastos* was exiled to a monastery. Both Maria Komnene and Renier of Montferrat were poisoned within a few months. Andronikos Kontostephanos was suspected of conspiracy and blinded alongside his four sons in the summer of 1183. Maria of Antioch remained an obstacle since she was legally appointed as regent. Andronikos had Patriarch Theodosios agree on expelling her from the palace and then had her prosecuted for treason on the basis that she had asked her brother-in-law, Béla III of Hungary, for help. Found guilty, Maria was imprisoned and Andronikos had Alexios II sign a document condemning her to death. The empress was strangled to death and subjected to *damnatio memoriae*, with her portraits in public places being replaced with imagery of Andronikos.
In the place of Manuel\'s officials, Andronikos raised up his own loyalists, such as Michael Haploucheir and Stephen Hagiochristophorites. The execution of Maria of Antioch left the young Alexios II without protection. Andronikos had some of the clergy formally absolve him of his oaths to Manuel and Alexios II and was crowned as co-emperor in September 1183. Soon thereafter, Alexios II was strangled and his body was thrown in the sea, encased in lead. Just over a year after taking power as the young emperor\'s guardian, Andronikos had thus had him suppressed and killed and now ruled in his own name.
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# Andronikos I Komnenos
## Reign (1183--1185) {#reign_11831185}
Andronikos\'s assumption of sole power rapidly plunged the empire into further instability. The elimination of Alexios II made Andronikos dependent on a power base bound only to him through self-interest. In Alexios\'s place, Andronikos in November 1183 named his son John as co-emperor and heir. The choice likely fell on the younger John rather than the older son, Manuel, since John was considered more loyal and his name adhered to the AIMA prophecy. One of the only members of the previous immediate imperial family to survive Andronikos\'s rise to power was Agnes of France, Alexios II\'s young French wife. To increase his legitimacy, the elderly Andronikos controversially married the eleven-year-old empress.
Andronikos concentrated his political efforts on internal affairs and was determined to curtail the power of the aristocracy and stop corruption, returning absolute control of the state to the hands of the emperor. Under the preceding Komnenoi emperors, regional magnates had acquired vast power, managing their administrations at will and exploiting peasants and common citizens. Although often brutal, Andronikos was generally successful in his anti-aristocratic measures and his policies had a favorable effect on the citizenry. Because the emperor directly endangered their positions, aristocrats were uncooperative and many rose in revolt, in turn being suppressed with cruelty and terror. The situation soon evolved into a reign of terror where even suspicion of disloyalty could result in disgrace and execution. There were imperial spies everywhere, night arrests, and sham trials. Andronikos\'s purges were not limited to Constantinople. In the spring of 1184, the emperor marched into Anatolia to punish the cities of Nicaea and Prusa, which opposed his accession. The rebels included the aristocrat Isaac Angelos and his family. During the siege, Andronikos had Isaac\'s mother Euphrosyne placed on top of a battering ram to deter the defenders from trying to destroy it. After Prusa was taken by storm, several of the defenders were impaled outside the city walls, though Isaac was spared due to surrendering in return for immunity.
Other than his brutal suppression of aristocrats, Andronikos attempted to put sensible policies in place to secure the well-being of the peasantry and provincial administration of the empire. The taxation system was overhauled in an attempt to root out corruption and ensure that only regular taxes were paid (and not surcharges imposed by tax farmers). He further legislated that offices for collecting revenue were to be awarded based on merit and not sold to the highest bidder. Andronikos was receptive to accusations against aristocrats by the common people and the prosperity of the provincial population increased under his rule. The emperor actively responded to complaints of inequality and corruption, and tried to shorten the gap between the provinces and the capital, seeking to solve problems that had originated in Manuel\'s pro-aristocratic reign.
The brutality enacted against the ruling class caused the alliances built up under Manuel in the Balkans to fall apart. Béla III of Hungary invaded the empire in 1183, posing as an avenger of Maria of Antioch, but was driven away in 1184. During this conflict, Stefan Nemanja managed to secure Serbian independence from the empire. The suppression of aristocrats and rivals, some of whom were Andronikos\'s family members, led to many Byzantine nobles fleeing the empire in search of aid. Komnenian princelings are recorded as having approached figures such as the king of Hungary, the sultan of Rum, the marquis of Montferrat, the pope, the king of Jerusalem, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa with pleas of intervention, stirring up further trouble against the empire. In 1184, Andronikos\'s cousin Isaac Komnenos seized Cyprus and ruled there independently; in retaliation, Andronikos had two of Isaac\'s relatives stoned and impaled.
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# Andronikos I Komnenos
## Downfall and death {#downfall_and_death}
In 1185, the *pinkernēs* Alexios Komnenos, a great-nephew of Manuel, approached William II of Sicily with a request for aid against Andronikos. William invaded the Byzantine Empire and successfully captured both Dyrrhachium and Thessaloniki in the name of a young man pretending to be Alexios II. The capture of Thessaloniki in August 1185 was followed by a brutal sack of the city, portrayed by the chronicler William of Tyre as if the Sicilians were \"making war on God himself\", and as revenge for the Massacre of the Latins. With Thessaloniki captured, the Sicilians turned their eyes towards Constantinople. The war, however, slowly shifted in Andronikos\'s favor. The Byzantines successfully split up the invaders into several smaller forces and were slowing down their advance eastwards. Despite beginning to turn the tide, the atmosphere in Constantinople was tense and fearful and the fall of Thessaloniki had turned the common people of the city, previously strong supporters of Andronikos, against the emperor.
During this time, Andronikos sent Stephen Hagiochristophorites to arrest the earlier rebel Isaac Angelos, who was a matrilineal relative of the Komnenos dynasty. Isaac panicked, killed Hagiochristophorites, and sought refuge in the Hagia Sophia. Finding himself at the center of popular demonstrations against Andronikos, Isaac unwittingly became the champion of an uprising and was proclaimed emperor. Andronikos tried to flee Constantinople in a boat but was captured and brought to Isaac.
Isaac handed Andronikos over to the incensed people of Constantinople. Andronikos was tied to a post and brutally beaten for three days. Alongside numerous other punishments, his right hand was cut off, his teeth and hair were pulled out, one of his eyes was gouged out, and boiling water was thrown in his face. Andronikos was then taken to the Hippodrome, where he was hung by his feet between two pillars. Two Latin soldiers competed over whose sword could penetrate his body more deeply, and Andronikos\'s body was eventually torn apart. According to Niketas Choniates, Andronikos endured the brutality bravely, and retained his senses throughout the ordeal. He died on 12 September 1185, and his remains were left unburied and visible for several years afterwards. At the news of Andronikos\'s death, his son and co-emperor John was murdered by his own troops in Thrace.
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# Andronikos I Komnenos
## Family
Andronikos was married twice and had numerous mistresses. He had three children with his first wife, whose name is not recorded:
- Manuel Komnenos (1145--after 1185), an ambassador under Manuel I and opposed to many of the policies of his father. Manuel was blinded by the new regime established by Isaac Angelos and disappears from the sources thereafter. He was married to the Georgian princess Rusudan and the couple had two sons, Alexios and David Komnenos. In 1204, Alexios and David founded the Empire of Trebizond, which continued to be ruled by their descendants. Trapezuntine efforts to gain influence and power in the wider Byzantine world were hindered both by geography and by their emperors descending from Andronikos.
- John Komnenos (1159--1185), co-emperor with Andronikos. Murdered by his own troops after Andronikos\'s death in September 1185.
- Maria Komnene (born c. 1166), married to the nobleman Theodore Synadenos in 1182 and then to a nobleman named Romanos. Romanos is noted for mishandling the defence of Dyrrhachium against the Sicilians in 1185. The fates of Maria and Romanos after Andronikos\'s death are unknown.
Andronikos had no children with his second wife, Agnes of France, nor any known illegitimate children with any of his mistresses other than his long-term partner Theodora Komnene, with whom he had two:
- Alexios Komnenos (1170--c. 1199), fled to Georgia after 1185, where he married into the local nobility. Claimed descendants include the noble family of Andronikashvili.
- Irene Komnene (born 1171), married to the *sebastokrator* Alexios Komnenos, an illegitimate son of Manuel I. Alexios was involved in a conspiracy in October 1183, whereafter he was blinded and imprisoned and Irene became a nun.
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# Andronikos I Komnenos
## Legacy
Andronikos\'s fall from power ended the rule of the Komnenos dynasty, which had governed the Byzantine Empire since 1081. He was vilified as a tyrant in Byzantine writings after his death. The later Angeloi emperors made it official imperial policy that Andronikos had been a tyrant, echoed in all texts addressed to them or their officials. This policy included changing earlier texts; in the writings of Theodore Balsamon, for instance, all references to Andronikos as *basileus* (emperor) were replaced by *tyrannos*. Nicetas Choniates, a contemporary historian, called Andronikos \"Misophaes\" (*μισοφαής*, `{{lit|hater of sunlight}}`{=mediawiki}) in reference to the great number of enemies he had blinded.
The earlier Komnenoi emperors had instituted the Komnenian system of administration, family rule, and financial and military obligations. This system allowed the empire to achieve prosperity and some internal stability. It also greatly increased the power and wealth of the landowning provincial aristocracy. Aristocrats had become able to run their administrations at will, exploit common citizens, and withhold funds from the central government to use for their own purposes. At its extreme, this could allow for independent local governments, such as that of Isaac Komnenos in Cyprus and the later realm ruled by Leo Sgouros in the Peloponnese. The power and abuses of the aristocracy was a very real issue, recognized by Andronikos, which ultimately contributed to the empire\'s catastrophic decline after his death.
Through his reforms and brutal suppression, Andronikos destroyed the Komnenian system, though his death ended all attempts to curb the power of the aristocracy. Over the course of the subsequent Angelos dynasty, aristocratic power instead increased and the empire\'s central authority collapsed. Though blame for Byzantine decline has in the past been levied at Andronikos\'s brutal rule, his brutal efforts did little damage to the empire\'s long-term stability since they were largely confined to the ruling class, mostly in Constantinople itself. His domestic reforms were largely sensible, though imposed too hastily, and his brutal fall from power after a short reign stopped any chance of repairing the system. The Angeloi emperors, Isaac II Angelos (`{{Reign}}`{=mediawiki}1185--1195) and Alexios III Angelos (`{{Reign}}`{=mediawiki}1195--1203), faced problems of manpower directly resulting from the increasingly decentralized empire.
The historian Paul Magdalino suggested in 1993 that Andronikos\'s reign saw the setting of the precedents that allowed the Fourth Crusade (1202--1204) to transpire, including an increasingly anti-Latin foreign policy as well as the phenomenon of relatives of the imperial family traveling abroad in the hope of securing foreign intervention in imperial politics.
Several scholars, including Jonathan Bate and Geoffrey Bullough have suggested that William Shakespeare\'s play *The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus* was loosely based on Andronikos\'s life
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