diff --git "a/wikipedia_10.txt" "b/wikipedia_10.txt" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/wikipedia_10.txt" @@ -0,0 +1,10000 @@ +| 3,122 +| 3.1 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Leo Deumens +| align=left| The Left +| 2,397 +| 2.4 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Hubert vom Venn +| align=left| Die PARTEI +| 2,112 +| 2.1 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Jörg Polzin +| align=left| Independent +| 938 +| 0.9 +|- +| +| align=left| Ralf Haupts +| align=left| Independent Voters' Association Aachen +| 932 +| 0.9 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Matthias Achilles +| align=left| Pirate Party Germany +| 848 +| 0.8 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Adonis Böving +| align=left| Independent +| 317 +| 0.3 +|- +! colspan=3| Valid votes +! 101,999 +! 99.2 +! 79,688 +! 99.3 +|- +! colspan=3| Invalid votes +! 819 +! 0.8 +! 532 +! 0.7 +|- +! colspan=3| Total +! 102,818 +! 100.0 +! 80,220 +! 100.0 +|- +! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout +! 192,502 +! 53.4 +! 192,435 +! 41.7 +|- +| colspan=7| Source: State Returning Officer +|} + +City council + +The Aachen city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: + +! colspan=2| Party +! Votes +! % +! +/- +! Seats +! +/- +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) +| 34,712 +| 34.1 +| 17.5 +| 20 +| 7 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) +| 25,268 +| 24.8 +| 11.5 +| 14 +| 14 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD) +| 18,676 +| 18.3 +| 7.7 +| 11 +| 9 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP) +| 5,042 +| 4.9 +| 0.5 +| 3 +| ±0 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| The Left (Die Linke) +| 4,694 +| 4.6 +| 1.5 +| 3 +| 2 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD) +| 3,816 +| 3.7 +| 1.2 +| 2 +| ±0 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Volt Germany (Volt) +| 3,784 +| 3.7 +| New +| 2 +| New +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Die PARTEI (PARTEI) +| 2,295 +| 2.3 +| 1.8 +| 1 +| 1 +|- +| +| align=left| Independent Voters' Association Aachen (UWG) +| 1,632 +| 1.6 +| 0.2 +| 1 +| ±0 +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Pirate Party Germany (Piraten) +| 1,226 +| 1.2 +| 2.2 +| 1 +| 2 +|- +| colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey| +|- +| bgcolor=| +| align=left| Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP) +| 673 +| 0.7 +| New +| 0 +| New +|- +| +| align=left| Voter Group +| 45 +| 0.0 +| New +| 0 +| New +|- +! colspan=2| Valid votes +! 101,863 +! 99.1 +! +! +! +|- +! colspan=2| Invalid votes +! 918 +! 0.9 +! +! +! +|- +! colspan=2| Total +! 102,781 +! 100.0 +! +! 58 +! 18 +|- +! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout +! 192,502 +! 53.4 +! 0.7 +! +! +|- +| colspan=7| Source: State Returning Officer +|} + +Main sights + +Cathedral + +Aachen Cathedral was erected on the orders of Charlemagne. Construction began c. AD 796, and it was, on completion c. 798, the largest cathedral north of the Alps. It was modelled after the Basilica of San Vitale, in Ravenna, Italy, and was built by Odo of Metz. Charlemagne also desired for the chapel to compete with the Lateran Palace, both in quality and authority. It was originally built in the Carolingian style, including marble covered walls, and mosaic inlay on the dome. On his death, Charlemagne's remains were interred in the cathedral and can be seen there to this day. The cathedral was extended several times in later ages, turning it into a curious and unique mixture of building styles. The throne and gallery portion date from the Ottonian, with portions of the original opus sectile floor still visible. The 13th century saw gables being added to the roof, and after the fire of 1656, the dome was rebuilt. Finally, a choir was added around the start of the 15th century. + +After Frederick Barbarossa canonised Charlemagne in 1165 the chapel became a destination for pilgrims. For 600 years, from 936 to 1531, Aachen Cathedral was the church of coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queens. The church built by Charlemagne is still the main attraction of the city. In addition to holding the remains of its founder, it became the burial place of his successor Otto III. In the upper chamber of the gallery, Charlemagne's marble throne is housed. Aachen Cathedral has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. + +Most of the marble and columns used in the construction of the cathedral were brought from Rome and Ravenna, including the sarcophagus in which Charlemagne was eventually laid to rest. A bronze bear from Gaul was placed inside, along with an equestrian statue from Ravenna, believed to be Theodric, in contrast to a wolf and a statue of Marcus Aurelius in the Capitoline. Bronze pieces such as the doors and railings, some of which have survived to present day, were cast in a local foundry. Finally, there is uncertainty surrounding the bronze pine cone in the chapel, and where it was created. Wherever it was made, it was also a parallel to a piece in Rome, this in Old St. Peter's Basilica. + +Cathedral Treasury + +Aachen Cathedral Treasury has housed, throughout its history, a collection of liturgical objects. The origin of this church treasure is in dispute as some say Charlemagne himself endowed his chapel with the original collection, while the rest were collected over time. Others say all of the objects were collected over time, from such places as Jerusalem and Constantinople. The location of this treasury has moved over time and was unknown until the 15th century when it was located in the Matthiaskapelle (St. Matthew's Chapel) until 1873, when it was moved to the Karlskapelle (Charles' Chapel). From there it was moved to the Hungarian Chapel in 1881 and in 1931 to its present location next to the Allerseelenkapelle (Poor Souls' Chapel). Only six of the original Carolingian objects have remained, and of those only three are left in Aachen: the Aachen Gospels, a diptych of Christ, and an early Byzantine silk. The Coronation Gospels and a reliquary burse of St. Stephen were moved to Vienna in 1798 and the Talisman of Charlemagne was given as a gift in 1804 to Josephine Bonaparte and subsequently to Rheims Cathedral. 210 documented pieces have been added to the treasury since its inception, typically to receive in return legitimisation of linkage to the heritage of Charlemagne. The Lothar Cross, the Gospels of Otto III and multiple additional Byzantine silks were donated by Otto III. Part of the Pala d'Oro and a covering for the Aachen Gospels were made of gold donated by Henry II. Frederick Barbarossa donated the candelabrum that adorns the dome and also once "crowned" the Shrine of Charlemagne, which was placed underneath in 1215. Charles IV donated a pair of reliquaries. Louis XI gave, in 1475, the crown of Margaret of York, and, in 1481, another arm reliquary of Charlemagne. Maximilian I and Charles V both gave numerous works of art by Hans von Reutlingen. Continuing the tradition, objects continued to be donated until the present, each indicative of the period of its gifting, with the last documented gift being a chalice from 1960 made by Ewald Mataré. + +Rathaus + +The Aachen Rathaus, (English: Aachen City Hall or Aachen Town Hall) dated from 1330, lies between two central squares, the Markt (marketplace) and the Katschhof (between city hall and cathedral). The coronation hall is on the first floor of the building. Inside one can find five frescoes by the Aachen artist Alfred Rethel which show legendary scenes from the life of Charlemagne, as well as Charlemagne's signature. Also, precious replicas of the Imperial Regalia are kept here. + +Since 2009, the city hall has been a station on the Route Charlemagne, a tour programme by which historical sights of Aachen are presented to visitors. At the city hall, a museum exhibition explains the history and art of the building and gives a sense of the historical coronation banquets that took place there. A portrait of Napoleon from 1807 by Louis-André-Gabriel Bouchet and one of his wife Joséphine from 1805 by Robert Lefèvre are viewable as part of the tour. + +As before, the city hall is the seat of the mayor of Aachen and of the city council, and annually the Charlemagne Prize is awarded there. + +Other sights +The Grashaus, a late medieval house at the Fischmarkt, is one of the oldest non-religious buildings in central Aachen. It hosted the city archive, and before that, the Grashaus was the city hall until the present building took over this function. + +The Elisenbrunnen is one of the most famous sights of Aachen. It is a neo-classical hall covering one of the city's famous fountains. It is just a minute away from the cathedral. Just a few steps in a south-easterly direction lies the 19th-century theatre. + +Also of note are two remaining city gates, the Ponttor (Pont gate), northwest of the cathedral, and the Marschiertor (marching gate), close to the central railway station. There are also a few parts of both medieval city walls left, most of them integrated into more recent buildings, but some others still visible. There are even five towers left, some of which are used for housing. + +St. Michael's Church, Aachen was built as a church of the Aachen Jesuit Collegium in 1628. It is attributed to the Rhine mannerism, and a sample of a local Renaissance architecture. The rich façade remained unfinished until 1891, when the architect Peter Friedrich Peters added to it. The church is a Greek Orthodox church today, but the building is used also for concerts because of its good acoustics. + +The synagogue in Aachen, which was destroyed on the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht), 9 November 1938, was reinaugurated on 18 May 1995. One of the contributors to the reconstructions of the synagogue was Jürgen Linden, the Lord Mayor of Aachen from 1989 to 2009. + +There are numerous other notable churches and monasteries, a few remarkable 17th- and 18th-century buildings in the particular Baroque style typical of the region, a synagogue, a collection of statues and monuments, park areas, cemeteries, among others. Among the museums in the town are the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, which has a fine sculpture collection and the Aachen Museum of the International Press, which is dedicated to newspapers from the 16th century to the present. The area's industrial history is reflected in dozens of 19th- and early 20th-century manufacturing sites in the city. + +Economy + +Aachen is the administrative centre for the coal-mining industries in neighbouring places to the northeast. + +Products manufactured in Aachen include electrical goods, fine woolen textiles, foodstuffs (chocolate and candy), glass, machinery, rubber products, furniture, metal products. Also in and around Aachen chemicals, plastics, cosmetics, and needles and pins are produced. Though once a major player in Aachen's economy, today glassware and textile production make up only 10% of total manufacturing jobs in the city. There have been a number of spin-offs from the university's IT technology department. + +Electric vehicle manufacturing + +In June 2010, Achim Kampker, together with Günther Schuh, founded a small company to develop electric powered light utility vehicles; in August 2014, it was renamed StreetScooter GmbH. This started as a privately organised research initiative at the RWTH Aachen University, before becoming the independent company in Aachen. Kampker was also the founder and chairman of the European Network for Affordable and Sustainable Electromobility. In May 2014, the company announced that the city of Aachen, the city council Aachen and the savings bank Aachen had ordered electric vehicles from the company. In late 2014, approximately 70 employees were manufacturing 200 vehicles annually in the premises of the Waggonfabrik Talbot, the former Talbot/Bombardier plant in Aachen. + +In December 2014 DHL Group purchased the StreetScooter company from Günther, operating it as a wholly owned subsidiary. + +In 2015, Günther founded a new electric vehicle company, e.GO Mobile, which started producing the e.GO Life electric passenger car and other vehicles in April 2019. + +By April 2016, StreetScooter announced that it would produce 2000 of its electric vans, branded the Work, in Aachen by the end of the year, and would be scaling up to manufacture approximately 10,000 Works annually, starting in 2017, also in Aachen. At the time, this target would make it the largest electric light utility vehicle manufacturer in Europe, surpassing Renault's smaller Kangoo Z.E.. + +Culture + + In 1372, Aachen became the first coin-minting city in the world to regularly place an Anno Domini date on a general circulation coin, a groschen. + The Scotch Club in Aachen was the first discothèque in Germany, opened from 19 October 1959 until 1992. Klaus Quirini as DJ Heinrich was the first DJ ever. + The thriving Aachen black metal scene is among the most notable in Germany, with such bands as Nagelfar, The Ruins of Beverast, Graupel and Verdunkeln. + The local speciality of Aachen is an originally hard type of sweet bread, baked in large flat loaves, called Aachener Printen. Unlike Lebkuchen, a German form of gingerbread sweetened with honey, Printen use a syrup made from sugar. Today, a soft version is sold under the same name which follows an entirely different recipe. + Asteroid 274835 Aachen, discovered by amateur astronomer Erwin Schwab in 2009, was named after the city. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 8 November 2019 (). + Kammerchor Carmina Mundi, a professional chamber choir + +Education + +RWTH Aachen University, established as Polytechnicum in 1870, is one of Germany's Universities of Excellence with strong emphasis on technological research, especially for electrical and mechanical engineering, computer sciences, physics, and chemistry. The university clinic attached to the RWTH, the Klinikum Aachen, is the biggest single-building hospital in Europe. Over time, a host of software and computer industries have developed around the university. It also maintains a botanical garden (the Botanischer Garten Aachen). + +FH Aachen, Aachen University of Applied Sciences (AcUAS) was founded in 1971. The AcUAS offers a classic engineering education in professions such as mechatronics, construction engineering, mechanical engineering or electrical engineering. German and international students are educated in more than 20 international or foreign-oriented programmes and can acquire German as well as international degrees (Bachelor/Master) or Doppelabschlüsse (double degrees). Foreign students account for more than 21% of the student body. + +The Katholische Hochschule Nordrhein-Westfalen – Abteilung Aachen (Catholic University of Applied Sciences Northrhine-Westphalia – Aachen department) offers its some 750 students a variety of degree programmes: social work, childhood education, nursing, and co-operative management. It also has the only programme of study in Germany especially designed for mothers. + +The (Cologne University of Music) is one of the world's foremost performing arts schools and one of the largest music institutions for higher education in Europe with one of its three campuses in Aachen. The Aachen campus substantially contributes to the Opera/Musical Theatre master's programme by collaborating with the Theater Aachen and the recently established musical theatre chair through the Rheinische Opernakademie. + +The German army's Technical School (Ausbildungszentrum Technik Landsysteme) is in Aachen. + +Sports + +The annual CHIO (short for the French term Concours Hippique International Officiel) is the biggest equestrian meeting of the world and among horsemen is considered to be as prestigious for equitation as the tournament of Wimbledon for tennis. Aachen hosted the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games. + +The local football team Alemannia Aachen had a short run in Germany's first division, after its promotion in 2006. However, the team could not sustain its status and is now back in the fourth division. The stadium "Tivoli", opened in 1928, served as the venue for the team's home games and was well known for its incomparable atmosphere throughout the whole of the second division. Before the old stadium's demolition in 2011, it was used by amateurs, whilst the Bundesliga Club held its games in the new stadium "Neuer Tivoli" – meaning New Tivoli—a couple of metres down the road. The building work for the stadium which has a capacity of 32,960, began in May 2008 and was completed by the beginning of 2009. + +The Ladies in Black women's volleyball team (part of the "PTSV Aachen" sports club since 2013) has played in the first German volleyball league (DVL) since 2008. + +In June 2022, the local basketball club BG Aachen e.V. was promoted to the 1st regional league. + +Transport + +Rail +Aachen's railway station, the Hauptbahnhof (Central Station), was constructed in 1841 for the Cologne–Aachen railway line. In 1905, it was moved closer to the city centre. It serves main lines to Cologne, Mönchengladbach and Liège as well as branch lines to Heerlen, Alsdorf, Stolberg and Eschweiler. ICE high speed trains from Brussels via Cologne to Frankfurt am Main and Thalys trains from Paris to Cologne also stop at Aachen Central Station. Four RE lines and two RB lines connect Aachen with the Ruhrgebiet, Mönchengladbach, Spa (Belgium), Düsseldorf and the Siegerland. The Euregiobahn, a regional railway system, reaches several minor cities in the Aachen region. + +There are four smaller stations in Aachen: Aachen West, Aachen Schanz, Aachen-Rothe Erde and Eilendorf. Slower trains stop at these. Aachen West has gained in importance with the expansion of RWTH Aachen University. + +Intercity bus stations +There are two stations for intercity bus services in Aachen: Aachen West station, in the north-west of the city, and Aachen Wilmersdorfer Straße, in the north-east. + +Public transport + +The first horse tram line in Aachen opened in December 1880. After electrification in 1895, it attained a maximum length of in 1915, thus becoming the fourth-longest tram network in Germany. Many tram lines extended to the surrounding towns of Herzogenrath, Stolberg, Alsdorf as well as the Belgian and Dutch communes of Vaals, Kelmis (then Altenberg) and Eupen. The Aachen tram system was linked with the Belgian national interurban tram system. Like many tram systems in Western Europe, the Aachen tram suffered from poorly-maintained infrastructure and was so deemed unnecessary and disrupting for car drivers by local politics. On 28 September 1974, the last line 15 (Vaals–Brand) operated for one last day and was then replaced by buses. A proposal to reinstate a tram/light rail system under the name Campusbahn was dropped after a referendum. + +Today, the ASEAG (Aachener Straßenbahn und Energieversorgungs-AG, literally "Aachen tram and power supply company") operates a bus network with 68 bus routes. Because of the location at the border, many bus routes extend to Belgium and the Netherlands. Lines 14 to Eupen, Belgium and 44 to Heerlen, Netherlands are jointly operated with Transport en Commun and Veolia Transport Nederland, respectively. ASEAG is one of the main participants in the Aachener Verkehrsverbund (AVV), a tariff association in the region. Along with ASEAG, city bus routes of Aachen are served by private contractors such as Sadar, Taeter, Schlömer, or DB Regio Bus. Line 350, which runs from Maastricht, also enters Aachen. + +Roads +Aachen is connected to the Autobahn A4 (west-east), A44 (north-south) and A544 (a smaller motorway from the A4 to the Europaplatz near the city centre). There are plans to eliminate traffic jams at the Aachen road interchange. + +Airport +Maastricht Aachen Airport is the main airport of Aachen and Maastricht. It is located around northwest of Aachen. There is a shuttle-service between Aachen and the airport. + +Recreational aviation is served by the (formerly military) Aachen Merzbrück Airfield. + +Charlemagne Prize + +Since 1950, a committee of Aachen citizens annually awards the Charlemagne Prize () to personalities of outstanding service to the unification of Europe. It is traditionally awarded on Ascension Day at the City Hall. In 2016, the Charlemagne Award was awarded to Pope Francis. + +The International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen was awarded in the year 2000 to US president Bill Clinton, for his special personal contribution to co-operation with the states of Europe, for the preservation of peace, freedom, democracy and human rights in Europe, and for his support of the enlargement of the European Union. In 2004, Pope John Paul II's efforts to unite Europe were honoured with an "Extraordinary Charlemagne Medal", which was awarded for the only time ever. + +Literature +Aix is the destination in Robert Browning's poem "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix", which was published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. The poem is a first-person narrative told, in breathless galloping meter, by one of three riders; an urgent midnight errand to deliver "the news which alone could save Aix from her fate". + +Notable people + +Twin towns – sister cities + +Aachen is twinned with: + + Montebourg, France (1960) + Reims, France (1967) + Halifax, England (1979) + Toledo, Spain (1985) + Ningbo, China (1986) + Naumburg, Germany (1988) + Arlington County, United States (1993) + Kostroma, Russia (2005, suspended since March 2022) + Sarıyer, Istanbul, Turkey (2013) + Cape Town, South Africa (2017) + +See also + + Aachen (district) + Aachen Prison + Aachen tram + Aachener + Aachener Chronik + Aachener Bachverein + List of mayors of Aachen + Council of Aachen + Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (disambiguation) + Maastricht Aachen Airport + Computer museum Aachen + +Notes + +References + +Sources + +Further reading + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rice, Eric, Music and Ritual at Charlemagne's Marienkirche in Aachen. Kassel: Merseburger, 2009. + +External links + + + + +Aachen (district) +Belgium–Germany border crossings +Catholic pilgrimage sites +Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia +1st century +Free imperial cities +Jewish German history +Matter of France +Populated places established in the 1st century +Rhineland +Roman towns and cities in Germany +765 +Spa towns in Germany +Agate () is the banded variety of chalcedony, which comes in a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Ancient Greece, in assorted jewelry and in the seal stones of Greek warriors, while bead necklaces with pierced and polished agate date back to the 3rd millennium BCE in the Indus Valley civilisation. + +Etymology +The stone was given its name by Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher and naturalist, who discovered the stone along the shore line of the Dirillo River or Achates () in Sicily, sometime between the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. + +Formation and properties + +Agate minerals have the tendency to form on or within pre-existing rocks, creating difficulties in accurately determining their time of formation. Their host rocks have been dated to have formed as early as the Archean Eon. Agates are most commonly found as nodules within the cavities of volcanic rocks. These cavities are formed from the gases trapped within the liquid volcanic material forming vesicles. Cavities are then filled in with silica-rich fluids from the volcanic material, layers are deposited on the walls of the cavity slowly working their way inwards. The first layer deposited on the cavity walls is commonly known as the priming layer. Variations in the character of the solution or in the conditions of deposition may cause a corresponding variation in the successive layers. These variations in layers result in bands of chalcedony, often alternating with layers of crystalline quartz forming banded agate. Hollow agates can also form due to the deposition of liquid-rich silica not penetrating deep enough to fill the cavity completely. Agate will form crystals within the reduced cavity, and the apex of each crystal may point towards the center of the cavity. + +The priming layer is often dark green, but can be modified by iron oxide resulting in a rust like appearance. Agate is very durable, and is often found detached from its host matrix, which has eroded away. Once removed, the outer surface is usually pitted and rough from filling the cavity of its former matrix. Agates have also been found in sedimentary rocks, normally in limestone or dolomite; these sedimentary rocks acquire cavities often from decomposed branches or other buried organic material. If silica-rich fluids are able to penetrate into these cavities agates can be formed. + +Types +Lace agate is a variety that exhibits a lace-like pattern with forms such as eyes, swirls, bands or zigzags. Blue lace agate is found in Africa and is especially hard. Crazy lace agate, typically found in Mexico, is often brightly colored with a complex pattern, demonstrating randomized distribution of contour lines and circular droplets, scattered throughout the rock. The stone is typically coloured red and white but is also seen to exhibit yellow and grey combinations as well. + +Moss agate, as the name suggests, exhibits a moss-like pattern and is of a greenish colour. The coloration is not created by any vegetative growth, but rather through the mixture of chalcedony and oxidized iron hornblende. Dendritic agate also displays vegetative features, including fern-like patterns formed due to the presence of manganese and iron oxides. + +Turritella agate (Elimia tenera) is formed from the shells of fossilized freshwater Turritella gastropods with elongated spiral shells. Similarly, coral, petrified wood, porous rocks and other organic remains can also form agate. + +Coldwater agates, such as the Lake Michigan cloud agate, did not form under volcanic processes, but instead formed within the limestone and dolomite strata of marine origin. Like volcanic-origin agates, Coldwater agates formed from silica gels that lined pockets and seams within the bedrock. These agates are typically less colorful, with banded lines of grey and white chalcedony. + +Greek agate is a name given to pale white to tan colored agate found in the former Greek colony of Sicily as early as 400 BCE. The Greeks used it for making jewelry and beads. + +Brazilian agate is found as sizable geodes of layered nodules. These occur in brownish tones inter-layered with white and gray. It is often dyed in various colors for ornamental purposes. + +Polyhedroid agate forms in a flat-sided shape similar to a polyhedron. When sliced, it often shows a characteristic layering of concentric polygons. It has been suggested that growth is not crystallographically controlled but is due to the filling-in of spaces between pre-existing crystals which have since dissolved. + +Iris agate is a finely-banded and usually colorless agate, that when thinly sliced, exhibits spectral decomposition of white light into its constituent colors, requiring 400 to up to 30,000 bands per inch. + +Other forms of agate include Holley blue agate (also spelled "Holly blue agate"), a rare dark blue ribbon agate found only near Holley, Oregon; Lake Superior agate; Carnelian agate (has reddish hues); Botswana agate; plume agate; condor agate; tube agate containing visible flow channels or pinhole-sized "tubes"; fortification agate with contrasting concentric banding reminiscent of defensive ditches and walls around ancient forts; Binghamite, a variety found only on the Cuyuna iron range (near Crosby) in Crow Wing County, Minnesota; fire agate showing an iridescent, internal flash or "fire", the result of a layer of clear agate over a layer of hydrothermally deposited hematite; Patuxent River stone, a red and yellow form of agate only found in Maryland; and enhydro agate, which contains tiny inclusions of water, sometimes with air bubbles. + +Agate is a versatile gemstone that is often used in jewelry making. Agate is favored for its durability, with a Mohs scale hardness rating of 6.5-7. It is known for its colorful, banded patterns and wide range of hues. Agate is found in a wide range of colors, including shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink, as well as black and white. Agate is generally more affordable than other gemstones. + +Uses + +Agate is one of the most common materials used in the art of hardstone carving, and has been recovered at a number of ancient sites, indicating its widespread use in the ancient world; for example, archaeological recovery at the Knossos site on Crete illustrates its role in Bronze Age Minoan culture. It has also been used for centuries for leather burnishing tools. + +The decorative arts use it to make ornaments such as pins, brooches or other types of jewellery, paper knives, inkstands, marbles and seals. Agate is also still used today for decorative displays, cabochons, beads, carvings and Intarsia art as well as face-polished and tumble-polished specimens of varying size and origin. Idar-Oberstein was one of the centers which made use of agate on an industrial scale. Where in the beginning locally found agates were used to make all types of objects for the European market, this became a globalized business around the turn of the 20th century: Idar-Oberstein imported large quantities of agate from Brazil, as ship's ballast. Making use of a variety of proprietary chemical processes, they produced colored beads that were sold around the globe. Agates have long been used in arts and crafts. The sanctuary of a Presbyterian church in Yachats, Oregon, has six windows with panes made of agates collected from the local beaches. + +Industrial uses of agate exploit its hardness, ability to retain a highly polished surface finish and resistance to chemical attack. It has traditionally been used to make knife-edge bearings for laboratory balances and precision pendulums, and sometimes to make mortars and pestles to crush and mix chemicals. + +Health impact +Respiratory diseases such as silicosis, and a higher incidence of tuberculosis among workers involved in the agate industry, have been studied in India and China. + +See also + + Amber + Amethyst + Aqeeq + Aquamarine + Citrine + Diamond + Emerald + Garnet + Geode + Kyanite + Labradorite + + Lithophysa + Moonstone + Opal + Peridot + Rose Quartz + Swiss Blue Topaz + Thunderegg + Tiger's Eye + Topaz + Tourmaline + +Citations + +General and cited references + Cross, Brad L. and Zeitner, June Culp. Geodes: Nature's Treasures. Bardwin Park, Calif.: Gem Guides Book Co. 2005. + Hart, Gilbert "The Nomenclature of Silica", American Mineralogist, Volume 12, pages 383–395, 1927 + International Colored Gemstone Association, "Agate: banded beauty" + "Agate", Mindat.org, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy + Moxon, Terry. Agate: Microstructure and Possible Origin. Doncaster, S. Yorks, UK: Terra Publications, 1996. + Pabian, Roger, et al. Agates: Treasures of the Earth. Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books, 2006. + Schumann, Walter. Gemstones of the World. 3rd edition. New York: Sterling, 2006. + +External links + + "Agates", School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (retrieved 27 December 2014). + + +Hardstone carving +Silicate minerals +Symbols of South Dakota +Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and/or inflammation, and as an antithrombotic. Specific inflammatory conditions which aspirin is used to treat include Kawasaki disease, pericarditis, and rheumatic fever. + +Aspirin is also used long-term to help prevent further heart attacks, ischaemic strokes, and blood clots in people at high risk. For pain or fever, effects typically begin within 30 minutes. Aspirin works similarly to other NSAIDs but also suppresses the normal functioning of platelets. + +One common adverse effect is an upset stomach. More significant side effects include stomach ulcers, stomach bleeding, and worsening asthma. Bleeding risk is greater among those who are older, drink alcohol, take other NSAIDs, or are on other blood thinners. Aspirin is not recommended in the last part of pregnancy. It is not generally recommended in children with infections because of the risk of Reye syndrome. High doses may result in ringing in the ears. + +A precursor to aspirin found in the bark of the willow tree (genus Salix) has been used for its health effects for at least 2,400 years. In 1853, chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt treated the medicine sodium salicylate with acetyl chloride to produce acetylsalicylic acid for the first time. Over the next 50 years, other chemists established the chemical structure and devised more efficient production methods. + +Aspirin is available without medical prescription as a proprietary or generic medication in most jurisdictions. It is one of the most widely used medications globally, with an estimated (50 to 120 billion pills) consumed each year, and is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. In 2020, it was the 36th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 17million prescriptions. + +Brand vs. generic name +In 1897, scientists at the Bayer company began studying acetylsalicylic acid as a less-irritating replacement medication for common salicylate medicines. By 1899, Bayer had named it "Aspirin" and sold it around the world. + +Aspirin's popularity grew over the first half of the 20th century, leading to competition between many brands and formulations. The word Aspirin was Bayer's brand name; however, their rights to the trademark were lost or sold in many countries. The name is ultimately a blend of the prefix a(cetyl) + spir Spiraea, the meadowsweet plant genus from which the acetylsalicylic acid was originally derived at Bayer + -in, the common chemical suffix. + +Chemical properties +Aspirin decomposes rapidly in solutions of ammonium acetate or the acetates, carbonates, citrates, or hydroxides of the alkali metals. It is stable in dry air, but gradually hydrolyses in contact with moisture to acetic and salicylic acids. In solution with alkalis, the hydrolysis proceeds rapidly and the clear solutions formed may consist entirely of acetate and salicylate. + +Like flour mills, factories producing aspirin tablets must control the amount of the powder that becomes airborne inside the building, because the powder-air mixture can be explosive. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a recommended exposure limit in the United States of 5mg/m3 (time-weighted average). In 1989, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) set a legal permissible exposure limit for aspirin of 5mg/m3, but this was vacated by the AFL-CIO v. OSHA decision in 1993. + +Synthesis +The synthesis of aspirin is classified as an esterification reaction. Salicylic acid is treated with acetic anhydride, an acid derivative, causing a chemical reaction that turns salicylic acid's hydroxyl group into an ester group (R-OH → R-OCOCH3). This process yields aspirin and acetic acid, which is considered a byproduct of this reaction. Small amounts of sulfuric acid (and occasionally phosphoric acid) are almost always used as a catalyst. This method is commonly demonstrated in undergraduate teaching labs. + +Reaction between acetic acid and salicylic acid can also form aspirin but this esterification reaction is reversible and the presence of water can lead to hydrolysis of the aspirin. So, an anhydrous reagent is preferred. +Reaction mechanism + +Formulations containing high concentrations of aspirin often smell like vinegar because aspirin can decompose through hydrolysis in moist conditions, yielding salicylic and acetic acids. + +Physical properties +Aspirin, an acetyl derivative of salicylic acid, is a white, crystalline, weakly acidic substance, which melts at , and decomposes around . Its acid dissociation constant (pKa) is 3.5 at . + +Polymorphism + +Polymorphism, or the ability of a substance to form more than one crystal structure, is important in the development of pharmaceutical ingredients. Many drugs receive regulatory approval for only a single crystal form or polymorph. + +There was only one proven polymorph Form I of aspirin, though the existence of another polymorph was debated since the 1960s, and one report from 1981 reported that when crystallized in the presence of aspirin anhydride, the diffractogram of aspirin has weak additional peaks. Though at the time it was dismissed as mere impurity, it was, in retrospect, Form II aspirin. + +Form II was reported in 2005, found after attempted co-crystallization of aspirin and levetiracetam from hot acetonitrile. + +In form I, pairs of aspirin molecules form centrosymmetric dimers through the acetyl groups with the (acidic) methyl proton to carbonyl hydrogen bonds. In form II, each aspirin molecule forms the same hydrogen bonds, but with two neighbouring molecules instead of one. With respect to the hydrogen bonds formed by the carboxylic acid groups, both polymorphs form identical dimer structures. The aspirin polymorphs contain identical 2-dimensional sections and are therefore more precisely described as polytypes. + +Pure Form II aspirin could be prepared by seeding the batch with aspirin anhydrate in 15% weight. + +Mechanism of action + +Discovery of the mechanism +In 1971, British pharmacologist John Robert Vane, then employed by the Royal College of Surgeons in London, showed aspirin suppressed the production of prostaglandins and thromboxanes. For this discovery he was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, jointly with Sune Bergström and Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson. + +Prostaglandins and thromboxanes +Aspirin's ability to suppress the production of prostaglandins and thromboxanes is due to its irreversible inactivation of the cyclooxygenase (COX; officially known as prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase, PTGS) enzyme required for prostaglandin and thromboxane synthesis. Aspirin acts as an acetylating agent where an acetyl group is covalently attached to a serine residue in the active site of the PTGS enzyme (Suicide inhibition). This makes aspirin different from other NSAIDs (such as diclofenac and ibuprofen), which are reversible inhibitors. + +Low-dose aspirin use irreversibly blocks the formation of thromboxane A2 in platelets, producing an inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation during the lifetime of the affected platelet (8–9 days). This antithrombotic property makes aspirin useful for reducing the incidence of heart attacks in people who have had a heart attack, unstable angina, ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack. 40mg of aspirin a day is able to inhibit a large proportion of maximum thromboxane A2 release provoked acutely, with the prostaglandin I2 synthesis being little affected; however, higher doses of aspirin are required to attain further inhibition. + +Prostaglandins, local hormones produced in the body, have diverse effects, including the transmission of pain information to the brain, modulation of the hypothalamic thermostat, and inflammation. Thromboxanes are responsible for the aggregation of platelets that form blood clots. Heart attacks are caused primarily by blood clots, and low doses of aspirin are seen as an effective medical intervention to prevent a second acute myocardial infarction. + +COX-1 and COX-2 inhibition +At least two different types of cyclooxygenases, COX-1 and COX-2, are acted on by aspirin. Aspirin irreversibly inhibits COX-1 and modifies the enzymatic activity of COX-2. COX-2 normally produces prostanoids, most of which are proinflammatory. Aspirin-modified PTGS2 (prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2) produces lipoxins, most of which are anti-inflammatory. Newer NSAID drugs, COX-2 inhibitors (coxibs), have been developed to inhibit only PTGS2, with the intent to reduce the incidence of gastrointestinal side effects. + +Several COX-2 inhibitors, such as rofecoxib (Vioxx), have been withdrawn from the market, after evidence emerged that PTGS2 inhibitors increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Endothelial cells lining the microvasculature in the body are proposed to express PTGS2, and, by selectively inhibiting PTGS2, prostaglandin production (specifically, PGI2; prostacyclin) is downregulated with respect to thromboxane levels, as PTGS1 in platelets is unaffected. Thus, the protective anticoagulative effect of PGI2 is removed, increasing the risk of thrombus and associated heart attacks and other circulatory problems. Since platelets have no DNA, they are unable to synthesize new PTGS once aspirin has irreversibly inhibited the enzyme, an important difference as compared with reversible inhibitors. + +Furthermore, aspirin, while inhibiting the ability of COX-2 to form pro-inflammatory products such as the prostaglandins, converts this enzyme's activity from a prostaglandin-forming cyclooxygenase to a lipoxygenase-like enzyme: aspirin-treated COX-2 metabolizes a variety of polyunsaturated fatty acids to hydroperoxy products which are then further metabolized to specialized proresolving mediators such as the aspirin-triggered lipoxins, aspirin-triggered resolvins, and aspirin-triggered maresins. These mediators possess potent anti-inflammatory activity. It is proposed that this aspirin-triggered transition of COX-2 from cyclooxygenase to lipoxygenase activity and the consequential formation of specialized proresolving mediators contributes to the anti-inflammatory effects of aspirin. + +Additional mechanisms +Aspirin has been shown to have at least three additional modes of action. It uncouples oxidative phosphorylation in cartilaginous (and hepatic) mitochondria, by diffusing from the inner membrane space as a proton carrier back into the mitochondrial matrix, where it ionizes once again to release protons. Aspirin buffers and transports the protons. When high doses are given, it may actually cause fever, owing to the heat released from the electron transport chain, as opposed to the antipyretic action of aspirin seen with lower doses. In addition, aspirin induces the formation of NO-radicals in the body, which have been shown in mice to have an independent mechanism of reducing inflammation. This reduced leukocyte adhesion is an important step in the immune response to infection; however, evidence is insufficient to show aspirin helps to fight infection. More recent data also suggest salicylic acid and its derivatives modulate signalling through NF-κB. NF-κB, a transcription factor complex, plays a central role in many biological processes, including inflammation. + +Aspirin is readily broken down in the body to salicylic acid, which itself has anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, and analgesic effects. In 2012, salicylic acid was found to activate AMP-activated protein kinase, which has been suggested as a possible explanation for some of the effects of both salicylic acid and aspirin. The acetyl portion of the aspirin molecule has its own targets. Acetylation of cellular proteins is a well-established phenomenon in the regulation of protein function at the post-translational level. Aspirin is able to acetylate several other targets in addition to COX isoenzymes. These acetylation reactions may explain many hitherto unexplained effects of aspirin. + +Formulations + +Aspirin is produced in many formulations, with some differences in effect. In particular, aspirin can cause gastrointestinal bleeding, and formulations are sought which deliver the benefits of aspirin while mitigating harmful bleeding. Formulations may be combined (e.g., buffered + vitamin C). +Tablets, typically of about 75–100 mg and 300–320 mg of immediate-release aspirin (IR-ASA). +Dispersible tablets. +Enteric-coated tablets. +Buffered formulations containing aspirin with one of many buffering agents. +Formulations of aspirin with vitamin C (ASA-VitC) +A phospholipid-aspirin complex liquid formulation, PL-ASA. the phospholipid coating was being trialled to determine if it caused less gastrointestinal damage. + +Pharmacokinetics +Acetylsalicylic acid is a weak acid, and very little of it is ionized in the stomach after oral administration. Acetylsalicylic acid is quickly absorbed through the cell membrane in the acidic conditions of the stomach. The increased pH and larger surface area of the small intestine causes aspirin to be absorbed more slowly there, as more of it is ionized. Owing to the formation of concretions, aspirin is absorbed much more slowly during overdose, and plasma concentrations can continue to rise for up to 24 hours after ingestion. + +About 50–80% of salicylate in the blood is bound to human serum albumin, while the rest remains in the active, ionized state; protein binding is concentration-dependent. Saturation of binding sites leads to more free salicylate and increased toxicity. The volume of distribution is 0.1–0.2 L/kg. Acidosis increases the volume of distribution because of enhancement of tissue penetration of salicylates. + +As much as 80% of therapeutic doses of salicylic acid is metabolized in the liver. Conjugation with glycine forms salicyluric acid, and with glucuronic acid to form two different glucuronide esters. The conjugate with the acetyl group intact is referred to as the acyl glucuronide; the deacetylated conjugate is the phenolic glucuronide. These metabolic pathways have only a limited capacity. Small amounts of salicylic acid are also hydroxylated to gentisic acid. With large salicylate doses, the kinetics switch from first-order to zero-order, as metabolic pathways become saturated and renal excretion becomes increasingly important. + +Salicylates are excreted mainly by the kidneys as salicyluric acid (75%), free salicylic acid (10%), salicylic phenol (10%), and acyl glucuronides (5%), gentisic acid (< 1%), and 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid. When small doses (less than 250mg in an adult) are ingested, all pathways proceed by first-order kinetics, with an elimination half-life of about 2.0 h to 4.5 h. When higher doses of salicylate are ingested (more than 4 g), the half-life becomes much longer (15 h to 30 h), because the biotransformation pathways concerned with the formation of salicyluric acid and salicyl phenolic glucuronide become saturated. Renal excretion of salicylic acid becomes increasingly important as the metabolic pathways become saturated, because it is extremely sensitive to changes in urinary pH. A 10- to 20-fold increase in renal clearance occurs when urine pH is increased from 5 to 8. The use of urinary alkalinization exploits this particular aspect of salicylate elimination. It was found that short-term aspirin use in therapeutic doses might precipitate reversible acute kidney injury when the patient was ill with glomerulonephritis or cirrhosis. Aspirin for some patients with chronic kidney disease and some children with congestive heart failure was contraindicated. + +History + +Medicines made from willow and other salicylate-rich plants appear in clay tablets from ancient Sumer as well as the Ebers Papyrus from ancient Egypt. Hippocrates referred to the use of salicylic tea to reduce fevers around 400 BC, and willow bark preparations were part of the pharmacopoeia of Western medicine in classical antiquity and the Middle Ages. Willow bark extract became recognized for its specific effects on fever, pain, and inflammation in the mid-eighteenth century. By the nineteenth century, pharmacists were experimenting with and prescribing a variety of chemicals related to salicylic acid, the active component of willow extract. + +In 1853, chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt treated sodium salicylate with acetyl chloride to produce acetylsalicylic acid for the first time; in the second half of the 19th century, other academic chemists established the compound's chemical structure and devised more efficient methods of synthesis. In 1897, scientists at the drug and dye firm Bayer began investigating acetylsalicylic acid as a less-irritating replacement for standard common salicylate medicines, and identified a new way to synthesize it. By 1899, Bayer had dubbed this drug Aspirin and was selling it globally. The word Aspirin was Bayer's brand name, rather than the generic name of the drug; however, Bayer's rights to the trademark were lost or sold in many countries. Aspirin's popularity grew over the first half of the 20th century leading to fierce competition with the proliferation of aspirin brands and products. + +Aspirin's popularity declined after the development of acetaminophen/paracetamol in 1956 and ibuprofen in 1962. In the 1960s and 1970s, John Vane and others discovered the basic mechanism of aspirin's effects, while clinical trials and other studies from the 1960s to the 1980s established aspirin's efficacy as an anti-clotting agent that reduces the risk of clotting diseases. The initial large studies on the use of low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attacks that were published in the 1970s and 1980s helped spur reform in clinical research ethics and guidelines for human subject research and US federal law, and are often cited as examples of clinical trials that included only men, but from which people drew general conclusions that did not hold true for women. + +Aspirin sales revived considerably in the last decades of the 20th century, and remain strong in the 21st century with widespread use as a preventive treatment for heart attacks and strokes. + +Trademark + +Bayer lost its trademark for Aspirin in the United States and some other countries in actions taken between 1918 and 1921 because it had failed to use the name for its own product correctly and had for years allowed the use of "Aspirin" by other manufacturers without defending the intellectual property rights. Today, aspirin is a generic trademark in many countries. Aspirin, with a capital "A", remains a registered trademark of Bayer in Germany, Canada, Mexico, and in over 80 other countries, for acetylsalicylic acid in all markets, but using different packaging and physical aspects for each. + +Compendial status + United States Pharmacopeia + British Pharmacopoeia + +Medical use +Aspirin is used in the treatment of a number of conditions, including fever, pain, rheumatic fever, and inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, pericarditis, and Kawasaki disease. Lower doses of aspirin have also been shown to reduce the risk of death from a heart attack, or the risk of stroke in people who are at high risk or who have cardiovascular disease, but not in elderly people who are otherwise healthy. There is evidence that aspirin is effective at preventing colorectal cancer, though the mechanisms of this effect are unclear. In the United States, the selective initiation of low-dose aspirin, based on an individualised assessment, has been deemed reasonable for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in people aged between 40 and 59 who have a 10% or greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease over the next 10 years and are not at an increased risk of bleeding. + +Pain + +Aspirin is an effective analgesic for acute pain, although it is generally considered inferior to ibuprofen because aspirin is more likely to cause gastrointestinal bleeding. Aspirin is generally ineffective for those pains caused by muscle cramps, bloating, gastric distension, or acute skin irritation. As with other NSAIDs, combinations of aspirin and caffeine provide slightly greater pain relief than aspirin alone. Effervescent formulations of aspirin relieve pain faster than aspirin in tablets, which makes them useful for the treatment of migraines. Topical aspirin may be effective for treating some types of neuropathic pain. + +Aspirin, either by itself or in a combined formulation, effectively treats certain types of a headache, but its efficacy may be questionable for others. Secondary headaches, meaning those caused by another disorder or trauma, should be promptly treated by a medical provider. Among primary headaches, the International Classification of Headache Disorders distinguishes between tension headache (the most common), migraine, and cluster headache. Aspirin or other over-the-counter analgesics are widely recognized as effective for the treatment of tension headaches. Aspirin, especially as a component of an aspirin/paracetamol/caffeine combination, is considered a first-line therapy in the treatment of migraine, and comparable to lower doses of sumatriptan. It is most effective at stopping migraines when they are first beginning. + +Fever +Like its ability to control pain, aspirin's ability to control fever is due to its action on the prostaglandin system through its irreversible inhibition of COX. Although aspirin's use as an antipyretic in adults is well established, many medical societies and regulatory agencies, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Food and Drug Administration, strongly advise against using aspirin for the treatment of fever in children because of the risk of Reye's syndrome, a rare but often fatal illness associated with the use of aspirin or other salicylates in children during episodes of viral or bacterial infection. Because of the risk of Reye's syndrome in children, in 1986, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required labeling on all aspirin-containing medications advising against its use in children and teenagers. + +Inflammation +Aspirin is used as an anti-inflammatory agent for both acute and long-term inflammation, as well as for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. + +Heart attacks and strokes +Aspirin is an important part of the treatment of those who have had a heart attack. It is generally not recommended for routine use by people with no other health problems, including those over the age of 70. + +The 2009 Antithrombotic Trialists' Collaboration published in Lancet evaluated the efficacy and safety of low dose aspirin in secondary prevention. In those with prior ischaemic stroke or acute myocardial infarction, daily low dose aspirin was associated with a 19% relative risk reduction of serious cardiovascular events (non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, or vascular death). This did come at the expense of a 0.19% absolute risk increase in gastrointestinal bleeding; however, the benefits outweigh the hazard risk in this case. Data from previous trials have suggested that weight-based dosing of aspirin has greater benefits in primary prevention of cardiovascular outcomes. However, more recent trials were not able to replicate similar outcomes using low dose aspirin in low body weight (<70 kg) in specific subset of population studied i.e. elderly and diabetic population, and more evidence is required to study the effect of high dose aspirin in high body weight (≥70 kg). + +After percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs), such as the placement of a coronary artery stent, a U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality guideline recommends that aspirin be taken indefinitely. Frequently, aspirin is combined with an ADP receptor inhibitor, such as clopidogrel, prasugrel, or ticagrelor to prevent blood clots. This is called dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT). Duration of DAPT was advised in the United States and European Union guidelines after the CURE and PRODIGY studies . In 2020, the systematic review and network meta-analysis from Khan et al. showed promising benefits of short-term (< 6 months) DAPT followed by P2Y12 inhibitors in selected patients, as well as the benefits of extended-term (> 12 months) DAPT in high risk patients. In conclusion, the optimal duration of DAPT after PCIs should be personalized after outweighing each patient's risks of ischemic events and risks of bleeding events with consideration of multiple patient-related and procedure-related factors. Moreover, aspirin should be continued indefinitely after DAPT is complete. + +The status of the use of aspirin for the primary prevention in cardiovascular disease is conflicting and inconsistent, with recent changes from previously recommending it widely decades ago, and that some referenced newer trials in clinical guidelines show less of benefit of adding aspirin alongside other anti-hypertensive and cholesterol lowering therapies. The ASCEND study demonstrated that in high-bleeding risk diabetics with no prior cardiovascular disease, there is no overall clinical benefit (12% decrease in risk of ischaemic events v/s 29% increase in GI bleeding) of low dose aspirin in preventing the serious vascular events over a period of 7.4 years. Similarly, the results of the ARRIVE study also showed no benefit of same dose of aspirin in reducing the time to first cardiovascular outcome in patients with moderate risk of cardiovascular disease over a period of five years. Aspirin has also been suggested as a component of a polypill for prevention of cardiovascular disease. Complicating the use of aspirin for prevention is the phenomenon of aspirin resistance. For people who are resistant, aspirin's efficacy is reduced. Some authors have suggested testing regimens to identify people who are resistant to aspirin. + +As of , the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) determined that there was a "small net benefit" for patients aged 40–59 with a 10% or greater 10-year cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, and "no net benefit" for patients aged over 60. Determining the net benefit was based on balancing the risk reduction of taking aspirin for heart attacks and ischaemic strokes, with the increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, intracranial bleeding, and hemorrhagic strokes. Their recommendations state that age changes the risk of the medicine, with the magnitude of the benefit of aspirin coming from starting at a younger age, while the risk of bleeding, while small, increases with age, particular for adults over 60, and can be compounded by other risk factors such as diabetes and a history of gastrointestinal bleeding. As a result, the USPSTF suggests that "people ages 40 to 59 who are at higher risk for CVD should decide with their clinician whether to start taking aspirin; people 60 or older should not start taking aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke." Primary prevention guidelines from made by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association state they might consider aspirin for patients aged 40–69 with a higher risk of atherosclerotic CVD, without an increased bleeding risk, while stating they would not recommend aspirin for patients aged over 70 or adults of any age with an increased bleeding risk. They state a CVD risk estimation and a risk discussion should be done before starting on aspirin, while stating aspirin should be used "infrequently in the routine primary prevention of (atherosclerotic CVD) because of lack of net benefit". As of , the European Society of Cardiology made similar recommendations; considering aspirin specifically to patients aged less than 70 at high or very high CVD risk, without any clear contraindications, on a case-by-case basis considering both ischemic risk and bleeding risk. + +Cancer prevention +Aspirin may reduce the overall risk of both getting cancer and dying from cancer. There is substantial evidence for lowering the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), but aspirin must be taken for at least 10–20 years to see this benefit. It may also slightly reduce the risk of endometrial cancer and prostate cancer. + +Some conclude the benefits are greater than the risks due to bleeding in those at average risk. Others are unclear if the benefits are greater than the risk. Given this uncertainty, the 2007 United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines on this topic recommended against the use of aspirin for prevention of CRC in people with average risk. Nine years later however, the USPSTF issued a grade B recommendation for the use of low-dose aspirin (75 to 100mg/day) "for the primary prevention of CVD [cardiovascular disease] and CRC in adults 50 to 59 years of age who have a 10% or greater 10-year CVD risk, are not at increased risk for bleeding, have a life expectancy of at least 10 years, and are willing to take low-dose aspirin daily for at least 10 years". + +A meta-analysis through 2019 said that there was an association between taking aspirin and lower risk of cancer of the colorectum, esophagus, and stomach. + +In 2021, the U.S. Preventive services Task Force raised questions about the use of aspirin in cancer prevention. It notes the results of the 2018 ASPREE (Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) Trial, in which the risk of cancer-related death was higher in the aspirin-treated group than in the placebo group. + +Psychiatry + +Bipolar disorder +Aspirin, along with several other agents with anti-inflammatory properties, has been repurposed as an add-on treatment for depressive episodes in subjects with bipolar disorder in light of the possible role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of severe mental disorders. A 2022 systematic review concluded that aspirin exposure reduced the risk of depression in a pooled cohort of three studies (HR 0.624, 95% CI: 0.0503, 1.198, P=0.033). However, further high-quality, longer-duration, double-blind randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are needed to determine whether aspirin is an effective add-on treatment for bipolar depression. Thus, notwithstanding the biological rationale, the clinical perspectives of aspirin and anti-inflammatory agents in the treatment of bipolar depression remain uncertain. + +Dementia +Although cohort and longitudinal studies have shown low-dose aspirin has a greater likelihood of reducing the incidence of dementia, numerous randomized controlled trials have not validated this. + +Schizophrenia +Some researchers have speculated the anti-inflammatory effects of aspirin may be beneficial for schizophrenia. Small trials have been conducted but evidence remains lacking. + +Other uses +Aspirin is a first-line treatment for the fever and joint-pain symptoms of acute rheumatic fever. The therapy often lasts for one to two weeks, and is rarely indicated for longer periods. After fever and pain have subsided, the aspirin is no longer necessary, since it does not decrease the incidence of heart complications and residual rheumatic heart disease. Naproxen has been shown to be as effective as aspirin and less toxic, but due to the limited clinical experience, naproxen is recommended only as a second-line treatment. + +Along with rheumatic fever, Kawasaki disease remains one of the few indications for aspirin use in children in spite of a lack of high quality evidence for its effectiveness. + +Low-dose aspirin supplementation has moderate benefits when used for prevention of pre-eclampsia. This benefit is greater when started in early pregnancy. + +Aspirin has also demonstrated anti-tumoral effects, via inhibition of the PTTG1 gene, which is often overexpressed in tumors. + +Resistance + +For some people, aspirin does not have as strong an effect on platelets as for others, an effect known as aspirin-resistance or insensitivity. One study has suggested women are more likely to be resistant than men, and a different, aggregate study of 2,930 people found 28% were resistant. +A study in 100 Italian people found, of the apparent 31% aspirin-resistant subjects, only 5% were truly resistant, and the others were noncompliant. +Another study of 400 healthy volunteers found no subjects who were truly resistant, but some had "pseudoresistance, reflecting delayed and reduced drug absorption". + +Meta-analysis and systematic reviews have concluded that laboratory confirmed aspirin resistance confers increased rates of poorer outcomes in cardiovascular and neurovascular diseases. Although the majority of research conducted has surrounded cardiovascular and neurovascular, there is emerging research into the risk of aspirin resistance after orthopaedic surgery where aspirin is used for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis. Aspirin resistance in orthopaedic surgery, specifically after total hip and knee arthroplasties, is of interest as risk factors for aspirin resistance are also risk factors for venous thromboembolisms and osteoarthritis; the sequalae of requiring a total hip or knee arthroplasty. Some of these risk factors include obesity, advancing age, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia and inflammatory diseases. + +Dosages + +Adult aspirin tablets are produced in standardised sizes, which vary slightly from country to country, for example 300mg in Britain and 325mg in the United States. Smaller doses are based on these standards, e.g., 75mg and 81mg tablets. The 81 mg tablets are commonly called "baby aspirin" or "baby-strength", because they were originallybut no longerintended to be administered to infants and children. No medical significance occurs due to the slight difference in dosage between the 75mg and the 81mg tablets. The dose required for benefit appears to depend on a person's weight. For those weighing less than , low dose is effective for preventing cardiovascular disease; for patients above this weight, higher doses are required. + +In general, for adults, doses are taken four times a day for fever or arthritis, with doses near the maximal daily dose used historically for the treatment of rheumatic fever. For the prevention of myocardial infarction (MI) in someone with documented or suspected coronary artery disease, much lower doses are taken once daily. + +March 2009 recommendations from the USPSTF on the use of aspirin for the primary prevention of coronary heart disease encourage men aged 45–79 and women aged 55–79 to use aspirin when the potential benefit of a reduction in MI for men or stroke for women outweighs the potential harm of an increase in gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The WHI study of postmenopausal women found that aspirin resulted in a 25% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 14% lower risk of death from any cause, though there was no significant difference between 81mg and 325mg aspirin doses. The 2021 ADAPTABLE study also showed no significant difference in cardiovascular events or major bleeding between 81mg and 325mg doses of aspirin in patients (both men and women) with established cardiovascular disease. + +Low-dose aspirin use was also associated with a trend toward lower risk of cardiovascular events, and lower aspirin doses (75 or 81mg/day) may optimize efficacy and safety for people requiring aspirin for long-term prevention. + +In children with Kawasaki disease, aspirin is taken at dosages based on body weight, initially four times a day for up to two weeks and then at a lower dose once daily for a further six to eight weeks. + +Adverse effects +In October 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required the drug label to be updated for all nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications to describe the risk of kidney problems in unborn babies that result in low amniotic fluid. They recommend avoiding NSAIDs in pregnant women at 20 weeks or later in pregnancy. One exception to the recommendation is the use of low-dose 81mg aspirin at any point in pregnancy under the direction of a health care professional. + +Contraindications + +Aspirin should not be taken by people who are allergic to ibuprofen or naproxen, or who have salicylate intolerance or a more generalized drug intolerance to NSAIDs, and caution should be exercised in those with asthma or NSAID-precipitated bronchospasm. Owing to its effect on the stomach lining, manufacturers recommend people with peptic ulcers, mild diabetes, or gastritis seek medical advice before using aspirin. Even if none of these conditions is present, the risk of stomach bleeding is still increased when aspirin is taken with alcohol or warfarin. People with hemophilia or other bleeding tendencies should not take aspirin or other salicylates. Aspirin is known to cause hemolytic anemia in people who have the genetic disease glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, particularly in large doses and depending on the severity of the disease. Use of aspirin during dengue fever is not recommended owing to increased bleeding tendency. Aspirin taken at doses of ≤325 mg and ≤100 mg per day for ≥2 days can increase the odds of suffering a gout attack by 81% and 91% respectively. This effect may potentially be worsened by high purine diets, diuretics, and kidney disease, but is eliminated by the urate lowering drug allopurinol. Daily low dose aspirin does not appear to worsen kidney function. Aspirin may reduce cardiovascular risk in those without established cardiovascular disease in people with moderate CKD, without significantly increasing the risk of bleeding. Aspirin should not be given to children or adolescents under the age of 16 to control cold or influenza symptoms, as this has been linked with Reye's syndrome. + +Gastrointestinal + +Aspirin use has been shown to increase the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding. Although some enteric-coated formulations of aspirin are advertised as being "gentle to the stomach", in one study, enteric coating did not seem to reduce this risk; the Mayo Clinic agree with this, and report that coated aspirin may also not be as effective at reducing blood clot risk. Although enteric coated aspirin is said to be not as effective as plain aspirin in reducing blood clot risk, however, with the current available results from clinical studies, there is still insufficient data to support this statement. Larger studies are required to provide more accurate results and conclusions. + +Combining aspirin with other NSAIDs has been shown to further increase the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding. Using aspirin in combination with clopidogrel or warfarin also increases the risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. + +Blockade of COX-1 by aspirin apparently results in the upregulation of COX-2 as part of a gastric defense. Several trials suggest that the simultaneous use of a COX-2 inhibitor with aspirin may increase the risk of gastrointestinal injury. However, currently available evidence has been unable to prove that this effect is consistently repeatable in everyday clinical practice. More dedicated research is required to provide greater clarity on the subject. Therefore, caution should be exercised if combining aspirin with any "natural" supplements with COX-2-inhibiting properties, such as garlic extracts, curcumin, bilberry, pine bark, ginkgo, fish oil, resveratrol, genistein, quercetin, resorcinol, and others. + +"Buffering" is an additional method that is used with the intention of mitigating gastrointestinal bleeding. Buffering agents are intended to work by preventing the aspirin from concentrating in the walls of the stomach, although the benefits of buffered aspirin are disputed. Almost any buffering agent used in antacids can be used; Bufferin, for example, uses magnesium oxide. Other preparations use calcium carbonate. Gas-forming agents in effervescent tablet and powder formulations can also double as a buffering agent, one example being sodium bicarbonate, used in Alka-Seltzer. + +Taking vitamin C with aspirin has been investigated as a method of protecting the stomach lining. In trials vitamin C-releasing aspirin (ASA-VitC) or a buffered aspirin formulation containing vitamin C was found to cause less stomach damage than aspirin alone. + +Retinal vein occlusion +It is a widespread habit among eye specialists (ophthalmologists) to prescribe aspirin as an add-on medication for patients with retinal vein occlusion (RVO), such as central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) and branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). The reason of this widespread use is the evidence of its proven effectiveness in major systemic venous thrombotic disorders, and it has been assumed that may be similarly beneficial in various types of retinal vein occlusion. + +However, a large-scale investigation based on data of nearly 700 patients showed "that aspirin or other antiplatelet aggregating agents or anticoagulants adversely influence the visual outcome in patients with CRVO and hemi-CRVO, without any evidence of protective or beneficial effect". Several expert groups, including the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, recommended against the use of antithrombotic drugs (incl. aspirin) for patients with RVO. + +Central effects +Large doses of salicylate, a metabolite of aspirin, cause temporary tinnitus (ringing in the ears) based on experiments in rats, via the action on arachidonic acid and NMDA receptors cascade. + +Reye's syndrome + +Reye's syndrome, a rare but severe illness characterized by acute encephalopathy and fatty liver, can occur when children or adolescents are given aspirin for a fever or other illness or infection. From 1981 to 1997, 1207 cases of Reye's syndrome in people younger than 18 were reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of these, 93% reported being ill in the three weeks preceding the onset of Reye's syndrome, most commonly with a respiratory infection, chickenpox, or diarrhea. Salicylates were detectable in 81.9% of children for whom test results were reported. After the association between Reye's syndrome and aspirin was reported, and safety measures to prevent it (including a Surgeon General's warning, and changes to the labeling of aspirin-containing drugs) were implemented, aspirin taken by children declined considerably in the United States, as did the number of reported cases of Reye's syndrome; a similar decline was found in the United Kingdom after warnings against pediatric aspirin use were issued. The US Food and Drug Administration recommends aspirin (or aspirin-containing products) should not be given to anyone under the age of 12 who has a fever, and the UK National Health Service recommends children who are under 16 years of age should not take aspirin, unless it is on the advice of a doctor. + +Skin +For a small number of people, taking aspirin can result in symptoms including hives, swelling, and headache. Aspirin can exacerbate symptoms among those with chronic hives, or create acute symptoms of hives. These responses can be due to allergic reactions to aspirin, or more often due to its effect of inhibiting the COX-1 enzyme. Skin reactions may also tie to systemic contraindications, seen with NSAID-precipitated bronchospasm, or those with atopy. + +Aspirin and other NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen, may delay the healing of skin wounds. Earlier findings from two small, low-quality trials suggested a benefit with aspirin (alongside compression therapy) on venous leg ulcer healing time and leg ulcer size, however larger, more recent studies of higher quality have been unable to corroborate these outcomes. As such, further research is required to clarify the role of aspirin in this context. + +Other adverse effects +Aspirin can induce swelling of skin tissues in some people. In one study, angioedema appeared one to six hours after ingesting aspirin in some of the people. However, when the aspirin was taken alone, it did not cause angioedema in these people; the aspirin had been taken in combination with another NSAID-induced drug when angioedema appeared. + +Aspirin causes an increased risk of cerebral microbleeds having the appearance on MRI scans of 5 to 10mm or smaller, hypointense (dark holes) patches. + +A study of a group with a mean dosage of aspirin of 270mg per day estimated an average absolute risk increase in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) of 12 events per 10,000 persons. In comparison, the estimated absolute risk reduction in myocardial infarction was 137 events per 10,000 persons, and a reduction of 39 events per 10,000 persons in ischemic stroke. In cases where ICH already has occurred, aspirin use results in higher mortality, with a dose of about 250mg per day resulting in a relative risk of death within three months after the ICH around 2.5 (95% confidence interval 1.3 to 4.6). + +Aspirin and other NSAIDs can cause abnormally high blood levels of potassium by inducing a hyporeninemic hypoaldosteronic state via inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis; however, these agents do not typically cause hyperkalemia by themselves in the setting of normal renal function and euvolemic state. + +Use of low-dose aspirin before a surgical procedure has been associated with an increased risk of bleeding events in some patients, however, ceasing aspirin prior to surgery has also been associated with an increase in major adverse cardiac events. An analysis of multiple studies found a three-fold increase in adverse events such as myocardial infarction in patients who ceased aspirin prior to surgery. The analysis found that the risk is dependent on the type of surgery being performed and the patient indication for aspirin use. + +On 9 July 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) toughened warnings of increased heart attack and stroke risk associated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). Aspirin is an NSAID but is not affected by the new warnings. + +Overdose + +Aspirin overdose can be acute or chronic. In acute poisoning, a single large dose is taken; in chronic poisoning, higher than normal doses are taken over a period of time. Acute overdose has a mortality rate of 2%. Chronic overdose is more commonly lethal, with a mortality rate of 25%; chronic overdose may be especially severe in children. Toxicity is managed with a number of potential treatments, including activated charcoal, intravenous dextrose and normal saline, sodium bicarbonate, and dialysis. The diagnosis of poisoning usually involves measurement of plasma salicylate, the active metabolite of aspirin, by automated spectrophotometric methods. Plasma salicylate levels in general range from 30 to 100mg/L after usual therapeutic doses, 50–300mg/L in people taking high doses and 700–1400mg/L following acute overdose. Salicylate is also produced as a result of exposure to bismuth subsalicylate, methyl salicylate, and sodium salicylate. + +Interactions +Aspirin is known to interact with other drugs. For example, acetazolamide and ammonium chloride are known to enhance the intoxicating effect of salicylates, and alcohol also increases the gastrointestinal bleeding associated with these types of drugs. Aspirin is known to displace a number of drugs from protein-binding sites in the blood, including the antidiabetic drugs tolbutamide and chlorpropamide, warfarin, methotrexate, phenytoin, probenecid, valproic acid (as well as interfering with beta oxidation, an important part of valproate metabolism), and other NSAIDs. Corticosteroids may also reduce the concentration of aspirin. Other NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen and naproxen, may reduce the antiplatelet effect of aspirin. Although limited evidence suggests this may not result in a reduced cardioprotective effect of aspirin. Analgesic doses of aspirin decrease sodium loss induced by spironolactone in the urine, however this does not reduce the antihypertensive effects of spironolactone. Furthermore, antiplatelet doses of aspirin are deemed too small to produce an interaction with spironolactone. Aspirin is known to compete with penicillin G for renal tubular secretion. Aspirin may also inhibit the absorption of vitamin C. + +Research +The ISIS-2 trial demonstrated that aspirin at doses of 160mg daily for one month, decreased the mortality by 21% of participants with a suspected myocardial infarction in the first five weeks. A single daily dose of 324mg of aspirin for 12 weeks has a highly protective effect against acute myocardial infarction and death in men with unstable angina. + +Bipolar disorder +Aspirin has been repurposed as an add-on treatment for depressive episodes in subjects with bipolar disorder. However, meta-analytic evidence is based on very few studies and does not suggest any efficacy of aspirin in the treatment of bipolar depression. Thus, notwithstanding the biological rationale, the clinical perspectives of aspirin and anti-inflammatory agents in the treatment of bipolar depression remain uncertain. + +Infectious diseases +Several studies investigated the anti-infective properties of aspirin for bacterial, viral and parasitic infections. Aspirin was demonstrated to limit platelet activation induced by Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis and to reduce streptococcal adhesion to heart valves. In patients with tuberculous meningitis, the addition of aspirin reduced the risk of new cerebral infarction [RR = 0.52 (0.29-0.92)]. A role of aspirin on bacterial and fungal biofilm is also being supported by growing evidence. + +Cancer prevention + +Evidence from observational studies were conflicting on the effect of aspirin in breast cancer prevention, a randomized controlled trial showed that aspirin had no significant effect in reducing breast cancer thus further studies are needed to clarify aspirin effect in cancer prevention. + +In gardening +There are a many anecdotal reportings that aspirin can improve plant's growth and resistance though most research involved salicylic acid instead of aspirin. + +Veterinary medicine + +Aspirin is sometimes used in veterinary medicine as an anticoagulant or to relieve pain associated with musculoskeletal inflammation or osteoarthritis. Aspirin should only be given to animals under the direct supervision of a veterinarian, as adverse effects—including gastrointestinal issues—are common. An aspirin overdose in any species may result in salicylate poisoning, characterized by hemorrhaging, seizures, coma, and even death. + +Dogs are better able to tolerate aspirin than cats are. Cats metabolize aspirin slowly because they lack the glucuronide conjugates that aid in the excretion of aspirin, making it potentially toxic if dosing is not spaced out properly. No clinical signs of toxicosis occurred when cats were given 25mg/kg of aspirin every 48 hours for 4 weeks, but the recommended dose for relief of pain and fever and for treating blood clotting diseases in cats is 10mg/kg every 48 hours to allow for metabolization. + +See also + +Fluoroaspirin + +References + +Further reading + +External links + + + + + +1897 in Germany +1897 in science +Acetate esters +Acetylsalicylic acids +Antiplatelet drugs +Bayer brands +Brands that became generic +Chemical substances for emergency medicine +Commercialization of traditional medicines +Covalent inhibitors +Equine medications +German inventions +Hepatotoxins +Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs +Salicylic acids +Salicylyl esters +World Health Organization essential medicines +Wikipedia medicine articles ready to translate +In the Hebrew Bible, Abner ( ) was the cousin of King Saul and the commander-in-chief of his army. His name also appears as "Abiner son of Ner", where the longer form Abiner means "my father is Ner". + +Biblical narrative +Abner is initially mentioned incidentally in Saul's history, first appearing as the son of Ner, Saul's uncle, and the commander of Saul's army. He then comes to the story again as the commander who introduced David to Saul following David's killing of Goliath. He is not mentioned in the account of the disastrous battle of Gilboa when Saul's power was crushed. Seizing the youngest but only surviving of Saul's sons, Ish-bosheth, also called Eshbaal, Abner set him up as king over Israel at Mahanaim, east of the Jordan. David, who was accepted as king by Judah alone, was meanwhile reigning at Hebron, and for some time war was carried on between the two parties. + +The only engagement between the rival factions which is told at length is noteworthy, inasmuch as it was preceded by an encounter at Gibeon between 12 chosen men from each side, in which all 24 seem to have perished. In the general engagement which followed, Abner was defeated and put to flight. He was closely pursued by Asahel, brother of Joab, who is said to have been "light of foot as a wild roe". As Asahel would not desist from the pursuit, though warned, Abner was compelled to slay him in self-defence. This originated a deadly feud between the leaders of the opposite parties, for Joab, as next of kin to Asahel, was by the law and custom of the country the avenger of his blood. However, according to Josephus, in Antiquities, book 7, chapter 1, Joab had forgiven Abner for the death of his brother, Asahel, the reason being that Abner had slain Asahel honorably in combat after he had first warned Asahel and tried to knock the wind out of him with the butt of his spear. However, probably by intervention of God, it went through Asahel. The Bible says everyone stopped and looked. That shows that something like this never happened before. This battle was part of a civil war between David and Ish-bosheth. After this battle, Abner switched sides and granted David control over the tribe of Benjamin. This act put Abner in David's favor. + +For some time afterward, the war was carried on, the advantage being invariably on the side of David. At length, Ish-bosheth lost the main prop of his tottering cause by accusing Abner of sleeping with Rizpah, one of Saul's concubines, an alliance which, according to contemporary notions, would imply pretensions to the throne. + +Abner was indignant at the rebuke, and immediately opened negotiations with David, who welcomed him on the condition that his wife Michal should be restored to him. This was done, and the proceedings were ratified by a feast. Almost immediately after, however, Joab, who had been sent away, perhaps intentionally returned and slew Abner at the gate of Hebron. The ostensible motive for the assassination was a desire to avenge Asahel, and this would be a sufficient justification for the deed according to the moral standard of the time (although Abner should have been safe from such a revenge killing in Hebron, which was a City of Refuge). The conduct of David after the event was such as to show that he had no complicity in the act, though he could not venture to punish its perpetrators. + +David had Abner buried in Hebron, as stated in Samuel 3:31–32, "And David said to all the people who were with him, 'Rend your clothes and gird yourselves with sackcloth, and wail before Abner.' And King David went after the bier. And they buried Abner in Hebron, and the king raised his voice and wept on Abner's grave, and all the people wept." + +Shortly after Abner's death, Ish-bosheth was assassinated as he slept, and David became king of the reunited kingdoms. + +Rabbinical Literature +Son of the Witch of En-dor (Pirḳe R. El. xxxiii.), and the hero par excellence in the Haggadah (Yalḳ., Jer. 285; Eccl. R. on ix. 11; Ḳid. 49b). Conscious of his extraordinary strength, he exclaimed: "If I could only catch hold of the earth, I could shake it" (Yalḳ. l.c.)—a saying which parallels the famous utterance of Archimedes, "Had I a fulcrum, I could move the world." According to the Midrash (Eccl. R. l.c.) it would have been easier to move a wall six yards thick than one of the feet of Abner, who could hold the Israelitish army between his knees. Yet when his time came (), Joab smote him. But even in his dying hour, Abner seized his foe like a ball of thread, threatening to crush him. Then the Israelites came and pleaded for Joab's life, saying: "If thou killest him we shall be orphaned, and our women and all our belongings will become a prey to the Philistines." Abner answered: "What can I do? He has extinguished my light" (has wounded me fatally). The Israelites replied: "Entrust thy cause to the true judge [God]." Then Abner released his hold upon Joab and fell dead to the ground (Yalḳ. l.c.). + +His One Sin. +The rabbis agree that Abner deserved this violent death, though opinions differ concerning the exact nature of the sin that entailed so dire a punishment on one who was, on the whole, considered a "righteous man" (Gen. R. lxxxii. 4). Some reproach him that he did not use his influence with Saul to prevent him from murdering the priests of Nob (Yer. Peah, i. 16a; Lev. R. xxvi. 2; Sanh. 20a)—convinced as he was of the innocence of the priests and of the propriety of their conduct toward David, Abner holding that as leader of the army David was privileged to avail himself of the Urim and Thummim (I Sam. xxii. 9–19). Instead of contenting himself with passive resistance to Saul's command to murder the priests (Yalḳ., Sam. 131), Abner ought to have tried to restrain the king. Others maintain that Abner did make such an attempt, but in vain, and that his one sin consisted in that he delayed the beginning of David's reign over Israel by fighting him after Saul's death for two years and a half (Sanh. l.c.). Others, again, while excusing him for this—in view of a tradition founded on Gen. xlix. 27, according to which there were to be two kings of the house of Benjamin—blame Abner for having prevented a reconciliation between Saul and David on the occasion when the latter, in holding up the skirt of Saul's robe (I Sam. xxiv. 11), showed how unfounded was the king's mistrust of him. Saul was inclined to be pacified; but Abner, representing to him that David might have found the piece of the garment anywhere—possibly caught on a thorn—prevented the reconciliation (Yer. Peah, l.c., Lev. R. l.c., and elsewhere). Moreover, it was wrong in Abner to permit Israelitish youths to kill one another for sport (II Sam. ii. 14–16). No reproach, however, attaches to him for the death of Asahel, since Abner killed him in self-defense (Sanh. 49a). + +It is characteristic of the rabbinical view of the Bible narratives that Abner, the warrior pure and simple, is styled "Lion of the Law" (Yer. Peah, l.c.), and that even a specimen is given of a halakic discussion between him and Doeg as to whether the law in Deut. xxiii. 3 excluded Ammonite and Moabite women from the Jewish community as well as men. Doeg was of the opinion that David, being descended from the Moabitess Ruth, was not fit to wear the crown, nor even to be considered a true Israelite; while Abner maintained that the law affected only the male line of descent. When Doeg's dialectics proved more than a match for those of Abner, the latter went to the prophet Samuel, who not only supported Abner in his view, but utterly refuted Doeg's assertions (Midr. Sam. xxii.; Yeb. 76b et seq.). + +One of the most prominent families (Ẓiẓit ha-Kesat) in Jerusalem in the middle of the first century of the common era claimed descent from Abner (Gen. R. xcviii.). + +Tomb of Abner +The site known as the Tomb of Abner is located not far from the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and receives visitors throughout the year. Many travelers have recorded visiting the tomb over the centuries. + Benjamin of Tudela, who began his journeys in 1165, wrote in the journal, "The valley of Eshkhol is north of the mountain upon which Hebron stood, and the cave of Makhpela is east thereof. A bow-shot west of the cave is the sepulchre of Abner the son of Ner." + +A rabbi in the 12th century records visiting the tomb as reprinted in Elkan Nathan Adler's book Jewish Travellers in the Middle Ages: 19 Firsthand Accounts. The account states, "I, Jacob, the son of R. Nathaniel ha Cohen, journeyed with much difficulty, but God helped me to enter the Holy Land, and I saw the graves of our righteous Patriarchs in Hebron and the grave of Abner the son of Ner." Adler postulates that the visit must have occurred prior to Saladin's capture of Jerusalem in 1187. + +Rabbi Moses Basola records visiting the tomb in 1522. He states, "Abner's grave is in the middle of Hebron; the Muslims built a mosque over it." Another visitor in the 1500s states that "at the entrance to the market in Hebron, at the top of the hill against the wall, Abner ben Ner is buried, in a church, in a cave." This visit was recorded in Sefer Yihus ha-Tzaddiqim (Book of Genealogy of the Righteous), a collection of travelogues from 1561. Abraham Moshe Lunz reprinted the book in 1896. + +Menahem Mendel of Kamenitz, considered the first hotelier in the Land of Israel, wrote about the Tomb of Abner is his 1839 book Korot Ha-Itim, which was translated into English as The Book of the Occurrences of the Times to Jeshurun in the Land of Israel. He states, "Here I write of the graves of the righteous to which I paid my respects. Hebron – Described above is the character and order of behavior of those coming to pray at the Cave of ha-Machpelah. I went there, between the stores, over the grave of Avner ben Ner and was required to pay a Yishmaeli – the grave was in his courtyard – to allow me to enter." + +The author and traveler J. J. Benjamin mentioned visiting the tomb in his book Eight Years in Asia and Africa (1859, Hanover). He states, "On leaving the Sepulchre of the Patriarchs, and proceeding on the road leading to the Jewish quarter, to the left of the courtyard, is seen a Turkish dwelling house, by the side of which is a small grotto, to which there is a descent of several steps. This is the tomb of Abner, captain of King Saul. It is held in much esteem by the Arabs, and the proprietor of it takes care that it is always kept in the best order. He requires from those who visit it a small gratuity." + +The British scholar Israel Abrahams wrote in his 1912 book The Book of Delight and Other Papers, "Hebron was the seat of David's rule over Judea. Abner was slain here by Joab, and was buried here – they still show Abner's tomb in the garden of a large house within the city. By the pool at Hebron were slain the murderers of Ishbosheth..." + +Over the years the tomb fell into disrepair and neglect. It was closed to the public in 1994. In 1996, a group of 12 Israeli women filed a petition with the Supreme Court requesting the government to reopen the Tomb of Abner. More requests were made over the years{{Cite web|title = Articles by David Wilder: The Mystery of the Tomb of Avner ben Ner or Understanding Uzis Whims|url = http://davidwilder.blogspot.co.il/1997/05/mystery-of-tomb-of-avner-ben-ner-or.html|website = davidwilder.blogspot.co.il| date=20 May 1997 |access-date = 6 January 2016}} and eventually arrangements were made to have the site open to the general public on ten days throughout the year corresponding to the ten days that the Isaac Hall of the Cave of the Patriarchs is open. In early 2007 new mezuzot were affixed to the entrance of the site. + +In popular culture +1960, David and Goliath (film) – Abner is portrayed by Massimo Serato. In this version, Abner tries to murder David (Ivica Pajer) when he returns in triumph after killing Goliath. However, here Abner is slain by King Saul (Orson Welles). +1961, A Story of David (film) – Abner is portrayed by Welsh actor David Davies. +1976, The Story of David (television series) – Younger version of Abner is portrayed by Israeli actor Yehuda Efroni. Older version of Abner is portrayed by British actor Brian Blessed. +1985, King David (film) – Abner is portrayed by English actor John Castle. King David portrayed by Richard Gere. +1997, King David (musical) – written by Tim Rice and Alan Menken. Abner is portrayed by American actor Timothy Shew. +1997, David (television drama) – Abner is portrayed by Richard Ashcroft. +2009, Kings (television series) – Abner portrayed by Wes Studi as General Linus Abner. The series is set in a multi-ethnic Western culture similar to that in the present-day United States, but with characters drawn from the Bible. +2012, Rei Davi (Brazilian television series) – Abner is portrayed by Iran Malfitano. + +Notes + +References +Citations + +Cited sources + + + External links + + Pictures of Avner ben Ner's Tomb in Hebron + Tomb of Abner page on Hebron.com website. + David, Abraham (ed.) (1999). In Zion and Jerusalem: The Itinerary of Rabbi Moses Basola (1521–1523) C. G. Foundation Jerusalem Project Publications of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies of Bar-Ilan University . Reference is made to visiting the tomb of Abner. (p. 77). + Photo of prayer at the Tomb of Abner from Imagekind. + Photo of prayer at the Tomb of Abner from PicJew. + Photos of Tomb of Abner Ben Ner from the book Sites in Hebron'' by David Wilder. ASIN: B00ALHB89Y. + +Biblical murder victims +Male murder victims +Warriors of Asia +House of Saul + +ca:Llista de personatges bíblics#Abner +Ahmed I ( ; ; 18 April 1590 – 22 November 1617) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617. Ahmed's reign is noteworthy for marking the first breach in the Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide; henceforth, Ottoman rulers would no longer systematically execute their brothers upon accession to the throne. He is also well known for his construction of the Blue Mosque, one of the most famous mosques in Turkey. + +Early life +Ahmed was probably born in 18 April 1590 at the Manisa Palace, Manisa, when his father Mehmed was still a prince and the governor of the Sanjak of Manisa. His mother was Handan Sultan. After his grandfather Murad III's death in 1595, his father came to Constantinople and ascended the throne as Sultan Mehmed III. Mehmed ordered the execution of his nineteen half brothers. Ahmed's elder brother Şehzade Mahmud was also executed by his father Mehmed on 7 June 1603, just before Mehmed's own death on 22 December 1603. Mahmud was buried along with his mother in a separate mausoleum built by Ahmed in Şehzade Mosque, Constantinople. + +Reign +Ahmed ascended the throne after his father's death in 1603, at the age of thirteen, when his powerful grandmother Safiye Sultan was still alive. With his accession to the throne, the power struggle in the harem flared up; Between his mother Handan Sultan and his grandmother Safiye Sultan, who in the previous reign had absolute power within the walls (behind the throne), in the end, with the support of Ahmed, the fight ended in favor of his mother. A far lost uncle of Ahmed, Yahya, resented his accession to the throne and spent his life scheming to become Sultan. Ahmed broke with the traditional fratricide following previous enthronements and did not order the execution of his brother Mustafa. Instead, Mustafa was sent to live at the old palace at Bayezit along with their grandmother, Safiye Sultan. This was most likely due to Ahmed's young age - he had not yet demonstrated his ability to sire children, and Mustafa was then the only other candidate for the Ottoman throne. His brother's execution would have endangered the dynasty, and thus he was spared. + +His mother tried to interfere in his affairs and influence his decision, especially she wanted to control his communication and movements. In the earlier part of his reign, Ahmed I showed decision and vigor, which were belied by his subsequent conduct. The wars in Hungary and Persia, which attended his accession, terminated unfavourably for the empire. Its prestige was further tarnished in the Treaty of Zsitvatorok, signed in 1606, whereby the annual tribute paid by Austria was abolished. Following the crushing defeat in the Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18) against the neighbouring rivals Safavid Empire, led by Shah Abbas the Great, Georgia, Azerbaijan and other vast territories in the Caucasus were ceded back to Persia per the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha in 1612, territories that had been temporarily conquered in the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–90). The new borders were drawn per the same line as confirmed in the Peace of Amasya of 1555. + +Relations with Morocco + +During his reign the ruler of Morocco was Mulay Zidan whose father and predecessor Ahmad al-Mansur had paid a tribute of vassalage as a vassal of the Ottomans until his death. The Saadi civil wars had interrupted this tribute of vassalage, but Mulay Zidan proposed to submit to it in order to protect himself from Algiers, and so he resumed paying the tribute to the Ottomans. + +Ottoman-Safavid War: 1604–06 + +The Ottoman–Safavid War had begun shortly before the death of Ahmed's father Mehmed III. Upon ascending the throne, Ahmed I appointed Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha as the commander of the eastern army. The army marched from Constantinople on 15 June 1604, which was too late, and by the time it had arrived on the eastern front on 8 November 1604, the Safavid army had captured Yerevan and entered the Kars Eyalet, and could only be stopped in Akhaltsikhe. Despite the conditions being favourable, Sinan Pasha decided to stay for the winter in Van, but then marched to Erzurum to stop an incoming Safavid attack. This caused unrest within the army and the year was practically wasted for the Ottomans. + +In 1605, Sinan Pasha marched to take Tabriz, but the army was undermined by Köse Sefer Pasha, the Beylerbey of Erzurum, marching independently from Sinan Pasha and consequently being taken prisoner by the Safavids. The Ottoman army was routed at Urmia and had to flee firstly to Van and then to Diyarbekir. Here, Sinan Pasha sparked a rebellion by executing the Beylerbey of Aleppo, Canbulatoğlu Hüseyin Pasha, who had come to provide help, upon the pretext that he had arrived too late. He soon died himself and the Safavid army was able to capture Ganja, Shirvan and Shamakhi in Azerbaijan. + +War with the Habsburgs: 1604–06 +The Long Turkish War between the Ottomans and the Habsburg monarchy had been going on for over a decade by the time Ahmed ascended the throne. Grand Vizier Malkoç Ali Pasha marched to the western front from Constantinople on 3 June 1604 and arrived in Belgrade, but died there, so Sokolluzade Lala Mehmed Pasha was appointed as the Grand Vizier and the commander of the western army. Under Mehmed Pasha, the western army recaptured Pest and Vác, but failed to capture Esztergom as the siege was lifted due to unfavourable weather and the objections of the soldiers. Meanwhile, the Prince of Transylvania, Stephen Bocskay, who struggled for the region's independence and had formerly supported the Habsburgs, sent a messenger to the Porte asking for help. Upon the promise of help, his forces also joined the Ottoman forces in Belgrade. With this help, the Ottoman army besieged Esztergom and captured it on 4 November 1605. Bocskai, with Ottoman help, captured Nové Zámky (Uyvar) and forces under Tiryaki Hasan Pasha took Veszprém and Palota. Sarhoş İbrahim Pasha, the Beylerbey of Nagykanizsa (Kanije), attacked the Austrian region of Istria. + +However, with Jelali revolts in Anatolia more dangerous than ever and a defeat in the eastern front, Mehmed Pasha was called to Constantinople. Mehmed Pasha suddenly died there, whilst preparing to leave for the east. Kuyucu Murad Pasha then negotiated the Peace of Zsitvatorok, which abolished the tribute of 30,000 ducats paid by Austria and addressed the Habsburg emperor as the equal of the Ottoman sultan. The Jelali revolts were a strong factor in the Ottomans' acceptance of the terms. This signaled the end of Ottoman growth in Europe. + +Jelali revolts +Resentment over the war with the Habsburgs and heavy taxation, along with the weakness of the Ottoman military response, combined to make the reign of Ahmed I the zenith of the Jelali revolts. Tavil Ahmed launched a revolt soon after the coronation of Ahmed I and defeated Nasuh Pasha and the Beylerbey of Anatolia, Kecdehan Ali Pasha. In 1605, Tavil Ahmed was offered the position of the Beylerbey of Shahrizor to stop his rebellion, but soon afterwards he went on to capture Harput. His son, Mehmed, obtained the governorship of Baghdad with a fake firman and defeated the forces of Nasuh Pasha sent to defeat him. + +Meanwhile, Canbulatoğlu Ali Pasha united his forces with the Druze Sheikh Ma'noğlu Fahreddin to defeat the Amir of Tripoli Seyfoğlu Yusuf. He went on to take control of the Adana area, forming an army and issuing coins. His forces routed the army of the newly appointed Beylerbey of Aleppo, Hüseyin Pasha. Grand Vizier Boşnak Dervish Mehmed Pasha was executed for the weakness he showed against the Jelalis. He was replaced by Kuyucu Murad Pasha, who marched to Syria with his forces to defeat the 30,000-strong rebel army with great difficulty, albeit with a decisive result, on 24 October 1607. Meanwhile, he pretended to forgive the rebels in Anatolia and appointed the rebel Kalenderoğlu, who was active in Manisa and Bursa, as the sanjakbey of Ankara. Baghdad was recaptured in 1607 as well. Canbulatoğlu Ali Pasha fled to Constantinople and asked for forgiveness from Ahmed I, who appointed him to Timișoara and later Belgrade, but then executed him due to his misrule there. Meanwhile, Kalenderoğlu was not allowed in the city by the people of Ankara and rebelled again, only to be crushed by Murad Pasha's forces. Kalenderoğlu ended up fleeing to Persia. Murad Pasha then suppressed some smaller revolts in Central Anatolia and suppressed other Jelali chiefs by inviting them to join the army. + +Due to the widespread violence of the Jelali revolts, a great number of people had fled their villages and a lot of villages were destroyed. Some military chiefs had claimed these abandoned villages as their property. This deprived the Porte of tax income and on 30 September 1609, Ahmed I issued a letter guaranteeing the rights of the villagers. He then worked on the resettlement of abandoned villages. + +Ottoman-Safavid War: Peace and continuation + +The new Grand Vizier, Nasuh Pasha, did not want to fight with the Safavids. The Safavid Shah also sent a letter saying that he was willing to sign a peace treaty, with which he would have to send 200 loads of silk every year to Constantinople. On 20 November 1612, the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha was signed, which ceded all the lands the Ottoman Empire had gained in the war of 1578–90 back to Persia and reinstated the 1555 boundaries. + +However, the peace ended in 1615 when the Shah did not send the 200 loads of silk. On 22 May 1615, Grand Vizier Öküz Mehmed Pasha was assigned to organize an attack on Persia. Mehmed Pasha delayed the attack till the next year, until when the Safavids made their preparations and attacked Ganja. In April 1616, Mehmed Pasha left Aleppo with a large army and marched to Yerevan, where he failed to take the city and withdrew to Erzurum. He was removed from his post and replaced by Damat Halil Pasha. Halil Pasha went for the winter to Diyarbekir, while the Khan of Crimea, Canibek Giray, attacked the areas of Ganja, Nakhichevan and Julfa. + +Capitulations and trade treaties +Ahmed I renewed trade treaties with England, France and Venice. In July 1612, the first ever trade treaty with the Dutch Republic was signed. He expanded the capitulations given to France, specifying that merchants from Spain, Ragusa, Genoa, Ancona and Florence could trade under the French flag. + +Architect and service to Islam + +Sultan Ahmed constructed the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the magnum opus of the Ottoman architecture, across from the Hagia Sophia. The sultan attended the breaking of the ground with a golden pickaxe to begin the construction of the mosque complex. An incident nearly broke out after the sultan discovered that the Blue Mosque contained the same number of minarets as the grand mosque of Mecca. Ahmed became furious at this fault and became remorseful until the Shaykh-ul-Islam recommended that he should erect another minaret at the grand mosque of Mecca and the matter was solved. + +Ahmed became delightedly involved in the eleventh comprehensive renovations of the Kaaba, which had just been damaged by flooding. He sent craftsmen from Constantinople, and the golden rain gutter that kept rain from collecting on the roof of the Ka’ba was successfully renewed. It was again during the era of Sultan Ahmed that an iron web was placed inside the Zamzam Well in Mecca. The placement of this web about three feet below the water level was a response to lunatics who jumped into the well, imagining a promise of a heroic death. + +In Medina, the city of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a new pulpit made of white marble and shipped from Istanbul arrived in the mosque of Muhammad and substituted the old, worn-out pulpit. It is also known that Sultan Ahmed erected two more mosques in Uskudar on the Asian side of Istanbul; however, neither of them has survived. + +The sultan had a crest carved with the footprint of Muhammad that he would wear on Fridays and festive days and illustrated one of the most significant examples of affection to Muhammad in Ottoman history. Engraved inside the crest was a poem he composed: + +Character +Sultan Ahmed was known for his skills in fencing, poetry, horseback riding, and fluency in several languages. + +Ahmed was a poet who wrote a number of political and lyrical works under the name Bahti. Ahmed patronized scholars, calligraphers, and pious men. Hence, he commissioned a book entitled The Quintessence of Histories to be worked upon by calligraphers. He also attempted to enforce conformance to Islamic laws and traditions, restoring the old regulations that prohibited alcohol, and he attempted to enforce attendance at Friday prayers and paying alms to the poor in the proper way. + +Death + +Ahmed I died of typhus and gastric bleeding on 22 November 1617 at the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul. He was buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque. He was succeeded by his younger half-brother Mustafa as Sultan Mustafa I. Later three of Ahmed's sons ascended to the throne: Osman II (r. 1618–22), Murad IV (r. 1623–40) and Ibrahim (r. 1640–48). + +Family + +Consorts +Ahmed had two known consorts, plus several unknown concubines, mothers of the other princes and princesses. + +The known consorts are: + Mahpeyker Kösem Sultan. His favorite, Haseki Sultan and probably legal wife, mother of many of his children. + Hatice Mahfiruz Hatun. Also called Mahfiruze Hatun, she was his first concubine and mother of his firstborn Osman II. + +Sons +Ahmed I had at least thirteen sons: +Osman II (3 November 1604, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace – murdered by janissaries, 20 May 1622, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Mahfiruz Hatun. 16th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire; + Şehzade Mehmed (11 March 1605, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace – murdered by Osman II, 12 January 1621, Istanbul, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan; + Şehzade Orhan (1609, Constantinople – 1612, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) – maybe with Kösem Sultan. + Şehzade Cihangir (1609, Constantinople – 1609, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque). + Şehzade Selim (27 June 1611, Constantinople – 27 July 1611, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - maybe with Kösem Sultan. + Murad IV (27 July 1612, Constantinople – 8 February 1640, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan. 17th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire; + Şehzade Hasan (25 November 1612, Constantinople – 1615, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque). + Şehzade Bayezid (December 1612, Constantinople – murdered by Murad IV, 27 July 1635, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque); + Şehzade Selim (1613?, Constantinople – murdered by Murad IV, 27 July 1635, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - maybe with Kösem Sultan; + Şehzade Süleyman (1613?/1615?, Constantinople – murdered by Murad IV, 27 July 1635, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - maybe with Kösem Sultan; + Şehzade Hüseyin (14 November 1614, Constantinople – 1617, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Mehmed III Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia Mosque); + Şehzade Kasım (1614, Constantinople – murdered by Murad IV, 17 February 1638, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Murad III Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan; + Ibrahim I (5 November 1615, Constantinople – 18 August 1648, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, murdered by janissaries and buried in Ibrahim I Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan. 18th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. + +Daughters +Ahmed I had at least ten daughters: +Ayşe Sultan (1605 or 1608, Constantinople – 1657, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan, +Fatma Sultan (1606, Constantinople – 1667, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan; +Gevherhan Sultan (1605 or 1608, Constantinople – 1660, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan, +Hatice Sultan (Constantinople, 1608 – Constantinople, 1610, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) +Hanzade Sultan (1609, Constantinople – 21 September 1650, Constantinople, buried in Ibrahim I Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan; +Esma Sultan (Constantinople, 1612 – Constantinople, 1612, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) +Zahide Sultan (Constantinople, 1613 – Constantinople, 1620, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) +Burnaz Atike Sultan ( 1614/1616?, Constantinople – 1674, Constantinople, buried in Ibrahim I Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia Mosque) - maybe with Kösem Sultan; +Zeynep Sultan (Constantinople, 1617 – Constantinople, 1619, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) +Abide Sultan (Constantinople, 1618 – Constantinople, 1648). Called also Übeyde Sultan, married in 1642 to Koca Musa Pasha. + +Legacy +Today, Ahmed I is remembered mainly for the construction of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque), one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture. The area in Fatih around the Mosque is today called Sultanahmet. He died at Topkapı Palace in Constantinople and is buried in a mausoleum right outside the walls of the famous mosque. + +In popular culture +In the 2015 TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, Ahmed I is portrayed by Turkish actor Ekin Koç. + +See also +Transformation of the Ottoman Empire + Abbas I's Kakhetian and Kartlian campaigns + +References + +External links + +[aged 27] + +1590 births +1617 deaths +Deaths from typhus +Modern child monarchs +Ottoman people of the Ottoman–Persian Wars +Infectious disease deaths in the Ottoman Empire +17th-century Ottoman sultans +Turks from the Ottoman Empire +Greeks from the Ottoman Empire +People from the Ottoman Empire of Greek descent +Ahmed II ( Aḥmed-i sānī) (25 February 1643 or 1 August 1642 – 6 February 1695) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1691 to 1695. + +Early life +Ahmed II was born on 25 February 1643 or 1 August 1642, the son of Sultan Ibrahim and Muazzez Sultan. On 21 October 1649, Ahmed, along with his brothers Mehmed and Suleiman were circumcised. +During the reigns of his older brothers, Ahmed was imprisoned in Kafes, and he stayed there almost 43 years. + +Reign + +During his reign, Ahmed II devoted most of his attention to the wars against the Habsburgs and related foreign policy, governmental and economic issues. Of these, the most important were the tax reforms and the introduction of the lifelong tax farm system (malikâne). Following the recovery of Belgrade under his predecessor, Suleiman II, the military frontier reached a rough stalemate on the Danube, with the Habsburgs no longer able to advance south of it, and the Ottomans attempting, ultimately unsuccessfully, to regain the initiative north of it. + +Among the most important features of Ahmed's reign was his reliance on Köprülüzade Fazıl Mustafa Pasha. Following his accession to the throne, Ahmed II confirmed Fazıl Mustafa Pasha in his office as grand vizier. In office from 1689, Fazıl Mustafa Pasha was from the Köprülü family of grand viziers, and like most of his Köprülü predecessors in the same office, was an able administrator and military commander. Like his father Köprülü Mehmed Pasha (grand vizier, 1656–61) before him, Fazıl Mustafa Pasha ordered the removal and execution of dozens of corrupt state officials of the previous regime and replaced them with men loyal to himself. He overhauled the tax system by adjusting it to the capabilities of the taxpayers affected by the latest wars. He also reformed troop mobilization and increased the pool of conscripts available for the army by drafting tribesmen in the Balkans and Anatolia. In October 1690, Fazıl Mustafa Pasha recaptured Belgrade, a key fortress that commanded the confluence of the rivers Danube and Sava; in Ottoman hands since 1521, the fortress had been conquered by the Habsburgs in 1688. + +Fazıl Mustafa Pasha's victory at Belgrade was a major military achievement that gave the Ottomans hope that the military debacles of the 1680s—which had led to the loss of Hungary and Transylvania, an Ottoman vassal principality ruled by pro-Istanbul Hungarian princes—could be reversed. However, the Ottoman success proved ephemeral. On 19 August 1691, Fazıl Mustafa Pasha suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of Slankamen at the hands of Louis William, the Habsburg commander in chief in Hungary, nicknamed “Türkenlouis” (Louis the Turk) for his victories against the Ottomans. In the confrontation, recognized by contemporaries as “the bloodiest battle of the century,” the Ottomans suffered heavy losses: 20,000 men, including the grand vizier. With him, the sultan lost his most capable military commander and the last member of the Köprülü family, who for the previous half century had been instrumental in strengthening the Ottoman military. + +Under Fazıl Mustafa Pasha's successors, the Ottomans suffered further defeats. In June 1692 the Habsburgs conquered Oradea, the seat of an Ottoman governor () since 1660. In 1694, they attempted to recapture Oradea, but to no avail. On 12 January 1695, they surrendered the fortress of Gyula, the center of an Ottoman sanjak (subprovince) since 1566. With the fall of Gyula, the only territory still in Ottoman hands in Hungary was to the east of the River Tisza and to the south of the river Maros, with its center at Timișoara. Three weeks later, on 6 February 1695, Ahmed II died in Edirne Palace. + +Family + +Consorts +Ahmed II had two known consorts: +Rabia Sultan (died Eski Palace, Istanbul, 14 January 1712, buried in Suleiman I Mausoleum, Süleymaniye Mosque). Ahmed II's most beloved consort and the last haseki sultan of the Ottoman Empire; +Şayeste Hatun (died 1710, Eski Palace, Istanbul). Second concubine of Ahmed II, perhaps mother of his others daughters. + +Sons +Ahmed II had two sons: +Şehzade Ibrahim (Edirne Palace, Edirne, 6 October 1692 – Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, 4 May 1714, buried in Mustafa I Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia), with Rabia Sultan, Selim's twin, became crown prince on 22 August 1703 until his death; +Şehzade Selim (Edirne Palace, Edirne, 6 October 1692 – Edirne Palace, Edirne, 15 May 1693, buried in Sultan Mustafa Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia), with Rabia Sultan, Ibrahim's twin. + +Daughters +Ahmed II had two or three daughters: +Asiye Sultan (Edirne Palace, Edirne, 23 October 1694 – Eski Palace, Bayezid, Istanbul, 9 December 1695, buried in Suleiman I Mausoleum, Süleymaniye Mosque), with Rabia Sultan; +Atike Sultan (born 24 October 1694). Her existence is controversial: due to the similar name and almost identical date of birth some historians believe she may be Asiye herself, whose birth was recorded incorrectly by some or that Atike was Asiye's second name. If she really was a different princess, she was probably the daughter of Şayeste Hatun. +Hatice Sultan, probably with Şayeste Hatun. Died in infancy. + +In addition to his daughters, Ahmed II was deeply attached to his niece Ümmügülsüm Sultan, daughter of his half-brother Mehmed IV, so much so that he treated her as if she were his own daughter. + +References + +Citations + +Sources + +Further reading + +Michael Hochendlinger, Austria's Wars of Emergence: War, State and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1683–1797 (London: Longman, 2003), 157–64. + +External links + +1643 births +1695 deaths +Ottoman people of the Great Turkish War +17th-century Ottoman sultans +Turks from the Ottoman Empire +Ahmed III (, Aḥmed-i sālis; 30 December 16731 July 1736) was sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687). His mother was Gülnuş Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hacıoğlu Pazarcık, in Dobruja. He succeeded to the throne in 1703 on the abdication of his brother Mustafa II (1695–1703). Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha and the Sultan's daughter, Fatma Sultan (wife of the former) directed the government from 1718 to 1730, a period referred to as the Tulip Era. + +During the initial days of Ahmed III's reign, significant efforts were made to appease the janissaries. However, Ahmed's effectiveness in dealing with the janissaries who had elevated him to the sultanate was limited. Grand Vizier Çorlulu Ali Pasha, whom Ahmed appointed, provided valuable assistance in administrative affairs and implemented new measures for the treasury. He supported Ahmed in his struggles against rival factions and provided stability to the government. Ahmed was an avid reader, skilled in calligraphy and knowledgeable on history and poetry. + +Early life and education +Sultan Ahmed was born on 30 December 1673. His father was Sultan Mehmed IV, and his mother was Gülnuş Sultan, originally named Evmenia. His birth occurred in Hacıoğlupazarı, where Mehmed stayed to hunt on his return from Poland in 1673, while Gülnuş was pregnant at that time. In 1675, He and his brother, Prince Mustafa (future Mustafa II) were circumcised. During the same ceremony their sisters Hatice Sultan and Fatma Sultan were married to Musahip Mustafa Pasha and Kara Mustafa Pasha respectively. The celebrations lasted 20 days. + +He grew up in the Edirne Palace. His schooling began during one of the sporadic visits of the court to Istanbul, following a courtly ceremony called bad-i basmala, which took place on 9 August 1679 in the Istavroz Palace. He was brought up in the imperial harem in Edirne with a traditional princely education, studying the Qur’an, the hadiths (traditions of Prophet Muhammad), and the fundamentals of Islamic sciences, history, poetry and music under the supervision of private tutors. One of his tutors was chief mufti Feyzullah Efendi. + +Ahmed was apparently curious and intellectual in nature, spending most of his time reading and practising calligraphy. The poems that he wrote manifest his profound knowledge of poetry, history, Islamic theology and philosophy. He was also interested in calligraphy, which he had studied with the leading court calligraphers, primarily with Hafız Osman Efendi (died 1698), who influenced his art immensely, and, therefore, practiced it because of the influence of his elder brother, the future Sultan Mustafa II, who also became a notable calligrapher. + +During his princehood in Edirne, Ahmed made friends with a bright officer-scribe, Ibrahim, from the city of Nevşehir, who was to become one of the outstanding Grand Viziers of his future reign. From 1687, following the deposition of his father, he lived in isolation for sixteen years in the palaces of Edirne and Istanbul. During this period he dedicated himself to calligraphy and intellectual activities. + +Reign + +Accession + +The Edirne succession occurred between 19 August to 23 August. Under Mustafa, Istanbul had been out of control for a long time. As arrests and executions mounted, theft and robbery incidents became common. The people were dissatisfied with the poor governing of the Empire. Mustafa was deposed by the Janissaries and Ahmed, who succeeded him to the throne on 22 August 1703. The first Friday salute was held in Bayezid Mosque. + +Fındıklılı Mehmed Ağa welcomed the new sultan at the Harem gate on the Hasoda side, entered the arm, brought him to the Cardigan-i Saadet Department and placed them on the throne, and were among the first to pay tribute to him. + +As part of the fief system, Ahmed reorganized the land law in 1705. Bringing order to land ownership reduced the crime wave and brought peace to the troubled Empire. Due to his ardent support of the new laws, Ahmed was given the title 'law-giver', a title given to only three sultans earlier, Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512), Selim I (r. 1512–1520) and Suleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566). In the first three years of his reign, Ahmed appointed four separate Grand Viziers. However, the government only gained some stability after the appointment of Çorlulu Ali Pasha in May 1706. + +Russo-Turkish War of 1710–1711 + +Ahmed III cultivated good relations with France, doubtless in view of Russia's menacing attitude. He afforded refuge in Ottoman territory to Charles XII of Sweden (1682–1718) after the Swedish defeat at the hands of Peter I of Russia (1672–1725) in the Battle of Poltava of 1709. In 1710 Charles XII convinced Sultan Ahmed III to declare war against Russia, and the Ottoman forces under Baltacı Mehmet Pasha won a major victory at the Battle of Prut. In the aftermath, Russia returned Azov back to the Ottomans, agreed to demolish the fortress of Taganrog and others in the area, and to stop interfering in the affairs of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. + +Forced against his will into war with Russia, Ahmed III came nearer than any Ottoman sovereign before or since to breaking the power of his northern rival, whose armies his grand vizier Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha succeeded in completely surrounding at the Pruth River Campaign in 1711. The subsequent Ottoman victories against Russia enabled the Ottoman Empire to advance to Moscow, had the Sultan wished. However, this was halted as a report reached Istanbul that the Safavids were invading the Ottoman Empire, causing a period of panic, turning the Sultan's attention away from Russia. + +Wars with Venice and Austria + +On 9 December 1714, war was declared on Venice, an army under Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha's command managed to recover the whole Morea (Peloponnese) from Venice through coordinated operations of the army and navy. + +This success alarmed Austria and in April 1716, Emperor Charles VI provoked the Porte into a declaration of war. The unsuccessful battle, also commanded by Silahdar Ali Pasha, ended with the Treaty of Passarowitz, signed on 21 July 1718, according to which Belgrade, Banat, and Wallachia were ceded to Austria. This failure was a disappointment for Ahmed as the treaty led to Istanbul's economy suffering from increased inflation. + +Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha who was the second leading figure of the empire after Ahmed had joined the Morea campaign in 1715, and was appointed as the city of Nish's minister of finance the following year. This post helped him realize the downturn of the state's finances, which led him to avoid war as much as possible during his vizierate. Ibrahim Pasha's policy of peace suited Ahmed well since he had no wish to lead any military campaigns, in addition to the fact that his interest in art and culture made him reluctant to leave his Istanbul. + +Character of Ahmed's rule + +While shooting competitions were held in Okmeydanı, Istanbul with the idea of increasing the morale of the soldiers and the people, a new warship was launched in Tersane-i Amir. + +He tried three grand viziers at short intervals. Instead of Hasan Pasha, he appointed Kalaylikoz Ahmed Pasha on 24 September 1704, and Baltacı Mehmed Pasha on 25 December 1704. + +In 1707, a conspiracy led by Eyüplü Ali Ağa was unearthed to bring the sultan off the throne. What resulted were that necks were ordered to be cut in front of the Bab-I-Hümayun. + +Ahmed III left the finances of the Ottoman Empire in a flourishing condition, which had remarkably been obtained without excessive taxation or extortionate procedures. He was a cultivated patron of literature and art, and it was in his time that the first printing press was authorized to use either the Arabic or Turkish languages; it was set up in Istanbul, and operated by Ibrahim Muteferrika (while the printing press had been introduced to Constantinople in 1480, all published works before 1729 were in Greek, Armenian, or Hebrew). + +It was in his reign that an important change in the government of the Danubian Principalities was introduced: previously, the Porte had appointed Hospodars, usually native Moldavian and Wallachian boyars, to administer those provinces; after the Russian campaign of 1711, during which Peter the Great found an ally in Moldavia Prince Dimitrie Cantemir, the Porte began overtly deputizing Phanariote Greeks in that region, and extended the system to Wallachia after Prince Stefan Cantacuzino established links with Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Phanariotes constituted a kind of Dhimmi nobility, which supplied the Porte with functionaries in many important departments of the state. + +Foreign relations + +The ambassadors of Safavid Iran and the Archduchy of Austria were well received when they came from 1706 to 1707. + +In the year 1712, the Mughal Emperor Jahandar Shah, a grandson of Aurangzeb, sent gifts to the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III and referred to himself as the Ottoman Sultan's devoted admirer. + +The Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar, another grandson of Aurangzeb, is also known to have sent a letter to the Ottomans but this time it was received by the Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damad Ibrahim Pasha. The letter provided a graphic description of the efforts of the Mughal commander Syed Hassan Ali Khan Barha fighting against the Rajput and Maratha rebellion. + +Deposition + +Sultan Ahmed III had become unpopular by reason of the excessive pomp and costly luxury in which he and his principal officers indulged; on 20 September 1730, a mutinous riot of seventeen Janissaries, led by the Albanian Patrona Halil, was aided by the citizens as well as the military until it swelled into an insurrection, this consequently led the Sultan to give up his throne. + +Ahmed voluntarily led his nephew Mahmud I (1730–1754) to the seat of sovereignty and paid allegiance to him as Sultan of the Empire. He then retired to the Kafes previously occupied by Mahmud and died at Topkapı Palace after six years of confinement. + +Architecture +Ahmed III commissioned the building of water claps, fountains, park waterfalls and three libraries, one inside the Topkapı Palace, with the famous lines "Ahmed was a master in the writings on plates" which have survived. The “Basmala” at the Topkapi Palace apartment door with its plates in the Üsküdar Yeni Mosque are among them. + +A library was built by Ahmed in 1724–1725 situated next to the tomb entrance of Turhan Sultan, the structure has stone-brick alternate meshed walls, is square-shaped and covered with a flattened dome with an octagonal rim, which is provided with pendentives. There are original pen works left in the pendentives and dome of the library. + +Disasters +In 1714, an Egyptian galleon near the Gümrük (Eminönü) Pier caught fire and burned, which resulted in the deaths of 200 people. + +While Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha continued his preparations for his return to Istanbul, a fire broke out in the city. The districts of Unkapanı, Azapkapı, Zeyrek, Fatih, Saraçhane, Horhor, Etmeydanı, Molla Gürani, Altımermer, Ayazma Gate, Kantarcılar, Vefa, Vez Neciler, Old Rooms, Acemioğlanlar Barracks, Çukur Çeşme, Langa, Davudpaşa were burned from the fire. + +A large three-minute earthquake occurred on 14 May 1719. While the city walls of Istanbul were destroyed in the earthquake, 4,000 people died in Izmit and Yalova was destroyed. Reconstruction work followed after the quake ended in Istanbul. The most meaningful element to reflect the cultural aspect or weight of these works today is the Topkapı Palace Enderun Library, which was built in that year. A rich foundation was established for this institution, which is also known as the Sultan Ahmed-i Salis Library, which has a face-to-face with its architectural and valuable manuscripts. + +Family + +Ahmed III is known to be the Sultan with the largest family (and harem) of the Ottoman dynasty. The hostess of his harem was Dilhayat Kalfa, known to be one of the greatest Turkish composeress of the early modern period. + +Consorts +Ahmed III had at least twenty-one consorts: + Emetullah Kadın. Baş Kadin (first consort) and her first concubine, she was the mother of the firstborn, Fatma Sultan, the Ahmed's favorite daughter. She was Ahmed's most beloved consort, who dedicated a mosque, a school and a fountain to her. Very devoted and active in charity, she died in 1740 in the Old Palace. + Emine Mihrişah Kadın. She was the mother of four sons including Mustafa III, 26th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, but she premorted at her son's rise and therefore was never Valide sultan. She died in April 1732. Her son built the Ayazma Mosque in her honor in Üsküdar. + Rabia Şermi Kadın. She was the mother of Abdülhamid I, 27th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, but she premorted at the rise of her son and therefore was never Valide Sultan. In 1728, a fountain was dedicated to her in Üsküdar. She died in 1732. Her son built the Beylerbeyi Mosque in her honor. + Ayşe Mihri Behri Kadın. Before she became a consort, she was treasurer of the harem. + Hatem Kadın. Mother of twins, she died in 1772 and was buried in Eyüp cemetery. + Emine Musli Kadın. Also called Muslıhe Kadın, Muslu Kadin or Musalli Kadın. She mother of two daughters, she died in 1750 and was buried with them in the Yeni Cami. + Rukiye Kadın. Mother of a daughter and a son, she built a fountain near the Yeni Cami. She died after 1738 and was buried with her daughter in the Yeni Cami. + Fatma Hümaşah Kadın. She died in 1732 and was buried by the Yeni Cami. + Gülneş Kadın. Also called Gülnuş Kadın. She is listed in a document naming her consorts exiled to Old Palace after the deposition of Ahmed III whose jewels were confiscated. She died after 1730. + Hürrem Kadın. Listed in a document that names the consorts exiled to Old Palace after the deposition of Ahmed III whose jewels were confiscated. She died after 1730. + Meyli Kadın. Listed in a document that names the consorts exiled to Old Palace after the deposition of Ahmed III whose jewels were confiscated. She died after 1730. + Hatice Kadın. She died in 1722 and was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Nazife Kadın. Listed in a document that names the consorts exiled to Old Palace after the deposition of Ahmed III whose jewels were confiscated. She died after 1730, perphaps the 29 December 1764. + Nejat Kadın. Listed in a document that names the consorts exiled to Old Palace after the deposition of Ahmed III whose jewels were confiscated. She died after 1730. + Sadık Kadın. Also called Sadıka Kadin. Listed in a document that names the consorts exiled to Old Palace after the deposition of Ahmed III whose jewels were confiscated. She died after 1730. + Hüsnüşah Kadın. She died in 1733 and was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Şahin Kadın. She died in 1732 and was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Ümmügülsüm Kadın. She died in 1768 and was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Zeyneb Kadın. Mother of a daughter, she died in 1757 and was buried by the Yeni Cami. + Hanife Kadın. Mother of a daughter, she died in 1750 and was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Şayeste Hanim. BaşIkbal. She died in 1722 and was buried by the Yeni Cami. + +Sons +Ahmed III had at least twenty-one sons, all buried, apart from the two who became Sultans, in the Yeni Cami: + Şehzade Mehmed (24 November 1705 - 30 July 1706). + Şehzade Isa (23 February 1706 - 14 May 1706). + Şehzade Ali (18 June 1706 - 12 September 1706). + Şehzade Selim (29 August 1706 - 15 April 1708). + Şehzade Murad (17 November 1707 - 1707). + Şehzade Murad (25 January 1708 - 1 April 1708). + Şehzade Abdülmecid (12 December 1709 - 18 March 1710). Twin of Şehzade Abdülmelek. + Şehzade Abdülmelek (12 December 1709 - 7 March 1711). Twin of Şehzade Abdülmecid. + Şehzade Süleyman (25 August 1710 - 11 October 1732) - with Mihrişah Kadin. He died in the Kafes after two years of imprisonment. + Şehzade Mehmed (8 October 1712 - 15 July 1713). + Şehzade Selim (21 March 1715 - February 1718) - with Hatem Kadın. Twin of Saliha Sultan. + Şehzade Mehmed (2 January 1717 - 2 January 1756) - with Rukiye Kadın. He died in the Kafes after twenty-six years of imprisonment. + Mustafa III (28 January 1717 - 21 January 1774) - with Mihrişah Kadin. 26th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire after twenty-seven years of imprisonment in the Kafes. + Şehzade Bayezid (4 October 1718 - 24 January 1771) - with Mihrişah Kadin. He died in the Kafes after forty-one years of imprisonment. + Şehzade Abdüllah (18 December 1719 - 19 December 1719). + Şehzade Ibrahim (12 September 1720 - 16 March 1721). + Şehzade Numan (22 February 1723 - 29 December 1764). He died in the Kafes after thirthy-four years of imprisonment. + Abdülhamid I (20 March 1725 - 7 April 1789) - with Rabia Şermi Kadın. 27th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire after forty-four years of imprisonment in the Kafes. + Şehzade Seyfeddin (3 February 1728 - 1732) - with Mihrişah Kadin. He died in the Kafes after two years of imprisonment. + Şehzade Mahmud (? - 22 December 1756). He died in the Kafes after twenty-six years of imprisonment. + Şehzade Hasan (? - ?). He probably died in the Kafes. + +Daughters +Ahmed III had at least thirty-six daughters: + Fatma Sultan (22 September 1704 - May 1733) - with Emetullah Kadın. She was her father's favorite daughter. She married twice and had two sons and two daughters. She and her second husband were the real power during the Tulip Era. She fell from grace after the Patrona Halil revolt and was confined to Çırağan Palace, where she died three years later. + Hatice Sultan (21 January 1701 - 29 August 1707). Buried in the mausoleum Turhan Sultan in the Yeni Cami. + Ayşe Sultan (? - 1706). Buried in the Yeni Cami. + Mihrimah Sultan (17 June 1706 - ?). She died as a child and was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Rukiye Sultan (3 March 1707 - 29 August 1707). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Ümmügülsüm Sultan (11 February 1708 - 28 November 1732). Twin of Zeynep Sultan. She married once and had four sons and a daughter. + Zeynep Sultan (11 February 1708 - 5 November 1708). Twin sister of Ümmügülsüm Sultan. She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Zeynep Sultan (5 January 1710 - July 1710). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Hatice Sultan (8 February 1710 - 1710, before September). She was buried in the Turhan Sultan mausoleum in Yeni Cami. + Hatice Sultan (27 September 1710 - 1738) - with Rukiye Kadın. She married twice and had a son. + Emine Sultan (1711 - 1720). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Atike Sultan (29 February 1712 - 2 April 1737). She got married once and she had a son. + Rukiye Sultan (7 March 1713 - October 1715). Buried in the Turhan Sultan mausoleum in Yeni Cami. + Zeynep Asima Sultan (8 April 1714 - March 25, 1774). She married twice and she had a son. + Saliha Sultan (21 March 1715 - 11 October 1778) - with Hatem Kadın. Twin of Şehzade Selim. She was married five times and had a son and four daughters. + Ayşe Sultan (10 October 1715 - 9 July 1775) - with Musli Kadın. Nicknamed Küçük Ayşe (meaning Ayşe the youngest) to distinguish her from her cousin Ayşe the eldest, daughter of Mustafa II. She married three times and had a daughter. + Ferdane Sultan (? - 1718). She died as a child and she was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Reyhane Sultan (1718 - 1729). Also called Reyhan Sultan or Rihane Sultan. She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Ümmüseleme Sultan (? - 1719). Also called Ümmüselma Sultan. She died as a child and was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Rabia Sultan (19 November 1719 - before 1727). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Emetullah Sultan (1719 - 1723) Also called Ümmetullah Sultan. She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Rukiye Sultan (? - 1720). She died as a child and was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Beyhan Sultan (? - 1720). She died as a child and was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Emetullah Sultan (17 September 1723 - 28 January 1724). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Emine Sultan (late 1723/early 1724 - 1732). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Nazife Sultan (May 1723/1725 - before 1730 or 29 December 1764). Exceptionally, she never married, most likely because she was chronically ill or had physical and/or mental problems. She lived in seclusion in the Old Palace all her life. However, according to other historians, she actually died a child and the Nazife who died in the Old Palace in 1764 was instead one of Ahmed III's consorts with the same name, Nazife Kadin. + Ümmüselene Sultan (12 October 1724 - 5 December 1732). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Naile Sultan (15 December 1725 - October 1727). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Esma Sultan (14 March 1726 - 13 August 1778) - with Hanife Kadın or Zeyneb Kadın. Nicknamed Büyük Esma (meaning Esma the eldest) to distinguish her from her niece Esma the younger, daughter of Abdülhamid I. She married three times and had a daughter. + Sabiha Sultan (19 December 1726 - 17 December 1726). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Rabia Sultan (28 October 1727 - 4 April 1728). Also called Rebia Sultan. She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Zübeyde Sultan (28 March 1728 - 4 June 1756) - with Musli Kadın. She married twice. + Ümmi Sultan (? - 1729). Called also Ümmügülsüm Sultan. She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Ümmühabibe Sultan (? - 1730). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Akile Sultan (? - 1737). She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + Ümmi Sultan (1730 - 1742). Called also Ümmügülsüm Sultan. She was buried in the Yeni Cami. + +Death +Ahmed lived in Kafes of the Topkapi Palace for six years following his deposition, where he fell ill and died on 1 July 1736. He was buried in his grandmother's tomb in Turhan Sultan Mausoleum in New Mosque, at Eminönü in Istanbul. + +In fiction +In Voltaire's Candide, the eponymous main character meets the deposed Ahmed III on a ship from Venice to Constantinople. The Sultan is in the company of five other deposed European monarchs, and he tells Candide, who initially doubts his credentials: + +I am not jesting, my name is Achmet III. For several years I was Sultan; I dethroned my brother; my nephew dethroned me; they cut off the heads of my viziers; I am ending my days in the old seraglio; my nephew, Sultan Mahmoud, sometimes allows me to travel for my health, and I have come to spend the Carnival at Venice." + +This episode was taken up by the modern Turkish writer Nedim Gürsel as the setting of his 2001 novel Le voyage de Candide à Istanbul. + +In fact, there is no evidence of the deposed Sultan being allowed to make such foreign travels, nor did Voltaire (or Gürsel) assert that it had any actual historical foundation. + +See also + Fountain of Ahmed III + Fountain of Ahmed III (Üsküdar) + Ibrahim Muteferrika + +References + +Sources + This article incorporates text from the History of Ottoman Turks (1878) + +External links + +Turkish male poets +1673 births +1736 deaths +18th-century Ottoman sultans +Ottoman sultans born to Greek mothers +Dethroned monarchs +The Ainu are an ethnic group of related indigenous people native to Northern Japan, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, including Hokkaido Island, Northeast Honshu Island, Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the Khabarovsk Krai; they have occupied these areas since before the arrival of the modern Japanese and Russians. These regions are often referred to as in historical Japanese texts. + +Official estimates place the total Ainu population of Japan at 25,000. Unofficial estimates place the total population at 200,000 or higher, as the near-total assimilation of the Ainu into Japanese society has resulted in many individuals of Ainu descent having no knowledge of their ancestry. + +The Ainu are one of the only major ethnic minorities in the Japanese islands with a distinct and highly unique culture and way of life. They were subject to forced assimilation, colonization, and ethnic and cultural genocide by the larger Japanese populace since at least the 18th century. Japanese assimilation policies in the 19th century around the Meiji Restoration included forcing Ainu peoples off their land; this, in turn, forced them to give up traditional ways of life such as subsistence hunting and fishing. Ainu people were not allowed to practice their religion, and they were pushed into Japanese-language schools where speaking the Ainu language was strictly forbidden. In 1966, there were about 300 native Ainu speakers; in 2008, however, there were only about 100. + +Names + +This people's most widely known ethnonym, "Ainu" (; ; ) means "human" in the Ainu language, particularly as opposed to , divine beings. Ainu also identify themselves as "Utari" ("comrade" or "people"). Official documents use both names. + +History + +Pre-modern +The Ainu are the native people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kurils. Early Ainu-speaking groups (mostly hunters and fishermen) also migrated into the Kamchatka Peninsula and into Honshu, where their descendants are today known as the Matagi hunters, who still use a large amount of Ainu vocabulary in their dialect. Ainu toponyms people also live in several places throughout northern Honshu, mostly along the western coast and in the Tōhoku region. This serves as further evidence for Ainu-speaking hunters and fishermen migrating down from Northern Hokkaido into Honshu. There is also evidence that Ainu speakers lived in the Amur region through Ainu loanwords found in the Uilta and Ulch people languages. + +Research suggests that Ainu culture originated from a merger of the Okhotsk and Satsumon cultures. According to researchers Lee and Hasegawa, Ainu-speakers descend from the Okhotsk people, who rapidly expanded from northern Hokkaido into the Kurils and Honshu. These early inhabitants did not speak the Japanese language; some were conquered by the Japanese early in the 9th century. In 1264, the Ainu invaded the land of the Nivkh people. The Ainu also started an expedition into the Amur region, which was then controlled by the Yuan dynasty, resulting in reprisals by the Mongols who invaded Sakhalin. Active contact between the Wa-jin (the ethnically Japanese, also known as Yamato-jin) and the Ainu of Ezogashima (now known as Hokkaidō) began in the 13th century. The Ainu formed a society of hunter-gatherers, surviving mainly by hunting and fishing. They followed a religion which was based on natural phenomena. + +During the Muromachi period (1336–1573), many Ainu were subject to Japanese rule. Disputes between the Japanese and Ainu developed into large-scale violence, known as Koshamain's Revolt, in 1456. Takeda Nobuhiro, the ancestor of the Matsumae clan, killed the Ainu leader Koshamain. + +In the 15th century, Manchuria in northern China came under Ming rule. As part of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, the Ainu and Nivkh peoples of Sakhalin were subjugated and became tributaries to the Ming dynasty. Women in Sakhalin intermarried with Han Chinese Ming officials when the Ming took tribute from Sakhalin and the Amur river region. Due to Ming rule in Manchuria, Chinese cultural and religious influence such as Chinese New Year, the "Chinese god", and motifs such as dragons, spirals, and scrolls, spread among the Ainu, Nivkh, and Amur natives such as the Udeghes, Ulchis, and Nanais. +These groups also adopted material goods and practices such as agriculture, husbandry, heating, iron cooking pots, silk, and cotton. + +During the Edo period (1601–1868), the Ainu, who controlled northern Hokkaido, became increasingly involved in trade with the Japanese, who controlled the southern portion of the island. The Tokugawa bakufu (feudal government) granted the Matsumae clan exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu in the northern part of the island. Later, the Matsumae began to lease out trading rights to Japanese merchants, and contact between Japanese and Ainu became more extensive. Throughout this period, Ainu groups competed with each other to import goods from the Japanese, and epidemic diseases such as smallpox reduced the population. Although the increased contact created by the trade between the Japanese and the Ainu contributed to greater mutual understanding, it also sometimes led to conflict, which occasionally intensified into violent Ainu revolts. The most important Ainu rebellion against Japanese authority was Shakushain's Revolt from 1669–1672. Another large-scale revolt by Ainu against Japanese rule was the Menashi-Kunashir Battle in 1789. However, throughout this period and thereafter, the Ainu-Japanese relationship continued to be marked more by trade and commercial interactions than by conflicts. + +From 1799 to 1806, the Tokugawa shogunate took direct control of southern Hokkaido. During this period, Ainu women were separated from their husbands and either subjected to rape or forcibly married to Japanese men. Meanwhile, Ainu men were deported to merchant subcontractors for five- and ten-year terms of service. Policies of family separation and assimilation, combined with the impact of smallpox, caused the Ainu population to drop significantly in the early 19th century. In the 18th century, there were 80,000 Ainu, but by 1868, there were only about 15,000 Ainu in Hokkaido, 2,000 in Sakhalin, and around 100 in the Kuril islands. + +Despite their growing influence in the area in the early 19th century as a result of these policies, the Tokugawa shogunate was unable to gain a monopoly on Ainu trade with those on the Asian mainland, even by the year 1853. Santan traders, a group comprised mostly of the Ulchi, Nanai, and Oroch peoples of the Amur River, commonly interacted with the Ainu people independent of the Japanese government, especially in the north part of Hokkaido. In addition to their trading ventures, Santan traders sometimes kidnapped or purchased Ainu women from Rishiri to become their wives. This further escalated Japan's presence in the area, as the Tokugawa shogunate believed a monopoly on Santan trade would better protect the Ainu people. + +Contrary to popular belief, it is now thought that the Ainu were not the first settlers of the island of Hokkaido. Archeological evidence suggests that ancient Japanese Jomon people inhabited Hokkaido early on, and the Ainu people may have only appeared after the 13th century. They likely migrated from more northern islands and what is now Far East Russia. + +Japanese annexation of Hokkaido +In 1869, the imperial government established the Hokkaidō Development Commission as part of the Meiji Restoration. Researcher Katarina Sjöberg quotes Baba's 1890 account of the Japanese government's reasoning: + +... The development of Japan's large northern island had several objectives: First, it was seen as a means to defend Japan from a rapidly developing and expansionist Russia. Second ... it offered a solution to the unemployment for the former samurai class ... Finally, development promised to yield the needed natural resources for a growing capitalist economy. + +As a result of the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), the Kuril Islandsalong with their Ainu inhabitantscame under Japanese administration. In 1899, the Japanese government passed an act labelling the Ainu as "former aborigines", with the idea that they would assimilate. This resulted in the Japanese government taking the land where the Ainu people lived and placing it from then on under Japanese control. Also at this time, the Ainu were granted automatic Japanese citizenship, effectively denying them the status of an indigenous group. + +The Ainu went from being a relatively isolated group of people to having their land, language, religion and customs assimilated into those of the Japanese. Their land was distributed to the Yamato Japanese settlers to create and maintain farms in the model of Western industrial agriculture. It was known as "colonization" (拓殖) at the time, but later by the euphemism, "opening up undeveloped land" (). Additionally, factories like flour mills and beer breweries, along with mining practices, resulted in the creation of infrastructure such as roads and railway lines during a development period that lasted until 1904. During this time, the Ainu were ordered to cease religious practices such as animal sacrifice and the custom of tattooing. The same act applied to the native Ainu on Sakhalin after its annexation as the Karafuto Prefecture. + +Assimilation after annexation +The Ainu have historically suffered from economic and social discrimination, as both the Japanese government and mainstream population regarded them as dirty and primitive barbarians. The majority of Ainu were forced to be petty laborers during the Meiji Restoration, which saw the introduction of Hokkaido into the Japanese Empire and the privatization of traditional Ainu lands. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Japanese government denied the rights of the Ainu to their traditional cultural practices such as hunting, gathering, and speaking their native language. + +The legal denial of Ainu cultural practices mostly stemmed from the 1899 Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act. This law and its associated policies were designed to fully integrate the Ainu into Japanese society while erasing Ainu culture and identity. The Ainu's position as manual laborers and their forced integration into larger Japanese society have led to discriminatory practices by the Japanese government that can still be felt today. + +Intermarriage between Japanese and Ainu was actively promoted by the Ainu to lessen the chances of discrimination against their offspring. As a result, many Ainu today are indistinguishable from their Japanese neighbors, but some Ainu-Japanese are interested in traditional Ainu culture. For example, Oki, born as a child of an Ainu father and a Japanese mother, became a musician who plays the traditional Ainu instrument . There are also many small towns in the southeastern or Hidaka region of Hokkaido where ethnic Ainu live, such as in Nibutani (). + +From the early 1870s, Christian missionary work was conducted amongst the Ainu. The Anglican Communion missionaries included the Rt Rev Philip Fyson, Bishop of Hokkaido, and the Rev John Batchelor. Batchelor wrote extensively in English about the beliefs and daily life of the Ainu in Yezo (or Ezo), and his publications are a source of photographs of the Japanese and Ainu close to the missions. + +Standard of living +The discrimination and negative stereotypes assigned to the Ainu have manifested in lower levels of education, income, and participation in the economy as compared to their ethnically Japanese counterparts. The Ainu community in Hokkaido in 1993 received welfare payments at a 2.3 times higher ratethan that of Hokkaido as a whole. They also had an 8.9% lower enrollment rate from junior high school to high school and a 15.7% lower enrollment into college from high school. Due to this noticeable and growing gap, the Japanese government has been lobbied by activists to research the Ainu's standard of living nationwide. The Japanese government will provide ¥7 million (US$63,000), beginning in 2015, to conduct surveys nationwide on this matter. + +The Ainu and ethnic homogeneity in Japan +The existence of the Ainu has challenged the notion of ethnic homogeneity in post-WWII Japan. After the demise of the multi-ethnic Empire of Japan in 1945, successive governments forged a single Japanese identity by advocating monoculturalism and denying the existence of more than one ethnic group in Japan. + +Following the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, Hokkaido politicians pressured the government to recognize Ainu rights. Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo answered a parliamentary question on May 20, 2008 by stating,It is a historical fact that the Ainu are the precursors in the northern Japanese archipelago, in particular Hokkaido. The government acknowledges the Ainu to be an ethnic minority as it has maintained a unique cultural identity and having a unique language and religion.On June 6, 2008, the National Diet of Japan passed a non-binding, bipartisan resolution calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu as indigenous people. + +In 2019, eleven years after this resolution, the Diet finally passed an act recognizing the Ainu as an indigenous people of Japan. Despite this recognition of the Ainu as an ethnically distinct group, political figures in Japan continue to define ethnic homogeneity as key to overall Japanese national identity. For example, politician Tarō Asō notably claimed in 2020, “No other country but this one has lasted for as long as 2,000 years with one language, one ethnic group and one dynasty”. + +Origins + +The Ainu have often been thought to descend from the diverse Jōmon people who lived in northern Japan from the Jōmon period ( 14,000 to 300 BCE). One of their , or legends, tells that, "[T]he Ainu lived in this place a hundred thousand years before the Children of the Sun came". + +Recent research suggests that the historical Ainu culture originated from a merger of the Okhotsk culture with the Satsumon culture, thought to have derived from the diverse Jōmon-period cultures of the Japanese archipelago. + +The historical Ainu economy was based on farming, as well as on hunting, fishing, and gathering. + +According to researchers Lee and Hasegawa of Waseda University, the direct ancestors of the later Ainu people formed during the late Jōmon period from the combination of the local but diverse population of Hokkaido, long before the arrival of contemporary Yamato Japanese people. Lee and Hasegawa suggest that the Ainu language expanded from northern Hokkaido and may have originated from a relatively more recent Northeast Asian/Okhotsk population, who established themselves in northern Hokkaido and had a significant impact on the formation of Hokkaido's Jōmon culture. + +Linguist and historian Joran Smale similarly found that the Ainu language likely originated from the ancient Okhotsk people, which had strong cultural influence on the "Epi-Jōmon" of southern Hokkaido and northern Honshu, but that the Ainu people themselves formed from the combination of both ancient groups. Additionally, he notes that the historical distribution of Ainu dialects and their specific vocabulary correspond to the distribution of the maritime Okhotsk culture. + +A 2021 study confirmed that the Hokkaido Jōmon population formed from "Terminal Upper-Paleolithic people" (TUP people) indigenous to Northern Eurasia and from proper Jōmon people, who arrived from Honshu about 15,000 BCE. The Ainu, in turn, originated from the Hokkaido Epi-Jōmon and from the Okhotsk people in Hokkaido. + +Another study in 2021 analyzed the indigenous populations of northern Japan and the Russian Far East. They concluded that Siberia and northern Japan were populated by two distinct waves: + +Confusion with Emishi +The claim that the ancient Emishi were Ainu has been largely disproved by current research, although it is still under dispute. The term "Emishi" in the Nara period (710-794) referred to people who lived in the Tohoku region and whose lifestyle and culture differed markedly from that of the Yamato people; it was originally a highly cultural and political concept with no racial distinction. + +From the mid-Heian period onward, Emishi who did not fall under the governance of the Yamato Kingship were singled out as northern Emishi. They began to be referred to as "Ezo" (Emishi). + +The first written reference to "Ezo," which is thought to be Ainu, can be found in Suwa Daimyōjin Ekotoba, which was written in 1356. Indeed, Ainu have lived in Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Hokkaido, and the northern Tohoku region since the 13th century. + +Thus, "Ezo = Ainu" is a concept that was accepted in the medieval and early modern periods, and it is not accurate to apply it to ancient Emishi as well. + +Caucasoid Theory +Source: + +The Ainu Caucasian theory was proposed by Siebold, a physician and naturalist at the Dutch trading post in Nagasaki in the 19th century; he claimed that the Ainu were Caucasian (Caucasoid) and that the Ainu were a long-lost white people. + +Early European Ainu researchers considered the Ainu to be Caucasian because they were an ancient culture and based their lives on a lifestyle that could be compared to the Paleolithic period in Europe, i.e., gathering plants and hunting animals in the mountains and sea, and because their facial moats were deeper than those of the mainland Japanese. + +This theory was popular until the 1950s. Followers of the theory include French ethnologist Georges Montandon and P.Wilhelm Koppers of the Viennese school of historical ethnography. + +Genetics + +Paternal lineages + +Genetic testing has shown that the Ainu belong mainly to Y-DNA haplogroup D-M55 (D1a2) and C-M217. Y-DNA haplogroup D-M55 is found throughout the Japanese archipelago, but with very high frequencies among the Ainu of Hokkaido in the far north, and to a lesser extent among the Ryukyuans in the Ryukyu Islands of the far south. Recently it was confirmed that the Japanese branch of haplogroup D-M55 is distinct and isolated from other D-branches by more than 53,000 years. + +Several studies (Shinoda 2008) suggest that haplogroup D originated somewhere in Central Asia. According to Hammer et al., the ancestral haplogroup D originated between Tibet and the Altai mountains. They suggest that there were multiple migration waves into Eastern Eurasia. + +A 2004 study suggests that fourteen out of sixteen Ainu (or 87.5%) belong to YAP+ lineages (Y-haplogroups D-M55* and D-M125), with 13/16 (81.3%) belonging to D-M55 and 1/16 (6.25%) belonging to D-M125 (the latter is much more typical of mainland Japanese males than Ainu). The presence of haplogroup C-M217 in the Ainu suggests a degree of genetic admixture with the Nivkhs. Two out of a sample of sixteen Ainu men (or 12.5%) belong to C-M217*, which is the most common Y chromosome haplogroup among the indigenous populations of Siberia and Mongolia. Hammer et al. (2006) found that one in a sample of four (25%) Ainu men belonged to haplogroup C-M217. + +Maternal lineages +An analysis of a sample of 51 modern Ainu showed their mtDNA lineages consist mainly of haplogroup Y ( = 21.6% according to Tanaka et al. (2004), or = 19.6% according to Adachi et al. (2009), who cite Tajima et al. (2004)), haplogroup D ( = 17.6%, particularly D4 (xD1)), haplogroup M7a ( = 15.7%), and haplogroup G1 ( = 15.7%). Other mtDNA haplogroups detected in this sample include A (), M7b2 (), N9b (), B4f (), F1b (), and M9a (). Most of the remaining individuals in this sample have been classified definitively only as belonging to macro-haplogroup M. + +According to Sato et al. (2009), who studied the mtDNA of the same sample of modern Ainu (=51), the major haplogroups of the Ainu are N9 ( = 27.5%, including Y and N9 (xY)), D ( = 23.5%, including D (xD5) and D5), M7 ( = 19.6%), and G ( = 19.6%, including G1 and G2); the minor haplogroups are A (), B (), F (), and M (xM7, M8, CZ, D, G) (). + +Studies published in 2004 and 2007 found the combined frequency of M7a and N9b observed in Jōmons, which are believed by some to be Jōmon maternal contributions, to be 28% in Okinawans ( M7a1, M7a (xM7a1), N9b), 17.6% in Ainu ( M7a (xM7a1), N9b), and from 10% ( M7a (xM7a1), M7a1, N9b) to 17% ( M7a1, M7a (xM7a1)) in mainstream Japanese. + +In addition, haplogroups D4, D5, M7b, M9a, M10, G, A, B, and F have been found in Jōmon people as well. These mtDNA haplogroups were found in various Jōmon samples and in some modern Japanese people. + +A study by Kanazawa-Kiriyama et al. (2013) about mitochondrial haplogroups found that the Ainu people (including samples from Hokkaido and Tōhoku) have a high frequency of N9b, which is also found among Udege people of eastern Siberia and is more common among Europeans than Eastern Asians. The N9b haplogroup is also notably absent from geographically close Kantō Jōmon period samples, which have a higher frequency of M7a7, commonly found among East and Southeast Asians. According to the authors, these results add to the internal-diversity observed among the Jōmon period population and show that a significant percentage of the Jōmon period people had ancestry from a Northeast Asian source population; this is suggested to be the source of the proto-Ainu language and culture, which is not detected in samples from Kantō. + +A study by Adachi et al. 2018 concluded, Our results suggest that the Ainu were formed from the Hokkaido Jomon people, but subsequently underwent considerable admixture with adjacent populations. The present study strongly recommends revision of the widely accepted dual-structure model for the population history of the Japanese, in which the Ainu are assumed to be the direct descendants of the Jomon people. + +Autosomal DNA +A 2004 reevaluation of cranial traits suggests that the Ainu resemble the Okhotsk more than they do the Jōmon, though there are large variations. This agrees with the hypothesis of Ainu as a merger of Okhotsk and Satsumon populations, referenced earlier. Similarly, more recent studies link the Ainu to the local Hokkaido Jōmon period samples, such as the 3,800 year old Rebun sample. + +Genetic analyses of HLA I and HLA II genes as well as HLA-A, B, and DRB1 gene frequencies link the Ainu to indigenous peoples of the Americas. The genetics of a variety of Asian groups show Ainu and Native Americans can both be traced back to Paleolithic groups in Siberia. + +Hideo Matsumoto (2009) suggested, based on immunoglobulin analyses, that the Ainu (and Jōmon) have a Siberian origin. Compared with other East Asian populations, the Ainu have the highest amount of Siberian immunoglobulin components, higher than mainland Japanese people. + +A 2012 genetic study revealed that the closest known genetic relatives of the Ainu are the Ryukyuan people, followed by the Yamato people and Nivkh. + +A genetic analysis in 2016 showed that although the Ainu have some genetic relations to Yamato Japanese people and Eastern Siberians (especially Itelmens and Chukchis), they are not directly related to any modern ethnic group. Further, the study detected genetic contributions from the Ainu to populations around the Sea of Okhotsk, but no genetic influence on the Ainu themselves. According to the study, the Ainu-like genetic contribution in the Ulch people is about 17.8% or 13.5%, and about 27.2% in the Nivkhs. The study also disproved the idea of a relation to Andamanese or Tibetans. Instead, it presented evidence of gene flow between the Ainu and "lowland East Asian farmer populations" (represented in the study by the Ami and Atayal in Taiwan and the Dai and Lahu in Mainland East Asia). + +A genetic study in 2016 of historical Ainu samples from southern Sakhalin (8) and northern Hokkaido (4) found that the samples were closely related to the ancient Okhotsk people followed by Ainu samples from southern Hokkaido, pointing to some substructure among the ancient Ainu population. + +Recent autosomal evidence suggests that the Ainu derive a majority of their ancestry from the local Jōmon period people of Hokkaido. A 2019 study by Gakuhari et al., analyzing ancient Jōmon remains, found about 79.3% Hokkaido Jōmon ancestry in the Ainu. Another 2019 study, by Kanazawa-Kiriyama et al., found about 66% Hokkaido Jōmon ancestry. A genetic study in 2021, by Sato et al., found that the Ainu probably derived about ~49% of their ancestry from the local Hokkaido Jōmon, ~22% from the Okhotsk (represented by Chukotko-Kamchatkan peoples), and ~29% from the Yamato Japanese. Population genomic data from various Jōmon period samples show that their main ancestry component split from other East Asian people at about 15,000 BCE. Following their migration into the Japanese archipelago, they became largely isolated from outside geneflow. However, geneflow from Ancient North Eurasians towards the Jōmon period population was detected along a North to South cline, with a peak among Hokkaido Jōmon. + +Physical description + +Physical differences can be observed between various Ainu subgroups and clans. According to anthropologist Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, …features considered to distinguish the Ainu from other populations in the area, especially the Japanese, are the tendency to dolichocephaly (long-headedness), a well developed glabella, a deeply depressed nose root, widely projecting cheekbones, a comparatively massive mandible (lower jaw), and an edge to edge bite,as well as more body and facial hair. Many Ainu men have abundant wavy hair and often wear long beards. + +The book Ainu Life and Legends by author Kyōsuke Kindaichi (published by the Japanese Tourist Board in 1942) contains a physical description of Ainu: +Many have wavy hair, but some straight black hair. Very few of them have wavy brownish hair. Their skins are generally reported to be light brown. But this is due to the fact that they labor on the sea and in briny winds all day. Old people who have long desisted from their outdoor work are often found to be as white as western men. The Ainu have broad faces, beetling eyebrows, and sometimes large sunken eyes, which are generally horizontal and of the so-called European type. Eyes of the Mongolian type are rare but occasionally found among them. + +A comparative study by Brace et al. (2001) argues for a closer morphological relation of the Ainu with prehistoric and living European groups, compared with other East Asian groups. The authors concluded that some of their ancestors may have descended from a population, dubbed "Eurasians" by the authors, that moved into northern Eurasia and eastwards in the Late Pleistocene, significantly predating the expansion of the modern core population of East Asia from Mainland Southeast Asia. + +Overall anthropometric characteristics and cranial features group the Ainu people most closely together with Native Americans, especially Eskimos, followed by other East Asians, rather than with Europeans. + +A study by Kura et al. (2014) based on cranial and genetic characteristics suggests a mostly Northern Asian ("Arctic") origin for Ainu people. Thus, despite the Ainu sharing certain morphological similarities with Caucasoid populations, the Ainu are essentially of North Asiatic origin. Genetic evidence support a closer relation to Paleo-Siberian Arctic populations, such as the Chukchi people. + +A study by Omoto has shown that the Ainu are more closely related to other East Asian groups (previously mentioned as "Mongoloid") than to Western Eurasian groups (formerly termed "Caucasian"), on the basis of fingerprints and dental morphology. + +A study by Jinam et al. (2015), using genome-wide SNP data comparison, found that some Ainu carry two specific gene alleles associated with facial features commonly found among Europeans but generally absent among Japanese people and other East Asians. + +Military service + +Russo-Japanese War +Ainu men were first recruited into the Japanese military in 1898. Sixty-four Ainu served in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), eight of whom died in battle or from illness contracted during military service. Two received the Order of the Golden Kite, granted for bravery, leadership or command in battle. + +Second World War +During World War II, Australian troops engaged in the hard-fought Kokoda Track campaign (July–November 1942) in New Guinea were surprised by the physique and fighting prowess of the first Japanese troops they encountered. One medical officer recounted, + +Language + +In 2008, the news block WorldWatch gave an estimate of fewer than 100 remaining speakers of the Ainu language. In 1993, linguist Alexander Vovin placed the number at fewer than 15 speakers, characterising the language as "almost extinct". Because so few present-day speakers are left, study of the Ainu language is limited and is based largely on historical research. Historically, the status of the Ainu language was rather high and was used by early Russian and Japanese administrative officials to communicate with each other and with the Ainu people. + +Despite the small number of native speakers of Ainu, there is an active movement to revitalize the language, mainly in Hokkaido but also elsewhere, such as in Kanto. Ainu oral literature has been documented both in hopes of safeguarding it for future generations and for using it as a teaching tool for language learners. As of 2011, there were an increasing number of second-language learners, especially in Hokkaido. + +The resurgence of Ainu culture and language is in large part due to the pioneering efforts of the late Ainu folklorist, activist, and former Diet member Shigeru Kayano, himself a native speaker. He first opened an Ainu language school in 1987 funded by Ainu Kyokai. + +Although some researchers have attempted to show that the Ainu and Japanese languages are related, modern scholars have rejected the idea that the relationship goes beyond contact, such as the mutual borrowing of words. No attempt to show a relationship with Ainu to any other language has gained wide acceptance, and linguists currently classify Ainu as a language isolate. Most Ainu people speak either Japanese or Russian. + +The Ainu language has no indigenous system of writing and has historically been transliterated using Japanese kana or Russian Cyrillic. , it was typically written either in katakana or in the Latin alphabet. + +Many of the Ainu dialects, especially those from different extremities of Hokkaido, are not mutually intelligible. However, all Ainu speakers understand the classic Ainu language of the Yukar, a form of Ainu epic. Without a writing system, the Ainu were masters of narration, with the Yukar and other forms of narration such as Uepeker (Uwepeker) tales being committed to memory and related at gatherings which often lasted many hours or even days. + +Concepts expressed with prepositions in English, such as to, from, by, in, and at, appear as postpositional forms in Ainu. Whereas prepositions come before the word they modify, postpositions come after it. A single sentence in Ainu can comprise many added or agglutinated sounds or affixes that represent nouns or ideas. + +Culture + +Traditional Ainu culture is quite different from Japanese culture. According to Tanaka Sakurako from the University of British Columbia, the Ainu culture can be included into a wider "northern circumpacific region", referring to various indigenous cultures of Northeast Asia and "beyond the Bering Strait" in North America. + +Never shaving after a certain age, the men have full beards and moustaches. Men and women alike cut their hair level with the shoulders at the sides of the head, trimmed semi-circularly behind. The women tattoo () their mouths, and sometimes their forearms. The mouth tattoos start at a young age with a small spot on the upper lip, gradually increasing with size. The soot deposited on a pot hung over a fire of birch bark is used for colour. Traditional Ainu dress consists of a robe spun from the inner bark of the elm tree, called attusi or attush. Various styles are made, which consist generally of a simple short robe with straight sleeves, folded around the body and tied with a band about the waist. The sleeves end at the wrist or forearm, and the length generally is to the calves. Women also wear an undergarment of Japanese cloth. + +In winter, the skins of animals are worn, with leggings of deerskin and, in Sakhalin, boots made from the skin of dogs or salmon. Ainu culture considers earrings, traditionally made from grapevines, to be gender neutral. Women also wear a beaded necklace called a tamasay. Modern craftswomen weave and embroider traditional garments that command very high prices. + +Traditional Ainu cuisine consists of the meat of bear, fox, wolf, badger, ox, and horse, as well as fish, fowl, millet, vegetables, herbs, and roots. They traditionally never eat raw fish or meat, always boiling or roasting it. + +Their traditional habitations are reed-thatched huts, the largest about square, without partitions and having a fireplace in the center. There is no chimney, only a hole at the angle of the roof. One window sits on the eastern side, along with two doors. The house of the village head is used as a public meeting place when one is needed. Another kind of traditional Ainu house is called chise. + +Instead of using furniture, Ainu traditionally would sit on the floor, which would be covered with two layers of mats, one of rush, the other of water flag (Iris pseudacorus), a water plant with long sword-shaped leaves. For beds, planks are spread, and mats are hung around them on poles, employing skins for coverlets. Men use chopsticks when eating, and women use wooden spoons. Ainu cuisine is not commonly eaten outside Ainu communities. Only a few restaurants in Japan serve traditional Ainu dishes, mainly in Tokyo and Hokkaido. + +The functions of judgeship were not entrusted to chiefs. Rather, an indefinite number of a community's members sat in judgment upon its criminals. Capital punishment did not exist, nor did the community resort to imprisonment. Beating was considered a sufficient and final penalty. However, in the case of murder, the nose and ears of the culprit were cut off, or the tendons of his feet severed. + +Hunting + +The Ainu traditionally hunt from late autumn to early summer. The reasons for this are in part because in late autumn, plant gathering, salmon fishing, and other activities of securing food come to an end, and hunters readily find game in fields and mountains in which plants withered. + +A village typically possesses a hunting ground of its own, or several villages use a joint hunting territory, called an iwor. Heavy penalties were imposed on any outsiders trespassing on such hunting grounds or joint hunting territory. + +The Ainu traditionally hunt Ussuri brown bears, Asian black bears, Ezo deer (a subspecies of sika deer), hares, red foxes, Japanese raccoon dogs, and other animals. Ezo deer are a particularly important food resource for the Ainu, as are salmon. They also hunt sea eagles, such as white-tailed sea eagles, along with ravens and other birds. The Ainu hunted eagles for their tail feathers, which they used in trade with the Japanese. + +The Ainu hunted with arrows and spears with poison-coated points. They obtained the poison, called surku, from the roots and stalks of aconites. The recipe for this poison was a household secret that differed from family to family. They enhanced the poison with mixtures of roots and stalks of dog's bane, boiled juice of Mekuragumo (a type of harvestman), Matsumomushi (Notonecta triguttata, a species of backswimmer), tobacco, and other ingredients. They also used stingray stingers or skin covering stingers. + +They traditionally hunt in groups with dogs. Before hunting, particularly for bear and similar animals, they may pray to the Kamuy-huci, the house guardian goddess, to convey their wishes for a large catch, and to the god of mountains for safe hunting. + +The Ainu traditionally hunt bears during the spring thaw. At that time, bears are weak because they haven't eaten during their long hibernation. Ainu hunters catch hibernating bears or bears that have just left hibernation dens. When they hunt bear in summer, they use a spring trap loaded with an arrow, called an amappo. The Ainu usually use arrows to hunt deer. Also, they drive deer into a river or sea and shoot them with arrows. For a large catch, a whole village would drive a herd of deer off a cliff and club them to death. + +Fishing + +Fishing is important to Ainu culture. They largely catch trout in summer and salmon in autumn, as well as ito (Japanese huchen), dace, and other fish. Spears called marek" were often used. Other methods were "tesh" fishing, "uray" fishing, and "rawomap" fishing. Many villages were built near rivers or along the coast. Each village or individual had a definite river fishing territory. Outsiders could not freely fish there and needed to ask the owner. + +Japanese lacquerware + +Japanese lacquerware was used in everyday life as tableware and often used in ceremonies (ritual utensils), such as the cups used to offer alcohol when praying to the kamui. Lacquerware was often treated as treasure, and it was also used as containers for storing other treasures. + +One of the characteristics of Ainu lacquerware is that it is almost entirely imported from the south of Honshu. Some pieces may have been lacquered in Matsumae in southern Hokkaido, but since the technique of lacquering is from Honshu, lacquerware can be considered an introduced item among Ainu folk implements. + +There are examples of spatulas and other objects used by the Ainu people for ceremonial purposes that remain in clusters of the same size, and some are specifically produced for trading with the Ainu. + +Ornaments +Traditionally, Ainu men wear a crown called a sapanpe for important ceremonies. Sapanpe are made from wood fibre with bundles of partially shaved wood. The crown has wooden figures of animal gods and other ornaments on its centre. Men carry an emush (ceremonial sword) secured by an emush at strap to their shoulders. + +Ainu women traditionally wear matanpushi, embroidered headbands, and ninkari, metal earrings with balls. Matanpushi and ninkari were originally also worn by men. Furthermore, aprons called maidari now are a part of women's formal clothes. However, some old documents state that men wore maidari. Women sometimes wear a bracelet called a tekunkani. + +Women may wear a necklace called a rektunpe, a long, narrow strip of cloth with metal plaques. They may also wear a necklace that reaches the breast called a tamasay or shitoki, usually made from glass balls. Some glass balls came from trade with the Asian continent. The Ainu also obtained glass balls secretly made by the Matsumae clan. + +Housing + +A village is called a kotan in the Ainu language. Kotan were traditionally located in river basins and along seashores where food was readily available, particularly in the basins of rivers through which salmon traveled upstream. In early modern times, the Ainu people were forced to labor at Japanese fishing grounds . Ainu kotan were also forced to relocate to near fishing grounds, so that the Japanese could secure a labor force. When the Japanese moved to other fishing grounds, Ainu kotan were forced to accompany them. As a result, the traditional kotan disappeared, and large villages of several dozen families were formed around the fishing grounds. + +Cise or cisey (houses) in a kotan are made of cogon grass, bamboo grass, bark, etc. The length lays east to west or parallel to a river. A cise is about seven by five meters, with an entrance at the west end that also serves as a storeroom. A cise has three windows, including the rorun-puyar, a window located on the side facing the entrance (i.e., on the east side), through which gods enter and leave and ceremonial tools are taken in and out. The Ainu regard this window as sacred and are told never to look in through it. A cise has a fireplace near the entrance. A husband and wife would traditionally sit on the fireplace's left side (called shiso). Children and guests would sit facing them on the fireplace's right side (called harkiso). The cise has a platform for valuables called iyoykir behind the shiso. Ainu place sintoko (hokai) and ikayop (quivers) there. + +Traditions + +The Ainu people have various types of marriage. A child is traditionally promised in marriage by arrangement between their parents and the parents of their betrothed, or by a go-between. When the betrothed reach a marriageable age, they are told who their spouse is to be. There are also traditional marriages based on mutual consent of both sexes. In some areas, when a daughter reaches a marriageable age, her parents allow her to live in a small room called a tunpu, annexed to the southern wall of the house. The parents choose her husband from the men who visit her. + +The age of marriage is 17 to 18 years of age for men and 15 to 16 years of age for women, who are traditionally tattooed. At these ages, both sexes are regarded as adults. + +When a man proposes to a woman in traditional fashion, he visits her house, and she hands him a full bowl of rice. He then eats half of the rice and returns the rest to her. If the woman eats the remaining rice, she accepts his proposal. If she does not and instead puts it beside her, she rejects his proposal. When a man and woman become engaged or learn that their engagement has been arranged, they exchange gifts. The man sends her a small engraved knife, a workbox, a spool, and other gifts. She sends him embroidered clothes, coverings for the back of the hand, leggings, and other handmade clothes. + +The worn-out fabric of old clothing is used for baby clothes, because soft cloth is good for their skin . Additionally, worn-out material was thought to protect babies from the gods of illness and demons, due to these entities's abhorrence of dirty things. Before a baby is breast-fed, they are given a decoction of the endodermis of an alder and the roots of butterburs to discharge impurities. Children are raised almost naked until about the ages of four to five. Even when they wear clothes, they do not wear belts and leave the front of their clothes open. Subsequently, they wear bark clothes without patterns, such as attush, until coming of age. + +Ainu babies traditionally are not given permanent names when they are born. Rather, they are called by various temporary names until the age of two or three. +Newborn babies are named ayay ("a baby's crying"), shipo, poyshi ("small excrement"), and shion ("old excrement"). Their tentative names have a portion meaning "excrement" or "old things" to ward off the demon of ill-health. Some children are named based on their behaviour or habits; others are named after notable events or after parents' wishes for their future . When children are named, they are never given the same names as others. + +Men traditionally wear loincloths and have their hair dressed properly for the first time at age 15–16. Women are also considered adults at the age of 15–16. They traditionally wear underclothes called mour and have their hair dressed properly, with wound waistcloths called raunkut and ponkut around their bodies. When women reached age 12–13, the lips, hands, and arms were traditionally tattooed. When they reached age 15–16, their tattoos would be completed, indicating their qualification for marriage. + +Religion + +The Ainu are traditionally animists, believing that everything in nature has a (spirit or god) on the inside. The most important include , goddess of the hearth; , god of bears and mountains; and , god of the sea, fishing, and marine animals. is regarded as the creator of the world in the Ainu religion. + +Ainu craftsmen, and the Ainu as a whole, traditionally believed that "anything made with deep sincerity was imbued with spirit and also became a [kamuy]" They also held the belief that ancestors and the power of the family could be invoked through certain patterns in art to protect them from malignant influences. + +The Ainu religion has no priests by profession. Instead, the village chief performs whatever religious ceremonies are necessary. Ceremonies are confined to making libations of , saying prayers, and offering willow sticks with wooden shavings attached to them. These sticks are called (singular) and (plural). + +They are placed on an altar used to "send back" the spirits of killed animals. Ainu ceremonies for sending back bears are called . The Ainu people give thanks to the gods before eating and pray to the deity of fire in time of sickness. Traditional Ainu belief holds that their spirits are immortal, and that their spirits will be rewarded hereafter by ascending to (Land of the Gods). + +The Ainu are part of a larger collective of indigenous people who practice "arctolatry" or bear worship. The Ainu believe that the bear holds particular importance as 's chosen method of delivering the gift of the bear's hide and meat to humans. + +John Batchelor reported that the Ainu view the world as being a spherical ocean on which float many islands, a view based on the fact that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. He wrote that they believe the world rests on the back of a large fish, which when it moves causes earthquakes. + +Ainu assimilated into mainstream Japanese society have adopted Buddhism and Shintō; some northern Ainu were converted as members of the Russian Orthodox Church. Regarding Ainu communities in () and other areas that fall within the Russian sphere of cultural influence, there have been a few churches constructed, and some Ainu are reported to have accepted the Christian faith. There have also been reports that the Russian Orthodox Church has performed some missionary projects in the Sakhalin Ainu community. However, there are only reports of a few conversions to Christianity. Converts have been scorned as (Russian Ainu) by other members of the Ainu community. Reports indicate that many Ainu have kept their faith in their traditional deities . + +According to a 2012 survey conducted by Hokkaidō University, a high percentage of Ainu are members of their household family religion, which is Buddhism (especially Buddhism). However, it is noted that similar to the Japanese religious consciousness, there is not a strong feeling of identification with a particular religion, with Buddhist and traditional beliefs both being part of their daily life culture. + +Rituals +Ainu religion consists of a pantheistic animist structure, in which the world is founded on interactions between humans and Kamuy. Within all living beings, natural forces, and objects there is a Ramat (sacred life force) that is an extension of a greater Kamuy. Kamuy are gods or spirits that choose to visit the human world in temporary physical forms, both animate and inanimate, within the human world. Once the physical vessel dies or breaks, the Ramat returns to the Kamuy and leaves its physical form behind as a gift to the humans. If the humans treated the vessel and Kamuy with respect and gratitude, then the Kamuy would return out of delight for the human world. Due to this interaction, the Ainu lived with deep reverence for nature and all objects and phenomena in hopes that the Kamuy would return. The Ainu believed that the Kamuy granted objects, skills, and knowledge to utilize tools to humans, and thus deserve respect and worship. Daily practices included the moderation of hunting, gathering, and harvesting to not disturb the Kamuy. Often, the Ainu would make offerings of an Inau (sacred shaved stick), which usually consisted of whittled willow tree wood with decorative shavings still attached, and wine to the Kamuy. They also built sacred altars called Nusa (fence-like row of taller Inau decorated with bear skulls) separated from the main house and raised storehouses and often observed outdoor rituals. + +The Ainu people observed a ritual that would return Kamuy, a divine or spiritual being in Ainu mythology, to the spiritual realm. This Kamuy sending ritual was called Omante. A bear cub would be captured alive during hibernation and raised in the village as a child. Women would care for the cubs as if they were their children, sometimes even nursing them if needed. Once the bears reached maturity, they would hold another ritual every 5 to 10 years called Iomante (sometimes Iyomante). People from neighboring villages were invited to help celebrate this ritual, in which members of the village would send the bear back to the realm of spirits by gathering around it in a central area and using special ceremonial arrows to shoot it. Afterwards, they would eat the meat. However, in 1955 this ritual was outlawed as animal cruelty. In 2007, it became exempt due to its cultural significance to The Ainu people. +The ritual has since been modified; it is now an annual festival. The festival begins at sundown with a torch parade. A play is then performed, and this is followed by music and dancing. + +Other rituals were performed for things such as food and illness. The Ainu had a ritual to welcome the salmon, praying for a big catch, and another to thank the salmon at the end of the season. There was also a ritual for warding off Kamuy that would bring epidemics, using strong-smelling herbs placed in doorways, windows, and gardens in order to turn away epidemic Kamuy. Similarly to many religions, the Ainu also gave prayers and offerings to their ancestors in the spirit world or afterlife. They would also pray to the fire Kamuy to deliver their offerings of broken snacks and fruit as well as tobacco(Ainu, Everyculture). + +Dancing in Rituals +Traditional dances are performed at ceremonies and banquets. Dancing is a part of the newly organized cultural festivals, and it is even done privately in daily life. Ainu traditional dances often involve large circles of dancers, and sometimes there are onlookers that sing without musical instruments. In rituals these dances are intimate; they involve the calls and movements of animals and/or insects. Some, like the sword and bow dances, are rituals that were used to worship and give thanks for nature. This was to thank deities that they believed were in their surroundings. there was also a dance in Iomante that mimicked the movements of a living bear. However, some dances are improvised and meant just for entertainment. Overall Ainu traditional dancing reinforced their connection to nature, the religious world, and provided a link to other arctic cultures. + +Funerals +Funerals included prayers & offerings to the fire kamuy, as well as verse laments expressing wishes for a smooth journey to the next world. The items that were to be buried with the dead were first broken or cracked to allow spirits to be released and travel to the afterlife together. Sometimes a burial would be followed by burning the residence of the dead. In the event of an unnatural death, there would be a speech raging against the gods. + +In the afterlife, recognized ancestral spirits moved through and influenced the world, though neglected spirits would return to the living world and cause misfortune. Prosperity of family in the afterlife would depend on prayers and offerings left by living descendants; this often led to Ainu parents teaching their children to look after them in the afterlife (Ainu, Everyculture). + +Institutions + +Most Hokkaidō Ainu, and some other Ainu, are members of an umbrella group called the Hokkaido Ainu Association. The organization changed its name to Hokkaidō Utari Association in 1961, due to the fact that the word Ainu was often used in a derogatory manner by the non-Ainu ethnic Japanese. It was changed back to the Hokkaido Ainu Association in 2009 after the passing of the new law regarding the Ainu. The organization was originally controlled by the government to speed Ainu assimilation and integration into the Japanese nation-state. It now is run exclusively by Ainu and operates mostly independently of the government. + +Other key institutions include The Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture (FRPAC), established by the Japanese government after enactment of the Ainu Culture Law in 1997; the Hokkaidō University Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies established in 2007; and various museums and cultural centers. Ainu people living in Tokyo have also developed a vibrant political and cultural community. + +Since late 2011, the Ainu have developed cultural exchange and cooperation with the Sámi people of northern Europe. Both the Sámi and the Ainu participate in the organization for Arctic indigenous peoples and the Sámi research office in Lapland (Finland). + +Currently, there are several Ainu museums and cultural parks. The most famous are: + + National Ainu Museum + Kawamura Kaneto Ainu museum + Ainu Kotan + Ainu folklore museum + Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples + +Ethnic rights + +Legal action +On 27 March, 1997, the Sapporo District Court decided a landmark case that, for the first time in Japanese history, recognized the right of the Ainu people to enjoy their distinct culture and traditions. The case arose because of a 1978 government plan to build two dams in the Saru River watershed in southern Hokkaidō. The dams were part of a series of development projects under the Second National Development Plan that were intended to industrialize the north of Japan. The planned location for one of the dams was across the valley floor near Nibutani village, the home of a large community of Ainu people and an important center of Ainu culture and history. When the government commenced construction on the dam in the early 1980s, two Ainu landowners refused to agree to the expropriation of their property. These landowners were Kaizawa Tadashi and Kayano Shigeru—well-known and important leaders in the Ainu community. After Kaizawa and Kayano declined to sell their land, the Hokkaidō Development Bureau applied for and was subsequently granted a Project Authorization, which required the men to vacate their land. When their appeal of the Authorization was denied, Kayano and Kaizawa's son Koichi (Kaizawa died in 1992) filed suit against the Hokkaidō Development Bureau. + +The final decision denied the relief sought by the plaintiffs for pragmatic reasons (the dam was already in place), but the decision was nonetheless heralded as a landmark victory for the Ainu people. Nearly all of the plaintiffs' claims were recognized. Moreover, the decision marked the first time Japanese case law acknowledged the Ainu as an indigenous people and contemplated the responsibility of the Japanese nation to the indigenous people within its borders. The decision included broad fact-finding that underscored the long history of the oppression of the Ainu people by Japan's majority, referred to as wajin in the case and discussions about the case. The decision was issued on March 27, 1997. Because of the broad implications for Ainu rights, the plaintiffs decided not to appeal the decision, which became final two weeks later. After the decision was issued, on 8 May, 1997, the Diet passed the Ainu Culture Law and repealed the Ainu Protection Act—the 1899 law that had been the vehicle of Ainu oppression for almost one hundred years. While the Ainu Culture Law has been widely criticized for its shortcomings, the shift that it represents in Japan's view of the Ainu people is a testament to the importance of the Nibutani decision. In 2007, the 'Cultural Landscape along the Sarugawa River resulting from Ainu Tradition and Modern Settlement' was designated an Important Cultural Landscape of Japan. A later action seeking restoration of Ainu assets held in trust by the Japanese Government was dismissed in 2008. + +Governmental bodies on Ainu affairs +There is no single government body to coordinate Ainu affairs. Rather, various advisory boards are set up by the Hokkaido government to advise on specific matters. One such committee operated in the late 1990s, and its work resulted in the . This panel was criticized for including no Ainu members. + +In 2006, another panel was established, which notably included an Ainu member for the first time. It completed its work in 2008 issuing a major report that included an extensive historical record and called for substantial government policy changes towards the Ainu. + +Formation of Ainu political party +On 21 January, 2012, the was founded after a group of Ainu activists in Hokkaidō had announced the formation of a political party for the Ainu on 30 October, 2011. The Ainu Association of Hokkaidō reported that Kayano Shiro, the son of the former Ainu leader Kayano Shigeru, would head the party. Their aim is to contribute to the realization of a multicultural and multiethnic society in Japan, along with rights for the Ainu. + +Official promotion +The "2019 Ainu act" simplified procedures for obtaining various permissions from authorities in regards to the traditional lifestyle of the Ainu and nurture the identity and cultures of the Ainu without defining the ethnic group by blood lineage. + +On 12 July, 2020, the National Ainu Museum was opened. It had originally been scheduled to open on 24 April, 2020, prior to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games scheduled in the same year, in Shiraoi, Hokkaidō. The park was planned to be a base for the protection and promotion of Ainu people, culture, and language. The museum promotes the culture and habits of the Ainu people who are the original inhabitants of Hokkaidō. Upopoy in Ainu language means "singing in a large group". The National Ainu Museum building has images and videos exhibiting the history and daily life of the Ainu. +The Ainu cultural contribution is also recognised by a UNESCO listing, in consequence of a UNESCO decision to list non-physical cultural assets, including songs and dancing. + +In July 2023, it was reported that a group of Ainu from Hokkaido was suing the government to reclaim the right of salmon river fishing. This has been outlawed for a century, except for an exemption of a limited number of salmon for ceremonial purposes. The group claimed the Japanese government did not abide by the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which it had signed. + +Situation in Russia + +As a result of the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), the Kuril Islands – along with their Ainu inhabitants – came under Japanese administration. A total of 83 North Kuril Ainu arrived in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on September 18, 1877, after they decided to remain under Russian rule. They refused the offer by Russian officials to move to new reservations in the Commander Islands. An agreement was reached in 1881, and the Ainu decided to settle in the village of Yavin. In March 1881, the group left Petropavlovsk and started the journey towards Yavin on foot. Four months later they arrived at their new homes. Another village, Golygino, was founded later. Under Soviet rule, both the villages were forced to disband, and residents were moved to the Russian-dominated Zaporozhye rural settlement in Ust-Bolsheretsky Raion. As a result of intermarriage, the three ethnic groups assimilated to form the Kamchadal community. In 1953, K. Omelchenko, the minister for the protection of military and state secrets in the USSR, banned the press from publishing any more information on the Ainu living in the USSR. This order was revoked after two decades. + +, the North Kuril Ainu of Zaporozhye form the largest Ainu subgroup in Russia. The Nakamura clan (South Kuril Ainu on their paternal side), the smallest group, numbers just six people residing in Petropavlovsk. On Sakhalin island, a few dozen people identify themselves as Sakhalin Ainu, but many more with partial Ainu ancestry do not acknowledge it. Most of the 888 Japanese people living in Russia (2010 Census) are of mixed Japanese–Ainu ancestry, although they do not acknowledge it (full Japanese ancestry gives them the right of visa-free entry to Japan.) Similarly, no one identifies themselves as Amur Valley Ainu, although people with partial descent live in Khabarovsk. There is no evidence of living descendants of the Kamchatka Ainu. + +In the 2010 Census of Russia, nearly 100 people tried to register themselves as ethnic Ainu in the village, but the governing council of Kamchatka Krai rejected their claim and enrolled them as ethnic Kamchadal. In 2011, the leader of the Ainu community in Kamchatka, Alexei Vladimirovich Nakamura, requested that Vladimir Ilyukhin (Governor of Kamchatka) and Boris Nevzorov (Chairman of the State Duma) include the Ainu in the central list of the Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. This request was also denied. + +Ethnic Ainu living in Sakhalin Oblast and Khabarovsk Krai are not organized politically. According to Alexei Nakamura, only 205 Ainu live in Russia (up from just 12 people who self-identified as Ainu in 2008). They, along with the Kurile Kamchadals (Itelmen of Kuril islands), are fighting for official recognition. Since the Ainu are not recognized in the official list of the peoples living in Russia, they are counted as people without nationality, as ethnic Russians, or as Kamchadal. + +The Ainu have emphasized that they were the natives of the Kuril islands, and that the Japanese and Russians were both invaders. In 2004, the small Ainu community living in Russia in Kamchatka Krai wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin, urging him to reconsider any move to award the Southern Kuril Islands to Japan. In the letter they blamed the Japanese, the Tsarist Russians, and the Soviets for crimes against the Ainu such as killings and assimilation; they also urged him to recognize the Japanese genocide against the Ainu people. This proposal was rejected. + +, both the Kuril Ainu and Kuril Kamchadal ethnic groups lack the fishing and hunting rights which the Russian government grants to the indigenous tribal communities of the far north. + +In March 2017, Alexei Nakamura revealed that plans for an Ainu village to be created in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and plans for an Ainu dictionary are underway. + +Geography + +The traditional locations of the Ainu are Hokkaido, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Kamchatka, and the northern Tohoku region. Many of the place names that remain in Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands have a phonetic equivalent of the Ainu place names. + +In 1756 CE, a kanjō-bugyō (a high-ranking Edo period official responsible for finance) implemented an assimilation policy for Ainu engaged in fishing in the Tsugaru Peninsula. From that point on, Ainu culture rapidly disappeared from Honshu. + +After the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), most of the Ainu from the Kuril islands were moved to the island of Shikotan by providing the pioneers with essential life supplies and for defense purposes (Kurishima Cruise Diary). + +In 1945, the Soviet Union invaded Japan and occupied Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The Ainu who lived there were repatriated to their home country, Japan, except for those who indicated their willingness to remain. + +Population + +The population of the Ainu during the Edo period was a maximum of 26,800; it has since declined, due in part to the spread of infectious diseases. It was traditionally regarded as a Tenryō territory. + +According to the 1897 Russian census, 1,446 Ainu native speakers lived in Russian territory. + +Currently, there is no Ainu category in the Japanese national census, and no fact-finding has been conducted by national institutions. Therefore, the exact number of Ainu people is unknown. However, multiple surveys have been conducted that provide an indication of the total population. + +According to a 2006 Hokkaido Agency survey, there were 23,782 Ainu people in Hokkaido. When viewed by the branch office (currently the Promotion Bureau), there are many in the Iburi / Hidaka branch office. The definition of "Ainu" by the Hokkaido Agency in this survey is "a person who seems to have inherited the blood of Ainu" or "the same livelihood as those with marriage or adoption." Additionally, if the other person is declared not to be "Ainu", then it is not subject to investigation. + +A 1971 survey determined an Ainu population of 77,000. Another survey yielded a total number of Ainu living in Japan of 200,000. However, there are no other surveys that support this high estimate. + +Many Ainu live outside Hokkaido. A 1988 survey estimated that the population of Ainu living in Tokyo was 2,700. According to a 1989 survey report on Utari living in Tokyo, it is estimated that the Ainu population of the Tokyo area alone exceeds 10% of Ainu living in Hokkaido; there are more than 10,000 Ainu living in the Tokyo metropolitan area. + +In addition to Japan and Russia, it was reported in 1992 that there was a descendant of Kuril Ainu in Poland, but there are also indications that they are a descendant of the Aleut. On the other hand, the descendant of the children born in Poland by the Polish anthropologist Bronisław Piłsudski, who was a leading Ainu researcher and left a vast amount of research material such as photographs and wax tubes, was born in Japan. + +According to a 2017 survey, the Ainu population in Hokkaido is about 13,000. This is a sharp drop from 24,000 in 2006. However, this is partially due to a decrease in membership in the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, which is cooperating with the survey. Additionally, interest in protecting personal information has increased. It is thought that the number of individuals who cooperate is declining, and that it does not match the actual population of Ainu people. + +Subgroups +These are unofficial sub groups of the Ainu people with location and population estimates. + +In popular culture + + The characters Nakoruru, Rimururu, and Rera from the SNK game series Samurai Shodown are Ainu. + The manga and anime series Golden Kamuy has an Ainu girl, Asirpa, as one of the protagonists, and features many aspects of Ainu culture. + The character Asirpa from Golden Kamuy is of Ainu descent. + The character Fredzilla from Big Hero 6 is of Ainu descent. + The character Okuru from the anime series Samurai Champloo is the sole survivor of an Ainu village wiped out by disease. + Usui Horokeu, also known as Horohoro, from the manga series Shaman King is a member of an Ainu tribe. + "Ainu" is a playable nation in the game Europa Universalis IV. + The history of the island of Hokkaido, and of the Ainu people, are part of the plot of a chapter in the manga Silver Spoon. + A coming-of-age film, Ainu Mosir, was released in Japan on 17 October, 2020. The film portrays Kanto, a sensitive 14-year-old Ainu boy, who struggles to come to terms with his father's death and his identity. The film also focuses on the dilemma of controversial bear sacrifice under the shadow of the modern Japanese society and the Ainu's heavy reliance on tourists for their livelihood. Along with other restless teenagers, Kanto is under pressure to retain his Ainu identity and participate in the cultural rituals. + In the James Bond novel and film You Only Live Twice and film, Bond's character spends some time living in an Ainu village and (in the film) is supposedly disguised as one of the local people, "marrying" a local pearl fisher () as part of his cover. + In the 2013 samurai film Unforgiven, starring Ken Watanabe and which is a remake of the 1992 Clint Eastwood Western film of the same name, the character of Goro Sawada (Yuya Yagira) is half-Ainu. + +See also + + Ainu-ken + Akira Ifukube + Bibliography of the Ainu + Bikki Sunazawa + Constitution of Japan + Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples + Emishi + Aterui + Ethnocide + Genocide of indigenous peoples + Hiram M. Hiller Jr. + Indigenous peoples + Kankō Ainu + Takashi Ukaji + Shigeru Kayano + Nibutani Dam + +Ainu culture + Ainu music + Ainu flag + Ainu genre painting + Ikupasuy + Iomante + Matagi + Yukar + +Ethnic groups in Japan + Ethnic issues in Japan + Human rights in Japan + Ryukyuan people + Ryūkyū independence movement + Nivkhs + +References + +Citations + +Sources + Japan Times. Ainu Plan Group for Upper House Run, October 31, 2011 + +Further reading + + + + + + + + Hitchingham, Masako Yoshida (trans.), Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture & Dissemination of Knowledge Regarding Ainu Traditions, Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, vol. 1, no. 1 (2000). + Kayano, Shigeru (1994). Our Land Was A Forest: An Ainu Memoir. Westview Press. . . + + + + + + (Harvard University)(Digitized January 24, 2006) + + + (Indiana University) (digitized September 3, 2009) + [Original from Harvard University Digitized Jan 30, 2008] [YOKOHAMA : R. MEIKLEJOHN & CO., NO 49.] + +The Collected Works of Bronisław Piłsudski, translated and edited by Alfred F. Majewicz with the assistance of Elzbieta Majewicz. + Volume 1: The Aborigines of Sakhalin + Volume 2: Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore (Kraków 1912) + Volume 3: Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore II + Volumn 4: Materials for the Study of Tungusic Languages and Folklore + +External links + + Organizations + Hokkaido Utari Kyokai/Ainu Association of Hokkaido + Sapporo Pirka Kotan Ainu Cultural Center + Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture (centers located in Sapporo and Tokyo) + Hokkaido University Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies + Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Ainu in Samani, Hokkaidō + Foundation for Ainu Culture + + Museums and exhibits + Smithsonian Institution + The Boone Collection + Nibutani Ainu Cultural Museum + The Ainu Museum at Shiraoi + Ainu Komonjo (18th & 19th century records) – Ohnuki Collection + The Regions: North America—Ainu–North American cultural similarities + + Articles + "Japan's Ainu hope new identity leads to more rights" in The Christian Science Monitor, June 9, 2008 + A Salmon's Life: An Incredible Journey (Columbia River basin, June 8, 2016)—Posterback Activities + + Video + "A Trip through Japan with the YWCA (ca. 1919)" —Rare Japanese video featuring Ainu + The Ainu: The First Peoples of Japan. Old videos and photographs arranged by Rawn Joseph + "The Despised Ainu People". The Ainus' Tense Relationship with Japan. 1994. Journeyman.tv + + + +Ethnic groups in Japan +Ethnic groups in Russia +History of Hokkaido +History of Northeast Asia +History of Sakhalin +Indigenous peoples of East Asia +People of Kamakura-period Japan +Russian people of Japanese descent +Genocides in Asia +An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, yet every Greek city had an acropolis of its own. Acropolises were used as religious centers and places of worship, forts, and places in which the royal and high-status resided. Acropolises became the nuclei of large cities of classical ancient times, and served as important centers of a community. Some well-known acropolises have become the centers of tourism in present-day, and, especially, the Acropolis of Athens has been a revolutionary center for the studies of ancient Greece since the Mycenaean period. Many of them have become a source of revenue for Greece, and represent some great technology during the period. + +Origin + +An acropolis is defined by the Greek definition of , ; from () or () meaning “highest; edge; extremity”, and () meaning “city.” The plural of () is , also commonly as and , and in Greek. This word was first used in the 14th century BCE, in the context of Mycenaean kings and community. The term acropolis is also used to describe the central complex of overlapping structures, such as plazas and pyramids, in many Maya cities, including Tikal and Copán. Acropolis is also the term used by archaeologists and historians for the urban Castro culture settlements located in Northwestern Iberian hilltops. + + +It is primarily associated with the Greek cities of Athens, Argos (with Larisa), Thebes (with Cadmea), Corinth (with its Acrocorinth), and Rhodes (with its Acropolis of Lindos). It may also be applied generically to all such citadels including Rome, Carthage, Jerusalem, Celtic Bratislava, Asia Minor, or Castle Rock in Edinburgh. An example in Ireland is the Rock of Cashel. In Central Italy, many small rural communes still cluster at the base of a fortified habitation known as of the commune. Other parts of the world have developed other names for the high citadel, or , which often have reinforced a naturally strong site. Because of this, many cultures have included acropolises in their societies, however, do not use the same name for them. + +Differing acropoleis +The acropolis of a city was used in many ways, with regards to ancient time and through references. Because an acropolis was built at the highest part of a city, it served as a highly functional form of protection, a fortress, and was as well as a home to the royal of a city and a centre for religion through the worshipping of different gods. There have been many classical and ancient acropolises, including the most commonly-known, Acropolis of Athens, as well as the Tepecik Acropolis at Patara, Ankara Acropolis, Acropolis of La Blanca, Acropolis at the Maya Site in Guatemala, and the Acropolis at Halieis. + +The most famous example is the Athenian Acropolis, which is a collection of structures featuring a citadel on the highest part of land in ancient (and modern-day) Athens, Greece. Many notable structures at the site were constructed in the 5th century BCE, including the Propylaea, Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena. The Temple is also commonly known as the Parthenon, which is derived from the divine Athena Parthenos. There were often dances, music and plays held at the acropolis, which it served as a community centre for the city of Athens. It became a prime tourist destination by the 2nd century AD during the Roman Empire and was known as "the Greece of Greece," as coined by an unknown poet. Although originating in the mainland of Greece, use of the acropolis model quickly spread to Greek colonies such as the Dorian Lato on Crete during the Archaic Period. + +The Tepecik Acropolis at Patara served as a harbor to nearby communities and naval forces, such as Antigonos I Monopthalmos and Demetrios Poliorketes, and combined land and sea. Its fortification wall and Bastion date back to the Classical period. The acropolis was constructed in the fourth century BCE by the Hekatomnids that ultimately led to its seizure in 334 BCE by Alexander the Great. The acropolis contributed significantly to the overall development that took place during the Hellenistic empires. This acropolis was the earliest place of settlement, probably dating back to the third millennium BCE. During excavations that took place in 1989, ceramic items, terracotta figurines, coins, bone and stone objects were found that date to the fourth century BCE. The fortification wall and bastion that are built at this acropolis uses a style of masonry, commonly known as the Greek word (meaning "woven"). This style of masonry was likely used for weight-bearing purposes. + +The Acropolis at Halieis dates back to the Neolithic and Classical periods. It included a fortified wall, sanctuary of Apollo (two temples, an altar, a race course), and necropolis (cemetery). This acropolis was the highest point of fortification on the south edge at Halieis. There was a small open-air cult space, including an altar and monuments. + +The Ankara Acropolis, which was set in modern-day Turkey, is a historically prominent space that has changed over time through the urban development of the country from the Phrygian period. This acropolis was well known as a spot for holy worshipping, and was symbolic of the time. It has also been a place that has historically recognized the legislative changes that Turkey has faced.   + +The Acropolis of La Blanca was created in Guatemala as a small ancient Maya settlement and archaeological site that is located adjacent to the Salsipuedes River. This acropolis developed as a place of residence for the city of La Blanca's rulers. Its main period of usage was during the Classical period of 600 AD to 850 AD, as the city developed as a commercial place of trade among a number of nearby settlements. + +The Mayan Acropolis site in Guatemala included a burial site and vaulted tombs of the highest status royal. This funerary structure was integrated into this sacred landscape, and illustrated the prosperity of power between the royal figures of Pedras Negras in Guatemala. + +Modern-day uses + +Tourism +Acropolises today have become the epicenters of tourism and attraction sites in many modern-day Greek cities. The Athenian Acropolis, in particular, is the most famous, and has the best vantage point in Athens, Greece. Today, tourists can purchase tickets to visit the Athenian Acropolis, including walking, sightseeing, and bus tours, as well as a classic Greek dinner. + +Cultural ties + +Because of its classical Hellenistic and Greco-Roman style, the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistrano's Great Stone Church in California, United States has been called an American Acropolis. The civilization developed its religious, educational, and cultural aspects of the acropolis, and is used today as a location that holds events, such as operas. + +The neighborhood of Morningside Heights in New York City is commonly referred to as the "Academic Acropolis" due to its high elevation and the concentration of educational institutions in the area, including Columbia University and its affiliates, Barnard College, Teachers College, Union Theological Seminary and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Manhattan School of Music; Bank Street College of Education; and New York Theological Seminary. The analogy is also aided by the neoclassical architecture of the Columbia University campus, which was designed by McKim, Mead & White in the early 20th century. + +Excavations +Much of the modern-day uses of acropolises have been discovered through excavations that have developed over the course of many years. For example, the Athenian Acropolis includes a Great Temple that holds the Parthenon, a specific space for ancient worship. Through today's findings and research, the Parthenon treasury is able to be recognized as the west part of the structure (the Erechtheion), as well as the Parthenon itself. Most excavations have been able to provide archaeologists with samples of pottery, ceramics, and vessels. The excavation of the Acropolis of Halieis produced remains that provided context that dated the Acropolis at Halieis from the Final Neolithic period through the first Early Helladic period. + +See also + Acropolis of Rhodes + Acropolis Palaiokastro + Idjang + Tell (archaeology) + Hillfort + +References + +External links + Acropolis Museum + Acropolis: description, photo album + + The Acropolis of Athens (Greek Government website) + The Acropolis Restoration Project (Greek Government website) + The Acropolis: A Walk Through History + The Parthenon Frieze (Hellenic Ministry of Culture web site) + UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Acropolis, Athens + + +Ancient Greek architecture +Culture of Greece +Archaeological terminology +Ancient Greek fortifications +Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientific knowledge, and it has been characterized as quackery. + +There is a range of acupuncture variants which originated in different philosophies, and techniques vary depending on the country in which it is performed. However, it can be divided into two main foundational philosophical applications and approaches; the first form being the modern standardized form called eight principles TCM and the second an older system that is based on the ancient Daoist wuxing, better known as the five elements or phases in the West. Acupuncture is most often used to attempt pain relief, though acupuncturists say that it can also be used for a wide range of other conditions. Acupuncture is generally used only in combination with other forms of treatment. + +The global acupuncture market was worth US$24.55 billion in 2017. The market was led by Europe with a 32.7% share, followed by Asia-Pacific with a 29.4% share and the Americas with a 25.3% share. It was estimated in 2021 that the industry would reach a market size of $55bn by 2023. + +The conclusions of trials and systematic reviews of acupuncture generally provide no good evidence of benefit, which suggests that it is not an effective method of healthcare. Acupuncture is generally safe when done by appropriately trained practitioners using clean needle technique and single-use needles. When properly delivered, it has a low rate of mostly minor adverse effects. When accidents and infections do occur, they are associated with neglect on the part of the practitioner, particularly in the application of sterile techniques. A review conducted in 2013 stated that reports of infection transmission increased significantly in the preceding decade. The most frequently reported adverse events were pneumothorax and infections. Since serious adverse events continue to be reported, it is recommended that acupuncturists be trained sufficiently to reduce the risk. + +Scientific investigation has not found any histological or physiological evidence for traditional Chinese concepts such as qi, meridians, and acupuncture points, and many modern practitioners no longer support the existence of life force energy (qi) or meridians, which was a major part of early belief systems. Acupuncture is believed to have originated around 100 BC in China, around the time The Inner Classic of Huang Di (Huangdi Neijing) was published, though some experts suggest it could have been practiced earlier. Over time, conflicting claims and belief systems emerged about the effect of lunar, celestial and earthly cycles, yin and yang energies, and a body's "rhythm" on the effectiveness of treatment. Acupuncture fluctuated in popularity in China due to changes in the country's political leadership and the preferential use of rationalism or scientific medicine. Acupuncture spread first to Korea in the 6th century AD, then to Japan through medical missionaries, and then to Europe, beginning with France. In the 20th century, as it spread to the United States and Western countries, spiritual elements of acupuncture that conflicted with scientific knowledge were sometimes abandoned in favor of simply tapping needles into acupuncture points. + +Clinical practice + +Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine. It is used most commonly for pain relief, though it is also used to treat a wide range of conditions. Acupuncture is generally only used in combination with other forms of treatment. For example, the American Society of Anesthesiologists states it may be considered in the treatment for nonspecific, noninflammatory low back pain only in conjunction with conventional therapy. + +Acupuncture is the insertion of thin needles into the skin. According to the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (Mayo Clinic), a typical session entails lying still while approximately five to twenty needles are inserted; for the majority of cases, the needles will be left in place for ten to twenty minutes. It can be associated with the application of heat, pressure, or laser light. Classically, acupuncture is individualized and based on philosophy and intuition, and not on scientific research. There is also a non-invasive therapy developed in early 20th century Japan using an elaborate set of instruments other than needles for the treatment of children (shōnishin or shōnihari). + +Clinical practice varies depending on the country. A comparison of the average number of patients treated per hour found significant differences between China (10) and the United States (1.2). Chinese herbs are often used. There is a diverse range of acupuncture approaches, involving different philosophies. Although various different techniques of acupuncture practice have emerged, the method used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) seems to be the most widely adopted in the US. Traditional acupuncture involves needle insertion, moxibustion, and cupping therapy, and may be accompanied by other procedures such as feeling the pulse and other parts of the body and examining the tongue. Traditional acupuncture involves the belief that a "life force" (qi) circulates within the body in lines called meridians. The main methods practiced in the UK are TCM and Western medical acupuncture. The term Western medical acupuncture is used to indicate an adaptation of TCM-based acupuncture which focuses less on TCM. The Western medical acupuncture approach involves using acupuncture after a medical diagnosis. Limited research has compared the contrasting acupuncture systems used in various countries for determining different acupuncture points and thus there is no defined standard for acupuncture points. + +In traditional acupuncture, the acupuncturist decides which points to treat by observing and questioning the patient to make a diagnosis according to the tradition used. In TCM, the four diagnostic methods are: inspection, auscultation and olfaction, inquiring, and palpation. Inspection focuses on the face and particularly on the tongue, including analysis of the tongue size, shape, tension, color and coating, and the absence or presence of teeth marks around the edge. Auscultation and olfaction involve listening for particular sounds such as wheezing, and observing body odor. Inquiring involves focusing on the "seven inquiries": chills and fever; perspiration; appetite, thirst and taste; defecation and urination; pain; sleep; and menses and leukorrhea. Palpation is focusing on feeling the body for tender "A-shi" points and feeling the pulse. + +Needles + +The most common mechanism of stimulation of acupuncture points employs penetration of the skin by thin metal needles, which are manipulated manually or the needle may be further stimulated by electrical stimulation (electroacupuncture). Acupuncture needles are typically made of stainless steel, making them flexible and preventing them from rusting or breaking. Needles are usually disposed of after each use to prevent contamination. Reusable needles when used should be sterilized between applications. In many areas, only sterile, single-use acupuncture needles are allowed, including the State of California, USA. Needles vary in length between , with shorter needles used near the face and eyes, and longer needles in areas with thicker tissues; needle diameters vary from 0 to 0, with thicker needles used on more robust patients. Thinner needles may be flexible and require tubes for insertion. The tip of the needle should not be made too sharp to prevent breakage, although blunt needles cause more pain. + +Apart from the usual filiform needle, other needle types include three-edged needles and the Nine Ancient Needles. Japanese acupuncturists use extremely thin needles that are used superficially, sometimes without penetrating the skin, and surrounded by a guide tube (a 17th-century invention adopted in China and the West). Korean acupuncture uses copper needles and has a greater focus on the hand. + +Needling technique + +Insertion + +The skin is sterilized and needles are inserted, frequently with a plastic guide tube. Needles may be manipulated in various ways, including spinning, flicking, or moving up and down relative to the skin. Since most pain is felt in the superficial layers of the skin, a quick insertion of the needle is recommended. Often the needles are stimulated by hand in order to cause a dull, localized, aching sensation that is called de qi, as well as "needle grasp," a tugging feeling felt by the acupuncturist and generated by a mechanical interaction between the needle and skin. Acupuncture can be painful. The acupuncturist's skill level may influence the painfulness of the needle insertion; a sufficiently skilled practitioner may be able to insert the needles without causing any pain. + +De-qi sensation + +De-qi (; "arrival of qi") refers to a claimed sensation of numbness, distension, or electrical tingling at the needling site. If these sensations are not observed then inaccurate location of the acupoint, improper depth of needle insertion, inadequate manual manipulation, are blamed. If de-qi is not immediately observed upon needle insertion, various manual manipulation techniques are often applied to promote it (such as "plucking", "shaking" or "trembling"). + +Once de-qi is observed, techniques might be used which attempt to "influence" the de-qi; for example, by certain manipulation the de-qi can allegedly be conducted from the needling site towards more distant sites of the body. Other techniques aim at "tonifying" () or "sedating" () qi. The former techniques are used in deficiency patterns, the latter in excess patterns. De qi is more important in Chinese acupuncture, while Western and Japanese patients may not consider it a necessary part of the treatment. + +Related practices + Acupressure, a non-invasive form of bodywork, uses physical pressure applied to acupressure points by the hand or elbow, or with various devices. + Acupuncture is often accompanied by moxibustion, the burning of cone-shaped preparations of moxa (made from dried mugwort) on or near the skin, often but not always near or on an acupuncture point. Traditionally, acupuncture was used to treat acute conditions while moxibustion was used for chronic diseases. Moxibustion could be direct (the cone was placed directly on the skin and allowed to burn the skin, producing a blister and eventually a scar), or indirect (either a cone of moxa was placed on a slice of garlic, ginger or other vegetable, or a cylinder of moxa was held above the skin, close enough to either warm or burn it). + Cupping therapy is an ancient Chinese form of alternative medicine in which a local suction is created on the skin; practitioners believe this mobilizes blood flow in order to promote healing. + Tui na is a TCM method of attempting to stimulate the flow of qi by various bare-handed techniques that do not involve needles. + Electroacupuncture is a form of acupuncture in which acupuncture needles are attached to a device that generates continuous electric pulses (this has been described as "essentially transdermal electrical nerve stimulation [TENS] masquerading as acupuncture"). + Fire needle acupuncture also known as fire needling is a technique which involves quickly inserting a flame-heated needle into areas on the body. + Sonopuncture is a stimulation of the body similar to acupuncture using sound instead of needles. This may be done using purpose-built transducers to direct a narrow ultrasound beam to a depth of 6–8 centimetres at acupuncture meridian points on the body. Alternatively, tuning forks or other sound emitting devices are used. + Acupuncture point injection is the injection of various substances (such as drugs, vitamins or herbal extracts) into acupoints. This technique combines traditional acupuncture with injection of what is often an effective dose of an approved pharmaceutical drug, and proponents claim that it may be more effective than either treatment alone, especially for the treatment of some kinds of chronic pain. However, a 2016 review found that most published trials of the technique were of poor value due to methodology issues and larger trials would be needed to draw useful conclusions. + Auriculotherapy, commonly known as ear acupuncture, auricular acupuncture, or auriculoacupuncture, is considered to date back to ancient China. It involves inserting needles to stimulate points on the outer ear. The modern approach was developed in France during the early 1950s. There is no scientific evidence that it can cure disease; the evidence of effectiveness is negligible. + Scalp acupuncture, developed in Japan, is based on reflexological considerations regarding the scalp. + Koryo hand acupuncture, developed in Korea, centers around assumed reflex zones of the hand. Medical acupuncture attempts to integrate reflexological concepts, the trigger point model, and anatomical insights (such as dermatome distribution) into acupuncture practice, and emphasizes a more formulaic approach to acupuncture point location. + Cosmetic acupuncture is the use of acupuncture in an attempt to reduce wrinkles on the face. + Bee venom acupuncture is a treatment approach of injecting purified, diluted bee venom into acupoints. + Veterinary acupuncture is the use of acupuncture on domesticated animals. + +Efficacy + many thousands of papers had been published on the efficacy of acupuncture for the treatment of various adult health conditions, but there was no robust evidence it was beneficial for anything, except shoulder pain and fibromyalgia. For Science-Based Medicine, Steven Novella wrote that the overall pattern of evidence was reminiscent of that for homeopathy, compatible with the hypothesis that most, if not all, benefits were due to the placebo effect, and strongly suggestive that acupuncture had no beneficial therapeutic effects at all. + +Research methodology and challenges + +Sham acupuncture and research +It is difficult but not impossible to design rigorous research trials for acupuncture. Due to acupuncture's invasive nature, one of the major challenges in efficacy research is in the design of an appropriate placebo control group. For efficacy studies to determine whether acupuncture has specific effects, "sham" forms of acupuncture where the patient, practitioner, and analyst are blinded seem the most acceptable approach. Sham acupuncture uses non-penetrating needles or needling at non-acupuncture points, e.g. inserting needles on meridians not related to the specific condition being studied, or in places not associated with meridians. The under-performance of acupuncture in such trials may indicate that therapeutic effects are due entirely to non-specific effects, or that the sham treatments are not inert, or that systematic protocols yield less than optimal treatment. + +A 2014 review in Nature Reviews Cancer found that "contrary to the claimed mechanism of redirecting the flow of qi through meridians, researchers usually find that it generally does not matter where the needles are inserted, how often (that is, no dose-response effect is observed), or even if needles are actually inserted. In other words, 'sham' or 'placebo' acupuncture generally produces the same effects as 'real' acupuncture and, in some cases, does better." A 2013 meta-analysis found little evidence that the effectiveness of acupuncture on pain (compared to sham) was modified by the location of the needles, the number of needles used, the experience or technique of the practitioner, or by the circumstances of the sessions. The same analysis also suggested that the number of needles and sessions is important, as greater numbers improved the outcomes of acupuncture compared to non-acupuncture controls. There has been little systematic investigation of which components of an acupuncture session may be important for any therapeutic effect, including needle placement and depth, type and intensity of stimulation, and number of needles used. The research seems to suggest that needles do not need to stimulate the traditionally specified acupuncture points or penetrate the skin to attain an anticipated effect (e.g. psychosocial factors). + +A response to "sham" acupuncture in osteoarthritis may be used in the elderly, but placebos have usually been regarded as deception and thus unethical. However, some physicians and ethicists have suggested circumstances for applicable uses for placebos such as it might present a theoretical advantage of an inexpensive treatment without adverse reactions or interactions with drugs or other medications. As the evidence for most types of alternative medicine such as acupuncture is far from strong, the use of alternative medicine in regular healthcare can present an ethical question. + +Using the principles of evidence-based medicine to research acupuncture is controversial, and has produced different results. Some research suggests acupuncture can alleviate pain but the majority of research suggests that acupuncture's effects are mainly due to placebo. Evidence suggests that any benefits of acupuncture are short-lasting. There is insufficient evidence to support use of acupuncture compared to mainstream medical treatments. Acupuncture is not better than mainstream treatment in the long term. + +The use of acupuncture has been criticized owing to there being little scientific evidence for explicit effects, or the mechanisms for its supposed effectiveness, for any condition that is discernible from placebo. Acupuncture has been called 'theatrical placebo', and David Gorski argues that when acupuncture proponents advocate 'harnessing of placebo effects' or work on developing 'meaningful placebos', they essentially concede it is little more than that. + +Publication bias + +Publication bias is cited as a concern in the reviews of randomized controlled trials of acupuncture. A 1998 review of studies on acupuncture found that trials originating in China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were uniformly favourable to acupuncture, as were ten out of eleven studies conducted in Russia. A 2011 assessment of the quality of randomized controlled trials on traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture, concluded that the methodological quality of most such trials (including randomization, experimental control, and blinding) was generally poor, particularly for trials published in Chinese journals (though the quality of acupuncture trials was better than the trials testing traditional Chinese medicine remedies). The study also found that trials published in non-Chinese journals tended to be of higher quality. Chinese authors use more Chinese studies, which have been demonstrated to be uniformly positive. A 2012 review of 88 systematic reviews of acupuncture published in Chinese journals found that less than half of these reviews reported testing for publication bias, and that the majority of these reviews were published in journals with impact factors of zero. A 2015 study comparing pre-registered records of acupuncture trials with their published results found that it was uncommon for such trials to be registered before the trial began. This study also found that selective reporting of results and changing outcome measures to obtain statistically significant results was common in this literature. + +Scientist and journalist Steven Salzberg identifies acupuncture and Chinese medicine generally as a focus for "fake medical journals" such as the Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies and Acupuncture in Medicine. + +Safety + +Adverse events +Acupuncture is generally safe when administered by an experienced, appropriately trained practitioner using clean-needle technique and sterile single-use needles. When improperly delivered it can cause adverse effects. Accidents and infections are associated with infractions of sterile technique or neglect on the part of the practitioner. To reduce the risk of serious adverse events after acupuncture, acupuncturists should be trained sufficiently. A 2009 overview of Cochrane reviews found acupuncture is not effective for a wide range of conditions. People with serious spinal disease, such as cancer or infection, are not good candidates for acupuncture. Contraindications to acupuncture (conditions that should not be treated with acupuncture) include coagulopathy disorders (e.g. hemophilia and advanced liver disease), warfarin use, severe psychiatric disorders (e.g. psychosis), and skin infections or skin trauma (e.g. burns). Further, electroacupuncture should be avoided at the spot of implanted electrical devices (such as pacemakers). + +A 2011 systematic review of systematic reviews (internationally and without language restrictions) found that serious complications following acupuncture continue to be reported. Between 2000 and 2009, ninety-five cases of serious adverse events, including five deaths, were reported. Many such events are not inherent to acupuncture but are due to malpractice of acupuncturists. This might be why such complications have not been reported in surveys of adequately trained acupuncturists. Most such reports originate from Asia, which may reflect the large number of treatments performed there or a relatively higher number of poorly trained Asian acupuncturists. Many serious adverse events were reported from developed countries. These included Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. The number of adverse effects reported from the UK appears particularly unusual, which may indicate less under-reporting in the UK than other countries. Reports included 38 cases of infections and 42 cases of organ trauma. The most frequent adverse events included pneumothorax, and bacterial and viral infections. + +A 2013 review found (without restrictions regarding publication date, study type or language) 295 cases of infections; mycobacterium was the pathogen in at least 96%. Likely sources of infection include towels, hot packs or boiling tank water, and reusing reprocessed needles. Possible sources of infection include contaminated needles, reusing personal needles, a person's skin containing mycobacterium, and reusing needles at various sites in the same person. Although acupuncture is generally considered a safe procedure, a 2013 review stated that the reports of infection transmission increased significantly in the prior decade, including those of mycobacterium. Although it is recommended that practitioners of acupuncture use disposable needles, the reuse of sterilized needles is still permitted. It is also recommended that thorough control practices for preventing infection be implemented and adapted. + +English-language + +A 2013 systematic review of the English-language case reports found that serious adverse events associated with acupuncture are rare, but that acupuncture is not without risk. Between 2000 and 2011 the English-language literature from 25 countries and regions reported 294 adverse events. The majority of the reported adverse events were relatively minor, and the incidences were low. For example, a prospective survey of 34,000 acupuncture treatments found no serious adverse events and 43 minor ones, a rate of 1.3 per 1000 interventions. Another survey found there were 7.1% minor adverse events, of which 5 were serious, amid 97,733 acupuncture patients. The most common adverse effect observed was infection (e.g. mycobacterium), and the majority of infections were bacterial in nature, caused by skin contact at the needling site. Infection has also resulted from skin contact with unsterilized equipment or with dirty towels in an unhygienic clinical setting. Other adverse complications included five reported cases of spinal cord injuries (e.g. migrating broken needles or needling too deeply), four brain injuries, four peripheral nerve injuries, five heart injuries, seven other organ and tissue injuries, bilateral hand edema, epithelioid granuloma, pseudolymphoma, argyria, pustules, pancytopenia, and scarring due to hot-needle technique. Adverse reactions from acupuncture, which are unusual and uncommon in typical acupuncture practice, included syncope, galactorrhoea, bilateral nystagmus, pyoderma gangrenosum, hepatotoxicity, eruptive lichen planus, and spontaneous needle migration. + +A 2013 systematic review found 31 cases of vascular injuries caused by acupuncture, three causing death. Two died from pericardial tamponade and one was from an aortoduodenal fistula. The same review found vascular injuries were rare, bleeding and pseudoaneurysm were most prevalent. A 2011 systematic review (without restriction in time or language), aiming to summarize all reported case of cardiac tamponade after acupuncture, found 26 cases resulting in 14 deaths, with little doubt about cause in most fatal instances. The same review concluded that cardiac tamponade was a serious, usually fatal, though theoretically avoidable complication following acupuncture, and urged training to minimize risk. + +A 2012 review found that a number of adverse events were reported after acupuncture in the UK's National Health Service (NHS), 95% of which were not severe, though miscategorization and under-reporting may alter the total figures. From January 2009 to December 2011, 468 safety incidents were recognized within the NHS organizations. The adverse events recorded included retained needles (31%), dizziness (30%), loss of consciousness/unresponsive (19%), falls (4%), bruising or soreness at needle site (2%), pneumothorax (1%) and other adverse side effects (12%). Acupuncture practitioners should know, and be prepared to be responsible for, any substantial harm from treatments. Some acupuncture proponents argue that the long history of acupuncture suggests it is safe. However, there is an increasing literature on adverse events (e.g. spinal-cord injury). + +Acupuncture seems to be safe in people getting anticoagulants, assuming needles are used at the correct location and depth, but studies are required to verify these findings. + +Chinese, Korean, and Japanese-language + +A 2010 systematic review of the Chinese-language literature found numerous acupuncture-related adverse events, including pneumothorax, fainting, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and infection as the most frequent, and cardiovascular injuries, subarachnoid hemorrhage, pneumothorax, and recurrent cerebral hemorrhage as the most serious, most of which were due to improper technique. Between 1980 and 2009, the Chinese-language literature reported 479 adverse events. Prospective surveys show that mild, transient acupuncture-associated adverse events ranged from 6.71% to 15%. In a study with 190,924 patients, the prevalence of serious adverse events was roughly 0.024%. Another study showed a rate of adverse events requiring specific treatment of 2.2%, 4,963 incidences among 229,230 patients. Infections, mainly hepatitis, after acupuncture are reported often in English-language research, though are rarely reported in Chinese-language research, making it plausible that acupuncture-associated infections have been underreported in China. Infections were mostly caused by poor sterilization of acupuncture needles. Other adverse events included spinal epidural hematoma (in the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine), chylothorax, injuries of abdominal organs and tissues, injuries in the neck region, injuries to the eyes, including orbital hemorrhage, traumatic cataract, injury of the oculomotor nerve and retinal puncture, hemorrhage to the cheeks and the hypoglottis, peripheral motor-nerve injuries and subsequent motor dysfunction, local allergic reactions to metal needles, stroke, and cerebral hemorrhage after acupuncture. + +A causal link between acupuncture and the adverse events cardiac arrest, pyknolepsy, shock, fever, cough, thirst, aphonia, leg numbness, and sexual dysfunction remains uncertain. The same review concluded that acupuncture can be considered inherently safe when practiced by properly trained practitioners, but the review also stated there is a need to find effective strategies to minimize the health risks. Between 1999 and 2010, the Korean-language literature contained reports of 1104 adverse events. Between the 1980s and 2002, the Japanese-language literature contained reports of 150 adverse events. + +Children and pregnancy + +Although acupuncture has been practiced for thousands of years in China, its use in pediatrics in the United States did not become common until the early 2000s. In 2007, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) conducted by the National Center For Health Statistics (NCHS) estimated that approximately 150,000 children had received acupuncture treatment for a variety of conditions. + +In 2008 a study determined that the use of acupuncture-needle treatment on children was "questionable" due to the possibility of adverse side-effects and the pain manifestation differences in children versus adults. The study also includes warnings against practicing acupuncture on infants, as well as on children who are over-fatigued, very weak, or have over-eaten. + +When used on children, acupuncture is considered safe when administered by well-trained, licensed practitioners using sterile needles; however, a 2011 review found there was limited research to draw definite conclusions about the overall safety of pediatric acupuncture. The same review found 279 adverse events, 25 of them serious. The adverse events were mostly mild in nature (e.g. bruising or bleeding). The prevalence of mild adverse events ranged from 10.1% to 13.5%, an estimated 168 incidences among 1,422 patients. On rare occasions adverse events were serious (e.g. cardiac rupture or hemoptysis); many might have been a result of substandard practice. The incidence of serious adverse events was 5 per one million, which included children and adults. + +When used during pregnancy, the majority of adverse events caused by acupuncture were mild and transient, with few serious adverse events. The most frequent mild adverse event was needling or unspecified pain, followed by bleeding. Although two deaths (one stillbirth and one neonatal death) were reported, there was a lack of acupuncture-associated maternal mortality. Limiting the evidence as certain, probable or possible in the causality evaluation, the estimated incidence of adverse events following acupuncture in pregnant women was 131 per 10,000. + +Although acupuncture is not contraindicated in pregnant women, some specific acupuncture points are particularly sensitive to needle insertion; these spots, as well as the abdominal region, should be avoided during pregnancy. + +Moxibustion and cupping + +Four adverse events associated with moxibustion were bruising, burns and cellulitis, spinal epidural abscess, and large superficial basal cell carcinoma. Ten adverse events were associated with cupping. The minor ones were keloid scarring, burns, and bullae; the serious ones were acquired hemophilia A, stroke following cupping on the back and neck, factitious panniculitis, reversible cardiac hypertrophy, and iron deficiency anemia. + +Risk of forgoing conventional medical care + +As with other alternative medicines, unethical or naïve practitioners may induce patients to exhaust financial resources by pursuing ineffective treatment. Professional ethics codes set by accrediting organizations such as the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine require practitioners to make "timely referrals to other health care professionals as may be appropriate." Stephen Barrett states that there is a "risk that an acupuncturist whose approach to diagnosis is not based on scientific concepts will fail to diagnose a dangerous condition". + +Conceptual basis + +Traditional + +Acupuncture is a substantial part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Early acupuncture beliefs relied on concepts that are common in TCM, such as a life force energy called qi. Qi was believed to flow from the body's primary organs (zang-fu organs) to the "superficial" body tissues of the skin, muscles, tendons, bones, and joints, through channels called meridians. Acupuncture points where needles are inserted are mainly (but not always) found at locations along the meridians. Acupuncture points not found along a meridian are called extraordinary points and those with no designated site are called "A-shi" points. + +In TCM, disease is generally perceived as a disharmony or imbalance in energies such as yin, yang, qi, xuĕ, zàng-fǔ, meridians, and of the interaction between the body and the environment. Therapy is based on which "pattern of disharmony" can be identified. For example, some diseases are believed to be caused by meridians being invaded with an excess of wind, cold, and damp. In order to determine which pattern is at hand, practitioners examine things like the color and shape of the tongue, the relative strength of pulse-points, the smell of the breath, the quality of breathing, or the sound of the voice. TCM and its concept of disease does not strongly differentiate between the cause and effect of symptoms. + +Purported scientific basis + +Many within the scientific community consider attempts to rationalize acupuncture in science to be quackery and pseudoscience. Academics Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry describe it as a "borderlands science" lying between science and pseudoscience. + +Rationalizations of traditional medicine +It is a generally held belief within the acupuncture community that acupuncture points and meridians structures are special conduits for electrical signals, but no research has established any consistent anatomical structure or function for either acupuncture points or meridians. Human tests to determine whether electrical continuity was significantly different near meridians than other places in the body have been inconclusive. Scientific research has not supported the existence of qi, meridians, or yin and yang. A Nature editorial described TCM as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action. Quackwatch states that "TCM theory and practice are not based upon the body of knowledge related to health, disease, and health care that has been widely accepted by the scientific community. TCM practitioners disagree among themselves about how to diagnose patients and which treatments should go with which diagnoses. Even if they could agree, the TCM theories are so nebulous that no amount of scientific study will enable TCM to offer rational care." Academic discussions of acupuncture still make reference to pseudoscientific concepts such as qi and meridians despite the lack of scientific evidence. + +Release of endorphins or adenosine +Some modern practitioners support the use of acupuncture to treat pain, but have abandoned the use of qi, meridians, yin, yang and other mystical energies as an explanatory frameworks. The use of qi as an explanatory framework has been decreasing in China, even as it becomes more prominent during discussions of acupuncture in the US. + +Many acupuncturists attribute pain relief to the release of endorphins when needles penetrate, but no longer support the idea that acupuncture can affect a disease. Some studies suggest acupuncture causes a series of events within the central nervous system, and that it is possible to inhibit acupuncture's analgesic effects with the opioid antagonist naloxone. Mechanical deformation of the skin by acupuncture needles appears to result in the release of adenosine. The anti-nociceptive effect of acupuncture may be mediated by the adenosine A1 receptor. A 2014 review in Nature Reviews Cancer analyzed mouse studies that suggested acupuncture relieves pain via the local release of adenosine, which then triggered nearby A1 receptors. The review found that in those studies, because acupuncture "caused more tissue damage and inflammation relative to the size of the animal in mice than in humans, such studies unnecessarily muddled a finding that local inflammation can result in the local release of adenosine with analgesic effect." + +History + +Origins + +Acupuncture, along with moxibustion, is one of the oldest practices of traditional Chinese medicine. Most historians believe the practice began in China, though there are some conflicting narratives on when it originated. Academics David Ramey and Paul Buell said the exact date acupuncture was founded depends on the extent to which dating of ancient texts can be trusted and the interpretation of what constitutes acupuncture. + +Acupressure therapy was prevalent in India. Once Buddhism spread to China, the acupressure therapy was also integrated into common medical practice in China and it came to be known as acupuncture. The major points of Indian acupressure and Chinese acupuncture are similar to each other. + +According to an article in Rheumatology, the first documentation of an "organized system of diagnosis and treatment" for acupuncture was in Inner Classic of Huang Di (Huangdi Neijing) from about 100 BC. Gold and silver needles found in the tomb of Liu Sheng from around 100 BC are believed to be the earliest archaeological evidence of acupuncture, though it is unclear if that was their purpose. According to Plinio Prioreschi, the earliest known historical record of acupuncture is the Shiji ("Records of the Grand Historian"), written by a historian around 100 BC. It is believed that this text was documenting what was established practice at that time. + +Alternate theories + +The 5,000-year-old mummified body of Ötzi the Iceman was found with 15 groups of tattoos, many of which were located at points on the body where acupuncture needles are used for abdominal or lower back problems. Evidence from the body suggests Ötzi had these conditions. This has been cited as evidence that practices similar to acupuncture may have been practised elsewhere in Eurasia during the early Bronze Age; however, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine calls this theory "speculative". It is considered unlikely that acupuncture was practised before 2000 BC. + +Acupuncture may have been practised during the Neolithic era, near the end of the Stone Age, using sharpened stones called Bian shi. Many Chinese texts from later eras refer to sharp stones called "plen", which means "stone probe", that may have been used for acupuncture purposes. The ancient Chinese medical text, Huangdi Neijing, indicates that sharp stones were believed at-the-time to cure illnesses at or near the body's surface, perhaps because of the short depth a stone could penetrate. However, it is more likely that stones were used for other medical purposes, such as puncturing a growth to drain its pus. The Mawangdui texts, which are believed to be from the 2nd century BC, mention the use of pointed stones to open abscesses, and moxibustion, but not for acupuncture. It is also speculated that these stones may have been used for bloodletting, due to the ancient Chinese belief that illnesses were caused by demons within the body that could be killed or released. It is likely bloodletting was an antecedent to acupuncture. + +According to historians Lu Gwei-djen and Joseph Needham, there is substantial evidence that acupuncture may have begun around 600 BC. Some hieroglyphs and pictographs from that era suggests acupuncture and moxibustion were practised. However, historians Lu and Needham said it was unlikely a needle could be made out of the materials available in China during this time period. It is possible that bronze was used for early acupuncture needles. Tin, copper, gold and silver are also possibilities, though they are considered less likely, or to have been used in fewer cases. If acupuncture was practised during the Shang dynasty (1766 to 1122 BC), organic materials like thorns, sharpened bones, or bamboo may have been used. Once methods for producing steel were discovered, it would replace all other materials, since it could be used to create a very fine, but sturdy needles. Lu and Needham noted that all the ancient materials that could have been used for acupuncture and which often produce archaeological evidence, such as sharpened bones, bamboo or stones, were also used for other purposes. An article in Rheumatology said that the absence of any mention of acupuncture in documents found in the tomb of Mawangdui from 198 BC suggest that acupuncture was not practised by that time. + +Belief systems +Several different and sometimes conflicting belief systems emerged regarding acupuncture. This may have been the result of competing schools of thought. Some ancient texts referred to using acupuncture to cause bleeding, while others mixed the ideas of blood-letting and spiritual ch'i energy. Over time, the focus shifted from blood to the concept of puncturing specific points on the body, and eventually to balancing Yin and Yang energies as well. According to David Ramey, no single "method or theory" was ever predominantly adopted as the standard. At the time, scientific knowledge of medicine was not yet developed, especially because in China dissection of the deceased was forbidden, preventing the development of basic anatomical knowledge. + +It is not certain when specific acupuncture points were introduced, but the autobiography of Bian Que from around 400–500 BC references inserting needles at designated areas. Bian Que believed there was a single acupuncture point at the top of one's skull that he called the point "of the hundred meetings." Texts dated to be from 156–186 BC document early beliefs in channels of life force energy called meridians that would later be an element in early acupuncture beliefs. + +Ramey and Buell said the "practice and theoretical underpinnings" of modern acupuncture were introduced in The Yellow Emperor's Classic (Huangdi Neijing) around 100 BC. It introduced the concept of using acupuncture to manipulate the flow of life energy (qi) in a network of meridian (channels) in the body. The network concept was made up of acu-tracts, such as a line down the arms, where it said acupoints were located. Some of the sites acupuncturists use needles at today still have the same names as those given to them by the Yellow Emperor's Classic. Numerous additional documents were published over the centuries introducing new acupoints. By the 4th century AD, most of the acupuncture sites in use today had been named and identified. + +Early development in China + +Establishment and growth +In the first half of the 1st century AD, acupuncturists began promoting the belief that acupuncture's effectiveness was influenced by the time of day or night, the lunar cycle, and the season. The 'science of the yin-yang cycles' ( ) was a set of beliefs that curing diseases relied on the alignment of both heavenly (tian) and earthly (di) forces that were attuned to cycles like that of the sun and moon. There were several different belief systems that relied on a number of celestial and earthly bodies or elements that rotated and only became aligned at certain times. According to Needham and Lu, these "arbitrary predictions" were depicted by acupuncturists in complex charts and through a set of special terminology. + +Acupuncture needles during this period were much thicker than most modern ones and often resulted in infection. Infection is caused by a lack of sterilization, but at that time it was believed to be caused by use of the wrong needle, or needling in the wrong place, or at the wrong time. Later, many needles were heated in boiling water, or in a flame. Sometimes needles were used while they were still hot, creating a cauterizing effect at the injection site. Nine needles were recommended in the Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion from 1601, which may have been because of an ancient Chinese belief that nine was a magic number. + +Other belief systems were based on the idea that the human body operated on a rhythm and acupuncture had to be applied at the right point in the rhythm to be effective. In some cases a lack of balance between Yin and Yang were believed to be the cause of disease. + +In the 1st century AD, many of the first books about acupuncture were published and recognized acupuncturist experts began to emerge. The Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing, which was published in the mid-3rd century, became the oldest acupuncture book that is still in existence in the modern era. Other books like the Yu Gui Zhen Jing, written by the Director of Medical Services for China, were also influential during this period, but were not preserved. In the mid 7th century, Sun Simiao published acupuncture-related diagrams and charts that established standardized methods for finding acupuncture sites on people of different sizes and categorized acupuncture sites in a set of modules. + +Acupuncture became more established in China as improvements in paper led to the publication of more acupuncture books. The Imperial Medical Service and the Imperial Medical College, which both supported acupuncture, became more established and created medical colleges in every province. The public was also exposed to stories about royal figures being cured of their diseases by prominent acupuncturists. By time the Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion was published during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 AD), most of the acupuncture practices used in the modern era had been established. + +Decline +By the end of the Song dynasty (1279 AD), acupuncture had lost much of its status in China. It became rarer in the following centuries, and was associated with less prestigious professions like alchemy, shamanism, midwifery and moxibustion. Additionally, by the 18th century, scientific rationality was becoming more popular than traditional superstitious beliefs. By 1757 a book documenting the history of Chinese medicine called acupuncture a "lost art". Its decline was attributed in part to the popularity of prescriptions and medications, as well as its association with the lower classes. + +In 1822, the Chinese Emperor signed a decree excluding the practice of acupuncture from the Imperial Medical Institute. He said it was unfit for practice by gentlemen-scholars. In China acupuncture was increasingly associated with lower-class, illiterate practitioners. It was restored for a time, but banned again in 1929 in favor of science-based Western medicine. Although acupuncture declined in China during this time period, it was also growing in popularity in other countries. + +International expansion + +Korea is believed to be the first country in Asia that acupuncture spread to outside of China. Within Korea there is a legend that acupuncture was developed by emperor Dangun, though it is more likely to have been brought into Korea from a Chinese colonial prefecture in 514 AD. Acupuncture use was commonplace in Korea by the 6th century. It spread to Vietnam in the 8th and 9th centuries. As Vietnam began trading with Japan and China around the 9th century, it was influenced by their acupuncture practices as well. China and Korea sent "medical missionaries" that spread traditional Chinese medicine to Japan, starting around 219 AD. In 553, several Korean and Chinese citizens were appointed to re-organize medical education in Japan and they incorporated acupuncture as part of that system. Japan later sent students back to China and established acupuncture as one of five divisions of the Chinese State Medical Administration System. + +Acupuncture began to spread to Europe in the second half of the 17th century. Around this time the surgeon-general of the Dutch East India Company met Japanese and Chinese acupuncture practitioners and later encouraged Europeans to further investigate it. He published the first in-depth description of acupuncture for the European audience and created the term "acupuncture" in his 1683 work De Acupunctura. France was an early adopter among the West due to the influence of Jesuit missionaries, who brought the practice to French clinics in the 16th century. The French doctor Louis Berlioz (the father of the composer Hector Berlioz) is usually credited with being the first to experiment with the procedure in Europe in 1810, before publishing his findings in 1816. + +By the 19th century, acupuncture had become commonplace in many areas of the world. Americans and Britons began showing interest in acupuncture in the early 19th century, although interest waned by mid-century. Western practitioners abandoned acupuncture's traditional beliefs in spiritual energy, pulse diagnosis, and the cycles of the moon, sun or the body's rhythm. Diagrams of the flow of spiritual energy, for example, conflicted with the West's own anatomical diagrams. It adopted a new set of ideas for acupuncture based on tapping needles into nerves. In Europe it was speculated that acupuncture may allow or prevent the flow of electricity in the body, as electrical pulses were found to make a frog's leg twitch after death. + +The West eventually created a belief system based on Travell trigger points that were believed to inhibit pain. They were in the same locations as China's spiritually identified acupuncture points, but under a different nomenclature. The first elaborate Western treatise on acupuncture was published in 1683 by Willem ten Rhijne. + +Modern era + +In China, the popularity of acupuncture rebounded in 1949 when Mao Zedong took power and sought to unite China behind traditional cultural values. It was also during this time that many Eastern medical practices were consolidated under the name traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). + +New practices were adopted in the 20th century, such as using a cluster of needles, electrified needles, or leaving needles inserted for up to a week. A lot of emphasis developed on using acupuncture on the ear. Acupuncture research organizations such as the International Society of Acupuncture were founded in the 1940s and 1950s and acupuncture services became available in modern hospitals. China, where acupuncture was believed to have originated, was increasingly influenced by Western medicine. Meanwhile, acupuncture grew in popularity in the US. The US Congress created the Office of Alternative Medicine in 1992 and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) declared support for acupuncture for some conditions in November 1997. In 1999, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine was created within the NIH. Acupuncture became the most popular alternative medicine in the US. + +Politicians from the Chinese Communist Party said acupuncture was superstitious and conflicted with the party's commitment to science. Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong later reversed this position, arguing that the practice was based on scientific principles. + +In 1971, New York Times reporter James Reston published an article on his acupuncture experiences in China, which led to more investigation of and support for acupuncture. The US President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972. During one part of the visit, the delegation was shown a patient undergoing major surgery while fully awake, ostensibly receiving acupuncture rather than anesthesia. Later it was found that the patients selected for the surgery had both a high pain tolerance and received heavy indoctrination before the operation; these demonstration cases were also frequently receiving morphine surreptitiously through an intravenous drip that observers were told contained only fluids and nutrients. One patient receiving open heart surgery while awake was ultimately found to have received a combination of three powerful sedatives as well as large injections of a local anesthetic into the wound. After the National Institute of Health expressed support for acupuncture for a limited number of conditions, adoption in the US grew further. In 1972 the first legal acupuncture center in the US was established in Washington DC and in 1973 the American Internal Revenue Service allowed acupuncture to be deducted as a medical expense. + +In 2006, a BBC documentary Alternative Medicine filmed a patient undergoing open heart surgery allegedly under acupuncture-induced anesthesia. It was later revealed that the patient had been given a cocktail of anesthetics. + +In 2010, UNESCO inscribed "acupuncture and moxibustion of traditional Chinese medicine" on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List following China's nomination. + +Adoption +Acupuncture is most heavily practiced in China and is popular in the US, Australia, and Europe. In Switzerland, acupuncture has become the most frequently used alternative medicine since 2004. In the United Kingdom, a total of 4 million acupuncture treatments were administered in 2009. Acupuncture is used in most pain clinics and hospices in the UK. An estimated 1 in 10 adults in Australia used acupuncture in 2004. In Japan, it is estimated that 25 percent of the population will try acupuncture at some point, though in most cases it is not covered by public health insurance. Users of acupuncture in Japan are more likely to be elderly and to have a limited education. Approximately half of users surveyed indicated a likelihood to seek such remedies in the future, while 37% did not. Less than one percent of the US population reported having used acupuncture in the early 1990s. By the early 2010s, more than 14 million Americans reported having used acupuncture as part of their health care. + +In the US, acupuncture is increasingly () used at academic medical centers, and is usually offered through CAM centers or anesthesia and pain management services. Examples include those at Harvard University, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, and UCLA. CDC clinical practice guidelines from 2022 list acupuncture among the types of complementary and alternative medicines physicians should consider in preference to opioid prescription for certain kinds of pain. + +The use of acupuncture in Germany increased by 20% in 2007, after the German acupuncture trials supported its efficacy for certain uses. In 2011, there were more than one million users, and insurance companies have estimated that two-thirds of German users are women. As a result of the trials, German public health insurers began to cover acupuncture for chronic low back pain and osteoarthritis of the knee, but not tension headache or migraine. This decision was based in part on socio-political reasons. Some insurers in Germany chose to stop reimbursement of acupuncture because of the trials. For other conditions, insurers in Germany were not convinced that acupuncture had adequate benefits over usual care or sham treatments. Highlighting the results of the placebo group, researchers refused to accept a placebo therapy as efficient. + +Regulation + +There are various government and trade association regulatory bodies for acupuncture in the United Kingdom, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, and in European countries and elsewhere. The World Health Organization recommends that before being licensed or certified, an acupuncturist receive 200 hours of specialized training if they are a physician and 2,500 hours for non-physicians; many governments have adopted similar standards. + +In Hong Kong, the practice of acupuncture is regulated by the Chinese Medicine Council that was formed in 1999 by the Legislative Council. It includes a licensing exam and registration, as well as degree courses approved by the board. Canada has acupuncture licensing programs in the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta and Quebec; standards set by the Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Association of Canada are used in provinces without government regulation. Regulation in the US began in the 1970s in California, which was eventually followed by every state but Wyoming and Idaho. Licensing requirements vary greatly from state to state. The needles used in acupuncture are regulated in the US by the Food and Drug Administration. In some states acupuncture is regulated by a board of medical examiners, while in others by the board of licensing, health or education. + +In Japan, acupuncturists are licensed by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare after passing an examination and graduating from a technical school or university. In Australia, the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia regulates acupuncture, among other Chinese medical traditions, and restricts the use of titles like 'acupuncturist' to registered practitioners only. The practice of Acupuncture in New Zealand in 1990 acupuncture was included into the Governmental Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) Act. This inclusion granted qualified and professionally registered acupuncturists to provide subsidised care and treatment to citizens, residents, and temporary visitors for work or sports related injuries that occurred within the country of New Zealand. The two bodies for the regulation of acupuncture and attainment of ACC treatment provider status in New Zealand are Acupuncture NZ, and The New Zealand Acupuncture Standards Authority. At least 28 countries in Europe have professional associations for acupuncturists. In France, the Académie Nationale de Médecine (National Academy of Medicine) has regulated acupuncture since 1955. + +See also + +Notes + +References + +Bibliography + +Further reading + +External links + + + + +Alternative medicine +Chinese inventions +Energy therapies +Pain management +Pseudoscience +Traditional Chinese medicine +Vipera berus, the common European adder, is a snake found in Europe and northern Asia. + +Adder may also refer to: + + AA-12 Adder, a Russian air-to-air missile + Adder (electronics), an electronic circuit designed to do addition + Adder Technology, a manufacturing company + Armstrong Siddeley Adder, a late 1940s British turbojet engine + Blackadder, a series of BBC sitcoms + Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, a video game + HMS Adder, any of seven ships of the Royal Navy + Any of several groups of venomous snakes + USS Adder, a US submarine + +See also + Addition, a mathematical operation +In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas ( , ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons of Ilus, founder of Troy), making Aeneas a second cousin to Priam's children (such as Hector and Paris). He is a minor character in Greek mythology and is mentioned in Homer's Iliad. Aeneas receives full treatment in Roman mythology, most extensively in Virgil's Aeneid, where he is cast as an ancestor of Romulus and Remus. He became the first true hero of Rome. Snorri Sturluson identifies him with the Norse god Víðarr of the Æsir. + +Etymology + +Aeneas is the Romanization of the hero's original Greek name (Aineías). Aineías is first introduced in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite when Aphrodite gives him his name from the adjective +(, +"terrible"), for the "terrible grief" () he has caused her by being born a mortal who will age and die. It is a popular etymology for the name, apparently exploited by Homer in the Iliad. Later in the Medieval period there were writers who held that, because the Aeneid was written by a philosopher, it is meant to be read philosophically. As such, in the "natural order", the meaning of Aeneas' name combines Greek ("dweller") with ("body"), which becomes or "in-dweller"—i.e. as a god inhabiting a mortal body. However, there is no certainty regarding the origin of his name. + +Epithets +In imitation of the Iliad, Virgil borrows epithets of Homer, including: Anchisiades, magnanimum, magnus, heros, and bonus. Though he borrows many, Virgil gives Aeneas two epithets of his own, in the Aeneid: pater and pius. The epithets applied by Virgil are an example of an attitude different from that of Homer, for whilst Odysseus is ("wily"), Aeneas is described as ("pious"), which conveys a strong moral tone. The purpose of these epithets seems to enforce the notion of Aeneas' divine hand as father and founder of the Roman race, and their use seems circumstantial: when Aeneas is praying he refers to himself as pius, and is referred to as such by the author only when the character is acting on behalf of the gods to fulfill his divine mission. Likewise, Aeneas is called pater when acting in the interest of his men. + +Description +Aeneas was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the Chronography as "shortish, thick, good chest, strong, ruddy, flat-faced, good nose, pale, balding, good beard". Meanwhile, in the account of Dares the Phrygian, he was illustrated as "auburn-haired, stocky, eloquent, courteous, prudent, pious, and charming. His eyes were black and twinkling." + +Greek myth and epos + +Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite + +The story of the birth of Aeneas is told in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, one of the major Homeric Hymns. Aphrodite has caused Zeus to fall in love with mortal women. In retaliation, Zeus puts desire in her heart for Anchises, who is tending his cattle among the hills near Mount Ida. When Aphrodite sees him she is smitten. She adorns herself as if for a wedding among the gods and appears before him. He is overcome by her beauty, believing that she is a goddess, but Aphrodite identifies herself as a Phrygian princess. After they make love, Aphrodite reveals her true identity to him and Anchises fears what might happen to him as a result of their liaison. Aphrodite assures him that he will be protected, and tells him that she will bear him a son to be called Aeneas. However, she warns him that he must never tell anyone that he has lain with a goddess. When Aeneas is born, Aphrodite takes him to the nymphs of Mount Ida, instructing them to raise the child to age five, then take him to Anchises. According to other sources, Anchises later brags about his encounter with Aphrodite, and as a result is struck in the foot with a thunderbolt by Zeus. Thereafter he is lame in that foot, so that Aeneas has to carry him from the flames of Troy. + +Homer's Iliad + +Aeneas is a minor character in the Iliad, where he is twice saved from death by the gods as if for an as-yet-unknown destiny, but is an honorable warrior in his own right. Having held back from the fighting, aggrieved with Priam because in spite of his brave deeds he was not given his due share of honour, he leads an attack against Idomeneus to recover the body of his brother-in-law Alcathous at the urging of Deiphobus. He is the leader of the Trojans' Dardanian allies, as well as a second cousin and principal lieutenant of Hector, son and heir of the Trojan king Priam. + +Aeneas's mother Aphrodite frequently comes to his aid on the battlefield, and he is a favorite of Apollo. Aphrodite and Apollo rescue Aeneas from combat with Diomedes of Argos, who nearly kills him, and carry him away to Pergamos for healing. Even Poseidon, who usually favors the Greeks, comes to Aeneas's rescue after he falls under the assault of Achilles, noting that Aeneas, though from a junior branch of the royal family, is destined to become king of the Trojan people. + +Bruce Louden presents Aeneas as "type": The sole virtuous individual (or family) spared from general destruction, following the mytheme of Utnapishtim, Baucis and Philemon, Noah, and Lot. Pseudo-Apollodorus in his Bibliotheca explains that "... the Greeks [spared] him alone, on account of his piety." + +Other sources +The Roman mythographer Gaius Julius Hyginus ( – CE 17) in his Fabulae credits Aeneas with killing 28 enemies in the Trojan War. Aeneas also appears in the Trojan narratives attributed to Dares Phrygius and Dictys of Crete. + +Roman myth and literature + +The history of Aeneas was continued by Roman authors. One influential source was the account of Rome's founding in Cato the Elder's Origines. The Aeneas legend was well known in Virgil's day and appeared in various historical works, including the Roman Antiquities of the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus (relying on Marcus Terentius Varro), Ab Urbe Condita by Livy (probably dependent on Quintus Fabius Pictor, fl. 200 BCE), and Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus (now extant only in an epitome by Justin). + +Virgil's Aeneid + +The Aeneid explains that Aeneas is one of the few Trojans who were not killed or enslaved when Troy fell. Aeneas, after being commanded by the gods to flee, gathered a group, collectively known as the Aeneads, who then traveled to Italy and became progenitors of the Romans. The Aeneads included Aeneas's trumpeter Misenus, his father Anchises, his friends Achates, Sergestus, and Acmon, the healer Iapyx, the helmsman Palinurus, and his son Ascanius (also known as Iulus, Julus, or Ascanius Julius). He carried with him the Lares and Penates, the statues of the household gods of Troy, and transplanted them to Italy. + +Several attempts to find a new home failed; one such stop was on Sicily, where in Drepanum, on the island's western coast, his father, Anchises, died peacefully. + +After a brief but fierce storm sent up against the group at Juno's request, Aeneas and his fleet made landfall at Carthage after six years of wanderings. Aeneas had a year-long affair with the Carthaginian queen Dido (also known as Elissa), who proposed that the Trojans settle in her land and that she and Aeneas reign jointly over their peoples. A marriage of sorts was arranged between Dido and Aeneas at the instigation of Juno, who was told that her favorite city would eventually be defeated by the Trojans' descendants. Aeneas's mother Venus (the Roman adaptation of Aphrodite) realized that her son and his company needed a temporary respite to reinforce themselves for the journey to come. However, the messenger god Mercury was sent by Jupiter and Venus to remind Aeneas of his journey and his purpose, compelling him to leave secretly. When Dido learned of this, she uttered a curse that would forever pit Carthage against Rome, an enmity that would culminate in the Punic Wars. She then committed suicide by stabbing herself with the same sword she gave Aeneas when they first met. + +After the sojourn in Carthage, the Trojans returned to Sicily where Aeneas organized funeral games to honor his father, who had died a year before. The company traveled on and landed on the western coast of Italy. Aeneas descended into the underworld where he met Dido (who turned away from him to return to her husband) and his father, who showed him the future of his descendants and thus the history of Rome. + +Latinus, king of the Latins, welcomed Aeneas's army of exiled Trojans and let them reorganize their lives in Latium. His daughter Lavinia had been promised to Turnus, king of the Rutuli, but Latinus received a prophecy that Lavinia would be betrothed to one from another land – namely, Aeneas. Latinus heeded the prophecy, and Turnus consequently declared war on Aeneas at the urging of Juno, who was aligned with King Mezentius of the Etruscans and Queen Amata of the Latins. Aeneas's forces prevailed. Turnus was killed, and Virgil's account ends abruptly. + +Other sources +The rest of Aeneas's biography is gleaned from other ancient sources, including Livy and Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to Livy, Aeneas was victorious but Latinus died in the war. Aeneas founded the city of Lavinium, named after his wife. He later welcomed Dido's sister, Anna Perenna, who then committed suicide after learning of Lavinia's jealousy. After Aeneas's death, Venus asked Jupiter to make her son immortal. Jupiter agreed. The river god Numicus cleansed Aeneas of all his mortal parts and Venus anointed him with ambrosia and nectar, making him a god. Aeneas was recognized as the god Jupiter Indiges. + +English mythology + +The English once widely claimed as history, an original peopling of their island – prior to the event, a land only of fantastical giants – by descendants of Aeneas, though even in the time of the Renaissance, a non-English audience as well at least one English writer found details of the stories less than convincing. + +The island known later as Great Britain, was also previously known as Alba, similarity of name supporting connection to the city of Alba in Italy, said to have been built by Alcanius, son of Aeneas, and third ruler of the Latins after Latinus, being either his grandson or step-grandson. + +Even if one ignored obviously far-fetched elements of this foundation myth of Britain, Johannes Rastell writing in 1529 questioned, along these lines:  Supposing the original Brits were descendants of a line of Latin kings — Brute the son of Silvius, son Alcanius, son of Aeneas who came to the Italian peninsula from Troy — then why should such a fact have escaped record in the writings of Julius Caesar when that Roman military supreme commander had personally surveyed the lands there he had conquered for Rome by 48 BC? And indeed, why should the son Brutus have escaped from Latin histories altogether, given they did deal with Silvius and Alcanius, and 'all they're childera & what became of them & how they endyd that succeeded them as kyngis'? + +Other details he found were able to be discounted without resort to factual records, or with only very few facts needed other than everyday experience. Were the early inhabitants of Britain giants, descended from the Devil in union with 32 daughters of a king Dioclisian of Syria? To Rastell, if the devil had power to sow such seeds at the earlier time, then why not in his own time? Where were the giants today? + +Other fanciful elements he reduced by logical deduction from intuitive psychological insights, for example the greatly diminished chance of 32 daughters married to 32 kings on a single day, and all cooperating to kill those 32 husbands in a single night ; or in combination with analysis of logistical realities, such as the suggested voyage of all 32 murderous widows to Britain without dispersion or diversion, over three thousand miles. + +Rastell was further able to discount the likelihood of any factuality to that ancient tale, due to his failure to discover after diligent research, any authentic record of its origin or explanation as to why such record should be absent. + +Further reading + One surviving version of the Brut chronicle is a late Middle Ages manuscript, known as the St Albans Chronicle. + +Medieval accounts +Snorri Sturlason, in the Prologue of the Prose Edda, tells of the world as parted in three continents: Africa, Asia and the third part called Europe or Enea. Snorri also tells of a Trojan named Munon (or Mennon), who marries the daughter of the High King (Yfirkonungr) Priam called Troan and travels to distant lands, marries the Sybil and got a son, Tror, who, as Snorri tells, is identical to Thor. This tale resembles some episodes of the Aeneid. +Continuations of Trojan matter in the Middle Ages had their effects on the character of Aeneas as well. The 12th-century French Roman d'Enéas addresses Aeneas's sexuality. Though Virgil appears to deflect all homoeroticism onto Nisus and Euryalus, making his Aeneas a purely heterosexual character, in the Middle Ages there was at least a suspicion of homoeroticism in Aeneas. The Roman d'Enéas addresses that charge, when Queen Amata opposes Aeneas's marrying Lavinia. + +Medieval interpretations of Aeneas were greatly influenced by both Virgil and other Latin sources. Specifically, the accounts by Dares and Dictys, which were reworked by the 13th-century Italian writer Guido delle Colonne (in Historia destructionis Troiae), colored many later readings. From Guido, for instance, the Pearl Poet and other English writers get the suggestion that Aeneas's safe departure from Troy with his possessions and family was a reward for treason, for which he was chastised by Hecuba. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (late 14th century) the Pearl Poet, like many other English writers, employed Aeneas to establish a genealogy for the foundation of Britain, and explains that Aeneas was "impeached for his perfidy, proven most true" (line 4). + +Family and legendary descendants + +Aeneas had an extensive family tree. His wet-nurse was Caieta, and he is the father of Ascanius with Creusa, and of Silvius with Lavinia. Ascanius, also known as Iulus (or Julius), founded Alba Longa and was the first in a long series of kings. According to the mythology used by Virgil in the Aeneid, Romulus and Remus were both descendants of Aeneas through their mother Rhea Silvia, making Aeneas the progenitor of the Roman people. Some early sources call him their father or grandfather, but once the dates of the fall of Troy (1184 BCE) and the founding of Rome (753 BCE) became accepted, authors added generations between them. The Julian family of Rome, most notably Julius Cæsar and Augustus, traced their lineage to Ascanius and Aeneas, thus to the goddess Venus. Through the Julians, the Palemonids make this claim. The legendary kings of Britain – including King Arthur – trace their family through a grandson of Aeneas, Brutus. + +Character and appearance + +Aeneas's consistent epithet in Virgil and other Latin authors is pius, a term that connotes reverence toward the gods and familial dutifulness. + +In the Aeneid, Aeneas is described as strong and handsome, but neither his hair colour nor complexion are described. In late antiquity however sources add further physical descriptions. The De excidio Troiae of Dares Phrygius describes Aeneas as "auburn-haired, stocky, eloquent, courteous, prudent, pious, and charming". There is also a brief physical description found in the 6th-century John Malalas' Chronographia: "Aeneas: short, fat, with a good chest, powerful, with a ruddy complexion, a broad face, a good nose, fair skin, bald on the forehead, a good beard, grey eyes." + +Modern portrayals + +Literature +Aeneas appears as a character in William Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida, set during the Trojan War. + +Aeneas and Dido are the main characters of a 17th-century broadside ballad called "The Wandering Prince of Troy". The ballad ultimately alters Aeneas's fate from traveling on years after Dido's death to joining her as a spirit soon after her suicide. + +In modern literature, Aeneas is the speaker in two poems by Allen Tate, "Aeneas at Washington" and "Aeneas at New York". He is a main character in Ursula K. Le Guin's Lavinia, a re-telling of the last six books of the Aeneid told from the point of view of Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus of Latium. + +Aeneas appears in David Gemmell's Troy series as a main heroic character who goes by the name Helikaon. + +In Rick Riordan's book series The Heroes of Olympus, Aeneas is regarded as the first Roman demigod, son of Venus rather than Aphrodite. + +Will Adams' novel City of the Lost assumes that much of the information provided by Virgil is mistaken, and that the true Aeneas and Dido did not meet and love in Carthage but in a Phoenician colony at Cyprus, on the site of the modern Famagusta. Their tale is interspersed with that of modern activists who, while striving to stop an ambitious Turkish Army general trying to stage a coup, accidentally discover the hidden ruins of Dido's palace. + +Opera, film and other media + +Aeneas is a title character in Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas (), and Jakob Greber's (Aeneas in Carthage) (1711), and one of the principal roles in Hector Berlioz' opera Les Troyens (), as well as in Metastasio's immensely popular opera libretto Didone abbandonata. Canadian composer James Rolfe composed his opera Aeneas and Dido (2007; to a libretto by André Alexis) as a companion piece to Purcell's opera. + +Despite its many dramatic elements, Aeneas's story has generated little interest from the film industry. Ronald Lewis portrayed Aeneas in Helen of Troy, directed by Robert Wise, as a supporting character, who is a member of the Trojan Royal family, and a close and loyal friend to Paris, and escapes at the end of the film. Portrayed by Steve Reeves, he was the main character in the 1961 sword and sandal film Guerra di Troia (The Trojan War). Reeves reprised the role the following year in the film The Avenger, about Aeneas's arrival in Latium and his conflicts with local tribes as he tries to settle his fellow Trojan refugees there. + +Giulio Brogi, portrayed as Aeneas in the 1971 Italian TV miniseries series called Eneide, which gives the whole story of the Aeneid, from Aeneas escape from to Troy, to his meeting of Dido, his arrival in Italy, and his duel with Turnus. + +The most recent cinematic portrayal of Aeneas was in the film Troy, in which he appears as a youth charged by Paris to protect the Trojan refugees, and to continue the ideals of the city and its people. Paris gives Aeneas Priam's sword, in order to give legitimacy and continuity to the royal line of Troy – and lay the foundations of Roman culture. In this film, he is not a member of the royal family and does not appear to fight in the war. + +In the role-playing game Vampire: The Requiem by White Wolf Game Studios, Aeneas figures as one of the mythical founders of the Ventrue Clan. + +in the action game Warriors: Legends of Troy, Aeneas is a playable character. The game ends with him and the Aeneans fleeing Troy's destruction and, spurned by the words of a prophetess thought crazed, goes to a new country (Italy) where he will start an empire greater than Greece and Troy combined that shall rule the world for 1000 years, never to be outdone in the tale of men (the Roman Empire). + +In the 2018 TV miniseries Troy: Fall of a City, Aeneas is portrayed by Alfred Enoch. He also featured as an Epic Fighter of the Dardania faction in the Total War Saga: Troy in 2020. + +Depictions in art +Scenes depicting Aeneas, especially from the Aeneid, have been the focus of study for centuries. They have been the frequent subject of art and literature since their debut in the 1st century. + +Villa Valmarana +The artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was commissioned by Gaetano Valmarana in 1757 to fresco several rooms in the Villa Valmarana, the family villa situated outside Vicenza. Tiepolo decorated the palazzina with scenes from epics such as Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid. + +Aeneas flees Troy + +Aeneas with Dido + +Family tree + +See also + Cumaean Sibyl + Lacrimae rerum + The Golden Bough + Latin kings of Alba Longa + +Notes + +References + +Sources + Homer, Iliad II. 819–21; V. 217–575; XIII. 455–544; XX. 75–352. + Apollodorus, Bibliotheca III. xii. 2; Epitome III. 32–IV. 2; V. 21. + Virgil, Aeneid. + Ovid, Metamorphoses XIII. 623–715; XIV. 75–153; 581–608. + Ovid, Heroides, VII. + Livy, Book 1.1–2. + Dictys Cretensis. + Dares Phrygius. + +Further reading + Cramer, D. "The Wrath of Aeneas: Iliad 13.455–67 and 20.75–352." Syllecta Classica, vol. 11, 2000, pp. 16–33. . + de Vasconcellos, P.S. "A Sound Play on Aeneas' Name in the Aeneid: A Brief Note on VII.69." Vergilius (1959–), vol. 61, 2015, pp. 125–29. . + Farron, S. "The Aeneas–Dido Episode as an Attack on Aeneas' Mission and Rome." Greece & Rome, vol. 27, no. 1, 1980, pp. 34–47. . . + Gowers, E. "Trees and Family Trees in the Aeneid." Classical Antiquity, vol. 30, no. 1, 2011, pp. 87–118. . . + Grillo, L. "Leaving Troy and Creusa: Reflections on Aeneas' Flight." The Classical Journal, vol. 106, no. 1, 2010, pp. 43–68. . . + Noonan, J. "Sum Pius Aeneas: Aeneas and the Leader as Conservator/Σωτήρ" The Classical Bulletin. vol. 83, no. 1, 2007, pp. 65–91. + Putnam, M.C.J. The Humanness of Heroes: Studies in the Conclusion of Virgil's Aeneid. The Amsterdam Vergil lectures, 1. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011. + Starr, R.J. "Aeneas the Rhetorician: 'Aeneid IV', 279–95." Latomus, vol. 62, no. 1, 2003, pp. 36–46. . + Scafoglio, G. "The Betrayal of Aeneas." Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, vol. 53 no. 1, 2013, pp. 1–14. + Schauer, M. Aeneas dux in Vergils Aeneis. Eine literarische Fiktion in augusteischer Zeit. Zetemata vol. 128. Munich: C.H. Beck, 2007. + +External links + + Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (about 900 images related to the Aeneid) + +Trojan Leaders +Characters in the Aeneid +Greek mythological heroes +Children of Aphrodite +Characters in Roman mythology +Heroes who ventured to Hades +Demigods in classical mythology +Legendary progenitors +Metamorphoses characters +Articles containing video clips + + +Events + +Pre-1600 +1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. +1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire. + +1601–1900 +1612 – Samurai Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojirō in a duel at Funajima island. +1613 – Samuel Argall, having captured Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia, sets off with her to Jamestown with the intention of exchanging her for English prisoners held by her father. +1699 – The Sikh religion is formalised as the Khalsa – the brotherhood of Warrior-Saintsby Guru Gobind Singh in northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar. +1742 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland. +1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces are ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey. +1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament. +1849 – Lajos Kossuth presents the Hungarian Declaration of Independence in a closed session of the National Assembly. +1861 – American Civil War: Union forces surrender Fort Sumter to Confederate forces. +1865 – American Civil War: Raleigh, North Carolina is occupied by Union forces. +1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded. +1873 – The Colfax massacre: More than 60 to 150 black men are murdered in Colfax, Louisiana, while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. + +1901–present +1909 – The 31 March Incident leads to the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. +1919 – Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British Indian Army troops led by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer kill approximately 379–1,000 unarmed demonstrators including men and women in Amritsar, India; and approximately 1,500 injured. +1941 – A pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed. +1943 – World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility. + 1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth. +1945 – World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany. + 1945 – World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna. +1948 – In an ambush, 78 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital, and a British soldier, are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah. This event came to be known as the Hadassah medical convoy massacre. +1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra. +1958 – American pianist Van Cliburn is awarded first prize at the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. +1960 – The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system. +1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American man to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field. +1970 – An oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module (codenamed "Odyssey") while en route to the Moon. +1972 – The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan. + 1972 – Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins. +1975 – An attack by the Phalangist resistance kills 26 militia members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, marking the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War. +1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration. + 1976 – Forty workers die in an explosion at the Lapua ammunition factory, the deadliest accidental disaster in modern history in Finland. +1996 – Two women and four children are killed after Israeli helicopter fired rockets at an ambulance in Mansouri, Lebanon. +1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament. +2017 – The US drops the largest ever non-nuclear weapon on Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. +2023 – The house of Jack Teixeira was raided in an investigation into leaked Pentagon documents, where he was later arrested on the same day. + +Births + +Pre-1600 +1229 – Louis II, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1294) +1350 – Margaret III, Countess of Flanders (d. 1405) +1506 – Peter Faber, French priest and theologian, co-founded the Society of Jesus (d. 1546) +1519 – Catherine de' Medici, Italian-French wife of Henry II of France (d. 1589) +1570 – Guy Fawkes, English soldier, member of the Gunpowder Plot (probable; d. 1606) +1573 – Christina of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1625) +1593 – Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1641) + +1601–1900 +1618 – Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French author (d. 1693) +1636 – Hendrik van Rheede, Dutch botanist (d. 1691) +1648 – Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, French mystic (d. 1717) +1713 – Pierre Jélyotte, French tenor (d. 1797) +1729 – Thomas Percy, Irish bishop and poet (d. 1811) +1732 – Frederick North, Lord North, English politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1792) +1735 – Isaac Low, American merchant and politician, founded the New York Chamber of Commerce (d. 1791) +1743 – Thomas Jefferson, American lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the United States (d. 1826) +1747 – Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (d. 1793) +1764 – Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French general and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1830) +1769 – Thomas Lawrence, English painter and educator (d. 1830) +1771 – Richard Trevithick, Cornish-English engineer and explorer (d. 1833) +1780 – Alexander Mitchell, Irish engineer, invented the Screw-pile lighthouse (d. 1868) +1784 – Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (d. 1877) +1787 – John Robertson, American lawyer and politician (d. 1873) +1794 – Jean Pierre Flourens, French physiologist and academic (d. 1867) +1802 – Leopold Fitzinger, Austrian zoologist and herpetologist (d. 1884) +1808 – Antonio Meucci, Italian-American engineer (d. 1889) +1810 – Félicien David, French composer (d. 1876) +1824 – William Alexander, Irish archbishop, poet, and theologian (d. 1911) +1825 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Irish-Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1868) +1828 – Josephine Butler, English feminist and social reformer (d. 1906) + 1828 – Joseph Lightfoot, English bishop and theologian (d. 1889) +1832 – Juan Montalvo, Ecuadorian author and diplomat (d. 1889) +1841 – Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor and academic (d. 1905) +1850 – Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, Irish astronomer (d. 1917) +1851 – Robert Abbe, American surgeon and radiologist (d. 1928) + 1851 – William Quan Judge, Irish occultist and theosophist (d. 1896) +1852 – Frank Winfield Woolworth, American businessman, founded the F. 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(d. 2007) + 1917 – Bill Clements, American soldier, engineer, and politician, 15th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense (d. 2011) +1919 – Roland Gaucher, French journalist and politician (d. 2007) + 1919 – Howard Keel, American actor and singer (d. 2004) + 1919 – Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American activist, founded American Atheists (d. 1995) +1920 – Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (d. 1982) + 1920 – Claude Cheysson, French lieutenant and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2012) + 1920 – Liam Cosgrave, Irish lawyer and politician, 6th Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 2017) + 1920 – Theodore L. 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Randall, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 33rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1828) + +1901–present +1909 – Whitley Stokes, Anglo-Irish lawyer and scholar (b. 1830) +1910 – William Quiller Orchardson, Scottish-English painter and educator (b. 1835) +1911 – John McLane, Scottish-American politician, 50th Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1852) + 1911 – George Washington Glick, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of Kansas (b. 1827) +1912 – Takuboku Ishikawa, Japanese poet and author (b. 1886) +1917 – Diamond Jim Brady, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1856) +1918 – Lavr Kornilov, Russian general (b. 1870) +1927 – Georg Voigt, German politician, Mayor of Frankfurt (b. 1866) +1936 – Konstantinos Demertzis, Greek politician 129th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1876) +1938 – Grey Owl, English-Canadian environmentalist and author (b. 1888) +1941 – Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer and academic (b. 1863) + 1941 – William Twaits, Canadian soccer player (b. 1879) +1942 – Henk Sneevliet, Dutch politician (b. 1883) + 1942 – Anton Uesson, Estonian engineer and politician, 17th Mayor of Tallinn (b. 1879) +1944 – Cécile Chaminade, French pianist and composer (b. 1857) +1945 – Ernst Cassirer, Polish-American philosopher and academic (b. 1874) +1954 – Samuel Jones, American high jumper (b. 1880) + 1954 – Angus Lewis Macdonald, Canadian lawyer and politician, 12th Premier of Nova Scotia (b. 1890) +1956 – Emil Nolde, Danish-German painter and educator (b. 1867) +1959 – Eduard van Beinum, Dutch pianist, violinist, and conductor (b. 1901) +1961 – John A. Bennett, American soldier (b. 1936) +1962 – Culbert Olson, American lawyer and politician, 29th Governor of California (b. 1876) +1966 – Abdul Salam Arif, Iraqi colonel and politician, 2nd President of Iraq (b. 1921) + 1966 – Carlo Carrà, Italian painter (b. 1881) + 1966 – Georges Duhamel, French soldier and author (b. 1884) +1967 – Nicole Berger, French actress (b. 1934) +1969 – Alfred Karindi, Estonian pianist and composer (b. 1901) +1971 – Michel Brière, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1949) + 1971 – Juhan Smuul, Estonian author, poet, and screenwriter (b. 1921) +1975 – Larry Parks, American actor and singer (b. 1914) + 1975 – François Tombalbaye, Chadian soldier, academic, and politician, 1st President of Chad (b. 1918) +1978 – Jack Chambers, Canadian painter and director (b. 1931) + 1978 – Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Nigerian educator and women's rights activist (b. 1900) +1980 – Markus Höttinger, Austrian racing driver (b. 1956) +1983 – Gerry Hitchens, English footballer (b. 1934) + 1983 – Theodore Stephanides, Greek physician, author, and poet (b. 1896) +1984 – Ralph Kirkpatrick, American harpsichordist and musicologist (b. 1911) +1988 – Jean Gascon, Canadian actor and director (b. 1920) +1992 – Maurice Sauvé, Canadian economist and politician (b. 1923) + 1992 – Feza Gürsey, Turkish mathematician and physicist (b. 1921) + 1992 – Daniel Pollock, Australian actor (b. 1968) +1993 – Wallace Stegner, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (b. 1909) +1996 – Leila Mackinlay, English author and educator (b. 1910) +1997 – Bryant Bowles, American soldier and activist, founded the National Association for the Advancement of White People (b. 1920) + 1997 – Alan Cooley, Australian public servant (b. 1920) + 1997 – Dorothy Frooks, American author and actress (b. 1896) + 1997 – Voldemar Väli, Estonian wrestler (b. 1903) +1998 – Patrick de Gayardon, French skydiver and base jumper (b. 1960) +1999 – Ortvin Sarapu, Estonian-New Zealand chess player and author (b. 1924) + 1999 – Willi Stoph, German engineer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of East Germany (b. 1914) +2000 – Giorgio Bassani, Italian author and poet (b. 1916) + 2000 – Frenchy Bordagaray, American baseball player and manager (b. 1910) +2004 – Caron Keating, Northern Irish television host (b. 1962) +2005 – Johnnie Johnson, American pianist and songwriter (b. 1924) + 2005 – Phillip Pavia, American painter and sculptor (b. 1912) +2006 – Muriel Spark, Scottish novelist, poet, and critic (b. 1918) +2008 – John Archibald Wheeler, American physicist and academic (b. 1911) +2012 – Cecil Chaudhry, Pakistani pilot, academic, and activist (b. 1941) + 2012 – Shūichi Higurashi, Japanese illustrator (b. 1936) +2013 – Stephen Dodgson, English composer and educator (b. 1924) +2014 – Ernesto Laclau, Argentinian-Spanish philosopher and theorist (b. 1935) + 2014 – Michael Ruppert, American journalist and author (b. 1951) +2015 – Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist and author (b. 1940) + 2015 – Günter Grass, German novelist, poet, playwright, and illustrator, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1927) + 2015 – Herb Trimpe, American author and illustrator (b. 1939) +2017 – Dan Rooney, American football executive and former United States Ambassador to Ireland (b. 1932) +2022 – Michel Bouquet, French stage and film actor (b. 1925) + 2022 – Gloria Parker, American musician and bandleader (b.1921) + +Holidays and observances + Christian feast day: + Catholic commemoration of Ida of Louvain + April 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) + Songkran + Songkran (Thailand) + Water-Sprinkling Festival + Vaisakhi (between 1902 and 2011) + +References + +External links + + BBC: On This Day + + Historical Events on April 13 + +Days of the year +April +Amaranthus is a cosmopolitan genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants collectively known as amaranths. Some amaranth species are cultivated as leaf vegetables, pseudocereals, and ornamental plants. Catkin-like cymes of densely packed flowers grow in summer or fall. Amaranth varies in flower, leaf, and stem color with a range of striking pigments from the spectrum of maroon to crimson and can grow longitudinally from tall with a cylindrical, succulent, fibrous stem that is hollow with grooves and bracteoles when mature. +There are approximately 75 species in the genus, 10 of which are dioecious and native to North America with the remaining 65 monoecious species endemic to every continent (except Antarctica) from tropical lowlands to the Himalayas. Members of this genus share many characteristics and uses with members of the closely related genus Celosia. Amaranth grain is collected from the genus. The leaves of some species are also eaten. + +Description + +Amaranth is a herbaceous plant or shrub that is either annual or perennial across the genus. Flowers vary interspecifically from the presence of 3 or 5 tepals and stamens, whereas a 7-porate pollen grain structure remains consistent across the family. Species across the genus contain concentric rings of vascular bundles, and fix carbon efficiently with a C4 photosynthetic pathway. Leaves are approximately and of oval or elliptical shape that are either opposite or alternate across species, although most leaves are whole and simple with entire margins. + +Amaranth has a primary root with deeper spreading secondary fibrous root structures. Inflorescences are in the form a large panicle that varies from terminal to axial, color, and sex. The tassel of fluorescence is either erect or bent and varies in width and length between species. Flowers are radially symmetric and either bisexual or unisexual with very small, bristly perianth and pointy bracts. Species in this genus are either monecious (e.g. A. hybridus,) or dioecious (e.g. A. palmeri). Fruits are in the form of capsules referred to as a unilocular pixdio that opens at maturity. The top (operculum) of the unilocular pixdio releases the urn that contains the seed. Seeds are circular form from 1 to 1.5 millimeters in diameter and range in color with a shiny, smooth seed coat. The panicle is harvested 200 days after cultivation with approximately 1,000 to 3,000 seeds harvested per gram. + +Chemistry +Amaranth grain contains phytochemicals that are not defined as nutrients and may be antinutrient factors, such as polyphenols, saponins, tannins, and oxalates. These compounds are reduced in content and antinutrient effect by cooking. + +Taxonomy +Amaranthus shows a wide variety of morphological diversity among and even within certain species. Amaranthus is part of the Amaranthaceae that is part of the larger grouping of the Carophyllales. Although the family (Amaranthaceae) is distinctive, the genus has few distinguishing characters among the 75 species present across six continents. This complicates taxonomy and Amaranthus has generally been considered among systematists as a "difficult" genus and to hybridize often. + +In 1955, Sauer classified the genus into two subgenera, differentiating only between monoecious and dioecious species: Acnida (L.) Aellen ex K.R. Robertson and Amaranthus. Although this classification was widely accepted, further infrageneric classification was (and still is) needed to differentiate this widely diverse group. Mosyakin and Robertson 1996 later divided into three subgenera: Acnida, Amaranthus, and Albersia. The support for the addition of the subdivision Albersia because of its indehiscent fruits coupled with three elliptic to linear tepals to be exclusive characters to members of this subgenus. The classification of these groups are further supported with a combination of floral characters, reproductive strategies, geographic distribution, and molecular evidence. + +The phylogenies of Amaranthus using maximum parsimony and Bayesian analysis of nuclear and chloroplast genes suggest five clades within the genus: Diecious / Pumilus, Hybris, Galapagos, Eurasian/ South African, Australian (ESA), ESA + South American. + +Amaranthus includes three recognised subgenera and 75 species, although species numbers are questionable due to hybridisation and species concepts. Infrageneric classification focuses on inflorescence, flower characters and whether a species is monoecious/dioecious, as in the Sauer (1955) suggested classification. Bracteole morphology present on the stem is used for taxonomic classification of Amaranth. Wild species have longer bracteoles compared to cultivated species. A modified infrageneric classification of Amaranthus includes three subgenera: Acnida, Amaranthus, and Albersia, with the taxonomy further differentiated by sections within each of the subgenera. + +There is near certainty that A. hypochondriacus is the common ancestor to the cultivated grain species, however the later series of domestication to follow remains unclear. There has been opposing hypotheses of a single as opposed to multiple domestication events of the three grain species. There is evidence of phylogenetic and geographical support for clear groupings that indicate separate domestication events in South America and Central America. A. hybridus may derive from South America, whereas A. caudatus, A. hypochondriacus, and A. quentiensis are native to Central and North America. + +Species + +Species include: + + Amaranthus acanthochiton – greenstripe + Amaranthus acutilobus – a synonym of Amaranthus viridis + Amaranthus albus – white pigweed, tumble pigweed + Amaranthus anderssonii + Amaranthus arenicola – sandhill amaranth + Amaranthus australis – southern amaranth + Amaranthus bigelovii – Bigelow's amaranth + Amaranthus blitoides – mat amaranth, prostrate amaranth, prostrate pigweed + Amaranthus blitum – purple amaranth + Amaranthus brownii – Brown's amaranth + Amaranthus californicus – California amaranth, California pigweed + Amaranthus cannabinus – tidal-marsh amaranth + Amaranthus caudatus – love-lies-bleeding, pendant amaranth, tassel flower, quilete + Amaranthus chihuahuensis – Chihuahuan amaranth + Amaranthus crassipes – spreading amaranth + Amaranthus crispus – crispleaf amaranth + Amaranthus cruentus – purple amaranth, red amaranth, Mexican grain amaranth + Amaranthus deflexus – large-fruit amaranth + Amaranthus dubius – spleen amaranth, khada sag + Amaranthus fimbriatus – fringed amaranth, fringed pigweed + Amaranthus floridanus – Florida amaranth + Amaranthus furcatus + Amaranthus graecizans + Amaranthus grandiflorus + Amaranthus greggii – Gregg's amaranth + Amaranthus hybridus – smooth amaranth, smooth pigweed, red amaranth + Amaranthus hypochondriacus – Prince-of-Wales feather, prince's feather + Amaranthus interruptus – Australian amaranth + Amaranthus minimus + Amaranthus mitchellii + Amaranthus muricatus – African amaranth + Amaranthus obcordatus – Trans-Pecos amaranth + Amaranthus palmeri – Palmer's amaranth, Palmer pigweed, careless weed + Amaranthus polygonoides – tropical amaranth + Amaranthus powellii – green amaranth, Powell amaranth, Powell pigweed + Amaranthus pringlei – Pringle's amaranth + Amaranthus pumilus – seaside amaranth + Amaranthus quitensis - Mucronate Amaranth + Amaranthus retroflexus – red-root amaranth, redroot pigweed, common amaranth + Amaranthus saradhiana - purpal stem amaranth, green leaf amaranth + Amaranthus scleranthoides – variously Amaranthus sclerantoides Amaranthus scleropoides – bone-bract amaranth + Amaranthus spinosus – spiny amaranth, prickly amaranth, thorny amaranth + Amaranthus standleyanus Amaranthus thunbergii – Thunberg's amaranth + Amaranthus torreyi – Torrey's amaranth + Amaranthus tricolor – Joseph's-coat + Amaranthus tuberculatus – rough-fruit amaranth, tall waterhemp + Amaranthus viridis – slender amaranth, green amaranth + Amaranthus watsonii – Watson's amaranth + Amaranthus wrightii – Wright's amaranth + + Etymology +"Amaranth" derives from Greek (), "unfading", with the Greek word for "flower", (), factoring into the word's development as amaranth, the unfading flower. Amarant is an archaic variant. The name was first applied to the related Celosia (Amaranthus and Celosia share long-lasting dried flowers), as Amaranthus plants were not yet known in Europe. + + Ecology +Amaranth weed species have an extended period of germination, rapid growth, and high rates of seed production, and have been causing problems for farmers since the mid-1990s. This is partially due to the reduction in tillage, reduction in herbicidal use and the evolution of herbicidal resistance in several species where herbicides have been applied more often. The following 9 species of Amaranthus are considered invasive and noxious weeds in the U.S. and Canada: A. albus, A. blitoides, A. hybridus, A. palmeri, A. powellii, A. retroflexus, A. spinosus, A. tuberculatus, and A. viridis.[Assad, R., Reshi, Z. A., Jan, S., & Rashid, I. (2017). "Biology of amaranths". The Botanical Review, 83(4), 382-436.] + +A new herbicide-resistant strain of A. palmeri has appeared; it is glyphosate-resistant and so cannot be killed by herbicides using the chemical. Also, this plant can survive in tough conditions. The species Amaranthus palmeri (Palmer amaranth) causes the greatest reduction in soybean yields and has the potential to reduce yields by 17-68% in field experiments. Palmer amaranth is among the "top five most troublesome weeds" in the southeast of the United States and has already evolved resistances to dinitroaniline herbicides and acetolactate synthase inhibitors. This makes the proper identification of Amaranthus species at the seedling stage essential for agriculturalists. Proper weed control needs to be applied before the species successfully colonizes in the crop field and causes significant yield reductions. + +An evolutionary lineage of around 90 species within the genus has acquired the carbon fixation pathway, which increases their photosynthetic efficiency. This probably occurred in the Miocene. + + Uses + +All parts of the plant are considered edible, though some may have sharp spines that need to be removed before consumption. + + Nutrition + +Uncooked amaranth grain by weight is 12% water, 65% carbohydrates (including 7% dietary fiber), 14% protein, and 7% fat (table). A reference serving of uncooked amaranth grain provides of food energy, and is a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of protein, dietary fiber, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, folate, and several dietary minerals (table). Uncooked amaranth is particularly rich in manganese (159% DV), phosphorus (80% DV), magnesium (70% DV), iron (59% DV), and selenium (34% DV). Amaranth has a high oxalate content. + +Cooking decreases its nutritional value substantially across all nutrients, with only dietary minerals remaining at moderate levels. Cooked amaranth leaves are a rich source of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and manganese, with moderate levels of folate, iron, magnesium, and potassium. Amaranth does not contain gluten. + + History +The native range of the genus is cosmopolitan. In pre-Hispanic times, amaranth was cultivated by the Aztec and their tributary communities in a quantity very similar to maize. Known to the Aztecs as , amaranth is thought to have represented up to 80% of their energy consumption before the Spanish conquest. Another important use of amaranth throughout Mesoamerica was in ritual drinks and foods. To this day, amaranth grains are toasted much like popcorn and mixed with honey, molasses, or chocolate to make a treat called , meaning "joy" in Spanish. + +While all species are believed to be native to the Americas, several have been cultivated and introduced to warm regions worldwide. Amaranth's cosmopolitan distribution makes it one of many plants providing evidence of pre-Columbian oceanic contact. The earliest archeological evidence for amaranth in the Old World was found in an excavation in Narhan, India, dated to 1000–800 BCE. + +Because of its importance as a symbol of indigenous culture, its palatability, ease of cooking, and a protein that is particularly well-suited to human nutritional needs, interest in amaranth seeds (especially A. cruentus and A. hypochondriacus) revived in the 1970s. It was recovered in Mexico from wild varieties and is now commercially cultivated. It is a popular snack in Mexico, sometimes mixed with chocolate or puffed rice, and its use has spread to Europe and other parts of North America. + + Seed +Several species are raised for amaranth "grain" in Asia and the Americas. Amaranth and its relative quinoa are considered pseudocereals because of their similarities to cereals in flavor and cooking. The spread of Amaranthus is of a joint effort of human expansion, adaptation, and fertilization strategies. Grain amaranth has been used for food by humans in several ways. The grain can be ground into a flour for use like other grain flours. It can be popped like popcorn, or flaked like oatmeal. + +Seeds of Amaranth grain have been found in Antofagasta de la Sierra Department, Catamarca, Argentina in the southern Puna desert of the north of Argentina dating from 4,500 years ago, with evidence suggesting earlier use. Archeological evidence of seeds from A. hypochondriacus and A. cruentus found in a cave in Tehuacán, Mexico, suggests amaranth was part of Aztec civilization in the 1400s. + +Ancient amaranth grains still used include the three species Amaranthus caudatus, A. cruentus, and A. hypochondriacus. Evidence from single-nucleotide polymorphisms and chromosome structure supports A. hypochondriacus as the common ancestor of the three grain species. + +It has been proposed as an inexpensive native crop that could be cultivated by indigenous people in rural areas for several reasons: + A small amount of seed plants a large area (seeding rate 1 kg/ha). + Yields are high compared to the seeding rate: 1,000 kg or more per hectare. + It is easily harvested and easily processed, post harvest, as there are no hulls to remove. + Its seeds are a source of protein.De Macvean & Pöll (1997). Chapter 8: Ethnobotany. Tropical Tree Seed Manual, USDA Forest Service, edt. J.A Vozzo. + It has rich content of the dietary minerals, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium. + In cooked and edible forms, amaranth retains adequate content of several dietary minerals. + It is easy to cook. Boil in water with twice the amount of water as grain by volume (or 2.4 times as much water by weight). Amaranth seed can also be popped one tablespoon at a time in a hot pan without oil, shaken every few seconds to avoid burning. + It grows fast and, in three cultivated species, the large seedheads can weigh up to 1 kg and contain a half-million small seeds. + +In the United States, the amaranth crop is mostly used for seed production. Most amaranth in American food products starts as a ground flour, blended with wheat or other flours to create cereals, crackers, cookies, bread or other baked products. Despite utilization studies showing that amaranth can be blended with other flours at levels above 50% without affecting functional properties or taste, most commercial products use amaranth only as a minor portion of their ingredients despite them being marketed as "amaranth" products. + + Leaves, roots, and stems + +Amaranth species are cultivated and consumed as a leaf vegetable in many parts of the world. Four species of Amaranthus are documented as cultivated vegetables in eastern Asia: Amaranthus cruentus, Amaranthus blitum, Amaranthus dubius, and Amaranthus tricolor. + + Asia +In Indonesia and Malaysia, leaf amaranth is called (although the word has since been loaned to refer to spinach, in a different genus). In the Philippines, the Ilocano word for the plant is ; the Tagalog word for the plant is or . + +In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India, it is called and is a popular red leafy vegetable (referred to in the class of vegetable preparations called ). It is called chua in Kumaun area of Uttarakhand, where it is a popular red-green vegetable. In Karnataka in India, it is called () . It is used to prepare curries such as hulee, palya, majjigay-hulee, and so on. In Kerala, it is called cheera and is consumed by stir-frying the leaves with spices and red chili peppers to make a dish called cheera thoran. In Tamil Nadu, it is called and is regularly consumed as a favourite dish, where the greens are steamed and mashed with light seasoning of salt, red chili pepper, and cumin. It is called . In the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and other Telugu speaking regions of the country, this leaf is called as "Thotakura" and is cooked as a standalone curry, added as a part of mix leafy vegetable curry or added in preparation of a popular dal called in (Telugu). In Maharashtra, it is called and is available in both red and white colour. In Orissa, it is called , it is used to prepare , in which the leaf is fried with chili and onions. In West Bengal, the green variant is called () and the red variant is called (). + +In China, the leaves and stems are used as a stir-fry vegetable, or in soups. In Vietnam, it is called and is used to make soup. Two species are popular as edible vegetable in Vietnam: (Amaranthus tricolor) and or (Amaranthus viridis). + + Africa +A traditional food plant in Africa, amaranth has the potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development and support sustainable land care. + +In Bantu regions of Uganda and western Kenya, it is known as doodo or litoto. It is also known among the Kalenjin as a drought crop (chepkerta). In Lingala (spoken in the Congo), it is known as or . In Nigeria, it is a common vegetable and goes with all Nigerian starch dishes. It is known in Yoruba as , a short form of (meaning "make the husband fat"), or (meaning "we have money left over for fish"). In Botswana, it is referred to as morug and cooked as a staple green vegetable. + + Europe +In Greece, purple amaranth (Amaranthus Blitum) is a popular dish called , or . It is boiled, then served with olive oil and lemon juice like a salad, sometimes alongside fried fish. Greeks stop harvesting the plant (which also grows wild) when it starts to bloom at the end of August. + + Americas +In Brazil, green amaranth was, and to a degree still is, often considered an invasive species as all other species of amaranth (except the generally imported A. caudatus cultivar), though some have traditionally appreciated it as a leaf vegetable, under the names of or , which is consumed cooked, generally accompanying the staple food, rice and beans. + +In the Caribbean, the leaves are called bhaji in Trinidad and callaloo in Jamaica, and are sautéed with onions, garlic, and tomatoes, or sometimes used in a soup called pepperpot soup. + +Oil +Making up about 5% of the total fatty acids of amaranth, squalene is extracted as a vegetable-based alternative to the more expensive shark oil for use in dietary supplements and cosmetics. + + Dyes +The flowers of the 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth were used by the Hopi (a tribe in the western United States) as the source of a deep red dye. Also a synthetic dye was named "amaranth" for its similarity in color to the natural amaranth pigments known as betalains. This synthetic dye is also known as Red No. 2 in North America and E123 in the European Union. + + Ornamentals + +The genus also contains several well-known ornamental plants, such as Amaranthus caudatus (love-lies-bleeding), a vigorous, hardy annual with dark purplish flowers crowded in handsome drooping spikes. Another Indian annual, A. hypochondriacus (prince's feather), has deeply veined, lance-shaped leaves, purple on the under face, and deep crimson flowers densely packed on erect spikes. + +Amaranths are recorded as food plants for some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species including the nutmeg moth and various case-bearer moths of the genus Coleophora: C. amaranthella, C. enchorda (feeds exclusively on Amaranthus), C. immortalis (feeds exclusively on Amaranthus), C. lineapulvella, and C. versurella (recorded on A. spinosus). + + Culture +Diego Durán described the festivities for the Aztec god . The Aztec month of (7 December to 26 December) was dedicated to . People decorated their homes and trees with paper flags; ritual races, processions, dances, songs, prayers, and finally human sacrifices were held. This was one of the more important Aztec festivals, and the people prepared for the whole month. They fasted or ate very little; a statue of the god was made out of amaranth seeds and honey, and at the end of the month, it was cut into small pieces so everybody could eat a piece of the god. After the Spanish conquest, cultivation of amaranth was outlawed, while some of the festivities were subsumed into the Christmas celebration. + +Amaranth is associated with longevity and, poetically, with death and immortality. Amaranth garlands were used in the mourning of Achilles. + +John Milton's Paradise Lost portrays a showy amaranth in the Garden of Eden, "remov'd from Heav'n" when it blossoms because the flowers "shade the fountain of life". He describes amaranth as "immortal" in reference to the flowers that generally do not wither and retain bright reddish tones of color, even when deceased; referred to in one species as "love-lies-bleeding." + +Gallery + +See also + Ancient grains + +References + +Further reading + Howard, Brian Clark. "Amaranth: Another Ancient Wonder Food, But Who Will Eat It?". National Geographic Online, August 12, 2013. + Fanton M., Fanton J. Amaranth'' The Seed Savers' Handbook. (1993) + Assad, R., Reshi, Z. A., Jan, S., & Rashid, I. (2017). Biology of amaranths. The Botanical Review, 83(4), 382–436. + +External links + + Grain amaranth, Crops For A Future + + +Leaf vegetables +Tropical agriculture +Asian vegetables +Pseudocereals +E-number additives +Agapanthus africanus, or the African lily, is a flowering plant from the genus Agapanthus found only on rocky sandstone slopes of the winter rainfall fynbos from the Cape Peninsula to Swellendam. It is also known as the lily-of-the-Nile in spite of only occurring in South Africa. + +Description +The plant is a rhizomatous evergreen geophyte from in height. The leathery leaves are suberect and long and strap shaped. Flowers are broadly funnel-shaped, pale to deep blue, and thick-textured with a dark blue stripe running down the center of each petal. Paler flowers are more common in Agapanthus africanus walshii while Agapanthus africanus africanus flowers tend to be darker. The flowers grow in large clusters, with each flower being long. This species flowers from November to April, particularly after fire. Peak flowering occurs from December to February. + +Ecology +Pollination is by wind, bees and sunbirds and seed dispersal by the wind. Chacma baboons and buck sometimes eat the flower heads just as the first flowers begin to open. These plants are adapted to survive fire in the fynbos and resprout from thick, fleshy roots after fire has passed through the area. + +Cultivation and use +Unlike the more common Agapanthus praecox, this species is less suitable as a garden plant as it is far more difficult to grow. A. africanus subsp. africanus may be grown in rockeries in a well drained, slightly acid sandy mix. They seem to be best when grown in shallow pots and will flower regularly if fed with a slow release fertiliser. A. africanus subsp. walshii is by far the most difficult Agapanthus to grow. It can only be grown as a container plant and will not survive if planted out. They require a very well-drained, sandy, acid mix with minimal watering in summer. Both subspecies require hot, dry summers, and winter rainfall climate. It will not tolerate extended freezing temperatures. + +The name A. africanus has long been misapplied to A. praecox in horticultural use and publications across the world, and horticultural plants sold as A. africanus are actually hybrids or cultivars of A. praecox. + +Extracts of A. africanus have been shown to have antifungal properties. Application of these extracts to the seeds of other plant species, including economically important species, has shown that it significantly reduces the severity of the impacts of certain pathogens. In the case of sorghum, this application was even found to perform better than Thiram, a commonly used fungicide when exposed to Sporisorium sorghi and S. cruentum. Similarly, it has found to induce resistance to rust leaf in wheat through increasing the activity of pathogenesis related proteins. + +Conservation +While the species as a whole has not yet been assessed, A. africanus subsp. walshii is considered to be endangered by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). It is known only from a small area in the Elgin valley (less than five locations) and the population continues to decline. The largest subpopulation is threatened by unregulated informal settlement expansion. A proportion of the population is protected within the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve and is not threatened. + +See also + + List of plants known as lily + +References + +External links +Plantweb: Agapanthus africanus + + +africanus +Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces +Plants described in 1824 +Plants described in 1753 +Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus +Blue flowers +In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; Agamémnōn) was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Iphigenia, Iphianassa, Electra, Laodike, Orestes and Chrysothemis. Legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. Agamemnon was killed upon his return from Troy by Clytemnestra, or in an older version of the story, by Clytemnestra's lover Aegisthus. + +Etymology +His name in Greek, Ἀγαμέμνων, means "very steadfast", "unbowed" or "resolute". The word comes from *Ἀγαμέδμων (*Agamédmōn) from ἄγαν, "very much" and μέδομαι, "think on". + +Description +In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Agamemnon was described as ". . .blond, large, and powerful. He was eloquent, wise, and noble, a man richly endowed." + +Ancestry and early life +Agamemnon was a descendant of Pelops, son of Tantalus. According to the common story (as told in the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer), Agamemnon and his younger brother Menelaus were the sons of Atreus, king of Mycenae, and Aerope, daughter of the Cretan king Catreus. However, according to another tradition, Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus' son Pleisthenes, with their mother being Aerope, Cleolla, or Eriphyle. In this tradition, Pleisthenes dies young, with Agamemnon and Menelaus being raised by Atreus. Agamemnon had a sister Anaxibia (or Astyoche) who married Strophius, the son of Crisus. + +Agamemnon's father, Atreus, murdered the sons of his twin brother Thyestes and fed them to Thyestes after discovering Thyestes' adultery with his wife Aerope. Thyestes fathered Aegisthus with his own daughter, Pelopia, and this son vowed gruesome revenge on Atreus' children. Aegisthus murdered Atreus, restored Thyestes to the throne, and took possession of the throne of Mycenae and jointly ruled with his father. During this period, Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus took refuge with Tyndareus, King of Sparta. + +In Sparta Agamemnon and Menelaus respectively married Tyndareus' daughters Clytemnestra and Helen. In some stories (such as Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides) Clytemnestra was already married to Tantalus, and Agamemnon murders him and the couple's infant son before marrying Clytemnestra. + +Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra, and Chrysothemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father's kingdom. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece. + +Agamemnon's family history had been tarnished by murder, incest, and treachery, consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by his ancestor, Tantalus, and then of a curse placed upon Pelops, son of Tantalus, by Myrtilus, whom he had murdered. Thus misfortune hounded successive generations of the House of Atreus, until atoned by Orestes in a court of justice held jointly by humans and gods. + +Trojan War + +Sailing for Troy + +Agamemnon gathers the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. In order to recruit Odysseus, who is feigning madness so as to not have to go to war, Agamemnon sends Palamedes, who threatens to kill Odysseus' infant son Telemachus. Odysseus is forced to stop acting mad in order to save his son and joined the assembled Greek forces. Preparing to depart from Aulis, a port in Boeotia, Agamemnon's army incurs the wrath of the goddess Artemis, although the myths give various reasons for this. In Aeschylus' play Agamemnon, Artemis is angry for she predicts that so many young men will die at Troy, whereas in Sophocles' Electra, Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasts that he is her equal in hunting. Misfortunes, including a plague and a lack of wind, prevent the army from sailing. Finally, the prophet Calchas announces that the wrath of the goddess can only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia. + +Classical dramatizations differ on how willing either father or daughter are to this fate; some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to Achilles, but Agamemnon does eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. Her death appeases Artemis and the Greek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology. Other sources, such as Iphigenia at Aulis, say that Agamemnon is prepared to kill his daughter but that Artemis accepts a deer in her place and whisks her away to Tauris in the Crimean Peninsula. However, this version is widely considered to be the work of an interpolator, and not Euripides himself. Hesiod says she became the goddess Hecate. + +During the war, but before the events of the Iliad, Odysseus contrives a plan to get revenge on Palamedes for threatening his son’s life. By forging a letter from Priam, king of the Trojans, and caching some gold in Palamedes tent, Odysseus has Palamedes accused of treason and Agamemnon orders him to be stoned to death. + +The Iliad. + +The Iliad tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. In Book One, following one of the Achaean Army's raids, Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, one of Apollo's priests, is taken as a war prize by Agamemnon. Chryses pleads with Agamemnon to free his daughter but meets with little success. Chryses then prays to Apollo for the safe return of his daughter. Apollo responds by unleashing a plague over the Achaean Army. The Prophet Calchas tells that the plague may be dispelled by returning Chryseis to her father. After bitterly berating Calchas for his painful prophecies, first forcing him to sacrifice his daughter and now to return his concubine, Agamemnon reluctantly agrees. However, Agamemnon demands a new prize from the army as compensation and seizes Achilles' prize, the beautiful captive Briseis. This creates deadly resentment between Achilles and Agamemnon, causing Achilles to withdraw from battle and refuse to fight. + +Agamemnon is then visited in a dream by Zeus who tells him to rally his forces and attack the Trojans (in Book Two). After several days of fighting, including duels between Menelaus and Paris, and between Ajax and Hector, the Achaeans are pushed back to the fortifications around their ships. In Book Nine, Agamemnon, having realized Achilles's importance in winning the war, sends ambassadors begging for Achilles to return, offering him riches and the hand of his daughter in marriage. Achilles refuses, only being spurred back into action when Patroclus is killed in battle by Hector, eldest son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. In Book Nineteen, Agamemnon, reconciled with Achilles, gives him the offered rewards for returning to the war. Achilles sets out to turn back the Trojans and to duel with Hector. After Hector's death, Agamemnon assists Achilles in performing Patroclus' funeral in Book Twenty-three. Agamemnon volunteers for the javelin throwing contest, one of the games being held in Patroclus' honor, but his skill with the javelin is so well known that Achilles awards him the prize without contest. + +Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a representative of "kingly authority". As commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle. His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness; an over-exalted opinion of his position that led him to insult Chryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks. + +Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War. During the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus and fifteen other Trojan soldiers, according to one source. In the Iliad itself, he is shown to slaughter hundreds more in Book Eleven during his aristea, loosely translated to "day of glory", which is the most similar to Achilles' aristea in Book Twenty-one. Even before his aristea, Agamemnon is considered to be one of the three best warriors on the Greek side, as proven when Hector challenges any champion of the Greek side to fight him in Book Seven, and Agamemnon (along with Diomedes and Ajax the Greater) is one of the three Hector most wishes to fight out of the nine strongest Greek warriors who volunteer. + +End of the war + +According to Sophocles's Ajax, after Achilles had fallen in battle Agamemnon and Menelaus award Achilles armor to Odysseus. This angers Ajax, who feels he is the now the strongest among the Achaean warriors and so deserves the armor. Ajax considers killing them, but is driven to madness by Athena and instead slaughters the herdsmen and cattle that had not yet been divided as spoils of war. He then commits suicide in shame for his actions. As Ajax dies he curses the sons of Atreus (Agamemnon and Menelaus), along with the entire Achaean army. Agamemnon and Menelaus consider leaving Ajax's body to rot, denying him a proper burial, but are convinced otherwise by Odysseus and Ajax's half-brother Teucer. After the capture of Troy, Cassandra, the doomed prophetess and daughter of Priam, fell to Agamemnon's lot in the distribution of the prizes of war. + +Return to Greece and death + +After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Cassandra land in Argolis, or, in another version, are blown off course and land in Aegisthus's country. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, has taken Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, as a lover. When Agamemnon comes home he is slain by Aegisthus (in the oldest versions of the story) or by Clytemnestra. According to the accounts given by Pindar and the tragedians, Agamemnon is slain in a bath by his wife alone, after being ensnared by a blanket or a net thrown over him to prevent resistance. + +In Homer's version of the story in the Odyssey, Aegisthus ambushes and kills Agamemnon in a feasting hall under the pretense of holding a feast in honor of Agamemnon's return home from Troy. Clytemnestra also kills Cassandra. Her motivations are her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia (as in the Oresteia and Iphigenia at Aulis) and her jealousy of Cassandra and other war prizes taken by Agamemnon (as in the Odyssey and works by Ovid). + +Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then rule Agamemnon's kingdom for a time, Aegisthus claiming his right of revenge for Atreus's crimes against Thyestes (Thyestes then crying out "thus perish all the race of Pleisthenes!", thus explaining Aegisthus' action as justified by his father's curse). Agamemnon's son Orestes later avenges his father's murder, with the help or encouragement of his sister Electra, by murdering Aegisthus and Clytemnestra (his own mother), thereby inciting the wrath of the Erinyes (English: the Furies), winged goddesses who track down wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drive them to insanity. + +The Curse of the House of Atreus +Agamemnon's family history is rife with misfortune, born from several curses contributing to the miasma around the family. The curse begins with Agamemnon's great-grandfather Tantalus, who is in Zeus's favor until he tries to feed his son Pelops to the gods in order to test their omniscience, as well as stealing some ambrosia and nectar. Tantalus is then banished to the underworld, where he stands in a pool of water that evaporates every time he reaches down to drink, and above him is a fruit tree whose branches are blown just out of reach by the wind whenever he reaches for the fruit. This begins the cursed house of Atreus, and his descendants would face similar or worse fates. + +Later, using his relationship with Poseidon, Pelops convinces the god to grant him a chariot so he may beat Oenomaus, king of Pisa, in a race, and win the hand of his daughter Hippodamia. Myrtilus, who in some accounts helps Pelops win his chariot race, attempts to lie with Pelops's new bride Hippodamia. In anger, Pelops throws Myrtilus off a cliff, but not before Myrtilus curses Pelops and his entire line. Pelops and Hippodamia have many children, including Atreus and Thyestes, who are said to have murdered their half-brother Chrysippus. Pelops banishes Atreus and Thyestes to Mycanae, where Atreus becomes king. Thyestes later conspires with Atreus's wife, Aerope, to supplant Atreus, but they are unsuccessful. Atreus then kills Thyestes' son and cooks him into a meal which Thyestes eats, and afterwards Atreus taunts him with the hands and feet of his now dead son. Thyestes, on the advice of an oracle, then has a son with his own daughter Pelopia. Pelopia tries to expose the infant Aegisthus, but he is found by a shepherd and raised in the house of Atreus. When Aegisthus reaches adulthood Thyestes reveals the truth of his birth, and Aegithus then kills Atreus. + +Atreus and Aerope have three children, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia. The continued miasma surrounding the house of Atreus expresses itself in several events throughout their lives. Agamemnon is forced to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the gods and allow the Greek forces to sail for Troy. When Agamemnon refuses to return Chryseis to her father Chryses, he brings plague upon the Greek camp. He is also later killed by his wife, Clytemnestra, who conspires with her new lover Aegisthus in revenge for the death of Iphigenia. Menelaus's wife, Helen of Troy, runs away with Paris, ultimately leading to the Trojan War. According to book 4 of the Odyssey, after the war his fleet is scattered by the gods to Egypt and Crete. When Menelaus finally returns home, his marriage with Helen is now strained and they produce no sons. Both Agamemnon and Menelaus are cursed by Ajax for not granting him Achilles's armor as he commits suicide. + +Agamemnon and Clytemnestra have three remaining children, Electra, Orestes, and Chrysothemis. After growing to adulthood and being pressured by Electra, Orestes vows to avenge his father Agamemnon by killing his mother Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. After successfully doing so, he wanders the Greek countryside for many years constantly plagued by the Erinyes (Furies) for his sins. Finally, with the help of Athena and Apollo he is absolved of his crimes, dispersing the miasma, and the curse on house Atreus comes to an end. + +Other stories +Athenaeus tells a tale of how Agamemnon mourns the loss of his friend or lover Argynnus, when he drowns in the Cephisus river. He buries him, honored with a tomb and a shrine to Aphrodite Argynnis. This episode is also found in Clement of Alexandria, in Stephen of Byzantium (Kopai and Argunnos), and in Propertius, III with minor variations. + +The fortunes of Agamemnon have formed the subject of numerous tragedies, ancient and modern, the most famous being the Oresteia of Aeschylus. In the legends of the Peloponnesus, Agamemnon was regarded as the highest type of a powerful monarch, and in Sparta he was worshipped under the title of Zeus Agamemnon. His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae and at Amyclae. + +In works of art, there is considerable resemblance between the representations of Zeus, king of the gods, and Agamemnon, king of men. He is generally depicted with a sceptre and diadem, conventional attributes of kings. + +Agamemnon's mare is named Aetha. She is also one of two horses driven by Menelaus at the funeral games of Patroclus. + +In Homer's Odyssey Agamemnon makes an appearance in the kingdom of Hades after his death. There, the former king meets Odysseus and explains just how he was murdered before he offers Odysseus a warning about the dangers of trusting a woman. + +Agamemnon is a character in William Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida, set during the Trojan War. + +In media and art + +Visual arts + +General works + + The Mask of Agamemnon, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, on display at National Archeological Museum of Athens, Athens + The Tomb of Agamemnon, by Louis Desprez, 1787, on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York + Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1817, on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, Orléans + Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, by Frederic Leighton, 1868, on display at Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull + Agamemnon Killing Odios, anonymous, 1545, on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York + +With Iphigenia + + Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Arnold Houbraken, 1690–1700, on display at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam + The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Charles de la Fosse, 1680, on display at the Palace of Versailles, Versailles + The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Gaetano Gandolfi, 1789, on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York + Sacrificio di Ifigenia, by Pietro Testa, 1640 + The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1757, on display at the Villa Varmarana, Vicenza + Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Jan Steen, 1671, on display at the Leiden Collection, New York + The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Sebastian Bourdon, 1653, on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, Orléans + +With Achilles + + The Quarrel Between Agamemnon and Achilles, by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, 1695, on display at the Museé de l’Oise, Beauvais + The Anger of Achilles, by Jacques-Louis David, 1819, on display at Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth + The Wrath of Achilles, by Michel-Martin Drolling, 1810, on display at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris + Quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, by William Page, on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC + +Portrayal in film and television + The 1924 film Helena by Karl Wüstenhagen + The 1956 film Helen of Troy by Robert Douglas + The 1961 film The Trojan Horse by Nerio Bernardi + The 1962 film The Fury of Achilles by Mario Petri + The 1962 film Electra by Theodoros Dimitriou + The 1968 TV miniseries The Odyssey by Rolf Boysen + The 1977 film Iphigenia by Kostas Kazakos + The 1981 film Time Bandits by Sean Connery + The 1994 TV series “Babylon 5” John Sheridan’s previous command is the EAS Agamemnon. + The 1997 TV miniseries The Odyssey by Yorgo Voyagis + The 2003 TV miniseries Helen of Troy by Rufus Sewell + The 2004 film Troy by Brian Cox + The 2018 TV miniseries Troy: Fall of a City by Johnny Harris + +See also + HMS Agamemnon + National Archaeological Museum of Athens + +Citations + +General references + +Secondary sources + Aeschylus, Agamemnon in Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes, Vol 2, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1926, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. + Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. + Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters, Volume VI: Books 12-13.594b, edited and translated by S. Douglas Olson, Loeb Classical Library No. 345, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2011. . Online version at Harvard University Press. + Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp (2008a), Euripides Fragments: Aegeus–Meleanger, Loeb Classical Library No. 504, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2008. . Online version at Harvard University Press. + Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp (2008b), Euripides Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus: Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library No. 506, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2008. . Online version at Harvard University Press. + Dictys Cretensis, The Trojan War. The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian, translated by R. M. Frazer (Jr.). Indiana University Press. 1966. + Euripides, Helen, translated by E. P. Coleridge in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 2. New York. Random House. 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. + Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris, translated by Robert Potter in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 2. New York. Random House. 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. + Euripides, Orestes, translated by E. P. Coleridge in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 1. New York. Random House. 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. + Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2). + Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. . + Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, . Google Books. + Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. + Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. + Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. Online version at ToposText. + Most, G.W., Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library, No. 503, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2007, 2018. . Online version at Harvard University Press. + Parada, Carlos, Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology, Jonsered, Paul Åströms Förlag, 1993. . + Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. + Sophocles, The Ajax of Sophocles. Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb, Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1893 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. + +Primary sources + Homer, Iliad + Euripides, Electra + Sophocles, Electra + Seneca, Agamemnon + Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers + Homer, Odyssey I, 28–31; XI, 385–464 + Aeschylus, Agamemnon + Apollodorus, Epitome, II, 15 – III, 22; VI, 23 + +External links + Agamemnon – World History Encyclopedia + +Achaean Leaders + +Deeds of Artemis +Filicide in mythology +Greek mythological heroes +Kings in Greek mythology +Kings of Mycenae +Metamorphoses characters +Aga Khan I ( or ) or Hasan Ali Shah () (1804–1881) was the governor of Kirman, the 46th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims, and a prominent Muslim leader in Iran and later in the Indian subcontinent. He was the first Nizari Imam to hold the title Aga Khan. + +Early life and family +The Imam Hasan Ali Shah was born in 1804 in Kahak, Iran to Shah Khalil Allah III, the 45th Ismaili Imam, and Bibi Sarkara, the daughter of Muhammad Sadiq Mahallati (d. 1815), a poet and a Ni‘mat Allahi Sufi. Shah Khalil Allah moved to Yazd in 1815, probably out of concern for his Indian followers, who used to travel to Persia to see their Imam and for whom Yazd was a much closer and safer destination than Kahak. Meanwhile, his wife and children (Including Hasan Ali) continued to live in Kahak off the revenues obtained from the family holdings in the Mahallat () region. Two years later, in 1817, Shah Khalil Allah was killed in Yazd during a brawl between some of his followers and local shopkeepers. He was succeeded by his eldest son Hasan Ali Shah, also known as Muhammad Hasan, who became the 46th Imam. + +While Khalil Allah resided in Yazd, his land holdings in Kahak were being managed by his son-in-law, Imani Khan Farahani, husband of his daughter Shah Bibi. After Khalil Allah's death, a conflict ensued between Imani Khan Farahani and the local Nizaris (followers of Imam Khalil Allah), as a result of which Khalil Allah's widow and children found themselves left unprovided for. The young Imam and his mother moved to Qumm, but their financial situation worsened. The dowager decided to go to the Qajar court in Tehran to obtain justice for her husband's death and was eventually successful. Those who had been involved in the Shah Khalil Allah's murder were punished. Not only that, but the Persian king Fath Ali Shah gave his own daughter, princess Sarv-i-Jahan Khanum, in marriage to the young Imam Hasan Ali Shah and provided a princely dowry in land holdings in the Mahallat region. King Fath Ali Shah also appointed Hasan Ali Shah as governor of Qumm and bestowed upon him the honorific of "Aga Khan". Thus did the title of "Aga Khan" enter the family. Hasan Ali Shah become known as Aga Khan Mahallati, and the title of Aga Khan was inherited by his successors. Aga Khan I's mother later moved to India where she died in 1851. Until Fath Ali Shah's death in 1834, the Imam Hasan Ali Shah enjoyed a quiet life and was held in high esteem at the Qajar court. + +Governorship of Kerman + +Soon after the accession of Muhammad Shah Qajar to the throne of his grandfather, Fath Ali Shah, the Imam Hasan Ali Shah was appointed governor of Kerman in 1835. At the time, Kerman was held by the rebellious sons of Shuja al-Saltana, a pretender to the Qajar throne. The area was also frequently raided by the Afghans. Hasan Ali Shah managed to restore order in Kerman, as well as in Bam and Narmashir, which were also held by rebellious groups. Hasan Ali Shah sent a report of his success to Tehran, but did not receive any material appreciation for his achievements. Despite the service he rendered to the Qajar government, Hasan Ali Shah was dismissed from the governorship of Kerman in 1837, less than two years after his arrival there, and was replaced by Firuz Mirza Nusrat al-Dawla, a younger brother of Muhammad Shah Qajar. Refusing to accept his dismissal, Hasan Ali Shah withdrew with his forces to the citadel at Bam. Along with his two brothers, he made preparations to resist the government forces that were sent against him. He was besieged at Bam for some fourteen months. When it was clear that continuing the resistance was of little use, Hasan Ali Shah sent one of his brothers to Shiraz in order to speak to the governor of Fars to intervene on his behalf and arrange for safe passage out of Kerman. With the governor having interceded, Hasan Ali Shah surrendered and emerged from the citadel of Bam only to be double-crossed. He was seized and his possessions were plundered by the government troops. Hasan Ali Shah and his dependents were sent to Kerman and remained as prisoners there for eight months. He was eventually allowed to go to Tehran near the end of 1838-39 where he was able to present his case before the Shah. The Shah pardoned him on the condition that he return peacefully to Mahallat. Hasan Ali Shah remained in Mahallat for about two years. He managed to gather an army in Mahallat which alarmed Muhammad Shah, who travelled to Delijan near Mahallat to determine the truth of the reports about Hasan Ali Shah. Hasan Ali Shah was on a hunting trip at the time, but he sent a messenger to request permission of the monarch to go to Mecca for the hajj pilgrimage. Permission was given, and Hasan Ali Shah's mother and a few relatives were sent to Najaf and other holy cities in Iraq in which the shrines of his ancestors, the Shiite Imams are found. + +Prior to leaving Mahallat, Hasan Ali Shah equipped himself with letters appointing him to the governorship of Kerman. Accompanied by his brothers, nephews and other relatives, as well as many followers, he left for Yazd, where he intended to meet some of his local followers. Hasan Ali Shah sent the documents reinstating him to the position of governor of Kerman to Bahman Mirza Baha al-Dawla, the governor of Yazd. Bahman Mirza offered Hasan Ali Shah lodging in the city, but Hasan Ali Shah declined, indicating that he wished to visit his followers living around Yazd. Hajji Mirza Aqasi sent a messenger to Bahman Mirza to inform him of the spuriousness of Hasan Ali Shah's documents and a battle between Bahman Mīrzā and Hasan Ali Shah broke out in which Bahman Mirza was defeated. Other minor battles were won by Hasan Ali Shah before he arrived in Shahr-e Babak, which he intended to use as his base for capturing Kerman. At the time of his arrival in Shahr-e Babak, a formal local governor was engaged in a campaign to drive out the Afghans from the city's citadel, and Hasan Ali Shah joined him in forcing the Afghans to surrender. + +Soon after March 1841, Hasan Ali Shah set out for Kerman. He managed to defeat a government force consisting of 4,000 men near Dashtab, and continued to win a number of victories before stopping at Bam for a time. Soon, a government force of 24,000 men forced Hasan Ali Shah to flee from Bam to Rigan on the border of Baluchistan, where he suffered a decisive defeat. Hasan Ali Shah decided to escape to Afghanistan, accompanied by his brothers and many soldiers and servants. + +Afghanistan +Fleeing Iran, Hasan Ali Shah arrived in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1841 – a town that had been occupied by an Anglo-Indian army in 1839 in the First Anglo-Afghan War. A close relationship developed between Hasan Ali Shah and the British, which coincided with the final years of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838–1842). After his arrival, Hasan Ali Shah wrote to Sir William Macnaghten, discussing his plans to seize and govern Herat on behalf of the British. Although the proposal seemed to have been approved, the plans of the British were thwarted by the uprising of Dost Muhammad's son Muhammad Akbar Khan, who defeated and annihilated the British-Indian garrison at Gandamak on its retreat from Kabul in January 1842. + +Sindh +Hasan Ali Shah soon proceeded to Sindh, where he rendered further services to the British. The British were able to annex Sindh and for his services, Hasan Ali Shah received an annual pension of £2,000 from General Charles James Napier, the British conqueror of Sindh with whom he had a good relationship. + +Bombay +In October 1844, Hasan Ali Shah left Sindh for the city of Bombay in the Bombay Presidency, British India passing through Cutch and Kathiawar where he spent some time visiting the communities of his followers in the area. After arriving in Bombay in February 1846, the Persian government demanded his extradition from India. The British refused and only agreed to transfer Hasan Ali Shah's residence to Calcutta, where it would be harder for him to launch new attacks against the Persian government. The British also negotiated the safe return of Hasan Ali Shah to Persia, which was in accordance with his own wish. The government agreed to Hasan Ali Shah's return provided that he would avoid passing through Baluchistan and Kirman and that he was to settle peacefully in Mahallat. Hasan Ali Shah was eventually forced to leave for Calcutta in April 1847, where he remained until he received news of the death of Muhammad Shah Qajar. Hasan Ali Shah left for Bombay and the British attempted to obtain permission for his return to Persia. Although some of his lands were restored to the control of his relatives, his safe return could not be arranged, and Hasan Ali Shah was forced to remain a permanent resident of India. While in India, Hasan Ali Shah continued his close relationship with the British, and was even visited by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) when he was on a state visit to India. The British came to address Hasan Ali Shah as His Highness. Hasan Ali Shah received protection from the British government in British India as the spiritual head of an important Muslim community. + +Khoja reassumption and dispute + +The vast majority of his Khoja Ismaili followers in India welcomed him warmly, but some dissident members, sensing their loss of prestige with the arrival of the Imam, wished to maintain control over communal properties. Because of this, Hasan Ali Shah decided to secure a pledge of loyalty from the members of the community to himself and to the Ismaili form of Islam. Although most of the members of the community signed a document issued by Hasan Ali Shah summarizing the practices of the Ismailis, a group of dissenting Khojas surprisingly asserted that the community had always been Sunni. This group was outcast by the unanimous vote of all the Khojas assembled in Bombay. In 1866, these dissenters filed a suit in the Bombay High Court against Hasan Ali Shah, claiming that the Khojas had been Sunni Muslims from the very beginning. The case, commonly referred to as the Aga Khan Case, was heard by Sir Joseph Arnould. The hearing lasted several weeks, and included testimony from Hasan Ali Shah himself. After reviewing the history of the community, Justice Arnould gave a definitive and detailed judgement against the plaintiffs and in favour of Hasan Ali Shah and other defendants. The judgement was significant in that it legally established the status of the Khojas as a community referred to as Shia Nizari Ismailis, and of Hasan Ali Shah as the spiritual head of that community. Hasan Ali Shah's authority thereafter was not seriously challenged again. + +Final years + +Hasan Ali Shah spent his final years in Bombay with occasional visits to Pune. Maintaining the traditions of the Iranian nobility to which he belonged, he kept excellent stables and became a well-known figure at the Bombay racecourse. Hasan Ali Shah died after an imamate of sixty-four years in April 1881. He was buried in a specially built shrine at Hasanabad in the Mazagaon area of Bombay. He was survived by three sons and five daughters. Hasan Ali Shah was succeeded as Imam by his eldest son Aqa Ali Shah, who became Aga Khan II. + +Notes + +Further reading + +People of Qajar Iran +1804 births +1881 deaths +Aga Khans +Iranian Ismailis +Indian Ismailis +Indian imams +People from Qom Province +Iranian emigrants to India +19th-century Iranian people +19th-century Ismailis +Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III (2 November 187711 July 1957) was the 48th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili sect of Islam. He was one of the founders and the first permanent president of the All-India Muslim League (AIML). His goal was the advancement of Muslim agendas and the protection of Muslim rights in British India. The League, until the late 1930s, was not a large organisation but represented landed and commercial Muslim interests as well as advocating for British education during the British Raj. There were similarities in Aga Khan's views on education with those of other Muslim social reformers, but the scholar Shenila Khoja-Moolji argues that he also expressed a distinct interest in advancing women's education for women themselves. Aga Khan called on the British Raj to consider Muslims to be a separate nation within India, the famous 'Two Nation Theory'. Even after he resigned as president of the AIML in 1912, he still exerted a major influence on its policies and agendas. He was nominated to represent India at the League of Nations in 1932 and served as President of the League of Nations from 1937 to 1938. + +Early life +He was born in Karachi, Sindh during the British Raj in 1877 (now Pakistan), to Aga Khan II and his third wife, Nawab A'lia Shamsul-Muluk, who was a granddaughter of Fath Ali Shah of Persia. After Eton College, he went on to study at the University of Cambridge. + +Career +In 1885, at the age of seven, he succeeded his father as Imam of the Shi'a Isma'ili Muslims. + +The Aga Khan travelled to distant parts of the world to receive the homage of his followers, with the objective either of settling differences or of advancing their welfare through financial help and personal advice and guidance. The distinction of Knight Commander of the Indian Empire (KCIE) was conferred upon him by Queen Victoria in 1897, and he was promoted to Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list and invested as such by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on October 24, 1902. He was made a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (GCSI) by George V (1912) and appointed a GCMG in 1923. He received recognition for his public services from the German Emperor, the Sultan of Turkey, the Shah of Persia, and other potentates. + +In 1906, Aga Khan was a founding member and first president of the All India Muslim League, a political party that pushed for the creation of an independent Muslim nation in the north-west regions of India, then under British colonial rule, and later established the country of Pakistan in 1947. + +During the three Round Table Conferences (India) in London from 1930 to 1932, he played an important role in bringing about Indian constitutional reforms. + +In 1934, he was made a member of the Privy Council and served as a member of the League of Nations (1934–37), becoming the President of the League of Nations in 1937. + +Imamat + +Under the leadership of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, the first half of the 20th century was a period of significant development for the Ismā'īlī community. Numerous institutions for social and economic development were established in the Indian Subcontinent and in East Africa. Ismailis have marked the jubilees of their Imāms with public celebrations, which are symbolic affirmations of the ties that link the Ismāʿīlī Imām and its followers. Although the Jubilees have no religious significance, they serve to reaffirm the Imamat's worldwide commitment to the improvement of the quality of human life, especially in developing countries. + +The jubilees of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, are well remembered. During his 72 years of Imamat (1885–1957), the community celebrated his Golden (1937), Diamond (1946), and Platinum (1954) Jubilees. To show their appreciation and affection, the Ismā'īliyya weighed their Imam in gold, diamonds, and, symbolically, platinum, respectively, the proceeds of which were used to further develop major social welfare and development institutions in Asia and Africa. + +In India and later in Pakistan, social development institutions were established, in the words of Aga Khan III, "for the relief of humanity". They included institutions such as the Diamond Jubilee Trust and Platinum Jubilee Investments Limited, which in turn assisted the growth of various types of cooperative societies. Diamond Jubilee High School for Girls was established throughout the remote northern areas of what is now Pakistan. In addition, scholarship programmes, established at the time of the Golden Jubilee to give assistance to needy students, were progressively expanded. In East Africa, major social welfare and economic development institutions were established. Those involved in social welfare included the accelerated development of schools and community centres and a modern, fully equipped hospital in Nairobi. Among the economic development institutions established in East Africa were companies such as the Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust (now Diamond Trust of Kenya) and the Jubilee Insurance Company, which are quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and have become major players in national development. + +Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah also introduced organisational reforms that gave Ismāʿīlī communities the means to structure and regulate their own affairs. These were built on the Muslim tradition of a communitarian ethic on the one hand and a responsible individual conscience with the freedom to negotiate one's own moral commitment and destiny on the other. In 1905, he ordained the first Ismā'īlī Constitution for the social governance of the community in East Africa. The new administration for the community's affairs was organised into a hierarchy of councils at the local, national, and regional levels. The constitution also set out rules in such matters as marriage, divorce, and inheritance, guidelines for mutual cooperation and support among Ismā'īlīs, and their interface with other communities. Similar constitutions were promulgated in India, and all were periodically revised to address emerging needs and circumstances in diverse settings. + +In 1905, the Aga Khan was involved in the Haji Bibi case, where he was questioned about the origin of his followers. In his response, in addition to enumerating his followers in Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Syria and other places, he also noted that “In Hindustan and Africa there are many Guptis who believe in me… I consider them Shi’i Imami Ismailis; by caste they are Hindus”. + +Following the Second World War, far-reaching social, economic and political changes profoundly affected a number of areas where Ismāʿīlīs resided. In 1947, British rule in the Indian Subcontinent was replaced by the sovereign, independent nations of India, Pakistan and later Bangladesh, resulting in the migration of millions people and significant loss of life and property. In the Middle East, the Suez crisis of 1956 as well as the preceding crisis in Iran, demonstrated the sharp upsurge of nationalism, which was as assertive of the region's social and economic aspirations as of its political independence. Africa was also set on its course to decolonisation, swept by what Harold Macmillan, the then British prime minister, termed the "wind of change". By the early 1960s, most of East and Central Africa, where the majority of the Ismāʿīlī population on the continent resided, including Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire, had attained their political independence. + +Religious and social views + +The Aga Khan was deeply influenced by the views of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan. Along with Sir Sayyid, the Aga Khan was one of the backers and founders of the Aligarh University, for which he tirelessly raised funds and to which he donated large sums of his own money. The Aga Khan himself can be considered an Islamic modernist and an intellectual of the Aligarh movement. + +From a religious standpoint, the Aga Khan followed a modernist approach to Islam. He believed there to be no contradiction between religion and modernity, and urged Muslims to embrace modernity. Although he opposed a wholesale replication of Western society by Muslims, the Aga Khan did believe increased contact with the West would be overall beneficial to Muslim society. He was intellectually open to Western philosophy and ideas, and believed engagement with them could lead to a revival and renaissance within Islamic thought. + +Like many other Islamic modernists, the Aga Khan held a low opinion of the traditional religious establishment (the ʿUlamāʾ) as well as what he saw as their rigid formalism, legalism, and literalism. Instead, he advocated for renewed ijtihād (independent reasoning) and ijmāʿ (consensus), the latter of which he understood in a modernist way to mean consensus-building. According to him, Muslims should go back to the original sources, especially the Qurʾān, in order to discover the true essence and spirit of Islam. Once the principles of the faith were discovered, they would be seen to be universal and modern. Islam, in his view, had an underlying liberal and democratic spirit. He also called for full civil and religious liberties, peace and disarmament, and an end to all wars. + +The Aga Khan opposed sectarianism, which he believed to sap the strength and unity of the Muslim community. In specific, he called for a rapprochement between Sunnism and Shīʿism. This did not mean that he thought religious differences would go away, and he himself instructed his Ismāʿīlī followers to be dedicated to their own teachings. However, he believed in unity through accepting diversity, and by respecting differences of opinion. On his view, there was strength to be found in the diversity of Muslim traditions. + +The Aga Khan called for social reform in Muslim society, and he was able to implement them within his own Ismāʿīlī community. As he believed Islam to essentially be a humanitarian religion, the Aga Khan called for the reduction and eradication of poverty. Like Sir Sayyid, the Aga Khan was concerned that Muslims had fallen behind the Hindu community in terms of education. According to him, education was the path to progress. He was a tireless advocate for compulsory and universal primary education, and also for the creation of higher institutions of learning. + +In terms of women's rights, the Aga Khan was more progressive in his views than Sir Sayyid and many other Islamic modernists of his time. The Aga Khan framed his pursuit of women's rights not simply in the context of women being better mothers or wives, but rather, for women's own benefit. He endorsed the spiritual equality of men and women in Islam, and he also called for full political equality. This included the right to vote and the right to an education. In regards to the latter issue, he endorsed compulsory primary education for girls. He also encouraged women to pursue higher university-level education, and saw nothing wrong with co-educational institutions. Whereas Sir Sayyid prioritized the education of boys over girls, the Aga Khan instructed his followers that if they had a son and daughter, and if they could only afford to send one of them to school, they should send the daughter over the boy. + +The Aga Khan campaigned against the institution of purda and zenāna, which he felt were oppressive and un-Islamic institutions. He completely banned the purda and the face veil for his Ismāʿīlī followers. The Aga Khan also restricted polygamy, encouraged marriage to widows, and banned child marriage. He also made marriage and divorce laws more equitable to women. Overall, he encouraged women to take part in all national activities and to agitate for their full religious, social, and political rights. + +Today, in large part due to the Aga Khan's reforms, the Ismāʿīlī community is one of the most progressive, peaceful, and prosperous branches of Islam. + +Racehorse ownership and equestrianism +He was an owner of Thoroughbred racing horses, including a record equaling five winners of The Derby (Blenheim, Bahram, Mahmoud, My Love, Tulyar) and a total of sixteen winners of British Classic Races. He was a British flat racing Champion Owner thirteen times. According to Ben Pimlott, biographer of Queen Elizabeth II, the Aga Khan presented Her Majesty with a filly called Astrakhan, who won at Hurst Park Racecourse in 1950. + +In 1926, the Aga Khan gave a cup (the Aga Khan Trophy) to be awarded to the winners of an international team show jumping competition held at the annual horse show of the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin, Ireland, every first week in August. It attracts competitors from all of the main show jumping nations and is carried live on Irish national television. + +Marriages and children + He married, on November 2, 1896, in Pune, India, Shahzadi Begum, his first cousin and a granddaughter of Aga Khan I. + He married in 1908, Cleope Teresa Magliano (1888–1926). They had two sons: Prince Giuseppe Mahdi Khan (d. February 1911) and Prince Aly Khan (1911–1960). She died in 1926, following an operation on December 1, 1926. + He married, on 7 December 1929 (civil), in Aix-les-Bains, France, and 13 December 1929 (religious), in Bombay, India, Andrée Joséphine Carron (1898–1976). A co-owner of a dressmaking shop in Paris, she became known as Princess Andrée Aga Khan. By this marriage, he had one son, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (1933–2003). The couple was divorced in 1943. + He married, on October 9, 1944, in Geneva, Switzerland, Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan (Yvonne Blanche Labrousse) (15 February 19061 July 2000). According to an interview she gave to an Egyptian journalist, her first name was Yvonne, though she is referred to as Yvette in most published references. The daughter of a tram conductor and a dressmaker, she was working as Aga Khan's social secretary at the time of their marriage. She converted to Islam and became known as Om Habibeh (Little Mother of the Beloved). In 1954, her husband bestowed upon her the title "Mata Salamat". + +Publications +He wrote a number of books and papers two of which are of immense importance, namely (1) India in Transition, about the prepartition politics of India and (2) The Memoirs of Aga Khan: World Enough and Time, his autobiography. The Aga Khan III proposed "the South Asiatic Federation" in India in Transition that India might be re-organized into some states, and those states should have own autonomies. He was the first person who designed a detailed plan of such a federation of India. + +Death and succession +Aga Khan III was succeeded as Aga Khan by his grandson Karim Aga Khan, who is the present Imam of the Ismaili Muslims. At the time of his death on 11 July 1957, his family members were in Versoix. A solicitor brought the will of the Aga Khan III from London to Geneva and read it before the family: + +"Ever since the time of my ancestor Ali, the first Imam, that is to say over a period of thirteen hundred years, it has always been the tradition of our family that each Imam chooses his successor at his absolute and unfettered discretion from amongst any of his descendants, whether they be sons or remote male issue and in these circumstances and in view of the fundamentally altered conditions in the world in very recent years due to the great changes which have taken place including the discoveries of atomic science, I am convinced that it is in the best interest of the Shia Muslim Ismailia Community that I should be succeeded by a young man who has been brought up and developed during recent years and in the midst of the new age and who brings a new outlook on life to his office as Imam. For these reasons, I appoint my grandson Karim, the son of my own son, Aly Salomone Khan to succeed to the title of Aga Khan and to the Imam and Pir of all Shia Ismailian followers" + +He is buried in the Mausoleum of Aga Khan, on the Nile in Aswan, Egypt (at ). + +Legacy +Pakistan Post issued a special 'Birth Centenary of Agha Khan III' postage stamp in his honor in 1977. Pakistan Post again issued a postage stamp in his honor in its 'Pioneers of Freedom' series in 1990. + +Honours +21 May 1898 Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, KCIE +1901 First Class of the Royal Prussian Order of the Crown – in recognition of the valuable services rendered by His Highness to the Imperial German Government in the settlement of various matters with the Mohammedan population of German East Africa +26 June 1902 Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, GCIE +12 December 1911 Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India, GCSI +30 May 1923 Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, GCVO – on the occasion of the King's birthday +1 January 1934 Appointed a member of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council by King George V +1 January 1955 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, GCMG – + +References + +Sources + + + Daftary, F., "The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines", Cambridge University Press, 1990. + Khoja-Moolji, Shenila. “Redefining Muslim women: Aga Khan III’s reforms for women’s education.” South Asia Graduate Research Journal 20, no. 1, 2011, 69-94. + Khoja-Moolji, Shenila. Forging the Ideal Educated Girl. The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland: University of California Press, 2018. + Naoroji M. Dumasia, A Brief History of the Aga Khan (1903). + Aga Khan III, "The Memoirs of Aga Khan: World Enough and Time", London: Cassel & Company, 1954; published the same year in the United States by Simon & Schuster. + Edwards, Anne (1996). "Throne of Gold: The Lives of the Aga Khans", New York: William Morrow, 1996 + Naoroji M. Dumasia, "The Aga Khan and his ancestors", New Delhi: Readworthy Publications (P) Ltd., 2008 +Valliani, Amin; "Aga Khan's Role in the Founding and Consolidation of the All India Muslim League", Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society (2007) 55# 1/2, pp 85–95. + +External links + + Video Clip from the History Channel website + Institute of Ismaili Studies: Selected speeches of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III + The Official Ismaili Website + Official Website of Aga Khan Development Network + Aga Khan materials in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) + + +1877 births +1957 deaths +Qajar dynasty +Aga Khan Development Network +British racehorse owners and breeders +Owners of Epsom Derby winners +Pakistani racehorse owners and breeders +Pakistani philanthropists +Pakistani religious leaders +20th-century Indian philanthropists +Leaders of the Pakistan Movement +Pakistan Movement +Aga Khans +Indian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom +Presidents of the Assembly of the League of Nations +People educated at Eton College +Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire +Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India +Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George +Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order +Indian knights +Indian Ismailis +Pakistani Ismailis +Indian imams +Pakistani imams +20th-century imams +Founders of Indian schools and colleges +People from Karachi +Pakistani people of Iranian descent +Owners of Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winners +Pakistani people of Arab descent +British people of Arab descent +19th-century Ismailis +20th-century Ismailis +Agasias was the name of several different people in classical history, including two different Greek sculptors. + + Agasias of Arcadia, a warrior mentioned by Xenophon + Agasias, son of Dositheus, Ephesian sculptor of the Borghese Gladiator + Agasias, son of Menophilus (), Ephesian sculptor + +Greek masculine given names +Masculine given names +Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz (December 17, 1835March 27, 1910), son of Louis Agassiz and stepson of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, was an American scientist and engineer. + +Biography +Agassiz was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and immigrated to the United States with his parents, Louis and Cecile (Braun) Agassiz, in 1846. He graduated from Harvard University in 1855, subsequently studying engineering and chemistry, and taking the degree of Bachelor of Science at the Lawrence Scientific School of the same institution in 1857; in 1859 became an assistant in the United States Coast Survey. +Thenceforward he became a specialist in marine ichthyology. Agassiz was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1862. Up until the summer of 1866, Agassiz worked as assistant curator in the museum of natural history that his father founded at Harvard. + +E. J. Hulbert, a friend of Agassiz's brother-in-law, Quincy Adams Shaw, had discovered a rich copper lode known as the Calumet conglomerate on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan. Hulbert persuaded them, along with a group of friends, to purchase a controlling interest in the mines, which later became known as the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company based in Calumet, Michigan. That summer, he took a trip to see the mines for himself and he afterwards became treasurer of the enterprise. + +Over the winter of 1866 and early 1867, mining operations began to falter, due to the difficulty of extracting copper from the conglomerate. Hulbert had sold his interests in the mines and had moved on to other ventures. But Agassiz refused to give up hope for the mines. He returned to the mines in March 1867, with his wife and young son. At that time, Calumet was a remote settlement, virtually inaccessible during the winter and very far removed from civilization even during the summer. With insufficient supplies at the mines, Agassiz struggled to maintain order, while back in Boston, Shaw was saddled with debt and the collapse of their interests. Shaw obtained financial assistance from John Simpkins, the selling agent for the enterprise to continue operations. + +Agassiz continued to live at Calumet, making gradual progress in stabilizing the mining operations, such that he was able to leave the mines under the control of a general manager and return to Boston in 1868 before winter closed navigation. The mines continued to prosper and in May 1871, several mines were consolidated to form the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company with Shaw as its first president. In August 1871, Shaw "retired" to the board of directors and Agassiz became president, a position he held until his death. Until the turn of the century, this company was by far the largest copper producer in the United States, many years producing over half of the total. + +Agassiz was a major factor in the mine's continued success and visited the mines twice a year. He innovated by installing a giant engine, known as the Superior, which was able to lift 24 tons of rock from a depth of . He also built a railroad and dredged a channel to navigable waters. However, after a time the mines did not require his full-time, year-round, attention and he returned to his interests in natural history at Harvard. Out of his copper fortune, he gave some US$500,000 to Harvard for the museum of comparative zoology and other purposes. + +Shortly after the death of his father in 1873, Agassiz acquired a small peninsula in Newport, Rhode Island, which features views of Narragansett Bay. Here he built a substantial house and a laboratory for use as his summer residence. The house was completed in 1875 and today is known as the Inn at Castle Hill. + +He was a member of the scientific-expedition to South America in 1875, where he inspected the copper mines of Peru and Chile, and made extended surveys of Lake Titicaca, besides collecting invaluable Peruvian antiquities, which he gave to the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), of which he was first curator from 1874 to 1885 and then director until his death in 1910, his personal secretary Elizabeth Hodges Clark running the day-to-day management of the MCZ when his work took him abroad. He assisted Charles Wyville Thomson in the examination and classification of the collections of the 1872 Challenger Expedition, and wrote the Review of the Echini (2 vols., 1872–1874) in the reports. Between 1877 and 1880, he took part in the three dredging expeditions of the steamer Blake of the Coast Survey, and presented a full account of them in two volumes (1888). Also in 1875, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society. + +In 1896, Agassiz visited Fiji and Queensland and inspected the Great Barrier Reef, publishing a paper on the subject in 1898. + +Of Agassiz's other writings on marine zoology, most are contained in the bulletins and memoirs of the museum of comparative zoology. However, in 1865, he published with Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, his stepmother, Seaside Studies in Natural History, a work at once exact and stimulating. They also published, in 1871, Marine Animals of Massachusetts Bay. + +He received the German Order Pour le Mérite for Science and Arts in August 1902. + +Agassiz served as a president of the National Academy of Sciences, which since 1913 has awarded the Alexander Agassiz Medal in his memory. He died in 1910 on board the RMS Adriatic en route to New York from Southampton. + +He and his wife Anna Russell (1840-1873) were the parents of three sons – George Russell Agassiz (1861–1951), Maximilian Agassiz (1866–1943) and Rodolphe Louis Agassiz (1871–1933). + +Legacy +Alexander Agassiz is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, Anolis agassizi, and a fish, Leptochilichthys agassizii. + +A statue of Alexander Agassiz erected in 1923 is located in Calumet, Michigan, next to his summer home where he stayed while fulfilling his duties as the President of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company. The Company Headquarters, Agassiz' statue, and many other buildings and landmarks from the now defunct company are today administered and maintained by the Keweenaw National Historical Park, whose headquarters overlook the statue of Agassiz. + +Publications +Agassiz, Alexander (1863). "List of the echinoderms sent to different institutions in exchange for other specimens, with annotations". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 1 (2): 17–28. +Agassiz, Elizabeth C., and Alexander Agassiz (1865). Seaside Studies in Natural History. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. +Agassiz, Alexander (1872–1874). "Illustrated Catalogue of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Harvard College. No. VII. Revision of the Echini. Parts 1–4". Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 3: 1–762. Plates +Agassiz, Alexander (1877). "North American starfishes". Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 5 (1): 1–136. +Agassiz, Alexander (1881). "Report on the Echinoidea dredged by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–1876". Report of the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873–76. Zoology. 9: 1–321. +Agassiz, Alexander (1903). "Three cruises of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer 'Blake' in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, and along the Atlantic coast of the United States, from 1877 to 1880. Vol I". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 14: 1–314. +Agassiz, Alexander (1903). "Three cruises of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer 'Blake' in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, and along the Atlantic coast of the United States, from 1877 to 1880. Vol II". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 15: 1–220. +Agassiz, Alexander (1903). "The coral reefs of the tropical Pacific". Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 28: 1–410. Plates I. Plates II. Plates III. +Agassiz, Alexander (1903). "The coral reefs of the Maldives". Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 29: 1–168. +Agassiz, Alexander (1904). "The Panamic deep sea Echini". Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 31: 1–243. Plates. + +See also +Agassiz family + +References + +External links + + Agassiz, George (1913). Letters and Recollections of Alexander Agassiz with a sketch of his life and work. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. + + Murray, John (1911). "Alexander Agassiz: His Life and Scientific Work". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 54 (3). pp 139–158. + + + + Publications by and about Alexander Agassiz in the catalogue Helveticat of the Swiss National Library + National Mining Hall of Fame: Alexander Agassiz +National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir + Keweenaw National Historical Park Preserving many significant buildings and an archives of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company and Alexander Agassiz. + +1835 births +1910 deaths +19th-century American zoologists +20th-century American zoologists +American curators +American ichthyologists +Agassiz family +Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences +Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences +Foreign Members of the Royal Society +Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh +Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) +Victoria Medal recipients +Calumet and Hecla Mining Company personnel +United States Coast Survey personnel +Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni +Swiss emigrants to the United States +People from Neuchâtel +People who died at sea +Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities +Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala +Agathon (; ; ) was an Athenian tragic poet whose works have been lost. He is best known for his appearance in Plato's Symposium, which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for his first tragedy at the Lenaia in 416. He is also a prominent character in Aristophanes' comedy the Thesmophoriazusae. + +Life and career +Agathon was the son of Tisamenus, and the lover of Pausanias, with whom he appears in both the Symposium and Plato's Protagoras. Together with Pausanias, he later moved to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedon, who was recruiting playwrights; it is here that he probably died around 401 BC. Agathon introduced certain innovations into the Greek theater: Aristotle tells us in the Poetics (1456a) that the characters and plot of his Anthos were original and not, following Athenian dramatic orthodoxy, borrowed from mythological or historical subjects. Agathon was also the first playwright to write choral parts which were apparently independent from the main plot of his plays. + +Agathon is portrayed by Plato as a handsome young man, well dressed, of polished manners, courted by the fashion, wealth and wisdom of Athens, and dispensing hospitality with ease and refinement. The epideictic speech in praise of love which Agathon recites in the Symposium is full of beautiful but artificial rhetorical expressions, and has led some scholars to believe he may have been a student of Gorgias. In the Symposium, Agathon is presented as the friend of the comic poet Aristophanes, but this alleged friendship did not prevent Aristophanes from harshly criticizing Agathon in at least two of his comic plays: the Thesmophoriazousae and the (now lost) Gerytades. In the later play Frogs, Aristophanes softens his criticisms, but even so it may be only for the sake of punning on Agathon's name (ἁγαθός "good") that he makes Dionysus call him a "good poet". + +Agathon was also a friend of Euripides, another recruit to the court of Archelaus of Macedon. + +Physical appearance +Agathon's extraordinary physical beauty is brought up repeatedly in the sources; the historian W. Rhys Roberts observes that "ὁ καλός Ἀγάθων (ho kalos Agathon) has become almost a stereotyped phrase." The most detailed surviving description of Agathon is in the Thesmophoriazousae, in which Agathon appears as a pale, clean-shaven young man dressed in women's clothes. Scholars are unsure how much of Aristophanes' portrayal is fact and how much mere comic invention. + +After a close reading of the Thesmophoriazousae, the historian Jane McIntosh Snyder observed that Agathon's costume was almost identical to that of the famous lyric poet Anacreon, as he is portrayed in early 5th-century vase-paintings. Snyder theorizes that Agathon might have made a deliberate effort to mimic the sumptuous attire of his famous fellow-poet, although by Agathon's time, such clothing, especially the κεκρύφαλος (kekryphalos, an elaborate covering for the hair) had long fallen out of fashion for men. According to this interpretation, Agathon is mocked in the Thesmophoriazousae not only for his notorious effeminacy, but also for the pretentiousness of his dress: "he seems to think of himself, in all his elegant finery, as a rival to the old Ionian poets, perhaps even to Anacreon himself." + +Plato's epigram +Agathon has been thought to be the subject of Lovers' Lips, an epigram attributed to Plato: + +Kissing Agathon, I had my soul upon my lips; for it rose, poor wretch, as though to cross over. + +Another translation reads: + +Kissing Agathon, I found my soul at my lips. Poor thing! It went there, hoping--to slip across. + +Although the authenticity of this epigram was accepted for many centuries, it was probably not composed for Agathon the tragedian, nor was it composed by Plato. Stylistic evidence suggests that the poem (with most of Plato's other alleged epigrams) was actually written some time after Plato had died: its form is that of the Hellenistic erotic epigram, which did not become popular until after 300 BC. According to 20th-century scholar Walther Ludwig, the poems were spuriously inserted into an early biography of Plato sometime between 250 BC and 100 BC and adopted by later writers from this source. + +Known plays +Of Agathon's plays, only six titles and thirty-one fragments have survived: + +Aerope +Alcmeon +Anthos or Antheus ("The Flower") +Mysoi ("Mysians") +Telephos ("Telephus") +Thyestes + +Fragments in A Nauck, Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta (1887). +Fragments in Greek with English translations in Matthew Wright's "The Lost Plays of Greek Tragedy (Volume 1) +Neglected Authors" (2016) + +Quotations + +See also +List of speakers in Plato's dialogues +Symposium (painting) + +References + +Notes + +Sources +The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, volume 1, by Alfred Bates. (London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906) +Thesmoph. 59, 106, Eccles. 100 (Aristophanes) +Lovers' Lips by Plato in the Project Gutenberg eText Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology by J. W. Mackail. + +External links + +Agathon Poems + +440s BC births +Year of birth unknown +400s BC deaths +Year of death unknown +5th-century BC Athenians +Ancient Greek dramatists and playwrights +Ancient Greek poets +Ancient Greek LGBT people +Courtiers of Archelaus I of Macedon +Tragic poets +5th-century BC poets +Agesilaus II (; ; 445/4 – 360/59 BC) was king of Sparta from c. 400 to c. 360 BC. Generally considered the most important king in the history of Sparta, Agesilaus was the main actor during the period of Spartan hegemony that followed the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). Although brave in combat, Agesilaus lacked the diplomatic skills to preserve Sparta's position, especially against the rising power of Thebes, which reduced Sparta to a secondary power after its victory at Leuctra in 371 BC. + +Despite the traditional secrecy fostered by the Spartiates, the reign of Agesilaus is particularly well-known thanks to the works of his friend Xenophon, who wrote a large history of Greece (the Hellenica) covering the years 411 to 362 BC, therefore extensively dealing with Agesilaus' rule. Xenophon furthermore composed a panegyric biography of his friend, perhaps to clean his memory from the criticisms voiced against him. Another historical tradition—much more hostile to Agesilaus than Xenophon's writings—has been preserved in the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia, and later continued by Diodorus of Sicily. Moreover, Plutarch wrote a biography of Agesilaus in his Parallel Lives, which contains many elements deliberately omitted by Xenophon. + +Early life + +Youth +Agesilaus' father was King Archidamos II (r. 469–427), who belonged to the Eurypontid dynasty, one of the two royal families of Sparta. Archidamos already had a son from a first marriage with Lampito (his own step-aunt) named Agis. After the death of Lampito, Archidamos remarried in the early 440s with Eupolia, daughter of Melesippidas, whose name indicates an aristocratic status. The dates of Agesilaus' birth, death, and reign are disputed. The only secured information is that he was 84 at his death. The majority opinion is to date his birth to 445/4, but a minority of scholars move it a bit later, c.442. Most of the other dates of Agesilaus are similarly disputed, with the minority moving them about two years later than the majority. Agesilaus also had a sister named Kyniska (the first woman in ancient history to achieve an Olympic victory). The name Agesilaus was rare and harks back to Agesilaus I, one of the earliest kings of Sparta. + +Agesilaus was born lame, a fact that should have cost him his life, since in Sparta deformed babies were thrown into a chasm. As he was not heir-apparent, he might have received some leniency from the tribal elders who examined male infants, or perhaps the first effects of the demographic decline of Sparta were already felt at the time, and only the most severely impaired babies were killed. + +At the age of 7, Agesilaus had to go through the rigorous education system of Sparta, called the agoge. Despite his disability, he brilliantly completed the training, which massively enhanced his prestige, especially after he became king. Indeed, as heirs-apparent were exempted of the agoge, few Spartan kings had gone through the same training as the citizens; another notable exception was Leonidas, the embodiment of the "hero-king". Between 433 and 428, Agesilaus also became the younger lover of Lysander, an aristocrat from the circle of Archidamos, whose family had some influence in Libya. + +Spartan prince +Little is known of Agesilaus' adult life before his reign, principally because Xenophon—his friend and main biographer—only wrote about his reign. Due to his special status, Agesilaus likely became a member of the Krypteia, an elite corps of young Spartans going undercover in Spartan territory to kill some helots deemed dangerous. Once he turned 20 and became a full citizen, Agesilaus was elected to a common mess, presumably that of his elder half-brother Agis II, who had become king in 427, of which Lysander was perhaps a member. + +Agesilaus probably served during the Peloponnesian War (431–404) against Athens, likely at the Battle of Mantinea in 418. Agesilaus married Kleora at some point between 408 and 400. Despite the influence she apparently had on her husband, she is mostly unknown. Her father was Aristomenidas, an influential noble with connections in Thebes. + +Thanks to three treaties signed with Persia in 412–411, Sparta received funding from the Persians, which it used to build a fleet that ultimately defeated Athens. This fleet was essentially led by Lysander, whose success gave him an enormous influence in the Greek cities of Asia as well as in Sparta, where he even schemed to become king. In 403 the two kings, Agis and Pausanias, acted together to relieve him from his command. + +Reign + +Accession to the throne (400–398 BC) +Agis II died while returning from Delphi between 400 and 398. After his funeral, Agesilaus contested the claim of Leotychidas, the son of Agis II, using the widespread belief in Sparta that Leotychidas was an illegitimate son of Alcibiades—a famous Athenian statesman and nephew of Pericles, who had gone into exile in Sparta during the Peloponnesian War, and then seduced the queen. The rumours were strengthened by the fact that even Agis only recognised Leotychidas as his son on his deathbed. + +Diopeithes, a supporter of Leotychidas, however quoted an old oracle telling that a Spartan king could not be lame, thus refuting Agesilaus' claim, but Lysander cunningly returned the objection by saying that the oracle had to be understood figuratively. The lameness warned against by the oracle would therefore refer to the doubt on Leotychidas' paternity, and this reasoning won the argument. The role of Lysander in the accession of Agesilaus has been debated among historians, principally because Plutarch makes him the main instigator of the plot, while Xenophon downplays Lysander's influence. Lysander doubtless supported Agesilaus' accession because he hoped that the new king would in return help him to regain the importance that he lost in 403. + +Conspiracy of Cinadon (399 BC) +The Conspiracy of Cinadon took place during the first year of Agesilaus' reign, in the summer of 399. Cinadon was a hypomeion, a Spartan who had lost his citizen status, presumably because he could not afford the price of the collective mess—one of the main reasons for the dwindling number of Spartan citizens in the Classical Era, called oliganthropia. It is probable that the vast influx of wealth coming to the city after its victory against Athens in 404 triggered inflation in Sparta, which impoverished many citizens with a fixed income, like Cinadon, and caused their downgrade. Therefore, the purpose of the plot was likely to restore the status of these disfranchised citizens. However, the plot was uncovered and Cinadon and its leaders executed—probably with the active participation of Agesilaus, but no further action was taken to solve the social crisis at the origin of the conspiracy. The failure of Agesilaus to acknowledge the critical problem suffered by Sparta at the time has been criticised by modern historians. + +Invasion of Asia Minor (396–394 BC) +According to the treaties signed in 412 and 411 between Sparta and the Persian Empire, the latter became the overlord of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor. In 401, these cities and Sparta supported the bid of Cyrus the Younger (the Persian Emperor's younger son and a good friend of Lysander) against his elder brother, the new emperor Artaxerxes II, who nevertheless defeated Cyrus at Cunaxa. As a result, Sparta remained at war with Artaxerxes, and supported the Greek cities of Asia, which fought against Tissaphernes, the satrap of Lydia and Caria. In 397 Lysander engineered a large expedition in Asia headed by Agesilaus, likely to recover the influence he had over the Asian cities at the end of the Peloponnesian War. In order to win the approval of the Spartan assembly, Lysander built an army with only 30 Spartan citizens, so the risk would be limited; the bulk of the army consisted of 2,000 neodamodes (freed helots) and 6,000 Greek allies. In addition, Agesilaus obtained the support of the oracles of Zeus at Olympia and Apollo at Delphi. + +The sacrifice at Aulis (396 BC) +Lysander and Agesilaus had intended the expedition to be a Panhellenic enterprise, but Athens, Corinth, and especially Thebes, refused to participate. In Spring 396, Agesilaus came to Aulis (in Boeotian territory) to sacrifice on the place where Agamemnon had done so just before his departure to Troy at the head of the Greek army in the Iliad, thus giving a grandiose aspect to the expedition. However he did not inform the Boeotians and brought his own seer to perform the sacrifice, instead of the local one. Learning this, the Boeotians prevented him from sacrificing and further humiliated him by casting away the victim; they perhaps intended to provoke a confrontation, as the relations between Sparta and Thebes had become execrable. Agesilaus then left to Asia, but Thebes remained hateful to him for the rest of his life. + +Campaign in Asia (396–394 BC) +Once Agesilaus landed in Ephesus, the Spartan main base, he concluded a three months' truce with Tissaphernes, likely to settle the affairs among the Greek allies. He integrated some of the Greek mercenaries formerly hired by Cyrus the Younger (the Ten Thousand) in his army. They had returned from Persia under the leadership of Xenophon, who also remained in Agesilaus' staff. In Ephesus, Agesilaus' authority was nevertheless overshadowed by Lysander, who was reacquainted with many of his supporters, men he had placed in control of the Greek cities at the end of the Peloponnesian War. Angered by his local aura, Agesilaus humiliated Lysander several times to force him to leave the army, despite his former relationship and Lysander's role in his accession to the throne. Plutarch adds that after Agesilaus' emancipation from him, Lysander returned to his undercover scheme to make the monarchy elective. +After Lysander's departure, Agesilaus raided Phrygia, the satrapy of Pharnabazus, until his advance guard was defeated not far from Daskyleion by the superior Persian cavalry. He then wintered at Ephesus, where he trained a cavalry force, perhaps on the advice of Xenophon, who had commanded the cavalry of the Ten Thousand. In 395, the Spartan king managed to trick Tissaphernes into thinking that he would attack Caria, in the south of Asia Minor, forcing the satrap to hold a defence line on the Meander river. Instead, Agesilaus moved north to the important city of Sardis. Tissaphernes hastened to meet the king there, but his cavalry sent in advance was defeated by Agesilaus' army. After his victory at the Battle of Sardis, Agesilaus became the first king to be given the command of both land and sea. He delegated the naval command to his brother-in-law Peisander, whom he appointed navarch despite his inexperience; perhaps Agesilaus wanted to avoid the rise of a new Lysander, who owed his prominence to his time as navarch. After his defeat, Tissaphernes was executed and replaced as satrap by Tithraustes, who gave Agesilaus 30 talents to move north to the satrapy of Pharnabazus (Persian satraps were often bitter rivals). Augesilaus' Phrygian campaign of 394 was fruitless, as he lacked the siege equipment required to take the fortresses of Leonton Kephalai, Gordion, and Miletou Teichos.Xenophon tells that Agesilaus then wanted to campaign further east in Asia and sow discontent among the subjects of the Achaemenid empire, or even to conquer Asia. Plutarch went further and wrote that Agesilaus had prepared an expedition to the heart of Persia, up to her capital of Susa, thus making him a forerunner of Alexander the Great. It is very unlikely that Agesilaus really had such a grand campaign in mind; regardless, he was soon forced to return to Europe in 394. + +Corinthian War (395–387 BC) +Although Thebes and Corinth had been allies of Sparta throughout the Peloponnesian War, they were dissatisfied by the settlement of the war in 404, with Sparta as leader of the Greek world. Sparta's imperialist expansion in the Aegean greatly upset its former allies, notably by establishing friendly regimes and garrisons in smaller cities. Through large gifts, Tithraustes also encouraged Sparta's former allies to start a war in order to force the recall of Agesilaus from Asia—even though the influence of Persian gold has been exaggerated. The initiative came from Thebes, which provoked a war between their ally Ozolian Locris and Phocis in order to bring Sparta to the latter's defence. Lysander and the other king Pausanias entered Boeotia, which enabled the Thebans to bring Athens in the war. Lysander then besieged Haliartus without waiting for Pausanias and was killed in a Boeotian counter-attack. In Sparta, Pausanias was condemned to death by Lysander's friends and went into exile. After its success at Haliartus, Thebes was able to build a coalition against Sparta, with notably Argos and Corinth, where a war council was established, and securing the defection of most of the cities of northern and central Greece. Unable to wage war on two fronts and with the loss of Lysander and Pausanias, Sparta had no choice but to recall Agesilaus from Asia. The Asian Greeks fighting for him said they wanted to continue serving with him, while Agesilaus promised he would return to Asia as soon as he could. + +Agesilaus returned to Greece by land, crossing the Hellespont and from there along the coast of the Aegean Sea. In Thessaly he won a cavalry battle near Narthacium against the Pharsalians who had made an alliance with Thebes. He then entered Boeotia by the Thermopylae, where he received reinforcements from Sparta. Meanwhile, Aristodamos—the regent of the young Agiad king Agesipolis—won a major victory at Nemea near Argos, which was offset by the disaster of the Spartan navy at Knidos against the Persian fleet led by Konon, an exiled Athenian general. Agesilaus lied to his men about the outcome of the battle of Knidos to avoid demoralising them as they were about to fight a large engagement against the combined armies of Thebes, Athens, Argos and Corinth. The following Battle of Coroneia was a classic clash between two lines of hoplites. The anti-Spartan allies were rapidly defeated, but the Thebans managed to retreat in good order, despite Agesilaus' activity on the front line, which caused him several injuries. The next day the Thebans requested a truce to recover their dead, therefore conceding defeat, although they had not been bested on the battlefield. Agesilaus appears to have tried to win an honourable victory, by risking his life and being merciful with some Thebans who had sought shelter in the nearby Temple of Athena Itonia. He then moved to Delphi, where he offered one tenth of the booty he had amassed since his landing at Ephesos, and returned to Sparta. + +No pitched battle took place in Greece in 393. Perhaps Agesilaus was still recovering from his wounds, or he was deprived of command because of the opposition of Lysander's and Pausanias' friends, who were disappointed by his lack of decisive victory and his appointment of Peisander as navarch before the disaster of Knidos. The loss of the Spartan fleet besides allowed Konon to capture the island of Kythera, in the south of the Peloponnese, from where he could raid Spartan territory. In 392, Sparta sent Antalcidas to Asia in order to negotiate a general peace with Tiribazus, the satrap of Lydia, while Sparta would recognise Persia's sovereignty over the Asian Greek cities. However, the Greek allies also sent emissaries to Sardis to refuse Antalcidas' plan, and Artaxerxes likewise rejected it. A second peace conference in Sparta failed the following year because of Athens. A personal enemy of Antalcidas, Agesilaus likely disapproved these talks, which show that his influence at home had waned. Plutarch says that he befriended the young Agiad king Agesipolis, possibly to prevent his opponents from coalescing behind him. + +By 391 Agesilaus had apparently recovered his influence as he was appointed at the head of the army, while his half-brother Teleutias became navarch. The target was Argos, which had absorbed Corinth into a political union the previous year. In 390 BC he made several successful expeditions into Corinthian territory, capturing Lechaeum and Peiraion. The loss, however, of a battalion (mora), destroyed by Iphicrates, neutralised these successes, and Agesilaus returned to Sparta. In 389 BC he conducted a campaign in Acarnania, but two years later the Peace of Antalcidas, warmly supported by Agesilaus, put an end to the war, maintaining Spartan hegemony over Greece and returning the Greek cities of Asia Minor to the Achaemenid Empire. In this interval, Agesilaus declined command over Sparta's aggression on Mantineia, and justified Phoebidas' seizure of the Theban Cadmea so long as the outcome provided glory to Sparta. + +Decline + +When war broke out afresh with Thebes, Agesilaus twice invaded Boeotia (in 378 and 377 BC), although he spent the next five years largely out of action due to an unspecified but apparently grave illness. In the congress of 371 an altercation is recorded between him and the Theban general Epaminondas, and due to his influence, Thebes was peremptorily excluded from the peace, and orders given for Agesilaus's royal colleague Cleombrotus to march against Thebes in 371. Cleombrotus was defeated and killed at the Battle of Leuctra and the Spartan supremacy overthrown. + +In 370 Agesilaus was engaged in an embassy to Mantineia, and reassured the Spartans with an invasion of Arcadia. He preserved an unwalled Sparta against the revolts and conspiracies of helots, perioeci and even other Spartans; and against external enemies, with four different armies led by Epaminondas penetrating Laconia that same year. + +Asia Minor expedition (366 BC) +In 366 BC, Sparta and Athens, dissatisfied with the Persian king's support of Thebes following the embassy of Philiscus of Abydos, decided to provide careful military support to the opponents of the Achaemenid king. Athens and Sparta provided support for the revolting satraps in the Revolt of the Satraps, in particular Ariobarzanes: Sparta sent a force to Ariobarzanes under an aging Agesilaus, while Athens sent a force under Timotheus, which was however diverted when it became obvious that Ariobarzanes had entered frontal conflict with the Achaemenid king. An Athenian mercenary force under Chabrias was also sent to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tachos, who was also fighting against the Achaemenid king. According to Xenophon, Agesilaus, in order to gain money for prosecuting the war, supported the satrap Ariobarzanes of Phrygia in his revolt against Artaxerxes II in 364 (Revolt of the Satraps). + +Again, in 362, Epaminondas almost succeeded in seizing the city of Sparta with a rapid and unexpected march. The Battle of Mantinea, in which Agesilaus took no part, was followed by a general peace: Sparta, however, stood aloof, hoping even yet to recover her supremacy. + +Expedition to Egypt + +Sometime after the Battle of Mantineia, Agesilaus went to Egypt at the head of a mercenary force to aid the king Nectanebo I and his regent Teos against Persia. In the summer of 358, he transferred his services to Teos's cousin and rival, Nectanebo II, who, in return for his help, gave him a sum of over 200 talents. On his way home Agesilaus died in Cyrenaica, around the age of 84, after a reign of some 41 years. His body was embalmed in wax, and buried at Sparta. + +He was succeeded by his son Archidamus III. + +Legacy +Agesilaus was of small stature and unimpressive appearance, and was lame from birth. These facts were used as an argument against his succession, an oracle having warned Sparta against a "lame reign." Most ancient writers considered him a highly successful leader in guerrilla warfare, alert and quick, yet cautious—a man, moreover, whose personal bravery was rarely questioned in his own time. Of his courage, temperance, and hardiness, many instances are cited, and to these were added the less Spartan qualities of kindliness and tenderness as a father and a friend. As examples, there was the story of his riding a stick-horse with his children and upon being discovered by a friend desiring that the friend not mention what he had seen until he was the father of children; and because of the affection of his son Archidamus for Cleonymus, he saved Sphodrias, Cleonymus' father, from execution for his incursion into Piraeus and dishonourable retreat in 378. Modern writers tend to be slightly more critical of Agesilaus' reputation and achievements, reckoning him an excellent soldier, but one who had a poor understanding of sea power and siege-craft. + +As a statesman he won himself both enthusiastic adherents and bitter enemies. Agesilaus was most successful in the opening and closing periods of his reign: commencing but then surrendering a glorious career in Asia; and in extreme age, maintaining his prostrate country. Other writers acknowledge his extremely high popularity at home, but suggest his occasionally rigid and arguably irrational political loyalties and convictions contributed greatly to Spartan decline, notably his unremitting hatred of Thebes, which led to Sparta's humiliation at the Battle of Leuctra and thus the end of Spartan hegemony. Historian J. B. Bury remarks that "there is something melancholy about his career:" born into a Sparta that was the unquestioned continental power of Hellas, the Sparta which mourned him eighty four years later had suffered a series of military defeats which would have been unthinkable to his forebears, had seen its population severely decline, and had run so short of money that its soldiers were increasingly sent on campaigns fought more for money than for defense or glory. + +Other historical accounts paint Agesilaus as a prototype for the ideal leader. His awareness, thoughtfulness, and wisdom were all traits to be emulated diplomatically, while his bravery and shrewdness in battle epitomised the heroic Greek commander. These historians point towards the unstable oligarchies established by Lysander in the former Athenian Empire and the failures of Spartan leaders (such as Pausanias and Kleombrotos) for the eventual suppression of Spartan power. The ancient historian Xenophon was a huge admirer and served under Agesilaus during the campaigns into Asia Minor. + +Plutarch includes among Agesilaus' 78 essays and speeches comprising the apophthegmata Agesilaus' letter to the ephors on his recall: + +And when asked whether Agesilaus wanted a memorial erected in his honour: + +Agesilaus lived in the most frugal style alike at home and in the field, and though his campaigns were undertaken largely to secure booty, he was content to enrich the state and his friends and to return as poor as he had set forth. + +Selected quotes +When someone was praising an orator for his ability to magnify small points, Agesilaus said, "In my opinion it's not a good cobbler who fits large shoes on small feet." + +Another time Agesilaus watched a mouse being pulled from its hole by a small boy. When the mouse turned around, bit the hand of its captor and escaped, he pointed this out to those present and said, "When the tiniest creature defends itself like this against aggressors, what ought men to do, do you reckon?" + +Certainly when somebody asked what gain the laws of Lycurgus had brought Sparta, Agesilaus answered, "Contempt for pleasures." + +Asked once how far Sparta's boundaries stretched, Agesilaus brandished his spear and said, "As far as this can reach." + +On noticing a house in Asia roofed with square beams, Agesilaus asked the owner whether timber grew square in that area. When told no, it grew round, he said, "What then? If it were square, would you make it round?" + +Invited to hear an actor who could perfectly imitate the nightingale, Agesilaus declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself. + +Notes + +References + +Sources + +Ancient sources +Plutarch, Parallel Lives. +Xenophon, Hellenica. + +Modern sources + + Hans Beck & Peter Funke, Federalism in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, 2015. + Paul Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, A Regional History 1300–362 BC, London, Routledge, 1979 (originally published in 1979). + +George L. Cawkwell, "Agesilaus and Sparta", The Classical Quarterly 26 (1976): 62–84. +David, Ephraim. Sparta Between Empire and Revolution (404-243 BC): Internal Problems and Their Impact on Contemporary Greek Consciousness. New York: Arno Press, 1981. +Forrest, W.G. A History of Sparta, 950-192 B.C. 2d ed. London: Duckworth, 1980. +Dustin A. Gish, "Spartan Justice: The Conspiracy of Kinadon in Xenophon's Hellenika", in Polis, vol. 26, no. 2, 2009, pp. 339–369. + +Hamilton, Charles D. Sparta's Bitter Victories: Politics and Diplomacy in the Corinthian War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1979. +D. M. Lewis, John Boardman, Simon Hornblower, M. Ostwald (editors), The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. VI, The Fourth Century B.C., Cambridge University Press, 1994. + +Anton Powell (editor), A Companion to Sparta, Volume I, Hoboken/Chichester, Wiley Blackwell, 2018. +D. R. Shipley, A Commentary on Plutarch's Life of Agesilaos: Response to Sources in the Presentation of Character, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1997. +Debby Sneed, "Disability and Infanticide in Ancient Greece", Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 90, No. 4, 2021, pp. 747–772. +Maria Stamatopoulou, "Thessalians Abroad, the Case of Pharsalos", in Mediterranean Historical Review, vol. 22.2 (2007), pp. 211–236. +Graham Wylie, "Agesilaus and the Battle of Sardis", in Klio, n°74 (1992), pp. 118–130. + +440s BC births +Year of birth uncertain +358 BC deaths +Year of death uncertain +4th-century BC Spartans +Eurypontid kings of Sparta +Ancient Greek generals +Ancient Greek LGBT people +Spartan hegemony +Agis or AGIS may refer to: + +People + Agis I (died 900 BC), Spartan king + Agis II (died 401 BC), Spartan king + Agis III (died 331 BC), Spartan king + Agis IV (265–241 BC), Spartan king + Agis (Paeonian) (died 358 BC), King of the Paeonians + Agis of Argos, ancient Greek poet + Maurice Agis (1931–2009), British sculptor and artist + +Other uses + Agis (play), by John Home + Agis, several fictional emperors of Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire + Apex Global Internet Services + Atomic gravitational wave interferometric sensor + Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study, conducted by the National Eye Institute + +See also + Agide (disambiguation), modern Italian given name related to Agis + +Greek masculine given names +Masculine given names +Antonio Agliardi (4 September 1832 – 19 March 1915) was an Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal, archbishop, and papal diplomat. + +Biography +Agliardi was born at Cologno al Serio, in what is now the Province of Bergamo. + +He studied theology and canon law, and after acting as parish priest in his native diocese for twelve years was sent by the pope to Canada as a bishop's chaplain. On his return he was appointed secretary to the Congregation of the Propaganda. + +In 1884, he was created by Pope Leo XIII Archbishop of Caesarea in partibus and sent to India as an Apostolic Delegate to report on the establishment of the hierarchy there. + +In 1887 he again visited India, to carry out the terms of the concordat arranged with Portugal. The same year he was appointed secretary of the Congregation super negotiis ecclesiae extraordinariis. In 1889 he became papal Apostolic Nuncio to Bavaria at Munich and in 1892 at Vienna. Allowing himself to be involved in the ecclesiastical disputes that divided Hungary in 1895, he was made the subject of formal complaint by the Hungarian government and in 1896 was recalled. + +In the consistory of 1896 he was elevated to Cardinal-Priest of Santi Nereo e Achilleo. In 1899 he was made Cardinal Bishop of Albano. In 1903, he was named vice-chancellor of the Catholic Church, and became the Chancellor of the Apostolic Chancery in the Secretariat of State in 1908. + +He died in Rome and was buried in Bergamo. + +Episcopal lineage + +Agliardi's episcopal lineage, or apostolic succession was: + + Cardinal Scipione Rebiba + Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio + Cardinal Girolamo Bernerio + Archbishop Galeazzo Sanvitale + Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi + Cardinal Luigi Caetani + Cardinal Ulderico Carpegna + Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni + Pope Benedict XIII + Pope Benedict XIV + Cardinal Enrico Enríquez + Archbishop Manuel Quintano Bonifaz + Cardinal Buenaventura Fernández de Córdoba Spínola + Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili + Pope Pius VIII + Pope Pius IX + Cardinal Alessandro Franchi + Cardinal Giovanni Simeoni + Cardinal Antonio Agliardi + +Notes + +References + +External links +Catholic-Hierarchy.org + + + + + + + +1832 births +1915 deaths +Clergy from the Province of Bergamo +Apostolic Nuncios to Austria +20th-century Italian cardinals +Cardinal-bishops of Albano +Cartellverband members +19th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops +20th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops +Apostolic Nuncios to Bavaria +Cardinals created by Pope Leo XIII +Roman Catholic titular archbishops of Caesarea +Agnes of Merania (1175 – July 1201) was Queen of France by marriage to King Philip II. + +She is called Marie by some of the French chroniclers. + +Biography +Agnes Maria was the daughter of Berthold, Duke of Merania and Agnes of Rochlitz. + +In June 1196, Agnes married Philip II of France, who had repudiated his second wife Ingeborg of Denmark in 1193. Pope Innocent III espoused the cause of Ingeborg; but Philip did not submit until 1200, when, nine months after interdict had been added to excommunication, he consented to a separation from Agnes. + +Agnes died giving birth to their third child in July of the next year, at the castle of Poissy, and was buried in the Convent of St Corentin, near Nantes. + +Family +Agnes and Philip had two children: +Mary, b. 1198 +Philip I, Count of Boulogne, b 1200 + +Both were legitimized by the Pope in 1201. + +References + +Sources + +External links + + + + +1175 births + +1201 deaths +Queens consort of France +Repudiated queens +House of Andechs +House of Capet +12th-century French people +12th-century French women +13th-century French people +13th-century French women +Wives of Philip II of France +Deaths in childbirth +(Vipsania) Agrippina the Elder (also, in Latin, , "Germanicus's Agrippina"; – AD 33) was a prominent member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (a close supporter of the first Roman emperor, Augustus) and Augustus' daughter, Julia the Elder. Her brothers Lucius and Gaius Caesar were the adoptive sons of Augustus, and were his heirs until their deaths in AD 2 and 4, respectively. Following their deaths, her second cousin Germanicus was made the adoptive son of Tiberius, Augustus' stepson, as part of the succession scheme in the adoptions of AD 4 (in which Tiberius was adopted by Augustus). As a result of the adoption, Agrippina was wed to Germanicus in order to bring him closer to the Julian family. + +Agrippina the Elder is known to have traveled with Germanicus throughout his career, taking her children wherever they went. In AD 14, Germanicus was deployed in Gaul as a governor and general, and, while there, the late Augustus sent her son Gaius to stay with her. Agrippina liked to dress him in a little soldiers' outfit for which Gaius earned the nickname "Caligula" ("little soldier's boots"). After three years in Gaul, they returned to Rome, and her husband was awarded a triumph on 26 May AD 17 to commemorate his victories. The following year, Germanicus was sent to govern over the eastern provinces. While Germanicus was active in his administration, the governor of Syria Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso began feuding with him. During the feud, her husband died of illness on 10 October AD 19. + +Germanicus was cremated in Antioch, Turkey, and she transported his ashes to Rome where they were interred at the Mausoleum of Augustus. Agrippina was vocal in claims of her husband being murdered in order to promote Tiberius' son, Drusus Julius Caesar ("Drusus the Younger"), as heir. Following the model of her stepgrandmother Livia, she spent the time following Germanicus' death supporting the cause of her sons Nero and Drusus Caesar. This put her and her sons at odds with the powerful Praetorian prefect Lucius Aelius Sejanus, who began eliminating their supporters with accusations of treason and sexual misconduct in AD 26. Her family's rivalry with Sejanus would culminate with her and Nero's exile in AD 29. Nero was exiled to Pontia and she was exiled to the island of Pandateria, where she would remain until her death by starvation in AD 33. + +Name + +Following the Roman custom of parents and children sharing the same nomen and cognomen, women in the same family would often share the same name. Accordingly, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa first daughter with Attica was named Vipsania Agrippina. To distinguish Agrippa and Julia's daughter from their granddaughter Julia Agrippina, historians refer to this daughter as "Agrippina the Elder" (Latin: Agrippina Maior). Likewise, Agrippina's daughter is referred to as +"Agrippina the Younger" (Minor). Like her father, Agrippina the Elder avoided her nomen and has not been found to have used "Vipsania" in inscription. An inscription in Rhodiapolis records her with the nomen "Julia", although this appears to be a mistake. + +Background + +Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was an early supporter of Augustus (then "Octavius"). He was a key general in Augustus' armies, commanding troops during the wars against Sextus Pompey and Mark Antony. From early in the emperor's reign, Agrippa was trusted to handle affairs in the eastern provinces and was even given the signet ring of Augustus, who appeared to be on his deathbed in 23BC, a sign that he would become princeps were Augustus to die. It is probable that he was to rule until the emperor's nephew, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, came of age. However, Marcellus died that year of an illness that became an epidemic in Rome. + +Now, with Marcellus dead, Augustus arranged for the marriage of Agrippa to his daughter Julia the Elder, who was previously the wife of Marcellus. Agrippa was given tribunicia potestas ("the tribunician power") in 18 BC, a power that only the emperor and his immediate heir could hope to attain. The tribunician power allowed him to control the Senate, and it was first given to Julius Caesar. Agrippa acted as tribune in the Senate to pass important legislation and, though he lacked some of the emperor's power and authority, he was approaching the position of co-regent. + +After the birth of Agrippa's second son, Lucius, in 17 BC, Lucius and his brother Gaius were adopted together by Augustus. Around the time of their adoption in the summer, Augustus held the fifth ever Ludi Saeculares ("Secular Games"). Cassius Dio says the adoption of the boys coupled with the games served to introduce a new era of peace – the Pax Augusta. It is not known what Agrippa thought of their adoption; however, following their adoption, Agrippa was dispatched to govern the eastern provinces, bringing his family with him. + +Early life and family + +Agrippina was born in 14 BC to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder, before their return to Rome in 13 BC. She had several siblings, including half-sisters Vipsania Agrippina, Vipsania Attica, Vipsania Marcella and Vipsania Marcellina (from her father's marriages to Pomponia Caecilia Attica and Claudia Marcella Major); and four full siblings, with three brothers; Gaius, Lucius, and Postumus Agrippa (all were adopted by Augustus; Gaius and Lucius were adopted together following Lucius' birth in 17 BC; Postumus in AD 4), and a sister Julia the Younger. + +She was a prominent member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. On her mother's side, she was the younger granddaughter of Augustus. She was the Stepdaughter of Tiberius by her mother's marriage to him, and sister in law of Claudius, the brother of her husband Germanicus. Her son Gaius, better known as "Caligula", would be the third emperor, and her grandson Nero would be the last emperor of the dynasty. + +In 13 BC, her father returned to Rome and was promptly sent to Pannonia to suppress a rebellion. Agrippa arrived there that winter (in 12 BC), but the Pannonians gave up that same year. Agrippa returned to Campania in Italy, where he fell ill and died soon after. After her father's death, she spent the rest of her childhood in Augustus' household where access to her was strictly controlled. + +Some of the currency issued in 13–12 BC, the aurei and denarii, make it clear that her brothers Gaius and Lucius were Augustus' intended heirs. Their father was no longer available to assume the reins of power if the Emperor were to die, and Augustus had to make it clear who his intended heirs were in case anything should happen. Lucius' and Gaius' military and political careers would steadily advance until their deaths in AD 2 and 4, respectively. + +The death of her brothers meant that Augustus had to find other heirs. Although he initially considered Agrippina's second cousin Germanicus a potential heir for a time, Livia convinced Augustus to adopt Tiberius, Livia's son from her first marriage with Tiberius Claudius Nero. Although Augustus adopted Tiberius, it was on condition that Tiberius first adopt Germanicus so that Germanicus would become second in the line of succession. It was a corollary to the adoption, probably in the next year, that Agrippina was married to Germanicus. + +By her husband Germanicus, she had nine children: Nero Julius Caesar, Drusus Julius Caesar, Tiberius Julius Caesar, a child of unknown name (normally referenced as Ignotus), Gaius the Elder, the Emperor Caligula (Gaius the Younger), the Empress Agrippina the Younger, Julia Drusilla, and Julia Livilla. Only six of her children came of age; Tiberius and Ignotus died as infants, and Gaius the Elder in his early childhood. + +Marriage + +Her husband's career in the military began in AD 6, with the Batonian War in Pannonia and Dalmatia. Throughout Germanicus' military career, Agrippina is known to have traveled with her husband and their children. Germanicus' career advanced steadily as he advanced in ranks following the cursus honorum until, in AD 12, he was made consul. The following year, he was given command over Gaul and the forces on the Rhine, totaling eight legions. + +On 18 May AD 14, her one-year-old son Gaius was sent by Augustus from Rome to join her in Gaul. She was pregnant at the time and, while Germanicus was collecting taxes across Gaul, she remained at an unspecified separate location, presumably for her safety. Augustus sent her a letter with her son's party, which read: + +Later that year, on 19 August, Augustus died while away in Campania. As a result, Tiberius was made princeps. While Germanicus was administering the oath of fealty to Tiberius, a mutiny began among the forces on the Rhine. During the mutiny, Agrippina brought out their sixth child, Gaius, and made preparations to take him away to a safer town nearby. He was in a full army outfit including the legionary hobnailed boots (caligae). These military-booties earned Gaius the nickname "Caligula" (lit. "little boots"), and garnered sympathy for Agrippina and the child among the soldiery. Tacitus attributes her actions as having quelled the mutiny (Tacitus, Annals 1.40–4). + +Once the mutiny was put to an end, Germanicus allowed the soldiers to deal with the ringleaders, which they did with brutal severity. He then led them against the Germanic tribes, perhaps in an effort to prevent future mutiny. Germanicus would remain in Gaul fighting against the Germanic tribes until AD 16, at which time he was recalled to Rome by Tiberius. His campaigns won him much renown among the Roman people, and he was awarded a triumph on 26 May AD 17. + +Widowhood + +In AD 18, Agrippina left for the eastern provinces with her family. Germanicus was sent the east to govern the provinces, the same assignment her father was given years earlier. Agrippina was pregnant on their journey east and, on the way to Syria, she gave birth to her youngest daughter Julia Livilla on the island of Lesbos. Inscriptions celebrating her fertility have been found on the island. + +Tiberius sent Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso to assist her husband, naming him governor of Syria. During their time there, Germanicus was active in his administration of the eastern regions. Piso did not get along well with Germanicus and their relationship only got worse. In AD 19, Germanicus ordered Piso to leave the province, which Piso began to do. On his way back to Rome, Piso stopped at the island of Kos off the coast of Syria. Around that time Germanicus fell ill and he died on 10 October AD 19 at Antioch. Rumours spread of Piso poisoning her husband on the emperor's orders. + +After Germanicus' cremation in the forum of Antioch, Agrippina personally carried the ashes of her husband to Rome. The transportation of the ashes witnessed national mourning. She landed at the port of Brundisium in southern Italy where she was met with huge crowds of sympathizers; a praetorian escort was provided by the emperor in light of her rank as the wife of a governor-general. As she passed each town, the people and local magistrates came out to show their respect. Drusus the Younger (son of Tiberius), Claudius, and the consuls journeyed to join the procession as well. Once she made it to Rome, her husband's ashes were interred at the Mausoleum of Augustus. Tiberius and Livia did not make an appearance. + +Life after Germanicus + +Her marriage to Germanicus had served to unite the imperial family. Agrippina may have suspected Tiberius' involvement in the death of her husband and, with Germanicus dead, she no longer had any familial ties to the emperor. Historian Richard Alston says it is likely that either Tiberius or Livia were behind the exile of Agrippina's half-sister and the death of Postumus. He notes the death of Agrippina's mother, who starved herself to death amidst her exile in AD 14, linking her death to Tiberius' disdain for her. + +Agrippina was vocal about her feelings claiming that Germanicus was murdered to promote Drusus the Younger as Tiberius' heir, and worried that the birth of the Younger Drusus' twin sons would displace her own sons in the line of succession. + +At about this time, Tiberius' Praetorian Prefect Sejanus was becoming powerful in Rome and began feuding with Drusus the Younger. While the exact causes of the feud are unknown, it ended when the Younger Drusus died of seemingly natural causes on 14 September AD 23. After the death of Tiberius' son, Agrippina wanted to advance the careers of her sons, who were all potential heirs for Tiberius. It has been suggested that to achieve this, Agrippina commissioned the Great Cameo of France and presented it to Tiberius as a personalized gift that positioned the family of Germanicus around the emperor. The work was designed to convince Tiberius to choose her children as his heirs. + +Ultimately, the death of Tiberius' son elevated her own children to the position of heirs. Her sons were the logical choice, because they were the sons of Germanicus and Tiberius' grandsons were too young. Nero was becoming popular in the Senate due in part, Tacitus says, to his resemblance with his father. The rise of her children was threatening to Sejanus' position. Resultantly, Sejanus began spreading rumors about Agrippina in the imperial court. The coming years were marked with increasing hostility between Sejanus and Agrippina and her sons. This effectively caused factions to rise in the aristocracy between her family and Sejanus. + +Political rivalry + +On New Year's Day, AD 24, Sejanus had the priests and magistrates add prayers for the health of Nero and Drusus in addition to those normally offered to the emperor on that day. Tiberius was not happy with this and he voiced his displeasure in the Senate. In addition, he questioned the priests of the Palatine. Some of the priests who offered the prayers were relatives of Agrippina and Germanicus. This made Tiberius suspicious of her and marked a change in his attitude toward her and her older sons, but not Caligula. + +In AD 25, Sejanus requested Livilla's hand in marriage. Livilla was a niece of the emperor, which would have made him a member of the imperial family. While this did make his ambitions clear, his request was denied. The loss may have been huge for Sejanus had the dissensions in the imperial household not been deteriorating. Relations were so bad that Agrippina refused to eat at Tiberius' dinner parties for fear of being poisoned. She also asked Tiberius if she could be allowed to remarry, which he also refused. + +If either of them were allowed to remarry it would have threatened the line of succession that Tiberius was comfortable with. By refusing Sejanus' request, Tiberius made it clear he was content with the children of Germanicus and his own grandchildren being his successors. Had Sejanus married Livilla, their children would have provided another line of possible successors. The implication of Agrippina's request was that she needed a man from outside the imperial family to serve as protector and step-father of possible imperial heirs, a powerful position. It was also an implied reprimand: Tiberius was meant to be the guardian of the imperial family. + +Tiberius was in a tough position. He was faced with a conflict between his family and his friend. His solution was surprising. In AD 26, he left Rome altogether and retired to the island of Capri in the Bay of Naples. He cut himself off from the factions altogether and abandoned politics. He left Rome in the care of Sejanus. This allowed Sejanus to freely attack his rivals. + +Downfall +With Tiberius away from Rome, the city would see a rise of politically motivated trials on the part of Sejanus and his supporters against Agrippina and her associates. Many of her friends and associates were subsequently accused of maiestas ("treason") by the growing number of accusers. It was also common to see charges of sexual misconduct and corruption. In AD 27, Agrippina found herself placed under house arrest in her suburban villa outside Herculaneum. + +In AD 28, the Senate voted that altars to Clementia (mercy) and Amicitia (friendship) be raised. At that time, Clementia was considered a virtue of the ruling class, for only the powerful could give clemency. The altar of Amicitia was flanked by statues of Sejanus and Tiberius. By this time, his association with Tiberius was such that there were those in Roman society who erected statues in his honor and gave prayers and sacrifices in his honor. Sejanus' birthday was honored as if he were a member of the imperial family. According to Richard Alston, "Sejanus' association with Tiberius must have at least indicated to the people that he would be further elevated." + +Sejanus did not begin his final attack on Agrippina until after the death of Livia in AD 29. Tacitus reports a letter being sent to the Senate from Tiberius denouncing Agrippina for her arrogance and prideful attitude, and Nero for engaging in shameful sexual activities. The Senate would not begin these highly unpopular prosecutions against her or her son until it received clear instructions from Tiberius to do so. Despite public outcry, Agrippina and Nero were declared public enemies (hostes) following a repeat of the accusations by the emperor. They were both exiled; Nero to Pontia where he was killed or encouraged to commit suicide in AD 31, and Agrippina to the island of Pandateria (the same place her mother was exiled to). + +Suetonius says that while on the island of Pandateria, she lost an eye when she was beaten by a centurion. She would remain on the island until her death in AD 33. Accounts of her death vary. She is said to have died from starvation, but it is not certain whether or not it was self-imposed. Tacitus says food was withheld from her in an effort to make her death seem like a suicide. + +Post mortem + +Her son Drusus was later also exiled on charges of sexual misdemeanors. Sejanus remained powerful until his sudden downfall and summary execution in October AD 31, just after the death of Nero, the exact cause for which remains unclear. Alston suggests that Sejanus may have been acting in Tiberius' favor to remove Germanicus' family from power, noting that Agrippina and Nero's brother Drusus were left in exile even after Sejanus' death. + +The deaths of Agrippina's older sons elevated her youngest son Caligula to the position of successor and he became princeps when Tiberius died in AD 37. Drusus the Younger's son Tiberius Gemellus was summoned to Capri by his grandfather Tiberius, where he and Caligula were made joint-heirs. When Caligula assumed power he made Gemellus his adopted son, but Caligula soon had Gemellus killed for plotting against him. According to Philo, Caligula's pretended reason was a conspiracy. + +After he became emperor, Caligula took on the role of a dutiful son and brother in a public show of pietas ("piety"). He went out to the islands of Pontia and Pandateria in order to recover the remains of Agrippina and Nero. It was not easy to recover Nero's bones as they were scattered and buried. Moreover, he had a stormy passage; however, the difficulty in his task made his devotion seem even greater. The ashes were brought to Ostia, from where they were carried up the Tiber and brought to the Campus Martius, from where equestrians placed them on briers to join the ashes of Germanicus in the mausoleum of Augustus. The move was reminiscent of when Agrippina carried the ashes of her husband just over 17 years earlier. Agrippina's funerary urn still survives (). + +The tablet made of marble reads: + "OSSA + AGRIPPINA F M AGRIPPA + DIVI AVG NEPTIS VXORIS + GERMANICI CAESARIS + MATRIS C CAESARIS AVG + GERMANICI PRINCIPIS" + +which translates as "Bones of Agrippina; daughter of Marcus Agrippa, granddaughter of Divus Augustus, wife of Germanicus Caesar, mother of Princeps Gaius Caesar Germanicus". + +Personality +Agrippina was fiercely independent, a trait she shared with her mother. Dio described her as having ambitions to match her pedigree. However, Anthony Barrett notes that Agrippina was fully aware that a woman in ancient Rome could not hold power in her own right. Instead, Agrippina followed the model of Livia in promoting the careers of her children. + +She and her daughter, Agrippina the Younger, are both described as being equally ambitious for their sons. Whereas the elder Agrippina's son failed to become emperor, the younger Agrippina's son, also named Nero, succeeds. In a contrast, Tacitus has Agrippina the Elder merely standing on a bridge waving the soldiers passing by, whereas her daughter eclipses her by presiding over a military tribunal and accepting gifts from foreign ambassadors. + +Tacitus also records serious tension between Agrippina and Livia. He describes Livia as having visited "stepmotherly provocations" on Agrippina. He says of Agrippina: "were it not that through her moral integrity and love for her husband she converted an otherwise ungovernable temper to the good" (Tacitus, Annals 1.33). Despite being sympathetic to her as a victim of imperial oppression, he uses expressions like "excitable", "arrogant", "proud", "fierce", "obstinate", and "ambitious" to describe Agrippina. His comments are echoed by other sources. + +Historiography +Historian Lindsay Powell says Agrippina enjoyed a normal marriage and continued to show her devotion to Germanicus after his death. He says she was regarded by the Roman people as, quoting Tacitus, "the glory of the country, the sole surviving offspring of Augustus, the solitary example of the good old times." + +Alston cautions against accepting the stories of Agrippina's feud with Sejanus at face value, as these accounts reflect a tradition hostile to Tiberius and Sejanus. They may have been circulated by Agrippina's supporters or they may have emerged after Sejanus' fall in AD 31. He adds: "These stories are plausible, though not certain to be true." + +Suetonius + +Augustus was proud of Agrippina. Suetonius claims that Augustus wrote her a letter praising her intellect and directing her education. Suetonius also records that Augustus, who held strict views on self-restraint and respectable speech, cautioned Agrippina not to speak "offensively". When she next appears, she is being chastised by Tiberius in Greek for making irritating remarks, and the tone of the Greek verse quoted by Tiberius suggests that she should have heeded the advice of her grandfather not to speak offensively. + +Tacitus + +The Annals of Tacitus is a history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty beginning with the death of Augustus. In it, he portrays women as having a profound influence on politics. The women of the imperial family in particular are depicted by Tacitus as having a notable prominence in the public sphere as well as possessing a ferocity and ambition with which they pursue it. Tacitus presents them as living longer than the imperial men and thus being more wise as they advance in age. Among the most broad of his portrayals is that of Agrippina. He emphasizes their role in connecting genetically back to Augustus, a significant factor in the marriages of the emperors and princes of the dynasty. The Annals repeatedly has Agrippina competing for influence with Tiberius simply because she is related to Augustus biologically. + +Tacitus presents Agrippina as being kindred to aristocratic males, and has her reversing gender roles, which showcases her assumption of male auctoritas ("authority") with metaphors of her dressing and undressing. In an example of Agrippina assuming auctoritas, he says: + +Using the above epithet, "(femina) ingens animi" ("..[a woman], great for her courage"), he assigns a haughty attitude to Agrippina that compels her to explore the affairs of men. He records her as having reversed the natural order of things when she quelled the mutiny of the Rhine in AD 14. In so doing, he describes her as having usurped her husband's power, a power rightfully belonging only to a general. + +Portraiture + +Portraits of Roman women from the Julio-Claudian dynasty display a freer hair treatment than those of traditional Roman men and are more keen on the sensitivity of recording on different textures. These changes in style served to make reproducing them more popular in the mid-first-century AD. Reproductions of her image would continue to be made into that period. In the portrait, she is given a youthful face despite the fact that she lived to middle age. Agrippina's hair is a mass of curls that covers both sides of her head and is long going down to her shoulders. Her portraiture can be contrasted with that of Livia who had a more austere Augustan hairstyle. + +There are three different periods during the first-century AD when portraits were created for Agrippina: at the time of her marriage to Germanicus (which made her the mother of a potential emperor); when her son Caligula came into power in AD 37, and collected her ashes from the island of Pandateria for relocation to the Mausoleum of Augustus; and at the time of Claudius' marriage to Agrippina the Younger, who wanted to connect himself to the lineage of Augustus by evoking Agrippina's image. Coins and inscriptions cannot act as a method of discerning her age, because her hairstyle remains unchanged in all the representations. + +The easiest phase of portraits to identify are those dating to the time of Caligula, when a fair abundance of coins were minted with an image of his mother on them. It is a posthumous portrait of her with idealized features. In the phase following Claudius' marriage, her features are made to more closely resemble those of her daughter. The goal was to strengthen Agrippina the Younger's connection with her mother. Finally, the portraits of her dating to the time of Tiberius are still idealized, but not as much as those from the period of Caligula's reign. Images of Agrippina from this period are the most lifelike. + +Cultural depictions +Agrippina is one of the few women from the Roman imperial period whose story was recounted in later centuries as an example of moral character. Her journey to deposit the ashes of her husband was popular with eighteenth century painters, including William Turner, Gavin Hamilton, and Benjamin West whose painting Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus (1768) began the trend. + +She is also remembered in De Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 136162. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature. Other notable works of which include: +Agrippina Mourning over the ashes of Germanicus (1775), an etching by Scottish painter Alexander Runciman. +The Caesars (1968), a television series by Philip Mackie for Granada TV. She was played by Caroline Blakiston. +I, Claudius (1976), a television series by Jack Pulman for the BBC. She was played by Fiona Walker. + +See also +Julio-Claudian family tree +Gaius Silius + +Notes + +References + +Bibliography + +External links + + +10s BC births +33 deaths +1st-century BC Roman women +1st-century Roman women +Ancient Roman women in warfare +Burials at the Mausoleum of Augustus +Children of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa +Deaths by starvation +Germanicus +Julio-Claudian dynasty +Vipsanii Agrippae +Women in 1st-century warfare +Year of birth uncertain +Julia Agrippina (6 November AD 15 – 23 March AD 59), also referred to as Agrippina the Younger, was Roman empress from 49 to 54 AD, the fourth wife and niece of Emperor Claudius, and the mother of Nero. + +Agrippina was one of the most prominent women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was the daughter of the Roman general Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, granddaughter of Augustus (the first Roman emperor). Her father, Germanicus, was the nephew and heir apparent of the second emperor, Tiberius. Agrippina's brother Caligula became emperor in 37 AD. After Caligula was assassinated in 41 AD, Germanicus' brother Claudius took the throne. Agrippina married Claudius in 49 AD. + +Agrippina functioned as a behind-the-scenes advisor in the affairs of the Roman state via powerful political ties. She maneuvered her son Nero into the line of succession. Claudius became aware of her plotting, but died in 54; it was rumoured that Agrippina poisoned him. Agrippina exerted a commanding influence in the early years of Nero's reign, but in 59 she was killed. Both ancient and modern sources describe Agrippina's personality as ruthless, ambitious, violent and domineering. Physically, she was a beautiful and reputable woman; according to Pliny the Elder, she had a double canine in her upper right jaw, a sign of good fortune. + +Family + +Agrippina was the first daughter and fourth living child of Agrippina the Elder and Germanicus. She had three elder brothers, Nero Caesar, Drusus Caesar, and the future emperor Caligula, and two younger sisters, Julia Drusilla and Julia Livilla. Agrippina's two eldest brothers and her mother were victims of the intrigues of the Praetorian Prefect Lucius Aelius Sejanus. + +She was the namesake of her mother. Agrippina the Elder was remembered as a modest and heroic matron, who was the second daughter and fourth child of Julia the Elder and the statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. The father of Julia the Elder was the emperor Augustus, and Julia was his only natural child from his second marriage to Scribonia, who had close blood relations with Pompey the Great and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. + +Germanicus, Agrippina's father, was a very popular general and politician. His mother was Antonia Minor and his father was the general Nero Claudius Drusus. He was Antonia Minor's first child. Germanicus had two younger siblings; a sister, named Livilla, and a brother, the future emperor Claudius. Claudius was Agrippina's paternal uncle and third husband. + +Antonia Minor was a daughter to Octavia the Younger by her second marriage to triumvir Mark Antony, and Octavia was the second eldest sister and full-blooded sister of Augustus. Germanicus' father, Drusus the Elder, was the second son of the Empress Livia Drusilla by her first marriage to praetor Tiberius Nero, and was the emperor Tiberius's younger brother and Augustus's stepson. + +In the year 9, Augustus ordered and forced Tiberius to adopt Germanicus, who happened to be Tiberius's nephew, as his son and heir. Germanicus was a favourite of his great-uncle Augustus, who hoped that Germanicus would succeed his uncle Tiberius, who was Augustus's own adopted son and heir. This in turn meant that Tiberius was also Agrippina's adoptive grandfather in addition to her paternal great-uncle. + +Birth and early life + +Agrippina was born on 6 November in AD 15, or possibly 14, at Oppidum Ubiorum, a Roman outpost on the Rhine River located in present-day Cologne, Germany. A second sister Julia Drusilla was born on 16 September 16, also in Germany. + +As a small child, Agrippina travelled with her parents throughout Germany (15–16) until she and her siblings (apart from Caligula) returned to Rome to live with and be raised by their paternal grandmother Antonia. Her parents departed for Syria in 18 to conduct official duties, and, according to Tacitus, the third and youngest sister was born en route on the island of Lesbos, namely Julia Livilla, probably on March 18. In October of AD 19, Germanicus died suddenly in Antioch (modern Antakya, Turkey). + +Germanicus' death caused much public grief in Rome, and gave rise to rumours that he had been murdered by Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso and Munatia Plancina on the orders of Tiberius, as his widow Agrippina the Elder returned to Rome with his ashes. Agrippina the Younger was thereafter supervised by her mother, her paternal grandmother Antonia Minor, and her great-grandmother, Livia, all of them notable, influential, and powerful figures from whom she learnt how to survive. She lived on the Palatine Hill in Rome. Her great-uncle Tiberius had already become emperor and the head of the family after the death of Augustus in 14. + +Marriage to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus + +After her thirteenth birthday in 28, Tiberius arranged for Agrippina to marry her paternal first cousin once removed Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and ordered the marriage to be celebrated in Rome. Domitius came from a distinguished family of consular rank. Through his mother Antonia Major, Domitius was a great nephew of Augustus, first cousin to Claudius, and first cousin once removed to Agrippina and Caligula. He had two sisters; Domitia Lepida the Elder and Domitia Lepida the Younger. Domitia Lepida the Younger was the mother of the Empress Valeria Messalina. + +Antonia Major was the elder sister to Antonia Minor, and the first daughter of Octavia Minor and Mark Antony. According to Suetonius, Domitius was a wealthy man with a despicable and dishonest character, who, according to Suetonius, was "a man who was in every aspect of his life detestable" and served as consul in 32. Agrippina and Domitius lived between Antium and Rome. Not much is known about the relationship between them. + +Reign of Caligula + +Public role and political intrigues + +Tiberius died on March 16, AD 37, and Agrippina's only surviving brother, Caligula, became the new emperor. Being the emperor's sister gave Agrippina some influence. + +Agrippina and her younger sisters Julia Drusilla and Julia Livilla received various honours from their brother, which included but were not limited to + + receiving the rights of the Vestal Virgins, such as the freedom to view public games from the upper seats in the stadium; + being honoured with a new type of coinage, depicting images of Caligula and his sisters on opposite faces; + having their names added to motions, including loyalty oaths (e.g., "I will not value my life or that of my children less highly than I do the safety of the Emperor and his sisters") and consular motions (e.g., "Good fortune attend to the Emperor and his sisters)". + +Around the time that Tiberius died, Agrippina had become pregnant. Domitius had acknowledged the paternity of the child. On December 15, AD 37, in the early morning, in Antium, Agrippina gave birth to a son. Agrippina and Domitius named their son Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, after Domitius' recently deceased father. This child would grow up to become the emperor Nero. Nero was Agrippina's only natural child. Suetonius states that Domitius was congratulated by friends on the birth of his son, whereupon he replied "I don't think anything produced by me and Agrippina could possibly be good for the state or the people". + +Caligula and his sisters were accused of having incestuous relationships. On June 10, AD 38, Drusilla died, possibly of a fever, rampant in Rome at the time. He was particularly fond of Drusilla, claiming to treat her as he would his own wife, even though Drusilla had a husband. Following her death Caligula showed no special love or respect toward the surviving sisters and was said to have gone insane. + +In 39, Agrippina and Livilla, with their maternal cousin, Drusilla's widower Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, were involved in a failed plot to murder Caligula, a plot known as the Plot of the Three Daggers, which was to make Lepidus the new emperor. Lepidus, Agrippina and Livilla were accused of being lovers. Not much is known concerning this plot and the reasons behind it. At the trial of Lepidus, Caligula felt no compunction about denouncing them as adulteresses, producing handwritten letters discussing how they were going to kill him. The three were found guilty as accessories to the crime. + +Exile +Lepidus was executed. According to the fragmentary inscriptions of the Arval Brethren, Agrippina was forced to carry the urn of Lepidus' ashes back to Rome. Agrippina and Livilla were exiled by their brother to the Pontine Islands. Caligula sold their furniture, jewellery, slaves and freedmen. In January of AD 40, Domitius died of edema (dropsy) at Pyrgi. Lucius had gone to live with his second paternal aunt Domitia Lepida the Younger after Caligula had taken his inheritance away from him. + +Caligula, his wife Milonia Caesonia and their daughter Julia Drusilla were murdered on January 24, 41. Agrippina's paternal uncle, Claudius, brother of her father Germanicus, became the new Roman emperor. + +Reign of Claudius + +Return from exile + +Claudius lifted the exiles of Agrippina and Livilla. Livilla returned to her husband, while Agrippina was reunited with her estranged son. After the death of her first husband, Agrippina tried to make shameless advances to the future emperor Galba, who showed no interest in her and was devoted to his wife Aemilia Lepida. On one occasion, Galba's mother-in-law gave Agrippina a public reprimand and a slap in the face before a whole bevy of married women. + +Claudius had Lucius' inheritance reinstated. Lucius became more wealthy despite his youth shortly after Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus divorced Lucius' aunt, Domitia Lepida the Elder (Lucius' first paternal aunt) so that Crispus could marry Agrippina. They married, and Crispus became a step-father to Lucius. Crispus was a prominent, influential, witty, wealthy and powerful man, who served twice as consul. He was the adopted grandson and biological great-great-nephew of the historian Sallust. Little is known on their relationship, but Crispus soon died and left his estate to Nero. + +In the first years of Claudius' reign, Claudius was married to the infamous Empress Valeria Messalina. Although Agrippina was very influential, she kept a very low profile and stayed away from the imperial palace and the court of the emperor. Messalina was Agrippina's paternal second cousin. Among the victims of Messalina's intrigues were Agrippina's surviving sister Livilla, who was charged with having adultery with Seneca the Younger. Seneca was later called back from exile to be a tutor to Nero. + +Messalina considered Agrippina's son a threat to her son's position and sent assassins to strangle Lucius during his siesta. The assassins left after they saw a snake beneath Lucius' pillow, considering it as bad omen. It was, however, only a sloughed-off snake-skin in his bed, near his pillow. By Agrippina's order, the serpent's skin was enclosed in a bracelet that the young Nero wore on his right arm. + +In 47, Crispus died, and at his funeral, the rumour spread around that Agrippina poisoned Crispus to gain his estate. After being widowed a second time, Agrippina was left very wealthy. Later that year at the Secular Games, at the performance of the Troy Pageant, Messalina attended the event with her son Britannicus. Agrippina was also present with Lucius. Agrippina and Lucius received greater applause from the audience than Messalina and Britannicus did. Many people began to show pity and sympathy to Agrippina, due to the unfortunate circumstances in her life. + +Marriage to Claudius +After Messalina was executed in 48 for conspiring with Gaius Silius to overthrow her husband, Claudius considered marrying for the fourth time. Around this time, Agrippina became the mistress to one of Claudius' advisers, the Greek freedman, Marcus Antonius Pallas. At that time Claudius' advisers were discussing which noblewoman Claudius should marry. Claudius had a reputation that he was easily persuaded. In more recent times, it has been suggested that the Senate may have pushed for the marriage between Agrippina and Claudius to end the feud between the Julian and Claudian branches. This feud dated back to Agrippina's mother's actions against Tiberius after the death of Germanicus, actions which Tiberius had gladly punished. + +Claudius made references to her in his speeches: "my daughter and foster child, born and bred, in my lap, so to speak". When Claudius decided to marry her, he persuaded a group of senators that the marriage should be arranged in the public interest. In Roman society, an uncle (Claudius) marrying his niece (Agrippina) was considered incestuous and immoral. + +Agrippina and Claudius married on New Year's Day, 49. This marriage caused widespread disapproval. This may have been a part of Agrippina's plan to make her son Lucius the new emperor. Her marriage to Claudius was not based on love, but on power. She quickly eliminated her rival Lollia Paulina. Shortly after marrying Claudius, Agrippina persuaded the emperor to charge Paulina with black magic. Claudius stipulated that Paulina did not receive a hearing and her property was confiscated. She left Italy, but Agrippina was unsatisfied. Allegedly on Agrippina's orders, Paulina committed suicide. + +In the months leading up to her marriage to Claudius, Agrippina's maternal second cousin, the praetor Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus, was betrothed to Claudius' daughter Claudia Octavia. This betrothal was broken off in 48, when Agrippina, scheming with the consul Lucius Vitellius the Elder, the father of the future emperor Aulus Vitellius, falsely accused Silanus of incest with his sister Junia Calvina. Agrippina did this hoping to secure a marriage between Octavia and her son. Consequently, Claudius broke off the engagement and forced Silanus to resign from public office. + +Silanus committed suicide on the day that Agrippina married her uncle, and Calvina was exiled from Italy in early 49. Calvina was called back from exile after the death of Agrippina. Towards the end of 54, Agrippina would order the murder of Silanus' eldest brother Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus without Nero's knowledge, so that he would not seek revenge against her over his brother's death. + +Empress of Rome + +On the day that Agrippina married her uncle Claudius as her third husband/his fourth wife, she became empress. She also was a stepmother to Claudia Antonia, Claudius' daughter and only child from his second marriage to Aelia Paetina, and to the young Claudia Octavia and Britannicus, Claudius' children with Valeria Messalina. Agrippina removed or eliminated anyone from the palace or the imperial court whom she thought was loyal and dedicated to the memory of the late Messalina. She also eliminated or removed anyone whom she considered was a potential threat to her position and the future of her son, one of her victims being Lucius' second paternal aunt and Messalina's mother Domitia Lepida the Younger. + +Griffin describes how Agrippina "had achieved this dominant position for her son and herself by a web of political alliances," which included Claudius chief secretary and bookkeeper Pallas, his doctor Xenophon, and Afranius Burrus, the head of the Praetorian Guard (the imperial bodyguard), who owed his promotion to Agrippina. Neither ancient nor modern historians of Rome have doubted that Agrippina had her eye on securing the throne for Nero from the very day of the marriage—if not earlier. Dio Cassius observation seems to bear that out: "As soon as Agrippina had come to live in the palace she gained complete control over Claudius." + +In 49, Agrippina was seated on a dais at a parade of captives when their leader the Celtic King Caratacus bowed before her with the same homage and gratitude as he accorded the emperor. In 50, Agrippina was granted the honorific title of Augusta. She was only the third Roman woman (Livia Drusilla and Antonia Minor received this title) and only the second living Roman woman (the first being Livia) to receive this title. + +In her capacity as Augusta, Agrippina quickly became a trusted advisor to Claudius, and by AD 54, she exerted a considerable influence over the decisions of the emperor. Statues of her were erected in many cities across the Empire, her face appeared on coins, and in the Senate, her followers were advanced with public offices and governorships. However this privileged position caused resentment among the senatorial class and the imperial family. + +She went to a place outside the imperial court and listened to the Senate from behind the scenes, and even Claudius allowed her to be a separate court and decide on empire matters. Agrippina even signed government documents and officially dealt with foreign ambassadors. She also claimed auctoritas (power of commanding) and Autokrateira (self-ruler as empress) in front of the Senate, the people and the army. + +Also that year, Claudius had founded a Roman colony and called the colony Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensis or Agrippinensium, today known as Cologne, after Agrippina who was born there. This colony was the only Roman colony to be named after a Roman woman. In 51, she was given a carpentum which she used. A carpentum was a sort of ceremonial carriage usually reserved for priests, such as the Vestal Virgins, and sacred statues. That same year she appointed Sextus Afranius Burrus as the head of the Praetorian Guard, replacing the previous head of the Praetorian Guard, Rufrius Crispinus. + +She assisted Claudius in administering the empire and became very wealthy and powerful. Ancient sources claim that Agrippina successfully influenced Claudius into adopting her son and making him his successor. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was adopted by his great maternal uncle and stepfather in 50. Lucius' name was changed to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus and he became Claudius's adopted son, heir and recognised successor. Agrippina and Claudius betrothed Nero to his step sister Claudia Octavia, and Agrippina arranged to have Seneca the Younger return from exile to tutor the future emperor. Claudius chose to adopt Nero because of his Julian and Claudian lineage. + +Agrippina deprived Britannicus of his heritage and further isolated him from his father and succession for the throne in every way possible. For instance, in 51, Agrippina ordered the execution of Britannicus' tutor Sosibius because he had confronted her and was outraged by Claudius' adoption of Nero and his choice of Nero as successor, instead of choosing his own son Britannicus. + +Nero and Octavia were married on June 9, 53. Claudius later repented of marrying Agrippina and adopting Nero, began to favour Britannicus, and started preparing him for the throne. His actions allegedly gave Agrippina a motive to eliminate Claudius. The ancient sources say she poisoned Claudius on October 13, 54 (a Sunday) with a plate of deadly mushrooms at a banquet, thus enabling Nero to quickly take the throne as emperor. Accounts vary wildly with regard to this private incident and according to more modern sources, it is possible that Claudius died of natural causes; Claudius was 63 years old. In the aftermath of Claudius's death, Agrippina, who initially kept the death secret, tried to consolidate power, and immediately ordered that the palace and the capital be sealed. All the gates were blockaded and exit of the capital forbidden and she introduced Nero first to the soldiers and then to the senators as emperor. + +Reign of Nero + +Relationship with Nero + +Nero was raised to emperor and Agrippina was named a priestess of the cult of the deified Claudius. She now attempted to use her son's youth to participate in the rule of the Roman Empire. She enjoyed imperial prerogatives: holding court with the emperor by her side, being allowed to visit senate meetings from behind a curtain, and appearing as a partner to her son in the royal coins and statues. The historian Tacitus depicts her as attempting a diarchy with her son when she demanded that the Praetorian Guard pledge their loyalty to her. She was also said to have tried to participate in her son's meeting with Armenian ambassadors until Seneca and Burrus stopped her. + +In year one of Nero's reign, Agrippina guided her 17-year-old son in his rule but started losing influence over Nero when he began to have an affair with the freed woman Claudia Acte, which Agrippina strongly disapproved of and violently scolded him for. Agrippina began to support Britannicus in her possible attempt to make him emperor, or to threaten Nero. The panicking emperor decided on whether to eliminate his mother or his step-brother. Soon, Nero had Britannicus secretly poisoned during his own banquet in February 55. The power struggle between Agrippina and her son had begun. + +Agrippina between 56 and 58 became very watchful and had a critical eye over her son. In 56, Agrippina was forced out of the palace by her son to live in the imperial residence. However, some degree of Agrippina's influence over her son still lasted several more years, and they are considered the best years of Nero's reign. But their relationship grew more hostile and Nero gradually deprived his mother of honours and powers, and even removed her Roman and German bodyguards. Nero even threatened his mother that he would abdicate the throne and would go to live on the Greek Island of Rhodes, a place where Tiberius had lived after divorcing Julia the Elder. Pallas also was dismissed from the court. The fall of Pallas and the opposition of Burrus and Seneca to Agrippina contributed to her scaling down of authority. In mid-56, she was forced out of everyday and active participation in the governance of Rome. + +While Agrippina lived in her residence or when she went on short visits to Rome, Nero sent people to annoy her. Although living in Misenum, she was always hailed as "Augusta", and Agrippina and Nero would see each other on short visits. In late 58, Agrippina and a group of soldiers and senators were accused of attempting to overthrow Nero, and it was said they planned to move with Gaius Rubellius Plautus. In addition, she revealed Nero's relationship with Poppaea Sabina. + +Death and aftermath +The circumstances that surround Agrippina's death are uncertain due to historical contradictions and anti-Nero bias. All surviving stories of Agrippina's death contradict themselves and each other, and are generally fantastical. + +Tacitus's account +According to Tacitus, in 58, Nero became involved with the noble woman Poppaea Sabina. She taunted him for being a "mummy's boy." She also convinced him of the autonomy of any other emperor. With the reasoning that a divorce from Octavia and a marriage to Poppaea was not politically feasible with Agrippina alive, Nero decided to kill Agrippina. Yet, Nero did not marry Poppaea until 62, calling into question this motive. Additionally, Suetonius reveals that Poppaea's husband, Otho, was not sent away by Nero until after Agrippina's death in 59, making it highly unlikely that already married Poppaea would be pressing Nero. Some modern historians theorise that Nero's decision to kill Agrippina was prompted by her plot to replace him with either Gaius Rubellius Plautus (Nero's maternal second cousin) or Britannicus (Claudius' biological son). + +Tacitus claims that Nero considered poisoning or stabbing her, but felt these methods were too difficult and suspicious, so he settled on – after the advice of his former tutor Anicetus – building a self-sinking boat. Though aware of the plot, Agrippina embarked on this boat and was nearly crushed by a collapsing lead ceiling only to be saved by the side of a sofa breaking the ceiling's fall. Though the collapsing ceiling missed Agrippina, it crushed her attendant who was outside by the helm. + +The boat failed to sink from the lead ceiling, so the crew then sank the boat, but Agrippina swam to shore. Her friend, Acerronia Polla, was attacked by oarsmen while still in the water, and was either bludgeoned to death or drowned, since she was exclaiming that she was Agrippina, with the intention of being saved. She did not know, however, that this was an assassination attempt, not a mere accident. Agrippina was met at the shore by crowds of admirers. News of Agrippina's survival reached Nero so he sent three assassins to kill her. + +Suetonius's account +Suetonius says that Agrippina's "over-watchful" and "over-critical" eye that she kept over Nero drove him to murdering her. After months of attempting to humiliate her by depriving her of her power, honour, and bodyguards, he also expelled her from the Palatine, followed by the people he sent to "pester" her with lawsuits and "jeers and catcalls". + +When he eventually turned to murder, he first tried poison, three times in fact. She prevented her death by taking the antidote in advance. Afterwards, he rigged up a machine in her room which would drop her ceiling tiles onto her as she slept, but she once again escaped her death after she received word of the plan. Nero's final plan was to get her in a boat which would collapse and sink. + +He sent her a friendly letter asking to reconcile and inviting her to celebrate the Quinquatrus at Baiae with him. He arranged an "accidental" collision between her galley and one of his captains. When returning home, he offered her his collapsible boat, as opposed to her damaged galley. + +The next day, Nero received word of her survival after the boat sank from her freedman Agermus. Panicking, Nero ordered a guard to "surreptitiously" drop a blade behind Agermus and Nero immediately had him arrested on account of attempted murder. Nero ordered the assassination of Agrippina. He made it look as if Agrippina had committed suicide after her plot to kill Nero had been uncovered. + +Suetonius says that after Agrippina's death, Nero examined Agrippina's corpse and discussed her good and bad points. Nero also believed Agrippina to haunt him after her death. + +Cassius Dio's account +The tale of Cassius Dio is also somewhat different. It starts again with Poppaea as the motive behind the murder. Nero designed a ship that would open at the bottom while at sea. Agrippina was put aboard and after the bottom of the ship opened up, she fell into the water. Agrippina swam to shore so Nero sent an assassin to kill her. Nero then claimed Agrippina had plotted to kill him and committed suicide. Her reputed last words, uttered as the assassin was about to strike, were "Smite my womb", the implication here being she wished to be destroyed first in that part of her body that had given birth to so "abominable a son." + +Burial +After Agrippina's death, Nero viewed her corpse and commented how beautiful she was, according to some. Her body was cremated that night on a dining couch. At his mother's funeral, Nero was witless, speechless and rather scared. When the news spread that Agrippina had died, the Roman army, senate and various people sent him letters of congratulations that he had been saved from his mother's plots. + +Aftermath +During the remainder of Nero's reign, Agrippina's grave was not covered or enclosed. Her household later on gave her a modest tomb in Misenum. Nero would have his mother's death on his conscience. He felt so guilty he would sometimes have nightmares about his mother. He even saw his mother's ghost and got Persian magicians to ask her for forgiveness. Years before she died, Agrippina had visited astrologers to ask about her son's future. The astrologers had rather accurately predicted that her son would become emperor and would kill her. She replied, "Let him kill me, provided he becomes emperor," according to Tacitus. + +Agrippina's alleged victims + 47 + Passienus Crispus: Agrippina's 2nd husband, poisoned (Suet.). +48 + Messalina: Because of the competition for the emperor's successor + 49 + Lollia Paulina: as she was a rival for Claudius' hand in marriage as proposed by the freedman Callistus (Tac. & Dio). + Lucius Silanus: betrothed to Octavia, Claudius' daughter before his marriage of Agrippina. He committed suicide on their wedding day. + Sosibius: Britannicus' tutor, executed for plotting against Nero. + Calpurnia: banished (Tac.) and/or executed (Dio) because Claudius had commented on her beauty. + 53 + Statilius Taurus: forced to commit suicide because Agrippina wanted his gardens (Tac.). + 54 + Claudius: her husband, poisoned (Tac., Sen., Juv., Suet., Dio). + Domitia Lepida: mother of Messalina, executed (Tac.). + Marcus Junius Silanus: a potential rival to Nero, poisoned (Pliny, Tac., Dio). + Cadius Rufus: executed on the charge of extortion. + Tiberius Claudius Narcissus: Because of the competition with Agrippina. + +Legacy and cultural references + +Memoirs +Agrippina left memoirs of her life and the misfortunes of her family, which Tacitus used when writing his Annals, but they have not survived. + +In music and literature +She is remembered in De Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 136162. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in western literature. + +Octavia, a Roman tragedy written during the Flavian period +Agrippina: Trauerspiel (1665), a German baroque tragedy by Daniel Casper von Lohenstein +G.F. Handel's 1709 opera Agrippina with a libretto by Vincenzo Grimani +Empress of Rome (1978), a novel by Robert DeMaria (Vineyard Press edition, 2001, ) +Agrippina is considered to be the founder of Cologne and is still symbolised there today by the robe of the virgin of the Cologne triumvirate. In the sculpture programme of the Cologne town hall tower, a figure by Heribert Calleen was dedicated to Agrippina on the ground floor. + +In film, television, and radio + The 1911 Italian film Agrippina +I, Claudius (1976) played by Barbara Young (here called Agrippinilla). +Caligula (1979) and also Messalina, Messalina (1977) played by Lori Wagner. +Caligula and Messalina (1981) played by Françoise Blanchard. +A.D. (1985 miniseries) played by Ava Gardner. +Boudica (2003) played by Frances Barber. +Imperium: Nero (2005) played by Laura Morante. +Ancients Behaving Badly (2009), History Channel documentary. Episode Nero. +Roman Empire (2016), Netflix, played by Teressa Liane. + Agrippina the Younger was portrayed by Betty Lou Gerson in the August 31, 1953, episode of the CBS radio program Crime Classics that was entitled "Your Loving Son, Nero." The episode chronicles the killing of Agrippina by her son Nero who was portrayed by William Conrad. +Mio Figlio Nerone (1956) played by Gloria Swanson + +Perspectives on Agrippina's personality + +Ancient +Most ancient Roman sources are quite critical of Agrippina the Younger. Tacitus considered her vicious and had a strong disposition against her. Other sources are Suetonius and Cassius Dio. + +Modern + Girod, Virginie, Agrippine, sexe, crimes et pouvoir dans la Rome impériale , Paris, Tallandier, 2015, 300 p. + Minaud, Gérard, Les vies de 12 femmes d'empereur romain – Devoirs, Intrigues & Voluptés , Paris, L'Harmattan, 2012, ch. 3, La vie d'Agrippine, femme de Claude, p. 65-96. + E. Groag, A. Stein, L. Petersen, Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III, Berlin, 1933 + Scullard: A critical view of Agrippina, suggesting she was ambitious and unscrupulous and a depraved sexual psychopath. "Agrippina struck down a series of victims; no man or woman was safe if she suspected rivalry or desired their wealth." + Ferrero: Sympathetic and understanding, suggesting Agrippina has been judged harshly by history. Suggesting her marriage to Claudius was to a weak emperor who was, because of his hesitations and terrors, a threat to the imperial authority and government. She saw it her duty to compensate for the innumerable deficiencies of her strange husband through her own intelligence and strength of will. Pages 212ff.; 276ff. + Barrett: A reasonable view, comparing Scullard's criticisms to Ferrero's apologies. (See Barrett, Anthony A., Agrippina: Sex, Power and Politics in the Early Roman Empire, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1996.) + Annelise Freisenbruch, The first ladies of Rome + + + + + + McDaniel, W. B. "Bauli the Scene of the Murder of Agrippina". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 2 (April 1910) + Salmonson, Jessica Amanda. (1991) The Encyclopedia of Amazons. Paragon House. Pages 4–5. + Donna Hurley, Agrippina the Younger (Wife of Claudius). + L. Foubert, Agrippina. Keizerin van Rome, Leuven, 2006. + Opera by G. F. Handel: Agrippina + +See also +List of unsolved murders + +Notes + +References + +Tacitus, Annales xii.1–10, 64–69, xiv.1–9 +Suetonius, De vita Caesarum – Claudius v.44 and Nero vi.5.3, 28.2, 34.1–4 + +15 births +59 deaths +1st-century executions +1st-century Roman empresses +Augustae +Children of Germanicus +Family of Nero +Female murder victims +Incest +Julii Caesares +Murdered ancient Roman empresses +People from Cologne +Unsolved murders in Italy +Wives of Claudius +American Chinese cuisine is a cuisine derived from Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. The dishes served in many North American Chinese restaurants are adapted to American tastes and often differ significantly from those found in China. + +History + +Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States seeking employment as miners and railroad workers. As larger groups arrived, laws were put in place preventing them from owning land. They mostly lived together in ghettos, individually referred to as "Chinatown". Here the immigrants started their small businesses, including restaurants and laundry services. + +By the 19th century, the Chinese community in San Francisco operated sophisticated and sometimes luxurious restaurants patronized mainly by Chinese. The restaurants in smaller towns (mostly owned by Chinese immigrants) served food based on what their customers requested, anything ranging from pork chop sandwiches and apple pie, to beans and eggs. Many of these small-town restaurant owners were self-taught family cooks who improvised on different cooking methods using whatever ingredients were available. + +These smaller restaurants were responsible for developing American Chinese cuisine, where the food was modified to suit a more American palate. First catering to miners and railroad workers, they established new eateries in towns where Chinese food was completely unknown, adapting local ingredients and catering to their customers' tastes. Even though the new flavors and dishes meant they were not strictly Chinese cuisine, these Chinese restaurants have been cultural ambassadors to Americans. + +Chinese restaurants in the United States began during the California Gold Rush (1848–1855), which brought 20,000–30,000 immigrants across from the Canton (Guangdong) region of China. The first Chinese restaurant in America is debated. Some say it was Macau and Woosung, while others cite Canton Restaurant. Both unphotographed establishments were founded in 1849 in San Francisco. Either way, these and other such restaurants were central features in the daily lives of immigrants. They provided a connection to home, particularly for the many bachelors who did not have the resources or knowledge to cook for themselves. In 1852, the ratio of male to female Chinese immigrants was a 18:1. These restaurants served as gathering places and cultural centers for the Chinese community. By 1850, there were five Chinese restaurants in San Francisco. Soon after, significant amounts of food were being imported from China to America's west coast. + +The trend spread steadily eastward with the growth of the American railways, particularly to New York City. The Chinese Exclusion Act allowed merchants to enter the country, and in 1915, restaurant owners became eligible for merchant visas. This fueled the opening of Chinese restaurants as an immigration vehicle. Pekin Noodle Parlor, established in 1911, is the oldest operating Chinese restaurant in the country. , the United States had 46,700 Chinese restaurants. + +Along the way, cooks adapted southern Chinese dishes and developed a style of Chinese food not found in China, such as chop suey. Restaurants (along with Chinese laundries) provided an ethnic niche for small businesses at a time when Chinese people were excluded from most jobs in the wage economy by ethnic discrimination or lack of language fluency. By the 1920s, this cuisine, particularly chop suey, became popular among middle-class Americans. However, after World War II it began to be dismissed for not being "authentic", though it continued to be popular. + +In 1955, the Republic of China (having itself retreated to Taiwan) evacuated the Dachen Islands in the face of the encroaching Communists. Many who evacuated to Taiwan later moved to the United States as they lacked strong social networks and access to opportunity in Taiwan. Chefs from the Dachen Islands had a strong influence on American Chinese food. + +Beginning in the 1950s, Taiwanese immigrants replaced Cantonese immigrants as the primary labor force in American Chinese restaurants. These immigrants expanded American-Chinese cuisine beyond Cantonese cuisine to encompass dishes from many different regions of China as well as Japanese-inspired dishes. + +Chinese-American restaurants played a key role in ushering in the era of take-out and delivery food in the United States. In New York City, delivery was pioneered in the 1970s by Empire Szechuan Gourmet Franchise, which hired Taiwanese students studying at Columbia University to do the work. Chinese American restaurants were among the first restaurants to use picture menus in the US. + +Taiwanese immigration largely ended in the 1990s due to an economic boom and democratization in Taiwan. From the 1990s onward, immigrants from China once again made up the majority of cooks in American Chinese restaurants. There has been a consequential component of Chinese emigration of illegal origin, most notably Fuzhou people from Fujian Province and Wenzhounese from Zhejiang Province in Mainland China, specifically destined to work in Chinese restaurants in New York City, beginning in the 1980s. + +Adapting Chinese cooking techniques to local produce and tastes has led to the development of American Chinese cuisine. Many of the Chinese restaurant menus in the US are printed in Chinatown, Manhattan,which has a strong Chinese-American demographic. + +Late 20th-century tastes have been more accommodating. By this time, it had become evident that Chinese restaurants no longer catered mainly to Chinese customers. + +In 2011, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History displayed some of the historical background and cultural artifacts of American Chinese cuisine in its exhibit entitled, Sweet & Sour: A Look at the History of Chinese Food in the United States. + +Differences from other regional cuisines in China +American Chinese food builds from styles and food habits brought from the southern province of Guangdong, often from the Toisan district of Toisan, the origin of most Chinese immigration before the closure of immigration from China in 1924. These Chinese families developed new styles and used readily available ingredients, especially in California. The type of Chinese-American cooking served in restaurants was different from the foods eaten in Chinese-American homes. Of the various regional cuisines in China, Cantonese cuisine has been the most influential in the development of American Chinese food. + +American Chinese food typically features different types and greater quantities of meat than traditional Chinese cuisine. Another major difference between Chinese and American-Chinese cuisine is in the use of vegetables. Salads containing raw or uncooked ingredients are rare in traditional Chinese cuisine. An increasing number of American Chinese restaurants, including some upscale establishments, have started to offer these items in response to customer demand. While cuisine in China makes frequent use of Asian leaf vegetables like bok choy and gai-lan, American Chinese cuisine makes use of some ingredients not native to and very rarely used in China, for example, Western broccoli () instead of Chinese broccoli (gai-lan, ). (Occasionally, Western broccoli is also referred to as in Cantonese () in order to distinguish the two.) + +Chinese ingredients considered "exotic" in North America have become more available over time, including fresh fruits and vegetables which previously had been rare. For example, edible snow pea pods have become widely available, while the less-known dau miu (also called "pea sprouts", "pea pod stems", or "pea shoots") are also appearing on menus, and even in supermarkets in North America. + +American-Chinese food also has had a reputation for high levels of MSG to enhance flavor. In recent years, market forces and customer demand have encouraged many restaurants to offer "MSG Free" or "No MSG" menus, or to omit this ingredient on request. + +Egg fried rice in American Chinese cuisine is also prepared differently, with more soy sauce added for more flavor whereas the traditional egg fried rice uses less soy sauce. Some food styles, such as dim sum, were also modified to fit American palates, such as added batter for fried dishes and extra soy sauce. + +Both Chinese and American-Chinese cooking utilize similar methods of preparation, such as stir frying, pan frying, and deep frying, which are all easily done using a wok. + +Ming Tsai, the owner of the Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and host of PBS culinary show Simply Ming, said that American Chinese restaurants typically try to have food representing 3-5 regions of China at one time, have chop suey, or have "fried vegetables and some protein in a thick sauce", "eight different sweet and sour dishes", or "a whole page of 20 different chow meins or fried rice dishes". Tsai said "Chinese-American cuisine is 'dumbed-down' Chinese food. It's adapted... to be blander, thicker and sweeter for the American public". + +Most American Chinese establishments cater to non-Chinese customers with menus written in English or containing pictures. If separate Chinese-language menus are available, they typically feature items such as liver, chicken feet, or other meat dishes that might deter American customers (such as offal). In Chinatown, Manhattan, some restaurants are known for having a "phantom" menu with food preferred by ethnic Chinese, but believed to be disliked by non-Chinese Americans. + +Dishes + +Menu items not found in China +Dishes that often appear on American Chinese restaurant menus include: + Almond chicken — chicken breaded in batter containing ground almonds, fried and served with almonds and onions. + Beef and broccoli — flank steak cut into small pieces, stir fried with broccoli, and covered in a dark sauce made with soy sauce and oyster sauce and thickened with cornstarch. + Chicken and broccoli — similar to beef and broccoli, but with chicken instead of beef. + Chinese chicken salad — usually containing sliced or shredded chicken, uncooked leafy greens, carrots, cucumbers, crispy noodles (or fried wonton skins) and sesame dressing. Some restaurants serve the salad with mandarin oranges. + Chop suey — connotes "assorted pieces" in Chinese. It is usually a mix of vegetables and meat in a brown sauce but can also be served in a white sauce. + Crab rangoon — fried wonton skins stuffed with (usually) artificial crab meat (surimi) and cream cheese. + Fortune cookie — invented in California as a Westernized version of the Japanese omikuji senbei, fortune cookies have become sweetened and found their way to many American Chinese restaurants. + Fried wontons — somewhat similar to crab rangoon, a filling, (most often pork), is wrapped in a wonton skin and deep fried. + General Tso's chicken — chunks of chicken that are dipped in batter, deep fried, and seasoned with ginger, garlic, sesame oil, scallions, and hot chili peppers. Believed to be named after Qing dynasty statesman and military leader Zuo Zongtang, often referred to as General Tso. + Mongolian beef — fried beef with scallions or white onions in a spicy and often sweet brown sauce. + Pepper steak — sliced steak, green bell peppers, tomatoes, and white or green onions stir fried with salt, sugar, and soy sauce. Bean sprouts are a less common addition. + Royal beef—deep-fried sliced beef, doused in a wine sauce and often served with steamed broccoli. + Sesame chicken — boned, marinated, battered, and deep-fried chicken which is then dressed with a translucent red or orange, sweet and mildly spicy sauce, made from soy sauce, corn starch, vinegar, chicken broth, and sugar. + + Sushi — despite being served in the Japanese and American styles, some American Chinese restaurants serve various types of sushi, usually on buffets. + Sweet roll — yeast rolls, typically fried, covered in granulated sugar or powdered sugar. Some variants are stuffed with cream cheese or icing. + Wonton strips — these deep-fried strips of dough are commonly offered as complimentary appetizers, along with duck sauce and hot mustard, or with soup when ordering take-out. + +Other American Chinese dishes +Dau miu is a Chinese vegetable that has become popular since the early 1990s, and now not only appears on English-language menus, usually as "pea shoots", but is often served by upscale non-Asian restaurants as well. Originally it was only available during a few months of the year, but it is now grown in greenhouses and is available year-round. + +Versions of dishes also found in China + + Beijing beef — in China, this dish uses gai lan (Chinese broccoli) rather than American broccoli. + Cashew chicken — stir-fried tender chicken pieces with cashew nuts. + Chow mein — literally means "stir-fried noodles". Chow mein consists of fried crispy noodles with bits of meat and vegetables. It can come with chicken, pork, shrimp or beef. + Egg foo young — Chinese-style omelet with vegetables and meat, usually served with a brown gravy. While some restaurants in North America deep fry the omelet, versions found in Asia are more likely to fry in the wok. + Egg roll — while spring rolls have a thin, light beige crispy skin that flakes apart, and is filled with mushrooms, bamboo, and other vegetables inside, the American-style egg roll has a thicker, chewier, dark brown bubbly skin stuffed with cabbage and usually bits of meat or seafood (such as pork or shrimp), but no egg. In some regions, a filling of shredded and dried celery replaces cabbage, resulting in a more greenish tinge to the filling. + Fried rice — fried-rice dishes are popular offerings in American Chinese food due to the speed and ease of preparation and their appeal to American tastes. +Fried rice is generally prepared with rice cooled overnight, allowing restaurants to put leftover rice to good use (freshly cooked rice is actually less suitable for fried rice). +The Chinese-American version of this dish typically uses more soy sauce than the versions found in China. +Fried rice is offered with different combinations of meat (pork, chicken and shrimp are the most popular) and vegetables. + Ginger beef () — tender beef cut in chunks, mixed with ginger and Chinese mixed vegetables. + Ginger fried beef () — tender beef cut in strings, battered, deep fried, then re-fried in a wok mixed with a sweet sauce, a variation of a popular Northern Chinese dish. + Hulatang — a traditional Chinese soup with hot spices, often called "spicy soup" on menus. + Hot and sour soup — the North American soups tend to have starch added as a thickener. + Kung Pao chicken — a spicy Sichuan dish that is served with peanuts, scallions, and Sichuan peppers. Some versions in North America may include zucchini and bell peppers. + Lo mein ("stirred noodles") — frequently made with eggs and flour, making them chewier than a recipe simply using water. Thick, spaghetti-shaped noodles are pan fried with vegetables (mainly bok choy and Chinese cabbage or napa) and meat. Sometimes this dish is referred to as chow mein (which literally means "stir-fried noodles" in Cantonese). + Mei Fun — noodles usually simmered in broth with other ingredients such as fish balls, beef balls, and/or slices of fishcake. + Moo shu pork — the original version uses more typically Chinese ingredients (including wood ear fungi and daylily buds) and thin flour pancakes, while the American version often uses vegetables more familiar to Americans, and thicker pancakes. This dish is quite popular in Chinese restaurants in the United States, but not as popular in China. + Orange chicken — chopped, battered, fried chicken with a sweet orange flavored chili sauce that is thickened and glazed. The traditional version consists of stir-fried chicken in a light, slightly sweet soy sauce flavored with dried orange peels. + Wonton soup — In most American Chinese restaurants, only wonton dumplings in broth are served, while versions found in China may come with noodles. (In Canton, it can be a full meal in itself, consisting of thin egg noodles and several pork and prawn wontons in a pork or chicken soup broth or noodle broth). Especially in takeout restaurants, wonton are often made with thicker dough skins, to withstand the rigors of delivery. + +Regional variations + +New York City +The New York metropolitan area is home to the largest Chinese population outside of Asia, which also constitutes the largest metropolitan Asian-American group in the United States and the largest Asian-national metropolitan diaspora in the Western Hemisphere. The Chinese-American population of the New York City metropolitan area was an estimated 893,697 as of 2017. + +Given the New York metropolitan area's continuing status as by far the leading gateway for Chinese immigrants to the United States, all popular styles of every Chinese regional cuisine have commensurately become ubiquitously accessible in New York City, including Hakka, Taiwanese, Shanghainese, Hunanese, Szechuan, Cantonese, Fujianese, Xinjiang, Zhejiang, and Korean Chinese cuisine. Even the relatively obscure Dongbei style of cuisine indigenous to Northeast China is now available in Flushing, Queens, as well as Mongolian cuisine and Uyghur cuisine. + +Kosher preparation + +Kosher preparation of Chinese food is also widely available in New York City, given the metropolitan area's large Jewish and particularly Orthodox Jewish populations. + +The perception that American Jews eat at Chinese restaurants on Christmas Day is documented in media. The tradition may have arisen from the lack of other open restaurants on Christmas Day, the close proximity of Jewish and Chinese immigrants to each other in New York City, and the absence of dairy foods combined with meat. + +Kosher Chinese food is usually prepared in New York City, as well as in other large cities with Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, under strict rabbinical supervision as a prerequisite for Kosher certification. + +Los Angeles County +Chinese populations in Los Angeles represent at least 21 of the 34 provincial-level administrative units of China, along with the largest population of Taiwanese-born immigrants outside of Taiwan, making greater Los Angeles home to a diverse population of Chinese people in the United States. + +Chinese-American cuisine in the Greater Los Angeles area is concentrated in Chinese ethnoburbs rather than traditional Chinatowns. The oldest Chinese ethnoburb is Monterey Park, considered to be the nation's first suburban Chinatown. + +Although Chinatown in Los Angeles is still a significant commercial center for Chinese immigrants, the majority are centered in the San Gabriel Valley which is the one of the largest concentration of Asian-Americans in the country, stretching from Monterey Park into the cities of Alhambra, San Gabriel, Rosemead, San Marino, South Pasadena, West Covina, Walnut, City of Industry, Diamond Bar, Arcadia, and Temple City. + +The Valley Boulevard corridor is the main artery of Chinese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley. Another hub with a significant Chinese population is Irvine (Orange County). More than 200,000 Chinese Americans live in the San Gabriel Valley alone, with over 67% being foreign born. The valley has become a brand-name tourist destination in China, although droughts in California are creating a difficult impact upon its water security and existential viability. Of the ten cities in the United States with the highest proportions of Chinese Americans, the top eight are located in the San Gabriel Valley, making it one of the largest concentrated hubs for Chinese Americans in North America. + +Some regional styles of Chinese cuisine include Beijing, Chengdu, Chonqing, Dalian, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Hunan, Mongolian hot pot, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shanxi, Shenyang, Wuxi, Xinjiang, Yunnan, and Wuhan. + +San Francisco Bay Area +Since the early 1990s, many American Chinese restaurants influenced by California cuisine have opened in the San Francisco Bay Area. The trademark dishes of American Chinese cuisine remain on the menu, but there is more emphasis on fresh vegetables, and the selection is vegetarian-friendly. + +This new cuisine has exotic ingredients like mangos and portobello mushrooms. Brown rice is often offered as an alternative to white rice. + +Some restaurants substitute grilled wheat flour tortillas for the rice pancakes in mushu dishes. This occurs even in some restaurants that would not otherwise be identified as California Chinese, both the more Westernized places and the more authentic places. There is a Mexican bakery that supplies some restaurants with thinner tortillas made for use with mushu. Mushu purists do not always react positively to this trend. + +In addition, many restaurants serving more native-style Chinese cuisines exist, due to the high numbers and proportion of ethnic Chinese in the San Francisco Bay Area. + +Restaurants specializing in Cantonese, Sichuanese, Hunanese, Northern Chinese, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong traditions are widely available, as are more specialized restaurants such as seafood restaurants, Hong Kong-style diners and cafes, also known as Cha chaan teng (), dim sum teahouses, and hot pot restaurants. Many Chinatown areas also feature Chinese bakeries, boba milk tea shops, roasted meat, vegetarian cuisine, and specialized dessert shops. + +Chop suey is not widely available in San Francisco, and the area's chow mein is different from Midwestern chow mein. + +Boston +Chinese cuisine in Boston results from a combination of economic and regional factors, in association with the wide Chinese academic scene. The growing Boston Chinatown accommodates Chinese-owned bus lines shuttling an increasing number of passengers to and from the numerous Chinatowns in New York City, and this has led to some exchange between Boston Chinese cuisine and that in New York. + +A large immigrant Fujianese immigrant population has made a home in Boston, leading to Fuzhou cuisine being readily available there. An increasing Vietnamese population has also had an influence on Chinese cuisine in Greater Boston. + +In addition, innovative dishes incorporating chow mein and chop suey as well as locally farmed produce and regionally procured seafood are found in Chinese as well as non-Chinese food in and around Boston. The selection of Chinese bakery products has increased markedly in the 21st century, although the range of choices in New York City remains supreme. + +Joyce Chen introduced northern Chinese (Mandarin) and Shanghainese dishes to Boston in the 1950s, including Peking duck, moo shu pork, hot and sour soup, and potstickers, which she called "Peking Ravioli" or "Ravs". Her restaurants would be frequented by early pioneers of the ARPANET, as well as celebrities such as John Kenneth Galbraith, James Beard, Julia Child, Henry Kissinger, Beverly Sills, and Danny Kaye. A former Harvard University president called her eating establishment "not merely a restaurant, but a cultural exchange center". In addition, her single-season PBS national television series Joyce Chen Cooks popularized some dishes which could be made at home, and she often encouraged using substitute ingredients when necessary. + +Philadelphia +The evolving American Chinese cuisine scene in Philadelphia has similarities with the situation in both New York City and Boston. As with Boston, Philadelphia is experiencing significant Chinese immigration from New York City, to the north, and from China, the top country of birth by a significant margin for a new arrivals there . + +There is a growing Fujianese community in Philadelphia as well, and Fuzhou cuisine is readily available in the Philadelphia Chinatown. Also, emerging Vietnamese cuisine in Philadelphia is contributing to evolution in local Chinese cuisine, with some Chinese-American restaurants adopting Vietnamese influences or recipes. + +Washington, D.C. +Although Washington, D.C.'s Chinese community has not achieved as high of a local profile as that in other major cities along the Mid-Atlantic United States, it is now growing, and rapidly so, due to the gentrification of DC's Chinatown and the status of Washington, D.C., as the capital of the United States. The growing Chinese community in DC. and its suburbs has revitalized the influence of Chinese cuisine in the area. + +Washington, D.C.'s population is 1% Chinese, making them the largest single Asian ancestry in the city. However, the Chinese community in the DC area is no longer solely concentrated in the Chinatown, which is about 15% Chinese and 25% Asian, but is mostly concentrated throughout various towns in suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia. The largest concentration of Chinese and Taiwanese in the DC area is in Rockville, Maryland, in Montgomery County. + +A popular dish localized in Chinese American carryouts across the DMV region consists of whole fried chicken wings served with mumbo sauce; a sweet, tangy ketchup-based condiment. + +In DC proper, there are Chinese-owned restaurants specializing in both Chinese American and authentic Chinese cuisine. Regional variations of Chinese cuisine that restaurants in DC specialize in include Shanghainese cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Uyghur cuisine, Mongolian cuisine, and Sichuan cuisine. In the suburbs of DC in Maryland and Virginia, many of which have a much higher Chinese population than DC, regional variations present aside from the ones previously mentioned include Hong Kong cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Shaanxi cuisine, Taiwanese cuisine, and Yunnan cuisine. + +Puerto Rico + +Hawaii +Hawaiian-Chinese food developed somewhat differently from Chinese cuisine in the continental United States. + +Owing to the diversity of Pacific ethnicities in Hawaii and the history of the Chinese influence in Hawaii, resident Chinese cuisine forms a component of the cuisine of Hawaii, which is a fusion of different culinary traditions. Some Chinese dishes are typically served as part of plate lunches in Hawaii. + +The names of foods are different as well, such as Manapua, from the Hawaiian contraction of "Mea ono pua'a" or "delicious pork item" from the dim sum bao, though the meat is not necessarily pork. + +Other regions + Chow mein sandwich — sandwich of chow mein and gravy (Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island) + Chop suey sandwich — sandwich of chicken chop suey on a hamburger bun (North Shore of Massachusetts) + St. Paul sandwich — egg foo young patty in plain white sandwich bread (St. Louis, Missouri) + Springfield-style cashew chicken — a style of cashew chicken that combines breaded deep-fried chicken, cashew nuts, and oyster sauce (Springfield, Missouri) + War/wor sue gai (boneless almond chicken) — bite-sized Southern-style fried chicken with yellow sauce (Columbus, Ohio) + Yaka mein — Chinese-Creole food found in New Orleans that evolved from beef noodle soup + +Chain restaurants + + China Coast — closed in 1995; owned by General Mills Corporation, formerly 52 locations throughout the United States + Leeann Chin — Minnesota and North Dakota; owned at one time by General Mills Corp. + Manchu Wok — throughout the United States and Canada, as well as Guam, Korea and Japan + Panda Express — throughout North America (including Canada and Mexico), plus locations in Asia and the Middle East + Pei Wei Asian Diner — throughout the United States; formerly a subsidiary of P.F. Chang's + P. F. Chang's China Bistro — throughout the United States; featuring California-Chinese fusion cuisine + Pick Up Stix — California, Arizona, and Nevada + Stir Crazy — Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Florida, Indiana, Texas, and Ohio + +Popular culture +Many American films (for example: The Godfather; Ghostbusters; The Lost Boys; The Naked Gun; Crossing Delancey; Paid in Full; and Inside Out) involve scenes where Chinese take-out food is eaten from oyster pails. A consistent choice of cuisine in all these cases, however, might just be an indicator of its popularity. A running gag in Dallas is Cliff Barnes' fondness for inexpensive Chinese take-out food, as opposed to his nemesis J. R. Ewing frequenting fine restaurants. + +Among the numerous American television series and films that feature Chinese restaurants as a setting include A Christmas Story, Seinfeld (particularly the episode "The Chinese Restaurant"), Sex and the City, Big Trouble in Little China, South Park, Year of the Dragon, Lethal Weapon 4, Mickey Blue Eyes, Booty Call, Rush Hour 2, and Men in Black 3. In most cases, it is not an actual restaurant but a movie set that typifies the stereotypical American Chinese eatery, featuring "paper lanterns and intricate woodwork", with "numerous fish tanks and detailed [red] wallpaper [with gold designs]" and "golden dragons", plus "hanging ducks in the window". + +Cultural impact + +Impact on United States +In 2023, there are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than all American fast food restaurants combined. Chinese American cuisine provides an option for Americans to taste Chinese food, which is adapted to both Chinese and American flavors. It allows people in America to learn more about Chinese traditional culture and customs. In this process, Chinese Americans have developed a new cuisine which is different from "traditional Chinese food," and contribute to the food diversity in America. Through running their own restaurants or eateries, first-generation Chinese immigrants eliminated discrimination against them and gained sufficient income to send the next generations to universities or colleges. For Chinese Americans, American Chinese cuisine has already become part of their childhood memories and life,which also would be a bridge between Chinese and American cultures. For example, Panda Express and P.F. Chang's, two of the most famous American Chinese restaurants in the United States that have become the symbol of American Chinese cuinsine and have gained appreciation from many Americans. + +In addition, American Chinese cuisine brought some new ingredients and cooking methods to the United States, such as stir-frying and steaming. Thus, many restaurants in the United States started to combine existing dishes with Chinese cooking techniques and flavors, which promoted the development of fusion cuisine.Introduction of Chinese food also triggered people's curiosity about more Asian food, such as Japanese, Thai and Singaporean food, and led to a prevalence of Asian cuisine. + +Impact on China +Although Chinese people will regard American Chinese food as inauthentic food and less likely to have it, or they will not recognize American Chinese cuisine, in recent years, some American Chinese food restaurants have opened in some cities of China, such as Beijing and Shanghai. P.F. Chang's, a restaurant chain specialized in American Chinese food, opened a new restaurant in Shanghai, China. The CEO of this chain Michael Osanloo revealed his positive attitude towards the future of opening more chain restaurants in China because he believed that Chinese people would like to try something new. Most owners of those American Chinese restaurants opened in China are Chinese Americans. Their primary target customers were people from foreign countries and students who have had study abroad experiences. However, many native Chinese people, especially younger generations have a greater willingness to try American Chinese food. Yinhao Xu, the owner of Americanized Chinese eatery-Bamboo Chinese Fast Food in Beijing, said that he was surprised that some younger generations without overseas experiences have a higher level of acceptance of American-style Chinese cuisine. The reason for that is cultural impact; many American Chinese cuisines appear in many American shows or movies, such as Friends and The Big Bang Theory, which leads young people in China to want to try American Chinese food. + +Impact to other countries + +South Korea +Woktionary, an American Chinese restaurant opened in Seoul, South Korea, provides authentic American Chinese food, such as Chow mein and Mongolian beef. Meanwhile, the head chef Kim also added new flavors to some of the dishes. + +At the same time, Panda Express also opened a restaurant in Seoul, South Korea. The CEO of the company indicated that many Korean customers were already expecting for their opening. + +Japan +The first Panda Express in Japan was opened in November 2016 in Kawasaki. It is dedicated to providing the original taste of American Chinese food to Americans in Japan. It offers similar menus in Japan compared to Panda Express restaurants in the United States, such as Orange Chicken, Beijing Beef, and Fortune cookies. Nevertheless, the restaurant also tries to implement localization by offering a limited dish only in Japan: Sweet and Pungent Shrimp. + +See also + + Fusion cuisine + Canadian Chinese cuisine + Australian Chinese cuisine + Chinese bakery products + Chinese cuisine + American cuisine + British Chinese cuisine + New Zealand Chinese cuisine + Indian Chinese cuisine + Fortune Cookie + List of Chinese restaurants + Oyster pail + +Citations + +References and further reading + +Studies + + + Free download: + +Cookbooks + Sara Bosse, Onoto Watanna, with an Introduction by Jacqueline M. Newman. Chinese-Japanese Cook Book. (1914; reprinted, Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 2006). . . + + Eileen Yin-Fei Lo and Alexandra Grablewski. The Chinese Kitchen: Recipes, Techniques and Ingredients, History, and Memories from America's Leading Authority on Chinese Cooking. (New York: William Morrow, 1999). . + +External links + + "Chinese food in America History" (The Food Timeline) The Food Timeline: history notes--restaurants, chefs & foodservice + Imogen Lim Restaurant Menu Collection: American menus. Vancouver Island University Library. + Harley J. Spiller Collection of Chinese Restaurant Menus University of Toronto, Scarborough Library + + +Cuisine +Cuisine +Chinese cuisine +Hawaiian cuisine +Ahenobarbus (Latin, 'red-beard', literally 'bronze-beard'), also spelled Aenobarbus or Ænobarbus, may refer to: + + Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (disambiguation), Romans + Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (disambiguation), Romans + Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, birth name of Nero, Roman emperor 54–68 + Frederick Barbarossa, known in Latin as Fridericus Ænobarbus, Holy Roman Emperor 1155–1190 + +See also +Ahmad Shāh Durrānī (; ), also known as Ahmad Shāh Abdālī (), was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is regarded as the founder of the modern Afghanistan. In June 1747, Ahmad Shah was appointed as King of the Afghans by a loya jirga in Kandahar, where he set up his capital. Primarily with the support of the Pashtun tribes, Ahmad Shah pushed east towards the Mughal and Maratha Empires of India, west towards the disintegrating Afsharid Empire of Iran, and north towards the Khanate of Bukhara of Turkestan. Within a few years, he extended his control from Khorasan in the west to North India in the east, and from the Amu Darya in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south. + +Soon after accession, Ahmad Shah adopted the epithet Shāh Durr-i-Durrān, "King, Pearl of Pearls", and changed the name of his Abdali tribe to "Durrani" after himself. The Tomb of Ahmad Shah Durrani is located in the center of Kandahar, adjacent to Kirka Sharif (Shrine of the Cloak), which contains a cloak believed to have been worn by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Afghans often refer to Ahmad Shah as Ahmad Shāh Bābā, "Ahmad Shah the Father." + +Early years + +Ahmad's father, Mohammad Zaman Khan, was the Governor of Herat and chief of the Pashtun Abdali tribe, while his mother, Zarghona Anaa, was daughter of Khalu Khan Alakozai and belonged to the Alakozai tribe. Ahmad was born in Herat (then Sadozai Sultanate of Herat, present-day Afghanistan), or Multan (then Mughal Empire, present-day Pakistan) in 1720–1722 around the time of his father's death, when the Abdali leadership still controlled the Herat region. + +In June 1729, the Abdali forces under Zulfiqar had surrendered to Nader Shah Afshar, the rising new ruler of Persia. However, they soon began a rebellion and took over Herat as well as Mashad. In July 1730, he defeated Ibrahim Khan, a military commander and brother of Nader Shah. This prompted Nader Shah to retake Mashad and also intervene in the power struggle of Harat. By July 1731, Zulfiqar returned to his capital Farah where he had been serving as the governor since 1726. A year later Nadir's brother Ibrahim Khan took control of Farah. During this time Zulfiqar and the young Durrani fled to Kandahar where they took refuge with the Ghiljis. They were later made political prisoners by Hussain Hotak, the Ghilji ruler of the Kandahar region. + +Nader Shah had been enlisting the Abdalis in his army since around 1729. After conquering Kandahar in 1738, Durrani and his brother Zulfiqar were freed and provided with leading careers in Nader Shah's administration. Zulfiqar was made Governor of Mazandaran while Durrani remained working as Nader Shah's personal attendant. The Ghiljis, who are originally from the territories east of the Kandahar region, were expelled from Kandahar in order to resettle the Abdalis along with some Qizilbash and other Persians. + +Durrani proved himself in Nader Shah's service and was promoted from a personal attendant (yasāwal) to command the Abdali Regiment, a cavalry of four thousand soldiers and officers. The Abdali Regiment was part of Nader Shah's military during his invasion of the Mughal Empire in 1738. + +Popular history has it that the Shah could see the talent in his young commander. Later on, according to Pashtun legend, it is said that in Delhi Nader Shah summoned Durrani, and said, "Come forward Ahmad Abdali. Remember Ahmad Khan Abdali, that after me the Kingship will pass on to you. Nader Shah recruited him because of his "impressive personality and valour" also because of his "loyalty to the Persian monarch". + +Rise to power + +Nader Shah's rule abruptly ended in June 1747 when he was assassinated by his own guards. The guards involved in the assassination did so secretly so as to prevent the Abdalis from coming to their King's rescue. However, Durrani was told that the Shah had been killed by one of his wives. Despite the danger of being attacked, the Abdali contingent led by Durrani rushed either to save the Shah or to confirm what happened. Upon reaching the Shah's tent, they were only to see his body and severed head. Having served him so loyally, the Abdalis wept at having failed their leader, and headed back to Kandahar. Before the retreat to Kandahar, he had "removed" the royal seal from Nader Shah's finger and the Koh-i-Noor diamond tied "around the arm of his deceased master". On their way back to Kandahar, the Abdalis had "unanimously accepted" Durrani as their new leader. Hence he "assumed the insignia of royalty" as the "sovereign ruler of Afghanistan". + +One of Durrani's first acts as chief was to adopt the epithet Shāh Durr-i-Durrān, "King, Pearl of Pearls." + +Forming the last Afghan empire + +Although Ahmad Shah appointed his fellow Durrani (Abdali) clansmen for most senior military posts, his army was otherwise ethnically diverse with soldiers also from various other ethnic and tribal groups, including non-Durrani Pashtun tribes like the Ghilji and Yusufzai, and non-Pashtun groups such as Qizilbash, Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Baloch. He began his military conquest by capturing Qalati Ghilji from its governor Ashraf Tokhi and installed his own governor in Ghazni. He then wrestled Kabul and Peshawar from Mughal-appointed governor Nasir Khan, and conquered the area up to the Indus River. On 15 July 1747, Ahmad Shah appointed Muhammad Hashim Afridi as chief of the Afridi of Peshawar. Ahmad Shah conquered Herat in 1750, Balkh and Badakhshan in 1751, and Kashmir in 1752. + +He also made two campaigns into Khorasan (1750–51 and 1754–55). During the first campaign he besieged Mashhad in July 1750 but retreated after four months and on November 10 moved onto Nishapur. His forces suffered heavy casualties and were forced to retreat in early 1751. In 1754 he invaded again. In June 1754 he took Tun and on July 23 had besieged Mashhad. Mashhad fell on December 2 and although Shahrokh Shah was re-appointed as leader of Khorasan in May 1755 he was forced to cede Torshiz, Bakharz, Jam, Khaf, and Turbat-e Haidari to the Afghans. He invaded Nishapur again and after a 7-day siege the city fell on June 24, 1755, and was utterly destroyed. + +Indian invasions + +Early invasions + +Peshawar served as a convenient point for Ahmad Shah for his military conquests in Hindustan. From 1748 to 1767, he invaded Hindustan eight times. He first crossed the Indus River in 1748, the year after his ascension – his forces sacked and absorbed Lahore. In 1749, Ahmad Shah captured the area of Punjab around Lahore. In the same year, the Mughal ruler was induced to cede Sindh and all of the Punjab including the vital trans-Indus River to him, in order to save his capital from being attacked by the forces of the Durrani Empire Having thus gained substantial territories to the east without a fight, Ahmad Shah and his forces turned westward to take possession of Herat, which was ruled by Nader Shah's grandson, Shah Rukh. The city fell to the Afghans in 1750, after almost a year of siege and bloody conflict; the Afghan forces then pushed on into present-day Iran, capturing Nishapur and Mashhad in 1751. Following the recapture of Mashhad in 1754, Ahmad Shah visited the eighth Imam's sepulchre and ordered repairs to be made. Ahmad Shah then pardoned Shah Rukh and reconstituted Khorasan, but a tributary of the Durrani Empire. This marked the westernmost border of the Afghan Empire as set by the Pul-i-Abrisham, on the Mashhad-Tehran road. + +Third battle of Panipat + +The Mughal power in northern India had been declining since the reign of Aurangzeb, who died in 1707. In 1751–52, the Ahamdiya treaty was signed between the Marathas and Mughals, when Balaji Bajirao was the Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. Through this treaty, the Marathas controlled large parts of India from their capital at Pune and Mughal rule was restricted only to Delhi (Mughals remained the nominal heads of Delhi). Marathas were now straining to expand their area of control towards the Northwest of India. Durrani sacked the Mughal capital and withdrew with the booty he coveted. To counter the Afghans, Peshwa Balaji Bajirao sent Raghunathrao. He succeeded in ousting Timur Shah and his court from India and brought northwest of India up to Peshawar under Maratha rule. Thus, upon his return to Kandahar in 1757, Durrani chose to return to India and confront the Maratha forces to regain northwestern part of the subcontinent. + +In 1761, Durrani set out on his campaign to win back lost territories. The early skirmishes ended in victory for the Afghans against the Maratha garrisons in northwest India. By 1759, Durrani and his army had reached Lahore and were poised to confront the Marathas. By 1760, the Maratha groups had coalesced into a big enough army under the command of Sadashivrao Bhau. Once again, Panipat was the scene of a battle for control of northern India. The Third battle of Panipat was fought between Durrani's Afghan forces and the Maratha forces in January 1761, and resulted in a decisive Durrani victory. + +Central Asia + +The Afaqi brothers died in Badakhshan and the ruler Sultan Shah delivered their bodies to the Qing. Ahmad Shah Durrani accused Sultan Shah of having caused the Afaqi brothers to die. + +Durrani dispatched troops to Kokand after rumours that the Qing dynasty planned to launch an expedition to Samarkand, but the alleged expedition never happened and Ahmad Shah subsequently withdrew his forces when his attempt at an anti-Qing alliance among Central Asian states failed. Durrani then sent envoys to Beijing to discuss the situation regarding the Afaqi Khojas. + +Death and legacy + +According to some sources, Ahmad Shah may have suffered a wound on his nose during a horse-riding accident in Kabul in 1768, or he may have suffered an injury due to a flying brick striking his nose when the Harimandir Sahib was destroyed with gunpowder, Other sources state that he suffered from what Afghan sources described as a "gangrenous ulcer", which may attribute to numerous illnesses, such as Leprosy, Syphilis, or a tumor. Lee writes: "Ahmad Shah gained poor health as a result of all his campaigns. Despite all attempts to treat it, a wound in his nose remained. The ulcer in his later years began eating into his brain". Following the advice of his physicians, he would spend part of the summer in the cooler climate of the Margha plain in the Toba Achakzai range during the last few years of his life. He died of his illness on 4 June 1772 (2 Rabi' al-Awwal 1186) in Maruf, Toba Achakzai, east of Kandahar. Some other sources state that he died on 16 October 1772 + +He was buried in the city of Kandahar adjacent to the Shrine of the Cloak, where a large mausoleum was built. It has been described in the following way: + +In his tomb his epitaph is written: + +Durrani's victory over the Marathas influenced the history of the subcontinent and, in particular, the policies of the East India Company in the region. His refusal to continue his campaigns deeper into India prevented a clash with the company and allowed them to continue to acquire power and influence after they established complete control over the former Mughal province of Bengal in 1793. However, fear of another Afghan invasion would influence Company policy-makers for almost half a century after the Battle of Panipat. The acknowledgment of Durrani's military accomplishments is reflected in an intelligence report made by Company officials on the Battle of Panipat, which referred to Ahmad Shah as the 'King of Kings'. This fear led in 1798 to a Company envoy being sent to the Persian court in part to instigate the Persians in their claims on Herat to forestall a possible Afghan invasion of India that might have halted Company expansion. Mountstuart Elphinstone wrote of Ahmad Shah: + +His successors, beginning with his son Timur Shah and ending with Shuja Shah Durrani, proved largely incapable of governing the last Afghan empire and faced with advancing enemies on all sides. Much of the territory conquered by Ahmad Shah fell to others by the end of the 19th century. Timur Shah would consolidate the holdings of the Durrani Empire, and fight off civil war and rebellion throughout his reign, he would also lead multiple campaigns into Punjab to try and repeat his fathers success. After the death of Timur Shah, his son, Zaman Shah Durrani ascended to the throne, throughout his reign he would lose the outlying territories but also alienated some Pashtun tribes and those of other Durrani lineages. Zaman Shah would lead campaigns into Punjab, capturing Lahore, however due to internal strife, he was forced to withdraw on all attempts. Zaman Shah would later be deposed by Mahmud Shah Durrani, his brother, and the Durrani Realm would continue to disintegrate in the following years from progressive succession crises, usually between Timur Shah's sons, with Mahmud Shah Durrani, Zaman Shah Durrani, and Shah Shuja Durrani. Afghanistan would remain disunited Until Dost Mohammad Khan's ascendancy in 1826, chaos reigned in Afghanistan, which effectively ceased to exist as a single entity, disintegrating into a fragmented collection of small countries or units. Dost Mohammad throughout his reign had focused on re-uniting Afghanistan and had succeeded in doing so, with the Herat Campaign of 1862-63 in the recapture of Herat, and the eventual conquest of the Principality of Qandahar. + +In Pakistan, a short-range ballistic missile Abdali-I, is named in the honour of Ahmad Shah Abdali. + +Languages +Similar to earlier Persianate rulers, Ahmad Shah Durrani rarely wrote by himself. Instead, for textual composition in his name, he turned to scribes, secretaries, and a group of authors known as munshis. The sole written records from Ahmad Shah's reign are his official biography and a letter he wrote to the Ottoman court; both are written in Persian but not in Ahmad Shah's hand. The modern historian Shah Mahmoud Hanifi says that Ahmad Shah's diwan compendium of Pashto poetry, which is kept in the British Library, has notations and provenance information that raise serious concerns about what the book is aggressively claimed to be, namely, evidence of Ahmad Shah's Pashtunness. + +For his son Sulaiman, a Shia who served as the governor of Qandahar, Ahmad Shah is claimed to have ordered a Pashto language textbook. Ahmad Shah is not known to have spoken Pashto, and his tenacious literary bond with Pashto was not upheld by his successors. Abdur Rahman Khan, who paid for a Pashto translation of the minutes of his meeting with British colonial official Lord Dufferin in 1885, was the next state ruler to leave a record of his interaction with Pashto more than a century later. + +Durrani's poetry +Durrani wrote a collection of odes in his native Pashto. He was also the author of several poems in Persian. One of his most famous Pashto poems was Love of a Nation: + +Personal life +During Nader Shah's invasion of India in 1739, Ahmad Shah also accompanied him and stayed some days in the Red Fort of Delhi. When he was standing "outside the Jali gate near Diwan-i-Am", Asaf Jah I saw him. He was "an expert in physiognomy" and predicted that Ahmad Shah was "destined to become a king". When Nader Shah learned of it, he "purportedly clipped" his ears with his dagger and made the remark "When you become a king, this will remind you of me". According to other sources, Nader Shah did not believe in it and asked him to be kind to his descendants "on the attaintment of royalty". + +In popular culture + In the 1994 television series The Great Maratha, the character of Ahmad Shah Durrani is portrayed by Bob Christo. + In the 2019 Bollywood war drama Panipat film, Ahmad Shah Abdali appears as the primary antagonist who invaded Maratha Empire, and is portrayed by Sanjay Dutt. + In 'Panipat' 1988 novel written by Vishwas Patil about Third Battle of Panipat (1761) Ahamed Shah Abdali appears as a notorious invading Afgani Shah. Patil later wrote a stage play on his this novel titled Ranagan (). + +See also + List of monarchs of Afghanistan + +References + +Notes + +Bibliography + + Caroe, Olaf (1958). The Pathans: 500 B.C.–A.D. 1957. Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints. Oxford University Press, 1983. . + Clements, Frank. Conflict in Afghanistan: a historical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2003. . + Dupree, Nancy Hatch. An Historical Guide to Afghanistan. 2nd Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Afghan Air Authority, Afghan Tourist Organization, 1977. + Elphinstone, Mountstuart. 1819. An account of the kingdom of Caubul, and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India: Comprising a view of the Afghaun nation, and a history of the Dooraunee monarchy. Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, and J. Murry, 1819. + Griffiths, John C. (1981). Afghanistan: a history of conflict. Carlton Books, 2001. . + + Habibi, Abdul Hai. 2003. "Afghanistan: An Abridged History." Fenestra Books. . + Hopkins, B. D. 2008. The Making of Modern Afghanistan. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. . + Malleson, George Bruce (1878). History of Afghanistan, from the Earliest Period to the Outbreak of the War of 1878. Elibron Classic Replica Edition. Adamant Media Corporation, 2005. . + Romano, Amy. A Historical Atlas of Afghanistan. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2003. . + Singh, Ganda (1959). Ahmad Shah Durrani, father of modern Afghanistan. Asia Publishing House, Bombay. (PDF version archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130207183925/https://web.archive.org/web/20130207183925/http://www.khyber.org/books/pdf/ahmad-shah-baba.pdf 66 MB) + Vogelsang, Willem. The Afghans. Wiley-Blackwell, 2002. Oxford, UK & Massachusette, US. . + Alikuzai, Hamid Wahed: A Concise History of Afghanistan A Concise History of Afghanistan in 25 Volumes in 25 Volumes, US. 2013, Vol. 14, p. 62, + +Further reading + +External links + Abdali Tribe History + Third Battle of Panipat, 1761 + Famous Diamonds: The Koh-I-Noor + Invasions of Ahmad Shah Abdali + The story of the Koh-i Noor + +1722 births +1772 deaths +18th-century Afghan monarchs +Emirs of Afghanistan +Ahmad Shah +18th-century Afghan poets +Afsharid generals +Pashtun people +Pashto-language poets +People from Herat +People from Kandahar +People from Multan +Afghan Muslims +18th-century monarchs in Asia +Arthur Aikin (19 May 177315 April 1854) was an English chemist, mineralogist and scientific writer, and was a founding member of the Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry). He first became its treasurer in 1841, and later became the society's second president. + +Life +He was born at Warrington, Lancashire into a distinguished literary family of prominent Unitarians. The best known of these was his paternal aunt, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, a woman of letters who wrote poetry and essays as well as early children's literature. His father, Dr John Aikin, was a medical doctor, historian, and author. His grandfather, also called John (1713–1780), was a Unitarian scholar and theological tutor, closely associated with Warrington Academy. His sister Lucy (1781–1864) was a historical writer. Their brother Charles Rochemont Aikin was adopted by their famous aunt and brought up as their cousin. + +Arthur Aikin studied chemistry under Joseph Priestley in the New College at Hackney, and gave attention to the practical applications of the science. In early life, he was a Unitarian minister for a short time. Aikin lectured on chemistry at Guy's Hospital for thirty-two years. He became the President of the British Mineralogical Society in 1801 for five years up until 1806 when the Society merged with the Askesian Society. From 1803 to 1808 he was editor of the Annual Review. In 1805 Aiken also became a proprietor of the London Institution, which was officially founded in 1806. He was one of the founders of the Geological Society of London in 1807 and was its honorary secretary in 1812–1817. He also gave lectures in 1813 and 1814. He contributed papers on the Wrekin and the Shropshire coalfield, among others, to the transactions of that society. His Manual of Mineralogy was published in 1814. Later he became the paid secretary of the Society of Arts and later was elected as a fellow. He was founder of the Chemical Society of London in 1841, being its first treasurer and, between 1843 and 1845, second president. + +In order to support himself, outside of his work with the British Mineralogical Society, the London Institution and the Geological Society, Aiken worked as a writer, translator and lecturer to the public and to medical students at Guy's Hospital. His writing and journalism were useful for publicising foreign scientific news to the wider British public. He was also a member of the Linnean Society and in 1820 joined the Institution of Civil Engineers. + +He was highly esteemed as a man of sound judgement and wide knowledge. Aikin never married, and died at Hoxton in London in 1854. + +Publications + + Journal of a Tour through North Wales and Part of Shropshire with Observations in Mineralogy and Other Branches of Natural History (London, 1797) + A Manual of Mineralogy (1814; ed. 2, 1815) + A Dictionary of Chemistry and Mineralogy (with his brother C. R. Aikin), 2 vols. (London, 1807, 1814). + +For Rees's Cyclopædia he wrote articles about chemistry, geology and mineralogy, but the topics are not known. + +References + +External links + + The Aikin Family Papers, D.190, at Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester. + + + +1773 births +1854 deaths +English mineralogists +19th-century British chemists +People from Warrington +Fellows of the Linnean Society of London +People from Hoxton +English Unitarians +Anna Laetitia Barbauld +18th-century English writers +18th-century English male writers +19th-century English writers +Ailanthus (; derived from ailanto, an Ambonese word probably meaning "tree of the gods" or "tree of heaven") is a genus of trees belonging to the family Simaroubaceae, in the order Sapindales (formerly Rutales or Geraniales). The genus is native from east Asia south to northern Australasia. + +Selected species + +The number of living species is disputed, with some authorities accepting up to ten species, while others accept six or fewer. Species include: +Ailanthus altissima (tree of heaven, syn. A. vilmoriniana ) – northern and central mainland China, Taiwan. Invasive in North America, Europe, Britain, and Australia. Serves as central metaphor in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. +Ailanthus excelsa – India and Sri Lanka +Ailanthus fordii – China +Ailanthus integrifolia – New Guinea and Queensland, Australia +Ailanthus triphysa (white siris syn. A. malabarica) – India, South-east Asia and Australia +Ailanthus vietnamensis – Vietnam + +There is a good fossil record of Ailanthus with many species names based on their geographic occurrence, but almost all of these have very similar morphology and have been grouped as a single species among the three species recognized: +Ailanthus tardensis – from a single locality in Hungary +Ailanthus confucii – Tertiary period, Europe, Asia, and North America +Ailanthus gigas – from a single locality in Slovenia +Ailanthus pythii – known from the Miocene of Iceland, Styria in Austria and the Gavdos island in Greece +Ailanthus kurzii – endemic to the Andaman Islands, India + +Ailanthus silk moth +A silk spinning moth, the ailanthus silkmoth (Samia cynthia), lives on Ailanthus leaves, and yields a silk more durable and cheaper than mulberry silk, but inferior to it in fineness and gloss. This moth has been introduced to the eastern United States and is common near many towns; it is about 12 cm across, with angulated wings, and in color olive brown, with white markings. Other Lepidoptera whose larvae feed on Ailanthus include Endoclita malabaricus. + +See also + Spotted lanternfly + +References + +Germplasm Resources Information Network: Ailanthus +Plant Conservation Alliance's Alien Plant Working Group: Least Wanted + + +Sapindales genera +Aimoin of Fleury (; ), French chronicler, was born at Villefranche-de-Longchat, Southwestern France about 960. Early in his life he entered the monastery of Fleury, where he became a monk and then passed the greater part of his life. Between c. 980 and 985 Aimoin wrote about St. Benedict in Abbey of Fleury-sur-Loire. His chief work is a Historia Francorum, or Libri V. de Gestis Francorum, which deals with the history of the Franks from the earliest times to 653, and was continued by other writers until the middle of the twelfth century. It was much in vogue during the Middle Ages, but its historical value is now regarded as slight. It was edited by G. Waitz and published in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores, Band xxvi (Hanover and Berlin, 1826–1892). + +In 1004 he also wrote Vita Abbonis, abbatis Floriacensis, the last of a series of lives of the abbots of Fleury, all of which, except the life of Abbo, have been lost. This was published by J. Mabillon in the Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti (Paris, 1668–1701). + +Aimoin's third work was the composition of books ii and iii of the Miracula sancti Benedicti, the first book of which was written by another monk of Fleury named Adrevald ( - 878). This also appears in the Acta sanctorum. + +References + +External links +Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indices + +960s births +Year of birth unknown +1010s deaths +Year of death unknown +French chroniclers +French Christian monks +11th-century French historians +11th-century writers in Latin +The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia, succeeding the long-lived civilization of Sumer. Centered on the city of Akkad () and its surrounding region, the empire would unite Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule and exercised significant influence across Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Anatolia, sending military expeditions as far south as Dilmun and Magan (modern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman) in the Arabian Peninsula. + +The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests by its founder Sargon of Akkad. Under Sargon and his successors, the Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam and Gutium. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though the meaning of this term is not precise, and there are earlier Sumerian claimants. + +Sources + +Contemporary sources +Epigraphic sources from the Sargonic (Akkadian Empire) period are in relatively short supply, partly because the capital Akkad, like the capitals of the later Mitanni and Sealand, has not yet been located, though there has been much speculation. Some cuneiform tablets have been excavated at cities under Akkadian Empire control like Eshnunna and Tell Agrab. + +Other tablets, lamentably, have become available on the antiquities market and are held in museums and private collections such as those from the Akkadian governor in Adab. Internal evidence allows their dating to the Sargonic period and sometimes to the original location. Archives are especially important to historians and only a few have become available. The Me-sag Archive, which commenced publication in 1958, is considered one of the most significant collections. The tablets, about 500 in number with about half published, are held primarily at the Babylonian Collection of the Yale University and Baghdad Museum with a few others scattered about. The tablets date to the period of late in the reign of Naram-Sin to early in the reign of Shar-kali-shari. They are believed to be from a town between Umma and Lagash and Me-sag to be the governor of Umma. An archive of 47 tablets was found at the excavation of Tell el-Suleimah in the Hamrin Basin. + +Various royal inscriptions by the Akkadian rulers have also been found. Most of the original examples are short, or very fragmentary like the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin and the Sargonic victory stele from Telloh. A few longer ones are known because of later copies made, often from the much later Old Babylonian period. While these are assumed to be mostly accurate, it is difficult to know if they had been edited to reflect current political conditions. One of the longer surviving examples is the Bassetki Statue, the copper base of a Narim-Sin statue: + +A number of fragments of royal statues of Manishtushu all bearing portions of a "standard inscription". Aside from a few minor short inscriptions this is the only known contemporary source for this ruler. An excerpt: + +Before the Akkadian Empire, calendar years were marked by Regnal Numbers. During Sargonic times, a system of year-names was used. This practice continued until the end of the Old Babylonian period, for example, "Year in which the divine Hammu[rabi] the king Esznunna destroyed by a flood.” Afterwards, Regnal Numbers were used by all succeeding kingdoms. During the Akkadian Empire 3 of the presumed 40 Sargon year-names are known, 1 (presumed 9) of Rimush, 20 (presumed 56) of Naram-Sin, and 18 (presumed 18) of Shar-kali-shari. Recently, a single year-name had been found "In the year that Dūr-Maništusu was established.” There are also, perhaps, a dozen more known, which cannot be firmly linked to a ruler. Especially with the paucity of other inscriptions, year-names are extremely important in determining the history of the Akkadian Empire. As an example, from one year-name, we know that the empire was in conflict with the Gutians long before its end. It attests the name of a Gutian ruler and marks the construction of two temples in Babylon as recognition of Akkadian victory. + +The final contemporary source are seals and their sealing dates. These are especially important here, as markers, with the shortage of other Akkadian Empire epigraphics and very useful to historians. As an example, two seals and one sealing were found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur which contained the name of Sargons's daughter En-hedu-ana. This provided confirmation of her existence. The seals read "En-hedu-ana, daughter of Sargon: Ilum-pal[il] (is) her coiffeur" and "Adda, estate supervisor/majordomo of En-hedu-ana". At Tell Mozan (ancient Urkesh) brought to light a clay sealing of Tar'am-Agade (Akkad loves ), a previously unknown daughter of Naram-Sin, who was possibly married to an unidentified local endan (ruler). + +Later copies and literary compositions +So great was the Akkadian Empire, especially Sargon and Narim-Sin, that its history was passed down for millenia. This ranged on one end to purported copies of still existing Sargonic period inscriptions to literary tales made up from the whole cloth at the other. A few examples: + +Great Rebellion Against Naram-Sin – At one point in his reign much of the Empire, especially in the old mainly Sumerian city-states, rose up against Naram-Sin. The revolt was crushed but the echoes of the event were passed down in history. Some of the tales, like "Naram-Sin and the Enemy Hordes" (Old Babylonian – purported to be a copy of an inscription at the temple of Nergal in Cutha) and "Gula-AN and the Seventeen Kings against Naram-Sin" were literary compositions which further developed and changed the themes. The earliest examplar, from the Old Babylonian period, is found in several incomplete tablets and fragments, which differ somewhat, purporting to be copies of an inscription on a statue of Naram-Sin standing in the Ekur temple of Enlil at Nippur. Because it aligns with known contemporary inscriptions and year name it is considered authentic, which the usual Mesopotamian slant that something going wrong means you displeased the gods. + +Cursing of Agade – A purely literary composition which was handed down for millennia in Mesopotamia. Composed in the Ur III period, a century or at most two after the events, it is essentially agitprop. After a long period of Akkadian dominance the Sumerians from the south ar back in ascendancy. The Ur rule is sometimes called the Neo-Sumerian Empire. This composition lays all the troubles before the rise of Ur at the feet of the Akkadian Empire (because Naram-Sin leveled the Ekur temple of Enlil while rebuilding it causing the eight chief deities of Mesopotamia to withdraw their support and protection from Akkad). While basically fiction, it is still useful to historians. + +There were a number of these, passed down as part of scribel tradition including The Birth Legend of Sargon (Neo-Assyrian), Weidner Chronicle, and the Geographical Treatise on Sargon of Akkad's Empire. + +Archaeology +Identifying architectural remains is hindered by the fact that there are sometimes no clear distinctions between features thought to stem from the preceding Early Dynastic period, and those thought to be Akkadian. Likewise, material that is thought to be Akkadian continues to be in use into the Ur III period. There is a similar issue with cuneiform tablets. In the early Akkadian Empire tablets and the signs on them are much like those from earlier periods, before developing into the much different Classical Sargonic style. + +With the capital, Akkad, still unlocated, archaeological remains of the empire are still to be found, mainly at the cities they established regional governors. An example would be Adab where Naram-Sin established direct imperial control after Adab joined the "great revolt". After destroying the city of Mari the Akkadian Empire rebuilt it as an administrative center with an imperial governor. The city of Nuzi was established by the Akkadians and a number of economic and administrative texts were found there. Similarly, there are Marad, Nippur, Tutub and Ebla. + +Excavation at the modern site of Tell Brak has suggested that the Akkadians rebuilt a city ("Brak" or "Nagar") on this site, for use as an administrative center. The city included two large buildings including a complex with temple, offices, courtyard, and large ovens. + +Dating and periodization +The Akkadian period is generally dated to 2334–2154 BC (according to the middle chronology). The short-chronology dates of 2270–2083 BC are now considered less likely. It was preceded by the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia (ED) and succeeded by the Ur III Period, although both transitions are blurry. For example, it is likely that the rise of Sargon of Akkad coincided with the late ED Period and that the final Akkadian kings ruled simultaneously with the Gutian kings alongside rulers at the city-states of both Uruk and Lagash. The Akkadian Period is contemporary with EB IV (in Israel), EB IVA and EJ IV (in Syria), and EB IIIB (in Turkey). + +Timeline of rulers + +The relative order of Akkadian kings is clear, while noting that the Ur III version of the Sumerian King List inverts the order of Rimush and Manishtushu. The absolute dates of their reigns are approximate (as with all dates prior to the Late Bronze Age collapse c. 1200 BC). + +History and development of the empire + +Pre-Sargonic Akkad + +The Akkadian Empire takes its name from the region and the city of Akkad, both of which were localized in the general confluence area of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Although the city of Akkad has not yet been identified on the ground, it is known from various textual sources. Among these is at least one text predating the reign of Sargon. Together with the fact that the name Akkad is of non-Akkadian origin, this suggests that the city of Akkad may have already been occupied in pre-Sargonic times. + +Sargon of Akkad + +The Bible refers to Akkad in Genesis 10:10–12, which states: + +"The beginning of his Nimrod's kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh, and Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (the same is the great city)." + +Nimrod's historical identity is unknown or debated, but Nimrod has been identified as Sargon of Akkad by some, and others have compared him with the legendary Gilgamesh, king of Uruk (Erech). +Sargon of Akkad defeated and captured Lugal-zage-si in the Battle of Uruk and conquered his empire. + +The earliest records in the Akkadian language date to the time of Sargon. Sargon was claimed to be the son of La'ibum or Itti-Bel, a humble gardener, and possibly a hierodule, or priestess to Ishtar or Inanna. One legend related to Sargon in Neo-Assyrian times says that + +Later claims made on behalf of Sargon were that his mother was an "entu" priestess (high priestess). The claims might have been made to ensure a pedigree of nobility, since only a highly placed family could achieve such a position. + +Originally a cupbearer (Rabshakeh) to a king of Kish with a Semitic name, Ur-Zababa, Sargon thus became a gardener, responsible for the task of clearing out irrigation canals. The royal cupbearer at this time was in fact a prominent political position, close to the king and with various high level responsibilities not suggested by the title of the position itself. This gave him access to a disciplined corps of workers, who also may have served as his first soldiers. Displacing Ur-Zababa, Sargon was crowned king, and he entered upon a career of foreign conquest. Four times he invaded Syria and Canaan, and he spent three years thoroughly subduing the countries of "the west" to unite them with Mesopotamia "into a single empire". + +However, Sargon took this process further, conquering many of the surrounding regions to create an empire that reached westward as far as the Mediterranean Sea and perhaps Cyprus (Kaptara); northward as far as the mountains (a later Hittite text asserts he fought the Hattian king Nurdaggal of Burushanda, well into Anatolia); eastward over Elam; and as far south as Magan (Oman) — a region over which he reigned for purportedly 56 years, though only four "year-names" survive. He consolidated his dominion over his territories by replacing the earlier opposing rulers with noble citizens of Akkad, his native city where loyalty would thus be ensured. + +Trade extended from the silver mines of Anatolia to the lapis lazuli mines in modern Afghanistan, the cedars of Lebanon and the copper of Magan. This consolidation of the city-states of Sumer and Akkad reflected the growing economic and political power of Mesopotamia. The empire's breadbasket was the rain-fed agricultural system and a chain of fortresses was built to control the imperial wheat production. + +Images of Sargon were erected on the shores of the Mediterranean, in token of his victories, and cities and palaces were built at home with the spoils of the conquered lands. Elam and the northern part of Mesopotamia were also subjugated, and rebellions in Sumer were put down. Contract tablets have been found dated in the years of the campaigns against Canaan and against Sarlak, king of Gutium. He also boasted of having subjugated the "four-quarters" — the lands surrounding Akkad to the north, the south (Sumer), the east (Elam), and the west (Martu). Some of the earliest historiographic texts (ABC 19, 20) suggest he rebuilt the city of Babylon (Bab-ilu) in its new location near Akkad. + +Sargon, throughout his long life, showed special deference to the Sumerian deities, particularly Inanna (Ishtar), his patroness, and Zababa, the warrior god of Kish. He called himself "The anointed priest of Anu" and "the great ensi of Enlil" and his daughter, Enheduanna, was installed as priestess to Nanna at the temple in Ur. + +Troubles multiplied toward the end of his reign. A later Babylonian text states: + +It refers to his campaign in "Elam", where he defeated a coalition army led by the King of Awan and forced the vanquished to become his vassals. + +Also shortly after, another revolt took place: + +Rimush and Manishtushu + +Sargon had crushed opposition even at old age. These difficulties broke out again in the reign of his sons, where revolts broke out during the nine-year reign of Rimush (2278–2270 BC), who fought hard to retain the empire, and was successful until he was assassinated by some of his own courtiers. According to his inscriptions, he faced widespread revolts, and had to reconquer the cities of Ur, Umma, Adab, Lagash, Der, and Kazallu from rebellious ensis: Rimush introduced mass slaughter and large scale destruction of the Sumerian city-states, and maintained meticulous records of his destructions. Most of the major Sumerian cities were destroyed, and Sumerian human losses were enormous: + +Rimush's elder brother, Manishtushu (2269–2255 BC) succeeded him. The latter seems to have fought a sea battle against 32 kings who had gathered against him and took control over their pre-Arab country, consisting of modern-day United Arab Emirates and Oman. Despite the success, like his brother he seems to have been assassinated in a palace conspiracy. + +Naram-Sin + +Manishtushu's son and successor, Naram-Sin (2254–2218 BC), due to vast military conquests, assumed the imperial title "King Naram-Sin, king of the four-quarters" (Lugal Naram-Sîn, Šar kibrat 'arbaim), the four-quarters as a reference to the entire world. He was also for the first time in Sumerian culture, addressed as "the god (Sumerian = DINGIR, Akkadian = ilu) of Agade" (Akkad), in opposition to the previous religious belief that kings were only representatives of the people towards the gods. +He also faced revolts at the start of his reign, but quickly crushed them. + +Naram-Sin also recorded the Akkadian conquest of Ebla as well as Armanum and its king. + + +To better police Syria, he built a royal residence at Tell Brak, a crossroads at the heart of the Khabur River basin of the Jezirah. Naram-Sin campaigned against Magan which also revolted; Naram-Sin "marched against Magan and personally caught Mandannu, its king", where he instated garrisons to protect the main roads. The chief threat seemed to be coming from the northern Zagros Mountains, the Lulubis and the Gutians. A campaign against the Lullubi led to the carving of the "Victory Stele of Naram-Suen", now in the Louvre. Hittite sources claim Naram-Sin of Akkad even ventured into Anatolia, battling the Hittite and Hurrian kings Pamba of Hatti, Zipani of Kanesh, and 15 others. + +The economy was highly planned. Grain was cleaned, and rations of grain and oil were distributed in standardized vessels made by the city's potters. Taxes were paid in produce and labour on public walls, including city walls, temples, irrigation canals and waterways, producing huge agricultural surpluses. This newfound Akkadian wealth may have been based upon benign climatic conditions, huge agricultural surpluses and the confiscation of the wealth of other peoples. + +In later Assyrian and Babylonian texts, the name Akkad, together with Sumer, appears as part of the royal title, as in the Sumerian LUGAL KI-EN-GI KI-URI or Akkadian Šar māt Šumeri u Akkadi, translating to "king of Sumer and Akkad". This title was assumed by the king who seized control of Nippur, the intellectual and religious center of southern Mesopotamia. + +During the Akkadian period, the Akkadian language became the lingua franca of the Middle East, and was officially used for administration, although the Sumerian language remained as a spoken and literary language. The spread of Akkadian stretched from Syria to Elam, and even the Elamite language was temporarily written in Mesopotamian cuneiform. Akkadian texts later found their way to far-off places, from Egypt (in the Amarna Period) and Anatolia, to Persia (Behistun). + +Submission of Sumerian kings +The submission of some Sumerian rulers to the Akkadian Empire, is recorded in the seal inscriptions of Sumerian rulers such as Lugal-ushumgal, governor (ensi) of Lagash ("Shirpula"), circa 2230–2210 BC. Several inscriptions of Lugal-ushumgal are known, particularly seal impressions, which refer to him as governor of Lagash and at the time a vassal (, arad, "servant" or "slave") of Naram-Sin, as well as his successor Shar-kali-sharri. One of these seals proclaims: + +It can be considered that Lugal-ushumgal was a collaborator of the Akkadian Empire, as was Meskigal, ruler of Adab. Later however, Lugal-ushumgal was succeeded by Puzer-Mama who, as Akkadian power waned, achieved independence from Shar-Kali-Sharri, assuming the title of "King of Lagash" and starting the illustrious Second Dynasty of Lagash. + +Collapse + +The empire of Akkad likely fell in the 22nd century BC, within 180 years of its founding, ushering in a "Dark Age" with no prominent imperial authority until the Third Dynasty of Ur. The region's political structure may have reverted to the status quo ante of local governance by city-states. + +By the end of Sharkalisharri's reign, the empire had begun to unravel. + +After several years of chaos (and four kings), Shu-turul and Dudu appear to have restored some centralized authority for several decades; however, they were unable to prevent the empire from eventually collapsing outright, eventually ceding power to Gutians, based in Adab, who had been conquered by Akkad during the reign of Sharkalisharri. + +Little is known about the Gutian period, or how long it endured. Cuneiform sources suggest that the Gutians' administration showed little concern for maintaining agriculture, written records, or public safety; they reputedly released all farm animals to roam about Mesopotamia freely and soon brought about famine and rocketing grain prices. The Sumerian king Ur-Nammu (2112–2095 BC) cleared the Gutians from Mesopotamia during his reign. + +The Sumerian King List, describing the Akkadian Empire after the death of Shar-kali-shari, states: + +However, there are no known year-names or other archaeological evidence verifying any of these later kings of Akkad or Uruk, apart from several artefact referencing king Dudu of Akkad and Shu-turul. The named kings of Uruk may have been contemporaries of the last kings of Akkad, but in any event could not have been very prominent. + +The period between BC and 2004 BC is known as the Ur III period. Documents again began to be written in Sumerian, although Sumerian was becoming a purely literary or liturgical language, much as Latin later would be in Medieval Europe. + +One explanation for the end of the Akkadian empire is simply that the Akkadian dynasty could not maintain its political supremacy over other independently powerful city-states. + +Natural causes: drought, seasonal weather patterns + +One theory, which remains controversial, associates regional decline at the end of the Akkadian period (and of the First Intermediary Period following the Old Kingdom in Ancient Egypt) with rapidly increasing aridity, and failing rainfall in the region of the Ancient Near East, caused by a global centennial-scale drought, sometimes called the 4.2 kiloyear event. Harvey Weiss has shown that Peter B. de Menocal has shown "there was an influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the streamflow of the Tigris and Euphrates at this time, which led to the collapse of the Akkadian Empire". More recent analysis of simulations from the HadCM3 climate model indicate that there was a shift to a more arid climate on a timescale that is consistent with the collapse of the empire. + +Excavation at Tell Leilan suggests that this site was abandoned soon after the city's massive walls were constructed, its temple rebuilt and its grain production reorganized. The debris, dust, and sand that followed show no trace of human activity. Soil samples show fine wind-blown sand, no trace of earthworm activity, reduced rainfall and indications of a drier and windier climate. Evidence shows that skeleton-thin sheep and cattle died of drought, and up to 28,000 people abandoned the site, presumably seeking wetter areas elsewhere. Tell Brak shrank in size by 75%. Trade collapsed. Nomadic herders such as the Amorites moved herds closer to reliable water suppliers, bringing them into conflict with Akkadian populations. This climate-induced collapse seems to have affected the whole of the Middle East, and to have coincided with the collapse of the Egyptian Old Kingdom. + +This collapse of rain-fed agriculture in the Upper Country meant the loss to southern Mesopotamia of the agrarian subsidies which had kept the Akkadian Empire solvent. Water levels within the Tigris and Euphrates fell 1.5 meters beneath the level of 2600 BC, and although they stabilized for a time during the following Ur III period, rivalries between pastoralists and farmers increased. Attempts were undertaken to prevent the former from herding their flocks in agricultural lands, such as the building of a wall known as the "Repeller of the Amorites" between the Tigris and Euphrates under the Ur III ruler Shu-Sin. Such attempts led to increased political instability; meanwhile, severe depression occurred to re-establish demographic equilibrium with the less favorable climatic conditions. + +Richard Zettler has critiqued the drought theory, observing that the chronology of the Akkadian empire is very uncertain and that available evidence is not sufficient to show its economic dependence on the northern areas excavated by Weiss and others. He also criticizes Weiss for taking Akkadian writings literally to describe certain catastrophic events. + +According to Joan Oates, at Tell Brak, the soil "signal" associated with the drought lies below the level of Naram-Sin's palace. However, evidence may suggest a tightening of Akkadian control following the Brak 'event', for example, the construction of the heavily fortified 'palace' itself and the apparent introduction of greater numbers of Akkadian as opposed to local officials, perhaps a reflection of unrest in the countryside of the type that often follows some natural catastrophe. Furthermore, Brak remained occupied and functional after the fall of the Akkadians. + +In 2019, a study by Hokkaido University on fossil corals in Oman provides an evidence that prolonged winter shamal seasons led to the salinization of the irrigated fields; hence, a dramatic decrease in crop production triggered a widespread famine and eventually the collapse of the ancient Akkadian Empire. + +Government + +The Akkadian government formed a "classical standard" with which all future Mesopotamian states compared themselves. Traditionally, the ensi was the highest functionary of the Sumerian city-states. In later traditions, one became an ensi by marrying the goddess Inanna, legitimising the rulership through divine consent. + +Initially, the monarchical lugal (lu = man, gal =Great) was subordinate to the priestly ensi, and was appointed at times of troubles, but by later dynastic times, it was the lugal who had emerged as the preeminent role, having his own "é" (= house) or "palace", independent from the temple establishment. By the time of Mesalim, whichever dynasty controlled the city of Kish was recognised as šar kiššati (= king of Kish), and was considered preeminent in Sumer, possibly because this was where the two rivers approached, and whoever controlled Kish ultimately controlled the irrigation systems of the other cities downstream. + +As Sargon extended his conquest from the "Lower Sea" (Persian Gulf), to the "Upper Sea" (Mediterranean), it was felt that he ruled "the totality of the lands under heaven", or "from sunrise to sunset", as contemporary texts put it. Under Sargon, the ensis generally retained their positions, but were seen more as provincial governors. The title šar kiššati became recognised as meaning "lord of the universe". Sargon is even recorded as having organised naval expeditions to Dilmun (Bahrain) and Magan, amongst the first organised military naval expeditions in history. Whether he also did in the case of the Mediterranean with the kingdom of Kaptara (possibly Cyprus), as claimed in later documents, is more questionable. + +With Naram-Sin, Sargon's grandson, this went further than with Sargon, with the king not only being called "Lord of the Four-Quarters (of the Earth)", but also elevated to the ranks of the dingir (= gods), with his own temple establishment. Previously a ruler could, like Gilgamesh, become divine after death but the Akkadian kings, from Naram-Sin onward, were considered gods on earth in their lifetimes. Their portraits showed them of larger size than mere mortals and at some distance from their retainers. + +One strategy adopted by both Sargon and Naram-Sin, to maintain control of the country, was to install their daughters, Enheduanna and Emmenanna respectively, as high priestess to Sin, the Akkadian version of the Sumerian moon deity, Nanna, at Ur, in the extreme south of Sumer; to install sons as provincial ensi governors in strategic locations; and to marry their daughters to rulers of peripheral parts of the Empire (Urkesh and Marhashe). A well documented case of the latter is that of Naram-Sin's daughter Tar'am-Agade at Urkesh. + +Records at the Brak administrative complex suggest that the Akkadians appointed locals as tax collectors. + +Economy + +The population of Akkad, like nearly all pre-modern states, was entirely dependent upon the agricultural systems of the region, which seem to have had two principal centres: the irrigated farmlands of southern Iraq that traditionally had a yield of 30 grains returned for each grain sown and the rain-fed agriculture of northern Iraq, known as the "Upper Country." + +Southern Iraq during Akkadian period seems to have been approaching its modern rainfall level of less than per year, with the result that agriculture was totally dependent upon irrigation. Before the Akkadian period, the progressive salinisation of the soils, produced by poorly drained irrigation, had been reducing yields of wheat in the southern part of the country, leading to the conversion to more salt-tolerant barley growing. Urban populations there had peaked already by 2,600 BC, and demographic pressures were high, contributing to the rise of militarism apparent immediately before the Akkadian period (as seen in the Stele of the Vultures of Eannatum). Warfare between city states had led to a population decline, from which Akkad provided a temporary respite. It was this high degree of agricultural productivity in the south that enabled the growth of the highest population densities in the world at this time, giving Akkad its military advantage. + +The water table in this region was very high and replenished regularly—by winter storms in the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates from October to March and from snow-melt from March to July. Flood levels, that had been stable from about 3,000 to 2,600 BC, had started falling, and by the Akkadian period were a half-meter to a meter lower than recorded previously. Even so, the flat country and weather uncertainties made flooding much more unpredictable than in the case of the Nile; serious deluges seem to have been a regular occurrence, requiring constant maintenance of irrigation ditches and drainage systems. Farmers were recruited into regiments for this work from August to October—a period of food shortage—under the control of city temple authorities, thus acting as a form of unemployment relief. Gwendolyn Leick has suggested that this was Sargon's original employment for the king of Kish, giving him experience in effectively organising large groups of men; a tablet reads, "Sargon, the king, to whom Enlil permitted no rival—5,400 warriors ate bread daily before him". + +Harvest was in the late spring and during the dry summer months. Nomadic Amorites from the northwest would pasture their flocks of sheep and goats to graze on the crop residue and be watered from the river and irrigation canals. For this privilege, they would have to pay a tax in wool, meat, milk, and cheese to the temples, who would distribute these products to the bureaucracy and priesthood. In good years, all would go well, but in bad years, wild winter pastures would be in short supply, nomads would seek to pasture their flocks in the grain fields, and conflicts with farmers would result. It would appear that the subsidizing of southern populations by the import of wheat from the north of the Empire temporarily overcame this problem, and it seems to have allowed economic recovery and a growing population within this region. + +Foreign trade + +As a result, Sumer and Akkad had a surplus of agricultural products but was short of almost everything else, particularly metal ores, timber and building stone, all of which had to be imported. The spread of the Akkadian state as far as the "silver mountain" (possibly the Taurus Mountains), the "cedars" of Lebanon, and the copper deposits of Magan, was largely motivated by the goal of securing control over these imports. One tablet, an Old Babylonian Period copy of an original inscription, reads: + +International trade developed during the Akkadian period. Indus-Mesopotamia relations also seem to have expanded: Sargon of Akkad (circa 2300 or 2250 BC), was the first Mesopotamian ruler to make an explicit reference to the region of Meluhha, which is generally understood as being the Baluchistan or the Indus area. + +Culture + +Akkadian art + +In art, there was a great emphasis on the kings of the dynasty, alongside much that continued earlier Sumerian art. Little architecture remains. In large works and small ones such as seals, the degree of realism was considerably increased, but the seals show a "grim world of cruel conflict, of danger and uncertainty, a world in which man is subjected without appeal to the incomprehensible acts of distant and fearful divinities who he must serve but cannot love. This sombre mood ... remained characteristic of Mesopotamian art..." + +Akkadian sculpture is remarkable for its fineness and realism, which shows a clear advancement compared to the previous period of Sumerian art. + +Seals +The Akkadians used visual arts as a vehicle of ideology. They developed a new style for cylinder seals by reusing traditional animal decorations but organizing them around inscriptions, which often became central parts of the layout. The figures also became more sculptural and naturalistic. New elements were also included, especially in relation to the rich Akkadian mythology. + +Language + +During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as a sprachbund. + +Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around 2000 BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate), but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century AD. + +Poet–priestess Enheduanna + +Sumerian literature continued in rich development during the Akkadian period. Enheduanna, the "wife (Sumerian dam = high priestess) of Nanna [the Sumerian moon god] and daughter of Sargon" of the temple of Sin at Ur, who lived –2250 BC, is the first poet in history whose name is known. Her known works include hymns to the goddess Inanna, the Exaltation of Inanna and In-nin sa-gur-ra. A third work, the Temple Hymns, a collection of specific hymns, addresses the sacred temples and their occupants, the deity to whom they were consecrated. The works of this poet are significant, because although they start out using the third person, they shift to the first person voice of the poet herself, and they mark a significant development in the use of cuneiform. As poet, princess, and priestess, she was a person who, according to William W. Hallo, "set standards in all three of her roles for many succeeding centuries" + +In the Exultation of Inanna, + +The kings of Akkad were legendary among later Mesopotamian civilizations, with Sargon understood as the prototype of a strong and wise leader, and his grandson Naram-Sin considered the wicked and impious leader (Unheilsherrscher in the analysis of Hans Gustav Güterbock) who brought ruin upon his kingdom. + +Technology +A tablet from the periods reads, "(From the earliest days) no-one had made a statue of lead, (but) Rimush king of Kish, had a statue of himself made of lead. It stood before Enlil; and it recited his (Rimush's) virtues to the idu of the gods". The copper Bassetki Statue, cast with the lost wax method, testifies to the high level of skill that craftsmen achieved during the Akkadian period. + +See also + List of cities of the ancient Near East + List of Mesopotamian deities + History of Mesopotamia + List of Mesopotamian dynasties + +Notes + +Bibliography + + Liverani, Mario, ed. (1993). Akkad: The First World Empire: Structure, Ideology Traditions. Padova: Sargon srl. + Oates, Joan (2004). "Archaeology in Mesopotamia: Digging Deeper at Tell Brak". 2004 Albert Reckitt Archaeological Lecture. In Proceedings of the British Academy: 2004 Lectures; Oxford University Press, 2005. . + +Further reading +Gough, M.A, Historical Perception in the Sargonic Literary Tradition. The Implication of Copied Texts, Rosetta 1, pp 1–9, 2006 +Paszke, Marcin Z, "From Sargon To Narām-Sîn: some remarks on Akkadian military activity in the II nd half of the III rd millennium bc. The example of eastern campaigns", Acta Archaeologica Lodziensia 68, pp. 75–83, 2022 + + E. A. Speiser, "Some Factors in the Collapse of Akkad", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 72, no. 3, pp. 97–101, (Jul. - Sep. 1952) + +External links + + Iraq's Ancient Past – Penn Museum + Year Names of Narim-Sin – CDLI + Year Named of Shar-kali-Sharri – CDLI + Site on Enheduanna at Virginia Tech University (archived 12 December 2009) + + +States and territories established in the 3rd millennium BC +States and territories disestablished in the 3rd millennium BC +Assyrian geography +Ancient Mesopotamia +Ancient Upper Mesopotamia +Ancient Levant +24th-century BC establishments +3rd-millennium BC disestablishments +Former monarchies of Asia +Nimrod +Former empires +Ajax ( Aias means "of the earth".) was a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris. He was called the "lesser" or "Locrian" Ajax, to distinguish him from Ajax the Great, son of Telamon. He was the leader of the Locrian contingent during the Trojan War. He is a significant figure in Homer's Iliad and is also mentioned in the Odyssey, in Virgil's Aeneid and in Euripides' The Trojan Women. In Etruscan legend, he was known as Aivas Vilates. + +Description +In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Ajax was described as "stocky, powerfully built, swarthy, a pleasant person, and brave." + +Mythology + +Life + +Ajax's mother's name was Eriopis. According to Strabo, he was born in Naryx in Locris, where Ovid calls him Narycius heros. According to the Iliad, he led his Locrians in forty ships against Troy. He is described as one of the great heroes among the Greeks. In battle, he wore a linen cuirass (), was brave and intrepid, especially skilled in throwing the spear and, next to Achilles, the swiftest of all the Greeks. The chronicler Malalas portrayed him as "tall, strong, tawny, squinting, good nose, curly hair, black hair, thick beard, long face, daring warrior, magnanimous, a womanizer." + +In the funeral games at the pyre of Patroclus, Ajax contended with Odysseus and Antilochus for the prize in the footrace; but Athena, who was hostile towards him and favored Odysseus, made him stumble and fall, so that he won only the second prize. + +In later traditions, this Ajax is called a son of Oileus and the nymph Rhene and is also mentioned among the suitors of Helen. After the taking of Troy, he rushed into the temple of Athena, where Cassandra had taken refuge, and was embracing the statue of the goddess in supplication. Ajax violently dragged her away to the other captives. According to some writers, he raped Cassandra inside the temple. Odysseus called for Ajax's death by stoning for this crime, but Ajax saved himself by claiming innocence with an oath to Athena, clutching her statue in supplication. + +Death +Since Ajax dragged the supplicant from her temple, Athena had cause to be indignant. According to the Bibliotheca, no one was aware that Ajax had raped Cassandra until Calchas, the Greek seer, warned the Greeks that Athena was furious at the treatment of her priestess and she would destroy the Greek ships if they did not kill him immediately. Despite this, Ajax managed to hide at the altar of a deity where the Greeks, fearing divine retribution should they kill him and destroy the altar, allowed him to live. When the Greeks left without killing Ajax, despite their sacrifices, Athena became so angry that she persuaded Zeus to send a storm that sank many of their ships. + +As he was returning from Troy, Athena hit his ship with a thunderbolt and the vessel was wrecked on the Whirling Rocks (). But he escaped with some of his men, managing to cling onto a rock through the assistance of Poseidon. He would have been saved in spite of Athena, but he then audaciously declared that he would escape the dangers of the sea in defiance of the immortals. Offended by this presumption, Poseidon split the rock with his trident and Ajax was swallowed up by the sea. Thetis buried him when the corpse washed up on Mykonos. Other versions depict a different death for Ajax, showing him dying when on his voyage home. In these versions, when Ajax came to the Capharean Rocks on the coast of Euboea, his ship was wrecked in a fierce storm, he himself was lifted up in a whirlwind and impaled with a flash of rapid fire from Athena in his chest, and his body thrust upon sharp rocks, which afterwards were called the rocks of Ajax. + +After Ajax's death, his spirit dwelt in the island of Leuce. The Opuntian Locrians worshipped Ajax as their national hero, and so great was their faith in him that when they drew up their army in battle, they always left one place open for him, believing that, although invisible to them, he was fighting for and among them. The story of Ajax was frequently made use of by ancient poets and artists, and the hero who appears on some Locrian coins with the helmet, shield, and sword is probably this Ajax. + +Other accounts of Ajax's death are offered by Philostratus and the scholiast on Lycophron. + +Art + +The abduction of Cassandra by Ajax was frequently represented in Greek works of art, such as the chest of Cypselus described by Pausanias and in extant works. + +Notes + +References + + Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website. + Conon, Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project. +Dictys Cretensis, from The Trojan War. The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian translated by Richard McIlwaine Frazer, Jr. Indiana University Press. 1966. Online version at the Topos Text Project. + Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project. + Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960. + Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. 2017. + Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. + Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. . Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. + Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website. +Lycophron, The Alexandra translated by Alexander William Mair. Loeb Classical Library Volume 129. London: William Heinemann, 1921. Online version at the Topos Text Project. +Lycophron, Alexandra translated by A.W. Mair. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1921. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. +Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library +Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. +Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More. Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. +Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library. +Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid. Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. +Publius Vergilius Maro, Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics. J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library. +Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy translated by Way. A. S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 19. London: William Heinemann, 1913. Online version at theio.com +Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy. Arthur S. Way. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1913. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. +Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. +Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. +Tryphiodorus, Capture of Troy translated by Mair, A. W. Loeb Classical Library Volume 219. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1928. Online version at theoi.com +Tryphiodorus, Capture of Troy with an English Translation by A.W. Mair. London, William Heinemann, Ltd.; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1928. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. +Tzetzes, John, Allegories of the Iliad translated by Goldwyn, Adam J. and Kokkini, Dimitra. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Harvard University Press, 2015. + +External links + +Suitors of Helen +Achaean Leaders +Mythological rapists +Metamorphoses characters +Characters in the Aeneid +Locrians +Deeds of Poseidon +Ajax () or Aias (; , Aíantos; archaic ) is a Greek mythological hero, the son of King Telamon and Periboea, and the half-brother of Teucer. He plays an important role in the Trojan War, and is portrayed as a towering figure and a warrior of great courage in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War, being second only to Achilles among Greek heroes of the war. He is also referred to as "Telamonian Ajax" (, in Etruscan recorded as Aivas Tlamunus), "Greater Ajax", or "Ajax the Great", which distinguishes him from Ajax, son of Oileus, also known as Ajax the Lesser. + +Family +Ajax is the son of Telamon, who was the son of Aeacus and grandson of Zeus, and his first wife Periboea. Through his uncle Peleus (Telamon's brother), he is the cousin of Achilles, and is the elder half-brother of Teucer. + +The etymology of his given name is uncertain. By folk etymology his name was said to come from the root of aiazō "to lament", translating to "one who laments; mourner". Hesiod provided a different folk etymology in a story in his "The Great Eoiae", where Ajax receives his name when Heracles prays to Zeus that a son might be born to Telemon and Eriboea: Zeus sends an eagle (aetos αετός) as a sign, and Heracles then bids the parents call their son Ajax after the eagle. + +Many illustrious Athenians, including Cimon, Miltiades, Alcibiades and the historian Thucydides, traced their descent from Ajax. On an Etruscan tomb dedicated to Racvi Satlnei in Bologna (5th century BC) there is an inscription that says aivastelmunsl, which means "[family] of Telamonian Ajax". + +Mythology + +Description +In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Ajax was illustrated as ". . .powerful. His voice was clear, his hair black and curly. He was perfectly single-minded and unrelenting in the onslaught of battle." Meanwhile, In Homer's Iliad he is described as of great stature, colossal frame, and strongest of all the Achaeans. Known as the "bulwark of the Achaeans", he was trained by the centaur Chiron (who had trained Ajax's father Telamon and Achilles' father Peleus and later died of an accidental wound inflicted by Heracles, whom he was training at the same time as Achilles). He was described as fearless, strong, and powerful but also with a very high level of combat intelligence. Ajax commands his army wielding a huge shield made of seven cowhides with a layer of bronze. Most notably, Ajax is not wounded in any of the battles described in the Iliad, and he is the only principal character on either side who does not receive substantial assistance from any of the gods (except for Agamemnon) who take part in the battles, although, in book 13, Poseidon strikes Ajax with his staff, renewing his strength. Unlike Diomedes, Agamemnon, and Achilles, Ajax appears as a mainly defensive warrior, instrumental in the defense of the Greek camp and ships and that of Patroclus' body. When the Trojans are on the offensive, he is often seen covering the retreat of the Achaeans. Significantly, while one of the deadliest heroes in the whole poem, Ajax has no aristeia depicting him on the offensive. + +Trojan War +In the Iliad, Ajax is notable for his abundant strength and courage, seen particularly in two fights with Hector. In Book 7, Ajax is chosen by lot to meet Hector in a duel which lasts most of a whole day. Ajax at first gets the better of the encounter, wounding Hector with his spear and knocking him down with a large stone, but Hector battles on until the heralds, acting at the direction of Zeus, call a draw, with the two combatants exchanging gifts, Ajax giving Hector a purple sash and Hector giving Ajax his sharp sword. + +The second fight between Ajax and Hector occurs when the latter breaks into the Mycenaean camp, and battles with the Greeks among the ships. In Book 14, Ajax throws a giant rock at Hector which almost kills him. In Book 15, Hector is restored to his strength by Apollo and returns to attack the ships. Ajax, wielding an enormous spear as a weapon and leaping from ship to ship, holds off the Trojan armies virtually single-handedly. In Book 16, Hector and Ajax duel once again. Hector then disarms Ajax (although Ajax is not hurt) and Ajax is forced to retreat, seeing that Zeus is clearly favoring Hector. Hector and the Trojans succeed in burning one Greek ship, the culmination of an assault that almost finishes the war. Ajax is responsible for the death of many Trojan lords, including Phorcys. + +Ajax often fought in tandem with his brother Teucer, known for his skill with the bow. Ajax would wield his magnificent shield, as Teucer stood behind picking off enemy Trojans. + +Achilles was absent during these encounters because of his feud with Agamemnon. In Book 9, Agamemnon and the other Mycenaean chiefs send Ajax, Odysseus and Phoenix to the tent of Achilles in an attempt to reconcile with the great warrior and induce him to return to the fight. Although Ajax speaks earnestly and is well received, he does not succeed in convincing Achilles. + +When Patroclus is killed, Hector tries to steal his body. Ajax, assisted by Menelaus, succeeds in fighting off the Trojans and taking the body back with his chariot; however, the Trojans have already stripped Patroclus of Achilles' armor. Ajax's prayer to Zeus to remove the fog that has descended on the battle to allow them to fight or die in the light of day has become proverbial. According to Hyginus, in total, Ajax killed 28 people at Troy. + +Death + +As the Iliad comes to a close, Ajax and the majority of other Greek warriors are alive and well. When Achilles dies, killed by Paris (with help from Apollo), Ajax and Odysseus are the heroes who fight against the Trojans to get the body and bury it with his companion, Patroclus. Ajax, with his great shield and spear, manages to recover the body and carry it to the ships, while Odysseus fights off the Trojans. After the burial, each claims Achilles' magical armor, which had been forged on Mount Olympus by the smith-god Hephaestus, for himself as recognition for his heroic efforts. A competition is held to determine who deserves the armor. Ajax argues that because of his strength and the fighting he has done for the Greeks, including saving the ships from Hector, and driving him off with a massive rock, he deserves the armor. However, Odysseus proves to be more eloquent, and with the aid of Athena, the council gives him the armor. Ajax, distraught by this result and "conquered by his own grief", plunges his sword into his own chest, killing himself. In the Little Iliad, Ajax goes mad with rage at Odysseus' victory and slaughters the cattle of the Greeks. After returning to his senses, he kills himself out of shame. +The Belvedere Torso, a marble torso now in the Vatican Museums, is considered to depict Ajax "in the act of contemplating his suicide". + +In Sophocles' play Ajax, a famous retelling of Ajax's demise, after the armor is awarded to Odysseus, Ajax feels so insulted that he wants to kill Agamemnon and Menelaus. Athena intervenes and clouds his mind and vision, and he goes to a flock of sheep and slaughters them, imagining they are the Achaean leaders, including Odysseus and Agamemnon. When he comes to his senses, covered in blood, he realizes that what he has done has diminished his honor, and decides that he prefers to kill himself rather than live in shame. He does so with the same sword which Hector gave him when they exchanged presents. From his blood sprang a red flower, as at the death of Hyacinthus, which bore on its leaves the initial letters of his name Ai, also expressive of lament. His ashes were deposited in a golden urn on the Rhoetean promontory at the entrance of the Hellespont. + +Ajax's half-brother Teucer stood trial before his father for not bringing Ajax's body or famous weapons back. Teucer was acquitted for responsibility but found guilty of negligence. He was disowned by his father and was not allowed to return to his home, the island of Salamis off the coast of Athens. + +Homer is somewhat vague about the precise manner of Ajax's death but does ascribe it to his loss in the dispute over Achilles' armor; when Odysseus visits Hades, he begs the soul of Ajax to speak to him, but Ajax, still resentful over the old quarrel, refuses and descends silently back into Erebus. + +Like Achilles, he is represented (although not by Homer) as living after his death on the island of Leuke at the mouth of the Danube. Ajax, who in the post-Homeric legend is described as the grandson of Aeacus and the great-grandson of Zeus, was the tutelary hero of the island of Salamis, where he had a temple and an image, and where a festival called Aianteia was celebrated in his honour. At this festival a couch was set up, on which the panoply of the hero was placed, a practice which recalls the Roman Lectisternium. The identification of Ajax with the family of Aeacus was chiefly a matter which concerned the Athenians, after Salamis had come into their possession, on which occasion Solon is said to have inserted a line in the Iliad (2.557–558), for the purpose of supporting the Athenian claim to the island. Ajax then became an Attic hero; he was worshipped at Athens, where he had a statue in the market-place, and the tribe Aiantis was named after him. Pausanias also relates that a gigantic skeleton, its kneecap in diameter, appeared on the beach near Sigeion, on the Trojan coast; these bones were identified as those of Ajax. + +Gallery + +Palace +In 2001, Yannos Lolos began excavating a Mycenaean palace near the village of Kanakia on the island of Salamis which he theorized to be the home of the mythological Aiacid dynasty. The multi-story structure covers and had perhaps 30 rooms. The palace appears to have been abandoned at the height of the Mycenaean civilization, roughly the same time the Trojan War may have occurred. + +See also + Corpus vasorum antiquorum + List of suicides in fiction + Troy VII + +Notes + +Notes + +References + Homer. Iliad, 7.181–312. + Homer, Odyssey 11.543–67. + Bibliotheca. Epitome III, 11-V, 7. +Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960. +Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. 2017. + Ovid. Metamorphoses 12.620–13.398. + Friedrich Schiller, Das Siegerfest. + Pindar's Nemeans, 7, 8; Isthmian 4 +Tzetzes, John, Allegories of the Iliad translated by Goldwyn, Adam J. and Kokkini, Dimitra. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Harvard University Press, 2015. + +External links + + A translation of the debate and Ajax's death. http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.13.thirteenth.html + + +Suitors of Helen +Achaean Leaders +Kings of Argos +Characters in the Odyssey +Suicides in Greek mythology +Tutelary gods +Metamorphoses characters +Salaminian characters in Greek mythology +Metamorphoses into flowers in Greek mythology +Ajax may refer to: + +Greek mythology and tragedy + Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea + Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris + Ajax (play), by the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles, about Ajax the Great + +Arts and entertainment + +Fictional characters + Ajax Duckman, in the animated television series Duckman + Marvel Comics: + Ajax the Greater, another name for Ajak, one of the Eternals from Marvel Comics + Ajax the Lesser, another name for Arex, one of the Eternals from Marvel Comics + Ajax, a member of the Pantheon appearing in Marvel Comics + Ajax (Francis Fanny), a fictional supervillain first appearing in Deadpool #14 + Martian Manhunter, a DC Comics superhero called Ajax in Brazil and Portugal + Ajax, a Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 operative + Ajax, from the video game Genshin Impact + +Music + A-Jax (band), a South Korean boy band + Ajax (band), an electronic music band from New York City + Ajax (opera), by the French composer Toussaint Bertin de la Doué + DJ Ajax (1971-2013; born Adrian Thomas), an Australian electro mashup DJ + Lisa Ajax (born 1998), Swedish singer + "Ajax" (song), a song by Tante Leen, 1969 + Ajax Records, a former North American record company + +Other arts and entertainment + Ajax (painting), a painting by John Steuart Curry + Ajax (Disney), a fictional company (the Disney equivalent of Looney Tunes' Acme Corporation) + A-Jax (video game), a 1987 Konami arcade game + +Computing + Ajax (floppy disk controller), a floppy disk controller fitted to the Atari STE + Ajax (programming), Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, a method used in web application development, and a software framework for it + +Places + +Canada + Ajax (federal electoral district), in the Durham Region of Ontario + Ajax (provincial electoral district), in Ontario + Ajax, Ontario, a town in the Greater Toronto Area + +United States + Ajax, Louisiana, an unincorporated community + Ajax, Missouri, a ghost town + Ajax Peak, a summit near Telluride, Colorado + Ajax, South Dakota, an unincorporated community + Ajax, Utah, a ghost town + Ajax, Virginia, an unincorporated community + Ajax, West Virginia, an unincorporated community + Aspen Mountain (Colorado), also known as Ajax Mountain + +Elsewhere + Mount Ajax, part of the Admiralty Mountains, Victoria Land, Antarctic + 1404 Ajax, an asteroid + +People + Ajax (missionary), Arian missionary who converted the Suevi to Christianity ( 466) + Ajax, pen name of Sidney William Jackson (1873–1946), Australian naturalist and ornithologist + Ajax, nickname of Heinrich Bleichrodt (1909–1977), German World War II U-boat commander + +Sport + +Association football (soccer) + AFC Ajax, a football club in Amsterdam, Netherlands + Ajax Cape Town F.C., a South African football club + Ajax Futebol Clube, a Brazilian football club + Ajax de Ouenzé, a Congolese football club + FC Ajax Lasnamäe, an Estonian football club + Ajax Orlando Prospects, American soccer team from Orlando, Florida, a.k.a. Ajax America + Ajax America Women, American women's soccer team from California + Aias Salamina F.C., a football club in Salamina, Greece + Ajax Sportsman Combinatie, a cricket and football club in Leiden, Netherlands + Rabat Ajax F.C., a Maltese football club + Unión Ájax, a football club in Trujillo, Honduras + Voetbal Vereniging Ajax, a Surinamese football club + +Other sports + Ajax Kenitra, a Moroccan futsal (indoor football) club + Ajax København, a Danish handball team + Ajax (horse) (born 1901), a French Champion racehorse + Ajax II (born 1934), an Australian Champion racehorse + +Military + , several ships of the Royal Navy + , several ships of the US Navy + General Dynamics Ajax, a family of armoured fighting vehicles for the British Army + Operation Ajax, the 1953 Iranian coup d'état + +Transport + Ajax (1906 automobile), a Swiss automobile + Ajax (1913 automobile), a French automobile by the American Briscoe brothers + Ajax (1914 automobile), an American automobile by Ajax Motors Co. of Seattle, Washington + Ajax (1921 automobile), an American prototype that was not produced + Ajax (Nash Motors), an automobile brand of Nash Motors, 1925–1926 + Ajax (locomotive), several train locomotives + Ajax (motorcycle), manufactured in England between 1923 and 1924 + Ajax (crane barge), a floating crane used to install the Panama Canal locks + Ajax (ship), various ships + Ajax GO Station, a train and bus station in Ajax, Ontario, Canada + Ajax Motors Co., an American carmaker, manufacturer of the Ajax (1914 automobile) + +Other uses + Ajax (cleaning product), a brand of household cleaning products + AFC Ajax N.V., a sports company associated with AFC Ajax + Kanichee Mine, Temagami, Ontario, also known as Ajax Mine + Ajax High School, a public high school in Ajax, Ontario, Canada + AJAX furnace, a type of open hearth furnace + +See also + + + Nike Ajax, the world's first operational surface-to-air missile + Ayaks, a hypersonic waverider aircraft program started in the Soviet Union +Alaric I (; , , "ruler of all"; c. 370 – 411 AD) was the first king of the Visigoths, from 395 to 410. He rose to leadership of the Goths who came to occupy Moesia—territory acquired a couple of decades earlier by a combined force of Goths and Alans after the Battle of Adrianople. + +Alaric began his career under the Gothic soldier Gainas and later joined the Roman army. Once an ally of Rome under the Roman emperor Theodosius, Alaric helped defeat the Franks and other allies of a would-be Roman usurper. Despite losing many thousands of his men, he received little recognition from Rome and left the Roman army disappointed. After the death of Theodosius and the disintegration of the Roman armies in 395, he is described as king of the Visigoths. As the leader of the only effective field force remaining in the Balkans, he sought Roman legitimacy, never quite achieving a position acceptable to himself or to the Roman authorities. + +He operated mainly against the successive Western Roman regimes, and marched into Italy, where he died. He is responsible for the sack of Rome in 410; one of several notable events in the Western Roman Empire's eventual decline. + +Early life, federate status in the Balkans + +According to Jordanes, a 6th-century Roman bureaucrat of Gothic origin—who later turned his hand to history—Alaric was born on Peuce Island at the mouth of the Danube Delta in present-day Romania and belonged to the noble Balti dynasty of the Thervingian Goths. There is no way to verify this claim. Historian Douglas Boin does not make such an unequivocal assessment about Alaric's Gothic heritage and instead claims he came from either the Thervingi or the Greuthung tribes. When the Goths suffered setbacks against the Huns, they made a mass migration across the Danube, and fought a war with Rome. Alaric was probably a child during this period who grew up along Rome's periphery. Alaric's upbringing was shaped by living along the border of Roman territory in a region that the Romans viewed as a veritable "backwater"; some four centuries before, the Roman poet Ovid regarded the area along the Danube and Black Sea where Alaric was reared as a land of "barbarians", among "the most remote in the vast world." + +Alaric's childhood in the Balkans, where the Goths had settled by way of an agreement with Theodosius, was spent in the company of veterans who had fought at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, during which they had annihilated much of the Eastern army and killed Emperor Valens. Imperial campaigns against the Visigoths were conducted until a treaty was reached in 382. This treaty was the first foedus on imperial Roman soil and required these semi-autonomous Germanic tribes—among whom Alaric was raised—to supply troops for the Roman army in exchange for peace, control of cultivatable land, and freedom from Roman direct administrative control. Correspondingly, there was hardly a region along the Roman frontier during Alaric's day without Gothic slaves and servants of one form or another. For several subsequent decades, many Goths like Alaric were "called up into regular units of the eastern field army" while others served as auxiliaries in campaigns led by Theodosius against the western usurpers Magnus Maximus and Eugenius. + +Rebellion against Rome, rise to Gothic leadership +A new phase in the relationship between the Goths and the empire resulted from the treaty signed in 382, as more and more Goths attained aristocratic rank from their service in the imperial army. Alaric began his military career under the Gothic soldier Gainas, and later joined the Roman army. He first appeared as leader of a mixed band of Goths and allied peoples, who invaded Thrace in 391 but were stopped by the half-Vandal Roman General Stilicho. While the Roman poet Claudian belittled Alaric as "a little-known menace" terrorizing southern Thrace during this time, Alaric's abilities and forces were formidable enough to prevent the Roman emperor Theodosius from crossing the Hebrus River. + +Service under Theodosius I +By 392, Alaric had entered Roman military service, which coincided with a reduction of hostilities between Goths and Romans. In 394, he led a Gothic force that helped Emperor Theodosius defeat the Frankish usurper Arbogast—fighting at the behest of Eugenius—at the Battle of Frigidus. Despite sacrificing around 10,000 of his men, who had been victims of Theodosius' callous tactical decision to overwhelm the enemies front lines using Gothic foederati, Alaric received little recognition from the emperor. Alaric was among the few who survived the protracted and bloody affair. Many Romans considered it their "gain" and a victory that so many Goths had died during the Battle of Frigidus River. Alaric biographer Douglas Boin (2020) posited that seeing ten thousand of his (Alaric's) dead kinsmen likely elicited questions about what kind of ruler Theodosius actually had been and whether remaining in direct Roman service was best for men like him. Refused the reward he expected, which included a promotion to the position of magister militum and command of regular Roman units, Alaric mutinied and began to march against Constantinople. + +On 17 January 395, Theodosius died of an illness, leaving his two young and incapable sons Arcadius and Honorius in Stilicho's guardianship. Modern writers regard Alaric as king of the Visigoths from 395. According to historian Peter Heather, it is not entirely clear in the sources if Alaric rose to prominence at the time the Goths revolted following Theodosius's death, or if he had already risen within his tribe as early as the war against Eugenius. Whatever the circumstances, Jordanes recorded that the new king persuaded his people to "seek a kingdom by their own exertions rather than serve others in idleness." + +Semi-independent action in Eastern Roman interests, Eastern Roman recognition + +Whether or not Alaric was a member of an ancient Germanic royal clan—as claimed by Jordanes and debated by historians—is less important than his emergence as a leader, the first of his kind since Fritigern. Theodosius's death left the Roman field armies collapsing and the Empire divided again between his two sons, one taking the eastern and the other the western portion of the Empire. Stilicho made himself master of the West and attempted to establish control in the East as well, and led an army into Greece. Alaric rebelled again. Historian Roger Collins points out that while the rivalries created by the two halves of the Empire vying for power worked to Alaric's advantage and that of his people, simply being called to authority by the Gothic people did not solve the practicalities of their needs for survival. He needed Roman authority in order to be supplied by Roman cities. + +Alaric took his Gothic army on what Stilicho's propagandist Claudian described as a "pillaging campaign" that began first in the East. Historian Thomas Burns's interpretation is that Alaric and his men were recruited by Rufinus's Eastern regime in Constantinople, and sent to Thessaly to stave off Stilicho's threat. No battle took place. Alaric's forces made their way down to Athens and along the coast, where he sought to force a new peace upon the Romans. In 396, he marched through Thermopylae and sacked Athens, where archaeological evidence shows widespread damage to the city. Stilicho's propagandist Claudian accuses his troops of plundering for the next year or so as far south as the mountainous Peloponnese peninsula, and reports that only Stilicho's surprise attack with his western field army (having sailed from Italy) stemmed the plundering as he pushed Alaric's forces north into Epirus. Zosimus adds that Stilicho's troops destroyed and pillaged too, and let Alaric's men escape with their plunder. + +Stilicho was forced to send some of his Eastern forces home. They went to Constantinople under the command of one Gainas, a Goth with a large Gothic following. On arrival, Gainas murdered Rufinus, and was appointed magister militum for Thrace by Eutropius, the new supreme minister and the only eunuch consul of Rome, who, Zosimus claims, controlled Arcadius "as if he were a sheep". A poem by Synesius advises Arcadius to display manliness and remove a "skin-clad savage" (probably referring to Alaric) from the councils of power and his barbarians from the Roman army. We do not know if Arcadius ever became aware of this advice, but it had no recorded effect. + +Stilicho obtained a few more troops from the German frontier and continued to campaign indecisively against the Eastern empire; again he was opposed by Alaric and his men. During the next year, 397, Eutropius personally led his troops to victory over some Huns who were marauding in Asia Minor. With his position thus strengthened he declared Stilicho a public enemy, and he established Alaric as magister militum per Illyricum Alaric thus acquired entitlement to gold and grain for his followers and negotiations were underway for a more permanent settlement. Stilicho's supporters in Milan were outraged at this seeming betrayal; meanwhile, Eutropius was celebrated in 398 by a parade through Constantinople for having achieved victory over the "wolves of the North". Alaric's people were relatively quiet for the next couple of years. In 399, Eutropius fell from power. The new Eastern regime now felt that they could dispense with Alaric's services and they nominally transferred Alaric's province to the West. This administrative change removed Alaric's Roman rank and his entitlement to legal provisioning for his men, leaving his army—the only significant force in the ravaged Balkans—as a problem for Stilicho. + +In search of Western Roman recognition; invading Italy + +First invasion of Italy ( 401–403) +According to historian Michael Kulikowski, sometime in the spring of 402 Alaric decided to invade Italy, but no sources from antiquity indicate to what purpose. Burns suggests that Alaric was probably desperate for provisions. Using Claudian as his source, historian Guy Halsall reports that Alaric's attack actually began in late 401, but since Stilicho was in Raetia "dealing with frontier issues" the two did not first confront one another in Italy until 402. Alaric's entry into Italy followed the route identified in the poetry of Claudian, as he crossed the peninsula's Alpine frontier near the city of Aquileia. For a period of six to nine months, there were reports of Gothic attacks along the northern Italian roads, where Alaric was spotted by Roman townspeople. Along the route on Via Postumia, Alaric first encountered Stilicho. + +Two battles were fought. The first was at Pollentia on Easter Sunday, where Stilicho (according to Claudian) achieved an impressive victory, taking Alaric's wife and children prisoner, and more significantly, seizing much of the treasure that Alaric had amassed over the previous five years' worth of plundering. Pursuing the retreating forces of Alaric, Stilicho offered to return the prisoners but was refused. The second battle was at Verona, where Alaric was defeated for a second time. Stilicho once again offered Alaric a truce and allowed him to withdraw from Italy. Kulikowski explains this confusing, if not outright conciliatory behavior by stating, "given Stilicho's cold war with Constantinople, it would have been foolish to destroy as biddable and violent a potential weapon as Alaric might well prove to be". Halsall's observations are similar, as he contends that the Roman general's "decision to permit Alaric's withdrawal into Pannonia makes sense if we see Alaric's force entering Stilicho's service, and Stilicho's victory being less total than Claudian would have us believe". Perhaps more revealing is a report from the Greek historian Zosimus—writing a half a century later—that indicates an agreement was concluded between Stilicho and Alaric in 405, which suggests Alaric being in "western service at that point", likely stemming from arrangements made back in 402. Between 404 and 405, Alaric remained in one of the four Pannonian provinces, from where he could "play East off against West while potentially threatening both". + +Historian A.D. Lee observes, "Alaric's return to the north-west Balkans brought only temporary respite to Italy, for in 405 another substantial body of Goths and other barbarians, this time from outside the empire, crossed the middle Danube and advanced into northern Italy, where they plundered the countryside and besieged cities and towns" under their leader Radagaisus. Although the imperial government was struggling to muster enough troops to contain these barbarian invasions, Stilicho managed to stifle the threat posed by the tribes under Radagaisus, when the latter split his forces into three separate groups. Stilicho cornered Radagaisus near Florence and starved the invaders into submission. Meanwhile, Alaric—bestowed with codicils of magister militum by Stilicho and now supplied by the West—awaited for one side or the other to incite him to action as Stilicho faced further difficulties from more barbarians. + +Second invasion of Italy, agreement with Western Roman regime + +Sometime in 406 and into 407, more large groups of barbarians, consisting primarily of Vandals, Sueves and Alans, crossed the Rhine into Gaul while about the same time a rebellion occurred in Britain. Under a common soldier named Constantine it spread to Gaul. Burdened by so many enemies, Stilicho's position was strained. During this crisis in 407, Alaric again marched on Italy, taking a position in Noricum (modern Austria), where he demanded a sum of 4,000 pounds of gold to buy off another full-scale invasion. The Roman Senate loathed the idea of supporting Alaric; Zosimus observed that one senator famously declaimed Non est ista pax, sed pactio servitutis ("This is not peace, but a pact of servitude"). Stilicho paid Alaric the 4,000 pounds of gold nevertheless. This agreement, sensible in view of the military situation, fatally weakened Stilicho's standing at Honorius's court. Twice Stilicho had allowed Alaric to escape his grasp, and Radagaisus had advanced all the way to the outskirts of Florence. + +Renewed hostilities after Western Roman coup +In the East, Arcadius died on 1 May 408 and was replaced by his son Theodosius II; Stilicho seems to have planned to march to Constantinople, and to install there a regime loyal to himself. He may also have intended to give Alaric a senior official position and send him against the rebels in Gaul. Before Stilicho could do so, while he was away at Ticinum at the head of a small detachment, a bloody coup against his supporters took place at Honorius's court. It was led by Honorius's minister, Olympius. Stilicho's small escort of Goths and Huns was commanded by a Goth, Sarus, whose Gothic troops massacred the Hun contingent in their sleep, and then withdrew towards the cities in which their own families were billeted. Stilicho ordered that Sarus's Goths should not be admitted, but, now without an army, he was forced to flee for sanctuary. Agents of Olympius promised Stilicho his life, but instead betrayed and killed him. + +Alaric was again declared an enemy of the emperor. Olympius's men then massacred the families of the federate troops (as presumed supporters of Stilicho, although they had probably rebelled against him), and the troops defected en masse to Alaric. Many thousands of barbarian auxiliaries, along with their wives and children, joined Alaric in Noricum. The conspirators seem to have let their main army disintegrate and had no policy except hunting down supporters of Stilicho. Italy was left without effective indigenous defence forces thereafter. + +As a declared 'enemy of the emperor', Alaric was denied the legitimacy that he needed to collect taxes and hold cities without large garrisons, which he could not afford to detach. He again offered to move his men, this time to Pannonia, in exchange for a modest sum of money and the modest title of Comes, but he was refused because Olympius's regime regarded him as a supporter of Stilicho. + +First siege of Rome, agreed ransom +When Alaric was rebuffed, he led his force of around 30,000 men—many newly enlisted and understandably motivated—on a march toward Rome to avenge their murdered families. He moved across the Julian Alps into Italy, probably using the route and supplies arranged for him by Stilicho, bypassing the imperial court in Ravenna which was protected by widespread marshland and had a port, and in September 408 he menaced the city of Rome, imposing a strict blockade. No blood was shed this time; Alaric relied on hunger as his most powerful weapon. When the ambassadors of the Senate, entreating for peace, tried to intimidate him with hints of what the despairing citizens might accomplish, he laughed and gave his celebrated answer: "The thicker the hay, the easier mowed!" After much bargaining, the famine-stricken citizens agreed to pay a ransom of 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000 hides dyed scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper. Alaric also recruited some 40,000 freed Gothic slaves. Thus ended Alaric's first siege of Rome. + +Failed agreement with the Western Romans, Alaric sets up his own emperor +After having provisionally agreed to the terms offered by Alaric for lifting the blockade, Honorius recanted; historian A.D. Lee highlights that one of the points of contention for the emperor was Alaric's expectation of being named head of the Roman Army, a post Honorius was not prepared to grant to Alaric. When this title was not bestowed onto Alaric, he proceeded to not only "besiege Rome again in late 409, but also to proclaim a leading senator, Priscus Attalus, as a rival emperor, from whom Alaric then received the appointment" he desired. Meanwhile, Alaric's newly appointed "emperor" Attalus, who seems not to have understood the limits of his power or his dependence on Alaric, failed to take Alaric's advice and lost the grain supply in Africa to a pro-Honorian comes Africae, Heraclian. Then, sometime in 409, Attalus—accompanied by Alaric—marched on Ravenna and after receiving unprecedented terms and concessions from the legitimate emperor Honorius, refused him and instead demanded that Honorius be deposed and exiled. Fearing for his safety, Honorius made preparations to flee to Ravenna when ships carrying 4,000 troops arrived from Constantinople, restoring his resolve. Now that Honorius no longer felt the need to negotiate, Alaric (regretting his choice of puppet emperor) deposed Attalus, perhaps to re-open negotiations with Ravenna. + +Sack of Rome + +Negotiations with Honorius might have succeeded had it not been for another intervention by Sarus, of the Amal family, and therefore a hereditary enemy of Alaric and his house. He attacked Alaric's men. Why Sarus, who had been in imperial service for years under Stilicho, acted at this moment remains a mystery, but Alaric interpreted this attack as directed by Ravenna and as bad faith from Honorius. No longer would negotiations suffice for Alaric, as his patience had reached its end, which led him to march on Rome for a third and final time. + +On 24 August 410, Alaric and his forces began the sack of Rome, an assault that lasted three days. After hearing reports that Alaric had entered the city—possibly aided by Gothic slaves inside—there were reports that Emperor Honorius (safe in Ravenna) broke into "wailing and lamentation" but quickly calmed once "it was explained to him that it was the city of Rome that had met its end and not 'Roma'," his pet fowl. Writing from Bethlehem, St. Jerome (Letter 127.12, to the lady Principia) lamented: "A dreadful rumour reached us from the West. We heard that Rome was besieged, that the citizens were buying their safety with gold … The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken; nay, it fell by famine before it fell to the sword." Nonetheless, Christian apologists also cited how Alaric ordered that anyone who took shelter in a Church was to be spared. When liturgical vessels were taken from the basilica of St. Peter and Alaric heard of this, he ordered them returned and had them ceremoniously restored in the church. If the account from the historian Orosius can be seen as accurate, there was even a celebratory recognition of Christian unity by way of a procession through the streets where Romans and barbarians alike "raised a hymn to God in public"; historian Edward James concludes that such stories are likely more political rhetoric of the "noble" barbarians than a reflection of historical reality. + +According to historian Patrick Geary, Roman booty was not the focus of Alaric's sack of Rome; he came for needed food supplies. Historian Stephen Mitchell asserts that Alaric's followers seemed incapable of feeding themselves and relied on provisions "supplied by the Roman authorities." Whatever Alaric's intentions were cannot be known entirely, but Kulikowski certainly sees the issue of available treasure in a different light, writing that "For three days, Alaric's Goths sacked the city, stripping it of the wealth of centuries." The barbarian invaders were not gentle in their treatment of property as substantial damage was still evident into the sixth century. Certainly the Roman world was shaken by the fall of the Eternal City to barbarian invaders, but as Guy Halsall emphasizes, "Rome's fall had less striking political effects. Alaric, unable to treat with Honorius, remained in the political cold." Kulikowski sees the situation similarly, commenting: + +But for Alaric the sack of Rome was an admission of defeat, a catastrophic failure. Everything he had hoped for, had fought for over the course of a decade and a half, went up in flames with the capital of the ancient world. Imperial office, a legitimate place for himself and his followers inside the empire, these were now forever out of reach. He might seize what he wanted, as he had seized Rome, but he would never be given it by right. The sack of Rome solved nothing and when the looting was over Alaric's men still had nowhere to live and fewer future prospects than ever before. + +Still, the importance of Alaric cannot be "overestimated" according to Halsall, since he had desired and obtained a Roman command even though he was a barbarian; his real misfortune was being caught between the rivalry of the Eastern and Western empires and their court intrigue. According to historian Peter Brown, when one compares Alaric with other barbarians, "he was almost an Elder Statesman." Nonetheless, Alaric's respect for Roman institutions as a former servant to its highest office did not stay his hand in violently sacking the city that had for centuries exemplified Roman glory, leaving behind physical destruction and social disruption, while Alaric took clerics and even the emperor's sister, Galla Placidia, with him when he left the city. Many other Italian communities beyond the city of Rome itself fell victim to the forces under Alaric, as Procopius (Wars 3.2.11–13) writing in the sixth century later relates: + +For they destroyed all the cities which they captured, especially those south of the Ionian Gulf, so completely that nothing has been left to my time to know them by, unless, indeed, it might be one tower or gate or some such thing which chanced to remain. And they killed all the people, as many as came in their way, both old and young alike, sparing neither women nor children. Wherefore even up to the present time Italy is sparsely populated. + +Whether Alaric's forces wrought the level of destruction described by Procopius or not cannot be known, but evidence speaks to a significant population decrease, as the number of people on the food dole dropped from 800,000 in 408 to 500,000 by 419. Rome's fall to the barbarians was as much a psychological blow to the empire as anything else, since some Romans citizens saw the collapse as resulting from the conversion to Christianity, while Christian apologists like Augustine (writing City of God) responded in turn. Lamenting Rome's capture, famed Christian theologian Jerome, wrote how "day and night" he could not stop thinking of everyone's safety, and moreover, how Alaric had extinguished "the bright light of all the world." Some contemporary Christian observers even saw Alaric—a professed Christian—as God's wrath upon a still pagan Rome. + +Move to southern Italy, death from disease + +Not only had Rome's sack been a significant blow to the Roman people's morale, they had also endured two years' worth of trauma brought about by fear, hunger (due to blockades), and illness. However, the Goths were not long in the city of Rome, as only three days after the sack, Alaric marched his men south to Campania, from where he intended to sail to Sicily—probably to obtain grain and other supplies—when a storm destroyed his fleet. During the early months of 411, while on his northward return journey through Italy, Alaric took ill and died at Consentia in Bruttium. His cause of death was likely fever, and his body was, according to legend, buried under the riverbed of the Busento in accordance with the pagan practices of the Visigothic people. The stream was temporarily turned aside from its course while the grave was dug, wherein the Gothic chief and some of his most precious spoils were interred. When the work was finished, the river was turned back into its usual channel and the captives by whose hands the labor had been accomplished were put to death that none might learn their secret. + +Aftermath +Alaric was succeeded in the command of the Gothic army by his brother-in-law, Ataulf, who married Honorius' sister Galla Placidia three years later. +Following in the wake of Alaric's leadership, which Kulikowski claims, had given his people "a sense of community that survived his own death...Alaric's Goths remained together inside the empire, going on to settle in Gaul. There, in the province of Aquitaine, they put down roots and created the first autonomous barbarian kingdom inside the frontiers of the Roman empire." The Goths were able to settle in Aquitaine only after Honorius granted the once Roman province to them, sometime in 418 or 419. Not long after Alaric's exploits in Rome and Athaulf's settlement in Aquitaine, there is a "rapid emergence of Germanic barbarian groups in the West" who begin controlling many western provinces. These barbarian peoples included: Vandals in Spain and Africa, Visigoths in Spain and Aquitaine, Burgundians along the upper Rhine and southern Gaul, and Franks on the lower Rhine and in northern and central Gaul. + +Sources +The chief authorities on the career of Alaric are: the historian Orosius and the poet Claudian, both contemporary, neither disinterested; Zosimus, a historian who lived probably about half a century after Alaric's death; and Jordanes, a Goth who wrote the history of his nation in 551, basing his work on Cassiodorus's Gothic History. + +See also + Alaric II + Gaiseric + Odoacer + +References + +Notes + +Citations + +Bibliography + +Online + +External links + + Alaric I + Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 30 and Chapter 31. + The Legend of Alaric's Burial + For a modern-day novel exploring the historical sources relating to Alaric's riverbed grave, see Alaric's Gold by Robert Fortune + +|- + +410 deaths +5th-century Visigothic monarchs +Balt dynasty +People from Tulcea County +5th-century Arian Christians +Ancient Italian history +Gothic warriors +4th-century monarchs in Europe +Year of birth unknown +4th-century Gothic people +390s in the Byzantine Empire +Alaric II (, , "ruler of all"; ; – August 507) was the King of the Visigoths from 484 until 507. He succeeded his father Euric as king of the Visigoths in Toulouse on 28 December 484; he was the great-grandson of the more famous Alaric I, who sacked Rome in 410. He established his capital at Aire-sur-l'Adour (Vicus Julii) in Aquitaine. His dominions included not only the majority of Hispania (excluding its northwestern corner) but also Gallia Aquitania and the greater part of an as-yet undivided Gallia Narbonensis. + +Reign +Herwig Wolfram opens his chapter on the eighth Visigothic king, "Alaric's reign gets no full treatment in the sources, and the little they do contain is overshadowed by his death in the Battle of Vouillé and the downfall of the Toulosan kingdom." One example is Isidore of Seville's account of Alaric's reign: consisting of a single paragraph, it is primarily about Alaric's death in that battle. + +The earliest-documented event in Alaric's reign concerned providing refuge to Syagrius, the former ruler of the Domain of Soissons (in what is now northwestern France) who had been defeated by Clovis I, King of the Franks. According to Gregory of Tours' account, Alaric was intimidated by Clovis into surrendering Syagrius to Clovis; Gregory then adds that "the Goths are a timorous race." The Franks then imprisoned Syagrius, and once his control over Syagrius' former kingdom was secure, Clovis had him beheaded. However, Wolfram points out that at the time "Clovis got no farther than the Seine; only after several more years did the Franks succeed in occupying the rest of the Gallo-Roman buffer state north of the Loire." Any threat of war Clovis could make would only be effective if they were neighbors; "it is nowhere written that Syagrius was handed over in 486 or 487." + +Despite Frankish advances in the years that followed, Alaric was not afraid to take the military initiative when it presented itself. In 490, Alaric assisted his fellow Gothic king, Theodoric the Great, in his conquest of Italy by dispatching an army to raise Odoacer's siege of Pavia, where Theodoric had been trapped. Then when the Franks attacked the Burgundians in the decade after 500, Alaric assisted the ruling house, and according to Wolfram the victorious Burgundian king Gundobad ceded Avignon to Alaric. By 502 Clovis and Alaric met on an island in the Loire near Amboise for face-to-face talks, which led to a peace treaty. + +In 506, the Visigoths captured the city of Dertosa in the Ebro valley. There they captured the Roman usurper Peter and had him executed. + +Battle of Vouillé and aftermath + +After a few years, however, Clovis violated the peace treaty negotiated in 502. Despite the diplomatic intervention of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths and father-in-law of Alaric, Clovis led his followers into Visigothic territory. Alaric was forced by his magnates to meet Clovis in the Battle of Vouillé (summer 507) near Poitiers; there the Goths were defeated and Alaric slain, according to Gregory of Tours, by Clovis himself. + +The most serious consequence of this battle was not the loss of their possessions in Gaul to the Franks; with Ostrogothic help, much of the Gallic territory was recovered, Herwig Wolfram notes, perhaps as far as Toulouse. Nor was it the loss of the royal treasury at Toulouse, which Gregory of Tours writes Clovis took into his possession. As Peter Heather notes, the Visigothic kingdom was thrown into disarray "by the death of its king in battle." Alaric's heirs were his eldest son, the illegitimate Gesalec, and his younger son, the legitimate Amalaric who was still a child. Gesalec proved incompetent, and in 511 King Theodoric assumed the throne of the kingdom ostensibly on behalf of Amalaric—Heather uses the word "hijacked" to describe his action. Although Amalaric eventually became king in his own right, the political continuity of the Visigothic kingdom was broken; "Amalaric's succession was the result of new power structures, not old ones," as Heather describes it. With Amalaric's death in 531, the Visigothic kingdom entered an extended period of unrest which lasted until Leovigild assumed the throne in 569. + +Ability as king +In religion Alaric was an Arian, like all the early Visigothic nobles, but he greatly mitigated the persecution policy of his father Euric toward the Catholics and authorized them to hold in 506 the council of Agde. He was on uneasy terms with the Catholic bishops of Arelate (modern Arles) as epitomized in the career of the Gallo-Roman Caesarius, bishop of Arles, who was appointed bishop in 503. Caesarius was suspected of conspiring with the Burgundians, whose king had married the sister of Clovis, to assist the Burgundians capture Arles. Alaric exiled him for a year to Bordeaux in Aquitania, then allowed him to return unharmed when the crisis had passed. + +Alaric displayed similar wisdom in political affairs by appointing a commission headed by the referendary Anianus to prepare an abstract of the Roman laws and imperial decrees, which would form the authoritative code for his Roman subjects. This is generally known as the Breviarium Alaricianum or Breviary of Alaric. + +Legacy +The (Alaric's Mountain), near Carcassonne, is named after the Visigoth king. Local rumour has it that he left a vast treasure buried in the caves beneath the mountain. + +The (Alaric's Canal) in the Hautes-Pyrénées department is named after him. + +References + +Further reading +Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 38 +Alarico II , Diccionario biográfico español, Luis Agustín García Moreno, Real Academia de la Historia. + +Balt dynasty +Ancient child monarchs +507 deaths +5th-century Visigothic monarchs +6th-century Visigothic monarchs +Monarchs killed in action +Year of birth unknown +Year of birth uncertain +Albertus Magnus ( – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop. Later canonized as a Catholic saint, he was known during his lifetime as Doctor universalis and Doctor expertus and, late in his life, the sobriquet Magnus was appended to his name. Scholars such as James A. Weisheipl and Joachim R. Söder have referred to him as the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. The Catholic Church distinguishes him as one of the 37 Doctors of the Church. + +Biography +It seems likely that Albert was born sometime before 1200, given well-attested evidence that he was aged over 80 on his death in 1280. Two later sources say that Albert was about 87 on his death, which has led 1193 to be commonly given as the date of Albert's birth, but this information does not have enough evidence to be confirmed. Albert was probably born in Lauingen (now in Bavaria), since he called himself 'Albert of Lauingen', but this might simply be a family name. Most probably his family was of ministerial class; his familiar connection with (being son of the count) the Bollstädt noble family is almost certainly mere conjecture by 15th century hagiographers. + +Albert was probably educated principally at the University of Padua, where he received instruction in Aristotle's writings. A late account by Rudolph de Novamagia refers to Albertus' encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary, who convinced him to enter the Holy Orders. In 1223 (or 1229), he became a member of the Dominican Order, and studied theology at Bologna and elsewhere. Selected to fill the position of lecturer at Cologne, Germany, where the Dominicans had a house, he taught for several years there, as well as in Regensburg, Freiburg, Strasbourg, and Hildesheim. During his first tenure as lecturer at Cologne, Albert wrote his Summa de bono after having a discussion with Philip the Chancellor concerning the transcendental properties of being. In 1245, Albert became master of theology under Gueric of Saint-Quentin, the first German Dominican to achieve this distinction. Following this turn of events, Albert was able to teach theology at the University of Paris as a full-time professor, holding the seat of the Chair of Theology at the College of St. James. During this time Thomas Aquinas began to study under Albertus. + +Albert was the first to comment on virtually all of the writings of Aristotle, thus making them accessible to wider academic debate. The study of Aristotle brought him to study and comment on the teachings of Muslim academics, notably Avicenna and Averroes, and this would bring him into the heart of academic debate. + +In 1254, Albert was made provincial of the Dominican Order and fulfilled the duties of the office with great care and efficiency. During his tenure, he publicly defended the Dominicans against attacks by the secular faculty of the University of Paris, commented on John the Evangelist, and answered what he perceived as errors of the Islamic philosopher Averroes. + +In 1259, Albert took part in the General Chapter of the Dominicans at Valenciennes together with Thomas Aquinas, masters Bonushomo Britto, Florentius, and Peter (later Pope Innocent V), establishing a ratio studiorum or program of studies for the Dominicans that featured the study of philosophy as an innovation for those not sufficiently trained to study theology. This innovation initiated the tradition of Dominican scholastic philosophy put into practice, for example, in 1265 at the Order's studium provinciale at the convent of Santa Sabina in Rome, out of which would develop the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the "Angelicum". + +In 1260, Pope Alexander IV made him bishop of Regensburg, an office from which he resigned after three years. During the exercise of his duties he enhanced his reputation for humility by refusing to ride a horse, in accord with the dictates of the Order, instead traversing his huge diocese on foot. In 1263, Pope Urban IV relieved him of the duties of bishop and asked him to preach the eighth Crusade in German-speaking countries. After this, he was especially known for acting as a mediator between conflicting parties. In Cologne, he is known not only for being the founder of Germany's oldest university there, but also for "the big verdict" (der Große Schied) of 1258, which brought an end to the conflict between the citizens of Cologne and the archbishop. Among the last of his labors was the defense of the orthodoxy of his former pupil, Thomas Aquinas, whose death in 1274 grieved Albert (the story that he travelled to Paris in person to defend the teachings of Aquinas can not be confirmed). + +Albert was a scientist, philosopher, astrologer, theologian, spiritual writer, ecumenist, and diplomat. Under the auspices of Humbert of Romans, Albert molded the curriculum of studies for all Dominican students, introduced Aristotle to the classroom and probed the work of Neoplatonists, such as Plotinus. Indeed, it was the thirty years of work done by Aquinas and himself that allowed for the inclusion of Aristotelian study in the curriculum of Dominican schools. + +After suffering a collapse of health in 1278, he died on 15 November 1280 in the Dominican convent in Cologne, Germany. Since 15 November 1954 his relics are in a Roman sarcophagus in the crypt of the Dominican St. Andrew's Church in Cologne. Although his body was claimed to be incorrupt at the first exhumation three years after his death, at the exhumation in 1483 only a skeleton remained. + +Albert was beatified in 1622. He was canonized and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on 16 December 1931 by Pope Pius XI and the patron saint of natural scientists in 1941. St. Albert's feast day is November 15. + +Writings + +Albert's writings collected in 1899 went to thirty-eight volumes. These displayed his prolific habits and encyclopedic knowledge of topics such as logic, theology, botany, geography, astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology, phrenology, justice, law, friendship, and love. He digested, interpreted, and systematized the whole of Aristotle's works, gleaned from the Latin translations and notes of the Arabian commentators, in accordance with Church doctrine. Most modern knowledge of Aristotle was preserved and presented by Albert. + +His principal theological works are a commentary in three volumes on the Books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Magister Sententiarum), and the Summa Theologiae in two volumes. The latter is in substance a more didactic repetition of the former. + +Albert's activity, however, was more philosophical than theological (see Scholasticism). The philosophical works, occupying the first six and the last of the 21 volumes, are generally divided according to the Aristotelian scheme of the sciences, and consist of interpretations and condensations of Aristotle's relative works, with supplementary discussions upon contemporary topics, and occasional divergences from the opinions of the master. Albert believed that Aristotle's approach to natural philosophy did not pose any obstacle to the development of a Christian philosophical view of the natural order. + +Albert's knowledge of natural science was considerable and for the age remarkably accurate. His industry in every department was great: not only did he produce commentaries and paraphrases of the entire Aristotelian corpus, including his scientific works, but Albert also added to and improved upon them. His books on topics like botany, zoology, and minerals included information from ancient sources, but also results of his own empirical investigations. These investigations pushed several of the special sciences forward, beyond the reliance on classical texts. In the case of embryology, for example, it has been claimed that little of value was written between Aristotle and Albert, who managed to identify organs within eggs. Furthermore, Albert also effectively invented entire special sciences, where Aristotle has not covered a topic. For example, prior to Albert, there was no systematic study of minerals. For the breadth of these achievements, he was bestowed the name Doctor Universalis. + +Much of Albert's empirical contributions to the natural sciences have been superseded, but his general approach to science may be surprisingly modern. For example, in De Mineralibus (Book II, Tractate ii, Ch. 1) Albert claims, "For it is [the task] of natural science not simply to accept what we are told but to inquire into the causes of natural things." + +Alchemy + +In the centuries since his death, many stories arose about Albert as an alchemist and magician. "Much of the modern confusion results from the fact that later works, particularly the alchemical work known as the Secreta Alberti or the Experimenta Alberti, were falsely attributed to Albertus by their authors to increase the prestige of the text through association." On the subject of alchemy and chemistry, many treatises relating to alchemy have been attributed to him, though in his authentic writings he had little to say on the subject, and then mostly through commentary on Aristotle. For example, in his commentary, De mineralibus, he refers to the power of stones, but does not elaborate on what these powers might be. A wide range of Pseudo-Albertine works dealing with alchemy exist, though, showing the belief developed in the generations following Albert's death that he had mastered alchemy, one of the fundamental sciences of the Middle Ages. These include Metals and Materials; the Secrets of Chemistry; the Origin of Metals; the Origins of Compounds, and a Concordance which is a collection of Observations on the philosopher's stone; and other alchemy-chemistry topics, collected under the name of Theatrum Chemicum. He is credited with the discovery of the element arsenic and experimented with photosensitive chemicals, including silver nitrate. He did believe that stones had occult properties, as he related in his work De mineralibus. However, there is scant evidence that he personally performed alchemical experiments. + +According to legend, Albert is said to have discovered the philosopher's stone and passed it on to his pupil Thomas Aquinas, shortly before his death. Albert does not confirm he discovered the stone in his writings, but he did record that he witnessed the creation of gold by "transmutation." Given that Thomas Aquinas died six years before Albert's death, this legend as stated is unlikely. + +Astronomy +Albert was deeply interested in astronomy, as has been articulated by scholars such as Paola Zambelli and Scott Hendrix. Throughout the Middle Ages –and well into the early modern period– astrology was widely accepted by scientists and intellectuals who held the view that life on earth is effectively a microcosm within the macrocosm (the latter being the cosmos itself). It was believed that correspondence therefore exists between the two and thus the celestial bodies follow patterns and cycles analogous to those on earth. With this worldview, it seemed reasonable to assert that astrology could be used to predict the probable future of a human being. Albert argued that an understanding of the celestial influences affecting us could help us to live our lives more in accord with Christian precepts. The most comprehensive statement of his astrological beliefs is to be found in two separates works that he authored around 1260, known as the Speculum astronomiae and the De Fato. However, details of these beliefs can be found in almost everything he wrote, from his early De natura boni to his last work, the Summa theologiae. His speculum was critiqued by Gerard of Silteo. + +Matter and form +Albert believed that all natural things were compositions of matter and form, he referred to it as quod est and quo est. Albert also believed that God alone is the absolute ruling entity. Albert's version of hylomorphism is very similar to the Aristotelian doctrine. + +Music +Albert is known for his commentary on the musical practice of his times. Most of his written musical observations are found in his commentary on Aristotle's Poetics. He rejected the idea of "music of the spheres" as ridiculous: movement of astronomical bodies, he supposed, is incapable of generating sound. He wrote extensively on proportions in music, and on the three different subjective levels on which plainchant could work on the human soul: purging of the impure; illumination leading to contemplation; and nourishing perfection through contemplation. Of particular interest to 20th-century music theorists is the attention he paid to silence as an integral part of music. + +Metaphysics of morals +Both of his early treatises, De natura boni and De bono, start with a metaphysical investigation into the concepts of the good in general and the physical good. Albert refers to the physical good as bonum naturae. Albert does this before directly dealing with the moral concepts of metaphysics. In Albert's later works, he says in order to understand human or moral goodness, the individual must first recognize what it means to be good and do good deeds. This procedure reflects Albert's preoccupations with neo-Platonic theories of good as well as the doctrines of Pseudo-Dionysius. Albert's view was highly valued by the Catholic Church and his peers. + +Natural law +Albert devoted the last tractatus of De Bono to a theory of justice and natural law. Albert places God as the pinnacle of justice and natural law. God legislates and divine authority is supreme. Up until his time, it was the only work specifically devoted to natural law written by a theologian or philosopher. + +Friendship +Albert mentions friendship in his work, De bono, as well as presenting his ideals and morals of friendship in the very beginning of Tractatus II. Later in his life he published Super Ethica. With his development of friendship throughout his work it is evident that friendship ideals and morals took relevance as his life went on. Albert comments on Aristotle's view of friendship with a quote from Cicero, who writes, "friendship is nothing other than the harmony between things divine and human, with goodwill and love". Albert agrees with this commentary but he also adds in harmony or agreement. Albert calls this harmony, consensio, itself a certain kind of movement within the human spirit. Albert fully agrees with Aristotle in the sense that friendship is a virtue. Albert relates the inherent metaphysical contentedness between friendship and moral goodness. Albert describes several levels of goodness; the useful (utile), the pleasurable (delectabile) and the authentic or unqualified good (honestum). Then in turn there are three levels of friendship based on each of those levels, namely friendship based on usefulness (amicitia utilis), friendship based on pleasure (amicitia delectabilis), and friendship rooted in unqualified goodness (amicitia honesti; amicitia quae fundatur super honestum). + +Cultural references + +The iconography of the tympanum and archivolts of the late 13th-century portal of Strasbourg Cathedral was inspired by Albert's writings. Albert is frequently mentioned by Dante, who made his doctrine of free will the basis of his ethical system. In his Divine Comedy, Dante places Albertus with his pupil Thomas Aquinas among the great lovers of wisdom (Spiriti Sapienti) in the Heaven of the Sun. + +In The Concept of Anxiety, Søren Kierkegaard wrote that Albert, "arrogantly boasted of his speculation before the deity and suddenly became stupid." Kierkegaard cites Gotthard Oswald Marbach whom he quotes as saying "Albertus repente ex asino factus philosophus et ex philosopho asinus" [Albert was suddenly transformed from an ass into a philosopher and from a philosopher into an ass]. + +In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the titular Frankenstein studies the works of Albertus Magnus. + +Johann Eduard Erdmann considers Albert greater and more original than his pupil Aquinas. + +In Open All Hours, Arkwright invents St Albert's day so Grandville can check customers pockets. + +Influence and tribute + +A number of schools have been named after Albert, including Albertus Magnus High School in Bardonia, New York; Albertus Magnus Lyceum in River Forest, Illinois; and Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut. + +Albertus Magnus Science Hall at Thomas Aquinas College, in Santa Paula, California, is named in honor of Albert. The main science buildings at Providence College and Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, are also named after him. + +The central square at the campus of the University of Cologne features a statue of Albert and is named after him. + +The Academy for Science and Design in New Hampshire honored Albert by naming one of its four houses Magnus House. + +As a tribute to the scholar's contributions to the law, the University of Houston Law Center displays a statue of Albert. It is located on the campus of the University of Houston. + +The Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium is found in Rottweil, Germany. + +In Managua, Nicaragua, the Albertus Magnus International Institute, a business and economic development research center, was founded in 2004. + +In the Philippines, the Albertus Magnus Building at the University of Santo Tomas that houses the Conservatory of Music, College of Tourism and Hospitality Management, College of Education, and UST Education High School is named in his honor. The Saint Albert the Great Science Academy in San Carlos City, Pangasinan, which offers preschool, elementary and high school education, takes pride in having St. Albert as their patron saint. Its main building was named Albertus Magnus Hall in 2008. San Alberto Magno Academy in Tubao, La Union is also dedicated in his honor. This century-old Catholic high school continues to live on its vision-mission up to this day, offering Senior High school courses. + +Due to his contributions to natural philosophy, the bacterium Agrobacterium albertimagni, the plant species Alberta magna, the crustacean Bodigiella albertimagni, the fossil brachiopod Albasphe albertimagni, and the asteroid 20006 Albertus Magnus were named after him. + +Numerous Catholic elementary and secondary schools are named for him, including schools in Toronto; Calgary; Cologne; and Dayton, Ohio. + +The Albertus typeface is named after him. +At the University of Notre Dame du Lac in Notre Dame, Indiana, the Zahm Hall Chapel is dedicated to St. Albert the Great. Fr. John Zahm, C.S.C., after whom the men's residence hall is named, looked to St. Albert's example of using religion to illumine scientific discovery. Fr. Zahm's work with the Bible and evolution is sometimes seen as a continuation of St. Albert's legacy. + +The second largest student's fraternity of the Netherlands, located in the city of Groningen, is named Albertus Magnus, in honor of the saint. + +The Colegio Cientifico y Artistico de San Alberto, Hopelawn, New Jersey, USA with a sister school in Nueva Ecija, Philippines was founded in 1986 in honor of him who thought and taught that religion, the sciences and the arts may be advocated as subjects which should not contradict each other but should support one another to achieve wisdom and reason. + +The Vosloorus catholic parish (located in Vosloorus Extension One, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa) is named after the saint. + +The catholic parish in Leopoldshafen, near Karlsruhe in Germany is also named after him also considering the huge research center of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology nearby, as he is the patron saint of scientists. + +Since the death of King Albert I, the King's Feast is celebrated in Belgium on Albert's feast day. + +Edinburgh's Catholic Chaplaincy serving the city's universities is named after St Albert. + +Sant'Alberto Magno is a titular church in Rome. + +Bibliography + +Translations + On Fate, (De Fato) translated by D.P. Curtin (Philadelphia, PA: Dalcassian Publishing Company: 2023). + On the Body of the Lord, translated by Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, OP (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press: 2017). + On the Causes of the Properties of the Elements, translated by Irven M. Resnick (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2010) [translation of Liber de causis proprietatum elementorum] + Questions concerning Aristotle's on Animals, translated by Irven M. Resnick and Kenneth F. Kitchell Jr. (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2008) [translation of Quaestiones super De animalibus] + The Cardinal Virtues: Aquinas, Albert, and Philip the Chancellor, translated by R. E. Houser (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediæval Studies, 2004) [contains translations of Parisian Summa, part six: On the good and Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, book 3, dist. 33 & 36] + The Commentary of Albertus Magnus on Book 1 of Euclid's Elements of Geometry, edited by Anthony Lo Bello (Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003) [translation of Priumus Euclidis cum commento Alberti] + On Animals: A Medieval Summa Zoologica, translated by Kenneth F. Kitchell Jr. and Irven Michael Resnick (Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999) [translation of De animalibus] + Paola Zambelli, The Speculum Astronomiae and Its Enigma: Astrology, Theology, and Science in Albertus Magnus and His Contemporaries (Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992) [includes Latin text and English translation of Speculum astronomiae] + Albert & Thomas: Selected Writings, translated by Simon Tugwell, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1988) [contains translation of Super Dionysii Mysticam theologiam] + On Union with God, translated by a Benedictine of Princethorpe Priory (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1911) [reprinted as (Felinfach: Llanerch Enterprises, 1991) and (London: Continuum, 2000)] [translation of De adherendo Deo] + +See also + Christian mysticism + List of Catholic saints + List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics + Saint Albert the Great, patron saint archive + Science in the Middle Ages + +Notes + +References + +Citations + +Sources + + Sighart, Joachim (1876), Albert the Great : his life and scholastic labours: from original documents. + +Further reading + Collins, David J. "Albertus, Magnus or Magus? Magic, Natural Philosophy, and Religious Reform in the Late Middle Ages." Renaissance Quarterly 63, no. 1 (2010): 1–44. + Honnefelder, Ludger (ed.) Albertus Magnus and the Beginnings of the Medieval Reception of Aristotle in the Latin West. From Richardus Rufus to Franciscus de Mayronis, (collection of essays in German and English), Münster Aschendorff, 2005. + Jong, Jonathan. "Albert the Great: Patron Saint of Scientists", in: St Mary Magdalen School of Theology, Thinking Faithfully. + Kovach, Francis J. & Shahan, Robert W. Albert the Great. Commemorative Essays, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980. + Lemay, Helen Rodnite. Women's Secrets: A Translation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus's De secretis mulierum with Commentaries. SUNY Series in Medieval Studies. Albany: SUNY Press, 1992. + Miteva, Evelina. "The Soul between Body and Immortality: The 13th Century Debate on the Definition of the Human Rational Soul as Form and Substance", in: Philosophia: E-Journal of Philosophy and Culture, 1/2012. . + Resnick, Irven (ed.), A Companion to Albert the Great: Theology, Philosophy, and the Sciences, Leiden, Brill, 2013. + Resnick, Irven e Kitchell Jr, Kenneth (eds.), Albert the Great: A Selective Annotated Bibliography, (1900–2000), Tempe, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2004. + +External links + + + + + + + + Alberti Magni Works in Latin Online + Albertus Magnus on Astrology & Magic + "Albertus Magnus & Prognostication by the Stars" + Albertus Magnus: "Secrets of the Virtues of Herbs, Stones and Certain Beasts", London, 1604, full online version. + Albertus Magnus – De Adhaerendo Deo – On Cleaving to God + Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries – High resolution images of works by Albertus Magnus in .jpg and .tiff format. + Albertus Magnus works at SOMNI in the collection of the Duke of Calabria. + Alberti Magni De laudibus beate Mariae Virginis, Italian digitized codex of 1476 with a completed transcription of his work "Liber de laudibus gloriosissime Dei genitricis Marie" + Albertus Magnus De mirabili scientia Dei, Italian digitized codex of 1484 with a transcription of the first part of his Summa Theologicae. + Works of Alberto Magno at the National Digital Library of Portugal + +1280 deaths +13th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Bavaria +13th-century Christian mystics +13th-century German philosophers +13th-century Christian saints +13th-century German Catholic theologians +Aristotelian philosophers +People from Lauingen +Roman Catholic bishops of Regensburg +Dominican bishops +Natural philosophers +Discoverers of chemical elements +Doctors of the Church +German Dominicans +University of Padua alumni +Academic staff of the University of Paris +German astrologers +13th-century astrologers +German entomologists +Canonizations by Pope Pius XI +German Roman Catholic saints +Latin commentators on Aristotle +Catholic philosophers +Scholastic philosophers +Catholic clergy scientists +Dominican mystics +Dominican saints +Incorrupt saints +Year of birth unknown +German male non-fiction writers +Alsatian saints +13th-century writers in Latin +13th-century alchemists +13th-century jurists +Provincial superiors +Writers about religion and science +Natural law ethicists +Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effect on Italy and the Pannonian Basin; in the former his invasion marked the beginning of centuries of Lombard rule, and in the latter his defeat of the Gepids and his departure from Pannonia ended the dominance there of the Germanic peoples. + +The period of Alboin's reign as king in Pannonia following the death of his father, Audoin, was one of confrontation and conflict between the Lombards and their main neighbors, the Gepids. The Gepids initially gained the upper hand, but in 567, thanks to his alliance with the Avars, Alboin inflicted a decisive defeat on his enemies, whose lands the Avars subsequently occupied. The increasing power of his new neighbours caused Alboin some unease however, and he therefore decided to leave Pannonia for Italy, hoping to take advantage of the Byzantine Empire's vulnerability in defending its territory in the wake of the Gothic War. + +After gathering a large coalition of peoples, Alboin crossed the Julian Alps in 568, entering an almost undefended Italy. He rapidly took control of most of Venetia and Liguria. In 569, unopposed, he took northern Italy's main city, Milan. Pavia offered stiff resistance however, and was taken only after a siege lasting three years. During that time Alboin turned his attention to Tuscany, but signs of factionalism among his supporters and Alboin's diminishing control over his army increasingly began to manifest themselves. + +Alboin was assassinated on 28 June 572, in a coup d'état instigated by the Byzantines. It was organized by the king's foster brother, Helmichis, with the support of Alboin's wife, Rosamund, daughter of the Gepid king whom Alboin had killed some years earlier. The coup failed in the face of opposition from a majority of the Lombards, who elected Cleph as Alboin's successor, forcing Helmichis and Rosamund to flee to Ravenna under imperial protection. Alboin's death deprived the Lombards of the only leader who could have kept the newborn Germanic entity together, the last in the line of hero-kings who had led the Lombards through their migrations from the vale of the Elbe to Italy. For many centuries following his death Alboin's heroism and his success in battle were celebrated in Saxon and Bavarian epic poetry. + +Etymology + +The name Alboin derives from the Proto-Germanic roots *albiz ("elf") and *winiz ("friend"); it is thus cognate with the Old English name Ælfwine. He was known in Latin as Alboinus and in Greek as Ἀλβοΐνος (Alboinos). In modern Italian he is Alboino and in modern Lombard Albuì. + +Father's rule +The Lombards under King Wacho had migrated towards the east into Pannonia, taking advantage of the difficulties facing the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy following the death of its founder, Theodoric, in 526. Wacho's death in about 540 brought his son Walthari to the throne, but, as the latter was still a minor, the kingdom was governed in his stead by Alboin's father, Audoin, of the Gausian clan. Seven years later Walthari died, giving Audoin the opportunity to crown himself and overthrow the reigning Lethings. + +Alboin was probably born in the 530s in Pannonia, the son of Audoin and his wife, Rodelinda. She may have been the niece of King Theodoric and betrothed to Audoin through the mediation of Emperor Justinian. Like his father, Alboin was raised a pagan, although Audoin had at one point attempted to gain Byzantine support against his neighbours by professing himself a Christian. Alboin took as his first wife the Christian Chlothsind, daughter of the Frankish King Chlothar. This marriage, which took place soon after the death of the Frankish ruler Theudebald in 555, is thought to reflect Audoin's decision to distance himself from the Byzantines, traditional allies of the Lombards, who had been lukewarm when it came to supporting Audoin against the Gepids. The new Frankish alliance was important because of the Franks' known hostility to the Byzantine empire, providing the Lombards with more than one option. However, the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire interprets events and sources differently, believing that Alboin married Chlothsind when already a king in or shortly before 561, the year of Chlothar's death. + +Alboin first distinguished himself on the battlefield in a clash with the Gepids. At the Battle of Asfeld (552), he killed Turismod, son of the Gepid king Thurisind, in a victory that resulted in the Emperor Justinian's intervention to maintain equilibrium between the rival regional powers. After the battle, according to a tradition reported by Paul the Deacon, to be granted the right to sit at his father's table, Alboin had to ask for the hospitality of a foreign king and have him donate his weapons, as was customary. For this initiation, he went to the court of Thurisind, where the Gepid king gave him Turismod's arms. Walter Goffart believes it is probable that in this narrative Paul was making use of an oral tradition, and is sceptical that it can be dismissed as merely a typical topos of an epic poem. + +Reign in Pannonia + +Alboin came to the throne after the death of his father, sometime between 560 and 565. As was customary among the Lombards, Alboin took the crown after an election by the tribe's freemen, who traditionally selected the king from the dead sovereign's clan. Shortly afterwards, in 565, a new war erupted with the Gepids, now led by Cunimund, Thurisind's son. The cause of the conflict is uncertain, as the sources are divided; the Lombard Paul the Deacon accuses the Gepids, while the Byzantine historian Menander Protector places the blame on Alboin, an interpretation favoured by historian Walter Pohl. + +An account of the war by the Byzantine Theophylact Simocatta sentimentalises the reasons behind the conflict, claiming it originated with Alboin's vain courting and subsequent kidnapping of Cunimund's daughter Rosamund, that Alboin proceeded then to marry. The tale is treated with scepticism by Walter Goffart, who observes that it conflicts with the Origo Gentis Langobardorum, where she was captured only after the death of her father. The Gepids obtained the support of the Emperor in exchange for a promise to cede him the region of Sirmium, the seat of the Gepid kings. Thus in 565 or 566 Justinian's successor Justin II sent his son-in-law Baduarius as magister militum (field commander) to lead a Byzantine army against Alboin in support of Cunimund, ending in the Lombards' complete defeat. + +Faced with the possibility of annihilation, Alboin made an alliance in 566 with the Avars under Bayan I, at the expense of some tough conditions: the Avars demanded a tenth of the Lombards' cattle, half of the war booty, and on the war's conclusion all of the lands held by the Gepids. The Lombards played on the pre-existing hostility between the Avars and the Byzantines, claiming that the latter were allied with the Gepids. Cunimund, on the other hand, encountered hostility when he once again asked the Emperor for military assistance, as the Byzantines had been angered by the Gepids' failure to cede Sirmium to them, as had been agreed. Moreover, Justin II was moving away from the foreign policy of Justinian, and believed in dealing more strictly with bordering states and peoples. Attempts to mollify Justin II with tributes failed, and as a result the Byzantines kept themselves neutral if not outright supportive of the Avars. + +In 567 the allies made their final move against Cunimund, with Alboin invading the Gepids' lands from the northwest while Bayan attacked from the northeast. Cunimund attempted to prevent the two armies joining up by moving against the Lombards and clashing with Alboin somewhere between the Tibiscus and Danube rivers. The Gepids were defeated in the ensuing battle, their king slain by Alboin, and Cunimund's daughter Rosamund taken captive, according to references in the Origo. The full destruction of the Gepid kingdom was completed by the Avars, who overcame the Gepids in the east. As a result, the Gepids ceased to exist as an independent people, and were partly absorbed by the Lombards and the Avars. Some time before 568, Alboin's first wife Chlothsind died, and after his victory against Cunimund Alboin married Rosamund, to establish a bond with the remaining Gepids. The war also marked a watershed in the geo-political history of the region, as together with the Lombard migration the following year, it signalled the end of six centuries of Germanic dominance in the Pannonian Basin. + +Preparations and departure from Pannonia + +Despite his success against the Gepids, Alboin had failed to greatly increase his power, and was now faced with a much stronger threat from the Avars. Historians consider this the decisive factor in convincing Alboin to undertake a migration, even though there are indications that before the war with the Gepids a decision was maturing to leave for Italy, a country thousands of Lombards had seen in the 550s when hired by the Byzantines to fight in the Gothic War. Additionally, the Lombards would have known of the weakness of Byzantine Italy, which had endured a number of problems after being retaken from the Goths. In particular the so-called Plague of Justinian had ravaged the region and conflict remained endemic, with the Three-Chapter Controversy sparking religious opposition and administration at a standstill after the able governor of the peninsula, Narses, was recalled. Nevertheless, the Lombards viewed Italy as a rich land which promised great booty, assets Alboin used to gather together a horde which included not only Lombards but many other peoples of the region, including Heruli, Suebi, Gepids, Thuringii, Bulgars, Sarmatians, the remaining Romans and a few Ostrogoths. But the most important group, other than the Lombards, were the Saxons, of whom 20,000 male warriors with their families participated in the trek. These Saxons were tributaries to the Frankish King Sigebert, and their participation indicates that Alboin had the support of the Franks for his venture. + +The precise size of the heterogeneous group gathered by Alboin is impossible to know, and many different estimates have been made. Neil Christie considers 150,000 to be a realistic size, a number which would make the Lombards a more numerous force than the Ostrogoths on the eve of their invasion of Italy. Jörg Jarnut proposes 100,000–150,000 as an approximation; Wilfried Menghen in Die Langobarden estimates 150,000 to 200,000; while Stefano Gasparri cautiously judges the peoples united by Alboin to be somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000. + +As a precautionary move Alboin strengthened his alliance with the Avars, signing what Paul calls a foedus perpetuum ("perpetual treaty") and what is referred to in the 9th-century Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani as a pactum et foedus amicitiae ("pact and treaty of friendship"), adding that the treaty was put down on paper. By the conditions accepted in the treaty, the Avars were to take possession of Pannonia and the Lombards were promised military support in Italy should the need arise; also, for a period of 200 years the Lombards were to maintain the right to reclaim their former territories if the plan to conquer Italy failed, thus leaving Alboin with an alternative open. The accord also had the advantage of protecting Alboin's rear, as an Avar-occupied Pannonia would make it difficult for the Byzantines to bring forces to Italy by land. The agreement proved immensely successful, and relations with the Avars were almost uninterruptedly friendly during the lifetime of the Lombard Kingdom. + +A further cause of the Lombard migration into Italy may have been an invitation from Narses. According to a controversial tradition reported by several medieval sources, Narses, out of spite for having been removed by Justinian's successor Justin II, called the Lombards to Italy. Often dismissed as an unreliable tradition, it has been studied with attention by modern scholars, in particular Neil Christie, who see in it a possible record of a formal invitation by the Byzantine state to settle in northern Italy as foederati, to help protect the region against the Franks, an arrangement that may have been disowned by Justin II after Narses' removal. + +March to Italy + +The Lombard migration started on Easter Monday, 2 April 568. The decision to combine the departure with a Christian celebration can be understood in the context of Alboin's recent conversion to Arian Christianity, as attested by the presence of Arian Gothic missionaries at his court. The conversion is likely to have been motivated mostly by political considerations, and intended to consolidate the migration's cohesion, distinguishing the migrants from the Catholic Romans. It also connected Alboin and his people to the Gothic heritage, and in this way obtain the support of the Ostrogoths serving in the Byzantine army as foederati. It has been speculated that Alboin's migration could have been partly the result of a call from surviving Ostrogoths in Italy. + +The season chosen for leaving Pannonia was unusually early; the Germanic peoples generally waited until autumn before beginning a migration, giving themselves time to do the harvesting and replenish their granaries for the march. The reason behind the spring departure could be the anxiety induced by the neighboring Avars, despite the friendship treaty. Nomadic peoples like the Avars also waited for autumn to begin their military campaigns, as they needed enough forage for their horses. A sign of this anxiety can also be seen in the decision taken by Alboin to ravage Pannonia, which created a safety zone between the Lombards and the Avars. + +The road followed by Alboin to reach Italy has been the subject of controversy, as is the length of the trek. According to Neil Christie the Lombards divided themselves into migrational groups, with a vanguard scouting the road, probably following the Poetovio – Celeia – Emona – Forum Iulii route, while the wagons and most of the people proceeded slowly behind because of the goods and chattels they brought with them, and possibly also because they were waiting for the Saxons to join them on the road. By September raiding parties were looting Venetia, but it was probably only in 569 that the Julian Alps were crossed at the Vipava Valley; the eyewitness Secundus of Non gives the date as 20 or 21 May. The 569 date for the entry into Italy is not void of difficulties however, and Jörg Jarnut believes the conquest of most of Venetia had already been completed in 568. According to Carlo Guido Mor, a major difficulty remains in explaining how Alboin could have reached Milan on 3 September assuming he had passed the border only in the May of the same year. + +Invasion of Italy + +Foundation of the Duchy of Friuli + +The Lombards penetrated into Italy without meeting any resistance from the border troops (milities limitanei). The Byzantine military resources available on the spot were scant and of dubious loyalty, and the border forts may well have been left unmanned. What seems certain is that archaeological excavations have found no sign of violent confrontation in the sites that have been excavated. This agrees with Paul the Deacon's narrative, who speaks of a Lombard takeover in Friuli "without any hindrance". + +The first town to fall into the Lombards' hands was Forum Iulii (Cividale del Friuli), the seat of the local magister militum. Alboin chose this walled town close to the frontier to be capital of the Duchy of Friuli and made his nephew and shield bearer, Gisulf, duke of the region, with the specific duty of defending the borders from Byzantine or Avar attacks from the east. Gisulf obtained from his uncle the right to choose for his duchy those farae, or clans, that he preferred. + +Alboin's decision to create a duchy and designate a duke were both important innovations; until then, the Lombards had never had dukes or duchies based on a walled town. The innovation adopted was part of Alboin's borrowing of Roman and Ostrogothic administrative models, as in Late Antiquity the comes civitatis (city count) was the main local authority, with full administrative powers in his region. But the shift from count (comes) to duke (dux) and from county (comitatus) to duchy (ducatus) also signalled the progressive militarization of Italy. The selection of a fortified town as the centre for the new duchy was also an important change from the time in Pannonia, for while urbanized settlements had previously been ignored by the Lombards, now a considerable part of the nobility settled itself in Forum Iulii, a pattern that was repeated regularly by the Lombards in their other duchies. + +Conquest of Milan +From Forum Iulii, Alboin next reached Aquileia, the most important road junction in the northeast, and the administrative capital of Venetia. The imminent arrival of the Lombards had a considerable impact on the city's population; the Patriarch of Aquileia Paulinus fled with his clergy and flock to the island of Grado in Byzantine-controlled territory. + +From Aquileia, Alboin took the Via Postumia and swept through Venetia, taking in rapid succession Tarvisium (Treviso), Vicentia (Vicenza), Verona, Brixia (Brescia) and Bergomum (Bergamo). The Lombards faced difficulties only in taking Opitergium (Oderzo), which Alboin decided to avoid, as he similarly avoided tackling the main Venetian towns closer to the coast on the Via Annia, such as Altinum, Patavium (Padova), Mons Silicis (Monselice), Mantua and Cremona. The invasion of Venetia generated a considerable level of turmoil, spurring waves of refugees from the Lombard-controlled interior to the Byzantine-held coast, often led by their bishops, and resulting in new settlements such as Torcello and Heraclia. + +Alboin moved west in his march, invading the region of Liguria (north-west Italy) and reaching its capital Mediolanum (Milan) on 3 September 569, only to find it already abandoned by the vicarius Italiae (vicar of Italy), the authority entrusted with the administration of the diocese of Annonarian Italy. Archbishop Honoratus, his clergy, and part of the laity accompanied the vicarius Italiae to find a safe haven in the Byzantine port of Genua (Genoa). Alboin counted the years of his reign from the capture of Milan, when he assumed the title of dominus Italiae (Lord of Italy). His success also meant the collapse of Byzantine defences in the northern part of the Po plain, and large movements of refugees to Byzantine areas. + +Several explanations have been advanced to explain the swiftness and ease of the initial Lombard advance in northern Italy. It has been suggested that the towns' doors may have been opened by the betrayal of the Gothic auxiliaries in the Byzantine army, but historians generally hold that Lombard success occurred because Italy was not considered by Byzantium as a vital part of the empire, especially at a time when the empire was imperilled by the attacks of Avars and Slavs in the Balkans and Sassanids in the east. The Byzantine decision not to contest the Lombard invasion reflects the desire of Justinian's successors to reorient the core of the Empire's policies eastward. + +Impact of the migration on Annonarian Italy +The impact of the Lombard migration on the Late Roman aristocracy was disruptive, especially in combination with the Gothic War; the latter conflict had finished in the north only in 562, when the last Gothic stronghold, Verona, was taken. Many men of means (Paul's possessores) either lost their lives or their goods, but the exact extent of the despoliation of the Roman aristocracy is a subject of heated debate. The clergy was also greatly affected. The Lombards were mostly pagans, and displayed little respect for the clergy and Church property. Many churchmen left their sees to escape from the Lombards, like the two most senior bishops in the north, Honoratus and Paulinus. However, most of the suffragan bishops in the north sought an accommodation with the Lombards, as did in 569 the bishop of Tarvisium, Felix, when he journeyed to the Piave river to parley with Alboin, obtaining respect for the Church and its goods in return for this act of homage. It seems certain that many sees maintained an uninterrupted episcopal succession through the turmoil of the invasion and the following years. The transition was eased by the hostility existing among the northern Italian bishops towards the papacy and the empire due to the religious dispute involving the "Three-Chapter Controversy". In Lombard territory, churchmen were at least sure to avoid imperial religious persecution. + +In the view of Pierre Riché, the disappearance of 220 bishops' seats indicates that the Lombard migration was a crippling catastrophe for the Church. Yet according to Walter Pohl the regions directly occupied by Alboin suffered less devastation and had a relatively robust survival rate for towns, whereas the occupation of territory by autonomous military bands interested mainly in raiding and looting had a more severe impact, with the bishoprics in such places rarely surviving. + +Siege of Ticinum + +The first attested instance of strong resistance to Alboin's migration took place at the town of Ticinum (Pavia), which he started to besiege in 569 and captured only after three years. The town was of strategic importance, sitting at the confluence of the rivers Po and Ticino and connected by waterways to Ravenna, the capital of Byzantine Italy and the seat of the Praetorian prefecture of Italy. Its fall cut direct communications between the garrisons stationed on the Alpes Maritimae and the Adriatic coast. + +Careful to maintain the initiative against the Byzantines, by 570 Alboin had taken their last defences in northern Italy except for the coastal areas of Liguria and Venetia and a few isolated inland centres such as Augusta Praetoria (Aosta), Segusio (Susa), and the island of Amacina in the Larius Lucus (Lake Como). During Alboin's kingship the Lombards crossed the Apennines and plundered Tuscia, but historians are not in full agreement as to whether this took place under his guidance and if this constituted anything more than raiding. According to Herwig Wolfram, it was probably only in 578–579 that Tuscany was conquered, but Jörg Jarnut and others believe this began in some form under Alboin, although it was not completed by the time of his death. + +Alboin's problems in maintaining control over his people worsened during the siege of Ticinum. The nature of the Lombard monarchy made it difficult for a ruler to exert the same degree of authority over his subjects as had been exercised by Theodoric over his Goths, and the structure of the army gave great authority to the military commanders or duces, who led each band (fara) of warriors. Additionally, the difficulties encountered by Alboin in building a solid political entity resulted from a lack of imperial legitimacy, as unlike the Ostrogoths, they had not entered Italy as foederati but as enemies of the Empire. + +The king's disintegrating authority over his army was also manifested in the invasion of Frankish Burgundy which from 569 or 570 was subject to yearly raids on a major scale. The Lombard attacks were ultimately repelled following Mummolus' victory at Embrun. These attacks had lasting political consequences, souring the previously cordial Lombard-Frankish relations and opening the door to an alliance between the Empire and the Franks against the Lombards, a coalition agreed to by Guntram in about 571. Alboin is generally thought not to have been behind this invasion, but an alternative interpretation of the transalpine raids presented by Gian Piero Bognetti is that Alboin may actually have been involved in the offensive on Guntram as part of an alliance with the Frankish king of Austrasia, Sigebert I. This view is met with scepticism by scholars such as Chris Wickham. + +The weakening of royal authority may also have resulted in the conquest of much of southern Italy by the Lombards, in which modern scholars believe Alboin played no role at all, probably taking place in 570 or 571 under the auspices of individual warlords. However it is far from certain that the Lombard takeover occurred during those years, as very little is known of Faroald and Zotto's respective rises to power in Spoletium (Spoleto) and Beneventum (Benevento). + +Assassination + +Earliest narratives + +Ticinum eventually fell to the Lombards in either May or June 572. Alboin had in the meantime chosen Verona as his seat, establishing himself and his treasure in a royal palace built there by Theodoric. This choice may have been another attempt to link himself with the Gothic king. + +It was in this palace that Alboin was killed on 28 June 572. In the account given by Paul the Deacon, the most detailed narrative on Alboin's death, history and saga intermingle almost inextricably. Much earlier and shorter is the story told by Marius of Aventicum in his Chronica, written about a decade after Alboin's murder. According to his version the king was killed in a conspiracy by a man close to him, called Hilmegis (Paul's Helmechis), with the connivance of the queen. Helmichis then married the widow, but the two were forced to escape to Byzantine Ravenna, taking with them the royal treasure and part of the army, which hints at the cooperation of Byzantium. Roger Collins describes Marius as an especially reliable source because of his early date and his having lived close to Lombard Italy. + +Also contemporary is Gregory of Tours' account presented in the Historia Francorum, and echoed by the later Fredegar. Gregory's account diverges in several respects from most other sources. In his tale it is told how Alboin married the daughter of a man he had slain, and how she waited for a suitable occasion for revenge, eventually poisoning him. She had previously fallen in love with one of her husband's servants, and after the assassination tried to escape with him, but they were captured and killed. However, historians including Walter Goffart place little trust in this narrative. Goffart notes other similar doubtful stories in the Historia and calls its account of Alboin's demise "a suitably ironic tale of the doings of depraved humanity". + +Skull cup +Elements present in Marius' account are echoed in Paul's Historia Langobardorum, which also contains distinctive features. One of the best known aspects unavailable in any other source is that of the skull cup. In Paul, the events that led to Alboin's downfall unfold in Verona. During a great feast, Alboin gets drunk and orders his wife Rosamund to drink from his cup, made from the skull of his father-in-law Cunimund after he had slain him in 567 and married Rosamund. Alboin "invited her to drink merrily with her father". This reignited the queen's determination to avenge her father. + +The tale has been often dismissed as a fable and Paul was conscious of the risk of disbelief. For this reason, he insists that he saw the skull cup personally during the 740s in the royal palace of Ticinum in the hands of king Ratchis. The use of skull cups has been noticed among nomadic peoples and, in particular, among the Lombards' neighbors, the Avars. Skull cups are believed to be part of a shamanistic ritual, where drinking from the cup was considered a way to assume the dead man's powers. In this context, Stefano Gasparri and Wilfried Menghen see in Cunimund's skull cup the sign of nomadic cultural influences on the Lombards: by drinking from his enemy's skull Alboin was taking his vital strength. As for the offering of the skull to Rosamund, that may have been a ritual request of complete submission of the queen and her people to the Lombards, and thus a cause of shame or humiliation. Alternatively, it may have been a rite to appease the dead through the offering of a libation. In the latter interpretation, the queen's answer reveals her determination not to let the wound opened by the killing of her father be healed through a ritual act, thus openly displaying her thirst for revenge. + +The episode is read in a radically different way by Walter Goffart. According to him, the whole story assumes an allegorical meaning, with Paul intent on telling an edifying story of the downfall of the hero and his expulsion from the promised land, because of his human weakness. In this story, the skull cup plays a key role as it unites original sin and barbarism. Goffart does not exclude the possibility that Paul had really seen the skull, but believes that by the 740s the connection between sin and barbarism as exemplified by the skull cup had already been established. + +Death + +In her plan to kill her husband Rosamund found an ally in Helmichis, the king's foster brother and spatharius (arms bearer). According to Paul the queen then recruited the king's cubicularius (bedchamberlain), Peredeo, into the plot, after having seduced him. When Alboin retired for his midday rest on 28 June, care was taken to leave the door open and unguarded. Alboin's sword was also removed, leaving him defenceless when Peredeo entered his room and killed him. Alboin's remains were allegedly buried beneath the palace steps. + +Peredeo's figure and role is mostly introduced by Paul; the Origo had for the first time mentioned his name as "Peritheus", but there his role had been different, as he was not the assassin, but the instigator of the assassination. In the vein of his reading of the skull cup, Goffart sees Peredeo not as a historical figure but as an allegorical character: he notes a similarity between Peredeo's name and the Latin word perditus, meaning "lost", a representation of those Lombards who entered into the service of the Empire. + +Alboin's death had a lasting impact, as it deprived the Lombards of the only leader they had that could have kept together the newborn Germanic entity. His end also represents the death of the last of the line of hero-kings that had led the Lombards through their migrations from the Elbe to Italy. His fame survived him for many centuries in epic poetry, with Saxons and Bavarians celebrating his prowess in battle, his heroism, and the magical properties of his weapons. + +Aftermath + +To complete the coup d'état and legitimize his claim to the throne, Helmichis married the queen, whose high standing arose not only from being the king's widow but also from being the most prominent member of the remaining Gepid nation, and as such her support was a guarantee of the Gepids' loyalty to Helmichis. The latter could also count on the support of the Lombard garrison of Verona, where many may have opposed Alboin's aggressive policy and could have cultivated the hope of reaching an entente with the Empire. The Byzantines were almost certainly deeply involved in the plot. It was in their interest to stem the Lombard tide by bringing a pro-Byzantine regime into power in Verona, and possibly in the long run break the unity of the Lombards' kingdom, winning over the dukes with honors and emoluments. + +The coup ultimately failed, as it met with the resistance of most of the warriors, who were opposed to the king's assassination. As a result, the Lombard garrison in Ticinum proclaimed Duke Cleph the new king, and Helmichis, rather than going to war against overwhelming odds, escaped to Ravenna with Longinus' assistance, taking with him his wife, his troops, the royal treasure and Alboin's daughter Albsuinda. In Ravenna the two lovers became estranged and killed each other. Subsequently, Longinus sent Albsuinda and the treasure to Constantinople. + +Cleph kept the throne for only 18 months before being assassinated by a slave. Possibly he too was killed at the instigation of the Byzantines, who had every interest in avoiding a hostile and solid leadership among the Lombards. An important success for the Byzantines was that no king was proclaimed to succeed Cleph, opening a decade of interregnum, thus making them more vulnerable to attacks from Franks and Byzantines. It was only when faced with the danger of annihilation by the Franks in 584 that the dukes elected a new king in the person of Authari, son of Cleph, who began the definitive consolidation and centralization of the Lombard kingdom while the remaining imperial territories were reorganized under the control of an exarch in Ravenna with the capacity to defend the country without the Emperor's assistance. + +The consolidation of Byzantine and Lombard dominions had long-lasting consequences for Italy, as the region was from that moment on fragmented among multiple rulers until Italian unification in 1871. + +Cultural references + +Alboin, together with other tribal leaders is mentioned in the 10th century Old English poem called Widsith (lines 70–75) : + +The historical period also formed the basis of the 1961 Italian adventure film Sword of the Conqueror (Italian: Rosmunda e Alboino, German title Alboin, König der Langobarden), with Jack Palance as Alboin. + +There have been several artistic depictions of events from Alboin's life including Peter Paul Rubens' Alboin and Rosamunde (1615); Charles Landseer's Assassination of Alboin, King of the Lombards (1856); and Fortunino Matania's illustration Rosamund captive before King Alboin of the Lombards (1942). + +See also +List of kings of the Lombards + +Notes + +References + + Amory, Patrick. People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, . + Ausenda, Giorgio. "Current issues and future directions in the study of Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian period", Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective. Ian Wood (ed.). Woodbridge: Boydell, 1998, pp. 371–455. . + Azzara, Claudio. L'Italia dei barbari. Bologna: il Mulino, 2009, 978-88-15-08812-3. + Bertolini, Paolo. "Alboino, re dei Longobardi", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Alberto M. Ghisalberti (ed.). v. 2, Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Treccani, 1960, pp. 34–38. + Christie, Neil. The Lombards: The Ancient Longobards. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1995 [1998], . + Collins, Roger. Early Medieval Europe 300–1000. London: Macmillan, 1991, . + + + Gasparri, Stefano. "I longobardi: alle origini del medioevo italiano". Storia Dossier, (1990) 42, Florence: Giunti. . + Goffart, Walter. The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988, . + Gregory of Tours. History of the Franks. Ernest Brehaut (translator). New York: Columbia University Press, 1916. + Humphries, Mark. "Italy, A. D. 425–605", Cambridge Ancient History – Volume XIV: Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A. D. 425–600. Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins and Michael Whitby (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 525–552. . + + Lane, Frederic C.. Storia di Venezia. Turin: Einaudi, 1973 [1991], . + Madden, Thomas F. "Aquileia", Medieval Italy: an encyclopedia. Christopher Kleinhenz (ed.). v. 1, New York: Routledge, 2004, pp. 44–45. . + Martindale, John R. (ed.), Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire – Volume III: A.D. 527–641, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, . + Moorhead, John. "Ostrogothic Italy and the Lombard invasions", The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume I c. 500 – c. 700. Paul Fouracre (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 140–162. . + Ostrogorsky, Georg. Storia dell'impero bizantino. Turin: Einaudi, 1963 [1993], . + Palmieri, Stefano. "Duchi, Principi e Vescovi nella Longobardia meridionale", Longobardia e longobardi nell'Italia meridionale: le istituzioni ecclesiastiche. Giancarlo Andenna e Giorgio Picasso (eds.). Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 1996, pp. 43–99. . + Paul the Deacon. History of the Langobards. William Dudley Foulke (translator). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1907. + Pohl, Walter. "The Empire and the Lombards: treaties and negotiations in the sixth century", Kingdoms of the Empire: the integration of barbarians in late Antiquity. Walter Pohl (ed.). Leiden: Brill, 1997, pp. 75–134. . + Richards, Jeffrey. The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476–752. London: Routledge, 1979, . + Rovagnati, Sergio. I Longobardi. Milan: Xenia, 2003, . + Schutz, Herbert. Tools, Weapons and Ornaments: Germanic Material Culture in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750. Leiden: Brill, 2001, . + Whitby, Michael. "The successors of Justinian", The Cambridge Ancient History – Volume XIV. pp. 86–112. + Wickham, Chris. Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400–1000. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1981 [1989], . + Wickham, Chris. Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–800. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, . + Wolfram, Herwig. The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990 [1997], . + +External links + +530s births +572 deaths +Year of birth uncertain +6th-century Lombard monarchs +6th-century murdered monarchs +Lombard warriors +Gausian dynasty +Regicides +Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa ( – 16 December 1515), was a Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across the Indian Ocean and built a reputation as a fierce and skilled military commander. + +Albuquerque advanced the three-fold Portuguese grand scheme of combating Islam, spreading Christianity, and securing the trade of spices by establishing a Portuguese Asian empire. Among his achievements, Albuquerque managed to conquer Goa and was the first European of the Renaissance to raid the Persian Gulf, and he led the first voyage by a European fleet into the Red Sea. He is generally considered a highly effective military commander, and "probably the greatest naval commander of the age", given his successful strategy — he attempted to close all the Indian Ocean naval passages to the Atlantic, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and to the Pacific, transforming it into a Portuguese mare clausum. He was appointed head of the "fleet of the Arabian and Persian sea" in 1506. + +Many of the conflicts in which he was directly involved took place in the Indian Ocean, in the Persian Gulf regions for control of the trade routes, and on the coasts of India. His military brilliance in these initial campaigns enabled Portugal to become the first global empire in history. He led the Portuguese forces in numerous battles, including the conquest of Goa in 1510 and the capture of Malacca in 1511. + +During the last five years of his life, he turned to administration, where his actions as the second governor of Portuguese India were crucial to the longevity of the Portuguese Empire. He oversaw expeditions that resulted in establishing diplomatic contacts with the Ayutthaya Kingdom through his envoy Duarte Fernandes, with Pegu in Myanmar, and Timor and the Moluccas through a voyage headed by António de Abreu and Francisco Serrão. He laid the path for European trade with Ming China through Rafael Perestrello. He also aided in establishing diplomatic relations with Ethiopia, and established diplomatic ties with Persia during the Safavid dynasty. + +Throughout his career, he received epithets such as "the Terrible", "the Great", "the Lion of the Seas", "the Portuguese Mars", and "the Caesar of the East". + +Early life + +Afonso de Albuquerque was born in 1453 in Alhandra, near Lisbon. He was the second son of Gonçalo de Albuquerque, Lord of Vila Verde dos Francos, and Dona Leonor de Menezes. His father held an important position at court and was connected by remote illegitimate descent with the Portuguese monarchy. He was a descendant of King Denis’s illegitimate son, Afonso Sanches, Lord of Albuquerque. He was educated in mathematics and Latin at the court of Afonso V of Portugal, where he befriended Prince John, the future King John II of Portugal. + +Early military service +In 1471, under the command of Afonso V, he was present at the conquest of Tangier and Arzila in Morocco, and he served there as an officer for some years. In 1476, he accompanied Prince John in wars against Castile, including the Battle of Toro. He participated in the campaign on the Italian peninsula in 1480 to assist Ferdinand I of Naples in repelling the Ottoman invasion of Otranto. On his return in 1481, when John was crowned as King John II, Albuquerque was made master of the horse and chief equerry () to the king, a post which he held throughout John's reign. In 1489, he returned to military campaigning in North Africa, as commander of defense in the Graciosa fortress, an island in the river Luco near the city of Larache. In 1490 Albuquerque was part of the guard of John II. He returned to Arzila in 1495, where his younger brother Martim died fighting by his side. + +First expedition to India, 1503 + +When King Manuel I of Portugal ascended to the throne following the death of his cousin John II, he held a cautious attitude towards Albuquerque, who was a close friend of his predecessor and seventeen years Manuel's senior. Eight years later, on 6 April 1503 Albuquerque was sent on his first expedition to India together with his cousin Francisco de Albuquerque. Each commanded three ships, sailing with Duarte Pacheco Pereira and Nicolau Coelho. They engaged in several battles against the forces of the Zamorin of Calicut (Calecute, Kozhikode) and succeeded in establishing the king of Cochin (Cohim, Kochi) securely on his throne. In return, the king of Cochin gave the Portuguese permission to build the Portuguese fort Immanuel (Fort Kochi) and establish trade relations with Quilon (Coulão, Kollam). This laid the foundation for the eastern Portuguese Empire. + +Second expedition to India, 1506 + +Albuquerque returned home in July 1504 and was well received by King Manuel I. After he assisted with the creation of a strategy for the Portuguese efforts in the east, King Manuel entrusted him with the command of a squadron of five vessels in the fleet of sixteen sailing for India in early 1506, headed by Tristão da Cunha. The aim of the expedition was to conquer Socotra and build a fortress there, hoping to close the trade in the Red Sea. + +Albuquerque went as "chief-captain for the Coast of Arabia", sailing under da Cunha's orders until reaching Mozambique. He carried a sealed letter with a secret mission ordered by the king: after fulfilling the first mission, he was to replace the first viceroy of India, Francisco de Almeida, whose term ended two years later. Before departing, he legitimized his son Brás ("Braz" in the old Portuguese spelling), born to a common Portuguese woman named Joana Vicente in 1500. + +First conquest of Socotra and Ormuz, 1507 + +The fleet left Lisbon on 6 April 1506. Albuquerque piloted his ship himself, having lost his appointed pilot on departure. In Mozambique Channel, they rescued Captain João da Nova, who had encountered difficulties on his return from India; da Nova and his ship, the Frol de la mar, joined da Cunha's fleet. From Malindi, da Cunha sent envoys to Ethiopia, which at the time was thought to be closer to India than it actually is, under the aegis of Albuquerque. After failing to reach Ethiopia, he managed to land the envoys in Filuk. After successful attacks on Arab cities on the East African coast, the expedition conquered the island of Socotra and built a fortress at Suq, hoping to establish a base to stop the Red Sea commerce to the Indian Ocean. However, Socotra was abandoned four years later, as it was eventually realised to be a poor location for a base. + +At Socotra, they parted ways: Tristão da Cunha sailed for India, where he would relieve the Portuguese besieged at Cannanore, while Afonso took seven ships and 500 men to Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, one of the chief eastern centers of commerce. On his way, he conquered the cities of Curiati (Kuryat), Muscat in July 1507, and Khor Fakkan, accepting the submission of the cities of Kalhat and Sohar. He arrived at Hormuz on 25 September and soon captured the city, which agreed to become a tributary state of the Portuguese king. + +Ormuz was then a tributary state of Shah Ismail of Persia. In a famous episode, shortly after its conquest, Albuquerque was confronted by Persian envoys, who demanded the payment of the due tribute from him instead. He ordered them to be given a stock of cannonballs, arrows and weapons, retorting that "such was the currency struck in Portugal to pay the tribute demanded from the dominions of King Manuel". According to Brás de Albuquerque, it was Shah Ismael who first addressed Albuquerque as "Lion of the seas". + +Afonso began building the Fort of Our Lady of Victory (later renamed Fort of Our Lady of the Conception) on Hormuz Island, engaging his men of all ranks in the work. However, some of his officers, claiming that Afonso was exceeding his orders, revolted against the heavy work and climate and departed for India. With his fleet reduced to two ships and left without supplies, he was unable to maintain his position. In January 1508, he was forced to abandon Ormuz. He raided coastal villages to resupply the settlement of Socotra, returned to Ormuz, and then headed to India. + +Arrest at Cannanore, 1509 +Afonso arrived at Cannanore on the Malabar coast in December 1508, where he opened the sealed letter that he had received from the king before the viceroy, Dom Francisco de Almeida, which named him as governor to succeed Almeida. The viceroy, supported by the officers who had abandoned Afonso at Ormuz, had a matching royal order but declined to yield. He protested that his term ended only in January and stated his intention to avenge his son's death by fighting the Mamluk fleet of Mirocem, refusing Afonso's offer to fight the Mamluk fleet himself. Afonso avoided confrontation, which could have led to civil war, and moved to Kochi, India, to await further instruction from the king. Increasingly isolated, he wrote to Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, who arrived in India with a new fleet, but was ignored as Sequeira joined Almeida. At the same time, Afonso refused approaches from opponents of Almeida who encouraged him to seize power. + +On 3 February 1509, Almeida fought the naval Battle of Diu against a joint fleet of Mamluks, Ottomans, the Zamorin of Calicut, and the Sultan of Gujarat. His victory was decisive: the Ottomans and Mamluks abandoned the Indian Ocean, easing the way for Portuguese rule there for the next century. In August, after a petition from Afonso's former officers with the support of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira claiming him unfit for governance, Afonso was sent in custody to St. Angelo Fort in Cannanore. There he remained under what he considered as imprisonment. + +Governor of Portuguese India, 1509–1515 + +Afonso was released after three months' confinement, on the arrival at Cannanore of the Marshal of Portugal Fernando Coutinho with a large fleet sent by the king. Coutinho was the most important Portuguese noble to visit India up to that point. He brought an armada of fifteen ships and 3,000 men to defend Afonso's rights, and to take Calicut. + +On 4 November 1509, Afonso became the second Governor of Portuguese India, a position he would hold until his death. Almeida set off to return to Portugal, but he was killed before he got there in a skirmish with the Khoekhoe. Upon his assuming office, Afonso intended to dominate the Muslim world and control the Spice trade. + +Initially, King Manuel I and his council in Lisbon tried to distribute the power by outlining three areas of jurisdiction in the Indian Ocean. In 1509, the nobleman Diogo Lopes de Sequeira was sent with a fleet to Southeast Asia, to seek an agreement with Sultan Mahmud Shah of Malacca, but failed and returned to Portugal. To Jorge de Aguiar was given the region between the Cape of Good Hope and Gujarat. He was succeeded by Duarte de Lemos, but left for Cochin and then for Portugal, leaving his fleet to Afonso. + +Conquest of Goa, 1510 + +In January 1510, obeying the orders from the king and aware of the absence of the Zamorin, Afonso advanced on Calicut. The attack was initially successful, but unravelled when Marshal Coutinho, infuriated by Albuquerque's success against Calicut and desiring glory for himself, attacked the Zamorin's palace against Albuquerque's advice, and was ambushed. During the retreat, Afonso was badly wounded and was forced to flee to the ships, barely escaping with his life, while Coutinho was killed. + +Soon after the failed attack, Afonso assembled a fleet of 23 ships and 1200 men. Contemporary reports state that he wanted to fight the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate fleet in the Red Sea or return to Hormuz. However, he had been informed by Timoji (a privateer in the service of the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire) that it would be easier to fight them in Goa, where they had sheltered after the Battle of Diu, and also of the illness of the Sultan Yusuf Adil Shah, and war between the Deccan sultanates. So he relied on surprise in the capture of Goa from the Sultanate of Bijapur. + +A first assault took place in Goa from 4 March to 20 May 1510. After the initial occupation, feeling unable to hold the city given the poor condition of its fortifications, the cooling of Hindu residents' support and insubordination among his ranks following an attack by Ismail Adil Shah, Afonso refused a truce offered by the Sultan and abandoned the city in August. His fleet was scattered, and a palace revolt in Kochi hindered his recovery, so he headed to Fort Anjediva. New ships arrived from Portugal, which were intended for the nobleman Diogo Mendes de Vasconcelos at Malacca, who had been given a rival command of the region. + +Three months later, on 25 November Afonso reappeared at Goa with a renovated fleet. Diogo Mendes de Vasconcelos was compelled to accompany him with the reinforcements for Malacca and about 300 Malabari reinforcements from Cannanore. In less than a day, they took Goa from Ismail Adil Shah and his Ottoman allies, who surrendered on 10 December. It is estimated that 6000 of the 9000 Muslim defenders of the city died, either in the fierce battle in the streets or by drowning while trying to escape. Afonso regained the support of the Hindu population, although he frustrated the initial expectations of Timoji, who aspired to become governor. Afonso rewarded him by appointing him chief "Aguazil" of the city, an administrator and representative of the Hindu and Muslim people, as a knowledgeable interpreter of the local customs. He then made an agreement to lower the yearly tribute. + +In Goa, Afonso established the first Portuguese mint in the East, after Timoja's merchants had complained of the scarcity of currency, taking it as an opportunity to solidify the territorial conquest. The new coin, based on the existing local coins, showed a cross on the obverse and an armillary sphere (or "esfera"), King Manuel's badge, on the reverse. Gold cruzados or manueis, silver esferas and alf-esferas, and bronze "leais" were issued. + +Albuquerque founded at Goa the Hospital Real de Goa or Royal Hospital of Goa, by the Church of Santa Catarina. Upon hearing that the doctors were extorting the sickly with excessive fees, Albuquerque summoned them, declaring that "You charge a physician's pay and don't know what disease the men who serve our lord the King suffer from. Thus, I want to teach you what is it that they die from" and put them to work building the city walls all day till nightfall before releasing them. + +Despite constant attacks, Goa became the center of Portuguese India, with the conquest triggering the compliance of neighbouring kingdoms: the Sultan of Gujarat and the Zamorin of Calicut sent embassies, offering alliances and local grants to fortify. + +Afonso then used Goa to secure the spice trade in favor of Portugal and sell Persian horses to Vijayanagara and Hindu princes in return for their assistance. + +Conquest of Malacca, 1511 + +Afonso explained to his armies why the Portuguese wanted to capture Malacca: +"The King of Portugal has often commanded me to go to the Straits, because...this was the best place to intercept the trade which the Moslems...carry on in these parts. So it was to do Our Lord's service that we were brought here; by taking Malacca, we would close the Straits so that never again would the Moslems be able to bring their spices by this route.... I am very sure that, if this Malacca trade is taken out of their hands, Cairo and Mecca will be completely lost." (The Commentaries of the Great Afonso de Albuquerque) + +In February 1511, through a friendly Hindu merchant, Nina Chatu, Afonso received a letter from Rui de Araújo, one of the nineteen Portuguese held at Malacca since 1509. It urged moving forward with the largest possible fleet to demand their release, and gave details of the fortifications. Afonso showed it to Diogo Mendes de Vasconcelos, as an argument to advance as a joint fleet. In April 1511, after fortifying Goa, he gathered a force of about 900 Portuguese, 200 Hindu mercenaries and about eighteen ships. He then sailed to Malacca against orders and despite the protest of Diogo Mendes, who claimed command of the expedition. Afonso eventually centralized the Portuguese government in the Indian Ocean. After the Malaccan conquest, he wrote a letter to the king to explain his disagreement with Diogo Mendes, suggesting that further divisions could be harmful to the Portuguese in India. Under his command was Ferdinand Magellan, who had participated in the failed embassy of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in 1509. + +After a false start towards the Red Sea, they sailed to the Strait of Malacca. It was the richest city that the Portuguese tried to take, and a focal point in the trade network where Malay traders met Gujarati, Chinese, Japanese, Javanese, Bengali, Persian and Arabic, among others, described by Tomé Pires as of invaluable richness. Despite its wealth, it was mostly a wooden-built city, with few masonry buildings but was defended by a mercenary force estimated at 20,000 men and more than 2000 pieces of artillery. Its greatest weakness was the unpopularity of the government of Sultan Mahmud Shah, who favoured Muslims, arousing dissatisfaction amongst other merchants. + +Afonso made a bold approach to the city, his ships decorated with banners, firing cannon volleys. He declared himself lord of all the navigation, demanded the Sultan release the prisoners and pay for damages, and demanded consent to build a fortified trading post. The Sultan eventually freed the prisoners, but was unimpressed by the small Portuguese contingent. Afonso then burned some ships at the port and four coastal buildings as a demonstration. The city being divided by the Malacca River, the connecting bridge was a strategic point, so at dawn on 25 July, the Portuguese landed and fought a tough battle, facing poisoned arrows, taking the bridge in the evening. After fruitlessly waiting for the Sultan's reaction, they returned to the ships and prepared a junk (offered by Chinese merchants), filling it with men, artillery and sandbags. Commanded by António de Abreu, it sailed upriver at high tide to the bridge. The day after, all had landed. After a fierce fight during which the Sultan appeared with an army of war elephants, the defenders were dispersed and the Sultan fled. Afonso waited for the reaction of the Sultan. Merchants approached, asking for Portuguese protection. They were given banners to mark their premises, a sign that they would not be looted. On 15 August, the Portuguese attacked again, but the Sultan had fled the city. Under strict orders, they looted the city, but respected the banners. + +Afonso prepared Malacca's defenses against a Malay counterattack, building a fortress, assigning his men to shifts and using stones from the mosque and the cemetery. Despite the delays caused by heat and malaria, it was completed in November 1511, its surviving door now known as "A Famosa" ('the famous'). It was possibly then that Afonso had a large stone engraved with the names of the participants in the conquest. To quell disagreements over the order of the names, he had it set facing the wall, with the single inscription Lapidem quem reprobaverunt aedificantes (Latin for "The stone the builders rejected", from David's prophecy, Psalm 118:22–23) on the front. + +He settled the Portuguese administration, reappointing Rui de Araújo as factor, a post assigned before his 1509 arrest, and appointing rich merchant Nina Chatu to replace the previous Bendahara. Besides assisting in the governance of the city and the first Portuguese coinage, he provided the junks for several diplomatic missions. Meanwhile, Afonso arrested and had executed the powerful Javanese merchant Utimuti Raja who, after being appointed to a position in the Portuguese administration as representative of the Javanese population, had maintained contacts with the exiled royal family. + +Shipwreck on the Flor de la mar, 1511 + +On 20 November 1511 Afonso sailed from Malacca to the coast of Malabar on the old Flor de la Mar carrack that had served to support the conquest of Malacca. Despite its unsound condition, he used it to transport the treasure amassed in the conquest, given its large capacity. He wanted to give the court of King Manuel a show of Malaccan treasures. There were also offerings from the Ayutthaya Kingdom (Thailand) to the king of Portugal, and all his own fortune. On the voyage, the Flor de la Mar was wrecked in a storm, and Afonso barely escaped drowning. + +Missions from Malacca + +Embassies to Pegu, Sumatra and Siam, 1511 +Most Muslim and Gujarati merchants having fled the city, Afonso invested in diplomatic efforts demonstrating generosity to Southeast Asian merchants, like the Chinese, to encourage good relations with the Portuguese. Trade and diplomatic missions were sent to continental kingdoms: Rui Nunes da Cunha was sent to Pegu (Burma), from where King Binyaram sent back a friendly emissary to Kochi in 1514 and Sumatra, Sumatran kings of Kampar and Indragiri sending emissaries to Afonso accepting the new power, as vassal states of Malacca. Knowing of Siamese ambitions over Malacca, Afonso sent Duarte Fernandes in a diplomatic mission to the Ayutthaya Kingdom (Thailand), returning in a Chinese junk. He was one of the Portuguese who had been arrested in Malacca, having gathered knowledge about the culture of the region. There he was the first European to arrive, establishing amicable relations between the kingdom of Portugal and the court of the king of Siam Ramathibodi II, returning with a Siamese envoy bearing gifts and letters to Afonso and the king of Portugal. + +Expedition to the "spice islands" (Maluku islands), 1512 + +In November, after having secured Malacca and learning the location of the then secret "spice islands", Afonso sent three ships to find them, led by trusted António de Abreu with deputy commander Francisco Serrão. Malay sailors were recruited to guide them through Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands and the Ambon Island to Banda Islands, where they arrived in early 1512. There they remained for a month, buying and filling their ships with nutmeg and cloves. António de Abreu then sailed to Amboina whilst Serrão sailed towards the Moluccas, but he was shipwrecked near Seram. Sultan Abu Lais of Ternate heard of their stranding, and, seeing a chance to ally himself with a powerful foreign nation, brought them to Ternate in 1512 where they were permitted to build a fort on the island, the , built in 1522. + +Return to Cochin and Goa +Afonso returned from Malacca to Cochin, but could not sail to Goa as it faced a serious revolt headed by the forces of Ismael Adil Shah, the Sultan of Bijapur, commanded by Rasul Khan and his countrymen. During Afonso's absence from Malacca, the Portuguese who opposed the taking of Goa had waived its possession, even writing to the king that it would be best to let it go. Held up by the monsoon and with few forces available, Afonso had to wait for the arrival of reinforcement fleets headed by his nephew D. Garcia de Noronha, and Jorge de Mello Pereira. + +While at Cochin, Albuquerque started a school. In a private letter to King Manuel I, he stated that he had found a chest full of books with which to teach the children of married Portuguese settlers (casados) and Christian converts, of which there were about a hundred, to read and write. + +On 10 September 1512, Afonso sailed from Cochin to Goa with fourteen ships carrying 1,700 soldiers. Determined to recapture the fortress, he ordered trenches dug and a wall breached. But on the day of the planned final assault, Rasul Khan surrendered. Afonso demanded the fort be handed over with its artillery, ammunition and horses, and the deserters to be given up. Some had joined Rasul Khan when the Portuguese were forced to flee Goa in May 1510, others during the recent siege. Rasul Khan consented, on condition that their lives be spared. Afonso agreed and he left Goa. He did spare the lives of the deserters, but had them horribly mutilated. One such renegade was Fernão Lopes, bound for Portugal in custody, who escaped at the island of Saint Helena and led a 'Robinson Crusoe' life for many years. After such measures the town became the most prosperous Portuguese settlement in India. + +Campaign in the Red Sea, 1513 + +In December 1512 an envoy from Ethiopia arrived at Goa. Mateus was sent by the regent queen Eleni, following the arrival of the Portuguese from Socotra in 1507, as an ambassador for the king of Portugal in search of a coalition to help face growing Muslim influence. He was received in Goa with great honour by Afonso, as a long-sought "Prester John" envoy. His arrival was announced by King Manuel to Pope Leo X in 1513. Although Mateus faced the distrust of Afonso's rivals, who tried to prove he was some impostor or Muslim spy, Afonso sent him to Portugal. The king is described as having wept with joy at their report. + +In February 1513, while Mateus was in Portugal, Afonso sailed to the Red Sea with a force of about 1000 Portuguese and 400 Malabaris. He was under orders to secure that channel for Portugal. Socotra had proved ineffective to control the Red Sea entrance and was abandoned, and Afonso's hint that Massawa could be a good Portuguese base might have been influenced by Mateus' reports. + +Knowing that the Mamluks were preparing a second fleet at Suez, he wanted to advance before reinforcements arrived in Aden, and accordingly laid siege to the city. Aden was a fortified city, but although he had scaling ladders they broke during the chaotic attack. After half a day of fierce battle, Afonso was forced to retreat. He cruised the Red Sea inside the Bab al-Mandab, with the first European fleet to have sailed this route. He attempted to reach Jeddah, but the winds were unfavourable and so he sheltered at Kamaran island in May, until sickness among the men and lack of fresh water forced him to retreat. In August 1513, after a second attempt to reach Aden, he returned to India with no substantial results. In order to destroy the power of Egypt, he wrote to King Manuel of the idea of diverting the course of the Nile river to render the whole country barren. He also intended to steal the body of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, and hold it for ransom until all Muslims had left the Holy Land. + +Although Albuquerque's expedition failed to reach Suez, such an incursion into the Red Sea by a Christian fleet for the first time in history stunned the Muslim world, and panic spread in Cairo. + +Submission of Calicut + +Albuquerque achieved during his term a favourable end to hostilities between the Portuguese and the Zamorin of Calicut, which had lasted since the massacre of the Portuguese in Calicut in 1502. As naval trade faltered and vassals defected, with no foreseeable solutions to the conflict with the Portuguese, the court of the Zamorin fell to in-fighting. The ruling Zamorin was assassinated and replaced by a rival, under the instigation of Albuquerque, permitting peace talks to commence. The Portuguese were allowed to build a fortress in Calicut itself, and acquired rights to obtain as much pepper and ginger as they wished, at stipulated prices, and half the customs duties of Calicut as yearly tribute. Construction of the fortress began immediately, under the supervision of chief architect Tomás Fernandes. + +Administration and diplomacy in Goa, 1514 + +With peace concluded, in 1514 Afonso devoted himself to governing Goa and receiving embassies from Indian governors, strengthening the city and encouraging marriages of Portuguese men and local women. At that time, Portuguese women were barred from traveling overseas in order to maintain discipline among the men on board the ships. In 1511 under a policy which Afonso promulgated, the Portuguese government encouraged their explorers to marry local women. To promote settlement, the King of Portugal granted freeman status and exemption from Crown taxes to Portuguese men (known as casados, or "married men") who ventured overseas and married local women. With Afonso's encouragement, mixed marriages flourished, giving birth to Portuguese-Indians or mestiços. He appointed local people for positions in the Portuguese administration and did not interfere with local traditions (except "sati", the practice of immolating widows, which he banned). + +In March 1514 King Manuel sent to Pope Leo X a huge and exotic embassy led by Tristão da Cunha, who toured the streets of Rome in an extravagant procession of animals from the colonies and wealth from the Indies. His reputation reached its peak, laying foundations of the Portuguese Empire in the East. + +In early 1514, Afonso sent ambassadors to Gujarat's Sultan Muzaffar Shah II, ruler of Cambay, to seek permission to build a fort on Diu, India. The mission returned without an agreement, but diplomatic gifts were exchanged, including an Indian rhinoceros, Afonso sent the rhino to King Manuel, making it the first living example of a rhinoceros seen in Europe since the Roman Empire. + +Conquest of Ormuz and Illness + +In 1513, at Cannanore, Afonso was visited by a Persian ambassador from Shah Ismail I, who had sent ambassadors to Gujarat, Ormuz and Bijapur. The shah's ambassador to Bijapur invited Afonso to send back an envoy to Persia. Miguel Ferreira was sent via Ormuz to Tabriz, where he had several interviews with the shah about common goals of defeating the Mamluk sultan. + +At the same time, Albuquerque decided to conclude the effective conquest of Hormuz. He had learned that after the Portuguese retreat in 1507, a young king was reigning under the influence of a powerful Persian vizier, Reis Hamed, whom the king greatly feared. At Ormuz in March 1515, Afonso met the king and asked the vizier to be present. He then had him immediately stabbed and killed by his entourage, thus "freeing" the terrified king, so the island in the Persian Gulf yielded to him without resistance and remained a vassal state of the Portuguese Empire. Ormuz itself would not be Persian territory for another century, until an English-Persian alliance finally expelled the Portuguese in 1622. At Ormuz, Afonso met with Miguel Ferreira, returning with rich presents and an ambassador, carrying a letter from the Persian potentate Shah Ismael, inviting Afonso to become a leading lord in Persia. There he remained, engaging in diplomatic efforts, receiving envoys and overseeing the construction of the new fortress, while becoming increasingly ill. His illness was reported as early as September 1515. In November 1515, he embarked on a journey back to Goa. + +Death +At this time, his political enemies at the Portuguese court were planning his downfall. They had lost no opportunity in stirring up the jealousy of King Manuel against him, insinuating that Afonso intended to usurp power in Portuguese India. While on his return voyage from Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, near the harbor of Chaul, he received news of a Portuguese fleet arriving from Europe, bearing dispatches announcing that he was to be replaced by his personal foe, Lopo Soares de Albergaria. Realizing the plot that his enemies had moved against him, profoundly disillusioned, he voiced his bitterness: "Grave must be my sins before the King, for I am in ill favor with the King for love of the men, and with the men for love of the King." + +Feeling himself near death, he donned the surcoat of the Order of Santiago, of which he was a knight, and drew up his will, appointed the captain and senior officials of Ormuz, and organized a final council with his captains to decide the main matters affecting the Portuguese State of India. He wrote a brief letter to King Manuel, asking him to confer onto his natural son "all of the high honors and rewards" that Afonso had received, and assuring Manuel of his loyalty. + +On 16 December 1515, Afonso de Albuquerque died within sight of Goa. As his death was known, in the city "great wailing arose", and many took to the streets to witness his body carried on a chair by his main captains, in a procession lit by torches amidst the crowd. Afonso's body was buried in Goa, according to his will, in the Church of Nossa Senhora da Serra (Our Lady of the Hill), which he had been built in 1513 to thank the Madonna for his escape from Kamaran island. That night, the population of Goa, both Hindu and Portuguese, gathered to mourn his death. + +In Portugal, King Manuel's zigzagging policies continued, still trapped by the constraints of real-time medieval communication between Lisbon and India and unaware that Afonso was dead. Hearing rumours that the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt was preparing a magnificent army at Suez to prevent the conquest of Ormuz, he repented of having replaced Afonso, and in March 1516 urgently wrote to Albergaria to return the command of all operations to Afonso and provide him with resources to face the Egyptian threat. He organized a new Portuguese navy in Asia, with orders that Afonso (if he was still in India), be made commander-in-chief against the Sultan of Cairo's armies. Manuel would afterwards learn that Afonso had died many months earlier, and that his reversed decision had been delivered many months too late. + +After 51 years, in 1566, his body was moved to Nossa Senhora da Graça church in Lisbon, which was ruined and rebuilt after the 1755 Great Lisbon earthquake. + +Legacy + +King Manuel I of Portugal was belatedly convinced of Afonso's loyalty, and endeavoured to atone for his lack of confidence in Afonso by heaping honours upon his son, Brás de Albuquerque (1500–1580), whom he renamed "Afonso" in memory of the father. Afonso de Albuquerque was a prolific writer, having sent numerous letters during his governorship, covering topics from minor issues to major strategies. In 1557 his son published his biography under the title Commentarios do Grande Affonso d'Alboquerque. + +In 1572, Afonso's actions were described in The Lusiads, the Portuguese main epic poem by Luís Vaz de Camões (Canto X, strophes 40–49). The poet praises his achievements, but has the muses frown upon the harsh rule of his men, of whom Camões was almost a contemporary fellow. In 1934, Afonso was celebrated by Fernando Pessoa in Mensagem, a symbolist epic. In the first part of this work, called "Brasão" (Coat-of-Arms), he relates Portuguese historical protagonists to each of the fields in the Portuguese coat-of-arms, Afonso being one of the wings of the griffin headed by Henry the Navigator, the other wing being King John II. + +A variety of mango, which was created by Portuguese Jesuits in Goa via grafting techniques, was named in his honour. + +Numerous homages have been paid to Afonso; he is featured in the Padrão dos Descobrimentos monument; there is a square named after him in Lisbon, which also features a bronze statue, and two Portuguese Navy ships have been named in his honour: the sloop NRP Afonso de Albuquerque (1884) and the warship NRP Afonso de Albuquerque. + +Titles and honours + Captain-Major of the Sea of Arabia + 2nd Governor of India + 1st Duke of Goa + A knight of the Portuguese Order of Saint James of the Sword + Fidalgo of the Royal Household + +Notes + +References + +Citations + +Bibliography + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +In other languages + + Albuquerque, Afonso de, D. Manuel I, António Baião, "Cartas para el-rei d". Manuel I", Editora Livraria Sá de Costa (1957) + +Primary sources + +External links + + Paul Lunde, The coming of the Portuguese, 2006, Saudi Aramco World + Works of Afonso de Albuquerque at the National Digital Library of Portugal + +Portuguese explorers +Explorers of Asia +Explorers of India +Viceroys of Portuguese India +Date of birth unknown +1450s births +1515 deaths +Portuguese admirals +Portuguese colonial governors and administrators +Portuguese generals +Portuguese Renaissance writers +Portuguese Roman Catholics +People from Vila Franca de Xira +Colonial Goa +Colonial Kerala +Maritime history of Portugal +Portuguese in Kerala +History of Kollam +Shipwreck survivors +1510s in Portuguese India +16th-century Portuguese people +Portuguese nobility +Alcaeus of Mytilene (; , Alkaios ho Mutilēnaios; – BC) was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. He was a contemporary of Sappho, with whom he may have exchanged poems. He was born into the aristocratic governing class of Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos, where he was involved in political disputes and feuds. + +Biography + +The broad outlines of the poet's life are well known. He was born into the aristocratic, warrior class that dominated Mytilene, the strongest city-state on the island of Lesbos and, by the end of the seventh century BC, the most influential of all the North Aegean Greek cities, with a strong navy and colonies securing its trade-routes in the Hellespont. The city had long been ruled by kings born to the Penthilid clan but, during the poet's life, the Penthilids were a spent force and rival aristocrats and their factions contended with each other for supreme power. Alcaeus and his older brothers were passionately involved in the struggle but experienced little success. Their political adventures can be understood in terms of three tyrants who came and went in succession: + Melanchrus – he was overthrown sometime between 612 BC and 609 BC by a faction that, in addition to the brothers of Alcaeus, included Pittacus (later renowned as one of the Seven Sages of Greece); Alcaeus at that time was too young to be actively involved; + Myrsilus – it is not known when he came to power but some verses by Alcaeus (frag. 129) indicate that the poet, his brothers and Pittacus made plans to overthrow him and that Pittacus subsequently betrayed them; Alcaeus and his brothers fled into exile where the poet later wrote a drinking song in celebration of the news of the tyrant's death (frag. 332); + Pittacus – the dominant political figure of his time, he was voted supreme power by the political assembly of Mytilene and appears to have governed well (590-580 BC), even allowing Alcaeus and his faction to return home in peace. + +Sometime before 600 BC, Mytilene fought Athens for control of Sigeion and Alcaeus was old enough to participate in the fighting. According to the historian Herodotus, the poet threw away his shield to make good his escape from the victorious Athenians then celebrated the occasion in a poem that he later sent to his friend, Melanippus. It is thought that Alcaeus travelled widely during his years in exile, including at least one visit to Egypt. His older brother, Antimenidas, appears to have served as a mercenary in the army of Nebuchadnezzar II and probably took part in the conquest of Askelon. Alcaeus wrote verses in celebration of Antimenides' return, including mention of his valour in slaying the larger opponent (frag. 350), and he proudly describes the military hardware that adorned their family home (frag. 357). + +Alcaeus was a contemporary and a countryman of Sappho and, since both poets composed for the entertainment of Mytilenean friends, they had many opportunities to associate with each other on a quite regular basis, such as at the Kallisteia, an annual festival celebrating the island's federation under Mytilene, held at the 'Messon' (referred to as temenos in frs. 129 and 130), where Sappho performed publicly with female choirs. Alcaeus' reference to Sappho in terms more typical of a divinity, as holy/pure, honey-smiling Sappho (fr. 384), may owe its inspiration to her performances at the festival. The Lesbian or Aeolic school of poetry "reached in the songs of Sappho and Alcaeus that high point of brilliancy to which it never after-wards approached" and it was assumed by later Greek critics and during the early centuries of the Christian era that the two poets were in fact lovers, a theme which became a favourite subject in art (as in the urn pictured above). + +Poetry +The poetic works of Alcaeus were collected into ten books, with elaborate commentaries, by the Alexandrian scholars Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace sometime in the 3rd century BC, and yet his verses today exist only in fragmentary form, varying in size from mere phrases, such as wine, window into a man (fr. 333) to entire groups of verses and stanzas, such as those quoted below (fr. 346). Alexandrian scholars numbered him in their canonic nine (one lyric poet per Muse). Among these, Pindar was held by many ancient critics to be pre-eminent, but some gave precedence to Alcaeus instead. The canonic nine are traditionally divided into two groups, with Alcaeus, Sappho and Anacreon, being 'monodists' or 'solo-singers', with the following characteristics: + They composed and performed personally for friends and associates on topics of immediate interest to them; + They wrote in their native dialects (Alcaeus and Sappho in Aeolic dialect, Anacreon in Ionic); + They preferred quite short, metrically simple stanzas or 'strophes' which they re-used in many poems – hence the 'Alcaic' and 'Sapphic' stanzas, named after the two poets who perfected them or possibly invented them. +The other six of the canonic nine composed verses for public occasions, performed by choruses and professional singers and typically featuring complex metrical arrangements that were never reproduced in other verses. However, this division into two groups is considered by some modern scholars to be too simplistic and often it is practically impossible to know whether a lyric composition was sung or recited, or whether or not it was accompanied by musical instruments and dance. Even the private reflections of Alcaeus, ostensibly sung at dinner parties, still retain a public function. + +Critics often seek to understand Alcaeus in comparison with Sappho: + +The Roman poet, Horace, also compared the two, describing Alcaeus as "more full-throatedly singing" – see Horace's tribute below. Alcaeus himself seems to underscore the difference between his own 'down-to-earth' style and Sappho's more 'celestial' qualities when he describes her almost as a goddess (as cited above), and yet it has been argued that both poets were concerned with a balance between the divine and the profane, each emphasising different elements in that balance. + +Dionysius of Halicarnassus exhorts us to "Observe in Alcaeus the sublimity, brevity and sweetness coupled with stern power, his splendid figures, and his clearness which was unimpaired by the dialect; and above all mark his manner of expressing his sentiments on public affairs", while Quintilian, after commending Alcaeus for his excellence "in that part of his works where he inveighs against tyrants and contributes to good morals; in his language he is concise, exalted, careful and often like an orator"; goes on to add: "but he descended into wantonness and amours, though better fitted for higher things". + +Poetic genres +The works of Alcaeus are conventionally grouped according to five genres. + Political songs: Alcaeus often composed on a political theme, covering the power struggles on Lesbos with the passion and vigour of a partisan, cursing his opponents, rejoicing in their deaths, delivering blood-curdling homilies on the consequences of political inaction and exhorting his comrades to heroic defiance, as in one of his 'ship of state' allegories. Commenting on Alcaeus as a political poet, the scholar Dionysius of Halicarnassus once observed that "if you removed the meter you would find political rhetoric". + Drinking songs: According to the grammarian Athenaeus, Alcaeus made every occasion an excuse for drinking and he has provided posterity several quotes in proof of it. Alcaeus exhorts his friends to drink in celebration of a tyrant's death, to drink away their sorrows, to drink because life is short and along the lines in vino veritas, to drink through winter storms and to drink through the heat of summer. The latter poem in fact paraphrases verses from Hesiod, re-casting them in Asclepiad meter and Aeolian dialect. + Hymns: Alcaeus sang about the gods in the spirit of the Homeric hymns, to entertain his companions rather than to glorify the gods and in the same meters that he used for his 'secular' lyrics. There are for example fragments in 'Sapphic' meter praising the Dioscuri, Hermes and the river Hebrus (a river significant in Lesbian mythology since it was down its waters that the head of Orpheus was believed to have floated singing, eventually crossing the sea to Lesbos and ending up in a temple of Apollo, as a symbol of Lesbian supremacy in song). According to Porphyrion, the hymn to Hermes was imitated by Horace in one of his own 'sapphic' odes (C.1.10: Mercuri, facunde nepos Atlantis). + Love songs: Almost all Alcaeus' amorous verses, mentioned with disapproval by Quintilian above, have vanished without trace. There is a brief reference to his love poetry in a passage by Cicero. Horace, who often wrote in imitation of Alcaeus, sketches in verse one of the Lesbian poet's favourite subjects – Lycus of the black hair and eyes (C.1.32.11–12: nigris oculis nigroque/crine decorum). It is possible that Alcaeus wrote amorously about Sappho, as indicated in an earlier quote. + Miscellaneous: Alcaeus wrote on such a wide variety of subjects and themes that contradictions in his character emerge. The grammarian Athenaeus quoted some verses about perfumed ointments to prove just how unwarlike Alcaeus could be and he quoted his description of the armour adorning the walls of his house as proof that he could be unusually warlike for a lyric poet. Other examples of his readiness for both warlike and unwarlike subjects are lyrics celebrating his brother's heroic exploits as a Babylonian mercenary and lyrics sung in a rare meter (Sapphic Ionic in minore) in the voice of a distressed girl, "Wretched me, who share in all ills!" – possibly imitated by Horace in an ode in the same meter (C.3.12: Miserarum est neque amori dare ludum neque dulci). He also wrote Sapphic stanzas on Homeric themes but in un-Homeric style, comparing Helen of Troy unfavourably with Thetis, the mother of Achilles. + +A drinking poem (fr. 346) +The following verses demonstrate some key characteristics of the Alcaic style (square brackets indicate uncertainties in the ancient text): + +The Greek meter here is relatively simple, comprising the Greater Asclepiad, adroitly used to convey, for example, the rhythm of jostling cups (). The language of the poem is typically direct and concise and comprises short sentences — the first line is in fact a model of condensed meaning, comprising an exhortation ("Let's drink!"), a rhetorical question ("Why are we waiting for the lamps?") and a justifying statement ("Only an inch of daylight left"). The meaning is clear and uncomplicated, the subject is drawn from personal experience, and there is an absence of poetic ornament, such as simile or metaphor. Like many of his poems (e.g., frs. 38, 326, 338, 347, 350), it begins with a verb (in this case "Let's drink!") and it includes a proverbial expression ("Only an inch of daylight left") though it is possible that he coined it himself. + +A hymn (fr. 34) +Alcaeus rarely used metaphor or simile and yet he had a fondness for the allegory of the storm-tossed ship of state. The following fragment of a hymn to Castor and Polydeuces (the Dioscuri) is possibly another example of this though some scholars interpret it instead as a prayer for a safe voyage. + +The poem was written in Sapphic stanzas, a verse form popularly associated with his compatriot, Sappho, but in which he too excelled, here paraphrased in English to suggest the same rhythms. There were probably another three stanzas in the original poem but only nine letters of them remain. The 'far-away light' () is a reference to St. Elmo's Fire, an electrical discharge supposed by ancient Greek mariners to be an epiphany of the Dioscuri, but the meaning of the line was obscured by gaps in the papyrus until reconstructed by a modern scholar; such reconstructions are typical of the extant poetry (see Scholars, fragments and sources below). This poem does not begin with a verb but with an adverb (Δευτέ) but still communicates a sense of action. He probably performed his verses at drinking parties for friends and political allies – men for whom loyalty was essential, particularly in such troubled times. + +Tributes from other poets + +Horace +The Roman poet Horace modelled his own lyrical compositions on those of Alcaeus, rendering the Lesbian poet's verse-forms, including 'Alcaic' and 'Sapphic' stanzas, into concise Latin – an achievement he celebrates in his third book of odes. In his second book, in an ode composed in Alcaic stanzas on the subject of an almost fatal accident he had on his farm, he imagines meeting Alcaeus and Sappho in Hades: + +Ovid +Ovid compared Alcaeus to Sappho in Letters of the Heroines, where Sappho is imagined to speak as follows: + +Scholars, fragments and sources + +The story of Alcaeus is partly the story of the scholars who rescued his work from oblivion. His verses have not come down to us through a manuscript tradition – generations of scribes copying an author's collected works, such as delivered intact into the modern age four entire books of Pindar's odes – but haphazardly, in quotes from ancient scholars and commentators whose own works have chanced to survive, and in the tattered remnants of papyri uncovered from an ancient rubbish pile at Oxyrhynchus and other locations in Egypt: sources that modern scholars have studied and correlated exhaustively, adding little by little to the world's store of poetic fragments. + +Ancient scholars quoted Alcaeus in support of various arguments. Thus for example Heraclitus "The Allegorist" quoted fr. 326 and part of fr. 6, about ships in a storm, in his study on Homer's use of allegory. The hymn to Hermes, fr308(b), was quoted by Hephaestion and both he and Libanius, the rhetorician, quoted the first two lines of fr. 350, celebrating the return from Babylon of Alcaeus' brother. The rest of fr. 350 was paraphrased in prose by the historian/geographer Strabo. Many fragments were supplied in quotes by Athenaeus, principally on the subject of wine-drinking, but fr. 333, "wine, window into a man", was quoted much later by the Byzantine grammarian, John Tzetzes. + +The first 'modern' publication of Alcaeus' verses appeared in a Greek and Latin edition of fragments collected from the canonic nine lyrical poets by Michael Neander, published at Basle in 1556. This was followed by another edition of the nine poets, collected by Henricus Stephanus and published in Paris in 1560. Fulvius Ursinus compiled a fuller collection of Alcaic fragments, including a commentary, which was published at Antwerp in 1568. The first separate edition of Alcaeus was by Christian David Jani and it was published at Halle in 1780. The next separate edition was by August Matthiae, Leipzig 1827. + +Some of the fragments quoted by ancient scholars were able to be integrated by scholars in the nineteenth century. Thus for example two separate quotes by Athenaeus were united by Theodor Bergk to form fr. 362. Three separate sources were combined to form fr. 350, as mentioned above, including a prose paraphrase from Strabo that first needed to be restored to its original meter, a synthesis achieved by the united efforts of Otto Hoffmann, Karl Otfried Müller and Franz Heinrich Ludolf Ahrens. The discovery of the Oxyrhynchus papyri towards the end of the nineteenth century dramatically increased the scope of scholarly research. In fact, eight important fragments have now been compiled from papyri – frs. 9, 38A, 42, 45, 34, 129, 130 and most recently S262. These fragments typically feature lacunae or gaps that scholars fill with 'educated guesses', including for example a "brilliant supplement" by Maurice Bowra in fr. 34, a hymn to the Dioscuri that includes a description of St. Elmo's fire in the ship's rigging. Working with only eight letters (; tr. pró...tr...ntes), Bowra conjured up a phrase that develops the meaning and the euphony of the poem (; tr. próton' ontréchontes), describing luminescence "running along the forestays". + +References + +Sources + Sappho et Alcaeus. Fragmenta. Eva-Maria Voigt (ed.). Polak and van Gennep, Amsterdam, 1971. + Greek Lyric Poetry. D.A. Campbell (ed.). Bristol Classical Press, London, 1982. + Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus. D. A. Campbell (ed.). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1982. + Alcée. Fragments. Gauthier Liberman (ed.). Collection Budé, Paris, 1999. + Sappho and the Greek Lyric Poets. Translated by Willis Barnstone. Schoken Books Inc., New York, 1988. + +External links + +Poems by Alcaeus – English translations +A. M. Miller, Greek Lyric: – Alcaeus, many fragments +Alcaeus Bilingual Anthology (in Greek and English, side by side) + +620s BC births +Year of birth unknown +6th-century BC deaths +Year of death unknown +Nine Lyric Poets +Aeolic Greek poets +Ancient Greek political refugees +Ancient Mytileneans +Poets from ancient Lesbos +6th-century BC Greek people +6th-century BC poets +Alcamenes () was an ancient Greek sculptor of Lemnos and Athens, who flourished in the 2nd half of the 5th century BC. He was a younger contemporary of Phidias and noted for the delicacy and finish of his works, among which a Hephaestus and an Aphrodite of the Gardens were conspicuous. + +Pausanias says that he was the author of one of the pediments of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, but this seems a chronological and stylistic impossibility. Pausanias also refers to a statue of Ares by Alcamenes that was erected on the Athenian agora, which some have related to the Ares Borghese. However, the temple of Ares to which he refers had only been moved from Acharnes and re-sited in the Agora in Augustus's time, and statues known to derive from Alcamenes' statue show the god in a breastplate, so the identification of Alcamenes' Ares with the Ares Borghese is not secure. + +At Pergamum there was discovered in 1903 a Hellenistic copy of the head of the Hermes "Propylaeus" of Alcamenes. As, however, the deity is represented in a Neo-Attic, archaistic and conventional character, this copy cannot be relied on as giving us much information as to the usual style of Alcamenes, who was almost certainly a progressive and original artist. + +It is safer to judge him by the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon, in which he must almost certainly have taken a share under the direction of Phidias. He is said to be the most eminent sculptor in Athens after the departure of Phidias for Olympia, but enigmatic in that none of the sculptures associated with his name in classical literature can be securely connected with existing copies. + +Notes + +References + + Julius Sillig, Dictionary of the artists of antiquity; 1837 + Andrew Stewart, One hundred Greek Sculptors : Their Careers and Extant Works + Sir Charles Waldstein, Alcamenes and the establishment of the classical type in Greek art; 1926 + +External links + + Scholars Resource: Works by Alkamenes + Perseus Digital Library: Alcamenes + Herma by Alcamenes - Uni Graz + +Pergamene sculpture +5th-century BC Greek sculptors +Ancient Athenian sculptors +Ancient Lemnos +Metics in Classical Athens +People from Lemnos +Year of birth unknown +Year of death unknown +In Greek mythology, Alcmene ( ; ) or Alcmena ( ; ; ; meaning "strong in wrath") was the wife of Amphitryon, by whom she bore two children, Iphicles and Laonome. She is best known as the mother of Heracles, whose father was the god Zeus. Alcmene was also referred to as Electryone (), a patronymic name as a daughter of Electryon. + +Mythology + +Background +According to the Bibliotheca, Alcmene was born to Electryon, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Tiryns and Mycenae or Medea in Argolis. Her mother was Anaxo, daughter of Alcaeus and Astydamia. Other accounts say her mother was Lysidice, the daughter of Pelops and Hippodameia, or Eurydice, the daughter of Pelops. According to Pausanias, the poet Asius made Alcmene the daughter of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. + +Hesiod describes Alcmene as the tallest, most beautiful woman with wisdom surpassed by no person born of mortal parents. It is said that her face and dark eyes were as charming as Aphrodite's, and that she honoured her husband like no woman before her. + +Exile to Thebes +According to the Bibliotheca, Alcmene went with Amphitryon to Thebes, where he was purified by Creon for accidentally killing Electryon. Alcmene refused to marry Amphitryon until he had avenged the death of her brothers. During Amphitryon's expedition against the Taphians and Teleboans, when Zeus desired to sleep with Alcmene, he made one night last longer extending it to three, by ordering Helios, the sun god, not to rise for three whole days. He then visited Alcmene disguised as Amphitryon. Zeus persuaded Alcmene that he was her husband. Thus Zeus slept with Alcmene, his great-granddaughter, thereby conceiving Heracles, while recounting Amphitryon's victories against the Teleboans. When Amphitryon finally returned to Thebes, Alcmene told him that he had come the night before and slept with her; he learned from Tiresias what Zeus had done. + +Birth of Heracles + +Homer +In Homer's Iliad, when Alcmene was about to give birth to Heracles, Zeus announced to all the gods that on that day a child by Zeus himself would be born and rule all those around him. Hera, after requesting Zeus to swear an oath to that effect, descended from Olympus to Argos and made the wife of Sthenelus (son of Perseus) give birth to Eurystheus after only seven months, while at the same time preventing Alcmene from delivering Heracles. This resulted in the fulfillment of Zeus's oath in that it was Eurystheus rather than Heracles. + +Ovid +According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, while in labour, Alcmene was having great difficulty giving birth to such a large child. After seven days and nights of agony, Alcmene stretched out her arms and called upon Lucina, the goddess of childbirth (the Roman equivalent of Eileithyia). While Lucina did go to Alcmene, she had been previously instructed by Juno (Hera) to prevent the delivery. With her hands clasped and legs crossed, Lucina muttered charms, thereby preventing Alcmene from giving birth. Alcmene writhed in pain, cursed the heavens, and came close to death. Galanthis, a maid of Alcmene who was nearby, observed Lucina's behaviour and quickly deduced that it was Juno's doing. To put an end to her mistress's suffering, she announced that Alcmene had safely delivered her child, which surprised Lucina so much that she immediately jumped up and unclenched her hands. As soon as Lucina leapt up, Alcmene was released from her spell, and gave birth to Heracles. As punishment for deceiving Lucina, Galanthis was transformed into a weasel; she continued to live with Alcmene. + +Pausanias +In Pausanias' recounting, Hera sent witches (as they were called by the Thebans) to hinder Alcmene's delivery of Heracles. The witches were successful in preventing the birth until Historis, daughter of Tiresias, thought of a trick to deceive the witches. Like Galanthis, Historis announced that Alcmene had delivered her child; having been deceived, the witches went away, allowing Alcmene to give birth. + +Plautus +In contrast to the depictions of a difficult labor above, an alternative version is presented in Amphitryon, a comedic play by Plautus. Here Alcmene calls upon Jupiter, who performs a miracle allowing her to give birth quickly and without pain. After a crash of thunder and light, the baby arrives without anyone's assistance. + +Death +After the death of Amphitryon, Alcmene married Rhadamanthys, son of Zeus, and lived with him in exile at Ocaleae in Boeotia. It is said that after Heracles was apotheosised, Hyllus, having pursued and killed Eurystheus, cut off Eurystheus' head and gave it to Alcmene, who gouged out the eyes with weaving pins. In Metamorphoses, an aging Alcmene recounted the story of the birth of Heracles to Iole. + +There are two accounts of Alcmene's death. In the first, according to the Megarians, Alcmene was walking from Argos to Thebes when she died at Megara. The Heracleidae fell into disagreement about where to take Alcmene's body, with some wishing to take her corpse back to Argos, and others wishing to take it to Thebes to be buried with Amphitryon and Heracles' children by Megara. However, the god in Delphi gave the Heracleidae an oracle that it was better to bury Alcmene in Megara. In the second account given by the Thebans, when Alcmene died, she was turned from human form to a stone. + +Pausanias indicated that an altar to Alcmene had been built in the Cynosarges in Athens, alongside altars to Heracles, Hebe, and Iolaus. Pausanias also said that Alcmene's tomb is located near the Olympieum at Megara. + +Notes + +References +Apollodorus. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. + Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, Oldfather, C. H. (Translator) (1935). Library of History: Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts.: Harvard University Press. +Hesiod. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. "Shield of Heracles". Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. +Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. +Ovid. Metamorphoses. Arthur Golding. London. W. Seres. 1567. +Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. +Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives with an English Translation by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. +Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912. + Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Alcmene" + +Mortal women of Zeus +Princesses in Greek mythology +Perseid dynasty +Mythology of Argos +Mythology of Heracles +Metamorphoses characters +Mythological rape victims +Helios in mythology +Deeds of Hera +Metamorphoses into inanimate objects in Greek mythology +Alcidamas (), of Elaea, in Aeolis, was a Greek sophist and rhetorician, who flourished in the 5th-4th century BC . + +Life +He was the pupil and successor of Gorgias and taught at Athens at the same time as Isocrates, to whom he was a rival and opponent. We possess two declamations under his name: On Sophists (Περὶ Σοφιστῶν), directed against Isocrates and setting forth the superiority of extempore over written speeches (a more recently discovered fragment of another speech against Isocrates is probably of later date); Odysseus (perhaps spurious) in which Odysseus accuses Palamedes of treachery during the siege of Troy. + +According to Alcidamas, the highest aim of the orator was the power of speaking ex tempore on every conceivable subject. Aristotle (Rhet. iii. 3) criticizes his writings as characterized by pomposity of style and an extravagant use of poetical epithets and compounds and far-fetched metaphors. + +Of other works only fragments and the titles have survived: Messeniakos, advocating the freedom of the Messenians and containing the sentiment that "God has left all men free; nature has made no man a slave"; a Eulogy of Death, in consideration of the wide extent of human sufferings; a Techne or instruction-book in the art +of rhetoric; and a Phusikos logos. Lastly, his Mouseion (a word invoking the Muses) seems to have contained the narrative of the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, of which the version that has survived is the work of a grammarian in the time of Hadrian, based on Alcidamas. This hypothesis of the contents of the Mouseion, originally suggested by Nietzsche (Rheinisches Museum 25 (1870) & 28 (1873)), appears to have been confirmed by three papyrus findsone 3rd century BC (Flinders Petrie Papyri, ed. Mahaffy, 1891, pl. xxv.), one 2nd century BC (Basil Mandilaras, 'A new papyrus fragment of the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi''' Platon 42 (1990) 45–51) and one 2nd or 3rd century AD (University of Michigan pap. 2754: Winter, J. G., 'A New Fragment on the Life of Homer' TAPA 56 (1925) 120–129 ). + +Notes + +References + +O'Sullivan, N. (2008) 'The authenticity of [Alcidamas] Odysseus: two new linguistic arguments', Classical Quarterly 58, 638-647 + +Further reading +Alcidamas' surviving works +Guido Avezzù (ed.), Alcidamante. Orazioni e frammenti (now the standard text, with Italian translation, 1982) +J.V. Muir (ed.), Alcidamas. The works and fragments (text with English translation, 2001) – reviewed in BMCR +Ruth Mariss, Alkidamas: Über diejenigen, die schriftliche Reden schreiben, oder über die Sophisten: eine Sophistenrede aus dem 4. Jh. v. Chr., eingeleitet und kommentiert (Orbis Antiquus, 36), 2002 +Friedrich Blass, Teubner edition of the Greek text (1908) online +Alcidamas, "Against the Sophists," trans. Van Hook (1919) +About Alcidamas +Aristotle, Rhetoric III.3 +J. Vahlen, "Der Rhetor Alkidamas", Sitzungsberichte der wiener Akademie, Phil.-Hist. Cl., 43 (1863) 491–528 online(=Gesammelte philologische Schriften (Leipzig & Berlin 1911) 1.117–155) +Friedrich Blass, Die attische Beredsamkeit'', part 2 (1892) online, pp. 345–363 +M.L. West (1967) for Alcidamas' invention of the contest of Homer and Hesiod , N.J. Richardson (1981) against +Various articles on Alcidamas (1856–1919, with links to further online material) +Additional bibliography is available online at + +Sophists +Ancient Greek rhetoricians +4th-century BC Greek people +The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was dated and printed under his name appeared in 1495. + +The Aldine Press is famous in the history of typography, among other things, for the introduction of italics. The press was the first to issue printed books in the small octavo size, similar to that of a modern paperback, and like that intended for portability and ease of reading. According to Curt F. Bühler, the press issued 132 books during twenty years of activity under Aldus Manutius. After Aldus’s death in 1515, the press was continued by his wife Maria and her father, Andrea Torresani (), until his son, Paulus Manutius (1512–1574) took over. His grandson Aldus Manutius the Younger then ran the firm until his death in 1597. Today, the antique books printed by the Aldine Press in Venice are referred to as Aldines, as are the letterforms and typefaces pioneered by the Aldine Press. + +The press enjoyed a monopoly of works printed in Greek in the Republic of Venice, effectively giving it copyright protection. Protection outside the Republic was more problematic, however. The firm maintained an agency in Paris, but its commercial success was affected by many counterfeit editions, produced in Lyons and elsewhere. + +Beginnings +Aldus Manutius, the founder of the Aldine Press, was originally a humanist scholar and a teacher. Manutius met Andrea Torresani, who had acquired publishing equipment from the widow of Nicholas Jenson. The ownership of the press was originally split in two, with one half belonging to Pier Francesco Barbarigo, the nephew of Agostino Barbarigo, who was the doge at the time, and the other half belonging to Andrea Torresani. Manutius owned one fifth of Torresani's share of the press. Manutius was mainly in charge of the scholarship and editing, leaving financial and operating concerns to Barbarigo and Torresani. In 1496, Aldus established his own location of the press in a building called the Thermae in the Sestiere di San Polo on the campo Sant'Agostin, today numero civico (house number) 2343 San Polo on the Calle della Chiesa (Alley of the Church), now the location of the restaurant Due Colonne. Though there are two commemorative plaques located on the building numero civico 2311 Rio Terà Secondo, historians regard them to be erroneously placed based on contemporaneous letters addressed to Manutius. The first erroneous plaque had been placed by Abbot don Vincenzo Zenier in 1828. + +Manutius lived and worked in the Thermae in order to produce published books from the Aldine Press. This was also the location of the "New Academy", where a group of Manutius' friends, associates, and editors came together to translate Greek and Latin texts. In 1505, Manutius married Maria, the daughter of Andrea Torresani of Asola. Torresani and Manutius were already business partners, but the marriage combined the two partners' shares in the publishing business. After the marriage, Manutius lived at Torresani's house. Shrinking in popularity, in 1506 the Aldine Press was moved to Torresani's house in the parish of San Paternian. It was later demolished in 1873 and was covered by a bank building in the Venice square, Campo Manin. + +Accomplishments +The press was started by Manutius due to a combination of his love of classics and the need for preservation of Hellenic studies. During its initial era the press printed new copies of Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek and Latin classics. + +The first edition of Plato's works (known as the Aldine edition) was dedicated to Pope Leo X, and included the poem of Musurus and the life of Plato by Diogenes Laertius, which were also included in the first two editions of Plato's works printed in Basel. The two Basel editions were introduced by a Latin preface written by the Greek scholar Simon Grynaeus, who dedicated the work to the humanist Thomas More. + +Manutius also printed dictionaries and grammars to help people interpret the books, used by scholars wanting to learn Greek who would employ learned Greeks in order to teach them directly. Historian Elizabeth Eisenstein claims that the fall of Constantinople in 1453 had placed under threat the importance and survival of Greek scholarship, but that publications such as those by the Aldine Press secured it once more. Erasmus was one of the scholars learned in Greek with whom the Aldine Press partnered in order to provide accurately translated text. The Aldine Press also expanded into modern languages, mainly Italian and French. + +Humanist typefaces +Aldus Manutius eventually took on a project to improve upon the Humanistic font designs of Jenson's typefaces, hiring Francesco Griffo to design and cut typefaces for his print editions of classical literature. Humanistic fonts, based on the formal hand of Renaissance humanist scribes and notaries, had been in development from the time movable print arrived in Italy, notably by Nicolas Jenson in 1470. Griffo developed his own further refinements of style, resulting in one of the earliest roman typefaces produced. + +Italic typeface +Adapting this admired and influential roman-faced font, Manutius and Griffo went on to produce a cursive variant, the first of what is now known as italic type. The word italic is derived from early Italian versions of italic faces, which were designed primarily in order to save on the cost of paper. The Aldine Press first used italic type in a woodcut of Saint Catherine of Siena in 1500. Their 1501 edition of Virgil's Opera was the first book to be printed in italic type. The roman typeface and italic form created and pioneered by Aldus Manutius and Francesco Griffo were highly influential in typographic development. + +Portable books (or libelli portatiles) +Beginning in 1505 Manutius produced plain texts in a portable form, using the term enchiridion, meaning "handbook" (later misnamed "pocketbook"). The octavo was the first version of the editio minor. Although these new, portable books were not cheap, the books of the Aldine Press did not force upon their buyers a substantial investment comparable to that of large volumes of text and commentary during this era. These books consisted on an edited text issued without commentary, printed in a typeface mimicking chancery script (the cursive handwriting of the humanist), produced in a small book which could sit comfortably in the hand. The editio minor, in many ways, brought financial and logistical benefits to those interested in the classics. An individual no longer had to go to the book, but rather the book came along with them. + +Imprint and motto +In 1501, Aldus used as his publisher's device the image of a dolphin wrapped around an anchor. "The dolphin and anchor device owed its origins most immediately to Pietro Bembo. Aldus told Erasmus six years later that Bembo had given him a silver coin minted under the Roman Emperor Vespasian bearing an image of this device. The image of the dolphin and anchor on the coin came with the saying "Festina Lente", meaning "make haste slowly." This would later become the motto for the Aldine Press. + +After 1515 +Aldus Manutius died on February 6, 1515. Following his death the firm was run by Andrea Torresani and his daughter, Maria, the widow of Aldus Manutius. The name of the press was changed in 1508 to "In the House of Aldus and Andrea Torresano," and kept this name until 1529. In 1533, Paulus Manutius managed the firm, starting it up again and changing its name to "Heirs of Aldus and Andrea Torresano". In 1539, the imprint changed to "Sons of Aldo Manuzio". In 1567, Aldus Manutius the Younger (grandson of Aldus Manutius) took over and maintained the business until his death. + +Publications +A partial list of publications from the Aldine Press, cited from Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting than Bronze. +Musarum Panagyris, Aldus Manutius, sometime between March 1487 and March 1491. +Erotemata cum interpretatione Latina, Constantine Lascaris, 8 March 1495. +Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, quod et in Latinam Linguam ad verbum tralatum est, Musaeus, before November 1495 (Greek text) and 1497-98 (Latin text). +Dictionarium Graecum, Johannes Crastonus, December 1497. +Institutiones Graecae grammatices, Urban Valeriani, January 1497. +Rudimenta grammatices latinae linguae, Aldus Manutius, June 1501. +Poetae Christiani veteres, June 1502. +Institutionum grammaticarum libri quatuor, Aldus Manutius, December 1514. +Suda, February 1514. + +Works published from the Greeks. Manutius printed thirty editiones principes of Greek texts, allowing these texts to escape the fragility of the manuscript tradition. + +Eclogae triginta..., Theocritus, February 1496. +Theophrastus de historia plantarum..., Aristotle, 1 June 1497. +De mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum..., Iamblichus, September 1497. +Aristophanis Comoediae novem, Aristophanes, 15 July 1498. +Omnia opera Angeli Politiani..., Angeloa Ambrogini Poliziano, July 1498. +Herodoti libri novem quibus musarum indita sunt nomina, Herodotus, September 1502. +Omnia Platonis opera, Plato, May 1513. +Oratores Graeci, May 1513. +Deipnosophistae, Athenaeus, August 1514. + +Latin works +Scriptores astronomici veteres, Firmicus Maternus, 17 October 1499. +Petri Bembi de Aetna ad Angelum Chabrielem liber, Pietro Bembo, February 1496. +Diaria de Bello Carolino, Alessandro Benedetti, 1496 (the first published work of the Aldine Press using the humanist typeface). +Libellus de epidemia, quam vulgo morgum Gallicum vocant, Niccolò Leoniceno, June 1497. +Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Francesco Colonna, December 1499. +Epistole devotissime de Sancta Catharina da Siena, St. Catherina of Siena, 19 September 1500. +Opera, Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil), April 1501. +Opera, Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace), May 1501. +Rhetoricorum ad C. Herennium...libri, Marcus Tullius Cicero, (Cicero) March 1514. + +Libelli Portatiles +Le cose volgari de Messer Francesco Petrarcha, Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), July 1501. +Opera, Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius, January 1502. +Epistolae ad familiares, Marcus Tullius Cicero (Cicero), April 1502. +Le terze rime, Dante Alighieri, August 1502. +Pharsalia, Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Lucan), April 1502. +Tragaediae septem cum commentariis, Sophocles, August 1502. +Tragoediae septendecim, Euripides, February 1503. +Fastorum...libri, de tristibus..., de ponto, Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid), February 1503. +Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum in septem libros, Greek Anthology, November 1503. +Opera, Homer, sometime after 31 October 1504. +Urania sive de stellis, Joannes Jovianus Pontanus, May & August 1505. +Vita, et Fabellae Aesopi..., Aesop, October 1505. +Epistolarum libri decem, Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, November 1508. +Commentariorum de Bello Gallico libri, Gaius Julius Caesar, December 1513. +Odes, Pindar, January 1513. +Sonetti et Canzoni. Triumphi, Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), August 1514. + +Archives +The most nearly complete collection of Aldine editions ever brought together was originally housed in the Althorp library of the 2nd Earl Spencer, and is now in the John Rylands Library, Manchester. + +In North America, the most substantial Aldine holdings can be found in the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine Collection at University of California, Los Angeles, at the Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas at Austin, and at the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. + +References + +Further reading + Barolini, Helen. Aldus and His Dream Book: An Illustrated Essay. New York: Italica Press, 1992. + Braida, L. (2003) Stampa e cultura in Europa. Roma-Bari: Laterza + Davies, Martin (1995) Aldus Manutius: printer and publisher of Renaissance Venice. London: British Library + Febvre, L. & Martin, H. (2001) La nascita del libro. Roma-Bari: Laterza + Fletcher, H. G., III (1988) New Aldine Studies: documentary essays on the life and work of Aldus Manutius. San Francisco + Lowry, Martin (1984) Il mondo di Aldo Manuzio – Affari e cultura della Venezia del Rinascimento. Roma: Il Veltro, pp. 441 (Translated from: The World of Aldus Manutius: Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1979). II edizione, con aggiornamento bibliografico, Roma 2000. + + Renouard, A. A. (1834) Annales de l'imprimerie des Aldes, ou l'histoire des trois Manuce et de leurs éditions; 3ème édition. Paris (the standard bibliography) + Soave, Fiammetta (1991) Bibliotheca Aldina: a collection of one hundred publications of Aldus Pius Manutius and the Aldine Press, including some valuable Aldine conterfeits . Rome: F. Soave +Angela Nuovo (2017) "Aldus Manutius and the World of Venetian Publishing." + +External links + Aldus Manutius exhibition at UCLA + 1502, Venice: Aldus Manutius + Rylands Aldine collection + +Book publishing companies of Italy +Italian Renaissance +Printers of incunabula +1494 establishments in Europe +15th-century establishments in the Republic of Venice +Mass media in Venice +Companies established in the 15th century +Harold B. Lee Library-related rare books articles +Ealdred (or Aldred; died 11 September 1069) was Abbot of Tavistock, Bishop of Worcester, and Archbishop of York in early medieval England. He was related to a number of other ecclesiastics of the period. After becoming a monk at the monastery at Winchester, he was appointed Abbot of Tavistock Abbey in around 1027. In 1046 he was named to the Bishopric of Worcester. Ealdred, besides his episcopal duties, served Edward the Confessor, the King of England, as a diplomat and as a military leader. He worked to bring one of the king's relatives, Edward the Exile, back to England from Hungary to secure an heir for the childless king. + +In 1058 he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the first bishop from England to do so. As administrator of the Diocese of Hereford, he was involved in fighting against the Welsh, suffering two defeats at the hands of raiders before securing a settlement with Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, a Welsh ruler. + +In 1060, Ealdred was elected to the archbishopric of York but had difficulty in obtaining papal approval for his appointment, managing to do so only when he promised not to hold the bishoprics of York and Worcester simultaneously. He helped secure the election of Wulfstan as his successor at Worcester. During his archiepiscopate, he built and embellished churches in his diocese, and worked to improve his clergy by holding a synod which published regulations for the priesthood. + +Some sources say that following King Edward the Confessor's death in 1066, it was Ealdred who crowned Harold Godwinson as King of England. Ealdred supported Harold as king, but when Harold was defeated at the Battle of Hastings, Ealdred backed Edgar the Ætheling and then endorsed King William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy and a distant relative of King Edward's. Ealdred crowned King William on Christmas Day in 1066. William never quite trusted Ealdred or the other English leaders, and Ealdred had to accompany William back to Normandy in 1067, but he had returned to York by the time of his death in 1069. Ealdred supported the churches and monasteries in his diocese with gifts and building projects. + +Early life + +Ealdred was probably born in the west of England, and could be related to Lyfing, his predecessor as bishop of Worcester. His family, from Devonshire, may have been well-to-do. Another relative was Wilstan or Wulfstan, who under Ealdred's influence became Abbot of Gloucester. Ealdred was a monk in the cathedral chapter at Winchester Cathedral before becoming abbot of Tavistock Abbey about 1027, an office he held until about 1043. Even after leaving the abbacy of Tavistock, he continued to hold two properties from the abbey until his death. No contemporary documents relating to Ealdred's time as abbot have been discovered. + +Ealdred was made bishop of Worcester in 1046, a position he held until his resignation in 1062. He may have acted as suffragan, or subordinate bishop, to his predecessor Lyfing before formally assuming the bishopric, as from about 1043 Ealdred witnessed as an episcopus, or bishop, and a charter from 1045 or early 1046 names Sihtric as abbot of Tavistock. Lyfing died on 26 March 1046, and Ealdred became bishop of Worcester shortly after. However, Ealdred did not receive the other two dioceses Lyfing had held, Crediton and Cornwall; King Edward the Confessor (reigned 1043–1066) granted these to Leofric, who combined the two sees at Crediton in 1050. + +Bishop and royal advisor + +Ealdred was an advisor to King Edward the Confessor, and was often involved in the royal government. He was also a military leader, and in 1046 he led an unsuccessful expedition against the Welsh. This was in retaliation for a raid led by the Welsh rulers Gruffydd ap Rhydderch, Rhys ap Rhydderch, and Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Ealdred's expedition was betrayed by some Welsh soldiers who were serving with the English, and Ealdred was defeated. + +In 1050, Ealdred went to Rome "on the king's errand", apparently to secure papal approval to move the seat, or centre, of the bishopric of Crediton to Exeter. It may also have been to secure the release of the king from a vow to go on pilgrimage, if sources from after the Norman Conquest are to be believed. While in Rome, he attended a papal council, along with his fellow English bishop Herman. That same year, as Ealdred was returning to England he met Sweyn, a son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and probably absolved Sweyn for having abducted the abbess of Leominster Abbey in 1046. Through Ealdred's intercession, Sweyn was restored to his earldom, which he had lost after abducting the abbess and murdering his cousin Beorn Estrithson. Ealdred helped Sweyn not only because Ealdred was a supporter of Earl Godwin's family but because Sweyn's earldom was close to his bishopric. As recently as 1049 Irish raiders had allied with Gruffydd ap Rhydderch of Gwent in raiding along the River Usk. Ealdred unsuccessfully tried to drive off the raiders, but was again routed by the Welsh. This failure underscored Ealdred's need for a strong earl in the area to protect against raids. Normally, the bishop of Hereford would have led the defence in the absence of an Earl of Hereford, but in 1049 the incumbent, Æthelstan, was blind, so Ealdred took on the role of defender. + +Diplomatic travels + +Earl Godwin's rebellion against the king in 1051 came as a blow to Ealdred, who was a supporter of the earl and his family. Ealdred was present at the royal council at London that banished Godwin's family. Later in 1051, when he was sent to intercept Harold Godwinson and his brothers as they fled England after their father's outlawing, Ealdred "could not, or would not" capture the brothers. The banishment of Ealdred's patron came shortly after the death of Ælfric Puttoc, the Archbishop of York. York and Worcester had long had close ties, and the two sees had often been held in plurality, or at the same time. Ealdred probably wanted to become Archbishop of York after Ælfric's death, but his patron's eclipse led to the king appointing Cynesige, a royal chaplain, instead. In September 1052, though, Godwin returned from exile and his family was restored to power. By late 1053 Ealdred was once more in royal favour. At some point, he was alleged to have accompanied Swein on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but proof is lacking. + +In 1054 King Edward sent Ealdred to Germany to obtain Emperor HenryIII's help in returning Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside, to England. Edmund (reigned 1016) was an elder half-brother of King Edward the Confessor, and Edmund's son Edward was in Hungary with King AndrewI, having left England as an infant after his father's death and the accession of Cnut as King of England. In this mission Ealdred was somewhat successful and obtained insight into the working of the German church during a stay of a year with HermannII, the Archbishop of Cologne. He also was impressed with the buildings he saw, and later incorporated some of the German styles into his own constructions. The main objective of the mission, however, was to secure the return of Edward; but this failed, mainly because HenryIII's relations with the Hungarians were strained, and the emperor was unable or unwilling to help Ealdred. Ealdred was able to discover that Edward was alive, and had a place at the Hungarian court. Although some sources say Ealdred attended the coronation of Emperor HenryIV, this is not possible, as on the date Henry was crowned, Ealdred was in England consecrating an abbot. + +Ealdred had returned to England by 1055, and brought with him a copy of the Pontificale Romano-Germanicum, a set of liturgies. An extant copy of this work, currently manuscript Cotton Vitellus E xii, has been identified as a copy owned by Ealdred. It appears likely that the Rule of Chrodegang, a continental set of ordinances for the communal life of secular canons, was introduced into England by Ealdred sometime before 1059. Probably he brought it back from Germany, possibly in concert with Harold. + +After Ealdred's return to England he took charge of the sees of Hereford and Ramsbury. Ealdred also administered Winchcombe Abbey and Gloucester Abbey. The authors of the Handbook of British Chronology Third Edition say he was named bishop of Hereford in 1056, holding the see until he resigned it in 1060, but other sources say he merely administered the see while it was vacant, or that he was bishop of Hereford from 1055 to 1060. + +Ealdred became involved with the see of Ramsbury after its bishop Herman got into a dispute with King Edward over the movement of the seat of his bishopric to Malmesbury Abbey. Herman wished to move the seat of his see, but Edward refused permission for the move. Ealdred was a close associate of Herman's, and the historian H. R. Loyn called Herman "something of an alter ego" to Ealdred. According to the medieval chronicler John of Worcester, Ealdred was given the see of Ramsbury to administer while Herman remained outside England. Herman returned in 1058, and resumed his bishopric. There is no contemporary documentary evidence of Ealdred's administration of Ramsbury. + +Welsh affairs, Jerusalem, and Worcester + +The king again employed Ealdred as a diplomat in 1056, when he assisted Earls Harold and Leofric in negotiations with the Welsh. Edward sent Ealdred after the death in battle of Bishop Leofgar of Hereford, who had attacked Gruffydd ap Llywelyn after encouragement from the king. However, Leofgar lost the battle and his life, and Edward had to sue for peace. Although details of the negotiations are lacking, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn swore loyalty to King Edward, but the oath may not have had any obligations on Gruffydd's part to Edward. The exact terms of the submission are not known in total, but Gruffydd was not required to assist Edward in war nor attend Edward's court. Ealdred was rewarded with the administration of the see of Hereford, which he held until 1061, and was appointed Archbishop of York. The diocese had suffered a serious raid from the Welsh in 1055, and during his administration, Ealdred continued the rebuilding of the cathedral church as well as securing the cathedral chapter's rights. Ealdred was granted the administration so that the area might have someone with experience with the Welsh in charge. + +In 1058 Ealdred made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the first English bishop to make the journey. He travelled through Hungary, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle said that "he went to Jerusalem in such state as no-one had done before him." While in Jerusalem he made a gift of a gold chalice to the church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is possible that the reason Ealdred travelled through Hungary was to arrange the travel of Edward the Exile's family to England. Another possibility is that he wished to search for other possible heirs to King Edward in Hungary. It is not known exactly when Edward the Exile's family returned to England, whether they returned with Edward in 1057, or sometime later, so it is only a possibility that they returned with Ealdred in 1058. + +Very little documentary evidence is available from Ealdred's time as Bishop of Worcester. Only five leases that he signed survive, and all date from 1051 to 1053. Two further leases exist in Hemming's Cartulary as copies only. How the diocese of Worcester was administered when Ealdred was abroad is unclear, although it appears Wulfstan, the prior of the cathedral chapter, performed the religious duties in the diocese. On the financial side, the Evesham Chronicle states that Æthelwig, who became abbot of Evesham Abbey in 1058, administered Worcester before he became abbot. + +Archbishop of York + +Cynesige, the archbishop of York, died on 22 December 1060, and Ealdred was elected Archbishop of York on Christmas Day, 1060. Although a bishop was promptly appointed to Hereford, none was named to Worcester, and it appears Ealdred intended to retain Worcester along with York, which several of his predecessors had done. There were a few reasons for this, one of which was political, as the kings of England preferred to appoint bishops from the south to the northern bishoprics, hoping to counter the northern tendency towards separatism. Another reason was that York was not a wealthy see, and Worcester was. Holding Worcester along with York allowed the archbishop sufficient revenue to support himself. + +In 1061 Ealdred travelled to Rome to receive the pallium, the symbol of an archbishop's authority. Journeying with him was Tostig, another son of Earl Godwin, who was now earl of Northumbria. William of Malmesbury says that Ealdred, by "amusing the simplicity of King Edward and alleging the custom of his predecessors, had acquired, more by bribery than by reason, the archbishopric of York while still holding his former see." On his arrival in Rome, however, charges of simony, or the buying of ecclesiastical office, and lack of learning were brought against him, and his elevation to York was refused by Pope Nicholas II, who also deposed him from Worcester. The story of Ealdred being deposed comes from the Vita Edwardi, a life of Edward the Confessor, but the Vita Wulfstani, an account of the life of Ealdred's successor at Worcester, Wulfstan, says Nicholas refused the pallium until a promise to find a replacement for Worcester was given by Ealdred. Yet another chronicler, John of Worcester, mentions nothing of any trouble in Rome, and when discussing the appointment of Wulfstan, says Wulfstan was elected freely and unanimously by the clergy and people. John of Worcester also claims that at Wulfstan's consecration, Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury extracted a promise from Ealdred that neither he nor his successors would lay claim to any jurisdiction over the diocese of Worcester. Given that John of Worcester wrote his chronicle after the eruption of the Canterbury–York supremacy struggle, the story of Ealdred renouncing any claims to Worcester needs to be considered suspect. + +For whatever reason, Ealdred gave up the see of Worcester in 1062, when papal legates arrived in England to hold a council and make sure Ealdred relinquished Worcester. This happened at Easter in 1062. Ealdred was succeeded by Wulfstan, chosen by Ealdred, but John of Worcester relates that Ealdred had a hard time deciding between Wulfstan and Æthelwig. The legates had urged the selection of Wulfstan because of his saintliness. Because the position of Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury, was irregular, Wulfstan sought and received consecration as a bishop from Ealdred. Normally, Wulfstan would have gone to the archbishop of Canterbury, as the see of Worcester was within Canterbury's province. Although Ealdred gave up the bishopric, the appointment of Wulfstan was one that allowed Ealdred to continue his considerable influence on the see of Worcester. Ealdred retained a number of estates belonging to Worcester. Even after the Norman Conquest, Ealdred still controlled some events in Worcester, and it was Ealdred, not Wulfstan, who opposed Urse d'Abetot's attempt to extend the castle of Worcester into the cathedral after the Norman Conquest. + +While archbishop, Ealdred built at Beverley, expanding on the building projects begun by his predecessor Cynesige, as well as repairing and expanding other churches in his diocese. He also built refectories for the canons at York and Southwell. He also was the one bishop who published ecclesiastical legislation during Edward the Confessor's reign, attempting to discipline and reform the clergy. He held a synod of his clergy shortly before 1066. + +After the death of Edward the Confessor + +John of Worcester, a medieval chronicler, said Ealdred crowned King HaroldII in 1066, although the Norman chroniclers mention Stigand as the officiating prelate. Given Ealdred's known support of Godwin's family, John of Worcester is probably correct. Stigand's position as archbishop was canonically suspect, and as earl Harold had not allowed Stigand to consecrate one of the earl's churches, it is unlikely Harold would have allowed Stigand to perform the much more important royal coronation. Arguments for Stigand having performed the coronation, however, rely on the fact that no other English source names the ecclesiastic who performed the ceremony; all Norman sources name Stigand as the presider. In all events, Ealdred and Harold were close, and Ealdred supported Harold's bid to become king. Ealdred perhaps accompanied Harold when the new king went to York and secured the support of the northern magnates shortly after Harold's consecration. + +According to the medieval chronicler Geoffrey Gaimar, after the Battle of Stamford Bridge Harold entrusted the loot gained from Harald Hardrada to Ealdred. Gaimar asserts that King Harold did this because he had heard of Duke William's landing in England, and needed to rush south to counter it. After the Battle of Hastings, Ealdred joined the group who tried to elevate Edgar the Ætheling, Edward the Exile's son, as king, but eventually he submitted to William the Conqueror at Berkhamsted. John of Worcester says the group supporting Edgar vacillated over what to do while William ravaged the countryside, which led to Ealdred and Edgar's submission to William. + +Ealdred crowned William king on Christmas Day 1066. An innovation in William's coronation ceremony was that before the actual crowning, Ealdred asked the assembled crowd, in English, if it was their wish that William be crowned king. The Bishop of Coutances then did the same, but in Norman French. In March 1067, William took Ealdred with him when William returned to Normandy, along with the other English leaders Earl Edwin of Mercia, Earl Morcar, Edgar the Ætheling, and Archbishop Stigand. Ealdred at Whitsun 1068 performed the coronation of Matilda, William's wife. The Laudes Regiae, or song commending a ruler, that was performed at Matilda's coronation may have been composed by Ealdred himself for the occasion. In 1069, when the northern thegns rebelled against William and attempted to install Edgar the Ætheling as king, Ealdred continued to support William. He was the only northern leader to support William, however. Ealdred was back at York by 1069. He died there on 11 September 1069, and his body was buried in his episcopal cathedral. He may have taken an active part in trying to calm the rebellions in the north in 1068 and 1069. The medieval chronicler William of Malmesbury records a story that when the new sheriff of Worcester, Urse d'Abetot, encroached on the cemetery of the cathedral chapter for Worcester Cathedral, Ealdred pronounced a rhyming curse on him, saying "Thou are called Urse. May you have God's curse." + +Legacy + +After Ealdred's death, one of the restraints on William's treatment of the English was removed. Ealdred was one of a few native Englishmen who William appears to have trusted, and his death led to fewer attempts to integrate Englishmen into the administration, although such efforts did not entirely stop. In 1070, a church council was held at Westminster and a number of bishops were deposed. By 1073 there were only two Englishmen in episcopal sees, and by the time of William's death in 1087 there was only one, WulfstanII of Worcester. + +Ealdred did much to restore discipline in the monasteries and churches under his authority, and was liberal with gifts to the churches of his diocese. He built the monastic church of St Peter at Gloucester (now Gloucester Cathedral, though nothing of his fabric remains), then part of his diocese of Worcester. He also repaired a large part of Beverley Minster in the diocese of York, adding a presbytery and an unusually splendid painted ceiling covering "all the upper part of the church from the choir to the tower... intermingled with gold in various ways, and in a wonderful fashion." He added a pulpit "in German style" of bronze, gold and silver, surmounted by an arch with a rood cross in the same materials; these were examples of the lavish decorations added to important churches in the years before the conquest. + +Ealdred encouraged Folcard, a monk of Canterbury, to write the Life of Saint John of Beverley. This was part of Ealdred's promotion of the cult of Saint John, who had been canonised only since 1037. Along with the Pontificale, Ealdred may have brought back from Cologne the first manuscript of the Cambridge Songs to enter England, a collection of Latin Goliardic songs which became famous in the Middle Ages. The historian Michael Lapidge suggests that the Laudes Regiae, which are included in Cotton Vitellius Exii, might have been composed by Ealdred, or a member of his household. Another historian, H. J. Cowdrey, argued that the laudes were composed at Winchester. These praise songs are probably the same performed at Matilda's coronation, but might have been used at other court ceremonies before Ealdred's death. + +Historians have seen Ealdred as an "old-fashioned prince-bishop". Others say he "raised the see of York from its former rustic state". He was known for his generosity and for his diplomatic and administrative abilities. After the Conquest, Ealdred provided a degree of continuity between the pre- and post-Conquest worlds. One modern historian feels it was Ealdred who was behind the compilation of the D version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and gives a date in the 1050s as its composition. Certainly, Ealdred is one of the leading figures in the work, and it is likely one of his clerks compiled the version. + +Notes + +Citations + +References + +Further reading + +External links + +1069 deaths +Abbots of Tavistock +Archbishops of York +Bishops of Hereford +Bishops of Worcester +11th-century English Roman Catholic bishops +11th-century English Roman Catholic archbishops +Year of birth unknown +Burials at York Minster +Alexander I of Epirus (; c. 370 BC – 331 BC), also known as Alexander Molossus (), was a king of Epirus (343/2–331 BC) of the Aeacid dynasty. As the son of Neoptolemus I and brother of Olympias, Alexander I was an uncle, and a brother-in-law, of Alexander the Great. He was also an uncle to Pyrrhus of Epirus. + +Life +Neoptolemus I ruled jointly with his brother Arybbas. When Neoptolemus died in c. 357 BC, his son Alexander was only a child and Arrybas became the sole king. In c. 350 BC, Alexander was brought to the court of Philip II of Macedon in order to protect him. In 343/2 in his late 20s, Philip made him king of Epirus, after dethroning his uncle Arybbas. + +When Olympias was repudiated by her husband in 337 BC, she went to her brother, and endeavoured to induce him to make war on Philip. Alexander, however, declined the contest, and formed a second alliance with Philip by agreeing to marry the daughter of Philip (Alexander's niece) Cleopatra. During the wedding in 336 BC, Philip was assassinated by Pausanias of Orestis. + +In 334 BC, Alexander I, at the request of the Greek colony of Taras (in Magna Graecia), crossed over into Italy, to aid them in battle against several Italic tribes, including the Lucanians and Bruttii. After a victory over the Samnites and Lucanians near Paestum in 332 BC, he made a treaty with the Romans. He then took Heraclea from the Lucanians, and Terina and Sipontum from the Bruttii. Through the treachery of some Lucanian exiles, he was compelled to engage under unfavourable circumstances in the Battle of Pandosia and was killed by a Lucanian. He left a son, Neoptolemus, and a daughter, Cadmea. + +In a famous passage, Livy speculates on what would have been the outcome of a military showdown between Alexander the Great and the Roman Republic. He reports that as Alexander of Epirus lay mortally wounded on the battlefield at Pandosia he compared his fortunes to those of his famous nephew and said that the latter "waged war against women". + +References + +External links +Lendering, Jona. "Alexander of Molossis". Livius.org, 2004. Birth and kingship dates are incorrect) + + + + +370s BC births +Year of birth unknown +331 BC deaths +Kings of Epirus +4th-century BC Greek monarchs +Ancient Greek generals +Family of Alexander the Great +Monarchs killed in action +Ancient Greeks killed in battle +Courtiers of Philip II of Macedon +Ancient Epirotes +Alexander I Theopator Euergetes, surnamed Balas (), was the ruler of the Seleucid Empire from 150 BC to August 145 BC. Picked from obscurity and supported by the neighboring Roman-allied Attalid kingdom, Alexander landed in Phoenicia in 152 BC and started a civil war against Seleucid King Demetrius I Soter. Backed by mercenaries and factions of the Seleucid Empire unhappy with the existing government, he defeated Demetrius and took the crown in 150 BC. He married the princess Cleopatra Thea to seal an alliance with the neighboring Ptolemaic kingdom. His reign saw the steady retreat of the Seleucid Empire's eastern border, with important eastern satrapies such as Media being lost to the nascent Parthian Empire. In 147 BC, Demetrius II Nicator, the young son of Demetrius I, began a campaign to overthrow Balas, and civil war resumed. Alexander's ally, Ptolemaic king Ptolemy VI Philometor, moved troops into Coele-Syria to support Alexander, but then switched sides and threw his support behind Demetrius II. At the Battle of the Oenoparus River in Syria, he was defeated by Ptolemy VI and he died shortly afterward. + +Life + +Origins and mission to Rome +Alexander Balas claimed to be the son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Laodice IV and heir to the Seleucid throne. The ancient sources, Polybius and Diodorus say that this claim was false and that he and his sister Laodice VI were really natives of Smyrna of humble origin. However, Polybius became friends with Balas's rival King Demetrius I when both were hostages in Rome, so Polybius is not an unbiased source on this matter. Modern scholars disagree about whether the story of Attalus finding a commoner who looked the part is true or was propaganda put about by Alexander's opponents. + +According to Diodorus, Alexander was originally put forward as a candidate for the Seleucid throne by Attalus II of Pergamum. Attalus had been disturbed by the Seleucid king Demetrius I's interference in Cappadocia, where he had dethroned king Ariarathes V. Boris Chrubasik is sceptical, noting that there is little subsequent evidence for Attalid involvement with Alexander. However, Selene Psoma has proposed that a large set of coins minted in a number of cities under Attalid control in this period was produced by Attalus II in order to fund Alexander's bid for the kingship. + +Alexander and his sister were maintained in Cilicia by Heracleides, a former minister of Antiochus IV and brother of Timarchus, an usurper in Media who had been executed by the reigning king Demetrius I Soter. In 153 BC, Heracleides brought Alexander and his sister to Rome, where he presented Alexander to the Roman Senate, which recognised him as the legitimate Seleucid king and agreed to support him in his bid to take the throne. Polybius mentions that Attalus II and Demetrius I also met with the Senate at this time but does not state how this was connected to the recognition of Alexander - if at all. + +War with Demetrius I (152–150 BC) + +After recruiting mercenaries, Alexander and Heracleides departed to Ephesus. From there, they invaded Phoenicia by sea, seizing Ptolemais Akko. Numismatic evidence shows that Alexander had also gained control of Seleucia Pieria, Byblos, Beirut, Tyre by 151 BC. On this coinage, Alexander heavily advertised his (claimed) connection to Antiochus IV, depicting Zeus Nicephorus on his coinage as Antiochus had done. He also assumed the title of Theopator ('Divinely Fathered'), which recalled Antiochus' epithet Theos Epiphanes ('God Manifest'). The coinage also presented Alexander Balas in the guise of Alexander the Great, with pronounced facial features and long flowing hair. This was intended to emphasise his military prowess to his soldiers. + +Alexander and Demetrius I competed with another to win over Jonathan Apphus, the leader of the ascendant faction in Judaea. Jonathan was won over to Alexander's side by the grant of a high position in the Seleucid court and the high priesthood in Jerusalem. Reinforced by Jonathan's hardened soldiers, Alexander fought a decisive battle with Demetrius in July 150 BC, in which Demetrius was killed. By autumn, Alexander's kingship was recognised throughout the Seleucid realm. + +Reign (150–147 BC) + +Alexander gained control of Antioch at this time and his chancellor, Ammonius, murdered all the courtiers of Demetrius I, as well as his wife Laodice and his eldest son Antigonus. Ptolemy VI Philometor of Egypt entered into an alliance with Alexander, which was sealed by Alexander's marriage to his daughter Cleopatra Thea. The wedding took place at Ptolemais, with Ptolemy VI and Jonathan Apphus in attendance. Alexander took the opportunity to shower honours on Jonathan, whom he treated as his main agent in Judaea. The marriage was advertised by a special coinage issue, depicting the royal pair side by side - only the second depiction of a queen on Seleucid coinage. She is shown with divine attributes (a cornucopia and a calathus) and is depicted in front of the king. Some scholars have seen Alexander as little more than a Ptolemaic puppet, arguing that this coinage emphasises Cleopatra's dominance over him and that the chancellor Ammonius was a Ptolemaic agent. Other scholars argue that the alliance was advertised as an important one, but that the arguments for Alexander's subservience have been overstated. + +Collapse of the East + +Meanwhile, the Seleucid positions in the eastern Upper Satrapies, already weakened by the previous kings' failure to contain the Parthians and the Greco-Bactrians, suffered almost complete collapse. The Parthians under Mithridates I took advantage of the general instability to invade Media. The region had been lost to Seleucid control by the middle of 148 BC. At around the same time the local nobles in Elymais and Persis asserted their own ephemeral independence, only to be soon also subdued by the Parthians. By 148 BC at the latest the Parthians also secured their hold over Hyrcania at the coast of the Caspian Sea. By 147 BC the Parthians stood at the doorsteps of Babylonia, one of the Seleucid empire's hearthlands and location of one of its two capital cities, Seleucia-on-Tigris. + +Alexander is not recorded to do anything of note to stem the steady erosion of Seleucid power in the East. Ancient historians hostile to him depict him as too distracted by a life of debauchery to take action to stop the Parthians, unlike earlier Seleucid Kings who would mount expeditions to the eastern satrapies to deter the Parthians. He was reputed to hand the administration over to two commanders, Hierax and Diodotus, neither of whom seemed to care for anything but their own interests. This representation is at least partially a product of his opponents' propaganda, but it is true that under Alexander, the Seleucid Empire continued to see its reach and power slip away. + +War with Demetrius II and death (147–145 BC) + +In early 147 BC Demetrius' son Demetrius II returned to Syria with a force of Cretan mercenaries led by a man called Lasthenes. Much of Coele Syria was lost to him immediately, possibly as a result of the succession of the regional commander. Jonathan attacked Demetrius's position from the south, seizing Jaffa and Ashdod, while Alexander Balas was occupied with a revolt in Cilicia. In 145 BC Ptolemy VI of Egypt invaded Syria, ostensibly in support of Alexander Balas. In practice, Ptolemy's intervention came at a heavy cost; with Alexander's permission, he took control of all the Seleucid cities along the coast, including Seleucia Pieria. He may also have started minting his own coinage in the Syrian cities. + +While he was at Ptolemais Akko, however, Ptolemy switched sides. According to Josephus, Ptolemy discovered that Alexander's chancellor, Ammonius, had been plotting to assassinate him, but when he demanded that Ammonius be punished, Alexander refused. Ptolemy remarried his Cleopatra Thea to Demetrius II and continued his march northward. Alexander's commanders of Antioch, Diodotus and Hierax, surrendered the city to Ptolemy. + +Alexander returned from Cilicia with his army, but Ptolemy VI and Demetrius II defeated his forces in a Battle of the Oenoparus River. Earlier, Alexander had sent his infant son Antiochus to an Arabian dynast called Zabdiel Diocles. Alexander now fled to Arabia in order to join up with Zabdiel, but he was killed. Sources disagree about whether the killer was a pair of his own generals who had decided to switch sides or Zabdiel himself. Alexander's severed head was brought to Ptolemy, who also died shortly after from wounds sustained in the battle. + +Zabdiel continued to look after Alexander's infant son Antiochus, until 145 BC when the general Diodotus declared him king, in order to serve as the figurehead of a rebellion against Demetrius II. In 130 BC, another claimant to the throne, Alexander Zabinas, would also claim to be Alexander Balas' son; almost certainly spuriously. Alexander is the title character of the oratorio Alexander Balus, written in 1747 by George Frideric Handel. + +See also + List of Syrian monarchs + Timeline of Syrian history + Diophantus of Abae + +References + +Bibliography +Primary +1 Maccabees 10 ff. +Justin xxxv. 1 and 2 + +Appian, Syrian Wars (=Roman History book 11), 67 +Polybius, The Histories xxxiii. 14. +Secondary + +External links + +Alexander Balas, article in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith +Intaglio representing Alexander I + + + +146 BC deaths +2nd-century BC Seleucid monarchs +Ptolemaic dynasty +Year of birth unknown +Children of Antiochus IV Epiphanes +Alexander () 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. 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. + +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. + +References + +Other sources + +4th-century BC Greek people +Ancient Greek monarchs +Thessalian kings +Ancient Greeks who were murdered +Year of birth unknown +350s BC deaths +People from Feres +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. + +References + +Sources +Connop Thirlwall, History of Greece, vol. viii +Johann Gustav Droysen, Hellenismus +Benediktus Niese, Geschichte der griechischen und makedonischen Staaten +Karl Julius Beloch, Griechische Geschichte vol. iii. + + + + +Buddhism in the ancient Mediterranean +Kings of Epirus +3rd-century BC Greek people +3rd-century BC monarchs in Europe +Pyrrhus of Epirus +Year of birth unknown +240s BC deaths +Alexander Jagiellon (; ; 5 August 1461 – 19 August 1506) of the House of Jagiellon 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 Jagiellon. He was elected grand duke of Lithuania upon the death of his father and king of Poland upon the death of his brother John I Albert. + +Biography +Alexander was born as the fourth son of King Casimir IV of Poland and Elisabeth, daughter of the King Albert of Hungary. 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, 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. + +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 Tatars of the Crimean Khanate, 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, Lithuania had to surrender about a third of its territory to the nascent expansionist Russian state. + +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 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 Kleck (5 August 1506), news of which was brought to Alexander on his deathbed in Vilnius. + +Alexander was the last known ruler of the Gediminid dynasty to have maintained the family's ancestral Lithuanian language. After his death, Polish became the sole language of the family, thus fully Polonising the Jagiellons. + +In 1931, during the refurbishment of Vilnius Cathedral, the forgotten sarcophagus of Alexander was discovered, and has since been put on display. + +Gallery + +See also + + History of Poland (1385–1569) +Rachela Fiszel + Sejm walny + St. Anne's Church, Vilnius + +References + +External links + + Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History + +1461 births +1506 deaths +16th-century monarchs in Europe +16th-century Polish monarchs +Kings of Poland +Grand Dukes of Lithuania +Polish Roman Catholics +Jagiellonian dynasty +Burials at Vilnius Cathedral +Nobility from Kraków +Alexander III (; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. He was highly reactionary in domestic affairs and reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father, Alexander II. This policy is known in Russia as "counter-reforms" (). Under the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev (1827–1907), he opposed any socio-economic moves that limited his autocratic rule. + +During his reign, Russia fought no major wars as well. He therefore came to be known as "The Peacemaker" (), with that laudatory title enduring into the 21st Century among historians (as the Tsar’-Mirotvorets). Outside of politics, Alexander was additionally known for his striking appearance, with an American historian later noting how he stood out as being a "tall, heavy-set man, of enormous muscular strength." Alexander's major foreign policy achievement was helping forge the Russo-French Alliance and thus directing a major shift in the international relations of Russian society that endured for decades. His political legacy represented a direct challenge to the European cultural order set forth by German statesman Otto von Bismarck, intermingling Russian influences with the shifting balances of power. + +Alexander's long, multifaceted legacy has been commemorated in public installations across multiple nations. A notable example outside of Russia is the , an ornate arch bridge spanning the Seine in Paris, France. That installation has received mass attention for over a century. + +Personality + +Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich was born on 10 March 1845 at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, the second son and third child of Tsesarevich Alexander (Future Alexander II) and his first wife Maria Alexandrovna (née Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine). He was born during the reign of his grandfather Nicholas I. + +In disposition, Alexander bore little resemblance to his soft-hearted, liberal father, and still less to his refined, philosophic, sentimental, chivalrous, yet cunning great-uncle Emperor Alexander I. Although an enthusiastic amateur musician and patron of the ballet, Alexander was seen as lacking refinement and elegance. Indeed, he rather relished the idea of being of the same rough texture as some of his subjects. His straightforward, abrupt manner savoured sometimes of gruffness, while his direct, unadorned method of expressing himself harmonized well with his rough-hewn, immobile features and somewhat sluggish movements. His education was not such as to soften these peculiarities. + +Alexander was extremely strong. He tore packs of cards in half with his bare hands to entertain his children. When the Austrian ambassador in St. Petersburg said that Austria would mobilize two or three army corps against Russia, he twisted a silver fork into a knot and threw it onto the plate of the ambassador. He said, "That is what I am going to do to your two or three army corps." + +Unlike his extroverted wife, Alexander disliked social functions and avoided St. Petersburg. At palace balls, he was impatient for the events to end. He would order each musician of the orchestra to leave and turn off the lights until the guests left. + +Alexander was afraid of horses. In his childhood, he had had an unpleasant experience on a bad-tempered mount. His wife once convinced him to go on a carriage ride with her. As he reluctantly entered the carriage, the ponies reared back. He immediately left the carriage and no amount of pleading from his wife could convince him to get back in. + +An account from the memoirs of the artist Alexander Benois gives one impression of Alexander III: + +After a performance of the ballet Tsar Kandavl at the Mariinsky Theatre, I first caught sight of the Emperor. I was struck by the size of the man, and although cumbersome and heavy, he was still a mighty figure. There was indeed something of the muzhik [Russian peasant] about him. The look of his bright eyes made quite an impression on me. As he passed where I was standing, he raised his head for a second, and to this day I can remember what I felt as our eyes met. It was a look as cold as steel, in which there was something threatening, even frightening, and it struck me like a blow. The Tsar's gaze! The look of a man who stood above all others, but who carried a monstrous burden and who every minute had to fear for his life and the lives of those closest to him. In later years I came into contact with the Emperor on several occasions, and I felt not the slightest bit timid. In more ordinary cases Tsar Alexander III could be at once kind, simple, and even almost homely. + +Early life +Though he was destined to be a strongly counter-reforming emperor, Alexander had little prospect of succeeding to the throne during the first two decades of his life, as he had an elder brother, Nicholas, who seemed of robust constitution. Even when Nicholas first displayed symptoms of delicate health, the notion that he might die young was never taken seriously, and he was betrothed to Princess Dagmar of Denmark, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and Queen Louise of Denmark, and whose siblings included King Frederick VIII of Denmark, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom and King George I of Greece. Great solicitude was devoted to the education of Nicholas as tsesarevich, whereas Alexander received only the training of an ordinary Grand Duke of that period. This included acquaintance with French, English and German, and military drill. + +As Tsarevich + +Alexander became tsesarevich upon Nicholas's sudden death in 1865. He had been very close to his older brother, and he was devastated by Nicholas' death. When he became tsar, he reflected that "no one had such an impact on my life as my dear brother and friend Nixa [Nicholas]" and lamented that "a terrible responsibility fell on my shoulders" when Nicholas died. + +As tsesarevich, Alexander began to study the principles of law and administration under Konstantin Pobedonostsev, then a professor of civil law at Moscow State University and later (from 1880) chief procurator of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in Russia. Pobedonostsev instilled into the young man's mind the belief that zeal for Russian Orthodox thought was an essential factor of Russian patriotism to be cultivated by every right-minded emperor. While he was heir apparent from 1865 to 1881 Alexander did not play a prominent part in public affairs, but allowed it to become known that he had ideas which did not coincide with the principles of the existing government. + +On his deathbed, Nicholas allegedly expressed the wish that his fiancée, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, should marry Alexander. Alexander's parents encouraged the match. On 2 June 1866, Alexander went to Copenhagen to visit Dagmar. When they were looking at photographs of the deceased Nicholas, Alexander proposed to Dagmar. On in the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Alexander wed Dagmar, who converted to Orthodox Christianity and took the name Maria Feodorovna. The union proved a happy one to the end; unlike nearly all of his predecessors since Peter I, there was no adultery in his marriage. The couple spent their wedding night at the Tsarevich's private dacha known as "My Property". + +Alexander and his father became estranged due to their different political views. In 1870, Alexander II supported Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War, which angered the younger Alexander. Influenced by his Danish wife Dagmar, Alexander criticized the "shortsighted government" for helping the "Prussian pigs". + +Alexander resented his father for having a long-standing relationship with Princess Catherine Dolgorukova (with whom he had several illegitimate children) while his mother, the Empress, was suffering from chronic ill-health. Two days after Empress Marie died, his father told him, "I shall live as I wish, and my union with Princess Dolgorukova is definite" but assured him that "your rights will be safeguarded." Alexander was furious over his father's decision to marry Catherine a month after his mother's death, which he believed "forever ruined all the dear good memories of family life." His father threatened to disinherit him if he left court out of protest against the marriage. He privately denounced Catherine as "the outsider" and complained that she was "designing and immature". After his father's assassination, he reflected that his father's marriage to Catherine had caused the tragedy: "All the scum burst out and swallowed all that was holy. The guardian angel flew away and everything turned to ashes, finally culminating in the dreadful incomprehensible 1 March." + +Reign +On 13 March 1881 (N.S.) Alexander's father, Alexander II, was assassinated by members of the extremist organization Narodnaya Volya. As a result, Alexander ascended to the Russian imperial throne in Nennal. He and Maria Feodorovna were officially crowned and anointed at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on 27 May 1883. Alexander's ascension to the throne was followed by an outbreak of anti-Jewish riots. + +Alexander III disliked the extravagance of the rest of his family. It was also expensive for the Crown to pay so many grand dukes each year. Each one received an annual salary of 250,000 rubles, and grand duchesses received a dowry of a million when they married. He limited the title of grand duke and duchess to only children and male-line grandchildren of emperors. The rest would bear a princely title and the style of Serene Highness. He also forbade morganatic marriages, as well as those outside of the Orthodoxy. + +Domestic policies + +On the day of his assassination, Alexander II signed an ukaz setting up consultative commissions to advise the monarch. On ascending to the throne, however, Alexander III took Pobedonostsev's advice and cancelled the policy before its publication. He made it clear that his autocracy would not be limited. + +All of Alexander III's internal reforms aimed to reverse the liberalization that had occurred in his father's reign. The new Emperor believed that remaining true to Russian Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality (the ideology introduced by his grandfather, Emperor Nicholas I) would save Russia from revolutionary agitation. + +Alexander weakened the power of the zemstvo (elective local administrative bodies) and placed the administration of peasant communes under the supervision of land-owning proprietors appointed by his government, "land captains" (zemskiye nachalniki). These acts weakened the nobility and the peasantry and brought Imperial administration under the Emperor's personal control. In such policies Alexander III followed the advice of Konstantin Pobedonostsev, who retained control of the Church in Russia through his long tenure as Procurator of the Holy Synod (from 1880 to 1905) and who became tutor to Alexander's son and heir, Nicholas. (Pobedonostsev appears as "Toporov" in Tolstoy's novel Resurrection.) Other conservative advisors included Count D. A. Tolstoy (minister of education, and later of internal affairs) and I. N. Durnovo (D. A. Tolstoy's successor in the latter post). Mikhail Katkov and other journalists supported the emperor in his autocracy. + +The Russian famine of 1891–92, which caused 375,000 to 500,000 deaths, and the ensuing cholera epidemic permitted some liberal activity, as the Russian government could not cope with the crisis and had to allow zemstvos to help with relief (among others, Leo Tolstoy helped with relief efforts on his estate and through the British press, and Chekhov directed anti-cholera precautions in several villages). + +Alexander had the political goal of Russification, which involved homogenizing the language and religion of Russia's people. He implemented changes such as teaching only the Russian language in Russian schools in Germany, Poland, and Finland. He also patronized Eastern Orthodoxy and destroyed German, Polish, and Swedish cultural and religious institutions. + +Alexander was hostile to Jews; his reign witnessed a sharp deterioration in the Jews' economic, social, and political condition. His policy was eagerly implemented by tsarist officials in the "May Laws" of 1882. These laws encouraged open anti-Jewish sentiment and dozens of pogroms across the western part of the empire. As a result, many Jews emigrated to Western Europe and the United States. They banned Jews from inhabiting rural areas and shtetls (even within the Pale of Settlement) and restricted the occupations in which they could engage. + +Encouraged by its successful assassination of Alexander II, the Narodnaya Volya movement began planning the murder of Alexander III. The Okhrana uncovered the plot and five of the conspirators, including Aleksandr Ulyanov, the older brother of Vladimir Lenin, were captured and hanged in May 1887. + +Foreign policy + +The general negative consensus about the tsar's foreign policy follows the conclusions of the British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury in 1885: +It is very difficult to come to any satisfactory conclusion as to the real objects of Russian policy. I am more inclined to believe there are none; that the Emperor is really his own Minister, and so bad a Minister that no consequent or coherent policy is pursued; but that each influential person, military or civil, snatches from him as opportunity offers the decisions which such person at the moment wants and that the mutual effect of these decisions on each other is determined almost exclusively by chance. + +In foreign affairs Alexander III was a man of peace, but not at any price, and held that the best means of averting war is to be well-prepared for it. Diplomat Nikolay Girs, scion of a rich and powerful family, served as his Foreign Minister from 1882 to 1895 and established the peaceful policies for which Alexander has been given credit. Girs was an architect of the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1891, which was later expanded into the Triple Entente with the addition of Great Britain. That alliance brought France out of diplomatic isolation, and moved Russia from the German orbit to a coalition with France, one that was strongly supported by French financial assistance to Russia's economic modernisation. Girs was in charge of a diplomacy that featured numerous negotiated settlements, treaties and conventions. These agreements defined Russian boundaries and restored equilibrium to dangerously unstable situations. The most dramatic success came in 1885, settling long-standing tensions with Great Britain, which was fearful that Russian expansion to the south would be a threat to India. Girs was usually successful in restraining the aggressive inclinations of Tsar Alexander convincing him that the very survival of the Tsarist system depended on avoiding major wars. With a deep insight into the tsar's moods and views, Girs was usually able to shape the final decisions by outmaneuvering hostile journalists, ministers, and even the Tsarina, as well as his own ambassadors. + +Though Alexander was indignant at the conduct of German chancellor Otto von Bismarck towards Russia, he avoided an open rupture with Germany—even reviving the League of Three Emperors for a period of time and in 1887, signed the Reinsurance Treaty with the Germans. However, in 1890, the expiration of the treaty coincided with the dismissal of Bismarck by the new German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II (for whom the Tsar had an immense dislike), and the unwillingness of Wilhelm II's government to renew the treaty. In response Alexander III then began cordial relations with France, eventually entering into an alliance with the French in 1892. + +Despite chilly relations with Berlin, the Tsar nevertheless confined himself to keeping a large number of troops near the German frontier. With regard to Bulgaria he exercised similar self-control. The efforts of Prince Alexander and afterwards of Stambolov to destroy Russian influence in the principality roused his indignation, but he vetoed all proposals to intervene by force of arms. + +In Central Asian affairs he followed the traditional policy of gradually extending Russian domination without provoking conflict with the United Kingdom (see Panjdeh incident), and he never allowed the bellicose partisans of a forward policy to get out of hand. His reign cannot be regarded as an eventful period of Russian history; but under his hard rule the country made considerable progress. + +Alexander and his wife regularly spent their summers at Langinkoski manor along the Kymi River near Kotka on the Finnish coast, where their children were immersed in a Scandinavian lifestyle of relative modesty. + +Alexander rejected foreign influence, German influence in particular, thus the adoption of local national principles was deprecated in all spheres of official activity, with a view to realizing his ideal of a Russia homogeneous in language, administration and religion. These ideas conflicted with those of his father, who had German sympathies despite being a patriot; Alexander II often used the German language in his private relations, occasionally ridiculed the Slavophiles and based his foreign policy on the Prussian alliance. + +Some differences between father and son had first appeared during the Franco-Prussian War, when Alexander II supported the cabinet of Berlin while the Tsesarevich made no effort to conceal his sympathies for the French. These sentiments would resurface during 1875–1879, when the Eastern question excited Russian society. At first, the Tsesarevich was more Slavophile than the Russian government. However, his phlegmatic nature restrained him from many exaggerations, and any popular illusions he may have imbibed were dispelled by personal observation in Bulgaria where he commanded the left wing of the invading army. Never consulted on political questions, Alexander confined himself to military duties and fulfilled them in a conscientious and unobtrusive manner. After many mistakes and disappointments, the army reached Constantinople and the Treaty of San Stefano was signed, but much that had been obtained by that important document had to be sacrificed at the Congress of Berlin. + +Bismarck failed to do what was expected of him by the Russian emperor. In return for the Russian support which had enabled him to create the German Empire, it was thought that he would help Russia to solve the Eastern question in accordance with Russian interests, but to the surprise and indignation of the cabinet of Saint Petersburg he confined himself to acting the part of "honest broker" at the Congress, and shortly afterwards contracted an alliance with Austria-Hungary for the purpose of counteracting Russian designs in Eastern Europe. + +The Tsesarevich could refer to these results as confirmation of the views he had expressed during the Franco-Prussian War; he concluded that for Russia, the best thing was to recover as quickly as possible from her temporary exhaustion, and prepare for future contingencies by military and naval reorganization. In accordance with this conviction, he suggested that certain reforms should be introduced. + +Trade and Industry + +Alexander III took initiatives to stimulate the development of trade and industry, as his father did before him. Russia's economy was still challenged by the Russian-Turkish war of 1877–1878, which created a deficit, so he imposed customs duties on imported goods. To further alleviate the budget deficit, he implemented increased frugality and accounting in state finances. Industrial development increased during his reign. Also during his reign, construction of the Trans Siberian Railway was started. + +Family life + +Following his father's assassination, Alexander III was advised that it would be difficult for him to be kept safe at the Winter Palace. As a result, Alexander relocated his family to the Gatchina Palace, located south of St. Petersburg. The palace was surrounded by moats, watch towers, and trenches, and soldiers were on guard night and day. Under heavy guard, he would make occasional visits into St. Petersburg, but even then he would stay in the Anichkov Palace, as opposed to the Winter Palace. Alexander resented having to take refuge at Gatchina. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia remembered hearing Alexander say, "To think that after having faced the guns of the Turks I must retreat now before these skunks." + +In the 1860s, Alexander fell in love with his mother's lady-in-waiting, Princess Maria Elimovna Meshcherskaya. Dismayed to learn that Prince zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn had proposed to her in early 1866, he told his parents that he was prepared to give up his rights of succession in order to marry his beloved "Dusenka". On 19 May 1866, Alexander II informed his son that Russia had come to an agreement with the parents of Princess Dagmar of Denmark, the fiancée of his late elder brother Nicholas. Initially, Alexander refused to travel to Copenhagen because he wanted to marry Maria. Enraged, Alexander II ordered him to go straight to Denmark and propose to Princess Dagmar. Alexander wrote in his diary "Farewell, dear Dusenka." + +Despite his initial reluctance, Alexander grew fond of Dagmar. By the end of his life, they loved each other deeply. A few weeks after their wedding, he wrote in his diary: "God grant that... I may love my darling wife more and more... I often feel that I am not worthy of her, but even if this was true, I will do my best to be." When she left his side, he missed her bitterly and complained: "My sweet darling Minny, for five years we've never been apart and Gatchina is empty and sad without you." In 1885, he commissioned Peter Carl Fabergé to produce the first of what were to become a series of jeweled Easter eggs (now called "Fabergé eggs") for her as an Easter gift. Dagmar was so delighted by the First Hen egg that Alexander gave her an egg every year as an Easter tradition. After Alexander died, his heir Nicholas continued the tradition and commissioned two eggs, one for his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and one for his mother, Dagmar, every Easter. When she nursed him in his final illness, Alexander told Dagmar, "Even before my death, I have got to known an angel." He died in Dagmar's arms, and his daughter Olga noted that "my mother still held him in her arms" long after he died. + +Alexander had six children by Dagmar, five of whom survived into adulthood: Nicholas (b. 1868), George (b. 1871), Xenia (b. 1875), Michael (b. 1878) and Olga (b. 1882). He told Dagmar that "only with [our children] can I relax mentally, enjoy them and rejoice, looking at them." He wrote in his diary that he "was crying like a baby" when Dagmar gave birth to their first child, Nicholas. He was much more lenient with his children than most European monarchs, and he told their tutors, "I do not need porcelain, I want normal healthy Russian children." General Cherevin believed that the clever George was "the favourite of both parents". Alexander enjoyed a more informal relationship with his youngest son Michael and doted on his youngest daughter, Olga. + +Alexander was concerned that his heir-apparent, Nicholas, was too gentle and naive to become an effective Emperor. When Witte suggested that Nicholas participate in the Trans-Siberian Committee, Alexander said, "Have you ever tried to discuss anything of consequence with His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke? Don't tell me you never noticed the Grand Duke is . . . an absolute child. His opinions are utterly childish. How could he preside over such a committee?" He was worried that Nicholas had no experiences with women and arranged for the Polish ballerina Mathilde Kschessinskaya to become his son's mistress. Even at the end of his life, he considered Nicholas a child and told him, "I can't imagine you as a fiancé – how strange and unusual!" + +Each summer his parents-in-law, King Christian IX and Queen Louise, held family reunions at the Danish royal palaces of Fredensborg and Bernstorff, bringing Alexander, Maria and their children to Denmark. His sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales, would come from Great Britain with some of her children, and his brother-in-law and cousin-in-law, King George I of Greece, his wife, Queen Olga, who was a first cousin of Alexander and a Romanov Grand Duchess by birth, came with their children from Athens. In contrast to the strict security observed in Russia, Alexander and Maria revelled in the relative freedom that they enjoyed in Denmark, Alexander once commenting to the Prince and Princess of Wales near the end of a visit that he envied them being able to return to a happy home in England, while he was returning to his Russian prison. In Denmark, he was able to enjoy joining his children, nephews and nieces, in muddy ponds looking for tadpoles, sneaking into his father-in-law's orchard to steal apples, and playing pranks, such as turning a water hose on the visiting King Oscar II of Sweden. + +Alexander had an extremely poor relationship with his brother Grand Duke Vladimir. At a restaurant, Grand Duke Vladimir had a brawl with the French actor Lucien Guitry when the latter kissed his wife, Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The prefect of St. Petersburg needed to escort Vladimir out of the restaurant. Alexander was so furious that he temporarily exiled Vladimir and his wife and threatened to exile them permanently to Siberia if they did not leave immediately. When Alexander and his family survived the Borki train disaster in 1888, Alexander joked, "I can imagine how disappointed Vladimir is going to be when he learns that we all stayed alive!" This tension was reflected in the rivalry between Maria Feodorovna and Vladimir's wife, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna. + +Alexander had better relationships with his other brothers: Alexei (who he made rear admiral and then a grand admiral of the Russian Navy), Sergei (who he made governor of Moscow) and Paul. + +Despite the antipathy that Alexander had towards his stepmother, Catherine Dolgorukov, he nevertheless allowed her to remain in the Winter Palace for some time after his father's assassination and to retain various keepsakes of him. These included Alexander II's blood-soaked uniform that he died wearing, and his reading glasses. + +Even though he disliked their mother, Alexander was kind to his half-siblings. His youngest half-sister Princess Catherine Alexandrovna Yurievskaya remembered when he would play with her and her siblings: "The Emperor... seemed a playful and kind Goliath among all the romping children." + +On the Imperial train derailed in an accident at Borki. At the moment of the crash, the imperial family was in the dining car. Its roof collapsed, and Alexander held its remains on his shoulders as the children fled outdoors. The onset of Alexander's kidney failure was later attributed to the blunt trauma suffered in this incident. + +Illness and death + +In 1894, Alexander III became ill with terminal kidney disease (nephritis). His first cousin, Queen Olga of Greece, offered him to stay at her villa Mon Repos, on the island of Corfu, in the hope that it might improve the Tsar's condition. By the time that they reached Crimea, they stayed at the Maly Palace in Livadia, as Alexander was too weak to travel any farther. Recognizing that the Tsar's days were numbered, various imperial relatives began to descend on Livadia. Clergyman John of Kronstadt paid a visit and administered Communion to the Tsar. On 21 October, Alexander received Nicholas's fiancée, Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, who had come from her native Darmstadt to receive the Tsar's blessing. Despite being exceedingly weak, Alexander insisted on receiving Alix in full dress uniform, an event that left him exhausted. Soon after, his health began to deteriorate more rapidly. He died in the arms of his wife, and in the presence of his physician, Ernst Viktor von Leyden, at Maly Palace in Livadia on the afternoon of at the age of forty-nine, and was succeeded by his eldest son Tsesarevich Nicholas, who took the throne as Nicholas II. After leaving Livadia on 6 November and traveling to St. Petersburg by way of Moscow, his remains were interred on 18 November at the Peter and Paul Fortress, with his funeral being attended by numerous foreign relatives, including King Christian IX of Denmark, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and Duke of York, and Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and his daughter-in-law to be, Alix of Hesse, and her brother, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse. + +Monuments + +In 1909, a bronze equestrian statue of Alexander III sculpted by Paolo Troubetzkoy was placed in Znamenskaya Square in front of the Moscow Rail Terminal in St. Petersburg. Both the horse and rider were sculpted in massive form, leading to the nickname of "hippopotamus". Troubetzkoy envisioned the statue as a caricature, jesting that he wished "to portray an animal atop another animal", and it was quite controversial at the time, with many, including the members of the Imperial Family, opposed to the design, but it was approved because the Empress Dowager unexpectedly liked the monument. Following the Revolution of 1917, the statue remained in place as a symbol of tsarist autocracy until 1937 when it was placed in storage. In 1994, it was again put on public display, although in a different place – in front of the Marble Palace. Another pre-revolutionary memorial is located in the city of Irkutsk at the Angara embankment. + +For Alexander's role in forging the Franco-Russian Alliance, the French Republic commissioned a bridge named in his honour, Pont Alexandre III. It was opened by his son, Nicholas II, and exists to this day. + +On 18 November 2017, Vladimir Putin unveiled a bronze monument to Alexander III on the site of the former Maly Livadia Palace in Crimea. The four-meter monument by Russian sculptor Andrey Kovalchuk depicts Alexander III sitting on a stump, his stretched arms resting on a sabre. An inscription says "Russia has only two allies: the Army and the Navy", although historians dispute whether the Tsar actually said those words. Alexander III is believed to be one of Putin's admired historic leaders, along with Joseph Stalin. On 5 June 2021, he unveiled another monument to Alexander on the site of Gatchina Palace, Leningrad Oblast. + +Honours +Domestic + Knight of St. Andrew, 10 March 1845 + Knight of St. Alexander Nevsky, 10 March 1845 + Knight of St. Anna, 1st Class, 10 March 1845 + Knight of the White Eagle, 10 March 1845 + Knight of St. Vladimir, 4th Class, 1864; 3rd Class, 1870 + Knight of St. Stanislaus, 1st Class, 1865 + Knight of St. George, 2nd Class, 1877 + +Foreign + +Arms + +Issue + +Alexander III had six children (five of whom survived to adulthood) of his marriage with Princess Dagmar of Denmark, also known as Marie Feodorovna. + +(Note: all dates prior to 1918 are in the Old Style Calendar) + +Ancestors + +See also + + Russian America + Tsars of Russia family tree + List of Russian monarchs + Emperor of all the Russias + President of the Soviet Union + +References + +Bibliography + + Dorpalen, Andreas. "Tsar Alexander III and the Boulanger Crisis in France." Journal of Modern History 23.2 (1951): 122–136. online + Etty, John. "Alexander III, Tsar of Russia 1881–1889." History Review 60 (2008): 1–5. online + Hutchinson, John F. Late Imperial Russia: 1890–1917 + Lincoln, W. Bruce. The Romanovs : autocrats of all the Russias (1981) online free to borrow + Lowe, Charles. Alexander III of Russia (1895) online free full-length old biography + Nelipa, M., Alexander III His Life and Reign'm (2014), Gilbert's Books + Polunov, A. Iu. "Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev – Man and Politician". Russian Studies in History 39.4 (2001): 8–32. online, by a leading scholar +Polunov, A. Iu. "The Orthodox Church in the Baltic Region and the Policies of Alexander Ill's Government." Russian Studies in History 39.4 (2001): 66–76. online + Suny, Ronald Grigor. "Rehabilitating Tsarism: The Imperial Russian State and Its Historians. A Review Article" Comparative Studies in Society and History 31#1 (1989) pp. 168–179 online + Thomson, Oliver. Romanovs: Europe's Most Obsessive Dynasty (2008) ch 13 + Whelan, Heide W. Alexander III & the State Council: bureaucracy & counter-reform in late imperial Russia'' (Rutgers UP, 1982). + +External links + + Alexander III. Historical photos. + A short biography + – Historical reconstruction "The Romanovs". StarMedia. Babich-Design(Russia, 2013) + +1845 births +1894 deaths +Royalty from Saint Petersburg +People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd + +House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov +19th-century Russian monarchs +19th-century Polish monarchs +Heads of state of Finland +Grand dukes of Russia +Tsesarevichs of Russia +Eastern Orthodox monarchs +Russification +Children of Alexander II of Russia +Sons of emperors +Russian military personnel of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) + +Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia) +Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class +Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class +Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Second Degree +Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary +Recipients of the Order of Bravery, 1st class +Grand Commanders of the Order of the Dannebrog +Recipients of the Cross of Honour of the Order of the Dannebrog +Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour +Bailiffs Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta +Recipients of the Order of the Netherlands Lion +Knights Grand Cross of the Military Order of William +3 +3 +3 +Grand Crosses of the Order of the Star of Romania +Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (military class) +Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain +Extra Knights Companion of the Garter +Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint-Charles +Deaths from nephritis +Burials at Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg +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 Scotland from 1107 to his death. 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: + +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 +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. + +References + +Sources + +Further reading + + Alexander I at the official website of the British monarchy + +1070s births +1124 deaths +House of Dunkeld +12th-century Scottish monarchs +People from Dunfermline +Burials at Dunfermline Abbey +11th-century Scottish people +Gaelic monarchs in Scotland +Alexander II (Medieval Gaelic: ; Modern Gaelic: ; 24 August 1198 – 6 July 1249) was King of Scotland from 1214 until his death. He concluded the Treaty of York (1237) which defined the boundary between England and Scotland, virtually unchanged today. + +Early life + +Alexander was born at Haddington, East Lothian, the only son of the Scottish king William the Lion and Ermengarde de Beaumont. He spent time in England (John of England knighted him at Clerkenwell Priory in 1213) before succeeding to the kingdom on the death of his father on 4 December 1214, being crowned at Scone on 6 December the same year. + +King of Scots + +In 1215, the year after his accession, the clans Meic Uilleim and MacHeths, inveterate enemies of the Scottish crown, broke into revolt; but loyalist forces speedily quelled the insurrection. In the same year, Alexander joined the English barons in their struggle against King John of England, and led an army into the Kingdom of England in support of their cause. This action led to the sacking of Berwick-upon-Tweed as John's forces ravaged the north. + +The Scottish forces reached the south coast of England at the port of Dover where in September 1216, Alexander paid homage to the pretender Louis VIII of France for his lands in England, chosen by the barons to replace John. But since John died, the papacy and the English aristocracy changed their allegiance to his nine-year-old son, Henry III, forcing the French and the Scots armies to return home. Peace between Henry, Louis and Alexander followed on 12 September 1217 with the Treaty of Kingston. Diplomacy further strengthened the reconciliation by the marriage of Alexander to Henry's sister Joan on 18 June or 25 June 1221. + +In 1222 Jon Haraldsson, the last native Scandinavian to be Jarl of Orkney, was indirectly implicated in the burning of Adam of Melrose at his hall at Halkirk by local farmers when this part of Caithness was still part of the Kingdom of Norway. A contemporary chronicler, Boethius the Dane blamed Haraldsson for the bishop's death. After the jarl swore oaths to his own innocence, Alexander took the opportunity to assert his claims to the mainland part of the Orkney jarldom. He visited Caithness in person, and hanged the majority of the farmers, while mutilating the rest. His actions were applauded by Pope Honorius III, and a quarter of a century later, he was continuing to receive commendation from the Catholic Church, as in the reward of a bull from Pope Celestine IV. + +During the same period, Alexander subjugated the hitherto semi-independent district of Argyll (much smaller than the modern area by that name, it only comprised Craignish, Ardscotnish, Glassary, Glenary and Cowal; Lorn was a separate province, while Kintyre and Knapdale were part of Suðreyar). Royal forces crushed a revolt in Galloway in 1235 without difficulty; nor did an invasion attempted soon afterwards by its exiled leaders meet with success. Soon afterwards, a claim for homage from Henry of England drew forth from Alexander a counter-claim to the northern English counties. The two kingdoms, however, settled this dispute by a compromise in 1237. This was the Treaty of York, which defined the boundary between the two kingdoms as running between the Solway Firth (in the west) and the mouth of the River Tweed (in the east). + +Alexander's first wife, Joan, died in March 1238 in Essex. Alexander married his second wife, Marie de Coucy, the following year on 15 May 1239. Together they had one son, Alexander III, born in 1241. + +A threat of invasion by Henry in 1243 for a time interrupted the friendly relations between the two countries; but the prompt action of Alexander in anticipating his attack, and the disinclination of the English barons for war, compelled him to make peace the next year at Newcastle. + +Alexander now turned his attention to securing the Western Isles, which were still part of the Norwegian domain of Suðreyjar. He repeatedly attempted negotiations and purchase, but without success. Alexander set out to conquer these islands but died on the way in 1249. This dispute over the Western Isles, also known as the Hebrides, was not resolved until 1266 when Magnus VI of Norway ceded them to Scotland along with the Isle of Man. + +The English chronicler Matthew Paris in his Chronica Majora described Alexander as red-haired: +[King John] taunted King Alexander, and because he was red-headed, sent word to him, saying, 'so shall we hunt the red fox-cub from his lairs. + +Death + +Alexander attempted to persuade Ewen, the son of Duncan, Lord of Argyll (and King of the Isles), to sever his allegiance to Haakon IV of Norway. When Ewen rejected these attempts, Alexander sailed forth to compel him, but on the way he suffered a fever at the Isle of Kerrera in the Inner Hebrides. He died there in 1249 and was buried at Melrose Abbey. + +The Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar records additional information, in that before attempting to invade the Isles, where Ewen held power, he was supposedly warned in a dream by St. Columba, St. Olaf and St. Magnus to desist. King Ewen of the Isles' status as Monarch had been confirmed by Haakon IV and was disputed by Alexander. The episode might be emblematic of a broader desire on the part of Alexander to bring the Kingdom of the Isles fully into the power of the Scottish Crown. In any case, when he finally decided to continue in his endeavour, despite the dream, and having been advised against it by his men, he died shortly afterwards. The incident was portrayed in the saga as divine punishment. His body was then transported back to the mainland. + +He was succeeded by his son, the seven-year-old Alexander III of Scotland. + +Family +Alexander II had two wives: + +1. Joan of England (22 July 12104 March 1238), who was the eldest legitimate daughter and third child of John of England and Isabella of Angoulême. She and Alexander II married on 21 June 1221, at York Minster. Alexander was 23; Joan was 11. They had no children. Joan died in Essex in 1238, and was buried at Tarant Crawford Abbey in Dorset. + +2. Marie de Coucy, who became mother of Alexander III of Scotland. + +He also had an illegitimate daughter, Marjorie, who married Alan Durward. + +Fictional portrayals + +Alexander II has been depicted in historical novels: + + Sword of State (1999) by Nigel Tranter. The novel depicts the friendship between Alexander II and Patrick II, Earl of Dunbar. "Their friendship withstands treachery, danger and rivalry". + Child of the Phoenix (1992) by Barbara Erskine. + The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. Day the Second: Third Story. + +References + +Sources + +Further reading + + Alexander II at the official website of the British monarchy + + + Worcester Annals + Rotuli Litterarum Patencium + + + + + + +Scottish Roman Catholics +House of Dunkeld +1198 births +1249 deaths +People from Haddington, East Lothian +13th-century Scottish monarchs +12th-century Scottish people +Burials at Melrose Abbey +Gaelic monarchs in Scotland +Alexander I (; 14 August 187611 June 1903) reigned as the king of Serbia from 1889 to 1903 when he and his wife, Draga Mašin, were assassinated by a group of Royal Serbian Army officers, led by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević. + +Accession +Alexander was born on 14 August 1876 to King Milan and Queen Natalie of Serbia. He belonged to the Obrenović dynasty. + +In 1889, King Milan unexpectedly abdicated and withdrew to private life, proclaiming Alexander king of Serbia. Since the king was only thirteen, three regents were appointed, head among them Jovan Ristich. His mother also became his regent. + +Alexander ordered the arrest of the regents on April 13, 1893, proclaiming himself of age and dissolving national assembly. On May 21, he abolished his father's liberal constitution of 1889 and restored the previous one. In 1894, the young King brought his father, Milan, back to Serbia and, in 1898, appointed him commander-in-chief of the army. During that time, Milan was regarded as the de facto ruler of the country. In 1898 penalties were brought down upon the Radical and the Russophil parties, which the court sought to tie to an attempted assassination of the former King Milan. + +Alexander's attitude during the Greco-Turkish War (1897) was one of strict neutrality. + +Marriage + +In the summer of 1900, King Alexander suddenly announced his engagement to Draga Mašin, a disreputable widow of an obscure engineer. Alexander had met Draga in 1897 when she was serving as a maid of honor to his mother. Draga was nine years older than the king, unpopular with Belgrade society, well known for her allegedly numerous sexual liaisons, and widely believed to be infertile. Since Alexander was an only child, it was imperative to secure the succession by producing an heir. So intense was the opposition to Mašin among the political classes that the king found it impossible for a time to recruit suitable candidates for senior posts. + +Before making the announcement of his engagement, Alexander did not consult with his father, who had been on vacation in Karlsbad and making arrangements to secure the hand of German Princess Alexandra Karoline zu Schaumburg-Lippe, sister of the Queen of Württemberg, for his son, or his Prime Minister Dr. Vladan Đorđević, who was visiting the Universal Exhibition in Paris at the time of the announcement. Both immediately resigned, and Alexander had difficulty in forming a new cabinet. Alexander's mother also opposed the marriage and was subsequently banished from the kingdom. + +Opposition to the union seemed to subside somewhat for a time upon the publication of congratulations of Nicholas II of Russia to the king on his engagement and of his agreement to act as the principal witness at the wedding. The marriage duly took place in August 1900. Even so, the unpopularity of the union weakened the king's position in the eyes of the army and the country at large. + +Politics and the constitution + +King Alexander tried to reconcile political parties by unveiling a liberal constitution of his own initiative in 1901, introducing for the first time in the constitutional history of Serbia the system of two chambers (skupština and senate). This reconciled the political parties, but did not placate the army which, already dissatisfied with the king's marriage, became still more so at the rumors that one of the two unpopular brothers of Queen Draga, Lieutenant Nikodije, was to be proclaimed heir presumptive to the throne. + +Alexander's good relations and the country's growing dependence on Austria-Hungary were detested by the Serbian public. Two million Serbs lived in Austria-Hungary, with another million in the Ottoman Empire, although many migrated to Serbia. + +Meanwhile, the independence of the senate and of the council of state caused increasing irritation to King Alexander. In March 1903, the king suspended the constitution for half an hour, time enough to publish decrees dismissing and replacing the old senators and councillors of state. This arbitrary act increased dissatisfaction in the country. + +Attempting to appease the opposition, King Alexander granted an amnesty to the persecuted Radicals, and in 1901 issued a moderately liberal constitution. A Council of State and a second chamber to parliament were instituted. + +In 1902 Alexander's rival Peter Кarađorđević was proclaimed king by followers at Šabac, and Alexander responded by organizing a military cabinet and suspending the constitution. Radicals began to plot the King's assassination. + +Assassination + +The general impression was that, as much as the senate was packed with men devoted to the royal couple and the government obtained a large majority at the general elections, King Alexander would not hesitate any longer to proclaim Queen Draga's brother as the heir presumptive to the throne. In spite of this, it had been agreed with the Serbian government that Prince Mirko of Montenegro, who was married to Natalija Konstantinović, the granddaughter of Princess Anka Obrenović, an aunt of King Milan, would be proclaimed heir presumptive in the event that the marriage of King Alexander and Queen Draga was childless. + +Apparently to prevent Queen Draga's brother being named heir presumptive, but in reality, to replace Alexander Obrenović with Peter Karađorđević, a conspiracy was organized by a group of Army officers headed by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević, also known as "Apis", and Novak Perišić, a young Serbian Orthodox militant who was in the pay of the Russian Empire, as well as the leader of the Black Hand secret society which would assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Several politicians were also members of the conspiracy and allegedly included former Prime Minister Nikola Pašić. The royal couple's palace was invaded and they hid in a wardrobe in the queen's bedroom. (There is another possibility, used in a Serbian TV history series The End of the Obrenović Dynasty in which the royal couple was in a secret safe room hidden behind the mirror in a common bedroom. The room contained an entrance to a secret passage leading out of the palace, but the entrance was inaccessible due to the placement of the queen's wardrobe over it after the wedding.) + +The conspirators searched the palace and eventually discovered the royal couple and murdered them in the early morning of June 11, 1903. They were shot and their bodies mutilated and disembowelled, after which, according to eyewitness accounts, they were thrown from a second-floor window of the palace onto piles of garden manure. The king was only 26 years old. King Alexander and Queen Draga were buried in the crypt of St. Mark's Church, Belgrade. + +Honours + : + Founder of the Order of St. Prince Lazar, 28 June 1889 + Founder of the Order of Miloš the Great, 1898 + : Grand Cross of the Order of St. Stephen, 1891 + : + Knight of the House Order of Fidelity, 1894 + Knight of the Order of Berthold the First, 1894 + : Knight of the Order of the Annunciation, 25 November 1896 + : Grand Cross of the Sash of the Three Orders, 5 August 1893 + : Knight of the Order of St. Andrew + : Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III, with Collar, 24 September 1897 + +Notes + +References + + + + + + +1876 births +1903 deaths +Kings of Serbia +People from Belgrade +19th-century Serbian monarchs +20th-century Serbian monarchs +Obrenović dynasty +Murdered Serbian monarchs +Assassinated Serbian people +Executed Serbian people +Eastern Orthodox Christians from Serbia +Eastern Orthodox monarchs +Male murder victims +Modern child monarchs +Recipients of the Order of St. Sava +Grand Crosses of the Order of St. Sava +Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary +3 +3 +3 +People murdered in Serbia +Burials at St. Mark's Church, Belgrade +20th-century murdered monarchs +1903 murders in Europe +Assassinated heads of state in Europe +Alexander III (Medieval ; Modern Gaelic: ; 4 September 1241 – 19 March 1286) was King of Scots from 1249 until his death. He concluded the Treaty of Perth, by which Scotland acquired sovereignty over the Western Isles and the Isle of Man. His heir, Margaret, Maid of Norway, died before she could be crowned. + +Life +Alexander was born at Roxburgh, the only son of Alexander II by his second wife Marie de Coucy. Alexander's father died on 6 July 1249 and he became king at the age of seven, inaugurated at Scone on 13 July 1249. + +The years of his minority featured an embittered struggle for the control of affairs between two rival parties, the one led by Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, the other by Alan Durward, Justiciar of Scotia. The former dominated the early years of Alexander's reign. At the marriage of Alexander to Margaret of England in 1251, Henry III of England seized the opportunity to demand homage from his son-in-law for the Scottish kingdom, but Alexander did not comply. In 1255, an interview between the English and Scottish kings at Kelso led to Menteith and his party losing to Durward's party. But though disgraced, they still retained great influence, and two years later, seizing the person of the king, they compelled their rivals to consent to the erection of a regency representative of both parties. + +On attaining his majority at the age of 21 in 1262, Alexander declared his intention of resuming the projects on the Western Isles which the death of his father thirteen years before had cut short. He laid a formal claim before King Haakon IV of Norway. Haakon rejected the claim, and in the following year responded with a formidable invasion. Sailing around the west coast of Scotland he halted off the Isle of Arran, and negotiations commenced. Alexander artfully prolonged the talks until the autumn storms should begin. At length Haakon, weary of delay, attacked, only to encounter a terrific storm which greatly damaged his ships. The Battle of Largs (October 1263) proved indecisive, but even so, Haakon's position was hopeless. Baffled, he turned homewards, but died in Orkney on 15 December 1263. The Isles now lay at Alexander's feet, and in 1266 Haakon's successor concluded the Treaty of Perth by which he ceded the Isle of Man and the Western Isles to Scotland in return for a monetary payment. Norway retained Orkney and Shetland until 1469 when they became a dowry for James III's bride, Margaret of Denmark. + +Death of Alexander III + +Alexander had married Margaret, daughter of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence, on 26 December 1251, when he was ten years old and she was eleven. She died in 1275, after they had had three children. + Margaret (28 February 1261 – 9 April 1283), who married King Eric II of Norway + Alexander, Prince of Scotland (21 January 1264 Jedburgh – 28 January 1284 Lindores Abbey); buried in Dunfermline Abbey + David (20 March 1272 – June 1281 Stirling Castle); buried in Dunfermline Abbey + +According to the Lanercost Chronicle, Alexander did not spend his decade as a widower alone: "he used never to forbear on account of season nor storm, nor for perils of flood or rocky cliffs, but would visit none too creditably nuns or matrons, virgins or widows as the fancy seized him, sometimes in disguise." + +Towards the end of Alexander's reign, the death of all three of his children within a few years made the question of the succession one of pressing importance. In 1284 he induced the Estates to recognize as his heir-presumptive his granddaughter Margaret, the "Maid of Norway". The need for a male heir led him to contract a second marriage to Yolande de Dreux on 1 November 1285. + +Alexander died in a fall from his horse while riding in the dark to visit the queen at Kinghorn in Fife on 19 March 1286 because it was her birthday the next day. He had spent the evening at Edinburgh Castle celebrating his second marriage and overseeing a meeting with royal advisors. He was cautioned against making the journey to Fife because of weather conditions, but crossed the Forth from Dalmeny to Inverkeithing anyway. On arriving in Inverkeithing, he insisted on not stopping for the night, despite the pleas of the nobles accompanying him and one of the burgesses of the town, Alexander Le Saucier. Le Saucier (who was either linked to the King's kitchen or the master of the local saltpans) must have been known to the King, since his rather blunt warning to the King lacks the usual deference: "My lord, what are you doing out in such weather and darkness? How many times have I tried to persuade you that midnight travelling will do you no good?" + +However, Alexander ignored the repeated warnings about travelling in a storm, and set off with his retinue and two local guides. The king became separated from his party near Kinghorn, and was found dead with a broken neck near the shore the following morning. It is assumed that his horse lost its footing in the dark. While some texts say that he fell off a cliff, there is none at the site where his body was found; however, there is a very steep rocky embankment, which "would have been fatal in the dark." After Alexander's death, his realm was plunged into a period of darkness that would eventually lead to war with England. He was buried in Dunfermline Abbey. + +As Alexander left no surviving children, the heir to the throne was his unborn child by Queen Yolande. When Yolande's pregnancy ended, probably with a miscarriage, Alexander's three-year-old granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway, became the heir. Margaret died, still uncrowned, on her way to Scotland in 1290. The inauguration of John Balliol as king on 30 November 1292 ended the six years of the Guardians of Scotland governing the land. + +The death of Alexander and the subsequent period of instability in Scotland was lamented in an early Scots poem recorded by Andrew of Wyntoun in his Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland. + +In 1886, a monument to Alexander III was erected at the approximate location of his death in Kinghorn. + +Fictional portrayals + +Alexander III has been depicted in historical novels. They include: + +The Thirsty Sword (1892) by Robert Leighton. The novel depicts the "Norse invasion of Scotland" (1262–1263, part of the Scottish–Norwegian War) and the Battle of Largs. It includes depictions of Alexander III and his opponent Haakon IV of Norway. +Alexander the Glorious (1965) by Jane Oliver. The novel covers the entire reign of Alexander III (1249–1286), "almost entirely from Alexander's viewpoint". +The Crown in Darkness (1988) by Paul C. Doherty. A crime fiction novel where Hugh Corbett investigates the "mysterious death" of Alexander III (1286). Alexander supposedly suffered a fatal fall from his horse. But there are suspicions of murder. The novel concludes that Alexander was indeed murdered "by a fanatical servant" of Edward I of England. The killer acting according to "Edward's secret desire to overwhelm and control Scotland". Doherty suggests that the personal relations of the two kings were strained by constant arguments, though this is not confirmed by historical sources. +Quest For A Maid (1988) by Frances Mary Hendry. The novel depicts the life of Meg, her power-hungry older sister Inge, Lady Marjorie, Countess of Carrick and their part in securing the succession of Lady Marjorie's son Robert the Bruce to the Scottish throne. It includes depictions of Alexander III's death as "falling off a cliff" with sorcery as the cause. +Insurrection (2010) by Robyn Young. This novel is the first of a series of novels primarily about the life and times of Robert the Bruce. However, it covers Alexander III and the circumstances surrounding his death in some detail. +Raphael Holinshed, in his oft-fanciful history of England in his Chronicles, stated that at Alexander III's wedding, a horrible monster, mostly skeleton but with raw flesh, appeared at the end of the procession and caused the wedding to be hurriedly concluded. This was, in tradition, an omen of death. +Crusader (1991) by Nigel Tranter. This novel follows the minority of Alexander III and his relationship with David de Lindsay. Tranter, who has written scores of historical novels spanning the range of Scotland's history, also wrote "Envoy Extraordinary" (1999) (about Patrick Earl of Dunbar) and "True Thomas" (1981) (about Thomas the Rhymer), both of which take place during the reign of Alexander III, and in which Alexander is a featured character. + +Ancestry + +Notes + +Sources +Anderson, Alan Orr (ed.), Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922), republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) (Stamford, 1991) +idem (ed.), Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500–1286, (London, 1908), republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) (Stamford, 1969) +. + + + + + +. + + +Scott, Robert McNair. Robert the Bruce: King of Scots, 1869 + +Further reading + + Alexander III at the official website of the British monarchy + Alexander III at BBC History + +|- + +1241 births +1286 deaths +House of Dunkeld +Nobility from the Scottish Borders +Deaths by horse-riding accident in Scotland +Medieval child monarchs +13th-century Scottish monarchs +Burials at Dunfermline Abbey +Scottish people of the Wars of Scottish Independence +Gaelic monarchs in Scotland +Scottish Roman Catholics +Alexander of Greece (1893–1920) was king of Greece from 1917 until his death. + +Alexander of Greece may also refer to: + Alexander of Greece (rhetorician) () + Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), ancient Greek king and general + +See also + Alexander § People with the given name Alexander +Alexander of Aphrodisias (; 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" (). + +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. + +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 (), 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 () or predetermined by antecedents (). 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" (). 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. + +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. + +See also +Alexander's band - an optical phenomenon associated with rainbows +Free will in antiquity + +Notes + +Bibliography + +Translations + M. Bergeron, Dufour (trans., comm.), 2009. De l’Âme. Textes & Commentaires. . Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 2008. 416 p. + R. W. Sharples, 1990, Alexander of Aphrodisias: Ethical Problems. Duckworth. + W. E. Dooley, 1989, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Metaphysics 1. Duckworth. + W. E. Dooley, A. Madigan, 1992, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Metaphysics 2-3. Duckworth. + A. Madigan, 1993, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Metaphysics 4. Duckworth. + W. Dooley, 1993, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Metaphysics 5. Duckworth. + E. Lewis, 1996, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Meteorology 4. Duckworth. + E. Gannagé, 2005, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle On Coming-to-Be and Perishing 2.2-5. Duckworth. + A. Towey, 2000, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle On Sense Perception. Duckworth. + V. Caston, 2011, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle On the Soul. Duckworth. + J. Barnes, S. Bobzien, K. Flannery, K. Ierodiakonou, 1991, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics 1.1-7. Duckworth. + I. Mueller, J. Gould, 1999, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics 1.8-13. Duckworth. + I. Mueller, J. Gould, 1999, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics 1.14-22. Duckworth. + I. Mueller, 2006, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics 1.23-31. Duckworth. + I. Mueller, 2006, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics 1.32-46. Duckworth. + J. M. Van Ophuijsen, 2000, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Topics 1. Duckworth. + R. W. Sharples, 1983, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Fate. Duckworth. + R. W. Sharples, 1992, Alexander of Aphrodisias: Quaestiones 1.1-2.15. Duckworth. + R. W. Sharples, 1994, Alexander of Aphrodisias: Quaestiones 2.16-3.15. Duckworth. + R. W. Sharples, 2004, Alexander of Aphrodisias: Supplement to On the Soul. Duckworth. + Charles Genequand, 2001, Alexander of Aphrodisias: On the Cosmos. Brill. + +Studies + Fazzo, Silvia. Aporia e sistema. La materia, la forma e il divino nelle Quaestiones di Alessandro di Afrodisia, Pisa: ETS, 2002. + Flannery, Kevin L. Ways into the Logic of Alexander of Aphrodisias, Leiden: Brill, 1995. + Gili, Luca. La sillogistica di Alessandro di Afrodisia. Sillogistica categorica e sillogistica modale nel commento agli "Analitici Primi" di Aristotele, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2011. + + Moraux, Paul. Der Aristotelismus bei den Griechen, Von Andronikos bis Alexander von Aphrodisias, III: Alexander von Aphrodisias, Berlin: Walter Gruyter, 2001. + Rescher, Nicholas & Marmura, Michael E., The Refutation by Alexander of Aphrodisias of Galen's Treatise on the Theory of Motion, Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1965. + Todd, Robert B., 'Alexander of Aphrodisias on Stoic Physics. A Study of the "De Mixtione" with Preliminary Essays, Text, Translation and Commentary, Leiden: Brill, 1976. + +External links + + Alexander on Information Philosopher + Online Greek texts: + Scripta minora'', ed. Bruns + Aristotelian commentaries: Metaphysics, Prior Analytics I, Topics, De sensu and Meteorology, In Aristotelis Metaphysica commentaria , Miscellanea + +2nd-century Greek philosophers +Commentators on Aristotle +Roman-era Peripatetic philosophers +Roman-era philosophers in Athens +Roman-era students in Athens +People from Aphrodisias +Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (1 October 208 – 21/22 March 235), also known as Alexander Severus, was a Roman emperor, who reigned from 222 until 235. He was the last emperor from the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his slain cousin Elagabalus in 222. Alexander himself was eventually assassinated, and his death marked the beginning of the events of the Crisis of the Third Century, which included nearly fifty years of civil war, foreign invasion, and the collapse of the monetary economy. + +Alexander was the heir to his cousin, the 18-year-old Emperor Elagabalus. The latter had been murdered along with his mother Julia Soaemias by his own guards, who, as a mark of contempt, had their remains cast into the Tiber river. Alexander and his cousin were both grandsons of Julia Maesa, who was the sister of empress Julia Domna and had arranged for Elagabalus's acclamation as emperor by the Third Gallic Legion. + +Alexander's 13-year reign was the longest reign of a sole emperor since Antoninus Pius. He was also the youngest sole legal Roman emperor during the existence of the united empire. Alexander's peacetime reign was prosperous. However, Rome was militarily confronted with the rising Sassanid Empire and growing incursions from the tribes of Germania. He managed to check the threat of the Sassanids. But when campaigning against Germanic tribes, Alexander attempted to bring peace by engaging in diplomacy and bribery. This alienated many in the Roman army, leading to a conspiracy that resulted in the assassination of Alexander, his mother Julia Avita Mamaea, and his advisors. After their deaths, the accession of Maximinus Thrax followed. Alexander's death marked the epoch event for the Crisis of the Third Century. + +Early life + +The future emperor Severus Alexander was born on 1 October 208 in Arca Caesarea, Phoenicia. Of his birth name, only two cognomina are known, from literary sources: Bassianus () according to the historian Cassius Dio, and Alexianus () according to Herodian. "Bassianus" was also borne by several family members, while "Alexianus" was probably later converted to Alexander. + +The historian Cassius Dio thought Alexianus was the son of Marcus Julius Gessius Marcianus, but Icks disputes this, saying the latter could not have married the emperor's mother before 212 and that Alexianus must have been fathered by his mother's first husband, who is of unknown name but of certain existence. The priest Marcus Julius Gessius Bassianus may have been his younger brother. + +Emperor + +Early reign + +Severus Alexander became emperor when he was around 14 years old, making him the youngest emperor in Rome's history. Alexander's grandmother Maesa believed that he had more potential to rule and gain support from the Praetorian Guard than her other grandson, the increasingly unpopular emperor Elagabalus. Thus, to preserve her own position, she had Elagabalus adopt the young Alexander and then arranged for Elagabalus' assassination, securing the throne for Alexander. The Roman army hailed Alexander as emperor on 13 March 222, immediately conferring on him the titles of Pater Patriae and Pontifex maximus on the following day. + +Throughout his life, Alexander relied heavily on guidance from his grandmother, Maesa, before her death in 224, and mother, Julia Mamaea. As a young, immature, and inexperienced adolescent, Alexander knew little about government, warcraft, or the role of ruling over an empire. In time, however, the army came to admire what Jasper Burns refers to as "his simple virtues and moderate behavior, so different from [Elagabalus]". + +Domestic achievements +Under the influence of his mother, Alexander did much to improve the morals and condition of the people, and to enhance the dignity of the state. He employed noted jurists, such as Ulpian, to oversee the administration of justice. His advisers were men like the senator and historian Cassius Dio, and historical sources claimed that with the help of his family, he created a select board of 16 senators, although this claim is sometimes disputed. Some scholars have rejected Herodian's view that Alexander expanded senatorial powers. He also created a municipal council of 14 who assisted the urban prefect in administering the affairs of the 14 districts of Rome. Excessive luxury and extravagance at the imperial court were diminished, and he restored the Baths of Nero in 227 or 229; consequently, they are sometimes also known as the Baths of Alexander after him. He extended the imperial residence at the Horti Lamiani with elaborate buildings and created the Nymphaeum of Alexander (known as the Trophies of Marius), which still stands in the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. This was the great fountain he built at the end of the Aqua Claudia aqueduct. + +Upon his accession he reduced the silver purity of the denarius from 46.5% to 43%the actual silver weight dropped from 1.41 grams to 1.30 grams; however, in 229 he revalued the denarius, increasing the silver purity and weight to 45% and 1.46 grams. The following year he decreased the amount of base metal in the denarius while adding more silver, raising the silver purity and weight again to 50.5% and 1.50 grams. Additionally, during his reign taxes were lightened; literature, art and science were encouraged; and, for the convenience of the people, loan offices were instituted for lending money at a moderate rate of interest. + +In religious matters, Alexander preserved an open mind. According to the Historia Augusta, he wished to erect a temple to Jesus but was dissuaded by the pagan priests; however, this claim is unreliable as the Historia Augusta is considered untrustworthy by historians, containing significant amounts of information that is false and even invented, extending to when it was written and the number of authors it was written by. He allowed a synagogue to be built in Rome, and he gave as a gift to this synagogue a scroll of the Torah known as the Severus Scroll. + +In legal matters, Alexander did much to aid the rights of his soldiers. He confirmed that soldiers could name anyone as heirs in their will, whereas civilians had strict restrictions over who could become heirs or receive a legacy. He also confirmed that soldiers could free their slaves in their wills, protected the rights of soldiers to their property when they were on campaign, and reasserted that a soldier's property acquired in or because of military service (his castrense peculium) could be claimed by no one else, not even the soldier's father. + +Persian War +On the whole, Alexander's reign was prosperous until the rise of the Sassanids under Ardashir I. In 231 AD, Ardashir invaded the Roman provinces of the east, overrunning Mesopotamia and penetrating possibly as far as Syria and Cappadocia, forcing from the young Alexander a vigorous response. Of the war that followed there are various accounts. According to the most detailed authority, Herodian, the Roman armies suffered a number of humiliating setbacks and defeats, while according to the Historia Augusta as well as Alexander's own dispatch to the Roman Senate, he gained great victories. Making Antioch his base, he organized in 233 a three-fold invasion of the Sassanian Empire; at the head of the main body he himself advanced to recapture northern Mesopotamia, while another army invaded Media through the mountains of Armenia, and a third advanced from the south in the direction of Babylon. The northernmost army gained some success, fighting in mountainous territory favorable to the Roman infantry, but the southern army was surrounded and destroyed by Ardashir's skilful horse-archers, and Alexander himself retreated after an indecisive campaign, his army wracked by indiscipline and disease. Further losses were incurred by the retreating northern army in the inclement cold of Armenia as it retired into winter quarters, due to a failure through incompetence to establish adequate supply lines. Still, Mesopotamia was retaken, and Ardashir was not thereafter able to extend his conquests, though his son, Shapur, would obtain some success later in the century. + +Although the Sassanids were checked for the time, the conduct of the Roman army showed an extraordinary lack of discipline. In 232, there was a mutiny in the Syrian legion, which proclaimed Taurinus emperor. Alexander managed to suppress the uprising, and Taurinus drowned while attempting to flee across the Euphrates. The emperor returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph in 233. + +Military discipline + +Alexander's reign was also characterized by a significant breakdown of military discipline. In 228, the Praetorian Guard murdered their prefect, Ulpian, in Alexander's presence. Alexander could not openly punish the ringleader of the riot, and instead removed him to a nominal post of honor in Egypt and then Crete, where he was "quietly put out of the way" sometime after the excitement had abated. The soldiers then fought a three-day battle against the populace of Rome, and this battle ended after several parts of the city were set on fire. + +Dio was among those who gave a highly critical account of military discipline during the time, saying that the soldiers would rather just surrender to the enemy. Different reasons are given for this issue; Campbell points to ...the decline in the prestige of the Severan dynasty, the feeble nature of Alexander himself, who appeared to be no soldier and to be completely dominated by his mother's advice, and lack of real military success at a time during which the empire was coming under increasing pressure. +Herodian, on the other hand, was convinced that "the emperor's miserliness (partly the result of his mother's greed) and slowness to bestow donatives" were instrumental in the fall of military discipline under Alexander. + +Germanic War + +After the Persian war, Alexander returned to Antioch with Origen, one of the Fathers of the Christian Church. Alexander's mother, Julia Mamaea, asked for Origen to tutor Alexander in Christianity. + +While Alexander was being educated in the Christian doctrines, the northern portion of his empire was being invaded by Germanic and Sarmatian tribes. A new and menacing enemy started to emerge directly after Alexander's success in the Persian war. In 234, the barbarians crossed the Rhine and Danube in hordes that caused alarm as far as Rome. The soldiers serving under Alexander, already demoralized after their costly war against the Persians, were further discontented with their emperor when their homes were destroyed by the barbarian invaders. + +As word of the invasion spread, the emperor took the front line and went to battle against the Germanic invaders. The Romans prepared heavily for the war, building a fleet to carry the entire army across. However, at this point in Alexander's career, he still knew little about being a general. Because of this, he hoped the mere threat of his armies would be sufficient to persuade the hostile tribes to surrender. Severus enforced a strict military discipline in his men that sparked a rebellion among his legions. Due to incurring heavy losses against the Persians, and on the advice of his mother, Alexander attempted to buy the Germanic tribes off, so as to gain time. + +It was this decision that resulted in the legionaries looking down upon Alexander. They considered him dishonorable and feared he was unfit to be Emperor. Under these circumstances the army swiftly looked to replace Alexander. + +Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus was the next best option. He was a soldier from Thrace who had a golden reputation and was working hard to increase his military status. He was also a man with superior personal strength, who rose to his present position from a peasant background. With the Thracian's hailing came the end of the Severan Dynasty, and, with the growing animosity of Severus' army towards him, the path for his assassination was paved. + +Assassination + +Alexander was forced to face his German enemies in the early months of 235. By the time he and his mother arrived, the situation had settled, and so his mother convinced him that to avoid violence, trying to bribe the German army to surrender was the more sensible course of action. According to historians, it was this tactic combined with insubordination from his own men that destroyed his reputation and popularity. Alexander was thus assassinated together with his mother on 21 or 22 March, in a mutiny of the Legio XXII Primigenia at Moguntiacum (Mainz) while at a meeting with his generals. These assassinations secured the throne for Maximinus. + +The Historia Augusta documents two theories that elaborate on Severus's assassination. The first claims that the disaffection of Mamaea was the main motive behind the homicide. However, Lampridius makes it clear that he is more supportive of an alternative theory, that Alexander was murdered in Sicilia (located in Britain). + +This theory has it that, in an open tent after his lunch, Alexander was consulting with his insubordinate troops, who compared him to his cousin Elagabalus, the divisive and unpopular Emperor whose own assassination paved the way for Alexander's reign. A German servant entered the tent and initiated the call for Alexander's assassination, at which point many of the troops joined in the attack. Alexander's attendants fought against the other troops but could not hold off the combined might of those seeking the Emperor's assassination. Within minutes, Alexander was dead. His mother, Julia Mamaea, was in the same tent with Alexander and soon fell victim to the same group of assassins. + +Alexander's body was buried together with the body of his mother, Julia Mamaea, in a mausoleum in Rome. The actual mausoleum, called , is the third largest in Rome after those of Hadrian and Augustus. It is still visible in Piazza dei Tribuni, in the Quadraro area in Rome, where it resembles a large earth mound. The large sarcophagus found inside the tomb in the 16th century, and which contained the emperor's remains, is in the Palazzo dei Conservatori Museum in Rome. According to some sources inside the same sarcophagus in 1582 a precious glass urn was found, the Portland Vase, currently on display at the British Museum in London. + +Legacy + +Alexander's death marked the end of the Severan dynasty. He was the last of the Syrian emperors and the first emperor to be overthrown by military discontent on a wide scale. After his death his economic policies were completely discarded, and the Roman currency was devalued; this signaled the beginning of the chaotic period known as the Crisis of the Third Century, which brought the empire to the brink of collapse. + +Alexander's death at the hands of his troops can also be seen as the heralding of a new role for Roman emperors. Though they were not yet expected to personally fight in battle during Alexander's time, emperors were increasingly expected to display general competence in military affairs. Thus, Alexander's taking of his mother's advice to not get involved in battle, his dishonorable and unsoldierly methods of dealing with the Germanic threat, and the relative failure of his military campaign against the Persians were all deemed highly unacceptable by the soldiers. Indeed, Maximinus was able to overthrow Alexander by "harping on his own military excellence in contrast to that feeble coward". Yet by arrogating the power to dethrone their emperor, the legions paved the way for a half-century of widespread chaos and instability. + +Alexander was deified after the death of Maximinus in 238. + +Portland Vase +Perhaps his most tangible legacy was the emergence in the 16th century of the cameo glass Portland Vase (or "Barberini Vase"), dated to around the reign of Augustus. This was allegedly found at the mausoleum of the emperor and his family at Monte Del Grano. The discovery of the vase is described by Pietro Santi Bartoli. Pietro Bartoli indicates that the vase contained the ashes of Severus Alexander. However, this together with the interpretations of the scenes depicted are the source of countless theories and disputed 'facts'. The vase passed through the hands of Sir William Hamilton Ambassador to the Royal Court in Naples, and in 1784 was sold to the Duchess of Portland, and has subsequently been known as the Portland Vase. After an attack by a disturbed man in the British Museum in 1845 smashed it into many fragments, the vase has been reconstructed three times. In 1786 the Portland vase had been borrowed from the 3rd Duke of Portland and copied in black Jasperware pottery by Josiah Wedgwood for his firm Wedgwood. He appears to have added some drapery to cover nudity, but his replicas were useful in the reconstructions. + +Personal life + +Family + +Alexander's only known wife was Sallustia Orbiana, Augusta, whom he married in 225 when she was 16 years old. Their marriage was arranged by Alexander's mother, Mamaea. According to historian Herodian, however, as soon as Orbiana received the title of Augusta, Mamaea became increasingly jealous and resentful of Alexander's wife due to Mamaea's excessive desire of all regal female titles. Alexander divorced and exiled Orbiana in 227, after her father, Seius Sallustius, was executed after being accused of treason. + +According to Historia Augusta, a late Roman work containing biographies of emperors and others, and considered by scholars to be a work of dubious historical reliability, Alexander was also at some point married to Sulpicia Memmia, a member of one of the most ancient Patrician families in Rome and a daughter to a man of consular rank; her grandfather's name was Catulus. She is mentioned as his wife only in this later text, thus the marriage has been questioned. + +The ancient historian Zosimus claimed that Alexander was married three times. A man named Varius Macrinus may have been Alexander's father-in-law, but it is uncertain if he was the same man as Seius Sallustius, the father of Memmia or the father of an entirely unknown third wife. + +Alexander is not known to have fathered any children. + +Also, according to the Historia Augusta, Alexander's "chief amusement consisted in having young dogs play with little pigs." Herodian portrays him as a mother's boy. + +Christianity +The Historia Augusta claims that Alexander prayed every morning in his private chapel. He was extremely tolerant of Jews and Christians alike. He continued all privileges towards Jews during his reign, and the Augustan History relates that Alexander placed images of Abraham and Jesus in his oratory, along with other Roman deities and classical figures. + +Severan dynasty family tree + +See also + Severan dynasty family tree + Sassanid campaign of Severus Alexander + Mesopotamian campaigns of Ardashir I + +References + +Citations + +Bibliography + +Ancient sources + + Cassius Dio ( 230), Roman History, Book 80 + Herodian ( 240), Roman History, Book 6 + Aurelius Victor att. ( 400), Epitome de Caesaribus + Historia Augusta, Life of Severus Alexander + Zosimus ( 500), Historia Nova + Joannes Zonaras ( 1120), Compendium of History + +Modern sources + + + + + + + Although a few phrases appear to be copied from this encyclopedia, all of them are attributed here to primary sources. + +External links + + + Severus Alexander on NumisWiki + Coins of Severus Alexander + + +208 births +235 deaths +3rd-century people +3rd-century Roman emperors +3rd-century murdered monarchs +Ancient child monarchs +Ancient Roman adoptees +Aurelii +Crisis of the Third Century +Deified Roman emperors +Emesene dynasty +Imperial Roman consuls +Murdered Roman emperors +People from Homs +People of Roman Syria +Severan dynasty +Roman emperors to suffer posthumous denigration or damnatio memoriae +Roman pharaohs +Damnatio memoriae +Alexander is a male given name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. + +Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Aleksander and Aleksandr. Related names and diminutives include Iskandar, Alec, Alek, Alex, Alexandre, Aleks, Aleksa, Alasdair, Sasha, and Sander; feminine forms include Alexandra, Alexandria, and Sasha. + +Etymology +The name Alexander originates from the (; 'defending men' or 'protector of men'). It is a compound of the verb (; 'to ward off, avert, defend') and the noun (, genitive: , ; meaning 'man'). It is an example of the widespread motif of Greek names expressing "battle-prowess", in this case the ability to withstand or push back an enemy battle line. + +The earliest attested form of the name, is the Mycenaean Greek feminine anthroponym , , (/Alexandra/), written in the Linear B syllabic script. Alaksandu, alternatively called Alakasandu or Alaksandus, was a king of Wilusa who sealed a treaty with the Hittite king Muwatalli II ca. 1280 BC; this is generally assumed to have been a Greek called Alexandros. + +The name was one of the epithets given to the Greek goddess Hera and as such is usually taken to mean "one who comes to save warriors". In the Iliad, the character Paris is known also as Alexander. The name's popularity was spread throughout the Greek world by the military conquests of King Alexander III, commonly known as "Alexander the Great". Most later Alexanders in various countries were directly or indirectly named after him. + +People known as Alexander +Alexander has been the name of many rulers, including kings of Macedon, of Scotland, emperors of Russia and popes. + +Rulers of antiquity + + Alexander (Alexandros of Ilion), more often known as Paris of Troy + Alexander of Corinth, 10th king of Corinth (816–791 BC) + Alexander I of Macedon + Alexander II of Macedon + Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great + Alexander IV of Macedon + Alexander V of Macedon + Alexander of Pherae despot of Pherae between 369 and 358 BC + Alexander I of Epirus king of Epirus about 342 BC + Alexander II of Epirus king of Epirus 272 BC + Alexander of Corinth, viceroy of Antigonus Gonatas and ruler of a rump state based on Corinth c. 250 BC + Alexander (satrap) (died 220 BC), satrap of Persis under Seleucid king Antiochus III + Alexander Balas, ruler of the Seleucid kingdom of Syria between 150 and 146 BC + Alexander Zabinas, ruler of part of the Seleucid kingdom of Syria based in Antioch between 128 and 123 BC + Alexander Jannaeus king of Judea, 103–76 BC + Alexander of Judaea, son of Aristobulus II, king of Judaea + Alexander Severus (208–235), Roman emperor + Julius Alexander, lived in the 2nd century, an Emesene nobleman + Domitius Alexander, Roman usurper who declared himself emperor in 308 + +Rulers of the Middle Ages + + Alexander, Byzantine Emperor (912–913) + Alexander I of Scotland (c. 1078–1124) + Alexander II of Scotland (1198–1249) + Alexander Nevsky (1220–1263), Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Vladimir + Alexander III of Scotland (1241–1286) + Nicholas Alexander of Wallachia, Voivode of Wallachia (died 1364) + Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria, tsar of Bulgaria (beginnings of the 14th century – 1371) + Aleksandr Mikhailovich of Tver, Prince of Tver as Alexander I and Grand Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal as Alexander II (1301–1339) + Sikandar Khan Ghazi, Vizier of Sylhet (from 1303) + Aleksander (1338–before 1386), Prince of Podolia (son of Narymunt) + Sikandar Shah Miri, better known as Sikandar Butshikan ("Sikandar the Iconoclast"), sixth sultan of the Shah Miri dynasty of Kashmir (1353–1413) + Sikandar Shah, Sultan of Bengal (1358–1390) + Alexander II of Georgia (1483–1510) + Alexandru I Aldea, ruler of the principality of Wallachia (1431–1436) + Eskender, Emperor of Ethiopia (1472–1494) + Alexander Jagiellon (Alexander of Poland), King of Poland (1461–1506) + Nuruddin Sikandar Shah, Sultan of Bengal (1481) + Alexandru Lăpuşneanu, Voivode of Moldavia (1499–1568) + Sikandar Shah of Gujarat, ruler of Gujarat Sultanate (died 1526) + Sikandar Shah Suri, Sur dynasty, Shah of Delhi (died 1559) + Alexandru II Mircea, Voivode or Prince of Wallachia (1529–1577) + +Modern rulers + + Alexander I of Russia (1777–1825), emperor of Russia + Alexander II of Russia (1818–1881), emperor of Russia + Alexander III of Russia (1845–1894), emperor of Russia + Alexander Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia (1842–1858) + Alexander of Bulgaria (1857–1893), first prince of modern Bulgaria + Alexandru Ioan Cuza, first prince of unified Romania (1859–1866) + Alexander I Obrenović of Serbia (1876–1903), king of Serbia + Alexander, Prince of Lippe (1831–1905), prince of Lippe + Alexander I of Yugoslavia (1888–1934), first king of Yugoslavia + Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia (born 1945), head of the Yugoslav Royal Family + Zog I, also known as Skenderbeg III (1895–1961), king of Albanians + Alexander of Greece (1893–1920), king of Greece + Leka, Crown Prince of Albania (1939–2011), king of Albanians (throne pretender) + Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands (born 1967), eldest child of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus + +Other royalty + + Alexander, Judean Prince, one of the sons of Herod the Great from his wife Mariamne + Alexander Helios, Ptolemaic prince, one of the sons of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony + Alexander, Judean Prince, son to the above Alexander and Cappadocian princess Glaphyra + Alexander (d. 1418), son of Bulgarian tsar Ivan Shishman + Prince Alexander John of Wales (1871), short-lived son of Edward VII + Prince Alexandre of Belgium (1942–2009) + Prince Alfred of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1874–1899) + Olav V of Norway (Prince Alexander of Denmark) (1903–1991) + +Religious leaders + + Pope Alexander I (pope 97–105) + Alexander of Apamea, 5th-century bishop of Apamea + Pope Alexander II (pope 1058–1061) + Pope Alexander III (pope 1159–1181) + Pope Alexander IV (pope 1243–1254) + Pope Alexander V ("Peter Philarges" c. 1339–1410) + Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), Roman pope + Pope Alexander VII (1599–1667) + Pope Alexander VIII (pope 1689–1691) + Alexander of Constantinople, bishop of Constantinople (314–337) + St. Alexander of Alexandria, Coptic Pope, Patriarch of Alexandria between 313 and 328 + Pope Alexander II of Alexandria, Coptic Pope (702–729) + Alexander of Lincoln, bishop of Lincoln + Alexander of Jerusalem + See also Saint Alexander, various saints with this name + +Other people + +Antiquity + + Alexander (artists), the name of a number of artists of ancient Greece and Rome + Alexander of Lyncestis (died 330 BC), contemporary of Alexander the Great + Alexander (son of Polyperchon) (died 314 BC), regent of Macedonia + Alexander (Antigonid general), 3rd-century BC cavalry commander under Antigonus III Doson + Alexander of Athens, 3rd-century BC Athenian comic poet + Alexander Aetolus (), poet and member of the Alexandrian Pleiad + Alexander (son of Lysimachus) (), Macedonian royal + Alexander (grandson of Seleucus I Nicator) (), Greek Anatolian nobleman + Alexander (Aetolian general), briefly conquered Aegira in 220 BC + Alexander of Acarnania (died 191 BC), confidante of Antiochus III the Great + Alexander Isius (), Aetolian military commander + Alexander Lychnus, early 1st-century BC poet and historian + Alexander Philalethes, 1st century BC physician + Alexander Polyhistor, Greek scholar of the 1st century BC + Alexander of Myndus, ancient Greek writer on zoology and divination + Alexander of Aegae, peripatetic philosopher of the 1st century AD + Alexander of Cotiaeum, 2nd-century Greek grammarian and tutor of Marcus Aurelius + Alexander Numenius, 2nd-century Greek rhetorician + Alexander Peloplaton, 2nd-century Greek rhetorician + Alexander of Abonoteichus (), Greek religious leader and imposter + Alexander of Aphrodisias (), Greek commentator and philosopher + Alexander of Lycopolis, 4th-century author of an early Christian treatise against Manicheans + Alexander, a member of the Jerusalem Temple Sanhedrin mentioned in Acts 4:6 + +Middle Ages + Alexander of Hales, English theologian in the 13th century + +Modern + Alexander (magician) (1880–1954), American stage magician specializing in mentalism + +People with the given name +People with the given name Alexander or variants include: + + Technoblade (1999–2022), American YouTuber, real name Alexander, surname not made public + Alexander Aigner (1909–1988), Austrian mathematician + Alexander Albon (born 1996), Thai-British racing driver + Aleksander Allila (born 1890), Finnish politician + Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov (1883–1946), Russian composer + Alexander Argov (1914–1995), Russian-born Israeli composer + Alexander Armah (born 1994), American football player + Alexander Armstrong (born 1970), British comedian and singer + Aleksandr Averbukh (born 1974), Israeli pole vaulter + Alex Baldock (born 1970), British businessman + Alec Baldwin (born 1958), American actor + Alexander Björk (born 1990), Swedish golfer + Alexander Borodin (1833–1887), Russian composer + Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922), Scottish inventor of the first practical telephone + Aleksander Barkov (born 1995), Finnish ice hockey player + Alexander Calder (1898–1976), American sculptor best known for making mobiles + Aleksandr Davidovich (disambiguation), several people + Alexander Davidson (disambiguation), several people + Alexander Day (disambiguation), several people + Alexander Nicholas de Abrew Abeysinghe (1894–1963), Sri Lankan Sinhala politician + Alex DeBrincat (born 1997), American ice hockey player + Alexander Edmund de Silva Wijegooneratne Samaraweera Rajapakse (1866–1937), Sri Lankan Sinhala politician + Aleksandar Djordjevic (born 1967), Serbian basketball player + Alexander Dubček (1921–1992), leader of Czechoslovakia (1968–1969) + Alex Ebert (born 1978), American singer-songwriter + Alexander Lee Eusebio (born 1988), also known as Alexander or Xander, South Korean singer, member of U-KISS + Alexander Exarch (1810–1891), Bulgarian revivalist, publicist and journalist, participant in the struggle for an independent Bulgarian Exarchate + Alex Ferguson (born 1941), Scottish football player and manager + Alexander Fleming (1881–1955), Scottish discoverer of penicillin + Alexander Zusia Friedman (1897–1943), Polish rabbi, educator, activist, and journalist + Aleksander Gabelic (born 1965), Swedish politician + Alex Galchenyuk (born 1994), American ice hockey player + Alexander Gardner (disambiguation), multiple people + Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936), Russian composer + Alexander Goldberg (born 1974), British rabbi, barrister, and human rights activist + Alexander Goldberg (chemical engineer), Israeli chemical engineer and President of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology + Alexander Goldscheider (born 1950), Czech/British composer, producer and writer + Alexander Gomelsky (1928–2005), Russian head coach of USSR basketball national team for 30 years + Alexander Gordon (disambiguation), several people + Aleksandr Gordon (1931–2020), Russian-Soviet director, screenwriter and actor + Aleksandr Gorelik (1945–2012), Soviet figure skater + Alexander Gould (born 1994), American actor + Alexander Grothendieck (1928–2014), German-born French mathematician + Alexander Gustafsson (born 1987), Swedish mixed martial arts fighter + Alexander Haig (1924–2010), American general and politician + Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804), first United States Secretary of the Treasury and one of the founding fathers of the United States + Alexander Hamilton Jr. (1786–1875), American attorney and son of Alexander Hamilton + Alexander Hamilton Jr. (1816–1889), son of James Alexander Hamilton and grandson of Alexander Hamilton + Alexander Held (born 1958), German actor + Alexander Henn, German anthropologist + Alexander Henry (1823–1883), mayor of Philadelphia + Alex Higgins (1949–2010), Northern Irish snooker player + Alexander Hollins (born 1996), American football player + Alexander Holtz (born 2002), Swedish ice hockey player + Alex Horne (born 1978), British comedian + Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), Prussian naturalist and explorer + Alexander Ilečko (1937-2023), Slovak sculptor + Alex Jones (born 1974), American radio show host and conspiracy theorist + Aleksandr Kamshalov (1932–2019), Soviet politician + Alex Kapranos (born 1972), Scottish musician, author, songwriter and producer, front-man of Franz Ferdinand + Aleksandar Katai (born 1991), Serbian footballer + Alexander Kerensky (1881–1970) leader of Russian Provisional Government + Alexander Kerfoot (born 1994), Canadian ice hockey player + Alex Killorn (born 1989), Canadian ice hockey player + Alexander Klingspor (born 1977), Swedish painter and sculptor + Aleksandr Kogan (born 1985/86), Moldovan-born American psychologist and data scientist + Alexander Korda (1893–1956), Hungarian film director + Alexander Kucheryavenko (born 1987), Russian ice hockey player + Aleksander Kwaśniewski (born 1954), former President of Poland + Alexander Levinsky (1910–1990), Canadian ice hockey player + Alexander Ivanovich Levitov (1835–1877), Russian writer + Alexander Lévy (born 1990), French golfer + Alexandre Lippmann (1881–1960), French épée fencer + Alexander Ludwig (born 1992), Canadian actor + Alexander "Sandy" Lyle (born 1958), Scottish golfer + Alexander Lukashenko (born 1954), President of Belarus + Alex Manninger (born 1977), Austrian footballer + Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873), Italian poet and novelist + Alexander "Ali" Marpet (born 1993), American football player + Alexander Mattison (born 1998), American football player + Alexander McClure (1828–1909), American politician, editor and writer + Alexander Lyell McEwin (1897–1988), known as Lyell McEwin, Australian politician, Minister for Health + Alexander McQueen (1969–2010), British fashion designer and couturier + Alexander Michel Melki (born 1992), Swedish-Lebanese footballer + Alexander Mirsky (born 1964), Latvian politician + Alexander Francis Molamure (1888–1951), 1st Speaker of the State Council of Ceylon and 1st Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka + Alessandro Moreschi (1858–1922), Italian castrato singer + Aleksandr Nikolayev (disambiguation), several people + Alexander Nikolov (boxer) (born 1940), Bulgarian boxer + Alex Norén (born 1982), Swedish golfer + Alexander Nylander (born 1998), Swedish ice hockey player + Alexander O'Neal (born 1953), American singer + Alexander Ovechkin (born 1985), Russian hockey player + Alexander Patch (1889–1945), American general during World War II + Alexander Pechtold (born 1965), Dutch politician + Alexander Penn (1906–1972), Israeli poet + Alexander Perera Jayasuriya (1901–1980), Sri Lankan Sinhala MP and Cabinet Minister + Alexander Pichushkin (born 1974), prolific Russian serial killer + Alex Pietrangelo (born 1990), Canadian ice hockey player + Alexander Piorkowski (1904–1948), German Nazi SS concentration camp commandant executed for war crimes + Alexander Ponomarenko (born 1964), Russian billionaire businessman + Alexander Pope (1688–1744), English poet + Alexander Popov (disambiguation), several people + Alexander Ptushko (1900–1973), Russian film director + Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837), Russian writer + Alexander Radulov (born 1986), Russian ice hockey player + Alexander Ragoza (1858–1919), Russian general in World War I + Alexander Rendell (born 1990), Thai actor and singer + Alex Rodriguez (born 1975), Major League Baseball star, won 3 AL MVP awards, also known as A-Rod + Alexander Rou (1906–1973), Russian film director + Alexander Rowe (born 1992), Australian athlete + Alexander Rudolph ("Al McCoy"; 1894–1966), American boxer + Alexander Rybak (born 1986), Belarusian-born Norwegian artist and violinist + Alexander Salkind (1921–1997), French film producer + Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915), Russian composer and pianist + Alexander Selkirk (1676–1721), Scottish privateer and Royal Navy officer + Alexander Semin (born 1984), Russian hockey player + Alexander Shatilov (born 1987), Uzbek-Israeli artistic gymnast + Alexander Theodore "Sasha" Shulgin (1925–2014), American chemist, psychopharmacologist, and author + Alexander Sieghart (born 1994), Thai footballer + Alexander Skarsgård (born 1976), Swedish actor + Alexander Stafford, British politician + Alexander Stavenitz (1901–1960), Russian Empire-born American visual artist and educator + Alexander Suvorov (1730–1800), Russian military leader, considered a national hero, Count of Rymnik, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Prince of Italy, and the last Generalissimo of the Russian Empire + Alexander McCall Smith (born 1948), Scottish writer + Alexander Solonik (1960–1997), Russian murder victim + Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008), Russian writer, Nobel laureate, Soviet dissident + Alexander Steen (born 1984), Swedish ice hockey player + Alexandre Texier (born 1999), French ice hockey player + Alex Turner (born 1986), British musician, songwriter and producer, front-man of Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets + Lex van Dam (born 1968), Dutch trader and TV personality + Alexander Van der Bellen (born 1944), President of Austria + Alexander Varchenko (born 1949), Russian mathematician + Aleksander Veingold (born 1953), Estonian and Soviet chess player and coach + Aleksandr Vlasov (disambiguation), several people + Alexander Volkanovski (born 1988), UFC Fighter + Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), Italian physicist + Alexander Wennberg (born 1994), Swedish ice hockey player + Alexander Wilson (disambiguation), several people + Alexander Wijemanne, Sri Lankan Sinhala lawyer and politician + Alex Zanardi (born 1966), Italian racing driver and paracyclist + Oleksandr Zubov (born 1983), Ukrainian chess player and Grandmaster + Alexander Zverev (born 1997), German tennis player + +In other languages + + Afrikaans: Alexander + Albanian: Aleksandër + Albanian diminutive: Leka + Amharic: እስክንድር (Isikinidiri, Eskender) + Arabic: (Iskandar) + Armenian: Ալեքսանդր (Aleksandr) + Asturian: Alexandru, Xandru + Azerbaijani: İsgəndər/Исҝәндәр/ایسگندر, Aleksandr/Александр/آلئکساندر + Basque: Alesander + Belarusian: Аляксандр (Aliaksandr), Алесь (Ales) + Bengali: সিকান্দর (Sikandor) + Bulgarian: Александър (Aleksandŭr), Сашко (Sashko) + Catalan: Alexandre/Aleixandre + Chinese: + Historical: + Traditional: , Simplified: , Baxter-Sagart: + Traditional and Simplified: , Baxter Romanization: 'a lejH sanH + Contemporary: Traditional: , Simplified: , Pinyin: Yàlìshāndà, Jyutping: aa3 lik6 saan1 daai6, Wugniu: iá-liq-sé-da, BUC: Ā-lĭk-săng-dâi + Czech: Alexandr, Alexander + Danish: Aleksander, Alexander + Dutch: Alexander + Esperanto: Aleksandro + Estonian: Aleksander + English: Alexander + Finnish: Aleksanteri + French: Alexandre + Galician: Alexandre + Georgian: ალექსანდრე (Aleksandre) + German: Alexander + Greek +Mycenaean Greek: 𐀀𐀩𐀏𐀭𐀅𐀫 (Aléxandros) +Ancient Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros) + Koine Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros) + Modern Greek: Αλέξανδρος (Aléxandros) + Hawaiian: Alekanekelo + Hebrew: אלכסנדר (Aleksander) + Hindi: सिकंदर (Sikandar) + Hungarian: Sándor, Alexander, Elek + Icelandic: Alexander + Indonesian: Iskandar + Irish: Alastar + Italian: Alessandro + Japanese: アレキサンダー (Arekisandā) + Korean: 알렉산더 (Alleksandeo) + Kazakh: Искандер (Iskander) + Kyrgyz: Искендер (Iskender) + Latin: Alexander + Latvian: Aleksandrs + Lithuanian: Aleksandras + Macedonian: Александар (Aleksandar), Сашко (Sashko, Saško) + Malay: Iskandar + Malayalam + Syriac Origin : ചാണ്ടി (t͡ʃaːɳʈI), ഇടിക്കുള (IʈIkkʊɭa) + Greek Origin : അലക്സിയോസ് (alaksIyos), അലക്സി (alaksI) + Anglican Origin : അലക്സാണ്ടര്‍ (alaksa:ndar), അലക്സ് (alaks) + Mongolian: Александр (Alyeksandr) + Norwegian: Aleksander, Alexander + Pashto: سکندر (Sikandar) + Persian: (Aleksânder), (Eskandar) + Polish: Aleksander + Portuguese: Alexandre, Alexandro, Alessandro, Leandro + Punjabi: Sikandar + Romanian: Alexandru, Alex, Sandu + Russian: Александр (Aleksandr), Саша (Sasha) + Rusyn: Александер (Aleksander) + Sanskrit: अलक्षेन्द्र (Alakṣendra) + Scottish: Alasdair, Alastair, Alistair, Alister + Serbo-Croatian: Александар / Aleksandar + Slovak: Alexander + Slovene: Aleksander + Spanish: Alejandro + Swedish: Alexander + Tagalog: Alejandro + + Turkish: İskender + Ukrainian: Олександр (Oleksandr, sometimes anglicized Olexander), Сашко (Sashko), Олесь (Oles), Олелько (Olelko) + Urdu: سکندر (Sikandar) + Valencian: Alecsandro, Aleksandro, Aleixandre, Alexandre + Vietnamese: Alexander, A Lịch San + Welsh: Alexander + Yiddish: אלעקסאנדער (Aleksander) + +Variants and diminutives + Al + Ale +Alex +Alexey +Xander +Sasha/Sash +Alexsander + Alixander + +See also +Alex (disambiguation) +Alexandra +Justice Alexander (disambiguation) +Alexander (surname) + +Hera Alexandros, epithet of the Greek goddess Hera + +References + +Armenian masculine given names +Czech masculine given names +Danish masculine given names +Dutch masculine given names +English-language masculine given names +English masculine given names +German masculine given names +Irish masculine given names +Given names of Greek language origin +Masculine given names +Norwegian masculine given names +Russian masculine given names +Slavic masculine given names +Swedish masculine given names +Welsh masculine given names +Welsh given names +Alexander I may refer to: + + Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon from 495–454 BC + Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus + Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome + Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of Alexandria + Alexander I of Scotland ( – 1124), king of Scotland + Aleksandr Mikhailovich of Tver (1301–1339), prince of Tver as Alexander I + Alexander I of Georgia (1386–?), king of Georgia + Alexander I of Moldavia (died 1432), prince of Moldavia + Alexander I of Kakheti (1445–1511), king of Kakheti + Alexander Jagiellon (1461–1506), king of Poland + Alexander I of Russia (1777–1825), emperor of Russia + Alexander of Battenberg (1857–1893), prince of Bulgaria + Alexander I of Serbia (1876–1903), king of Serbia + Alexander I of Yugoslavia (1888–1934), king of Yugoslavia + Alexander of Greece (1893–1920), king of Greece + +See also + King Alexander (disambiguation) +Alexander II may refer to: + + Alexander II of Macedon, king of Macedon from 370 to 368 BC + Alexander II of Epirus (died 260 BC), king of Epirus in 272 BC + Alexander II Zabinas, king of the Greek Seleucid kingdom in 128–123 BC + Alexander (912–913), Eastern Roman emperor + Pope Alexander II of Alexandria, ruled in 702–729 + Patriarch Alexander II of Alexandria + Pope Alexander II (died 1073), pope from 1061 to 1073 + Alexander II of Scotland (1198–1249), king of Scots + Alexander II of Imereti (died 1510, 1483–1510), king of Georgia and of Imereti + Alexander II of Kakheti (1527–1605), king of Kakheti + Alexander II Mircea + Alexander II of Russia (1818–1881), emperor of Russia + Alexander II of Yugoslavia (born 1945), crown prince of Serbia + +See also +King Alexander (disambiguation) +Alexander III may refer to: + + Alexander III of Macedon (356 BC – 323 BC), also known as Alexander the Great + Alexander (Byzantine emperor) (870–913), Byzantine emperor + Pope Alexander III (1100s–1181) + , grand duke of Vladimir (1328–1331), prince of Suzdal + Alexander III of Scotland (1241–1286), king of Scotland + Alexander III of Imereti (1609–1660), king of Imereti + Alexander III of Russia (1845–1894), emperor of Russia + , an arch bridge that spans the Seine in Paris + Russian battleship , Russian warship +Alexander III of Antioch (1869–1958), Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch + +See also + King Alexander (disambiguation) +Alexander Aetolus (, Ἀléxandros ὁ Aἰtōlós) was a Greek poet and grammarian, the only known representative of Aetolian poetry. + +Life +Alexander was the son of Satyrus (Σάτυρος) and Stratocleia (Στρατόκλεια), and was a native of Pleuron in Aetolia, although he spent the greater part of his life at Alexandria, where he was reckoned one of the seven tragic poets who constituted the Tragic Pleiad. + +Alexander flourished about 280 BC, in the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. He had an office in the Library of Alexandria, and was commissioned by Ptolemy to make a collection of all the tragedies and satyric dramas that were extant. He spent some time, together with Antagoras and Aratus, at the court of Antigonus II Gonatas. + +Notwithstanding the distinction Alexander enjoyed as a tragic poet, he appears to have had greater merit as a writer of epic poems, elegies, epigrams, and cynaedi. Among his epic poems, we possess the titles and some fragments of three pieces: the Fisherman, Kirka or Krika, which, however, is designated by Athenaeus as doubtful, and Helena, Of his elegies, some beautiful fragments are still extant.Scholiast and Eustathius, ad Il. iii. 314 His Cynaedi, or Ionic poems'' (), are mentioned by Strabo and Athenaeus. Some anapaestic verses in praise of Euripides are preserved in Gellius. + +References + +Sources + +Further reading +J U Powell (ed), Collectanea Alexandrina: reliquiae minores poetarum graecorum aetatis ptolemaicae, 323–146 A.C. (1972) +Enrico Magnelli (ed), Alexandri Aetoli Testimonia et Fragmenta. Studi e Testi 15. (1999) + +Ancient Aetolians +Ancient Greek dramatists and playwrights +Ancient Greek poets +Tragic poets +Ancient Greek epic poets +Ancient Greek epigrammatists +Ancient Greek elegiac poets +3rd-century BC Greek people +3rd-century BC poets +Ptolemaic court +Year of birth unknown +Year of death unknown +Hellenistic poets +Alexander Jannaeus ( ; Yannaʾy; born Jonathan ) was the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty, who ruled over an expanding kingdom of Judaea from 103 to 76 BCE. A son of John Hyrcanus, he inherited the throne from his brother Aristobulus I, and married his brother's widow, Queen Salome Alexandra. From his conquests to expand the kingdom to a bloody civil war, Alexander's reign has been generalised as cruel and oppressive with never-ending conflict. The major historical sources of Alexander's life are Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews and The Jewish War. + +The kingdom of Alexander Jannaeus was the largest and strongest known Jewish State outside of biblical sources, having conquered most of Palestine's Mediterranean coastline and regions surrounding the Jordan River. Alexander also had many of his subjects killed for their disapproval of his handling of state affairs. Due to his territorial expansion and interactions with his subjects, he was continuously embroiled with foreign wars and domestic turmoil. + +Family +Alexander Jannaeus was the third son of John Hyrcanus by his second wife. When Aristobulus I, Hyrcanus' son by his first wife, became king, he deemed it necessary for his own security to imprison his half-brother. Aristobulus died after a reign of one year. Upon his death, his widow, Salome Alexandra had Alexander and his brothers released from prison. One of these brothers is said to have unsuccessfully sought the throne. + +Alexander, as the oldest living brother, had the right not only to the throne, but also to Salome, the widow of his deceased brother, who had died childless; and, although she was thirteen years older than him, he married her in accordance with the Jewish law of Levirate Marriage. By her he had two sons: the eldest, Hyrcanus II, became high-priest in 62 BCE; and Aristobulus II, who was high-priest from 66 - 62 BCE and started a bloody civil war with his brother, ending in his capture by Pompey the Great. Like his brother, Alexander was an avid supporter of the aristocratic priestly faction known as the Sadducees. His wife Salome on the other hand, came from a pharisaic family (her brother was Simeon ben Shetach, a famous Pharisee leader) and was more sympathetic to their cause and protected them throughout his turbulent reign. + +Like his father, Alexander also served as the high priest. This raised the ire of the religious authorities who insisted that these two offices should not be combined. According to the Talmud, Yannai was a questionable desecrated priest (rumour had it that his mother was captured in Modiin and violated) and, in the opinion of the Pharisees, was not allowed to serve in the temple. This infuriated the king and he sided with the Sadducees who defended him. This incident led the king to turn against the Pharisees and he persecuted them until his death. + +War with Ptolemy Lathyrus +Alexander's first expedition was against the city of Ptolemais. While Alexander went ahead to besiege the city, Zoilus of Dora took the opportunity to see if he could relieve Ptolemais in hopes of establishing his rule over coastal territories. Alexander's Hasmonean army quickly defeated Zoilus's forces. Ptolemais then requested aid from Ptolemy IX Lathyros, who had been banished by his mother Cleopatra III; Ptolemy founded a kingdom in Cyprus after being cast out by his mother. The situation at Ptolemais was seized as an opportunity by Ptolemy to possibly gain a stronghold and control the Judean coast in order to invade Egypt by sea. However, an individual named Demaenetus convinced the inhabitants of their imprudence in requesting Ptolemy's assistance. They realised that by allying themselves with Ptolemy, they had unintentionally declared war on Cleopatra. When Ptolemy arrived at the city, the inhabitants denied him access. + +Alexander too didn't want to be involved in a war between Cleopatra and Ptolemy, so he abandoned his campaign against Ptolemais and returned to Jerusalem. After offering Ptolemy four hundred talents and a peace treaty in return for Zoilus's death, Alexander met him with treachery by negotiating an alliance with Cleopatra. Once he had formed an alliance with Ptolemy, Alexader continued his conquests by capturing the coastal cities of Dora and Straton's Tower. As soon as Ptolemy learned of Alexander's scheme, he was determined to kill him. Ptolemy put Ptolemais under siege, but left his generals to attack the city, while he continued to pursue Alexander. Ptolemy's pursuit caused much destruction in the Galilee region. Here he captured Asochis on the Sabbath, taking ten thousand people as prisoners. Ptolemy also initiated an unsuccessful attack on Sepphoris. + +Battle of Asophon +Ptolemy and Alexander engaged in battle at Asophon near the Jordan River. Estimated to have fifty to eighty thousand soldiers, Alexander's army consisted of both Jews and pagans. At the head of his armed forces were his elite pagan mercenaries; they were specialised in Greek-style phalanx. One of Ptolemy's commanders, Philostephanus, commenced the first attack by crossing the river that divided both forces. The Hasmoneans had the advantage, however, Philostephanus held back a certain amount of his forces whom he sent to recover lost ground. Perceiving them as vast reinforcements, Alexander's army fled. Some of his retreating forces tried to push back, but quickly dispersed as Ptolemy's forces pursued Alexander's fleeing army; thirty to fifty thousand Hasmonean soldiers died. + +Ptolemy's forces at Ptolemais also succeeded in capturing the city. He then continued to conquer much of the Hasmonean kingdom, occupying the entirety of northern Judea, the coast, and territories east of the Jordan River. While doing so, he pillaged villages and ordered his soldiers to cannibalise women and children to create psychological fear towards his enemies. At the time, Salome Alexandra was notified of Cleopatra's approachment to Judea. + +Intervention of Cleopatra III +Realising that her son had amassed a formidable force in Judea, Cleopatra appointed Jewish generals Ananias and Chelkias to command her forces. She too also went with a fleet towards Judea. When Cleopatra arrived at Ptolemais, the people refused her entry, so she besieged the city. Ptolemy, believing Syria was defenseless, withdrew to Cyprus after his miscalculation. While in pursuit of Ptolemy, Chelkias died in Coele-Syria. + +The war abruptly came to an end with Ptolemy fleeing to Cyprus. Alexander then approached Cleopatra. Bowing before her, he requested to retain his rule. Cleopatra was urged by her subordinates to annex Judea. However, Ananias demanded she consider the residential Egyptian Jews who were the main support of her throne. This induced Cleopatra to modify her longings for Judea. Alexander though would meet her demands and suspend his campaigns. These negotiations took place at Scythopolis. Cleopatra died five years later. Confident, after her death, Alexander found himself free to continue with new campaigns. + +Transjordan and coastal conquest + +Alexander captured Gadara and fought to capture the strong fortress of Amathus in the Transjordan region, but was defeated. He was more successful in his expedition against the coastal cities, capturing Raphia and Anthedon. In 96 BCE, Jannaeus defeated the inhabitants of Gaza. This victory gained Judean control over the Mediterranean outlet of the main Nabataean trade route. Alexander initially returned his focus back to the Transjordan region where, avenging his previous defeat, he destroyed Amathus. + +Battle of Gaza +Determined to proceed with future campaigns despite his initial defeat at Amathus, Alexander set his focus on Gaza. A victory against the city wasn't so easily achieved. Gaza's general Apollodotus strategically employed a night attack against the Hasmonean army. With a force of two thousand less-skilled soldiers and ten thousand slaves, Gaza's military was able to deceive the Hasmonean army into believing they were being attacked by Ptolemy. The Gazans killed many and the Hasmonean army fled the battle. When morning exposed the delusive tactic, Alexander continued his assault but lost a thousand additional soldiers. + +The Gazans still remained defiant in hopes that the Nabataean kingdom would come to their aid. The city, however, would eventually suffer defeat due to its own leadership. Gaza at the time was governed by two brothers, Lysimachus and Apollodotus. Lysimachus finally convinced the people to surrender, and Alexander peacefully entered the city. Though he at first seemed peaceful, Alexander suddenly turned against the inhabitants. Some men killed their wives and children out of desperation, to ensure they wouldn't be captured and enslaved. Others burned down their homes to prevent the soldiers from plundering. The town council and five hundred civilians took refuge at the Temple of Apollo, where Alexander had them massacred. + +Judean Civil War + +War with Obodas I +The Judean Civil War initially began after the conquest of Gaza around 99 BCE. Due to Jannaeus's victory at Gaza, the Nabataean kingdom no longer had direct access to the Mediterranean Sea. Alexander soon captured Gadara, which together with the loss of Gaza caused the Nabataeans to lose their main trade routes leading to Rome and Damascus. After losing Gadara, the Nabataean king Obodas I launched an attack against Alexander in a steep valley at Gadara, where Alexander barely managed to escape. After his defeat in the Battle of Gadara, Jannaeus returned to Jerusalem, only to be met with fierce Jewish opposition. + +Feast of Tabernacles +During the Jewish holiday Sukkot, Alexander Jannaeus, while officiating as the High Priest at the Temple in Jerusalem, demonstrated his displeasure against the Pharisees by refusing to perform the water libation ceremony properly: instead of pouring it on the altar, he poured it on his feet. The crowd responded with shock at his mockery and showed their displeasure by pelting him with etrogim (citrons). They made the situation worse by insulting him. They called him a descendant of a captive woman and unsuitable to hold office and to sacrifice. Outraged, he killed six thousand people. Alexander also had wooden barriers built around the altar and the temple preventing people from going near him. Only the priests were permitted to enter. This incident during the Feast of Tabernacles was a major factor leading up to the Judean Civil War. + +War with Demetrius III and conclusion of the Civil War + +After Jannaeus succeeded early in the war, the rebels asked for Seleucid assistance. Judean insurgents joined forces with Demetrius III Eucaerus to fight against Jannaeus. Alexander had gathered six thousand two hundred mercenaries and twenty thousand Jews for battle as Demetrius had forty thousand soldiers and three thousand horses. There were attempts from both sides to persuade each other to abandon positions but were unsuccessful. The Seleucid forces defeated Jannaeus at Shechem, and all of Alexander's mercenaries were killed in battle. This defeat forced Alexander to take refuge in the mountains. In sympathy towards Jannaeus, six thousand Judean rebels ultimately returned to him. In fear of this news, Demetrius withdrew. Nevertheless, war between Jannaeus and the rebels who returned to him continued. They fought until Alexander achieved victory. Most of the rebels died in battle, while the remaining rebels fled to the city of Bethoma until they were defeated. + +Jannaeus had brought the surviving rebels back to Jerusalem where he had eight hundred Jews, primarily Pharisees, crucified. Before their deaths, Alexander had the rebels' wives and children executed before their eyes as Jannaeus ate with his concubines. Alexander later returned the land he had seized in Moab and Galaaditis from the Nabataeans in order to have them end their support for the Jewish rebels. The remaining rebels who numbered eight thousand, fled by night in fear of Alexander. Afterward, all rebel hostility ceased and Alexander's reign continued undisturbed. + +Final campaigns and death + +From 83 - 80 BCE, Alexander continued campaigning in the east. The Nabataean king Aretas III managed to defeat Alexander in battle. However, Alexander continued expanding the Hasmonean kingdom into Transjordan. In Gaulanitis, he captured the cities of Golan, Seleucia, and Gamala. In Galaaditis, the cities of Pella, Dium, and Gerasa. Alexander had Pella destroyed because its inhabitants refused to Judaize. + +He is believed to have expanded and fortified the Hasmonean palace near Jericho. + +For the last three years of his life, Alexander Jannaeus suffered from the combined effects of alcoholism and quartan ague (malaria). After a reign of 27 years, he died c. 76 BCE at the age of forty-nine, during the siege of Ragaba. + +References + +Bibliography + + + + + + + + + + +2nd-century BC births +76 BC deaths +2nd-century BC Hasmonean monarchs +1st-century BC Hasmonean monarchs +2nd-century BCE High Priests of Israel +1st-century BCE High Priests of Israel +Alexander IV may refer to: + Pope Alexander IV (1199 or –1261) + Alexander IV of Macedon (323 BC–309 BC), son of Alexander the Great + Alexander IV of Imereti (died 1695), of the Bagrationi Dynasty, king of Imereti (western Georgia) +Alexander V may refer to: + + Alexander V of Macedon (died 294 BCE) + Antipope Alexander V (–1410) + Alexander V of Imereti (–1752) +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. + +References + +Attribution: + + +Christian philosophers +Alexios I Komnenos (, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power and initiated a hereditary succession to the throne. Inheriting a collapsing empire and faced with constant warfare during his reign against both the Seljuq Turks in Asia Minor and the Normans in the western Balkans, Alexios was able to curb the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the Komnenian restoration. His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Turks was the catalyst that sparked the First Crusade. + +Biography +Alexios was the son of John Komnenos and Anna Dalassene, and the nephew of Isaac I Komnenos (emperor 1057–1059). Alexios' father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac, who was thus succeeded by Constantine X Doukas (r. 1059–1067) and died as a monk in 1067. Alexios and his elder brother, Manuel Komnenos served under Romanos IV Diogenes (r. 1068–1071) with distinction against the Seljuk Turks. Under Michael VII Doukas Parapinakes (1071–1078) and Nikephoros III Botaneiates (1078–1081), he was militarily employed, along with his elder brother Isaac, against rebels in Asia Minor, Thrace, and in Epirus. + +In 1074, western mercenaries led by Roussel de Bailleul rebelled in Asia Minor, but Alexios successfully subdued them by 1076. In 1078, he was appointed commander of the field army in the West by Nikephoros III. In this capacity, Alexios defeated the rebellions of Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder (whose son or grandson later married Alexios' daughter Anna) and Nikephoros Basilakes, the first at the Battle of Kalavrye and the latter in a surprise night attack on his camp. Alexios was ordered to march against his brother-in-law Nikephoros Melissenos in Asia Minor but refused to fight his kinsman. This did not, however, lead to a demotion, as Alexios was needed to counter the expected invasion of the Normans of Southern Italy, led by Robert Guiscard. + +Conspiracy and revolt of the Komnenoi against Botaneiates +While Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition, the Doukas faction at court approached Alexios and convinced him to join a conspiracy against Nikephoros III. The mother of Alexios, Anna Dalassene, was to play a prominent role in this coup d'état of 1081, along with the current empress, Maria of Alania. First married to Michael VII Doukas and secondly to Nikephoros III Botaneiates, she was preoccupied with the future of her son by Michael VII, Constantine Doukas. Nikephoros III intended to leave the throne to one of his close relatives, and this resulted in Maria's ambivalence and alliance with the Komnenoi, though the real driving force behind this political alliance was Anna Dalassene. + +The empress was already closely connected to the Komnenoi through Maria's cousin Irene's marriage to Isaac Komnenos, so the Komnenoi brothers were able to see her under the pretense of a friendly family visit. Furthermore, to aid the conspiracy Maria had adopted Alexios as her son, though she was only five years older than he. Maria was persuaded to do so on the advice of her own "Alans" and her eunuchs, who had been instigated by Isaac Komnenos. Given Anna's tight hold on her family, Alexios must have been adopted with her implicit approval. As a result, Alexios and Constantine, Maria's son, were now adoptive brothers, and both Isaac and Alexios took an oath that they would safeguard his rights as emperor. By secretly giving inside information to the Komnenoi, Maria was an invaluable ally. + +As stated in the Alexiad, Isaac and Alexios left Constantinople in mid-February 1081 to raise an army against Botaneiates. However, when the time came, Anna quickly and surreptitiously mobilized the remainder of the family and took refuge in the Hagia Sophia. From there she negotiated with the emperor for the safety of family members left in the capital, while protesting her sons' innocence of hostile actions. Under the falsehood of making a vesperal visit to worship at the church, she deliberately excluded the grandson of Botaneiates and his loyal tutor, met with Alexios and Isaac, and fled for the forum of Constantine. The tutor discovered they were missing and eventually found them on the palace grounds, but Anna was able to convince him that they would return to the palace shortly. Then to gain entrance to both the outer and inner sanctuary of the church, the women pretended to the gatekeepers that they were pilgrims from Cappadocia who had spent all their funds and wanted to worship before starting their return trip. However, before they were to gain entry into the sanctuary, Straboromanos and royal guards caught up with them to summon them back to the palace. Anna then protested that the family was in fear for their lives, her sons were loyal subjects (Alexios and Isaac were discovered absent without leave), and had learned of a plot by enemies of the Komnenoi to have them both blinded and had, therefore, fled the capital so they may continue to be of loyal service to the emperor. She refused to go with them and demanded that they allow her to pray to the Mother of God for protection. This request was granted and Anna then manifested her true communicative and leadership capabilities: + +Nikephoros III Botaneiates was forced into a public vow that he would grant protection to the family. Straboromanos tried to give Anna his cross, but for her it was not large enough for all bystanders to witness the oath. She also demanded that the cross be personally sent by Botaneiates as a vow of his good faith. He obliged, sending a complete assurance for the family with his own cross. At the emperor's further insistence, and for their own protection, they took refuge at the convent of Petrion, where they were eventually joined by Maria of Bulgaria, mother of Irene Doukaina. Botaneiates allowed them to be treated as refugees rather than as guests. They were allowed to have family members bring in their own food and were on good terms with the guards from whom they learned the latest news. Anna was highly successful in three important aspects of the revolt: she bought time for her sons to steal imperial horses from the stables and escape the city; she distracted the emperor, giving her sons time to gather and arm their troops; and she gave a false sense of security to Botaneiates that there was no real treasonous plot against him. After bribing the Western troops guarding the city, Isaac and Alexios Komnenos entered the capital victoriously on 1 April 1081. + +During this time, Alexios was rumored to be the lover of Empress Maria, the daughter of King Bagrat IV of Georgia, who had been successively married to Michael VII Doukas and his successor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, and who was renowned for her beauty. Alexios arranged for Maria to stay on the palace grounds, and it was thought that he was considering marrying her. However, his mother consolidated the Doukas family connection by arranging the Emperor's marriage to Irene Doukaina, granddaughter of the Caesar John Doukas, the uncle of Michael VII, who would not have supported Alexios otherwise. As a measure intended to keep the support of the Doukai, Alexios restored Constantine Doukas, the young son of Michael VII and Maria, as co-emperor and a little later betrothed him to his own first-born daughter Anna, who moved into the Mangana Palace with her fiancé and his mother. + +This situation changed drastically, however, when Alexios' first son John II Komnenos was born in 1087: Anna's engagement to Constantine was dissolved, and she was moved to the main Palace to live with her mother and grandmother. Alexios became estranged from Maria, who was stripped of her imperial title and retired to a monastery, and Constantine Doukas was deprived of his status as co-emperor. Nevertheless, he remained on good terms with the imperial family and succumbed to his weak constitution soon afterwards. + +Wars against the Normans, Pechenegs, and Tzachas + +The thirty-seven year reign of Alexios was full of struggle. At the outset he faced the formidable attack of the Normans, led by Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemund, who took Dyrrhachium and Corfu and laid siege to Larissa in Thessaly (see Battle of Dyrrhachium). Alexios suffered several defeats before he was able to strike back with success. He enhanced his resistance by an agreement with the German king Henry IV, who, in exchange for 360,000 gold pieces, did attack the Normans in Italy, which forced the Normans to concentrate on their defenses at home in 1083–84. He also secured the alliance of Henry, Count of Monte Sant'Angelo, who controlled the Gargano Peninsula and dated his charters by Alexios' reign. Henry's allegiance would be the last example of Byzantine political control on peninsular Italy. The Norman military danger subsided with the death of Guiscard in 1085, and the Byzantines recovered most of their losses. + +Alexios next had to deal with disturbances in Thrace, where the heretical sects of the Bogomils and the Paulicians revolted and made common cause with the Pechenegs from beyond the Danube. Paulician soldiers in imperial service likewise deserted during Alexios' battles with the Normans. As soon as the Norman threat had passed, Alexios set out to punish the rebels and deserters, confiscating their lands. This led to a further revolt near Philippopolis, and the commander of the field army in the west, Gregory Pakourianos, was defeated and killed in the ensuing battle. In 1087 the Pechenegs raided into Thrace, and Alexios crossed into Moesia to retaliate but failed to take Dorostolon (Silistra). During his retreat, the emperor was confronted and defeated by the Pechenegs, who forced him to sign a truce and to pay protection money. In 1090 the Pechenegs invaded Thrace again, while Tzachas, the brother-in-law of the Sultan of Rum, launched a fleet and attempted to arrange a joint siege of Constantinople with the Pechenegs. Alexios overcame this crisis by entering into an alliance with a horde of 40,000 Cumans, with whose help he conquered the Pechenegs at Levounion in Thrace on 29 April 1091. + +This put an end to the Pecheneg threat, but in 1094 the Cumans began to raid the imperial territories in the Balkans. Led by a pretender claiming to be Constantine Diogenes, a long-dead son of the Emperor Romanos IV, the Cumans crossed the mountains and raided into eastern Thrace until their leader was eliminated at Adrianople. With the Balkans more or less pacified, Alexios could now turn his attention to Asia Minor, which had been almost completely overrun by the Seljuq Turks. + +Byzantine–Seljuq Wars and the First Crusade + +By the time Alexios ascended the throne, the Seljuqs had taken most of Asia Minor. Alexios was able to secure much of the coastal regions by sending peasant soldiers to raid the Seljuq camps, but these victories were unable to stop the Turks altogether. He also got military support from Western rulers like Robert I Count of Flanders (Robert the Frisian) returning from an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1086 spending time assisting the Byzantine Emperor against the Turks. In one battle Robert and three of his companions rode ahead of the main army charging the forces under the command of Kerbogha, whose forces were scattered completely. + +As early as 1090, Alexios had taken reconciliatory measures towards the Papacy, with the intention of seeking western support against the Seljuqs. In 1095 his ambassadors appeared before Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza. The help he sought from the West was some mercenary forces, not the immense hosts that arrived, to his consternation and embarrassment, after the pope preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont later that same year. This was the People's Crusade: a mob of mostly unarmed poor peasants and serfs, led by the preacher Peter the Hermit, fleeing from hunger in their home regions to a promised land of milk and honey. Not quite ready to supply this number of people as they traversed his territories, the emperor saw his Balkan possessions subjected to further pillage at the hands of his own allies. Eventually Alexios dealt with the People's Crusade by hustling them on to Asia Minor. There, they were massacred by the Turks of Kilij Arslan I at the Battle of Civetot in October 1096. + +The "Prince's Crusade", the second and much more formidable host of crusaders, gradually made its way to Constantinople, led in sections by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond of Taranto, Raymond IV of Toulouse, and other important members of the western nobility. Alexios used the opportunity to meet the crusader leaders separately as they arrived, extracting from them oaths of homage and the promise to turn over conquered lands to the Byzantine Empire. Transferring each contingent into Asia, Alexios promised to supply them with provisions in return for their oaths of homage. The crusade was a notable success for Byzantium, as Alexios recovered a number of important cities and islands. The siege of Nicaea by the crusaders forced the city to surrender to the emperor in 1097, and the subsequent crusader victory at Dorylaion allowed the Byzantine forces to recover much of western Asia Minor. John Doukas re-established Byzantine rule in Chios, Rhodes, Smyrna, Ephesus, Sardis, and Philadelphia in 1097–1099. This success is ascribed by Alexios' daughter Anna to his policy and diplomacy, but by the Latin historians of the crusade to his treachery and deception. In 1099, a Byzantine fleet of ten ships was sent to assist the crusaders in capturing Laodicea and other coastal towns as far as Tripoli. The crusaders believed their oaths were made invalid when the Byzantine contingent under Tatikios failed to help them during the siege of Antioch; Bohemund, who had set himself up as Prince of Antioch, briefly went to war with Alexios in the Balkans, but he was blockaded by the Byzantine forces and agreed to become a vassal of Alexios by the Treaty of Deabolis in 1108. + +Around this time, in 1106, the twentieth year of his reign, Hesychius of Miletus records that the sky suddenly darkened and a "violent southern wind" blew the great statue of Constantine at the Strategion from its column, killing a number of men and women nearby. + +In 1116, though already terminally ill, Alexios conducted a series of defensive operations in Bithynia and Mysia to defend his Anatolian territories against the inroads of Malik Shah, the Seljuq Sultan of Iconium. In 1117 he moved onto the offensive and pushed his army deep into the Turkish-dominated Anatolian Plateau, where he defeated the Seljuq sultan at the Battle of Philomelion. + +Personal life + +During the last twenty years of his life Alexios lost much of his popularity. The years were marked by persecution of the followers of the Paulician and Bogomil heresies—one of his last acts was publicly to burn at the stake Basil, a Bogomil leader, with whom he had engaged in a theological dispute. In spite of the success of the First Crusade, Alexios also had to repel numerous attempts on his territory by the Seljuqs in 1110–1117. + +Alexios was for many years under the strong influence of an eminence grise, his mother Anna Dalassene, a wise and immensely able politician whom, in a uniquely irregular fashion, he had crowned as Augusta instead of the rightful claimant to the title, his wife Irene Doukaina. Anna Dalassene's ability to help him seize power and control the aristocracy, as well as her ability to understand and resolve dilemmas, assured Alexius that her mother was a capable counsel and managing partner by his side, and a sane and trusted regent in his absence. Alexios was never happier than when taking part in military exercises and he assumed personal command of his troops whenever possible. As such, Dalassene was the effective administrator of the Empire during Alexios' long absences in military campaigns: she was constantly at odds with her daughter-in-law and had assumed total responsibility for the upbringing and education of her granddaughter Anna Komnene. + +Succession +Alexios' last years were also troubled by anxieties over the succession. Although he had crowned his son John II Komnenos co-emperor at the age of five in 1092, his wife Irene Doukaina wished to alter the succession in favor of their daughter Anna and Anna's husband, Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger. Bryennios had been made kaisar (Caesar) and received the newly created title of panhypersebastos ("honoured above all"), and remained loyal to both Alexios and John. + +Pretenders and rebels +Apart from all of his external enemies, a host of rebels also sought to overthrow Alexios from the imperial throne, thereby posing another major threat to his reign. Due to the troubled times the empire was enduring, he had by far the greatest number of rebellions against him of all the Byzantine emperors. These included: + +Pre First Crusade + Raictor, a Byzantine monk who claimed to be the emperor Michael VII. He presented himself to Robert Guiscard who used him as a pretext to launch his invasion of the Byzantine Empire. + A conspiracy in 1084 involving several senators and officers of the army. This was uncovered before too many followers were enlisted. In order to conceal the importance of the conspiracy, Alexios merely banished the wealthiest plotters and confiscated their estates. + Tzachas, a Seljuq Turkic emir who assumed the title of emperor in 1092. + Constantine Humbertopoulos, who had assisted Alexios in gaining the throne in 1081 conspired against him in 1091 with an Armenian called Ariebes. + John Komnenos, Alexios' nephew, governor of Dyrrachium, accused of a conspiracy by Theophylact of Bulgaria. + Theodore Gabras, the quasi-independent governor of Trebizond and his son Gregory. + Michael Taronites, the brother-in-law of Alexios. + Nikephoros Diogenes, the son of emperor Romanos IV. + Pseudo-Leo Diogenes , an impostor who assumed the identity of another of Romanos' sons, Leo Diogenes. + Karykes, the leader of a revolt in Crete. + Rhapsomates, who tried to create an independent kingdom in Cyprus. + +Post First Crusade + Salomon, a senator of great wealth who in 1106 engaged in a plot with four brothers of the Anemas family. + Gregory Taronites, another governor of Trebizond. + The illegitimate descendant of a Bulgarian prince named Aron formed a plot in 1107 to murder Alexios as he was encamped near Thessalonica. The presence of the empress Irene and her attendants, however, made the execution of the plot difficult. In an attempt to have her return to Constantinople, the conspirators produced pamphlets that mocked and slandered the empress, and left them in her tent. A search for the author of the publications uncovered the whole plot, yet Aron was only banished due to his connection to the royal line of Bulgaria, whose blood also flowed in the veins of the empress Irene. + +Reform of the monetary system + +Under Alexios the debased solidus (tetarteron and histamenon) was discontinued and a gold coinage of higher fineness (generally .900–.950) was established in 1092, commonly called the hyperpyron at 4.45 grs. The hyperpyron was slightly smaller than the solidus. + +It was introduced along with the electrum aspron trachy worth a third of a hyperpyron and about 25% gold and 75% silver, the billon aspron trachy or stamenon, valued at 48 to the hyperpyron and with 7% silver wash and the copper tetarteron and noummion worth 18 and 36 to the billon aspron trachy. + +Alexios' reform of the Byzantine monetary system was an important basis for the financial recovery and therefore supported the so-called Komnenian restoration, as the new coinage restored financial confidence. + +Legacy + +Alexios I had overcome a dangerous crisis and stabilized the Byzantine Empire, inaugurating a century of imperial prosperity and success. He had also profoundly altered the nature of the Byzantine government. By seeking close alliances with powerful noble families, Alexios put an end to the tradition of imperial exclusivity and co-opted most of the nobility into his extended family and, through it, his government. Those who did not become part of this extended family were deprived of power and prestige. This measure, which was intended to diminish opposition, was paralleled by the introduction of new courtly dignities, like that of panhypersebastos given to Nikephoros Bryennios, or that of sebastokrator given to the emperor's brother Isaac Komnenos. Although this policy met with initial success, it gradually undermined the relative effectiveness of imperial bureaucracy by placing family connections over merit. Alexios' policy of integration of the nobility bore the fruit of continuity: every Byzantine emperor who reigned after Alexios I Komnenos was related to him by either descent or marriage. + +Family + +By his marriage with Irene Doukaina, Alexios I had the following children: + Anna Komnene (1 December 1083 – 1148/55), in her infancy she was betrothed to Constantine Doukas, and with him treated as co-ruler by her father until after the birth of John II. In 1097 she married Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger, later raised to Caesar. Highly ambitious, after Alexios' death she tried unsuccessfully to usurp the throne. She then withdrew to a monastery, where she wrote her history of Alexios' reign. The couple had several children, but only four survived her. + Maria Komnene (19 September 1085 – after 1136), initially betrothed to Gregory Gabras, but married to Nikephoros Katakalon. The couple had several children, but only two sons are known by name. + John II Komnenos (13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143), who succeeded as emperor. + Andronikos Komnenos (18 September 1091 – 1130/31), was named sebastokrator and participated in several campaigns until his death from disease. He married Irene, likely a Russian princess, and had at least two sons. + Isaac Komnenos (16 January 1093 – after 1152), sebastokrator. + Eudokia Komnene (14 January 1094 – ), who married the son of Constantine Iasites. + Theodora Komnene (15 January 1096) who married (1) Constantine Kourtikes and (2) Constantine Angelos. By him she was the grandmother of Emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos, as well as the progenitor of the ruling dynasty of the Despotate of Epirus. Through Isaac II's daughter Irene Angelina's children by Philip of Swabia, she is an ancestor of many European royal families, including all European monarchs currently reigning. + Manuel Komnenos, born February 1097 and known only from a manuscript now in Moscow, died probably soon after his birth + Zoe Komnene, born March 1098 and known only from a manuscript now in Moscow, died probably soon after her birth + +Later Russian sources also claim the existence of another daughter, Barbara, who supposedly married Grand Prince of Kiev Sviatopolk II Iziaslavich, but her existence is considered as a later invention by modern historians. + +See also + +Byzantine army (Komnenian era) +List of Byzantine emperors + +Notes + +Sources + +Primary sources + +Secondary sources + +Further reading + +External links + +Alexius coinage + + + +1050s births +1118 deaths +Year of birth uncertain + +11th-century Byzantine emperors +1080s in the Byzantine Empire +1090s in the Byzantine Empire +1100s in the Byzantine Empire +1110s in the Byzantine Empire +12th-century Byzantine emperors +Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Norman wars +Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Seljuk wars +Byzantine people of the Crusades +Christian anti-Gnosticism +Domestics of the Schools +Eastern Orthodox monarchs +Nobilissimi +Panhypersebastoi +People associated with Xenophontos Monastery +Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Pecheneg wars +Alexis (; c. 375 – c. 275 BC) was a Greek comic poet of the Middle Comedy period. He was born at 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 () 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. + +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: + +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 +Augustus Meineke. Poetarum Graecorum comicorum fragmenta, (1855). +Theodor Kock. Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta, i. (1880). +Colin Austin and Rudolf Kassel. Poetae Comici Graeci. vol. 2. + +Notes + +References +Arnott, W. Geoffrey. Alexis: The Fragments. A Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. + +External links + +3rd-century BC Greek writers +Ancient Greek centenarians +Ancient Greek dramatists and playwrights +Poets of Magna Graecia +Middle Comic poets +Men centenarians +Metics in Classical Athens +People from the Province of Cosenza +Italiotes +370s BC births +270s BC deaths +Alexios II Komnenos (; 14 September 1169September 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 +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 eleven, he was married to Agnes of France aged 10, 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 +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 + +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 +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. + +Notes + +References + +Further reading + + Harris, Jonathan, Byzantium and the Crusades, Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2014. + + , Vols. A1, A2 & B + +1169 births +1183 deaths +Komnenos dynasty +Monarchs who died as children +Medieval child monarchs +12th-century Byzantine emperors +People executed by ligature strangulation +Eastern Orthodox monarchs +Assassinated Byzantine emperors +12th-century murdered monarchs +Manuel I Komnenos +Porphyrogennetoi +Sons of Byzantine emperors +Alexios III Angelos (Greek: Άλέξιος Άγγελος; 1211), Latinized as Alexius III Angelus, was Byzantine Emperor from March 1195 to 17/18 July 1203. He reigned under the name Alexios Komnenos (Greek: Άλέξιος Κομνηνός), associating himself with the Komnenos dynasty (from which he was descended matrilineally). A member of the extended imperial family, Alexios came to the throne after deposing, blinding and imprisoning his younger brother Isaac II Angelos. The most significant event of his reign was the attack of the Fourth Crusade on Constantinople in 1203, on behalf of Alexios IV Angelos. Alexios III took over the defence of the city, which he mismanaged, and then fled the city at night with one of his three daughters. From Adrianople, and then Mosynopolis, he attempted unsuccessfully to rally his supporters, only to end up a captive of Marquis Boniface of Montferrat. He was ransomed and sent to Asia Minor where he plotted against his son-in-law Theodore I Laskaris, but was eventually captured and spent his last days confined to the Monastery of Hyakinthos in Nicaea, where he died. + +Early life +Alexios III was the second son of Andronikos Doukas Angelos and Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa. Andronikos was himself a son of Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Thus, Alexios III was a member of the extended imperial family. Together with his father and brothers, Alexios had conspired against Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos (), and thus he spent several years in exile in Muslim courts, including that of Saladin. + +His younger brother Isaac II was threatened with execution under orders of Andronikos I, their first-cousin once-removed, on 11 September 1185. Isaac made a desperate attack on the imperial agents and soon killed their leader Stephen Hagiochristophorites. He then took refuge in the church of Hagia Sophia and from there appealed to the populace. His actions provoked a riot, which resulted in the deposition of Andronikos I and the proclamation of Isaac as Emperor. Alexios was now closer to the imperial throne than ever before. + +Reign + +By 1190 Alexios had returned to the court of his younger brother, from whom he received the elevated title of sebastokratōr. In March 1195 while Isaac II was away hunting in Thrace, Alexios was acclaimed as emperor by the troops with the covert support of his wife Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera. Alexios captured Isaac at Stagira in Macedonia, put out his eyes, and thenceforth kept him a close prisoner, despite having previously been redeemed by Alexios from captivity at Antioch and showered with honours. + +To compensate for this crime and to solidify his position as emperor, Alexios had to scatter money so lavishly as to empty his treasury, and to allow such licence to the officers of the army as to leave the Empire practically defenceless. These actions inevitably led to the financial ruin of the state. At Christmas 1196, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI attempted to force Alexios to pay him a tribute of 5,000 pounds (later negotiated down to 1,600 pounds) of gold or face invasion. Alexios gathered the money by plundering imperial tombs at the church of the Holy Apostles and heavily taxing the people through the Alamanikon. Because of Henry's death in September 1197, the gold was never dispatched. The Empress Euphrosyne tried in vain to sustain his credit and his court; Vatatzes, the favourite instrument in her attempts at reform, was assassinated by the emperor's orders. + +In the east the Empire was overrun by the Seljuk Turks; from the north, the Kingdom of Hungary and the rebellious Bulgarians and Vlachs descended unchecked to ravage the Balkan provinces of the Empire, sometimes penetrating as far as Greece, while Alexios squandered the public treasure on his palaces and gardens and attempted to deal with the crisis through diplomatic means. The Emperor's attempts to bolster the empire's defences by special concessions to pronoiai (notables) in the frontier zone backfired, as the latter increased their regional autonomy. Byzantine authority survived, but in a much weakened state. In 1197, local lord Dobromir Chrysos established himself in the region of Vardar Macedonia, defying the imperial power for several years. + +During the first years of Alexios' reign, relations between Byzantium and Serbia were good, since his daughter Eudokia Angelina was married to Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanjić II, who was granted the title of sebastokrator. But in 1200, those relations deteriorated. The marriage between Stefan and Eudokia was dissolved, and the alliance between Serbia and Byzantium ended, leaving Byzantium without a single ally in Southeastern Europe. + +Fourth Crusade +Soon, Alexios was threatened by a new and more formidable danger. In 1202, soldiers assembled at Venice to launch the Fourth Crusade. Alexios IV Angelos, the son of the deposed Isaac II, had recently escaped from Constantinople and now appealed for support to the crusaders, promising to end the East–West Schism, to pay for their transport, and to provide military support if they would help him depose his uncle and ascend to his father's throne. + +The crusaders, whose objective had been Egypt, were persuaded to set their course for Constantinople, arriving there in June 1203, proclaiming Alexios IV as emperor, and inviting the populace of the capital to depose his uncle. Alexios III took no effective measures to resist, and his attempts to bribe the crusaders failed. His son-in-law, Theodore I Laskaris, who was the only one to attempt anything significant, was defeated at Scutari, and the siege of Constantinople began. Misgovernment by Alexios III had left the Byzantine navy with only 20 worm-eaten hulks by the time the crusaders arrived. + +In July, the crusaders, led by the aged Doge Enrico Dandolo, scaled the walls and took control of a major section of the city. In the ensuing fighting, the crusaders set the city on fire, ultimately leaving 20,000 people homeless. On 17 July, Alexios III finally took action and led 17 divisions from the Gate of St. Romanus, vastly outnumbering the crusaders. His courage failed, however, and the Byzantine army returned to the city without a fight. His courtiers demanded action, and Alexios III promised to fight. Instead, that night (17/18 July), Alexios III hid in the palace, and finally, with one of his daughters, Eirene, and as much treasure (1,000 pounds of gold) as he could collect, got into a boat and escaped to Develtos in Thrace, leaving his wife and his other daughters behind. Isaac II, drawn from his prison and robed once more in the imperial purple, received his son, Alexios IV, in state. + +Life in exile +Alexios III attempted to organize resistance to the new regime from Adrianople and then Mosynopolis, where he was joined by the later usurper Alexios V Doukas in April 1204, after the definitive fall of Constantinople to the crusaders and the establishment of the Latin Empire. At first, Alexios III received Alexios V well, even allowing him to marry his daughter Eudokia Angelina. Later, Alexios V was blinded and deserted by his father-in-law, who fled from the crusaders into Thessaly. Here Alexios III eventually surrendered, with Euphrosyne, to Marquis Boniface of Montferrat, who was establishing himself as ruler of the Kingdom of Thessalonica. + +Alexios III attempted to escape Boniface's "protection" in 1205, seeking shelter with Michael I Komnenos Doukas, the ruler of Epirus. Captured by Boniface, Alexios and his retinue were sent to Montferrat before being brought back to Thessalonica in . At that point the deposed emperor was ransomed by Michael I, who sent him to Asia Minor, where Alexios' son-in-law Theodore – now emperor of Nicaea – was holding his own against the Latins. Here Alexios conspired against his son-in-law after the latter refused to recognize Alexios' authority, receiving the support of Kaykhusraw I, the sultan of Rûm. In the Battle of Antioch on the Meander in 1211, the sultan was defeated and killed, and Alexios was captured by Theodore. Alexios was then confined to a monastery at Nicaea, where he died later in 1211. + +Family +By his marriage to Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera, Alexios had three daughters: + Eirene Angelina, who married (1) Andronikos Kontostephanos, and (2) Alexios Palaiologos, by whom she was the grandmother of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. + Anna Komnene Angelina, who married (1) the sebastokratōr Isaac Komnenos, great-nephew of emperor Manuel I Komnenos, and (2) Theodore I Laskaris, emperor of Nicaea. + Eudokia Angelina, who married (1) Serbian King Stefan Nemanjić II, then (2) Emperor Alexios V Doukas, and (3) Leo Sgouros, ruler of Corinth. + +See also + + List of Byzantine emperors + +Notes + +References + Michael Angold, The Byzantine Empire, 1025–1204: A Political History, 2nd ed., (London and New York, 1997) + + + + + + Jonathan Harris, Byzantium and the Crusades, (2nd ed. London and New York, 2014). + Jonathan Harris, Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (London and New York, 2007) + + + + + + +Angelid dynasty +12th-century Byzantine emperors +13th-century Byzantine emperors +Christians of the Crusade of 1197 +Christians of the Fourth Crusade +Alexios Angelos +Alexios Angelos +Year of birth uncertain +Eastern Orthodox monarchs +Monarchs taken prisoner in wartime +Sebastokrators +Alexios V Doukas (; – December 1204), in Latinised spelling Alexius V Ducas, was Byzantine emperor from February to April 1204, just prior to the sack of Constantinople by the participants of the Fourth Crusade. His family name was Doukas, but he was also known by the nickname Mourtzouphlos or Murtzuphlus (), referring to either bushy, overhanging eyebrows or a sullen, gloomy character. He achieved power through a palace coup, killing his predecessors in the process. Though he made vigorous attempts to defend Constantinople from the crusader army, his military efforts proved ineffective. His actions won the support of the mass of the populace, but he alienated the elite of the city. Following the fall, sack, and occupation of the city, Alexios V was blinded by his father-in-law, the ex-emperor Alexios III, and later executed by the new Latin regime. He was the last Byzantine emperor to rule in Constantinople until the Byzantine recapture of Constantinople in 1261. + +Origins and character + +Though in possession of the surname used by a leading Byzantine aristocratic family, there is very little definitely known concerning the ancestry of Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos. The noble Doukas clan were not the only Doukai, as the surname was also employed by many families of humble origins. It has been claimed that Alexios Doukas was a great-great-grandson of the emperor Alexios I Komnenos () in the female line (cognatic descent). This is not improbable, as all other Byzantine emperors, and the majority of attempted usurpers, of the period had a connection with the former imperial house of the Komnenoi, either by descent or marriage. A more precise theory has been proposed, that he was the son of an Isaac Doukas, and was the second cousin of Alexios IV Angelos (). A letter sent to Pope Innocent III, stated that Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos was 'a blood relation' of Alexios IV Angelos. + +The contemporary historian Niketas Choniates was dismissed from office as logothete of the sekreta by Mourtzouphlos. His assessment of the emperor's character might therefore be biased; however, Choniates allows that he was extremely clever by nature, though arrogant in his manner and lecherous. + +Political intrigues and usurpation + +The participation of Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos in the attempted overthrow of Alexios III Angelos () by John Komnenos the Fat in 1200 had led to his imprisonment. Mourtzouphlos was probably imprisoned from 1201 until the restoration to the throne of Isaac II Angelos (), the brother and predecessor of Alexios III. Isaac II, along with his son Alexios IV Angelos, were restored to the throne through the intervention of the leaders of the Fourth Crusade in July 1203. On release, Mourtzouphlos was invested with the court position of protovestiarios (head of the imperial finances). He had been married twice but was allegedly the lover of Eudokia Angelina, a daughter of Alexios III. + +By the beginning of 1204, Isaac II and Alexios IV had inspired little confidence among the people of Constantinople with their efforts to protect the city from the Latin crusaders and their Venetian allies, and the citizens were becoming restless. The crusaders were also losing patience with the emperors; they rioted and set fires in the city when the money and aid promised by Alexios IV was not forthcoming. The fires affected about a sixth of the area of Constantinople and may have made up to a third of the population homeless; the dislocation and desperation of those affected eventually sapped the will of the people to resist the crusaders. Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos emerged as a leader of the anti-Latin movement in the city. He won the approval of the populace by his valour in leading an attack on the Latins at "Trypetos Lithos"; in this clash his mount stumbled and he would have been killed or captured had a band of youthful archers from the city not defended him. Mourtzouphlos exploited the hatred of the people for the Latins to serve his personal ambition. + +The citizens of Constantinople rebelled in late January 1204, and in the chaos an otherwise obscure nobleman named Nicholas Kanabos was acclaimed emperor, though he was unwilling to accept the crown. The two co-emperors barricaded themselves in the Palace of Blachernae and entrusted Mourtzouphlos with a mission to seek help from the crusaders, or at least they informed him of their intentions. Instead of contacting the crusaders, Mourtzouphlos, on the night of 28–29 January 1204, used his access to the palace to bribe the "ax-bearers" (the Varangian Guard), and with their backing arrest the emperors. Choniates states that Mourtzouphlos, when bribing the guards, had the help of a eunuch with access to the imperial treasury. The support of the Varangians seems to have been of major importance in the success of the coup, though Mourtzouphlos also had help from his relations and associates. The young Alexios IV was eventually strangled in prison; while his father Isaac, both enfeebled and blind, died at around the time of the coup, his death variously attributed to fright, sorrow, or mistreatment. Kanabos was initially spared and offered an office under Alexios V, but he refused both this and a further summons from the emperor and took sanctuary in the Hagia Sophia; he was forcibly removed and killed on the steps of the cathedral. + +Emperor + +The timing of the deaths of the deposed emperors and of Kanabos, and their relation to the coronation of Alexios V are problematic. Alexios V appears to have been acclaimed emperor as early as the night he moved against the Angeloi co-emperors, on 27 January. He was crowned soon after, on or around 5 February. + +Finding the treasury empty, the new emperor confiscated money from the aristocracy and high officials to be put to public use. These actions endeared Alexios V to the citizens, but alienated his relations and other prominent supporters. Once in firm control, Alexios V closed the gates of the city to the crusaders and strengthened the fortifications. Sword in hand, he was active in leading attacks on sorties made by the crusaders in search of supplies. On 2 February, Henry of Flanders led a part of the crusader army to Filea (or Phileas), in order to obtain food supplies. As he returned towards Constantinople, Alexios V attacked his rearguard. The Byzantines were defeated, the imperial standard and an important icon of the Virgin (the Panagia Nikopoios) were captured. The Byzantines lost some of their best soldiers in the clash, and Alexios V was lucky to escape alive. At about this time Alexios V attempted to destroy the crusader fleet with fire-ships, but to little effect. + +The loss of the icon, traditionally seen as a physical embodiment of divine protection for the city, was a severe psychological blow. Its possession by the crusaders convinced many of the population of Constantinople that the victory of the Westerners was now divinely sanctioned, as a punishment for the sins of the Byzantines. + +Around 8 February, Alexios V met the Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, for peace talks. The conditions demanded by the Venetian, however, were too harsh for the Byzantines to consider. Choniates states that the meeting was brought to a close by a sudden attack by crusader cavalry on Alexios V and his entourage, the emperor narrowly escaping capture. Alexios IV was probably killed the same day; the insistence by the crusaders that he be restored to the throne may have precipitated his death. When news of the death of Alexios IV reached the crusaders, relations between them and Alexios V deteriorated further. The forcible expulsion of all Latins resident in Constantinople in March seems to have been the tipping point which led the crusaders to begin actively negotiating amongst themselves regarding the partition of the Byzantine Empire. They also began to prepare for their final assault on the city, which took place the following month. + +The fall of Constantinople, flight and death +The defenders of Constantinople held out against a crusader assault on 9 April. The crusaders' second attack three days later, however, proved too strong to repel. Breaking through the walls near the Petria Gate, the crusaders entered the city and looted the Blachernae Palace. Alexios V attempted to rally the people to the defence of the city, but with no success. Alexios V then boarded a fishing boat and fled the city towards Thrace on the night of 12 April 1204, accompanied by Eudokia Angelina and her mother Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera. In the Hagia Sophia Constantine Laskaris was acclaimed as emperor, but being unable to persuade the Varangians to continue the fight, in the early hours of 13 April he also fled, leaving Constantinople under crusader control. + +Alexios V and his companions eventually reached Mosynopolis, which had been occupied by the deposed emperor Alexios III Angelos and his followers. At first they were well received, with Alexios V marrying Eudokia Angelina. Later, however, Alexios III arranged for his new son-in-law to be made captive and blinded, thereby rendering him ineligible for the imperial throne. Having been abandoned by both his supporters and his father-in-law, Alexios V was captured near Mosynopolis, or possibly in Anatolia, by the advancing Latins under Thierry de Loos in November 1204. On his return to Constantinople as a prisoner, Alexios V was tried for treason against Alexios IV. In his trial the blind ex-emperor argued that it was Alexios IV who had committed treason to his country, through his intention to invite the crusaders to enter Constantinople in force. On being condemned, he was executed by novel means: he was thrown to his death from the top of the Column of Theodosius. + +The new, alien, Latin regime of conquerors in Constantinople may have viewed the public trial and execution of the man who murdered the last "legitimate emperor" as a way to cast an aura of legitimacy on themselves. Alexios V was the last Byzantine Emperor to reign in Constantinople before the establishment of the Latin Empire, which controlled the city for the next 57 years, until it was recovered by the Nicaean Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261. + +See also + +List of Byzantine emperors +Sack of Constantinople (1204) + +References + +Bibliography +Akropolites, G. The History, trans. Ruth Macrides (2007) Oxford University Press + +Falk, A. (2010) Franks and Saracens: Reality and Fantasy in the Crusades, Karnac Books +Giarenis, I. (2017) "The Crisis of the Fourth Crusade in Byzantium (1203–1204) and the Emergence of Networks for Anti-Latin Reaction and Political Action", Mediterranean World, 23, pp. 73–80. +Head, C. (1980) "Physical Descriptions of the Emperors in Byzantine Historical Writing", Byzantion, Vol. 50, No. 1 (1980), Peeters Publishers, pp. 226–240 +Hendrickx, B. and Matzukis, C. (1979) "Alexios V Doukas Mourtzouphlos: His Life, Reign and Death (?–1204)", in Hellenika (Έλληνικά) 31: 111–117 +Madden, T.F. (1992) "The Fires of the Fourth Crusade in Constantinople, 1203- 1204: A Damage Assessment", Byzantinische Zeitschrift, lxxxiv–v, pp. 72–93. +Madden, T.F. (1995) "Outside and Inside the Fourth Crusade", The International History Review, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Nov., 1995), Taylor and Francis, pp. 726–743 + +Further reading + Jonathan Harris, Byzantium and the Crusades (London and New York, 2nd ed., 2014). + + Jonathan Phillips (2004). The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople (London and New York, 2004) + + +Alexios Doukas +Alexios Doukas +12th-century Byzantine people +13th-century Byzantine emperors +Angelid dynasty +Blind royalty and nobility +Greek blind people +Byzantine prisoners and detainees +Christians of the Fourth Crusade +Deaths from falls +Doukas family +Executed Byzantine people +Executed monarchs +Leaders who took power by coup +Eastern Orthodox monarchs +Monarchs taken prisoner in wartime +People executed for treason +Protovestiarioi +Grand Duke Alexei Petrovich of Russia (28 February 1690 – 26 June 1718) was a Russian Tsarevich. He was born in Moscow, the son of Tsar Peter I and his first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina. Alexei despised his father and repeatedly thwarted Peter's plans to raise him as successor to the throne, to continue his policies. His brief defection to Austria scandalized the Russian government, leading to harsh reprisals against Alexei and his associates. Alexei died after interrogation under torture, and his younger half brother Peter Petrovich became the new heir apparent. + +Childhood +The young Alexei was brought up by his mother, who fostered an atmosphere of disdain towards his father, the Tsar. Alexei's relations with his father suffered from the hatred between his father and his mother, as it was very difficult for him to feel affection for his mother's worst persecutor. From the ages of 6 to 9, Alexei was educated by his tutor Vyazemsky, but after the removal of his mother by Peter the Great to the Suzdal Intercession Convent, Alexei was confined to the care of educated foreigners, who taught him history, geography, mathematics and French. + +Military career +In 1703, Alexei was ordered to follow the army to the field as a private in an artillery regiment. In 1704, he was present at the capture of Narva. At this period, the preceptors of the Tsarevich had the highest opinion of his ability. Alexei had strong leanings towards archaeology and ecclesiology. However, Peter had wished his son and heir to dedicate himself to the service of new Russia, and demanded from him unceasing labour in order to maintain Russia's new wealth and power. Painful relations between father and son, quite apart from the prior personal antipathies, were therefore inevitable. It was an additional misfortune for Alexei that his father should have been too busy to attend to him just as he was growing up from boyhood to manhood. He was left in the hands of reactionary boyars and priests, who encouraged him to hate his father and wish for the death of the Tsar. + +In 1708, Peter sent Alexei to Smolensk to collect supplies and recruits, and after that to Moscow to fortify it against Charles XII of Sweden. At the end of 1709, Alexei went to Dresden for one year. There, he finished lessons in French, German, mathematics and fortification. After his education, Alexei married Princess Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, whose family was connected by marriage to many of the great families of Europe (for example, Charlotte's sister Elizabeth was married to Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, ruler of the Habsburg monarchy). He met with Princess Charlotte, both were pleased with each other and the marriage went forward. In theory, Alexei could have refused the marriage, and he had been encouraged by his father to at least meet his intended. "Why haven't you written to tell me what you thought about her?" wrote Peter in a letter dated 13 August 1710. + +The marriage contract was signed in September. The wedding was celebrated at Torgau, Germany, on 14 October 1711 (O.S.). One of the terms of the marriage contract agreed to by Alexei was that while any forthcoming children were to be raised in the Orthodox faith, Charlotte herself was allowed to retain her Protestant faith, an agreement opposed by Alexei's followers. + +As for the marriage itself, the first 6 months went well but quickly became a failure within the next 6 months. Alexei was drunk constantly and pronounced his bride "pock-marked" and "too thin". He insisted on separate apartments and ignored her in public. + +Three weeks later, the bridegroom was hurried away by his father to Toruń to superintend the provisioning of the Russian troops in Poland. For the next twelve months Alexei was kept constantly on the move. His wife joined him at Toruń in December, but in April 1712 a peremptory ukase ordered him off to the army in Pomerania, and in the autumn of the same year he was forced to accompany his father on a tour of inspection through Finland. + +He had two children with Charlotte: +Natalia Alexeievna Romanova (21 July 1714 – 3 December 1728) +Peter Alexeyevich Romanov (23 October 1715 – 30 January 1730) + +Peter Alexeyevich would succeed as the Emperor Peter II in 1727. With his death in 1730, the direct male-line of the House of Romanov became extinct. + +After the birth of Natalia in 1714, Alexei brought his long-time Finnish serf mistress Afrosinia to live in the palace. Some historians speculate that it was his conservative powerbase's disapproval of his foreign, non-Orthodox bride, more so than her appearance, that caused Alexei to spurn Charlotte. Another influence was Alexander Kikin, a high-placed official who had fallen out with the Tsar and had been deprived of his estates. + +Flight +Immediately on his return from Finland, Alexei was dispatched by his father to Staraya Russa and Lake Ladoga to see to the building of new ships. This was the last commission entrusted to him, since Peter had not been satisfied with his son's performance and his lack of enthusiasm. When Peter asked Alexei to show his progress in mechanics and mathematics, the son responded by shooting himself in the right hand, and Peter took no more interest in him. Nevertheless, Peter made one last effort to reclaim his son. On 22 October 1715 (O.S.), Charlotte died, after giving birth to a son, the grand-duke Peter, the future Emperor Peter II. On the day of the funeral, Peter sent Alexei a stern letter, urging him to take interest in the affairs of the state. Peter threatened to cut him off if he did not acquiesce in his father's plans. Alexei wrote a pitiful reply to his father, offering to renounce the succession in favour of his infant son Peter. Peter would agree but on the condition that Alexei remove himself as a dynastic threat and become a monk. + +While Alexei was pondering his options, on 26 August 1716 Peter wrote from abroad, urging him, if he desired to remain tsarevich, to join him and the army without delay. Rather than face this ordeal, Alexei fled to Vienna and placed himself under the protection of his brother-in-law, the emperor Charles VI, who sent him for safety first to the Tirolean fortress of Ehrenberg (near Reutte), and finally to the castle of Sant'Elmo at Naples. He was accompanied throughout his journey by Afrosinia. That the emperor sincerely sympathized with Alexei, and suspected Peter of harbouring murderous designs against his son, is plain from his confidential letter to George I of Great Britain, whom he consulted on this delicate affair. Peter felt insulted: the flight of the tsarevich to a foreign potentate was a reproach and a scandal, and he had to be recovered and brought back to Russia at all costs. This difficult task was accomplished by Count Peter Tolstoi, the most subtle and unscrupulous of Peter's servants. + +Return + +Alexei would only consent to return if his father swore that if he came back, he would not be punished and would be allowed to live quietly on his estates and marry Afrosinia. +On 31 January 1718, the tsarevich reached Moscow. Peter had already determined to institute an inquisition in order to understand the reasons for Alexei's flight. On 18 February a confession was extorted from Alexei which implicated most of his friends, and he then publicly renounced the succession to the throne in favour of the baby grand-duke Peter Alexeyevich. + +A brutal reign of terror ensued, in the course of which the ex-tsaritsa Eudoxia was dragged from her monastery and publicly tried for alleged adultery. Friends of Alexei were impaled, broken on the wheel, or otherwise tortured to death. Alexei's servants were beheaded or had their tongues cut out. All this was done to terrorize the reactionaries and isolate the tsarevich. + +In April 1718 fresh confessions were extorted from, and in regard to, Alexei. This included the words of Afrosinia, who had turned state's evidence. "I shall bring back the old people ...", Alexei is reported to have told her, +and choose myself new ones according to my will; +when I become sovereign I shall live in Moscow and leave Saint Petersburg simply as any other town; I won't launch any ships; I shall maintain troops only for defense, and won't make war on anyone; I shall be content with the old domains. In winter I shall live in Moscow, and in summer in Iaroslavl. + +Despite this and other hearsay evidence, there was no direct evidence. The worst that could be brought against him was that he had wished his father's death. In the eyes of Peter, his son was now a self-convicted and dangerous traitor, whose life was forfeit. However, his father had sworn to pardon him and let him live in peace if he returned to Russia. The whole matter was solemnly submitted to a grand council of prelates, senators, ministers and other dignitaries on 13 June 1718 (O.S.). The clergy, for their part, declared that the Tsarevich Alexei + +... had placed his Confidence in those who loved the ancient Customs, and that he had become acquainted with them by the Discourses they held, wherein they had constantly praised the ancient Manners, and spoke with Distaste of the Novelties his Father had introduced. + +Declaring this to be a civil rather than an ecclesiastical matter, the clergy left the matter to the tsar's own decision. + +At noon on 24 June (O.S.), the temporal dignitaries – the 126 members of both the Senate and magistrates that comprised the court – declared Alexei guilty and sentenced him to death. Still, Peter was so desperate to uncover any possible collusion that the examination by torture continued. + +On 19 June (O.S.), the weak and ailing tsarevich received twenty-five strokes with the knout, and then, on 24 June (O.S.), he was subject to fifteen more. On 26 June (O.S.), Alexei died in the Peter and Paul fortress in Saint Petersburg, two days after the senate had condemned him to death for conspiring rebellion against his father, and for hoping for the cooperation of the common people and the armed intervention of his brother-in-law, Emperor Charles VI. + +Ancestry + +References + +Attribution: + +Further reading + Grey, Ian. "Peter the Great and the Tsarevich Alexei" History Today (Nov 1974), Vol. 24 Issue 11, pp 754–764, online. +Matthew S. Anderson, Peter the Great (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978). +Robert Nisbet Bain, The First Romanovs 1613–1725 (London, 1905). +Robert K. Massie, Peter the Great, His Life and World (New York: Ballantine, 1981). +B.H. Sumner, Peter the Great and the Emergence of Russia (London: 1950), pp 91–100. +Fredrick Charles Weber, The Present State of Russia (2 vols.), (1723; reprint, London: Frank Cass and Co, 1968). +Lindsey Hughes, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998). + Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Romanovs 1613–1918 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016). + +External links + +1690 births +1718 deaths +Royalty from Moscow +House of Romanov +Heirs apparent who never acceded +Prisoners who died in Russian detention +Russian people who died in prison custody +17th-century Russian people +18th-century people from the Russian Empire +Tsareviches of Russia +Burials at Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg +Sons of emperors +Prisoners of the Peter and Paul Fortress +Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. Although often praised as an advocate for ordinary Americans and for his work in preserving the union of states, Jackson has also been criticized for his racial policies, particularly his treatment of Native Americans. + +Jackson was born in the colonial Carolinas before the American Revolutionary War. He became a frontier lawyer and married Rachel Donelson Robards. He briefly served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, representing Tennessee. After resigning, he served as a justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1798 until 1804. Jackson purchased a property later known as the Hermitage, becoming a wealthy planter who owned hundreds of African American slaves during his lifetime. In 1801, he was appointed colonel of the Tennessee militia and was elected its commander the following year. He led troops during the Creek War of 1813–1814, winning the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. The subsequent Treaty of Fort Jackson required the indigenous Creek population to surrender vast tracts of present-day Alabama and Georgia. In the concurrent war against the British, Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 made him a national hero. He later commanded U.S. forces in the First Seminole War, which led to the annexation of Florida from Spain. Jackson briefly served as Florida's first territorial governor before returning to the Senate. He ran for president in 1824, winning a plurality of the popular and electoral vote, but no candidate won an electoral majority. In a contingent election, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams with Henry Clay's support. Jackson's supporters alleged that there was a "corrupt bargain" between Adams and Clay and began creating their own political organization that would eventually become the Democratic Party. + +Jackson ran again in 1828, defeating Adams in a landslide. In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act. This act, which has been described as ethnic cleansing, displaced tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands east of the Mississippi and resulted in thousands of deaths. Under Jackson, the integrity of the federal union was challenged when South Carolina threatened to nullify a high protective tariff set by the federal government. He threatened the use of military force to enforce the tariff, but the crisis was defused when it was amended. In 1832, he vetoed a bill by Congress to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States, arguing that it was a corrupt institution that benefited the wealthy. After a lengthy struggle, he and his allies dismantled the Bank. In 1835, Jackson became the only president to pay off the national debt. He also survived the first assassination attempt on a sitting president. In one of his final presidential acts, he recognized the Republic of Texas. + +In his retirement, Jackson stayed active in politics. He supported the presidencies of Martin Van Buren and James K. Polk, as well as the annexation of Texas, which was accomplished shortly before his death. Jackson's legacy remains controversial, and opinions on him are frequently polarized. Supporters characterize him as a defender of democracy and the Constitution, while critics point to his reputation as a demagogue who ignored the law when it suited him. Scholars and historians have consistently ranked Jackson's presidency as significantly above-average, although his reputation among experts has declined since the late 20th century. + +Early life and education +Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws region of the Carolinas. His parents were Scots-Irish colonists Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth Hutchinson, Presbyterians who had emigrated from Ulster, Ireland, in 1765. Jackson's father was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, around 1738, and his ancestors had crossed into Northern Ireland from Scotland after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Jackson had two older brothers who came with his parents from Ireland, Hugh (born 1763) and Robert (born 1764). + +Jackson's exact birthplace is unclear. Jackson's father died at the age of 29 in a logging accident while clearing land in February 1767, three weeks before his son Andrew was born. Afterwards, Elizabeth and her three sons moved in with her sister and brother-in-law, Jane and James Crawford. Jackson later stated that he was born on the Crawford plantation, which is in Lancaster County, South Carolina, but second-hand evidence suggests that he might have been born at another uncle's home in North Carolina. + +When Jackson was young, Elizabeth thought he might become a minister and paid to have him schooled by a local clergyman. He learned to read, write, work with numbers, and was exposed to Greek and Latin, but he was too strong-willed and hot-tempered for the ministry. + +Revolutionary War + +Jackson and his older brothers, Hugh and Robert, served on the Patriot side against British forces during the American Revolutionary War. Hugh served under Colonel William Richardson Davie, dying from heat exhaustion after the Battle of Stono Ferry in June 1779. After anti-British sentiment intensified in the Southern Colonies following the Waxhaws Massacre in May 1780, Elizabeth encouraged Andrew and Robert to participate in militia drills. They served as couriers and scouts, and participated with Davie in the Battle of Hanging Rock in August 1780. + +Andrew and Robert were captured in April 1781 when the British occupied the home of a Crawford relative. A British officer demanded to have his boots polished. Andrew refused, and the major slashed him with a sword, leaving him with scars on his left hand and head. Robert also refused and was struck a blow on the head. The brothers were taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Camden, South Carolina, where they became malnourished and contracted smallpox. In late spring, the brothers were released to their mother in a prisoner exchange. Robert died two days after arriving home, but Elizabeth was able to nurse Andrew back to health. Once he recovered, Elizabeth volunteered to nurse American prisoners of war housed in British prison ships in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. She contracted cholera and died soon afterwards. The war not only made Jackson an orphan at age 14, but led him to despise values he associated with Britain, in particular aristocracy and political privilege. + +Early career + +Legal career and marriage + +After the American Revolutionary War, Jackson worked as a saddler, briefly returned to school, and taught reading and writing to children. In 1784, he left the Waxhaws region for Salisbury, North Carolina, where he studied law under attorney Spruce Macay. He completed his training under John Stokes, and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in September 1787. Shortly thereafter, his friend John McNairy helped him get appointed as a prosecuting attorney in the Western District of North Carolina, which would later become the state of Tennessee. While traveling to assume his new position, Jackson stopped in Jonesborough. While there, he bought his first slave, a woman who was around his age. He also fought his first duel, accusing another lawyer, Waightstill Avery, of impugning his character. The duel ended with both men firing in the air. + +Jackson began his new career in the frontier town of Nashville in 1788 and quickly moved up in social status. He became a protégé of William Blount, one of the most powerful men in the territory. Jackson was appointed attorney general of the Mero District in 1791 and judge-advocate for the militia the following year. He also got involved in land speculation, eventually forming a partnership with fellow lawyer John Overton. Their partnership mainly dealt with claims made under a "land grab" act of 1783 that opened Cherokee and Chickasaw territory to North Carolina's white residents. + +While boarding at the home of Rachel Stockly Donelson, the widow of John Donelson, Jackson became acquainted with their daughter, Rachel Donelson Robards. The younger Rachel was in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards, and the two were separated by 1789. After the separation, Jackson and Rachel became romantically involved, living together as husband and wife. Robards petitioned for divorce, which was granted on the basis of Rachel's infidelity. The couple legally married in January 1794. In 1796, they acquired their first plantation, Hunter's Hill, on of land near Nashville. + +Early public career +Jackson became a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, the dominant party in Tennessee. He was elected as a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1796. When Tennessee achieved statehood that year, he was elected to be its U.S. representative. In Congress, Jackson argued against the Jay Treaty, criticized George Washington for allegedly removing Democratic-Republicans from public office, and joined several other Democratic-Republican congressmen in voting against a resolution of thanks for Washington. He advocated for the right of Tennesseans to militarily oppose Native American interests. The state legislature elected him to be a U.S. senator in 1797, but he resigned after serving only six months. + +Upon returning to Tennessee, Jackson was elected as a judge of the Tennessee superior court. +In 1802, he also became major general, or commander, of the Tennessee militia, a position that was determined by a vote of the militia's officers. The vote was tied between Jackson and John Sevier, a popular Revolutionary War veteran and former governor, but the governor, Archibald Roane, broke the tie in Jackson's favor. Jackson later accused Sevier of fraud and bribery. Sevier responded by impugning Rachel's honor, resulting in a shootout on a public street. Soon afterwards, they met to duel, but parted without having fired at each other. + +Planting career and slavery + +Jackson resigned his judgeship in 1804. He had almost gone bankrupt when the credit he used for land speculation collapsed in the wake of an earlier financial panic. He had to sell Hunter's Hill, as well as of land he bought for speculation, and bought a smaller plantation near Nashville that he would call the Hermitage. He focused on recovering from his losses by becoming a successful planter and merchant. The Hermitage would grow to , making it one of the largest cotton-growing plantations in the state. + +Like most planters in the Southern United States, Jackson used slave labor. In 1804, Jackson had nine African American slaves; by 1820, he had over 100; and by his death in 1845, he had over 150. Over his lifetime, he owned a total of 300 slaves. Jackson subscribed to the paternalistic idea of slavery, which claimed that slave ownership was morally acceptable as long as slaves were treated with humanity and their basic needs were cared for. In practice, slaves were treated as a form of wealth whose productivity needed to be protected. Jackson directed harsh punishment for slaves who disobeyed or ran away. For example, in an 1804 advertisement to recover a runaway slave, he offered "ten dollars extra, for every hundred lashes any person will give him" up to three hundred lashes—a number that would likely have been deadly. Jackson also participated in the local slave trade. Over time, his accumulation of wealth in both slaves and land placed him among the elite families of Tennessee. + +Duel with Dickinson and adventure with Burr +In May 1806, Jackson fought a duel with Charles Dickinson. They had gotten into an argument over a horse race, and Dickinson allegedly uttered a slur against Rachel. During the duel, Dickinson fired first, and the bullet hit Jackson in the chest. The wound was not life-threatening because the bullet had shattered against his breastbone. Jackson returned fire and killed Dickinson. The killing tarnished Jackson's reputation. + +Later in the year, Jackson became involved in former vice president Aaron Burr's plan to conquer Spanish Florida and drive the Spanish from Texas. Burr, who was touring what was then the Western United States after mortally wounding Alexander Hamilton in a duel, stayed with the Jacksons at the Hermitage in 1805. He eventually persuaded Jackson to join his adventure. In October 1806, Jackson wrote James Winchester that the United States "can conquer not only [Florida], but all Spanish North America". He informed the Tennessee militia that it should be ready to march at a moment's notice "when the government and constituted authority of our country require it", and agreed to provide boats and provisions for the expedition. Jackson sent a letter to President Thomas Jefferson telling him that Tennessee was ready to defend the nation's honor. + +Jackson also expressed uncertainty about the enterprise. He warned the Governor of Louisiana William Claiborne and Tennessee Senator Daniel Smith that some of the people involved in the adventure might be intending to break away from the United States. In December, Jefferson ordered Burr to be arrested for treason. Jackson, safe from arrest because of his extensive paper trail, organized the militia to capture the conspirators. He testified before a grand jury in 1807, implying that it was Burr's associate James Wilkinson who was guilty of treason, not Burr. Burr was acquitted of the charges. + +Military career + +War of 1812 + +Creek War + +On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on the United Kingdom. Though the War of 1812 was primarily caused by maritime issues, the war provided the white settlers on the southern frontier the opportunity to overcome Native American resistance to settlement, undermine British support of the Native American tribes, and pry Florida from the Spanish. + +Jackson immediately offered to raise volunteers for the war, but he was not called to duty until after the United States military was repeatedly defeated in the American Northwest. After these defeats, in January 1813, Jackson enlisted over 2,000 volunteers, who were ordered to head to New Orleans to defend against a British attack. When his forces arrived at Natchez, they were ordered to halt by General Wilkinson, the commander at New Orleans and the man Jackson accused of treason after the Burr adventure. A little later, Jackson received a letter from the Secretary of War, John Armstrong, stating that his volunteers were not needed, and that they were to hand over any supplies to Wilkinson and disband. Jackson refused to disband his troops; instead, he led them on the difficult march back to Nashville, earning the nickname "Hickory" (later "Old Hickory") for his toughness. + +After returning to Nashville, Jackson and one of his colonels, John Coffee, got into a street brawl over honor with the brothers Jesse and Thomas Hart Benton. Nobody was killed, but Jackson received a gunshot in the shoulder that nearly killed him. + +Jackson had not fully recovered from his wounds when Governor Willie Blount called out the militia in September 1813 following the August Fort Mims Massacre. The Red Sticks, a confederate faction that had allied with Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief who was fighting with the British against the United States, killed about 250 militia men and civilians at Fort Mims in retaliation for an ambush by American militia at Burnt Corn Creek. + +Jackson's objective was to destroy the Red Sticks. He headed south from Fayetteville, Tennessee, in October with 2,500 militia, establishing Fort Strother as his supply base. He sent his cavalry under General Coffee ahead of the main force, destroying Red Stick villages and capturing supplies. Coffee defeated a band of Red Sticks at the Battle of Tallushatchee on November 3, and Jackson defeated another band later that month at the Battle of Talladega. + +By January 1814, the expiration of enlistments and desertion had reduced Jackson's force by about 1,000 volunteers, but he continued the offensive. The Red Sticks counterattacked at the Battles of Emuckfaw and Enotachopo Creek. Jackson repelled them but was forced to withdraw to Fort Strother. Jackson's army was reinforced by further recruitment and the addition of a regular army unit, the 39th U.S. Infantry Regiment. The combined force of 3,000 men—including Cherokee, Choctaw, and Creek allies—attacked a Red Stick fort at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River, which was manned by about 1,000 men. The Red Sticks were overwhelmed and massacred. Almost all their warriors were killed, and nearly 300 women and children were taken prisoner and distributed to Jackson's Native American allies. The victory broke the power of the Red Sticks. Jackson continued his scorched-earth campaign of burning villages, destroying supplies, and starving Red Stick women and children. The campaign ended when William Weatherford, the Red Stick leader, surrendered, although some Red Sticks fled to East Florida. + +On June 8, Jackson was appointed a brigadier general in the United States Army, and 10 days later was made a brevet major general with command of the Seventh Military District, which included Tennessee, Louisiana, the Mississippi Territory, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy. With President James Madison's approval, Jackson imposed the Treaty of Fort Jackson. The treaty required all Creek, including those who had remained allies, to surrender of land to the United States. + +Jackson then turned his attention to the British and Spanish. He moved his forces to Mobile, Alabama, in August, accused the Spanish governor of West Florida, Mateo González Manrique, of arming the Red Sticks, and threatened to attack. The governor responded by inviting the British to land at Pensacola to defend it, which violated Spanish neutrality. The British attempted to capture Mobile, but their invasion fleet was repulsed at Fort Bowyer. Jackson then invaded Florida, defeating the Spanish and British forces at the Battle of Pensacola on November 7. Afterwards, the Spanish surrendered and the British withdrew. Weeks later, Jackson learned that the British were planning an attack on New Orleans, which was the gateway to the Lower Mississippi River and control of the American West. He evacuated Pensacola, strengthened the garrison at Mobile, and led his troops to New Orleans. + +Battle of New Orleans + +Jackson arrived in New Orleans on December 1, 1814. There he instituted martial law because he worried about the loyalty of the city's Creole and Spanish inhabitants. He augmented his force by forming an alliance with Jean Lafitte's smugglers and raising units of free African Americans and Creek, paying non-white volunteers the same salary as whites. This gave Jackson a force of about 5,000 men when the British arrived. + +The British arrived in New Orleans in mid-December. Admiral Alexander Cochrane was the overall commander of the operation; General Edward Pakenham commanded the army of 10,000 soldiers, many of whom had served in the Napoleonic Wars. As the British advanced up the east bank of the Mississippi River, Jackson constructed a fortified position to block them. The climactic battle took place on January 8 when the British launched a frontal assault. Their troops made easy targets for the Americans protected by their parapets, and the attack ended in disaster. The British suffered over 2,000 casualties (including Pakenham) to the Americans' 60. + +The British decamped from New Orleans at the end of January, but they still remained a threat. Jackson refused to lift martial law and kept the militia under arms. He approved the execution of six militiamen for desertion. Some Creoles registered as French citizens with the French consul and demanded to be discharged from the militia due to their foreign nationality. Jackson then ordered all French citizens to leave the city within three days, and had a member of the Louisiana legislature, Louis Louaillier, arrested when he wrote a newspaper article criticizing Jackson's continuation of martial law. U.S. District Court Judge Dominic A. Hall signed a writ of habeas corpus for Louaillier's release. Jackson had Hall arrested too. A military court ordered Louaillier's release, but Jackson kept him in prison and evicted Hall from the city. Although Jackson lifted martial law when he received official word that the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war with the British, had been signed, his previous behavior tainted his reputation in New Orleans. + +Jackson's victory made him a national hero, and on February 27, 1815, he was given the Thanks of Congress and awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. Though the Treaty of Ghent had been signed in December 1814 before the Battle of New Orleans was fought, Jackson's victory assured that the United States control of the region between Mobile and New Orleans would not be effectively contested by European powers. This control allowed the American government to ignore one of the articles in the treaty, which would have returned the Creek lands taken in the Treaty of Fort Jackson. + +First Seminole War + +Following the war, Jackson remained in command of troops in the southern half of the United States and was permitted to make his headquarters at the Hermitage. Jackson continued to displace the Native Americans in areas under his command. Despite resistance from Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford, he signed five treaties between 1816 and 1820 in which the Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw ceded tens of millions of acres of land to the United States. These included the Treaty of Tuscaloosa and the Treaty of Doak's Stand. + +Jackson soon became embroiled in conflict in the Floridas. The former British post at Prospect Bluff, which became known to Americans as "the Negro fort", remained occupied by more than a thousand former soldiers of the British Royal and Colonial Marines, escaped slaves, and various indigenous peoples. It had become a magnet for escapees and was seen as a threat to the property rights of American enslavers, even a potential source of insurrection by enslaved people. Jackson ordered Colonel Duncan Clinch to capture the fort in July 1816. He destroyed it and killed many of the garrison. Some survivors were enslaved while others fled into the wilderness of Florida. + +In addition, white settlers were in constant conflict with Native American people collectively known as the Seminoles, who straddled the border between the U.S. and Florida. In December 1817, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun initiated the First Seminole War by ordering Jackson to lead a campaign "with full power to conduct the war as he may think best". Jackson believed the best way to do this was to seize Florida from Spain once and for all. Before departing, Jackson wrote to President James Monroe, "Let it be signified to me through any channel ... that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished." + +Jackson invaded Florida, captured the Spanish fort of St. Marks, and occupied Pensacola. Seminole and Spanish resistance was effectively ended by May 1818. He also captured two British agents, Robert Ambrister and Alexander Arbuthnot, who had been working with the Seminoles. After a brief trial, Jackson executed both of them, causing a diplomatic incident with the British. Jackson's actions polarized Monroe's cabinet. The occupied territories were returned to Spain. Calhoun wanted him censured for violating the Constitution, since the United States had not declared war on Spain. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams defended him as he thought Jackson's occupation of Pensacola would lead Spain to sell Florida, which Spain did in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. In February 1819, a congressional investigation exonerated Jackson, and his victory was instrumental in convincing the Seminoles to sign the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823, which surrendered much of their land in Florida. + +Presidential aspirations + +Election of 1824 + +The Panic of 1819, the United States' first prolonged financial depression, caused Congress to reduce the military's size and abolish Jackson's generalship. In compensation, Monroe made him the first territorial governor of Florida in 1821. He served as the governor for two months, returning to the Hermitage in ill health. During his convalescence, Jackson, who had been a Freemason since at least 1798, became the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee for 1822–1823. Around this time, he also completed negotiations for Tennessee to purchase Chickasaw lands. This became known as the Jackson Purchase. Jackson, Overton, and another colleague had speculated in some of the land and used their portion to found the town of Memphis. + +In 1822, Jackson agreed to run in the 1824 presidential election, and he was nominated by the Tennessee legislature in July. At the time, the Federalist Party had collapsed, and there were four major contenders for the Democratic-Republican Party nomination: William Crawford, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. Jackson was intended to be a stalking horse candidate to prevent Tennessee's electoral votes from going to Crawford, who was seen as a Washington insider. Unexpectedly, Jackson garnered popular support outside of Tennessee and became a serious candidate. He benefited from the expansion of suffrage among white males that followed the conclusion of the War of 1812. He was a popular war hero whose reputation suggested he had the decisiveness and independence to bring reform to Washington. He also was promoted as an outsider who stood for all the people, blaming banks for the country's depression. + +During his presidential candidacy, Jackson reluctantly ran for one of Tennessee's U.S. Senate seats. Jackson's political managers William Berkeley Lewis and John Eaton convinced him that he needed to defeat incumbent John Williams, who opposed him. The legislature elected Jackson in October 1823. He was attentive to his senatorial duties. He was appointed chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, but avoided debate or initiating legislation. He used his time in the Senate to form alliances and make peace with old adversaries. Eaton continued to campaign for Jackson's presidency, updating his biography and writing a series of widely circulated pseudonymous letters that portrayed Jackson as a champion of republican liberty. + +Democratic-Republican presidential nominees had historically been chosen by informal congressional nominating caucuses. In 1824, most of the Democratic-Republicans in Congress boycotted the caucus, and the power to choose nominees was shifting to state nominating committees and legislatures. Jackson was nominated by a Pennsylvania convention, making him not merely a regional candidate but the leading national contender. When Jackson won the Pennsylvania nomination, Calhoun dropped out of the presidential race. Afterwards, Jackson won the nomination in six other states and had a strong second-place finish in three others. + +In the presidential election, Jackson won a 42-percent plurality of the popular vote. More importantly, he won a plurality of electoral votes, receiving 99 votes from states in the South, West, and Mid-Atlantic. He was the only candidate to win states outside of his regional base: Adams dominated New England, Crawford won Virginia and Georgia, and Clay took three western states. Because no candidate had a majority of 131 electoral votes, the House of Representatives held a contingent election under the terms of the Twelfth Amendment. The amendment specifies that only the top three electoral vote-winners are eligible to be elected by the House, so Clay was eliminated from contention. Clay, who was also Speaker of the House and presided over the election's resolution, saw a Jackson presidency as a disaster for the country. Clay threw his support behind Adams, who won the contingent election on the first ballot. Adams appointed Clay as his Secretary of State, leading supporters of Jackson to accuse Clay and Adams of having struck a "corrupt bargain". After the Congressional session concluded, Jackson resigned his Senate seat and returned to Tennessee. + +Election of 1828 and death of Rachel Jackson + +After the election, Jackson's supporters formed a new party to undermine Adams and ensure he served only one term. Adams's presidency went poorly, and Adams's behavior undermined it. He was perceived as an intellectual elite who ignored the needs of the populace. He was unable to accomplish anything because Congress blocked his proposals. In his First Annual Message to Congress, Adams stated that "we are palsied by the will of our constituents", which was interpreted as his being against representative democracy. Jackson responded by championing the needs of ordinary citizens and declaring that "the voice of the people... must be heard". + +Jackson was nominated for president by the Tennessee legislature in October 1825, more than three years before the 1828 election. He gained powerful supporters in both the South and North, including Calhoun, who became Jackson's vice presidential running mate, and New York Senator Martin Van Buren. Meanwhile, Adams's support from the Southern states was eroded when he signed a tax on European imports, the Tariff of 1828, which was called the "Tariff of Abominations" by opponents, into law. Jackson's victory in the presidential race was overwhelming. He won 56 percent of the popular vote and 68 percent of the electoral vote. The election ended the one-party system that had formed during the Era of Good Feelings as Jackson's supporters coalesced into the Democratic Party and the various groups who did not support him eventually formed the Whig Party. + +The political campaign was dominated by the personal abuse that partisans flung at both candidates. Jackson was accused of being the son of an English prostitute and a mulatto, and he was labeled a slave trader who trafficked in human flesh. A series of pamphlets known as the Coffin Handbills accused him of having murdered 18 white men, including the soldiers he had executed for desertion and alleging that he stabbed a man in the back with his cane. They stated that he had intentionally massacred Native American women and children at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, ate the bodies of Native Americans he killed in battle, and threatened to cut off the ears of congressmen who questioned his behavior during the First Seminole War. + +Jackson and Rachel were accused of adultery for living together before her divorce was finalized, and Rachel heard about the accusation. She had been under stress throughout the election, and just as Jackson was preparing to head to Washington for his inauguration, she fell ill. She did not live to see her husband become president, dying of a stroke or heart attack a few days later. Jackson believed that the abuse from Adams' supporters had hastened her death, stating at her funeral: "May God Almighty forgive her murderers, as I know she forgave them. I never can." + +Presidency (1829–1837) + +Inauguration + +Jackson arrived in Washington on February 11. His first concern was forming his cabinet. He chose Van Buren as Secretary of State, his friend John Eaton as Secretary of War, Samuel D. Ingham as Secretary of Treasury, John Branch as Secretary of Navy, John M. Berrien as Attorney General, and William T. Barry as Postmaster General. Jackson was inaugurated on March 4, 1829, becoming the first president-elect to take the oath of office on the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol. Embittered by his defeat, Adams refused to attend. In his inaugural address, Jackson promised to protect the sovereignty of the states, respect the limits of the presidency, reform the government by removing disloyal or incompetent appointees, and observe a fair policy toward Native Americans. Jackson invited the public to the White House, which was promptly overrun by well-wishers who caused minor damage to its furnishings. The spectacle earned him the nickname "King Mob". + +Reforms and rotation in office + +Jackson's administration believed that Adams's had been corrupt and one of Jackson's first acts as president was to initiate investigations into all executive departments. The investigations revealed that $280,000 () was stolen from the Treasury, and the reduction in costs to the Department of the Navy saved it $1 million (). One of the people caught in his investigation was the Treasury Auditor Tobias Watkins, a personal friend of Adams' who was found guilty of embezzlement. Jackson asked Congress to tighten laws on embezzlement and tax evasion, and he pushed for an improved government accounting system. + +Jackson implemented a principle he called "rotation in office" by enforcing the Tenure of Office Act, an 1820 law that limited appointed office tenure and authorized the president to remove and appoint political party associates. The previous custom had been for the president to leave the existing appointees in office, replacing them through attrition. During his first year in office, Jackson removed about 10% of all federal employees and replaced them with loyal Democrats. He argued that rotation in office was a democratic reform that reduced bureaucracy and corruption by making officeholders responsible to the popular will, but it functioned as political patronage, which came to be known as the spoils system. + +Petticoat affair + +Jackson spent much of his time during his first two and a half years in office dealing with what came to be known as the "Petticoat Affair" or "Eaton Affair". The affair focused on Secretary of War Eaton's wife, Margaret. She had a reputation for being promiscuous, and like Rachel Jackson, she was accused of adultery. She and Eaton had been close before her first husband John Timberlake died, and they married nine months after his death. With the exception of Barry's wife Catherine, the cabinet members' wives followed the lead of Vice-president Calhoun's wife Floride and refused to socialize with the Eatons. Though Jackson defended Margaret, her presence split the cabinet, which had been so ineffective that he rarely called it into session, and the ongoing disagreement led to its dissolution. + +In the spring of 1831, Jackson demanded the resignations of all the cabinet members except Barry, who would resign in 1835 when a Congressional investigation revealed his mismanagement of the Post Office. Jackson tried to compensate Van Buren by appointing him the Minister to Great Britain, but Calhoun blocked the nomination with a tie-breaking vote against it. Van Buren—along with Amos Kendall, who helped organize what would become the Democratic Party, and Francis Preston Blair, the editor of The Globe newspaper that served as Jackson's house organ,—would become regular participants in Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet, an unofficial, varying group of advisors that Jackson turned to for decision making even after he had formed a new official cabinet. + +Indian Removal Act + +Jackson's presidency marked the beginning of a national policy of Native American removal. Before Jackson took office, the relationship between the southern states and the Native American tribes who lived within their boundaries was strained. The states felt that they had full jurisdiction over their territories; the native tribes saw themselves as autonomous nations that had a right to the land they lived on. Significant portions of the five major tribes in the area then known as the Southwest—the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminoles— began to adopt white culture, including education, agricultural techniques, a road system, and rudimentary manufacturing. In the case of the tensions between the state of Georgia and the Cherokee, Adams had tried to address the issue encouraging Cherokee emigration west of the Mississippi through financial incentives, but most refused. + +In the first days of Jackson's presidency, some of the southern states had passed legislation extending state jurisdiction to Native American lands. Jackson supported the states' right to do so. His position was later made clear in the 1832 Supreme Court test case of this legislation, Worcester v. Georgia. Georgia had arrested a group of missionaries for entering Cherokee territory without a permit; the Cherokee declared these arrests illegal. The court under Chief Justice John Marshall decided in favor of the Cherokee: imposition of Georgia law on the Cherokee was unconstitutional. Horace Greeley alleges that when Jackson heard the ruling, he said, "Well, John Marshall has made his decision, but now let him enforce it." Although the quote may be apocryphal, Jackson made it clear he would not use the federal government to enforce the ruling. + +Jackson used the power of the federal government to enforce the separation of the Native American tribes and whites. In May 1830, Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act through Congress. It gave the president the right to negotiate treaties to buy tribal lands in the eastern part of the United States in exchange for lands set aside for Native Americans west of the Mississippi, as well as broad discretion on how to use the federal funds allocated to the negotiations. The law was supposed to be a voluntary relocation program, but it was not implemented as one. Jackson's administration often achieved agreement to relocate through bribes, fraud and intimidation, and the leaders who signed the treaties often did not represent the entire tribe. The relocations could be a source of misery too: the Choctaw relocation was rife with corruption, theft, and mismanagement that brought great suffering to that people. + +In 1830, Jackson personally negotiated with the Chickasaw, who quickly agreed to move. In the same year, Choctaw leaders signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek; the majority did not want the treaty but complied with its terms. In 1832, Seminole leaders signed the Treaty of Payne's Landing, which stipulated that the Seminoles would move west and become part of the Muscogee Creek Confederacy if they found the new land suitable. Most Seminoles refused to move, leading to the Second Seminole War in 1835 that lasted six years. Members of the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ceded their land to the state of Alabama in the Treaty of Cusseta of 1832. Their private ownership of the land was to be protected, but the federal government did not enforce this. The government did encourage voluntary removal until the Creek War of 1836, after which almost all Creek were removed to Oklahoma territory. In 1836, Cherokee leaders ceded their land to the government by the Treaty of New Echota. Their removal, known as the Trail of Tears, was enforced by Jackson's successor, Van Buren. + +Jackson also applied the removal policy in the Northwest. He was not successful in removing the Iroquois Confederacy in New York, but when some members of the Meskwaki (Fox) and the Sauk triggered the Black Hawk War by trying to cross back to the east side of the Mississippi, the peace treaties ratified after their defeat reduced their lands further. + +During his administration, he made about 70 treaties with American Indian tribes. He had removed almost all the Native Americans east of the Mississippi and south of Lake Michigan, about 70,000 people, from the United States; though it was done at the cost of thousands of Native American lives lost because of the unsanitary conditions and epidemics arising from their dislocation, as well as their resistance to expulsion. Jackson's implementation of the Indian Removal Act contributed to his popularity with his constituency. He added over 170,000 square miles of land to the public domain, which primarily benefited the United States' agricultural interests. The act also benefited small farmers, as Jackson allowed them to purchase moderate plots at low prices and offered squatters on land formerly belonging to Native Americans the option to purchase it before it was offered for sale to others. + +Nullification crisis + +Jackson had to confront another challenge that had been building up since the beginning of his first term. The Tariff of 1828, which had been passed in the last year of Adams' administration, set a protective tariff at a very high rate to prevent the manufacturing industries in the Northern states from having to compete with lower-priced imports from Britain. The tariff reduced the income of southern cotton planters: it propped up consumer prices, but not the price of cotton which had severely declined in the previous decade. Immediately after the tariff's passage, the South Carolina Exposition and Protest was sent to the U.S. Senate. This document, which had been anonymously written by John C. Calhoun, asserted that the constitution was a compact of individual states and when the federal government went beyond its delegated duties, such as enacting a protective tariff, a state had a right to declare this action unconstitutional and make the act null and void with the borders of that state. + +Jackson suspected Calhoun of writing the Exposition and Protest, and opposed his interpretation. Jackson argued that Congress as a whole had full authority to enact tariffs and that a dissenting state was denying the will of the majority. He also needed the tariff, which generated 90% of the federal revenue, to achieve another of his presidential goals, eliminating the national debt. The issue developed into a personal rivalry between the two men. For example, during a celebration of Thomas Jefferson's birthday on April 13, 1830, the attendees gave after-dinner toasts. Jackson toasted: "Our federal Union: It must be preserved!" – a clear challenge to nullification. Calhoun whose toast immediately followed, rebutted: "The Union: Next to our Liberty, the most dear!" + +As a compromise, Jackson supported the Tariff of 1832, which reduced the duties from the Tariff of 1828 by almost half. The bill was signed on July 9, but failed to satisfy extremists on either side. On November 24, South Carolina had passed the Ordinance of Nullification, declaring both tariffs null and void and threatening to secede from the United States if the federal government tried to use force to collect the duties. In response, Jackson sent warships to Charleston harbor, and threatened to hang any man who worked to support nullification or secession. + +On December 10, Jackson issued a proclamation against the "nullifiers", stating that he considered "the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed". South Carolina, the president declared, stood on "the brink of insurrection and treason", and he appealed to the people of the state to reassert their allegiance to that Union. Jackson also denied the right of secession: "The Constitution ... forms a government not a league ... To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States are not a nation." On December 28, Calhoun, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate, resigned as vice president. + +Jackson asked Congress to pass a "Force Bill" authorizing the military to enforce the tariff. It was attacked by Calhoun as despotism. Meanwhile, Calhoun and Clay began to work on a new compromise tariff. Jackson saw it as an effective way to end the confrontation, but insisted on the passage of the Force Bill before he signed. On March 2, he signed into law the Force Bill and the Tariff of 1833, both of which passed on March 1, 1833. The South Carolina Convention then met and rescinded its nullification ordinance, but nullified the Force Bill in a final act of defiance. Two months later, Jackson reflected on South Carolina's nullification: "the tariff was only the pretext, and disunion and southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro, or slavery question". + +Bank War and Election of 1832 + +Bank Veto + +A few weeks after his inauguration, Jackson started looking into how he could replace the Second Bank of the United States. The Bank had been chartered by President Madison in 1816 to restore the United States economy after the War of 1812. Monroe had appointed Nicholas Biddle as the Bank's executive. The Bank was a repository for the country's public monies which also serviced the national debt; it was formed as a for-profit entity that looked after the concerns of its shareholders. Under the Bank's stewardship, the country was economically healthy and the currency was stable, but Jackson saw the Bank as a fourth branch of government run by an elite, what he called the "money power" that sought to control the labor and earnings of the "real people", who depend on their own efforts to succeed: the planters, farmers, mechanics, and laborers. Additionally, Jackson's own near bankruptcy in 1804 due to credit-fuelled land speculation had biased him against paper money and toward a policy favorable to hard money. + +In his First Annual Address in December 1829, Jackson openly challenged the Bank by questioning its constitutionality and the soundness of its money. Jackson's supporters further alleged that it gave preferential loans to speculators and merchants over artisans and farmers, that it used its money to bribe congressmen and the press, and that it had ties with foreign creditors. Biddle responded to Jackson's challenge in early 1830 by using the Bank's vast financial holding to ensure the Bank's reputation, and his supporters argued that the Bank was the key to prosperity and stable commerce. By the time of the 1832 election, Biddle had spent over $250,000, (), in printing pamphlets, lobbying for pro-Bank legislation, hiring agents and giving loans to editors and congressmen. + +On the surface, Jackson's and Biddle's positions did not appear irreconcilable. Jackson seemed open to keeping the Bank if it could include some degree of Federal oversight, limit its real estate holdings, and have its property subject to taxation by the states. Many of Jackson's cabinet members thought a compromise was possible. In 1831, Treasury Secretary Louis McLane told Biddle that Jackson was open to chartering a modified version of the Bank, but Biddle did not consult Jackson directly. Privately, Jackson expressed opposition to the Bank; publicly, he announced that he would leave the decision concerning the Bank in the hands of the people. Biddle was finally convinced to take open action by Henry Clay, who had decided to run for president against Jackson in the 1832 election. Biddle would agree to seek renewal of the charter two years earlier than scheduled. Clay argued that Jackson was in a bind. If he vetoed the charter, he would lose the votes of his pro-Bank constituents in Pennsylvania; but if he signed the charter, he would lose his anti-Bank constituents. After the recharter bill was passed, Jackson vetoed it on July 10, 1832, arguing that the country should not surrender the will of the majority to the desires of the wealthy. + +Election of 1832 + +The 1832 presidential election demonstrated the rapid development of political parties during Jackson's presidency. The Democratic Party's first national convention, held in Baltimore, nominated Jackson's choice for vice president, Martin Van Buren. The National Republican Party, which had held its first convention in Baltimore earlier in December 1831, nominated Clay, now a senator from Kentucky, and John Sergeant of Pennsylvania. An Anti-Masonic Party, with a platform built around opposition to Freemasonry, supported neither Jackson nor Clay, who both were Masons. The party nominated William Wirt of Maryland and Amos Ellmaker of Pennsylvania. + +In addition to the votes Jackson would lose because of the Bank veto, Clay hoped that Jackson's Indian Removal Act would alienate voters in the East; but Jackson's losses were offset by the Act's popularity in the West and Southwest. Clay had also expected that Jackson would lose votes because of his stand on internal improvements. Jackson had vetoed the Maysville Road bill, which funded an upgrade of a section of the National Road in Clay's state of Kentucky; as part of his justification, Jackson claimed it was unconstitutional to fund internal improvements using national funds for local projects. + +Clay's strategy failed. Jackson was able to mobilize the Democratic Party's strong political networks. The Northeast supported Jackson because he was in favor of maintaining a stiff tariff; the West supported him because the Indian Removal Act reduced the number of Native Americans in the region and made available more public land. Except for South Carolina, which passed the Ordinance of Nullification during the election month and refused to support any party by giving its votes to the future Governor of Virginia John B. Floyd, the South supported Jackson for implementing the Indian Removal Act, as well as for his willingness to compromise by signing the Tariff of 1832. Jackson won the election by a landslide, receiving 55 percent of the popular vote and 219 electoral votes. + +Removal of deposits and censure + +Jackson saw his victory as a mandate to continue his war on the Bank's control over the national economy. In 1833, Jackson signed an executive order ending the deposit of Treasury receipts in the bank. When Secretary of the Treasury McLane refused to execute the order, Jackson replaced him with William J. Duane, who also refused. Jackson then appointed Roger B. Taney as acting secretary, who implemented Jackson's policy. With the loss of federal deposits, the Bank had to contract its credit. Biddle used this contraction to create an economic downturn in an attempt to get Jackson to compromise. Biddle wrote, "Nothing but the evidence of suffering abroad will produce any effect in Congress." The attempt did not succeed, the economy recovered and Biddle was blamed for the recession. + +Jackson's actions led those who disagreed with him to form the Whig Party. They claimed to oppose Jackson's expansion of executive power, calling him "King Andrew the First", and naming their party after the English Whigs who opposed the British monarchy in the 17th century. In March 1832, the Senate censured Jackson for inappropriately taking authority for the Treasury Department when it was the responsibility of Congress and refused to confirm Taney's appointment as secretary of the treasury. In April, however, the House declared that the bank should not be rechartered. By July 1836, the Bank no longer held any federal deposits. + +Jackson had Federal funds deposited into state banks friendly to the administration's policies, which critics called pet banks. The number of these state banks more than doubled during Jackson's administration, and investment patterns changed. The Bank, which had been the federal government's fiscal agent, invested heavily in trade and financed interregional and international trade. State banks were more responsive to state governments, and invested heavily in land development, land speculation, and state public works projects. In spite of the efforts of Taney's successor, Levi Woodbury, to control them, the pet banks expanded their loans, helping to create a speculative boom in the final years of Jackson's administration. + +In January 1835, Jackson paid off the national debt, the only time in U.S. history that it had been accomplished. It was paid down through tariff revenues, carefully managing federal funding of internal improvements like roads and canals, and the sale of public lands. Between 1834 and 1836, the government had unprecedented spike in land sales: At its peak in 1836, the profits from land sales were eight to twelve times higher than a typical year. During Jackson's presidency, 63 million acres of public land—about the size of the state of Oklahoma—was sold. After Jackson stepped down from the presidency in 1837, a Democrat-majority Senate expunged Jackson's censure. + +Panic of 1837 + +Despite the economic boom following Jackson's victory in the Bank War, land speculation in the west caused the Panic of 1837. Jackson's transfer of federal monies to state banks in 1833 caused western banks to relax their lending standards; the Indian Removal Act made large amounts of former Native American lands available for purchase and speculation. Two of Jackson's acts in 1836 contributed to the Panic of 1837. One was the Specie Circular, which mandated western lands only be purchased by money backed by specie. The act was intended to stabilize the economy by reducing speculation on credit, but it caused a drain of gold and silver from the Eastern banks to the Western banks to address the needs of financing land transactions. The other was the Deposit and Distribution Act, which transferred federal monies from eastern to western state banks. Together, they left Eastern banks unable to pay specie to the British when they recalled their loans to address their economic problems in international trade. The panic drove the U.S. economy into a depression that lasted until 1841. + +Physical assault and assassination attempt + +Jackson was the first president to be subjected to physical assault as well as an assassination attempt. On May 6, 1833, Robert B. Randolph struck Jackson in the face with his hand because Jackson had ordered Randolph's dismissal from the navy for embezzlement. Jackson declined to press charges. While leaving the United States Capitol on January 30, 1835, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter from England, aimed a pistol at Jackson, which misfired. Lawrence pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. Jackson attacked Lawrence with his cane until others intervened to restrain Lawrence, who was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and institutionalized. + +Slavery +During Jackson's presidency, slavery remained a political issue. Though federal troops were used to crush Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831, Jackson ordered them withdrawn immediately afterwards despite the petition of local citizens for them to remain for protection. Jackson considered the issue too divisive to the nation and to the delicate alliances of the Democratic Party, while sympathetic newspapers argued for excluding slavery from federal politics and keeping it at the state level. + +Jackson's view was challenged when the American Anti-Slavery Society formally agitated for abolition by sending anti-slavery tracts through the postal system into the South in 1835. Jackson condemned these agitators as "monsters" who should atone with their lives because they were attempting to destroy the Union by encouraging sectionalism. The act provoked riots in Charleston, and pro-slavery Southerners demanded that the postal service ban distribution of the materials. To address the issue, Jackson authorized that the tracts could be sent only to subscribers, whose names could be made publicly accountable. That December, Jackson called on Congress to prohibit the circulation through the South of "incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection". + +Foreign affairs + +The Jackson administration successfully negotiated trade agreements with Great Britain, Spain, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and Siam. In his First Annual Message to Congress, Jackson addressed the issues of spoliation claims, demands of compensation for the capture of American ships and sailors by foreign nations during the Napoleonic Wars. Using a combination of bluster and tact, he successfully settled these claims with Denmark, Portugal, and Spain, but he had difficulty collecting spoliation claims from France, which was unwilling to pay an indemnity agreed to in an earlier treaty. Jackson asked Congress in 1834 to authorize reprisals against French property if the country failed to make payment, as well as to arm for defense. In response, France put its Caribbean fleet on a wartime footing. Both sides wanted to avoid a conflict, but the French wanted an apology for Jackson's belligerence. In his 1835 Annual Message to the Congress, Jackson asserted that he refused to apologize, but stated that he did not intend to "menace or insult the Government of France". The French were assuaged and agreed to pay $5,000,000 () to settle the claims. + +Since the early 1820s, large numbers of Americans had been immigrating into Texas, a territory of the newly independent nation of Mexico. As early as 1824, Jackson had expressed a desire to acquire the region for the United States. In 1829, he attempted to purchase it, but Mexico did not want to sell. By 1830, there were twice as many settlers from the United States as from Mexico, leading to tensions with the Mexican government that started the Texas Revolution. During the conflict, Jackson covertly allowed the settlers to obtain weapons and money from the United States. They defeated the Mexican military in April 1836 and soon afterward declared the region an independent country, the Republic of Texas. The new Republic asked Jackson to recognize and annex it. Although Jackson wanted to do so, he was hesitant because he was unsure it could maintain independence from Mexico. He also was concerned because Texas had legalized slavery, which was an issue that could divide the Democrats during the 1836 election. Jackson recognized the Republic of Texas on the last full day of his presidency, March 3, 1837. + +Judicial appointments + +Jackson appointed six justices to the Supreme Court. Most were undistinguished. Jackson nominated Roger B. Taney in January 1835 to the Court in reward for his services, but the nomination failed to win Senate approval. When Chief Justice Marshall died in 1835, Jackson nominated Taney for Chief Justice; he was confirmed by the new Senate, serving as Chief Justice until 1864. He was regarded with respect during his career on the bench, but he is most remembered for his decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford. + +States admitted to the Union +Two new states were admitted into the Union during Jackson's presidency: Arkansas (June 15, 1836) and Michigan (January 26, 1837). Both states increased Democratic power in Congress and helped Van Buren win the presidency in 1836, as new states tended to support the party that had done the most to admit them. + +Later life and death (1837–1845) + +In 1837, Jackson retired to the Hermitage and immediately began putting its affairs in order, as it had been poorly managed in his absence. Though Jackson was in ill health and had lost some of his popularity because he was blamed for the Panic of 1837, he remained influential in national and state politics. + +Jackson supported an Independent Treasury system as a solution to the panic, which would hold the money balances of the government in the form of gold or silver and would be restricted from printing paper money to prevent further inflation. This system was implemented in 1846. The depression still continued, and Van Buren became unpopular. The Whig Party nominated war hero William Henry Harrison and former Democrat John Tyler for the 1840 presidential election. They used a campaign style similar to that of the Democrats: Van Buren was depicted as an uncaring aristocrat, while Harrison's war record was glorified, and he was portrayed as a man of the people. Jackson campaigned loyally for Van Buren in Tennessee. He favored James K. Polk as vice presidential candidate, but no candidate for that office was chosen. + +To Jackson's dismay, Harrison won the 1840 election with the Whigs capturing majorities in both houses of Congress. Harrison died only a month into his term, and was replaced by Tyler. Jackson was encouraged because Tyler was not bound to party loyalties. Tyler angered the Whigs in 1841 when he vetoed two Whig-sponsored bills to establish a new national bank. Jackson and other Democrats praised Tyler, but Tyler's entire cabinet, except Daniel Webster, resigned. + +Jackson lobbied for the annexation of Texas, insisting that it belonged to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. He thought that annexation would cause national division over slavery, but feared the British could use Texas as a base to threaten the United States. Jackson wrote several letters to Texas president Sam Houston, urging him to wait for the Senate to approve annexation and explaining how much Texas would benefit as a part of the United States. Tyler signed a treaty of annexation in April 1844, but it became associated with the expansion of slavery and was not ratified. Henry Clay, the Whig nominee for the 1844 presidential election, and Van Buren, Jackson's preferred candidate for the Democratic Party, both opposed annexation. Disappointed by Van Buren, Jackson convinced Polk, who was to be Van Buren's running mate, to run as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee instead. Polk defeated Van Buren for the nomination, and Jackson convinced Tyler not to run as an independent by bringing him back into the Democratic Party. Polk won the election, the Senate passed a bill to annex Texas, and it was signed on March 1, 1845. + +Jackson died of dropsy, tuberculosis and heart failure at 78 years of age on June 8, 1845. He was surrounded by family and friends at his deathbed, and his last words were, "Oh, do not cry. Be good children and we will all meet in Heaven." He was buried in the same tomb as his wife Rachel. + +Personal life + +Family +Jackson and Rachel had no children together but adopted Andrew Jackson Jr., the son of Rachel's deceased brother Severn Donelson. The Jacksons acted as guardians for Donelson's other children: John Samuel, Daniel Smith, and Andrew Jackson. They were also guardians for Andrew Jackson Hutchings, Rachel's orphaned grand nephew, and the orphaned children of a friend, Edward Butler – Caroline, Eliza, Edward, and Anthony – who lived with the Jacksons after their father died. Jackson also had three Creek children living with them: Lyncoya, a Creek orphan Jackson had adopted after the Battle of Tallushatchee, and two boys they called Theodore and Charley. + +For the only time in U.S. history, two women acted simultaneously as unofficial first lady for the widower Jackson. Rachel's niece Emily Donelson was married to Andrew Jackson Donelson (who acted as Jackson's private secretary) and served as hostess at the White House. The president and Emily became estranged for over a year during the Petticoat affair, but they eventually reconciled and she resumed her duties as White House hostess. Sarah Yorke Jackson, the wife of Andrew Jackson Jr., became co-hostess of the White House in 1834, and took over all hostess duties after Emily died from tuberculosis in 1836. + +Temperament +Jackson had a reputation for being short-tempered and violent, which terrified his opponents. He was able to use his temper strategically to accomplish what he wanted. He could keep it in check when necessary: his behavior was friendly and urbane when he went to Washington as senator during the campaign leading up to the 1824 election. According to Van Buren, he remained calm in times of difficulty and made his decisions deliberatively. + +He had the tendency to take things personally. If someone crossed him, he would often become obsessed with crushing them. For example, on the last day of his presidency, Jackson declared he had only two regrets: that he had not hanged Henry Clay or shot John C. Calhoun. He also had a strong sense of loyalty. He considered threats to his friends as threats to himself, but he demanded unquestioning loyalty in return. + +Jackson was self-confident, without projecting a sense of self-importance. This self-confidence gave him the ability to persevere in the face of adversity. Once he decided on a plan of action, he would adhere to it. His reputation for being both quick-tempered and confident worked to his advantage; it misled opponents to see him as simple and direct, leading them to often understimate his political shrewdness. + +Religious faith +In 1838, Jackson became an official member of the First Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Both his mother and his wife had been devout Presbyterians all their lives, but Jackson stated that he had postponed officially entering the church until after his retirement to avoid accusations that he had done so for political reasons. + +Legacy + +Jackson's legacy is controversial and polarized. Jackson's contemporary, Alexis de Tocqueville, depicted Jackson as the spokesperson of the majority and their passions. He has been variously described as a frontiersman personifying the independence of the American West, a slave-owning member of the Southern gentry, and a populist who promoted faith in the wisdom of the ordinary citizen. He has been represented as a statesman who substantially advanced the spirit of democracy and upheld the foundations of American constitutionalism, as well as an autocratic demagogue who crushed political opposition and trampled the law. + +In the 1920s, Jackson's rise to power became associated with the idea of the "common man". This idea defined the age as a populist rejection of social elites and a vindication of every person's value independent of class and status. Jackson was seen as its personification, an individual free of societal constraints who can achieve great things. In 1945, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.'s influential Age of Jackson redefined Jackson's legacy through the lens of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, describing the common man as a member of the working class struggling against exploitation by business concerns. + +In the twenty-first century, Jackson's Indian Removal Act has been described as ethnic cleansing: the use of force, terror and violence to make an area ethnically homogeneous. To achieve the goal of separating Native Americans from the whites, coercive force such as threats and bribes were used to effect removal and unauthorized military force was used when there was resistance, as in the case of the Second Seminole War. The act has been discussed in the context of genocide, and its role in the long-term destruction of Native American societies and their cultures continues to be debated. + +His legacy has been variously used by later presidents. Abraham Lincoln referenced Jackson's ideas when negotiating the challenges to the Union that he faced during 1861, including Jackson's understanding of the constitution during the nullification crisis and the president's right to interpret the constitution. Franklin D. Roosevelt used Jackson to redefine the Democratic Party, describing him as a defender of the exploited and downtrodden and as a fighter for social justice and human rights. Donald Trump used Jackson's legacy to present himself as the president of the common man, praising Jackson for saving the country from a rising aristocracy and protecting American workers with a tariff. In 2016, President Barack Obama's administration announced it was removing Jackson's portrait from the $20 bill and replacing it with one of Harriet Tubman. Though the plan was put on hold during Trump's presidency, President Joe Biden's administration resumed it in 2021. + +Jackson is usually rated highly as a president, but his reputation is dropping. His contradictory legacy is shown in opinion polls. A 2014 survey of political scientists rated Jackson as the ninth-highest rated president but the third-most polarizing. He was also rated the third-most overrated president. In a C-SPAN poll, Jackson was ranked the 13th in 2009, 18th in 2017, and 22nd in 2021. + +Writings + (11 volumes to date; 17 volumes projected). Ongoing project to print all of Jackson's papers. + Vol. I, (1770–1803); Vol. II, (1804–1813); Vol. III, (1814–1815); Vol. IV, (1816–1820); Vol. V, (1821–1824); Vol. VI, (1825–1828); Vol. VII, (1829); Vol. VIII, (1830); Vol. IX, (1831); Vol. X, (1832); Vol. XI, (1833) + (7 volumes; 2 available online). + Vol III, (1820-1828) ; Vol IV, (1829-1832) + Reprints Jackson's major messages and reports. + +Notes + +References + +Bibliography + +Biographies + +Books + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + * + +Journal articles and dissertations + +Primary sources + +External links + + Scholarly coverage of Jackson at Miller Center, U of Virginia + + + + The Papers of Andrew Jackson at the Avalon Project + The Hermitage, home of President Andrew Jackson + A digital archive providing access to manuscript images of many of Jackson's documents. + + +1767 births +1845 deaths +18th-century American politicians +18th-century Presbyterians +19th-century American politicians +19th-century deaths from tuberculosis +19th-century presidents of the United States +United States Army personnel of the War of 1812 +American militia generals +American planters +American Presbyterians +American prosecutors +American Revolutionary War prisoners of war held by Great Britain +American shooting survivors +Burials in Tennessee +Andrew Jackson family +Congressional Gold Medal recipients +Deaths from edema +Democratic Party presidents of the United States +Democratic Party (United States) presidential nominees +Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee +Democratic-Republican Party United States senators +American duellists +Florida Democratic-Republicans +American Freemasons +Governors of Florida Territory +Grand Masters of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee +Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees +1830s in the United States +Infectious disease deaths in Tennessee +Negro Fort +Members of the American Antiquarian Society +North Carolina lawyers +People from Lancaster County, South Carolina +Politicians from Nashville, Tennessee +People of pre-statehood Tennessee +People of the Creek War +Presidents of the United States +Second Party System +Tennessee Democrats +Tennessee Jacksonians +Justices of the Tennessee Supreme Court +United States Army generals +United States Army personnel of the Seminole Wars +United States military governors +Candidates in the 1824 United States presidential election +Candidates in the 1828 United States presidential election +Candidates in the 1832 United States presidential election +United States senators from Tennessee +Tuberculosis deaths in Tennessee +United States senators who owned slaves +Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves +Native American genocide perpetrators +Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, as he was vice president at that time. Johnson was a Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket, coming to office as the Civil War concluded. He favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the newly freed people who were formerly enslaved. This led to conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote. + +Johnson was born into poverty and never attended school. He was apprenticed as a tailor and worked in several frontier towns before settling in Greeneville, Tennessee. He served as alderman and mayor there before being elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1835. After briefly serving in the Tennessee Senate, Johnson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1843, where he served five two-year terms. He became governor of Tennessee for four years, and was elected by the legislature to the Senate in 1857. During his congressional service, he sought passage of the Homestead Bill which was enacted soon after he left his Senate seat in 1862. Southern slave states seceded to form the Confederate States of America, including Tennessee, but Johnson remained firmly with the Union. He was the only sitting senator from a Confederate state who did not resign his seat upon learning of his state's secession. In 1862, Lincoln appointed him as Military Governor of Tennessee after most of it had been retaken. In 1864, Johnson was a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wished to send a message of national unity in his re-election campaign, and became vice president after a victorious election in 1864. + +Johnson implemented his own form of Presidential Reconstruction, a series of proclamations directing the seceded states to hold conventions and elections to reform their civil governments. Southern states returned many of their old leaders and passed Black Codes to deprive the freedmen of many civil liberties, but Congressional Republicans refused to seat legislators from those states and advanced legislation to overrule the Southern actions. Johnson vetoed their bills, and Congressional Republicans overrode him, setting a pattern for the remainder of his presidency. Johnson opposed the Fourteenth Amendment which gave citizenship to former slaves. In 1866, he went on an unprecedented national tour promoting his executive policies, seeking to break Republican opposition. As the conflict grew between the branches of government, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act restricting Johnson's ability to fire Cabinet officials. He persisted in trying to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, but ended up being impeached by the House of Representatives and narrowly avoided conviction in the Senate. He did not win the 1868 Democratic presidential nomination and left office the following year. + +Johnson returned to Tennessee after his presidency and gained some vindication when he was elected to the Senate in 1875, making him the only president to afterwards serve in the Senate. He died five months into his term. Johnson's strong opposition to federally guaranteed rights for black Americans is widely criticized. Historians have consistently ranked him one of the worst presidents in American history. + +Early life and career + +Childhood + +Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 29, 1808, to Jacob Johnson (1778–1812) and Mary ("Polly") McDonough (1783–1856), a laundress. He was of English, Scots-Irish, and Irish ancestry. He had a brother William, four years his senior, and an older sister Elizabeth, who died in childhood. Johnson's birth in a two-room shack was a political asset in the mid-19th century, and he would frequently remind voters of his humble origins. Jacob Johnson was a poor man, as had been his father, William Johnson, but he became town constable of Raleigh before marrying and starting a family. Jacob Johnson had been a porter for the State Bank of North Carolina, appointed by William Polk, a relative of President James K. Polk. Both Jacob and Mary were illiterate, and had worked as tavern servants, while Johnson never attended school and grew up in poverty. Jacob died of an apparent heart attack while ringing the town bell, shortly after rescuing three drowning men, when his son Andrew was three. Polly Johnson worked as a washerwoman and became the sole support of her family. Her occupation was then looked down on, as it often took her into other homes unaccompanied. Since Andrew did not resemble either of his siblings, there are rumors that he may have been fathered by another man. Polly Johnson eventually remarried to a man named Turner Doughtry, who was as poor as she was. + +Johnson's mother apprenticed her son William to a tailor, James Selby. Andrew also became an apprentice in Selby's shop at age ten and was legally bound to serve until his 21st birthday. Johnson lived with his mother for part of his service, and one of Selby's employees taught him rudimentary literacy skills. His education was augmented by citizens who would come to Selby's shop to read to the tailors as they worked. Even before he became an apprentice, Johnson came to listen. The readings caused a lifelong love of learning, and one of his biographers, Annette Gordon-Reed, suggests that Johnson, later a gifted public speaker, learned the art as he threaded needles and cut cloth. + +Johnson was not happy at James Selby's, and after about five years, both he and his brother ran away. Selby responded by placing a reward for their return: "Ten Dollars Reward. Ran away from the subscriber, two apprentice boys, legally bound, named William and Andrew Johnson ... [payment] to any person who will deliver said apprentices to me in Raleigh, or I will give the above reward for Andrew Johnson alone." The brothers went to Carthage, North Carolina, where Andrew Johnson worked as a tailor for several months. Fearing he would be arrested and returned to Raleigh, Johnson moved to Laurens, South Carolina. He found work quickly, met his first love, Mary Wood, and made her a quilt as a gift. However, she rejected his marriage proposal. He returned to Raleigh, hoping to buy out his apprenticeship, but could not come to terms with Selby. Unable to stay in Raleigh, where he risked being apprehended for abandoning Selby, he decided to move west. + +Move to Tennessee +Johnson left North Carolina for Tennessee, traveling mostly on foot. After a brief period in Knoxville, he moved to Mooresville, Alabama. He then worked as a tailor in Columbia, Tennessee, but was called back to Raleigh by his mother and stepfather, who saw limited opportunities there and who wished to emigrate west. Johnson and his party traveled through the Blue Ridge Mountains to Greeneville, Tennessee. Andrew Johnson fell in love with the town at first sight, and when he became prosperous purchased the land where he had first camped and planted a tree in commemoration. + +In Greeneville, Johnson established a successful tailoring business in the front of his home. In 1827, at the age of 18, he married 16-year-old Eliza McCardle, the daughter of a local shoemaker. The pair were married by Justice of the Peace Mordecai Lincoln, first cousin of Thomas Lincoln, whose son would become president. The Johnsons were married for almost 50 years and had five children: Martha (1828), Charles (1830), Mary (1832), Robert (1834), and Andrew Jr. (1852). Though she had tuberculosis, Eliza supported her husband's endeavors. She taught him mathematics skills and tutored him to improve his writing. Shy and retiring by nature, Eliza Johnson usually remained in Greeneville during Johnson's political rise. She was not often seen during her husband's presidency; their daughter Martha usually served as official hostess. + +Johnson's tailoring business prospered during the early years of the marriage, enabling him to hire help and giving him the funds to invest profitably in real estate. He later boasted of his talents as a tailor, "my work never ripped or gave way". He was a voracious reader. Books about famous orators aroused his interest in political dialogue, and he had private debates on the issues of the day with customers who held opposing views. He also took part in debates at Greeneville College. + +Johnson's slaves + +In 1843, Johnson purchased his first slave, Dolly, who was 14 years old at the time. Dolly had three children—Liz, Florence and William. Soon after his purchase of Dolly, he purchased Dolly's half-brother Sam. Sam Johnson and his wife Margaret had nine children. Sam became a commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau and was known for being a proud man who negotiated the nature of his work with the Johnson family. Notably, he received some monetary compensation for his labors and negotiated with Andrew Johnson to receive a tract of land which Andrew Johnson gave him for free in 1867. + +In 1857, Andrew Johnson purchased Henry, who was 13 at the time and would later accompany the Johnson family to the White House. Ultimately, Johnson owned at least ten slaves. + +Andrew Johnson freed his slaves on August 8, 1863; they remained with him as paid servants. A year later, Johnson, as military governor of Tennessee, proclaimed the freedom of Tennessee's slaves. Sam and Margaret, Johnson's former slaves, lived in his tailor shop while he was president, without rent. As a sign of appreciation for proclaiming freedom, Andrew Johnson was given a watch by newly emancipated people in Tennessee inscribed with "for his Untiring Energy in the Cause of Freedom". + +Political rise + +Tennessee politician +Johnson helped organize a mechanics' (working men's) ticket in the 1829 Greeneville municipal election. He was elected town alderman, along with his friends Blackston McDannel and Mordecai Lincoln. Following the 1831 Nat Turner slave rebellion, a state convention was called to pass a new constitution, including provisions to disenfranchise free people of color. The convention also wanted to reform real estate tax rates, and provide ways of funding improvements to Tennessee's infrastructure. The constitution was submitted for a public vote, and Johnson spoke widely for its adoption; the successful campaign provided him with statewide exposure. On January 4, 1834, his fellow aldermen elected him mayor of Greeneville. + +In 1835, Johnson made a bid for election to the "floater" seat which Greene County shared with neighboring Washington County in the Tennessee House of Representatives. According to his biographer, Hans L. Trefousse, Johnson "demolished" the opposition in debate and won the election with almost a two to one margin. During his Greeneville days, Johnson joined the Tennessee Militia as a member of the 90th Regiment. He attained the rank of colonel, though while an enrolled member, Johnson was fined for an unknown offense. Afterwards, he was often addressed or referred to by his rank. + +In his first term in the legislature, which met in the state capital of Nashville, Johnson did not consistently vote with either the Democratic or the newly formed Whig Party, though he revered President Andrew Jackson, a Democrat and fellow Tennessean. The major parties were still determining their core values and policy proposals, with the party system in a state of flux. The Whig Party had organized in opposition to Jackson, fearing the concentration of power in the Executive Branch of the government; Johnson differed from the Whigs as he opposed more than minimal government spending and spoke against aid for the railroads, while his constituents hoped for improvements in transportation. After Brookins Campbell and the Whigs defeated Johnson for reelection in 1837, Johnson would not lose another race for thirty years. In 1839, he sought to regain his seat, initially as a Whig, but when another candidate sought the Whig nomination, he ran as a Democrat and was elected. From that time he supported the Democratic party and built a powerful political machine in Greene County. Johnson became a strong advocate of the Democratic Party, noted for his oratory, and in an era when public speaking both informed the public and entertained it, people flocked to hear him. + +In 1840, Johnson was selected as a presidential elector for Tennessee, giving him more statewide publicity. Although Democratic President Martin Van Buren was defeated by former Ohio senator William Henry Harrison, Johnson was instrumental in keeping Greene County in the Democratic column. He was elected to the Tennessee Senate in 1841, where he served a two-year term. He had achieved financial success in his tailoring business, but sold it to concentrate on politics. He had also acquired additional real estate, including a larger home and a farm (where his mother and stepfather took residence), and among his assets numbered eight or nine slaves. + +United States Representative (1843–1853) + +Having served in both houses of the state legislature, Johnson saw election to Congress as the next step in his political career. He engaged in a number of political maneuvers to gain Democratic support, including the displacement of the Whig postmaster in Greeneville, and defeated Jonesborough lawyer John A. Aiken by 5,495 votes to 4,892. In Washington, he joined a new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. Johnson advocated for the interests of the poor, maintained an anti-abolitionist stance, argued for only limited spending by the government and opposed protective tariffs. With Eliza remaining in Greeneville, Congressman Johnson shunned social functions in favor of study in the Library of Congress. Although a fellow Tennessee Democrat, James K. Polk, was elected president in 1844, and Johnson had campaigned for him, the two men had difficult relations, and President Polk refused some of his patronage suggestions. + +Johnson believed, as did many Southern Democrats, that the Constitution protected private property, including slaves, and thus prohibited the federal and state governments from abolishing slavery. He won a second term in 1845 against William G. Brownlow, presenting himself as the defender of the poor against the aristocracy. In his second term, Johnson supported the Polk administration's decision to fight the Mexican War, seen by some Northerners as an attempt to gain territory to expand slavery westward, and opposed the Wilmot Proviso, a proposal to ban slavery in any territory gained from Mexico. He introduced for the first time his Homestead Bill, to grant to people willing to settle the land and gain title to it. This issue was especially important to Johnson because of his own humble beginnings. + +In the presidential election of 1848, the Democrats split over the slavery issue, and abolitionists formed the Free Soil Party, with former president Van Buren as their nominee. Johnson supported the Democratic candidate, former Michigan senator Lewis Cass. With the party split, Whig nominee General Zachary Taylor was easily victorious, and carried Tennessee. Johnson's relations with Polk remained poor; the President recorded of his final New Year's reception in 1849 that + +Johnson, due to national interest in new railroad construction and in response to the need for better transportation in his own district, also supported government assistance for the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad. + +During his campaign for a fourth term, Johnson concentrated on three issues: slavery, homesteads and judicial elections. He defeated his opponent, Nathaniel G. Taylor, in August 1849, with a greater margin of victory than in previous campaigns. When the House convened in December, the party division caused by the Free Soil Party precluded the formation of the majority needed to elect a Speaker. Johnson proposed adoption of a rule allowing election of a Speaker by a plurality; some weeks later others took up a similar proposal, and Democrat Howell Cobb was elected. + +Once the Speaker election had concluded and Congress was ready to conduct legislative business, the issue of slavery took center stage. Northerners sought to admit California, a free state, to the Union. Kentucky's Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a series of resolutions, the Compromise of 1850, to admit California and pass legislation sought by each side. Johnson voted for all the provisions except for the abolition of slavery in the nation's capital. He pressed resolutions for constitutional amendments to provide for popular election of senators (then elected by state legislatures) and of the president (chosen by the Electoral College), and limiting the tenure of federal judges to 12 years. These were all defeated. + +A group of Democrats nominated Landon Carter Haynes to oppose Johnson as he sought a fifth term; the Whigs were so pleased with the internecine battle among the Democrats in the general election that they did not nominate a candidate of their own. The campaign included fierce debates: Johnson's main issue was the passage of the Homestead Bill; Haynes contended it would facilitate abolition. Johnson won the election by more than 1600 votes. Though he was not enamored of the party's presidential nominee in 1852, former New Hampshire senator Franklin Pierce, Johnson campaigned for him. Pierce was elected, but he failed to carry Tennessee. In 1852, Johnson managed to get the House to pass his Homestead Bill, but it failed in the Senate. The Whigs had gained control of the Tennessee legislature, and, under the leadership of Gustavus Henry, redrew the boundaries of Johnson's First District to make it a safe seat for their party. The Nashville Union termed this "Henry-mandering"; lamented Johnson, "I have no political future." + +Governor of Tennessee (1853–1857) + +If Johnson considered retiring from politics upon deciding not to seek reelection, he soon changed his mind. His political friends began to maneuver to get him the nomination for governor. The Democratic convention unanimously named him, though some party members were not happy at his selection. The Whigs had won the past two gubernatorial elections, and still controlled the legislature. That party nominated Henry, making the "Henry-mandering" of the First District an immediate issue. The two men debated in county seats the length of Tennessee before the meetings were called off two weeks before the August 1853 election due to illness in Henry's family. Johnson won the election by 63,413 votes to 61,163; some votes for him were cast in return for his promise to support Whig Nathaniel Taylor for his old seat in Congress. + +Tennessee's governor had little power: Johnson could propose legislation but not veto it, and most appointments were made by the Whig-controlled legislature. Nevertheless, the office was a "bully pulpit" that allowed him to publicize himself and his political views. He succeeded in getting the appointments he wanted in return for his endorsement of John Bell, a Whig, for one of the state's U.S. Senate seats. In his first biennial speech, Johnson urged simplification of the state judicial system, abolition of the Bank of Tennessee, and establishment of an agency to provide uniformity in weights and measures; the last was passed. Johnson was critical of the Tennessee common school system and suggested funding be increased via taxes, either statewide or county by county—a mixture of the two was passed. Reforms carried out during Johnson's time as governor included the foundation of the State's public library (making books available to all) and its first public school system, and the initiation of regular state fairs to benefit craftsmen and farmers. + +Although the Whig Party was on its final decline nationally, it remained strong in Tennessee, and the outlook for Democrats there in 1855 was poor. Feeling that reelection as governor was necessary to give him a chance at the higher offices he sought, Johnson agreed to make the run. Meredith P. Gentry received the Whig nomination. A series of more than a dozen vitriolic debates ensued. The issues in the campaign were slavery, the prohibition of alcohol, and the nativist positions of the Know Nothing Party. Johnson favored the first, but opposed the others. Gentry was more equivocal on the alcohol question, and had gained the support of the Know Nothings, a group Johnson portrayed as a secret society. Johnson was unexpectedly victorious, albeit with a narrower margin than in 1853. + +When the presidential election of 1856 approached, Johnson hoped to be nominated; some Tennessee county conventions designated him a "favorite son". His position that the best interests of the Union were served by slavery in some areas made him a practical compromise candidate for president. He was never a major contender; the nomination fell to former Pennsylvania senator James Buchanan. Though he was not impressed by either, Johnson campaigned for Buchanan and his running mate, John C. Breckinridge, who were elected. + +Johnson decided not to seek a third term as governor, with an eye towards election to the U.S. Senate. In 1857, while returning from Washington, his train derailed, causing serious damage to his right arm. This injury would trouble him in the years to come. + +United States Senator + +Homestead Bill advocate + +The victors in the 1857 state legislative campaign would, once they convened in October, elect a United States Senator. Former Whig governor William B. Campbell wrote to his uncle, "The great anxiety of the Whigs is to elect a majority in the legislature so as to defeat Andrew Johnson for senator. Should the Democrats have the majority, he will certainly be their choice, and there is no man living to whom the Americans and Whigs have as much antipathy as Johnson." The governor spoke widely in the campaign, and his party won the gubernatorial race and control of the legislature. Johnson's final address as governor gave him the chance to influence his electors, and he made proposals popular among Democrats. Two days later the legislature elected him to the Senate. The opposition was appalled, with the Richmond Whig newspaper referring to him as "the vilest radical and most unscrupulous demagogue in the Union". + +Johnson gained high office due to his proven record as a man popular among the small farmers and self-employed tradesmen who made up much of Tennessee's electorate. He called them the "plebeians"; he was less popular among the planters and lawyers who led the state Democratic Party, but none could match him as a vote-getter. After his death, one Tennessee voter wrote of him, "Johnson was always the same to everyone ... the honors heaped upon him did not make him forget to be kind to the humblest citizen." Always seen in impeccably tailored clothing, he cut an impressive figure, and had the stamina to endure lengthy campaigns with daily travel over bad roads leading to another speech or debate. Mostly denied the party's machinery, he relied on a network of friends, advisers, and contacts. One friend, Hugh Douglas, stated in a letter to him, "you have been in the way of our would be great men for a long time. At heart many of us never wanted you to be Governor only none of the rest of us Could have been elected at the time and we only wanted to use you. Then we did not want you to go to the Senate but the people would send you." + +The new senator took his seat when Congress convened in December 1857 (the term of his predecessor, James C. Jones, had expired in March). He came to Washington as usual without his wife and family; Eliza would visit Washington only once during Johnson's first time as senator, in 1860. Johnson immediately set about introducing the Homestead Bill in the Senate, but as most senators who supported it were Northern (many associated with the newly founded Republican Party), the matter became caught up in suspicions over the slavery issue. Southern senators felt that those who took advantage of the provisions of the Homestead Bill were more likely to be Northern non-slaveholders. The issue of slavery had been complicated by the Supreme Court's ruling earlier in the year in Dred Scott v. Sandford that slavery could not be prohibited in the territories. Johnson, a slaveholding senator from a Southern state, made a major speech in the Senate the following May in an attempt to convince his colleagues that the Homestead Bill and slavery were not incompatible. Nevertheless, Southern opposition was key to defeating the legislation, 30–22. In 1859, it failed on a procedural vote when Vice President Breckinridge broke a tie against the bill, and in 1860, a watered-down version passed both houses, only to be vetoed by Buchanan at the urging of Southerners. Johnson continued his opposition to spending, chairing a committee to control it. + +He argued against funding to build infrastructure in Washington, D.C., stating that it was unfair to expect state citizens to pay for the city's streets, even if it was the seat of government. He opposed spending money for troops to put down the revolt by the Mormons in Utah Territory, arguing for temporary volunteers as the United States should not have a standing army. + +Secession crisis + +In October 1859, abolitionist John Brown and sympathizers raided the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (today West Virginia). Tensions in Washington between pro- and anti-slavery forces increased greatly. Johnson gave a major speech in the Senate in December, decrying Northerners who would endanger the Union by seeking to outlaw slavery. The Tennessee senator stated that "all men are created equal" from the Declaration of Independence did not apply to African Americans, since the Constitution of Illinois contained that phrase—and that document barred voting by African Americans. Johnson, by this time, was a wealthy man who owned 14 slaves. + +Johnson hoped that he would be a compromise candidate for the presidential nomination as the Democratic Party tore itself apart over the slavery question. Busy with the Homestead Bill during the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, he sent two of his sons and his chief political adviser to represent his interests in the backroom deal-making. The convention deadlocked, with no candidate able to gain the required two-thirds vote, but the sides were too far apart to consider Johnson as a compromise. The party split, with Northerners backing Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas while Southerners, including Johnson, supported Vice President Breckinridge for president. With former Tennessee senator John Bell running a fourth-party candidacy and further dividing the vote, the Republican Party elected its first president, former Illinois representative Abraham Lincoln. The election of Lincoln, known to be against the spread of slavery, was unacceptable to many in the South. Although secession from the Union had not been an issue in the campaign, talk of it began in the Southern states. + +Johnson took to the Senate floor after the election, giving a speech well received in the North, "I will not give up this government ... No; I intend to stand by it ... and I invite every man who is a patriot to ... rally around the altar of our common country ... and swear by our God, and all that is sacred and holy, that the Constitution shall be saved, and the Union preserved." As Southern senators announced they would resign if their states seceded, he reminded Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis that if Southerners would only hold to their seats, the Democrats would control the Senate, and could defend the South's interests against any infringement by Lincoln. Gordon-Reed points out that while Johnson's belief in an indissoluble Union was sincere, he had alienated Southern leaders, including Davis, who would soon be the president of the Confederate States of America, formed by the seceding states. If the Tennessean had backed the Confederacy, he would have had small influence in its government. + +Johnson returned home when his state took up the issue of secession. His successor as governor, Isham G. Harris, and the legislature organized a referendum on whether to have a constitutional convention to authorize secession; when that failed, they put the question of leaving the Union to a popular vote. Despite threats on Johnson's life, and actual assaults, he campaigned against both questions, sometimes speaking with a gun on the lectern before him. Although Johnson's eastern region of Tennessee was largely against secession, the second referendum passed, and in June 1861, Tennessee joined the Confederacy. Believing he would be killed if he stayed, Johnson fled through the Cumberland Gap, where his party was in fact shot at. He left his wife and family in Greeneville. + +As the only member from a seceded state to remain in the Senate and the most prominent Southern Unionist, Johnson had Lincoln's ear in the early months of the war. With most of Tennessee in Confederate hands, Johnson spent congressional recesses in Kentucky and Ohio, trying in vain to convince any Union commander who would listen to conduct an operation into East Tennessee. + +Military Governor of Tennessee + +Johnson's first tenure in the Senate came to a conclusion in March 1862 when Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee. Much of the central and western portions of that seceded state had been recovered. Although some argued that civil government should simply resume once the Confederates were defeated in an area, Lincoln chose to use his power as commander in chief to appoint military governors over Union-controlled Southern regions. The Senate quickly confirmed Johnson's nomination along with the rank of brigadier general. In response, the Confederates confiscated his land and his slaves, and turned his home into a military hospital. Later in 1862, after his departure from the Senate and in the absence of most Southern legislators, the Homestead Bill was finally enacted. Along with legislation for land-grant colleges and for the transcontinental railroad, the Homestead Bill has been credited with opening the Western United States to settlement. + +As military governor, Johnson sought to eliminate rebel influence in the state. He demanded loyalty oaths from public officials, and shut down all newspapers owned by Confederate sympathizers. Much of eastern Tennessee remained in Confederate hands, and the ebb and flow of war during 1862 sometimes brought Confederate control again close to Nashville. However, the Confederates allowed his wife and family to pass through the lines to join him. Johnson undertook the defense of Nashville as well as he could, though the city was continually harassed by cavalry raids led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Relief from Union regulars did not come until General William S. Rosecrans defeated the Confederates at Murfreesboro in early 1863. Much of eastern Tennessee was captured later that year. + +When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, declaring freedom for all slaves in Confederate-held areas, he exempted Tennessee at Johnson's request. The proclamation increased the debate over what should become of the slaves after the war, as not all Unionists supported abolition. Johnson finally decided that slavery had to end. He wrote, "If the institution of slavery ... seeks to overthrow it [the Government], then the Government has a clear right to destroy it". He reluctantly supported efforts to enlist former slaves into the Union Army, feeling that African-Americans should perform menial tasks to release white Americans to do the fighting. Nevertheless, he succeeded in recruiting 20,000 black soldiers to serve the Union. + +Vice presidency (1865) + +In 1860, Lincoln's running mate had been Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. Although Hamlin had served competently, was in good health, and was willing to run again, Johnson emerged as running mate for Lincoln's reelection bid in 1864. + +Lincoln considered several War Democrats for the ticket in 1864, and sent an agent to sound out General Benjamin Butler as a possible running mate. In May 1864, the president dispatched General Daniel Sickles to Nashville on a fact-finding mission. Although Sickles denied that he was there either to investigate or interview the military governor, Johnson biographer Hans L. Trefousse believes that Sickles's trip was connected to Johnson's subsequent nomination for vice president. According to historian Albert Castel in his account of Johnson's presidency, Lincoln was impressed by Johnson's administration of Tennessee. Gordon-Reed points out that while the Lincoln-Hamlin ticket might have been considered geographically balanced in 1860, "having Johnson, the southern War Democrat, on the ticket sent the right message about the folly of secession and the continuing capacity for union within the country." Another factor was the desire of Secretary of State William Seward to frustrate the vice-presidential candidacy of fellow New Yorker and former senator Daniel S. Dickinson, a War Democrat, as Seward would probably have had to yield his place if another New Yorker became vice president. Johnson, once he was told by reporters the likely purpose of Sickles' visit, was active on his own behalf, delivering speeches and having his political friends work behind the scenes to boost his candidacy. + +To sound a theme of unity in 1864, Lincoln ran under the banner of the National Union Party, rather than that of the Republicans. At the party's convention in Baltimore in June, Lincoln was easily nominated, although there had been some talk of replacing him with a cabinet officer or one of the more successful generals. After the convention backed Lincoln, former Secretary of War Simon Cameron offered a resolution to nominate Hamlin, but it was defeated. Johnson was nominated for vice president by C.M. Allen of Indiana with an Iowa delegate seconding it. On the first ballot, Johnson led with 200 votes to 150 for Hamlin and 108 for Dickinson. On the second ballot, Kentucky switched its vote for Johnson, beginning a stampede. Johnson was named on the second ballot with 491 votes to Hamlin's 17 and eight for Dickinson; the nomination was made unanimous. Lincoln expressed pleasure at the result, "Andy Johnson, I think, is a good man." When word reached Nashville, a crowd assembled and the military governor obliged with a speech contending his selection as a Southerner meant that the rebel states had not actually left the Union. + +Although it was unusual at the time for a national candidate to actively campaign, Johnson gave a number of speeches in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. He also sought to boost his chances in Tennessee while reestablishing civil government by making the loyalty oath even more restrictive, in that voters would now have to swear that they opposed making a settlement with the Confederacy. The Democratic candidate for president, George McClellan, hoped to avoid additional bloodshed by negotiation, and so the stricter loyalty oath effectively disenfranchised his supporters. Lincoln declined to override Johnson, and their ticket took the state by 25,000 votes. Congress refused to count Tennessee's electoral votes, but Lincoln and Johnson did not need them, having won in most states that had voted, and easily secured the election. + +Now Vice President-elect, Johnson was eager to complete the work of reestablishing civilian government in Tennessee, although the timetable for the election of a new governor did not allow it to take place until after Inauguration Day, March 4. He hoped to remain in Nashville to complete his task, but was told by Lincoln's advisers that he could not stay, but would be sworn in with Lincoln. In these months, Union troops finished the retaking of eastern Tennessee, including Greeneville. Just before his departure, the voters of Tennessee ratified a new constitution, which abolished slavery, on February 22, 1865. One of Johnson's final acts as military governor was to certify the results. + +Johnson traveled to Washington to be sworn into office, although according to Gordon-Reed, "in light of what happened on March 4, 1865, it might have been better if Johnson had stayed in Nashville." Johnson may have been ill; Castel cited typhoid fever, though Gordon-Reed notes that there is no independent evidence for that diagnosis. On the evening of March 3, Johnson attended a party in his honor at which he drank heavily. Hung over the following morning at the Capitol, he asked Vice President Hamlin for some whiskey. Hamlin produced a bottle, and Johnson took two stiff drinks, stating "I need all the strength for the occasion I can have." In the Senate Chamber, Johnson delivered a rambling address as Lincoln, the Congress, and dignitaries looked on. Almost incoherent at times, he finally meandered to a halt, whereupon Hamlin hastily swore him in as vice president. Lincoln, who had watched sadly during the debacle, then went to his own swearing-in outside the Capitol, and delivered his acclaimed Second Inaugural Address. + +In the weeks after the inauguration, Johnson only presided over the Senate briefly, and hid from public ridicule at the Maryland home of a friend, Francis Preston Blair. When he did return to Washington, it was with the intent of leaving for Tennessee to reestablish his family in Greeneville. Instead, he remained after word came that General Ulysses S. Grant had captured the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, presaging the end of the war. Lincoln stated, in response to criticism of Johnson's behavior, that "I have known Andy Johnson for many years; he made a bad slip the other day, but you need not be scared; Andy ain't a drunkard." + +Presidency (1865–1869) + +Accession + +On the afternoon of April 14, 1865, Lincoln and Johnson met for the first time since the inauguration. Trefousse states that Johnson wanted to "induce Lincoln not to be too lenient with traitors"; Gordon-Reed agrees. + +That night, President Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded at Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. The shooting of the President was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Johnson, and Seward the same night. Seward barely survived his wounds, while Johnson escaped attack as his would-be assassin, George Atzerodt, got drunk instead of killing the vice president. Leonard J. Farwell, a fellow boarder at the Kirkwood House, awoke Johnson with news of Lincoln's shooting. Johnson rushed to the President's deathbed, where he remained a short time, on his return promising, "They shall suffer for this. They shall suffer for this." Lincoln died at 7:22 am the next morning; Johnson's swearing-in occurred between 10 and 11 am with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding in the presence of most of the Cabinet. Johnson's demeanor was described by the newspapers as "solemn and dignified". Some Cabinet members had last seen Johnson, apparently drunk, at the inauguration. At noon, Johnson conducted his first Cabinet meeting in the Treasury Secretary's office, and asked all members to remain in their positions. + +The events of the assassination resulted in speculation, then and subsequently, concerning Johnson and what the conspirators might have intended for him. In the vain hope of having his life spared after his capture, Atzerodt spoke much about the conspiracy, but did not say anything to indicate that the plotted assassination of Johnson was merely a ruse. Conspiracy theorists point to the fact that on the day of the assassination, Booth came to the Kirkwood House and left one of his cards with Johnson's private secretary, William A. Browning. The message on it was: "Don't wish to disturb you. Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth." + +Johnson presided with dignity over Lincoln's funeral ceremonies in Washington, before his predecessor's body was sent home to Springfield, Illinois, for interment. Shortly after Lincoln's death, Union General William T. Sherman reported he had, without consulting Washington, reached an armistice agreement with Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston for the surrender of Confederate forces in North Carolina in exchange for the existing state government remaining in power, with private property rights (slaves) to be respected. This did not even grant freedom to those in slavery. This was not acceptable to Johnson or the Cabinet, who sent word for Sherman to secure the surrender without making political deals, which he did. Further, Johnson placed a $100,000 bounty (equivalent to $ in ) on Confederate President Davis, then a fugitive, which gave Johnson the reputation of a man who would be tough on the South. More controversially, he permitted the execution of Mary Surratt for her part in Lincoln's assassination. Surratt was executed with three others, including Atzerodt, on July 7, 1865. + +Reconstruction + +Background + +Upon taking office, Johnson faced the question of what to do with the former Confederacy. President Lincoln had authorized loyalist governments in Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee as the Union came to control large parts of those states and advocated a ten percent plan that would allow elections after ten percent of the voters in any state took an oath of future loyalty to the Union. Congress considered this too lenient; its own plan, requiring a majority of voters to take the loyalty oath, passed both houses in 1864, but Lincoln pocket vetoed it. + +Johnson had three goals in Reconstruction. He sought a speedy restoration of the states, on the grounds that they had never truly left the Union, and thus should again be recognized once loyal citizens formed a government. To Johnson, African-American suffrage was a delay and a distraction; it had always been a state responsibility to decide who should vote. Second, political power in the Southern states should pass from the planter class to his beloved "plebeians". Johnson feared that the freedmen, many of whom were still economically bound to their former masters, might vote at their direction. Johnson's third priority was election in his own right in 1868, a feat no one who had succeeded a deceased president had managed to accomplish, attempting to secure a Democratic anti-Congressional Reconstruction coalition in the South. + +The Republicans had formed a number of factions. The Radical Republicans sought voting and other civil rights for African Americans. They believed that the freedmen could be induced to vote Republican in gratitude for emancipation, and that black votes could keep the Republicans in power and Southern Democrats, including former rebels, out of influence. They believed that top Confederates should be punished. The Moderate Republicans sought to keep the Democrats out of power at a national level, and prevent former rebels from resuming power. They were not as enthusiastic about the idea of African-American suffrage as their Radical colleagues, either because of their own local political concerns, or because they believed that the freedman would be likely to cast his vote badly. Northern Democrats favored the unconditional restoration of the Southern states. They did not support African-American suffrage, which might threaten Democratic control in the South. + +Presidential Reconstruction +Johnson was initially left to devise a Reconstruction policy without legislative intervention, as Congress was not due to meet again until December 1865. Radical Republicans told the President that the Southern states were economically in a state of chaos and urged him to use his leverage to insist on rights for freedmen as a condition of restoration to the Union. But Johnson, with the support of other officials including Seward, insisted that the franchise was a state, not a federal matter. The Cabinet was divided on the issue. + +Johnson's first Reconstruction actions were two proclamations, with the unanimous backing of his Cabinet, on May 29. One recognized the Virginia government led by provisional Governor Francis Pierpont. The second provided amnesty for all ex-rebels except those holding property valued at $20,000 or more; it also appointed a temporary governor for North Carolina and authorized elections. Neither of these proclamations included provisions regarding black suffrage or freedmen's rights. The President ordered constitutional conventions in other former rebel states. + +As Southern states began the process of forming governments, Johnson's policies received considerable public support in the North, which he took as unconditional backing for quick reinstatement of the South. While he received such support from the white South, he underestimated the determination of Northerners to ensure that the war had not been fought for nothing. It was important, in Northern public opinion, that the South acknowledge its defeat, that slavery be ended, and that the lot of African Americans be improved. Voting rights were less important—after all, only a handful of Northern states (mostly in New England) gave African-American men the right to vote on the same basis as whites, and in late 1865, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Minnesota voted down African-American suffrage proposals by large margins. Northern public opinion tolerated Johnson's inaction on black suffrage as an experiment, to be allowed if it quickened Southern acceptance of defeat. Instead, white Southerners felt emboldened. A number of Southern states passed Black Codes, binding African-American laborers to farms on annual contracts they could not quit, and allowing law enforcement at whim to arrest them for vagrancy and rent out their labor. Most Southerners elected to Congress were former Confederates, with the most prominent being Georgia Senator-designate and former Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens. Congress assembled in early December 1865; Johnson's conciliatory annual message to them was well received. Nevertheless, Congress refused to seat the Southern legislators and established a committee to recommend appropriate Reconstruction legislation. + +Northerners were outraged at the idea of unrepentant Confederate leaders, such as Stephens, rejoining the federal government at a time when emotional wounds from the war remained raw. They saw the Black Codes placing African Americans in a position barely above slavery. Republicans also feared that restoration of the Southern states would return the Democrats to power. In addition, according to David O. Stewart in his book on Johnson's impeachment, "the violence and poverty that oppressed the South would galvanize the opposition to Johnson". + +Break with the Republicans: 1866 +Congress was reluctant to confront the President, and initially only sought to fine-tune Johnson's policies towards the South. According to Trefousse, "If there was a time when Johnson could have come to an agreement with the moderates of the Republican Party, it was the period following the return of Congress." The President was unhappy about the provocative actions of the Southern states, and about the continued control by the antebellum elite there, but made no statement publicly, believing that Southerners had a right to act as they did, even if it was unwise to do so. By late January 1866, he was convinced that winning a showdown with the Radical Republicans was necessary to his political plans – both for the success of Reconstruction and for reelection in 1868. He would have preferred that the conflict arise over the legislative efforts to enfranchise African Americans in the District of Columbia, a proposal that had been defeated overwhelmingly in an all-white referendum. A bill to accomplish this passed the House of Representatives, but to Johnson's disappointment, stalled in the Senate before he could veto it. + +Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull, leader of the Moderate Republicans and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, was anxious to reach an understanding with the President. He ushered through Congress a bill extending the Freedmen's Bureau beyond its scheduled abolition in 1867, and the first Civil Rights Bill, to grant citizenship to the freedmen. Trumbull met several times with Johnson and was convinced the President would sign the measures (Johnson rarely contradicted visitors, often fooling those who met with him into thinking he was in accord). In fact, the President opposed both bills as infringements on state sovereignty. Additionally, both of Trumbull's bills were unpopular among white Southerners, whom Johnson hoped to include in his new party. Johnson vetoed the Freedman's Bureau bill on February 18, 1866, to the delight of white Southerners and the puzzled anger of Republican legislators. He considered himself vindicated when a move to override his veto failed in the Senate the following day. Johnson believed that the Radicals would now be isolated and defeated and that the moderate Republicans would form behind him; he did not understand that Moderates also wanted to see African Americans treated fairly. + +On February 22, 1866, Washington's Birthday, Johnson gave an impromptu speech to supporters who had marched to the White House and called for an address in honor of the first president. In his hour-long speech, he instead referred to himself over 200 times. More damagingly, he also spoke of "men ... still opposed to the Union" to whom he could not extend the hand of friendship he gave to the South. When called upon by the crowd to say who they were, Johnson named Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, and abolitionist Wendell Phillips, and accused them of plotting his assassination. Republicans viewed the address as a declaration of war, while one Democratic ally estimated Johnson's speech cost the party 200,000 votes in the 1866 congressional midterm elections. + +Although strongly urged by moderates to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Johnson broke decisively with them by vetoing it on March 27. In his veto message, he objected to the measure because it conferred citizenship on the freedmen at a time when 11 out of 36 states were unrepresented in the Congress, and that it discriminated in favor of African Americans and against whites. Within three weeks, Congress had overridden his veto, the first time that had been done on a major bill in American history. The veto, often seen as a key mistake of Johnson's presidency, convinced moderates there was no hope of working with him. Historian Eric Foner, in his volume on Reconstruction, views it as "the most disastrous miscalculation of his political career". According to Stewart, the veto was "for many his defining blunder, setting a tone of perpetual confrontation with Congress that prevailed for the rest of his presidency". + +Congress also proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the states. Written by Trumbull and others, it was sent for ratification by state legislatures in a process in which the president plays no part, though Johnson opposed it. The amendment was designed to put the key provisions of the Civil Rights Act into the Constitution, but also went further. The amendment extended citizenship to every person born in the United States (except Indians on reservations), penalized states that did not give the vote to freedmen, and most importantly, created new federal civil rights that could be protected by federal courts. It also guaranteed that the federal debt would be paid and forbade repayment of Confederate war debts. Further, it disqualified many former Confederates from office, although the disability could be removed — by Congress, not the president. Both houses passed the Freedmen's Bureau Act a second time, and again the President vetoed it; this time, the veto was overridden. By the summer of 1866, when Congress finally adjourned, Johnson's method of restoring states to the Union by executive fiat, without safeguards for the freedmen, was in deep trouble. His home state of Tennessee ratified the Fourteenth Amendment despite the President's opposition. When Tennessee did so, Congress immediately seated its proposed delegation, embarrassing Johnson. + +Efforts to compromise failed, and a political war ensued between the united Republicans on one side, and on the other, Johnson and his Northern and Southern allies in the Democratic Party. He called a convention of the National Union Party. Republicans had returned to using their previous identifier; Johnson intended to use the discarded name to unite his supporters and gain election to a full term, in 1868. The battleground was the election of 1866; Southern states were not allowed to vote. Johnson campaigned vigorously, undertaking a public speaking tour, known as the "Swing Around the Circle". The trip, including speeches in Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Columbus, proved politically disastrous, with the President making controversial comparisons between himself and Jesus, and engaging in arguments with hecklers. These exchanges were attacked as beneath the dignity of the presidency. The Republicans won by a landslide, increasing their two-thirds majority in Congress, and made plans to control Reconstruction. Johnson blamed the Democrats for giving only lukewarm support to the National Union movement. + +Radical Reconstruction +Even with the Republican victory in November 1866, Johnson considered himself in a strong position. The Fourteenth Amendment had been ratified by none of the Southern or border states except Tennessee, and had been rejected in Kentucky, Delaware, and Maryland. As the amendment required ratification by three-quarters of the states to become part of the Constitution, he believed the deadlock would be broken in his favor, leading to his election in 1868. Once it reconvened in December 1866, an energized Congress began passing legislation, often over a presidential veto; this included the District of Columbia voting bill. Congress admitted Nebraska to the Union over a veto, and the Republicans gained two senators and a state that promptly ratified the amendment. Johnson's veto of a bill for statehood for Colorado Territory was sustained; enough senators agreed that a district with a population of 30,000 was not yet worthy of statehood to win the day. + +In January 1867, Congressman Stevens introduced legislation to dissolve the Southern state governments and reconstitute them into five military districts, under martial law. The states would begin again by holding constitutional conventions. African Americans could vote for or become delegates; former Confederates could not. In the legislative process, Congress added to the bill that restoration to the Union would follow the state's ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, and completion of the process of adding it to the Constitution. Johnson and the Southerners attempted a compromise, whereby the South would agree to a modified version of the amendment without the disqualification of former Confederates, and for limited black suffrage. The Republicans insisted on the full language of the amendment, and the deal fell through. Although Johnson could have pocket vetoed the First Reconstruction Act as it was presented to him less than ten days before the end of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, he chose to veto it directly on March 2, 1867; Congress overruled him the same day. Also on March 2, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act over the President's veto, in response to statements during the Swing Around the Circle that he planned to fire Cabinet secretaries who did not agree with him. This bill, requiring Senate approval for the firing of Cabinet members during the tenure of the president who appointed them and for one month afterwards, was immediately controversial, with some senators doubting that it was constitutional or that its terms applied to Johnson, whose key Cabinet officers were Lincoln holdovers. + +Impeachment + +Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was an able and hard-working man, but difficult to deal with. Johnson both admired and was exasperated by his War Secretary, who, in combination with General of the Army Grant, worked to undermine the president's Southern policy from within his own administration. Johnson considered firing Stanton, but respected him for his wartime service as secretary. Stanton, for his part, feared allowing Johnson to appoint his successor and refused to resign, despite his public disagreements with his president. + +The new Congress met for a few weeks in March 1867, then adjourned, leaving the House Committee on the Judiciary behind, tasked in the first impeachment inquiry against Johnson with reporting back to the full House whether there were grounds for Johnson to be impeached. This committee duly met, examined the President's bank accounts, and summoned members of the Cabinet to testify. When a federal court released former Confederate president Davis on bail on May 13 (he had been captured shortly after the war), the committee investigated whether the President had impeded the prosecution. It learned that Johnson was eager to have Davis tried. A bipartisan majority of the committee voted down impeachment charges; the committee adjourned on June 3. + +Later in June, Johnson and Stanton battled over the question of whether the military officers placed in command of the South could override the civil authorities. The President had Attorney General Henry Stanbery issue an opinion backing his position that they could not. Johnson sought to pin down Stanton either as for, and thus endorsing Johnson's position, or against, showing himself to be opposed to his president and the rest of the Cabinet. Stanton evaded the point in meetings and written communications. When Congress reconvened in July, it passed a Reconstruction Act against Johnson's position, waited for his veto, overrode it, and went home. In addition to clarifying the powers of the generals, the legislation also deprived the President of control over the Army in the South. With Congress in recess until November, Johnson decided to fire Stanton and relieve one of the military commanders, General Philip Sheridan, who had dismissed the governor of Texas and installed a replacement with little popular support. Johnson was initially deterred by a strong objection from Grant, but on August 5, the President demanded Stanton's resignation; the secretary refused to quit with Congress out of session. Johnson then suspended him pending the next meeting of Congress as permitted under the Tenure of Office Act; Grant agreed to serve as temporary replacement while continuing to lead the Army. + +Grant, under protest, followed Johnson's order transferring Sheridan and another of the district commanders, Daniel Sickles, who had angered Johnson by firmly following Congress's plan. The President also issued a proclamation pardoning most Confederates, exempting those who held office under the Confederacy, or who had served in federal office before the war but had breached their oaths. Although Republicans expressed anger with his actions, the 1867 elections generally went Democratic. No seats in Congress were directly elected in the polling, but the Democrats took control of the Ohio General Assembly, allowing them to defeat for reelection one of Johnson's strongest opponents, Senator Benjamin Wade. Voters in Ohio, Connecticut, and Minnesota turned down propositions to grant African Americans the vote. + +The adverse results momentarily put a stop to Republican calls to impeach Johnson, who was elated by the elections. Nevertheless, once Congress met in November, the Judiciary Committee reversed itself and passed a resolution of impeachment against Johnson. After much debate about whether anything the President had done was a high crime or misdemeanor, the standard under the Constitution, the resolution was defeated by the House of Representatives on December 7, 1867, by a vote of 57 in favor to 108 opposed. + +Johnson notified Congress of Stanton's suspension and Grant's interim appointment. In January 1868, the Senate disapproved of his action, and reinstated Stanton, contending the President had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Grant stepped aside over Johnson's objection, causing a complete break between them. Johnson then dismissed Stanton and appointed Lorenzo Thomas to replace him. Stanton refused to leave his office, and on February 24, 1868, the House impeached the President for intentionally violating the Tenure of Office Act, by a vote of 128 to 47. The House subsequently adopted eleven articles of impeachment, for the most part alleging that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act, and had questioned the legitimacy of Congress. + +On March 5, 1868, the impeachment trial began in the Senate and lasted almost three months; Congressmen George S. Boutwell, Benjamin Butler and Thaddeus Stevens acted as managers for the House, or prosecutors, and William M. Evarts, Benjamin R. Curtis and former Attorney General Stanbery were Johnson's counsel; Chief Justice Chase served as presiding judge. + +The defense relied on the provision of the Tenure of Office Act that made it applicable only to appointees of the current administration. Since Lincoln had appointed Stanton, the defense maintained Johnson had not violated the act, and also argued that the President had the right to test the constitutionality of an act of Congress. Johnson's counsel insisted that he make no appearance at the trial, nor publicly comment about the proceedings, and except for a pair of interviews in April, he complied. + +Johnson maneuvered to gain an acquittal; for example, he pledged to Iowa Senator James W. Grimes that he would not interfere with Congress's Reconstruction efforts. Grimes reported to a group of Moderates, many of whom voted for acquittal, that he believed the President would keep his word. Johnson also promised to install the respected John Schofield as War Secretary. Kansas Senator Edmund G. Ross received assurances that the new, Radical-influenced constitutions ratified in South Carolina and Arkansas would be transmitted to the Congress without delay, an action which would give him and other senators political cover to vote for acquittal. + +One reason senators were reluctant to remove the President was that his successor would have been Ohio Senator Wade, the president pro tempore of the Senate. Wade, a lame duck who left office in early 1869, was a Radical who supported such measures as women's suffrage, placing him beyond the pale politically in much of the nation. Additionally, a President Wade was seen as an obstacle to Grant's ambitions. + +With the dealmaking, Johnson was confident of the result in advance of the verdict, and in the days leading up to the ballot, newspapers reported that Stevens and his Radicals had given up. On May 16, the Senate voted on the 11th article of impeachment, accusing Johnson of firing Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office of Act once the Senate had overturned his suspension. Thirty-five senators voted "guilty" and 19 "not guilty", thus falling short by a single vote of the two-thirds majority required for conviction under the Constitution. Ten Republicans—Senators Grimes, Ross, Trumbull, James Dixon, James Rood Doolittle, Daniel Sheldon Norton, William Pitt Fessenden, Joseph S. Fowler, John B. Henderson, and Peter G. Van Winkle—voted to acquit the President. With Stevens bitterly disappointed at the result, the Senate then adjourned for the Republican National Convention; Grant was nominated for president. The Senate returned on May 26 and voted on the second and third articles, with identical 35–19 results. Faced with those results, Johnson's opponents gave up and dismissed proceedings. Stanton "relinquished" his office on May 26, and the Senate subsequently confirmed Schofield. When Johnson renominated Stanbery to return to his position as attorney general after his service as a defense manager, the Senate refused to confirm him. + +Allegations were made at the time and again later that bribery dictated the outcome of the trial. Even when it was in progress, Representative Butler began an investigation, held contentious hearings, and issued a report, unendorsed by any other congressman. Butler focused on a New York–based "Astor House Group", supposedly led by political boss and editor Thurlow Weed. This organization was said to have raised large sums of money from whiskey interests through Cincinnati lawyer Charles Woolley to bribe senators to acquit Johnson. Butler went so far as to imprison Woolley in the Capitol building when he refused to answer questions, but failed to prove bribery. + +Foreign policy +Soon after taking office as president, Johnson reached an accord with Secretary of State William H. Seward that there would be no change in foreign policy. In practice, this meant that Seward would continue to run things as he had under Lincoln. Seward and Lincoln had been rivals for the nomination in 1860; the victor hoped that Seward would succeed him as president in 1869. At the time of Johnson's accession, the French had intervened in Mexico, sending troops there. While many politicians had indulged in saber rattling over the Mexican matter, Seward preferred quiet diplomacy, warning the French through diplomatic channels that their presence in Mexico was unacceptable. Although the President preferred a more aggressive approach, Seward persuaded him to follow his lead. In April 1866, the French government informed Seward that its troops would be brought home in stages, to conclude by November 1867. On August 14, 1866, Johnson and his cabinet gave a reception for Queen Emma of Hawaii who was returning to Hawaii after her trip to Britain and Europe. + +Seward was an expansionist, and sought opportunities to gain territory for the United States. After the loss of the Crimean War in the 1850s, the Russian government saw its North American colony (today Alaska) as a financial liability, and feared losing control to Britain whose troops would easily swoop in and annex the territory from neighboring Canada in any future conflict. Negotiations between Russia and the U.S. over the sale of Alaska were halted due to the outbreak of the Civil War, but after the U.S. victory in the war, talks resumed. Russia instructed its minister in Washington, Baron Eduard de Stoeckl, to negotiate a sale. De Stoeckl did so deftly, getting Seward to raise his offer from $5 million (coincidentally, the minimum that Russia had instructed de Stoeckl to accept) to $7 million, and then getting $200,000 added by raising various objections. This sum of $7.2 million is equivalent to $ in present-day terms. On March 30, 1867, de Stoeckl and Seward signed the treaty, working quickly as the Senate was about to adjourn. Johnson and Seward took the signed document to the President's Room in the Capitol, only to be told there was no time to deal with the matter before adjournment. The President summoned the Senate into session to meet on April 1; that body approved the treaty, 37–2. Emboldened by his success in Alaska, Seward sought acquisitions elsewhere. His only success was staking an American claim to uninhabited Wake Island in the Pacific, which would be officially claimed by the U.S. in 1898. He came close with the Danish West Indies as Denmark agreed to sell and the local population approved the transfer in a plebiscite, but the Senate never voted on the treaty and it expired. + +Another treaty that fared badly was the Johnson-Clarendon convention, negotiated in settlement of the Alabama Claims, for damages to American shipping from British-built Confederate raiders. Negotiated by the United States Minister to Britain, former Maryland senator Reverdy Johnson, in late 1868, it was ignored by the Senate during the remainder of the President's term. The treaty was rejected after he left office, and the Grant administration later negotiated considerably better terms from Britain. + +Administration and Cabinet + +Judicial appointments + +Johnson appointed nine Article III federal judges during his presidency, all to United States district courts; he did not appoint a justice to serve on the Supreme Court. In April 1866, he nominated Henry Stanbery to fill the vacancy left with the death of John Catron, but Congress eliminated the seat to prevent the appointment, and to ensure that he did not get to make any appointments eliminated the next vacancy as well, providing that the court would shrink by one justice when one next departed from office. Johnson appointed his Greeneville crony, Samuel Milligan, to the United States Court of Claims, where he served from 1868 until his death in 1874. + +Reforms initiated +In June 1866, Johnson signed the Southern Homestead Act into law, believing that the legislation would assist poor whites. Around 28,000 land claims were successfully patented, although few former slaves benefitted from the law, fraud was rampant, and much of the best land was off-limits, reserved for grants to veterans or railroads. In June 1868, Johnson signed an eight-hour law passed by Congress that established an eight-hour workday for laborers and mechanics employed by the Federal Government. Although Johnson told members of a Workingmen's party delegation in Baltimore that he could not directly commit himself to an eight-hour day, he nevertheless told the same delegation that he greatly favoured the "shortest number of hours consistent with the interests of all". According to Richard F. Selcer, however, the good intentions behind the law were "immediately frustrated" as wages were cut by 20%. + +Completion of term +Johnson sought nomination by the 1868 Democratic National Convention in New York in July 1868. He remained very popular among Southern whites, and boosted that popularity by issuing, just before the convention, a pardon ending the possibility of criminal proceedings against any Confederate not already indicted, meaning that only Davis and a few others still might face trial. On the first ballot, Johnson was second to former Ohio representative George H. Pendleton, who had been his Democratic opponent for vice president in 1864. Johnson's support was mostly from the South, and fell away as the ballots passed. On the 22nd ballot, former New York governor Horatio Seymour was nominated, and the President received only four votes, all from Tennessee. + +The conflict with Congress continued. Johnson sent Congress proposals for amendments to limit the president to a single six-year term and make the president and the Senate directly elected, and for term limits for judges. Congress took no action on them. When the President was slow to officially report ratifications of the Fourteenth Amendment by the new Southern legislatures, Congress passed a bill, again over his veto, requiring him to do so within ten days of receipt. He still delayed as much as he could, but was required, in July 1868, to report the ratifications making the amendment part of the Constitution. + +Seymour's operatives sought Johnson's support, but he long remained silent on the presidential campaign. It was not until October, with the vote already having taken place in some states, that he mentioned Seymour at all, and he never endorsed him. Nevertheless, Johnson regretted Grant's victory, in part because of their animus from the Stanton affair. In his annual message to Congress in December, Johnson urged the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act and told legislators that had they admitted their Southern colleagues in 1865, all would have been well. He celebrated his 60th birthday in late December with a party for several hundred children, though not including those of President-elect Grant, who did not allow his to go. + +On Christmas Day 1868, Johnson issued a final amnesty, this one covering everyone, including Davis. He also issued, in his final months in office, pardons for crimes, including one for Dr. Samuel Mudd, controversially convicted of involvement in the Lincoln assassination (he had set Booth's broken leg) and imprisoned in Fort Jefferson on Florida's Dry Tortugas. + +On March 3, the President hosted a large public reception at the White House on his final full day in office. Grant had made it known that he was unwilling to ride in the same carriage as Johnson, as was customary, and Johnson refused to go to the inauguration at all. Despite an effort by Seward to prompt a change of mind, he spent the morning of March 4 finishing last-minute business, and then shortly after noon rode from the White House to the home of a friend. + +Post-presidency (1869–1875) + +After leaving the presidency, Johnson remained for some weeks in Washington, then returned to Greeneville for the first time in eight years. He was honored with large public celebrations along the way, especially in Tennessee, where cities hostile to him during the war hung out welcome banners. He had arranged to purchase a large farm near Greeneville to live on after his presidency. + +Some expected Johnson to run for Governor of Tennessee or for the Senate again, while others thought that he would become a railroad executive. Johnson found Greeneville boring, and his private life was embittered by the suicide of his son Robert in 1869. Seeking vindication for himself, and revenge against his political enemies, he launched a Senate bid soon after returning home. Tennessee had gone Republican, but court rulings restoring the vote to some whites and suppression of the African-American vote by the Ku Klux Klan led to a Democratic victory in the legislative elections in August 1869. Johnson was seen as a likely victor in the Senate election, although hated by Radical Republicans, and by some Democrats because of his wartime activities. Although he was at one point within a single vote of victory in the legislature's balloting, the Republicans eventually elected Henry Cooper over Johnson, 54–51. In 1872, there was a special election for an at-large congressional seat for Tennessee; Johnson initially sought the Democratic nomination, but when he saw that it would go to former Confederate general Benjamin F. Cheatham, decided to run as an independent. The former president was defeated, finishing third, but the split in the Democratic Party defeated Cheatham in favor of an old Johnson Unionist ally, Horace Maynard. + +In 1873, Johnson contracted cholera during an epidemic but recovered; that year he lost about $73,000 (~$ in ) when the First National Bank of Washington went under, though he was eventually repaid much of the sum. + +Return to the Senate + +He began looking towards the next Senate election to take place in the legislature in early 1875. Johnson began to woo the farmers' Grange movement; with his Jeffersonian leanings, he easily gained their support. He spoke throughout the state in his final campaign tour. Few African Americans outside the large towns were now able to vote as Reconstruction faded in Tennessee, setting a pattern that would be repeated in the other Southern states; the white domination would last almost a century. In the Tennessee legislative elections in August, the Democrats elected 92 legislators to the Republicans' eight, and Johnson went to Nashville for the legislative session. When the balloting for the Senate seat began on January 20, 1875, he led with 30 votes, but did not have the required majority as three former Confederate generals, one former colonel, and a former Democratic congressman split the vote with him. Johnson's opponents tried to agree on a single candidate who might gain majority support and defeat him, but failed, and he was elected on January 26 on the 54th ballot, with a margin of a single vote. Nashville erupted in rejoicing; remarked Johnson, "Thank God for the vindication." + +Johnson's comeback garnered national attention, with the St. Louis Republican calling it "the most magnificent personal triumph which the history of American politics can show". At his swearing-in in the Senate on March 5, 1875, he was greeted with flowers, and sworn in alongside Hamlin (his predecessor as vice president) by incumbent Vice President Henry Wilson (who as senator had voted for Johnson's ouster). Many Republicans ignored Senator Johnson, though some, such as Ohio's John Sherman (who had voted for conviction), shook his hand. Johnson remains the only former president to serve in the Senate. He spoke only once in the short session, on March 22 lambasting President Grant for his use of federal troops in support of Louisiana's Reconstruction government. The former president asked, "How far off is military despotism?" and concluded his speech, "may God bless this people and God save the Constitution". + +Death + +Johnson returned home after the special session concluded. In late July 1875, convinced some of his opponents were defaming him in the Ohio gubernatorial race, he decided to travel there to give speeches. He began the trip on July 28, and broke the journey at his daughter Mary's farm near Elizabethton, where his daughter Martha was also staying. That evening he had a stroke, but refused medical treatment until the next day, when he did not improve and two doctors were sent for from Elizabethton. He seemed to respond to their ministrations, but had another stroke on the evening of July 30, and died early the following morning at the age of 66. President Grant had the "painful duty" of announcing the death of the only surviving past president. Northern newspapers, in their obituaries, tended to focus on Johnson's loyalty during the war, while Southern ones paid tribute to his actions as president. Johnson's funeral was held on August 3 in Greeneville. He was buried with his body wrapped in an American flag and a copy of the U.S. Constitution placed under his head, according to his wishes. The burial ground was dedicated as the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery in 1906, and with his home and tailor's shop, is part of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site. + +Historical reputation and legacy +According to Castel, "historians [of Johnson's presidency] have tended to concentrate to the exclusion of practically everything else upon his role in that titanic event [Reconstruction]." Through the remainder of the 19th century, there were few historical evaluations of Johnson and his presidency. Memoirs from Northerners who had dealt with him, such as former vice president Henry Wilson and Maine Senator James G. Blaine, depicted him as an obstinate boor who tried to favor the South in Reconstruction but was frustrated by Congress. According to historian Howard K. Beale in his journal article about the historiography of Reconstruction, "Men of the postwar decades were more concerned with justifying their own position than they were with painstaking search for truth. Thus [Alabama congressman and historian] Hilary Herbert and his corroborators presented a Southern indictment of Northern policies, and Henry Wilson's history was a brief for the North." + +The turn of the 20th century saw the first significant historical evaluations of Johnson. Leading the wave was Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James Ford Rhodes, who wrote of the former president: + +Rhodes ascribed Johnson's faults to his personal weaknesses, and blamed him for the problems of the postbellum South. Other early 20th-century historians, such as John Burgess, future president Woodrow Wilson, and William Dunning, concurred with Rhodes, believing Johnson flawed and politically inept but concluding that he had tried to carry out Lincoln's plans for the South in good faith. Author and journalist Jay Tolson suggests that Wilson "depict[ed Reconstruction] as a vindictive program that hurt even repentant southerners while benefiting northern opportunists, the so-called Carpetbaggers, and cynical white southerners, or Scalawags, who exploited alliances with blacks for political gain." + +Even as Rhodes and his school wrote, another group of historians (Dunning School) was setting out on the full rehabilitation of Johnson, using for the first time primary sources such as his papers, provided by his daughter Martha before her death in 1901, and the diaries of Johnson's Navy Secretary, Gideon Welles, first published in 1911. The resulting volumes, such as David Miller DeWitt's The Impeachment and Trial of President Andrew Johnson (1903), presented him far more favorably than they did those who had sought to oust him. In James Schouler's 1913 History of the Reconstruction Period, the author accused Rhodes of being "quite unfair to Johnson", though agreeing that the former president had created many of his own problems through inept political moves. These works had an effect; although historians continued to view Johnson as having deep flaws which sabotaged his presidency, they saw his Reconstruction policies as fundamentally correct. + +Castel writes: + +Beale wondered in 1940, "is it not time that we studied the history of Reconstruction without first assuming, at least subconsciously, that carpetbaggers and Southern white Republicans were wicked, that Negroes were illiterate incompetents, and that the whole white South owes a debt of gratitude to the restorers of 'white supremacy'?" Despite these doubts, the favorable view of Johnson survived for a time. In 1942, Van Heflin portrayed the former president as a fighter for democracy in the Hollywood film Tennessee Johnson. In 1948, a poll of his colleagues by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger deemed Johnson among the average presidents; in 1956, one by Clinton L. Rossiter named him as one of the near-great chief executives. Foner notes that at the time of these surveys, "the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War was regarded as a time of corruption and misgovernment caused by granting black men the right to vote." + +Earlier historians, including Beale, believed that money drove events, and had seen Reconstruction as an economic struggle. They also accepted, for the most part, that reconciliation between North and South should have been the top priority of Reconstruction. In the 1950s, historians began to focus on the African-American experience as central to Reconstruction. They rejected completely any claim of black inferiority, which had marked many earlier historical works, and saw the developing civil rights movement as a second Reconstruction; some neoabolitionist writers stated they hoped their work on the postbellum era would advance the cause of civil rights. These authors sympathized with the Radical Republicans for their desire to help the African American, and saw Johnson as callous towards the freedman. In a number of works from 1956 onwards by such historians as Fawn Brodie, the former president was depicted as a successful saboteur of efforts to better the freedman's lot. These volumes included major biographies of Stevens and Stanton. Reconstruction was increasingly seen as a noble effort to integrate the freed slaves into society. + +In the early 21st century, Johnson is among those commonly mentioned as the worst presidents in U.S. history. According to historian Glenn W. Lafantasie, who believes James Buchanan the worst president, "Johnson is a particular favorite for the bottom of the pile because of his impeachment ... his complete mishandling of Reconstruction policy ... his bristling personality, and his enormous sense of self-importance." Tolson suggests that "Johnson is now scorned for having resisted Radical Republican policies aimed at securing the rights and well-being of the newly emancipated African-Americans." Gordon-Reed notes that Johnson, along with his contemporaries Pierce and Buchanan, is generally listed among the five worst presidents, but states "there have never been more difficult times in the life of this nation. The problems these men had to confront were enormous. It would have taken a succession of Lincolns to do them justice." + +Trefousse considers Johnson's legacy to be "the maintenance of white supremacy. His boost to Southern conservatives by undermining Reconstruction was his legacy to the nation, one that would trouble the country for generations to come." Gordon-Reed states of Johnson: + +See also + + Efforts to impeach Andrew Johnson + Lincoln–Johnson ledger-removal allegation + Andrew Johnson alcoholism debate + + Amphitheatrum Johnsonianum – 1867 illustration + Tennessee Johnson – 1942 film + +Notes + +References + +Citations + +Works cited + + + + + + + + + + + + vol 5 1864–66 online and vol 6 1866–72 online + + + + + Swanson, Ryan A. "Andrew Johnson and His Governors: An Examination of Failed Reconstruction Leadership." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 71.1 (2012): 16–45. online + +Primary sources + +Further reading + + Foner, Eric. The Dunning School: Historians, Race, and the Meaning of Reconstruction (University Press of Kentucky, 2013). + Hardison, Edwin T. "In the toils of war: Andrew Johnson and the federal occupation of Tennessee, 1862-1865" (PhD thesis; . The University of Tennessee, 1981). + + excerpt + McGuire, Tom. "Andrew Johnson and the northern revolution" (PhD thesis, Columbia University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  2007. 3266640). + Miller, Zachary A. "False Idol: The Memory of Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction in Greeneville, Tennessee 1869-2022" (MA thesis, East Tennessee State University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  2022. 29384020). + O'Brien, John J., III. "The Mechanic Statesman and the Military Chieftain: Andrew Johnson, William B. Campbell and the Meaning of Liberty and Union in Antebellum Tennessee" (PhD thesis, Saint Louis University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017. 10277975). + Wedge, Lucius. "Andrew Johnson and the ministers of Nashville: A study in the relationship between war, politics, and morality" (PhD thesis, University of Akron; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  2013. 3671127). + +External links + + + Andrew Johnson National Historic Site + Andrew Johnson: A Resource Guide – Library of Congress + Essays on Andrew Johnson and his presidency from the Miller Center of Public Affairs + "Life Portrait of Andrew Johnson", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, July 9, 1999 + Text of a number of Johnson's speeches at the Miller Center of Public Affairs + Andrew Johnson Personal Manuscripts and Letters – Shapell Manuscript Foundation + Resolutions of Impeachment from the National Archives + Tennessee State Library and Archives/Tennessee Virtual Archive/Andrew Johnson Collection/Andrew Johnson Bicentennial, 1808–2008 + + + + +1808 births +1875 deaths +19th-century presidents of the United States +19th-century vice presidents of the United States +1860s in the United States +Candidates in the 1860 United States presidential election +Candidates in the 1868 United States presidential election +1864 United States vice-presidential candidates +Presidents of the United States +Vice presidents of the United States +American people of English descent +American people of Irish descent +American people of Scotch-Irish descent +Burials in Tennessee +Democratic Party governors of Tennessee +Democratic Party United States senators from Tennessee +Governors of Tennessee +Impeached presidents of the United States +Lincoln administration cabinet members +Mayors of places in Tennessee +Members of the Tennessee House of Representatives +People from Greeneville, Tennessee +Politicians from Raleigh, North Carolina +People of the Reconstruction Era +People of North Carolina in the American Civil War +People of Tennessee in the American Civil War +Andrew Johnson family + +Republican Party (United States) vice presidential nominees +Southern Unionists in the American Civil War +American tailors +People associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln +Tennessee city council members +Tennessee state senators +Union Army generals +Union (American Civil War) political leaders +Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee +People from Laurens, South Carolina +Democratic Party presidents of the United States +United States senators who owned slaves +Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves +Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian writer. A prominent Soviet dissident, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, in particular the Gulag system. + +Solzhenitsyn was born into a family that defied the Soviet anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and remained devout members of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, Solzhenitsyn lost his faith in Christianity, became an atheist, and embraced Marxism–Leninism. While serving as a captain in the Red Army during World War II, Solzhenitsyn was arrested by SMERSH and sentenced to eight years in the Gulag and then internal exile for criticizing Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in a private letter. As a result of his experience in prison and the camps, he gradually became a philosophically minded Eastern Orthodox Christian. + +As a result of the Khrushchev Thaw, Solzhenitsyn was released and exonerated. He pursued writing novels about repression in the Soviet Union and his experiences. He published his first novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in 1962, with approval from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, which was an account of Stalinist repressions. Solzhenitsyn's last work to be published in the Soviet Union was Matryona's Place in 1963. Following the removal of Khrushchev from power, the Soviet authorities attempted to discourage Solzhenitsyn from continuing to write. He continued to work on further novels and their publication in other countries including Cancer Ward in 1966, In the First Circle in 1968, August 1914 in 1971, and The Gulag Archipelago in 1973, the publication of which outraged Soviet authorities. In 1974, Solzhenitsyn was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and flown to West Germany. In 1976, he moved with his family to the United States, where he continued to write. In 1990, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, his citizenship was restored, and four years later he returned to Russia, where he remained until his death in 2008. + +He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature", and The Gulag Archipelago was a highly influential work that "amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state", and sold tens of millions of copies. + +Biography + +Early years + +Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk (now in Stavropol Krai, Russia). His father, Isaakiy Semyonovich Solzhenitsyn, was of Russian descent and his mother, Taisiya Zakharovna (née Shcherbak), was of Ukrainian descent. Taisiya's father had risen from humble beginnings to become a wealthy landowner, acquiring a large estate in the Kuban region in the northern foothills of the Caucasus and during World War I, Taisiya had gone to Moscow to study. While there she met and married Isaakiy, a young officer in the Imperial Russian Army of Cossack origin and fellow native of the Caucasus region. The family background of his parents is vividly brought to life in the opening chapters of August 1914, and in the later Red Wheel novels. + +In 1918, Taisiya became pregnant with Aleksandr. On 15 June, shortly after her pregnancy was confirmed, Isaakiy was killed in a hunting accident. Aleksandr was raised by his widowed mother and his aunt in lowly circumstances. His earliest years coincided with the Russian Civil War. By 1930 the family property had been turned into a collective farm. Later, Solzhenitsyn recalled that his mother had fought for survival and that they had to keep his father's background in the old Imperial Army a secret. His educated mother encouraged his literary and scientific learnings and raised him in the Russian Orthodox faith; she died in 1944 having never remarried. + +As early as 1936, Solzhenitsyn began developing the characters and concepts for planned epic work on World War I and the Russian Revolution. This eventually led to the novel August 1914; some of the chapters he wrote then still survive. Solzhenitsyn studied mathematics and physics at Rostov State University. At the same time, he took correspondence courses from the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History, which by this time were heavily ideological in scope. As he himself makes clear, he did not question the state ideology or the superiority of the Soviet Union until he was sentenced to time in the camps. + +World War II + +During the war, Solzhenitsyn served as the commander of a sound-ranging battery in the Red Army, was involved in major action at the front, and was twice decorated. He was awarded the Order of the Red Star on 8 July 1944 for sound-ranging two German artillery batteries and adjusting counterbattery fire onto them, resulting in their destruction. + +A series of writings published late in his life, including the early uncompleted novel Love the Revolution!, chronicle his wartime experience and growing doubts about the moral foundations of the Soviet regime. + +While serving as an artillery officer in East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn witnessed war crimes against local German civilians by Soviet military personnel. Of the atrocities, Solzhenitsyn wrote: "You know very well that we've come to Germany to take our revenge" for Nazi atrocities committed in the Soviet Union. The noncombatants and the elderly were robbed of their meager possessions and women and girls were gang-raped. A few years later, in the forced labor camp, he memorized a poem titled "Prussian Nights" about a woman raped to death in East Prussia. In this poem, which describes the gang-rape of a Polish woman whom the Red Army soldiers mistakenly thought to be a German, the first-person narrator comments on the events with sarcasm and refers to the responsibility of official Soviet writers like Ilya Ehrenburg. + +In The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn wrote, "There is nothing that so assists the awakening of omniscience within us as insistent thoughts about one's own transgressions, errors, mistakes. After the difficult cycles of such ponderings over many years, whenever I mentioned the heartlessness of our highest-ranking bureaucrats, the cruelty of our executioners, I remember myself in my Captain's shoulder boards and the forward march of my battery through East Prussia, enshrouded in fire, and I say: 'So were we any better?'" + +Imprisonment + +In February 1945, while serving in East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn was arrested by SMERSH for writing derogatory comments in private letters to a friend, Nikolai Vitkevich, about the conduct of the war by Joseph Stalin, whom he called "Khozyain" ("the boss"), and "Balabos" (Yiddish rendering of Hebrew baal ha-bayit for "master of the house"). He also had talks with the same friend about the need for a new organization to replace the Soviet regime. + +Solzhenitsyn was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda under Article 58, paragraph 10 of the Soviet criminal code, and of "founding a hostile organization" under paragraph 11. Solzhenitsyn was taken to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow, where he was interrogated. On 9 May 1945, it was announced that Germany had surrendered and all of Moscow broke out in celebrations with fireworks and searchlights illuminating the sky to celebrate the victory in the Great Patriotic War. From his cell in the Lubyanka, Solzhenitsyn remembered: "Above the muzzle of our window, and from all the other cells of the Lubyanka, and from all the windows of the Moscow prisons, we too, former prisoners of war and former front-line soldiers, watched the Moscow heavens, patterned with fireworks and crisscrossed with beams of searchlights. There was no rejoicing in our cells and no hugs and no kisses for us. That victory was not ours." On 7 July 1945, he was sentenced in his absence by Special Council of the NKVD to an eight-year term in a labour camp. This was the usual sentence for most crimes under Article 58 at the time. + +The first part of Solzhenitsyn's sentence was served in several work camps; the "middle phase", as he later referred to it, was spent in a sharashka (a special scientific research facility run by Ministry of State Security), where he met Lev Kopelev, upon whom he based the character of Lev Rubin in his book The First Circle, published in a self-censored or "distorted" version in the West in 1968 (an English translation of the full version was eventually published by Harper Perennial in October 2009). In 1950, Solzhenitsyn was sent to a "Special Camp" for political prisoners. During his imprisonment at the camp in the town of Ekibastuz in Kazakhstan, he worked as a miner, bricklayer, and foundry foreman. His experiences at Ekibastuz formed the basis for the book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. One of his fellow political prisoners, Ion Moraru, remembers that Solzhenitsyn spent some of his time at Ekibastuz writing. While there, Solzhenitsyn had a tumor removed. His cancer was not diagnosed at the time. + +In March 1953, after his sentence ended, Solzhenitsyn was sent to internal exile for life at Birlik, a village in Baidibek District of South Kazakhstan. His undiagnosed cancer spread until, by the end of the year, he was close to death. In 1954, Solzhenitsyn was permitted to be treated in a hospital in Tashkent, where his tumor went into remission. His experiences there became the basis of his novel Cancer Ward and also found an echo in the short story "The Right Hand." + +It was during this decade of imprisonment and exile that Solzhenitsyn developed the philosophical and religious positions of his later life, gradually becoming a philosophically minded Eastern Orthodox Christian as a result of his experience in prison and the camps. He repented for some of his actions as a Red Army captain, and in prison compared himself to the perpetrators of the Gulag. His transformation is described at some length in the fourth part of The Gulag Archipelago ("The Soul and Barbed Wire"). The narrative poem The Trail (written without benefit of pen or paper in prison and camps between 1947 and 1952) and the 28 poems composed in prison, forced-labour camp, and exile also provide crucial material for understanding Solzhenitsyn's intellectual and spiritual odyssey during this period. These "early" works, largely unknown in the West, were published for the first time in Russian in 1999 and excerpted in English in 2006. + +Marriages and children + +On 7 April 1940, while at the university, Solzhenitsyn married Natalia Alekseevna Reshetovskaya. They had just over a year of married life before he went into the army, then to the Gulag. They divorced in 1952, a year before his release because the wives of Gulag prisoners faced the loss of work or residence permits. After the end of his internal exile, they remarried in 1957, divorcing a second time in 1972. Reshetovskaya wrote negatively of Solzhenitsyn in her memoirs, accusing him of having affairs, and said of the relationship that "[Solzhenitsyn]'s despotism ... would crush my independence and would not permit my personality to develop." In her 1974 memoir, Sanya: My Life with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, she wrote that she was "perplexed" that the West had accepted The Gulag Archipelago as "the solemn, ultimate truth", saying its significance had been "overestimated and wrongly appraised". Pointing out that the book's subtitle is "An Experiment in Literary Investigation", she said that her husband did not regard the work as "historical research, or scientific research". She contended that it was, rather, a collection of "camp folklore", containing "raw material" which her husband was planning to use in his future productions. + +In 1973, Solzhenitsyn married his second wife, Natalia Dmitrievna Svetlova, a mathematician who had a son, Dmitri Turin, from a brief prior marriage. He and Svetlova (born 1939) had three sons: Yermolai (1970), Ignat (1972), and Stepan (1973). Dmitri Turin died on 18 March 1994, aged 32, at his home in New York City. + +After prison + +After Khrushchev's Secret Speech in 1956, Solzhenitsyn was freed from exile and exonerated. Following his return from exile, Solzhenitsyn was, while teaching at a secondary school during the day, spending his nights secretly engaged in writing. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech he wrote that "during all the years until 1961, not only was I convinced I should never see a single line of mine in print in my lifetime, but, also, I scarcely dared allow any of my close acquaintances to read anything I had written because I feared this would become known." + +In 1960, aged 42, Solzhenitsyn approached Aleksandr Tvardovsky, a poet and the chief editor of the Novy Mir magazine, with the manuscript of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It was published in edited form in 1962, with the explicit approval of Nikita Khrushchev, who defended it at the presidium of the Politburo hearing on whether to allow its publication, and added: "There's a Stalinist in each of you; there's even a Stalinist in me. We must root out this evil." The book quickly sold out and became an instant hit. In the 1960s, while Solzhenitsyn was publicly known to be writing Cancer Ward, he was simultaneously writing The Gulag Archipelago. During Khrushchev's tenure, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was studied in schools in the Soviet Union, as were three more short works of Solzhenitsyn's, including his short story "Matryona's Home", published in 1963. These would be the last of his works published in the Soviet Union until 1990. + +One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich brought the Soviet system of prison labour to the attention of the West. It caused as much of a sensation in the Soviet Union as it did in the West—not only by its striking realism and candour, but also because it was the first major piece of Soviet literature since the 1920s on a politically charged theme, written by a non-party member, indeed a man who had been to Siberia for "libelous speech" about the leaders, and yet its publication had been officially permitted. In this sense, the publication of Solzhenitsyn's story was almost unheard of instance of free, unrestrained discussion of politics through literature. However, after Khrushchev had been ousted from power in 1964, the time for such raw, exposing works came to an end. + +Later years in the Soviet Union + +Solzhenitsyn made an unsuccessful attempt, with the help of Tvardovsky, to have his novel Cancer Ward legally published in the Soviet Union. This required the approval of the Union of Writers. Though some there appreciated it, the work was ultimately denied publication unless it was to be revised and cleaned of suspect statements and anti-Soviet insinuations. + +After Khrushchev's removal in 1964, the cultural climate again became more repressive. Publishing of Solzhenitsyn's work quickly stopped; as a writer, he became a non-person, and, by 1965, the KGB had seized some of his papers, including the manuscript of The First Circle. Meanwhile, Solzhenitsyn continued to secretly and feverishly work on the most well-known of his writings, The Gulag Archipelago. The seizing of his novel manuscript first made him desperate and frightened, but gradually he realized that it had set him free from the pretenses and trappings of being an "officially acclaimed" writer, a status which had become familiar but which was becoming increasingly irrelevant. + +After the KGB had confiscated Solzhenitsyn's materials in Moscow, in the years 1965 to 1967, the preparatory drafts of The Gulag Archipelago were turned into finished typescript in hiding at his friends' homes in Soviet Estonia. Solzhenitsyn had befriended Arnold Susi, a lawyer and former Minister of Education of Estonia in a Lubyanka Building prison cell. After completion, Solzhenitsyn's original handwritten script was kept hidden from the KGB in Estonia by Arnold Susi's daughter Heli Susi until the collapse of the Soviet Union. + +In 1969, Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Union of Writers. In 1970, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He could not receive the prize personally in Stockholm at that time, since he was afraid he would not be let back into the Soviet Union. Instead, it was suggested he should receive the prize in a special ceremony at the Swedish embassy in Moscow. The Swedish government refused to accept this solution because such a ceremony and the ensuing media coverage might upset the Soviet Union and damage Swedish-Soviet relations. Instead, Solzhenitsyn received his prize at the 1974 ceremony after he had been expelled from the Soviet Union. In 1973, another manuscript written by Solzhenitsyn was confiscated by the KGB after his friend Elizaveta Voronyanskaya was questioned non-stop for five days until she revealed its location, according to a statement by Solzhenitsyn to Western reporters on September 6, 1973. According to Solzhenitsyn, "When she returned home, she hanged herself." + +The Gulag Archipelago was composed from 1958 to 1967, and has sold over thirty million copies in thirty-five languages. It was a three-volume, seven-part work on the Soviet prison camp system, which drew from Solzhenitsyn's experiences and the testimony of 256 former prisoners and Solzhenitsyn's own research into the history of the Russian penal system. It discusses the system's origins from the founding of the Communist regime, with Vladimir Lenin having responsibility, detailing interrogation procedures, prisoner transports, prison camp culture, prisoner uprisings and revolts such as the Kengir uprising, and the practice of internal exile. Soviet and Communist studies historian and archival researcher Stephen G. Wheatcroft wrote that the book was essentially a "literary and political work", and "never claimed to place the camps in a historical or social-scientific quantitative perspective" but that in the case of qualitative estimates, Solzhenitsyn gave his high estimate as he wanted to challenge the Soviet authorities to show that "the scale of the camps was less than this." Historian J. Arch Getty wrote of Solzhenitsyn's methodology that "such documentation is methodically unacceptable in other fields of history", which gives priority to vague hearsay and leads towards selective bias. According to journalist Anne Applebaum, who has made extensive research on the Gulag, The Gulag Archipelago'''s rich and varied authorial voice, its unique weaving together of personal testimony, philosophical analysis, and historical investigation, and its unrelenting indictment of Communist ideology made it one of the most influential books of the 20th century. + +On 8 August 1971, the KGB allegedly attempted to assassinate Solzhenitsyn using an unknown chemical agent (most likely ricin) with an experimental gel-based delivery method. The attempt left him seriously ill but he survived. + +Although The Gulag Archipelago was not published in the Soviet Union, it was extensively criticized by the Party-controlled Soviet press. An editorial in Pravda on 14 January 1974 accused Solzhenitsyn of supporting "Hitlerites" and making "excuses for the crimes of the Vlasovites and Bandera gangs." According to the editorial, Solzhenitsyn was "choking with pathological hatred for the country where he was born and grew up, for the socialist system, and for Soviet people." + +During this period, he was sheltered by the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who suffered considerably for his support of Solzhenitsyn and was eventually forced into exile himself. + + Expulsion from the Soviet Union + +In a discussion of its options in dealing with Solzhenitsyn, the members of the Politburo considered his arrest and imprisonment and his expulsion to a capitalist country willing to take him. Guided by KGB chief Yuri Andropov, and following a statement from West German Chancellor Willy Brandt that Solzhenitsyn could live and work freely in West Germany, it was decided to deport the writer directly to that country. + + In the West + +On 12 February 1974, Solzhenitsyn was arrested and deported the next day from the Soviet Union to Frankfurt, West Germany and stripped of his Soviet citizenship. The KGB had found the manuscript for the first part of The Gulag Archipelago. U.S. military attaché William Odom managed to smuggle out a large portion of Solzhenitsyn's archive, including the author's membership card for the Writers' Union and his Second World War military citations. Solzhenitsyn paid tribute to Odom's role in his memoir Invisible Allies (1995). + +In West Germany, Solzhenitsyn lived in Heinrich Böll's house in . He then moved to Zürich, Switzerland before Stanford University invited him to stay in the United States to "facilitate your work, and to accommodate you and your family". He stayed at the Hoover Tower, part of the Hoover Institution, before moving to Cavendish, Vermont, in 1976. He was given an honorary literary degree from Harvard University in 1978 and on 8 June 1978 he gave a commencement address, condemning, among other things, the press, the lack of spirituality and traditional values, and the anthropocentrism of Western culture. Solzhenitsyn also received an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross in 1984. + +On 19 September 1974, Yuri Andropov approved a large-scale operation to discredit Solzhenitsyn and his family and cut his communications with Soviet dissidents. The plan was jointly approved by Vladimir Kryuchkov, Philipp Bobkov, and Grigorenko (heads of First, Second and Fifth KGB Directorates). The residencies in Geneva, London, Paris, Rome and other European cities participated in the operation. Among other active measures, at least three StB agents became translators and secretaries of Solzhenitsyn (one of them translated the poem Prussian Nights), keeping the KGB informed regarding all contacts by Solzhenitsyn. + +The KGB also sponsored a series of hostile books about Solzhenitsyn, most notably a "memoir published under the name of his first wife, Natalia Reshetovskaya, but probably mostly composed by Service A", according to historian Christopher Andrew. Andropov also gave an order to create "an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion between Pauk and the people around him" by feeding him rumors that the people around him were KGB agents, and deceiving him at every opportunity. Among other things, he continually received envelopes with photographs of car crashes, brain surgery and other disturbing imagery. After the KGB harassment in Zürich, Solzhenitsyn settled in Cavendish, Vermont, reduced communications with others. His influence and moral authority for the West diminished as he became increasingly isolated and critical of Western individualism. KGB and CPSU experts finally concluded that he alienated American listeners by his "reactionary views and intransigent criticism of the US way of life", so no further active measures would be required. + +Over the next 17 years, Solzhenitsyn worked on his dramatized history of the Russian Revolution of 1917, The Red Wheel. By 1992, four sections had been completed and he had also written several shorter works. + +Solzhenitsyn's warnings about the dangers of Communist aggression and the weakening of the moral fiber of the West were generally well received in Western conservative circles (e.g. Ford administration staffers Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld advocated on Solzhenitsyn's behalf for him to speak directly to President Gerald Ford about the Soviet threat), prior to and alongside the tougher foreign policy pursued by US President Ronald Reagan. At the same time, liberals and secularists became increasingly critical of what they perceived as his reactionary preference for Russian nationalism and the Russian Orthodox religion. + +Solzhenitsyn also harshly criticised what he saw as the ugliness and spiritual vapidity of the dominant pop culture of the modern West, including television and much of popular music: "...the human soul longs for things higher, warmer, and purer than those offered by today's mass living habits... by TV stupor and by intolerable music." Despite his criticism of the "weakness" of the West, Solzhenitsyn always made clear that he admired the political liberty which was one of the enduring strengths of Western democratic societies. In a major speech delivered to the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein on 14 September 1993, Solzhenitsyn implored the West not to "lose sight of its own values, its historically unique stability of civic life under the rule of law—a hard-won stability which grants independence and space to every private citizen." + +In a series of writings, speeches, and interviews after his return to his native Russia in 1994, Solzhenitsyn spoke about his admiration for the local self-government he had witnessed first hand in Switzerland and New England."The Cavendish Farewell" in Ericson (2009) pp. 606–07 He "praised 'the sensible and sure process of grassroots democracy, in which the local population solves most of its problems on its own, not waiting for the decisions of higher authorities.'" Solzhenitsyn's patriotism was inward-looking. He called for Russia to "renounce all mad fantasies of foreign conquest and begin the peaceful long, long long period of recuperation," as he put it in a 1979 BBC interview with Latvian-born BBC journalist Janis Sapiets. + + Return to Russia + +In 1990, his Soviet citizenship was restored, and, in 1994, he returned to Russia with his wife, Natalia, who had become a United States citizen. Their sons stayed behind in the United States (later, his eldest son Yermolai returned to Russia). From then until his death, he lived with his wife in a dacha in Troitse-Lykovo in west Moscow between the dachas once occupied by Soviet leaders Mikhail Suslov and Konstantin Chernenko. A staunch believer in traditional Russian culture, Solzhenitsyn expressed his disillusionment with post-Soviet Russia in works such as Rebuilding Russia, and called for the establishment of a strong presidential republic balanced by vigorous institutions of local self-government. The latter would remain his major political theme. Solzhenitsyn also published eight two-part short stories, a series of contemplative "miniatures" or prose poems, and a literary memoir on his years in the West The Grain Between the Millstones, translated and released as two works by the University of Notre Dame as part of the Kennan Institute's Solzhenitsyn Initiative. The first, Between Two Millstones, Book 1: Sketches of Exile (1974–1978), was translated by Peter Constantine and published in October 2018, the second, Book 2: Exile in America (1978–1994) translated by Clare Kitson and Melanie Moore and published in October 2020. + +Once back in Russia Solzhenitsyn hosted a television talk show program. Its eventual format was Solzhenitsyn delivering a 15-minute monologue twice a month; it was discontinued in 1995. Solzhenitsyn became a supporter of Vladimir Putin, who said he shared Solzhenitsyn's critical view towards the Russian Revolution. + +All of Solzhenitsyn's sons became U.S. citizens. One, Ignat, is a pianist and conductor. Another Solzhenitsyn son, Yermolai, works for the Moscow office of McKinsey & Company, a management consultancy firm, where he is a senior partner. + + Death + +Solzhenitsyn died of heart failure near Moscow on 3 August 2008, at the age of 89. A burial service was held at Donskoy Monastery, Moscow, on 6 August 2008. He was buried the same day in the monastery, in a spot he had chosen. Russian and world leaders paid tribute to Solzhenitsyn following his death. + + Views on history and politics + + On Christianity, Tsarism, and Russian nationalism + +According to William Harrison, Solzhenitsyn was an "arch-reactionary", who argued that the Soviet State "suppressed" traditional Russian and Ukrainian culture, called for the creation of a united Slavic state encompassing Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, and who was a fierce opponent of Ukrainian independence. It is well documented that his negative views on Ukrainian independence became more radical over the years. Harrison also alleged that Solzhenitsyn held Pan-Slavist and monarchist views. According to Harrison, "His historical writing is imbued with a hankering after an idealized Tsarist era when, seemingly, everything was rosy. He sought refuge in a dreamy past, where, he believed, a united Slavic state (the Russian empire) built on Orthodox foundations had provided an ideological alternative to western individualistic liberalism." + +Solzhenitsyn also repeatedly denounced Tsar Alexis of Russia and Patriarch Nikon of Moscow for causing the Great Schism of 1666, which Solzhenitsyn said both divided and weakened the Russian Orthodox Church at a time when unity was desperately needed. Solzhenitsyn also attacked both the Tsar and the Patriarch for using excommunication, Siberian exile, imprisonment, torture, and even burning at the stake against the Old Believers, who rejected the liturgical changes which caused the Schism. + +Solzhenitsyn also argued that the Dechristianization of Russian culture, which he considered most responsible for the Bolshevik Revolution, began in 1666, became much worse during the Reign of Tsar Peter the Great, and accelerated into an epidemic during The Enlightenment, the Romantic era, and the Silver Age. + +Expanding upon this theme, Solzhenitsyn once declared, "Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened. Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.'" + +In an interview with Joseph Pearce, however, Solzhenitsyn commented, "[The Old Believers were] treated amazingly unjustly because some very insignificant, trifling differences in ritual which were promoted with poor judgment and without much sound basis. Because of these small differences, they were persecuted in very many cruel ways, they were suppressed, they were exiled. From the perspective of historical justice, I sympathise with them and I am on their side, but this in no way ties in with what I have just said about the fact that religion in order to keep up with mankind must adapt its forms toward modern culture. In other words, do I agree with the Old Believers that religion should freeze and not move at all? Not at all!" + +When asked by Pearce for his opinions about the division within the Roman Catholic Church over the Second Vatican Council and the Mass of Paul VI, Solzhenitsyn replied, "A question peculiar to the Russian Orthodox Church is, should we continue to use Old Church Slavonic, or should we start to introduce more of the contemporary Russian language into the service? I understand the fears of both those in the Orthodox and in the Catholic Church, the wariness, the hesitation, and the fear that this is lowering the Church to the modern condition, the modern surroundings. I understand this, but alas, I fear that if religion does not allow itself to change, it will be impossible to return the world to religion because the world is incapable on its own of rising as high as the old demands of religion. Religion needs to come and meet it somewhat." + +Surprised to hear Solzhenitsyn, "so often perceived as an arch-traditionalist, apparently coming down on the side of the reformers", Pearce then asked Solzhenitsyn what he thought of the division caused within the Anglican Communion by the decision to ordain female priests. + +Solzhenitsyn replied, "Certainly there are many firm boundaries that should not be changed. When I speak of some sort of correlation between the cultural norms of the present, it is really only a small part of the whole thing." Solzhenitsyn then added, "Certainly, I do not believe that women priests is the way to go!" + + On Russia and the Jews + +In his 1974 essay "Repentance and Self-Limitation in the Life of Nations", Solzhenitsyn urged "Russian Gentiles" and Jews alike to take moral responsibility for the "renegades" from both communities who enthusiastically embraced atheism and Marxism–Leninism and participated in the Red Terror and many other acts of torture and mass murder following the October Revolution. Solzhenitsyn argued that both Russian Gentiles and Jews should be prepared to treat the atrocities committed by Jewish and Gentile Bolsheviks as though they were the acts of their own family members, before their consciences and before God. Solzhenitsyn said that if we deny all responsibility for the crimes of our national kin, "the very concept of a people loses all meaning." + +In a review of Solzhenitsyn's novel August 1914 in The New York Times on 13 November 1985, Jewish American historian Richard Pipes wrote: "Every culture has its own brand of anti-Semitism. In Solzhenitsyn's case, it's not racial. It has nothing to do with blood. He's certainly not a racist; the question is fundamentally religious and cultural. He bears some resemblance to Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who was a fervent Christian and patriot and a rabid anti-Semite. Solzhenitsyn is unquestionably in the grip of the Russian extreme right's view of the Revolution, which is that it was the doing of the Jews". Award-winning Jewish novelist and the Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel disagreed and wrote that Solzhenitsyn was "too intelligent, too honest, too courageous, too great a writer" to be an anti-Semite. In his 1998 book Russia in Collapse, Solzhenitsyn criticized the Russian far-right's obsession with anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic conspiracy theories. + +In 2001, Solzhenitsyn published a two-volume work on the history of Russian-Jewish relations (Two Hundred Years Together 2001, 2002). The book triggered renewed accusations of anti-Semitism. In the book, he repeated his call for Russian Gentiles and Jews to share responsibility for everything that happened in the Soviet Union. He also downplayed the number of victims of an 1882 pogrom despite current evidence, and failed to mention the Beilis affair, a 1911 trial in Kiev where a Jew was accused of ritually murdering Christian children. He was also criticized for relying on outdated scholarship, ignoring current western scholarship, and for selectively quoting to strengthen his preconceptions, such as that the Soviet Union often treated Jews better than non-Jewish Russians. Similarities between Two Hundred Years Together and an anti-Semitic essay titled "Jews in the USSR and in the Future Russia", attributed to Solzhenitsyn, have led to the inference that he stands behind the anti-Semitic passages. Solzhenitsyn himself explained that the essay consists of manuscripts stolen from him by the KGB, and then carefully edited to appear anti-Semitic, before being published, 40 years before, without his consent.Cathy Young: Reply to Daniel J. Mahoney in Reason Magazine, August–September 2004. According to the historian Semyon Reznik, textological analyses have proven Solzhenitsyn's authorship. + + Criticism of communism + +Solzhenitsyn emphasized the significantly more oppressive character of the Soviet police state, in comparison to the Russian Empire of the House of Romanov. He asserted that Imperial Russia did not censor literature or the media to the extreme style of the Soviet Glavlit, that political prisoners typically were not forced into labor camps, and that the number of political prisoners and exiles was only one ten-thousandth of the numbers of prisoners and Exiles following the Bolshevik Revolution. He noted that the Tsar's secret police, the Okhrana, was only present in the three largest cities, and not at all in the Imperial Russian Army. + +Shortly before his return to Russia, Solzhenitsyn delivered a speech in Les Lucs-sur-Boulogne to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Vendée Uprising. During his speech, Solzhenitsyn compared Lenin's Bolsheviks with the Jacobin Club during the French Revolution. He also compared the Vendean rebels with the Russian, Ukrainian, and Cossack peasants who rebelled against the Bolsheviks, saying that both were destroyed mercilessly by revolutionary despotism. He commented that, while the French Reign of Terror ended with the Thermidorian reaction and the toppling of the Jacobins and the execution of Maximilien Robespierre, its Soviet equivalent continued to accelerate until the Khrushchev thaw of the 1950s. + +According to Solzhenitsyn, Russians were not the ruling nation in the Soviet Union. He believed that all the traditional culture of all ethnic groups were equally oppressed in favor of atheism and Marxist–Leninism. Russian culture was even more repressed than any other culture in the Soviet Union, since the regime was more afraid of ethnic uprisings among Russian Christians than among any other ethnicity. Therefore, Solzhenitsyn argued, Russian nationalism and the Russian Orthodox Church should not be regarded as a threat by the West but rather as allies. + +Solzhenitsyn made a speaking tour after Francisco Franco's death, and "told liberals not to push too hard for changes because Spain had more freedoms now than the Soviet Union had ever known." As reported by The New York Times, he "blamed Communism for the death of 110 million Russians and derided those in Spain who complained of dictatorship." Solzhenitsyn recalled: "I had to explain to the people of Spain in the most concise possible terms what it meant to have been subjugated by an ideology as we in the Soviet Union had been, and give the Spanish to understand what a terrible fate they escaped in 1939", a reference to the Spanish Civil War between the Nationalists and the Republicans, which was not a common view at that time among American diplomats. For Winston Lord, a protégé of the then United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Solzhenitsyn was "just about a fascist." According to Elisa Kriza, Solzhenitsyn held "benevolent views" on Franco's dictatorship and Francoist Spain because it was a Christian one, and his Christian worldview operated ideologically. In The Little Grain Managed to Land Between Two Millstones, Franco's Spain is "held up as a model of a proper Christian response to the evil of Bolshevism." According to Peter Brooke, Solzhenitsyn approached the position argued by Christian Dmitri Panin, with whom he had a fall out in exile, namely that evil "must be confronted by force, and the centralised, spiritually independent Roman Catholic Church is better placed to do it than Orthodoxy with its otherworldliness and tradition of subservience to the state." + +In "Rebuilding Russia", an essay first published in 1990 in Komsomolskaya Pravda, Solzhenitsyn urged the Soviet Union to grant independence to all the non-Slav republics, which he claimed were sapping the Russian nation and he called for the creation of a new Slavic state bringing together Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of Kazakhstan that he considered to be Russified. Regarding Ukraine he wrote “All the talk of a separate Ukrainian people existing since something like the ninth century and possessing its own non-Russian language is recently invented falsehood” and "we all sprang from precious Kiev". + + On post-Soviet Russia + +In some of his later political writings, such as Rebuilding Russia (1990) and Russia in Collapse (1998), Solzhenitsyn criticized the oligarchic excesses of the new Russian democracy, while opposing any nostalgia for Soviet Communism. He defended moderate and self-critical patriotism (as opposed to extreme nationalism). He also urged for local self-government similar to what he had seen in New England town meetings and in the cantons of Switzerland. He also expressed concern for the fate of the 25 million ethnic Russians in the "near abroad" of the former Soviet Union. + +In an interview with Joseph Pearce, Solzhenitsyn was asked whether he felt that the socioeconomic theories of E.F. Schumacher were, "the key to society rediscovering its sanity". He replied, "I do believe that it would be the key, but I don't think this will happen, because people succumb to fashion, and they suffer from inertia and it is hard to them to come round to a different point of view." + +Solzhenitsyn refused to accept Russia's highest honor, the Order of St. Andrew, in 1998. Solzhenitsyn later said: "In 1998, it was the country's low point, with people in misery; ... Yeltsin decreed I be honored the highest state order. I replied that I was unable to receive an award from a government that had led Russia into such dire straits." In a 2003 interview with Joseph Pearce, Solzhenitsyn said: "We are exiting from communism in a most unfortunate and awkward way. It would have been difficult to design a path out of communism worse than the one that has been followed." + +In a 2007 interview with Der Spiegel, Solzhenitsyn expressed disappointment that the "conflation of 'Soviet' and 'Russian'", against which he spoke so often in the 1970s, had not passed away in the West, in the ex-socialist countries, or in the former Soviet republics. He commented, "The elder political generation in communist countries is not ready for repentance, while the new generation is only too happy to voice grievances and level accusations, with present-day Moscow [as] a convenient target. They behave as if they heroically liberated themselves and lead a new life now, while Moscow has remained communist. Nevertheless, I dare [to] hope that this unhealthy phase will soon be over, that all the peoples who have lived through communism will understand that communism is to blame for the bitter pages of their history." + +In 2008, Solzhenitsyn praised Putin, saying Russia was rediscovering what it meant to be Russian. Solzhenitsyn also praised the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev as a "nice young man" who was capable of taking on the challenges Russia was facing. + + Criticism of the West + +Once in the United States, Solzhenitsyn sharply criticized the West. + +Solzhenitsyn criticized the Allies for not opening a new front against Nazi Germany in the west earlier in World War II. This resulted in Soviet domination and control of the nations of Eastern Europe. Solzhenitsyn claimed the Western democracies apparently cared little about how many died in the East, as long as they could end the war quickly and painlessly for themselves in the West. + +Delivering the commencement address at Harvard University in 1978, he called the United States "Dechristianized" and mired in boorish consumerism. The American people, he said, speaking in Russian through a translator, were also suffering from a "decline in courage" and a "lack of manliness." Few were willing to die for their ideals, he said. He also condemned the 1960s counterculture for forcing the United States federal government to accept a "hasty" capitulation in the Vietnam War. + +In a reference to the Communist governments in Southeast Asia's use of re-education camps, politicide, human rights abuses, and genocide following the Fall of Saigon, Solzhenitsyn said: "But members of the U.S. antiwar movement wound up being involved in the betrayal of Far Eastern nations, in a genocide and in the suffering today imposed on 30 million people there. Do those convinced pacifists hear the moans coming from there?" + +He also accused the Western news media of left-wing bias, of violating the privacy of celebrities, and of filling up the "immortal souls" of their readers with celebrity gossip and other "vain talk". He also said that the West erred in thinking that the whole world should embrace this as model. While faulting Soviet society for rejecting basic human rights and the rule of law, he also critiqued the West for being too legalistic: "A society which is based on the letter of the law and never reaches any higher is taking very scarce advantage of the high level of human possibilities." Solzhenitsyn also argued that the West erred in "denying [Russian culture's] autonomous character and therefore never understood it". + +Solzhenitsyn criticized the 2003 invasion of Iraq and accused the United States of the "occupation" of Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. + +Solzhenitsyn was critical of NATO's eastward expansion towards Russia's borders. In 2006, Solzhenitsyn accused NATO of trying to bring Russia under its control; he claimed this was visible because of its "ideological support for the 'colour revolutions' and the paradoxical forcing of North Atlantic interests on Central Asia". In a 2006 interview with Der Spiegel he stated "This was especially painful in the case of Ukraine, a country whose closeness to Russia is defined by literally millions of family ties among our peoples, relatives living on different sides of the national border. At one fell stroke, these families could be torn apart by a new dividing line, the border of a military bloc." + + On the Holodomor +Solzhenitsyn gave a speech to AFL–CIO in Washington, D.C., on 30 June 1975 in which he mentioned how the system created by the Bolsheviks in 1917 caused dozens of problems in the Soviet Union. He described how this system was responsible for the Holodomor: "It was a system which, in time of peace, artificially created a famine, causing 6 million people to die in the Ukraine in 1932 and 1933." Solzhenitsyn added, "they died on the very edge of Europe. And Europe didn't even notice it. The world didn't even notice it—6 million people!" + +Shortly before his death, Solzhenitsyn opined in an interview published 2 April 2008 in Izvestia that, while the famine in Ukraine was both artificial and caused by the state, it was no different from the Russian famine of 1921–1922. Solzhenitsyn expressed the belief that both famines were caused by systematic armed robbery of the harvests from both Russian and Ukrainian peasants by Bolshevik units, which were under orders from the Politburo to bring back food for the starving urban population centers while refusing for ideological reasons to permit any private sale of food supplies in the cities or to give any payment to the peasants in return for the food that was seized. Solzhenitsyn further alleged that the theory that the Holodomor was a genocide which only victimized the Ukrainian people was created decades later by believers in an anti-Russian form of extreme Ukrainian nationalism. Solzhenitsyn also cautioned that the ultranationalists' claims risked being accepted without question in the West due to widespread ignorance and misunderstanding there of both Russian and Ukrainian history. + + Legacy + +The Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center in Worcester, Massachusetts promotes the author and hosts the official English-language website dedicated to him. + +Television documentaries on Solzhenitsyn +In October 1983, French literary journalist Bernard Pivot made an hour-long television interview with Solzhenitsyn at his rural home in Vermont, US. Solzhenitsyn discussed his writing, the evolution of his language and style, his family and his outlook on the future—and stated his wish to return to Russia in his lifetime, not just to see his books eventually printed there.Apostrophes: Alexandre Soljenitsyne répond à Bernard Pivot | Archive INA Ina Talk Shows Earlier the same year, Solzhenitsyn was interviewed on separate occasions by two British journalists, Bernard Levin and Malcolm Muggeridge. + +In 1998, Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov made a four-part television documentary, Besedy s Solzhenitsynym (The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn). The documentary was shot in Solzhenitsyn's home depicting his everyday life and his reflections on Russian history and literature. + +In December 2009, the Russian channel Rossiya K broadcast the French television documentary L'Histoire Secrète de l'Archipel du Goulag (The Secret History of the Gulag Archipelago) made by Jean Crépu and Nicolas Miletitch and translated into Russian under the title Taynaya Istoriya "Arkhipelaga Gulag" (Тайная история "Архипелага ГУЛАГ"). The documentary covers events related to creation and publication of The Gulag Archipelago. + + Published works and speeches + + + + + + + + + Also known as The Prisoner and the Camp Hooker or The Tenderfoot and the Tart. + + The beginning of a history of the birth of the USSR. Centers on the disastrous loss in the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914, and the ineptitude of the military leadership. Other works, similarly titled, follow the story: see The Red Wheel (overall title). + (3 vols.), not a memoir, but a history of the entire process of developing and administering a police state in the Soviet Union. + . + . + + + + ; separate publication of chapters on Vladimir Lenin, none of them published before this point, from The Red Wheel. The first of them was later incorporated into the 1984 edition of the expanded August 1914 (though it had been written at the same time as the original version of the novel) and the rest in November 1916 and March 1917. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + on Russian-Jewish relations since 1772, aroused ambiguous public response. + + +See also + Literature covering the Gulag system + List of refugees + Ivan Bunin + Czesław Miłosz + Đoàn Văn Toại + Wei Jingsheng + Yevgeny Zamyatin + + Notes + + References + + Sources + + + + Kriza, Elisa (2014) Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Cold War Icon, Gulag Author, Russian Nationalist? A Study of the Western Reception of his Literary Writings, Historical Interpretations, and Political Ideas. Stuttgart: Ibidem Press. + + + + + Further reading + + Biographies + + + + + + + Ostrovsky Alexander (2004). Солженицын: прощание с мифом (Solzhenitsyn: Farewell to the myth) – Moscow: «Yauza», Presscom. + + + + + Reference works + + + + + + + . + ; Prof. Vittorio Strada, Dott. Julija Dobrovol'skaja. + + + + + + + + + Anatoly Livry, « Soljénitsyne et la République régicide », Les Lettres et Les Arts, Cahiers suisses de critique littéraire et artistiques, Association de la revue Les Lettres et les Arts, Suisse, Vicques, 2011, pp. 70–72. http://anatoly-livry.e-monsite.com/medias/files/soljenitsine-livry-1.pdf + . + . + . + + + . + + + + + . + + . + + + + + + + + + + + . + + . + + + External links + + + The Nobel Prize in Literature 1970 + + Negative Analysis of Alexander Solzhenitsyn by the Stalin Society'' + . + Vermont Recluse Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn + Der Spiegel interviews Alexander Solzhenitsyn: 'I Am Not Afraid of Death', 23 July 2007 + As delivered text and video of Harvard Commencement Address at AmericanRhetoric.com + The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, 1947–2005 + + + +1918 births +2008 deaths +20th-century male writers +20th-century non-fiction writers +Russian writers of Ukrainian descent +20th-century Russian short story writers +Burials at Donskoy Monastery +Censorship in the Soviet Union +Christian humanists +Christian novelists +Christian writers +Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from atheism or agnosticism +Critics of atheism +Eastern Orthodox philosophers +Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences +Gulag detainees +Inmates of Lefortovo Prison +Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts +Nobel laureates in Literature +People denaturalized by the Soviet Union +People from Cavendish, Vermont +People from Kislovodsk +People of the Cold War +Prison writings +Recipients of the Order of the Red Star +Southern Federal University alumni +Russian anti-communists +Russian exiles +20th-century Russian historians +Russian humanitarians +Russian male novelists +Russian male short story writers +Russian monarchists +Russian nationalists +Russian Nobel laureates +Russian Orthodox Christians from Russia +Russian Orthodox Christians from the Soviet Union +Russian people of Ukrainian descent +Russian prisoners and detainees +Sharashka inmates +Soviet Army officers +Soviet dissidents +Soviet emigrants to Germany +Soviet emigrants to Switzerland +Soviet emigrants to the United States +Soviet expellees +Soviet male writers +Soviet military personnel of World War II +Soviet Nobel laureates +Soviet historians +Soviet novelists +Soviet prisoners and detainees +Soviet psychiatric abuse whistleblowers +Soviet rehabilitations +Soviet short story writers +Soviet whistleblowers +Stalinism-era scholars and writers +State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates +Stateless people +Russian television talk show hosts +Templeton Prize laureates +World War II poets +Male non-fiction writers +Russian Christians +Foreign members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts +Aberdeen (; ; ; ) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous Scottish city. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and has a population estimate of for the city of Aberdeen, and for the local council area making it the United Kingdom's 39th most populous built-up area. The city is northeast of Edinburgh and north of London, and is the northernmost major city in the United Kingdom. Aberdeen has a long, sandy coastline and features an oceanic climate, with cool summers and mild, rainy winters. + +During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, which may sparkle like silver because of its high mica content. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in 1969, Aberdeen has been known as the offshore oil capital of Europe. Based upon the discovery of prehistoric villages around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don, the area around Aberdeen has been thought to have been settled for at least 6,000 years. + +Aberdeen received royal burgh status from David I of Scotland (1124–1153), which transformed the city economically. The traditional industries of fishing, paper-making, shipbuilding, and textiles have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeen's seaport. Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world, and the seaport is the largest in the north-east part of Scotland. A university town, the city is known for the University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495 as the fifth oldest university in the English-speaking world and located in Old Aberdeen. + +In 2012, HSBC named Aberdeen as a leading business hub and one of eight 'super cities' spearheading the UK's economy, marking it as the only city in Scotland so designated. In 2018, Aberdeen was found to be the best city in the UK to start a business in a study released by card payment firm Paymentsense. + +History + +The Aberdeen area has seen human settlement for at least 8,000 years. The city began as two separate burghs: Old Aberdeen at the mouth of the river Don; and New Aberdeen, a fishing and trading settlement, where the Denburn waterway entered the river Dee estuary. The earliest charter was granted by William the Lion in 1179 and confirmed the corporate rights granted by David I. + +In 1319, the Great Charter of Robert the Bruce transformed Aberdeen into a property-owning and financially independent community. Granted with it was the nearby Forest of Stocket, whose income formed the basis for the city's Common Good Fund which still benefits Aberdonians. + +During the Wars of Scottish Independence, Aberdeen was under English rule, so Robert the Bruce laid siege to Aberdeen Castle before destroying it in 1308, followed by executing the English garrison. The city was burned by Edward III of England in 1336, but was rebuilt and extended. The city was strongly fortified to prevent attacks by neighbouring lords, but the gates were removed by 1770. + +Aberdeen's medieval council registers survive from 1398 onwards and are exceptional for their quantity and continuity among surviving Scottish burgh records. The earliest eight volumes, from 1398 to 1511, have been included in the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register, and have been edited in a digital edition. + +During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1644 to 1647 the city was plundered by both sides. In 1644, it was taken and ransacked by Royalist troops after the Battle of Aberdeen and two years later it was stormed by a Royalist force under the command of the George Gordon, 2nd Marquis of Huntly. An outbreak of bubonic plague over 1687 and 1688 killed 8.5% of the population, adding to the economic and demographic damage caused by war. In the 18th century, a new Town Hall was built and the first social services appeared with the Aberdeen Infirmary at Woolmanhill in 1739 and the Aberdeen Lunatic Asylum in 1800. + +The expensive infrastructure works led to the city becoming bankrupt in 1817 during the Post-Napoleonic depression, an economic downturn immediately after the Napoleonic Wars; but the city's prosperity later recovered. The increasing economic importance of Aberdeen and the development of the shipbuilding and fishing industries led to the construction of the present harbour including Victoria Dock and the South Breakwater, and the extension of the North Pier. Gas street lighting arrived in 1824 and an enhanced water supply appeared in 1830 when water was pumped from the Dee to a reservoir in Union Place. An underground sewer system replaced open sewers in 1865. The city was incorporated in 1891. Although Old Aberdeen has a separate history and still holds its ancient charter, it was annexed by the City of Aberdeen in 1891. + +Over the course of the Second World War Aberdeen was attacked 32 times by the German Luftwaffe. One of the most devastating attacks was on Wednesday 21 April 1943 when 29 Luftwaffe Dornier 217s flying from Stavanger, Norway attacked the city between the hours of 22:17 and 23:04. A total of 98 civilians and 27 servicemen were killed, along with 12,000 houses damaged, after a mixture of 127 Incendiary, High Explosive and Cluster bombs were dropped on the city in one night. + +Two books written in 2018 and 2022 using bombing records held in London identified that unexploded bombs from the 1943 raid were found in the 1950s and 1980s making the bombs dropped 129 in total. Damage from the raid can still be seen in some parts of Aberdeen. + +Toponymy + +The name given to Aberdeen translates as 'mouth of the river Don', and is recorded as Aberdon in 1172 and Aberden in . The first element of the name is the Pictish word 'river mouth'. The second element is from the Celtic river goddess Devona. + +Aberdeen is usually described as within the historical Pictish territory, and became Gaelic-speaking at some time in the medieval period. Old Aberdeen is the approximate location of Aberdon, the first settlement of Aberdeen; this literally means "the mouth of the Don". The Celtic word means "river mouth", as in modern Welsh (Aberystwyth, Aberdare, Aberbeeg etc.). The Scottish Gaelic name is (variation: ; presumably being a loan from the earlier Pictish; the Gaelic term is ), and in Latin, the Romans referred to the river as . Medieval (or Ecclesiastical) Latin has it as . + +Governance + +Aberdeen is locally governed by Aberdeen City Council, which comprises forty-five councillors who represent the city's wards and is headed by the Lord Provost. The current Lord Provost is David Cameron. From May 2003 until May 2007 the council was run by a Liberal Democrat and Conservative Party coalition. Following the May 2007 local elections, the Liberal Democrats formed a new coalition with the Scottish National Party. After a later SNP by-election gain from the Conservatives, this coalition held 28 of the 43 seats. Following the election of 4 May 2017, the council was controlled by a coalition of Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives and independent councillors; the Labour councillors were subsequently suspended by Scottish Labour Party leader, Kezia Dugdale. Following Conservative losses in the May 2022 local elections, the Liberal Democrats and SNP agreed to work in partnership, agreed on a policy programme and formed the Council's administration. + +Aberdeen is represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom by three constituencies: Aberdeen North and Aberdeen South which are wholly within the Aberdeen City council area, and Gordon, which includes a large area of the Aberdeenshire Council area. + +In the Scottish Parliament, the city is represented by three constituencies with different boundaries: Aberdeen Central and Aberdeen Donside are wholly within the Aberdeen City council area. Aberdeen South and North Kincardine includes the North Kincardine ward of Aberdeenshire Council. A further seven MSPs are elected as part of the North East Scotland electoral region. In the European Parliament the city was represented by six MEPs as part of the all-inclusive Scotland constituency. + +Heraldry + +The arms and banner of the city show three silver towers on red. This motif dates from at least the time of Robert the Bruce and represents the buildings that stood on the three hills of medieval Aberdeen: Aberdeen Castle on Castle Hill (today's Castlegate); the city gate on Port Hill; and a church on St Catherine's Hill (now levelled). + +"Bon Accord" is the motto of the city and is French for "Good Agreement". Legend tells that its use dates from a password used by Robert the Bruce during the 14th century Wars of Scottish Independence, when he and his men laid siege to the English-held Aberdeen Castle before destroying it in 1308. It is still widely present in the city, throughout street names, business names and the city's Bon Accord shopping mall. + +The shield in the coat of arms is supported by two leopards. A local magazine is called the "Leopard" and, when Union Bridge was widened in the 20th century, small statues of the creature in a sitting position were cast and placed on top of the railing posts (known locally as Kelly's Cats). The city's toast is "Happy to meet, sorry to part, happy to meet again"; this has been commonly misinterpreted as the translation of Bon Accord. + +Geography + +Being situated between two river mouths, the city has little natural exposure of bedrock. The small amount of geophysics done, and occasional building-related exposures, combined with small exposures in the banks of the River Don, suggest that it is actually sited on an inlier of Devonian "Old Red" sandstones and silts. The outskirts of the city spread beyond the (inferred) limits of the outlier onto the surrounding metamorphic/ igneous complexes formed during the Dalradian period (approximately 480–600 million years ago) with sporadic areas of igneous Diorite granites to be found, such as that at the Rubislaw quarry which was used to build much of the Victorian parts of the city. + +The city extends to , and includes the former burghs of Old Aberdeen, New Aberdeen, Woodside and the Royal Burgh of Torry to the south of River Dee. In this gave the city a population density of . The city is built on many hills, with the original beginnings of the city growing from Castle Hill, St. Catherine's Hill and Windmill Hill. When compared to mainland Europe, Aberdeen is further north than almost all of Denmark and plenty of southern Sweden, being just south of Gothenburg in terms of latitude. + +Climate +Aberdeen features an oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb), with far milder winter temperatures than one might expect for its northern location, although statistically, it is the coldest city in the UK. During the winter, especially throughout December, the length of the day is very short, averaging 6 hours and 41 minutes between sunrise and sunset at the winter solstice. As winter progresses, the length of the day grows fairly quickly, to 8 hours and 20 minutes by the end of January. Around summer solstice, the days will be around 18 hours long, having 17 hours and 55 minutes between sunrise and sunset. During this time of the year marginal nautical twilight lasts the entire night. Temperatures at this time of year hover around during the day in most of the urban area, though nearer directly on the coast, and around in the westernmost suburbs. + +Two weather stations collect climate data for the area, Aberdeen/Dyce Airport, and Craibstone. Both are about to the northwest of the city centre, and given that they are in close proximity to each other, exhibit very similar climatic regimes. Dyce tends to have marginally warmer daytime temperatures year-round owing to its slightly lower elevation, though it is more susceptible to harsh frosts. The coldest temperature to occur in recent years was during December 2010, while the following winter, Dyce set a new February high-temperature station record on 28 February 2012 of , and a new March high temperature record of on 25 March 2012. + +The average temperature of the sea ranges from in March to in August. + +Demography + +The Aberdeen locality population estimate is . For the wider settlement of Aberdeen including Cove Bay and Dyce, the population estimate is . For Aberdeen City council area, the population estimate is (). + +In 1396, the population was about 3,000. By 1801, it had become 26,992, then 153,503 in 1901, and finally 182,467 in 1941. + +The 2011 census showed that there are fewer young people in Aberdeen, with 16.4% under 16, as opposed to the national average of 19.2%. According to the 2011 census Aberdeen is 91.9% white, ethnically, 24.7% were born outside Scotland, higher than the national average of 16%. Of this population, 7.6% were born in other parts of the UK. 8.2% of Aberdonians stated to be from an ethnic minority (non-white) in the 2011 census, with 9,519 (4.3%) being Asian, with 3,385 (1.5%) coming from India and 2,187 (1.0%) being Chinese. The city has around 5,610 (2.6%) residents of African or Caribbean origin, which is a higher percentage than both Glasgow and Edinburgh. + +In the household, there were 97,013 individual dwellings recorded in the city, of which 61% were privately owned, 9% privately rented and 23% rented from the council. The most popular type of dwellings are apartments which comprise 49% of residences followed by semi-detached at just below 22%. +The median income of a household in the city is £16,813 (the mean income is £20,292) (2005) which places approximately 18% households in the city below the poverty line (defined as 60% of the mean income). Conversely, an Aberdeen postcode has the second highest number of millionaires of any postcode in the UK. + +Ethnicity + +Religion + +Christianity is the main religion practised in the city. Aberdeen's largest denominations are the Church of Scotland (through the Presbytery of Aberdeen) and the Roman Catholic Church, both with numerous churches across the city, with the Scottish Episcopal Church having the third-largest number. The most recent census in 2001 showed that Aberdeen has the highest proportion of non-religious residents of any city in Scotland, with nearly 43% of citizens claiming to have no religion and several former churches in the city have been converted into bars and restaurants. In the Middle Ages, the Kirk of St Nicholas was the only burgh kirk and one of Scotland's largest parish churches. Like a number of other Scottish kirks, it was subdivided after the Reformation, in this case into the East and West churches. At that time, the city also was home to houses of the Carmelites (Whitefriars) and Franciscans (Greyfriars). The latter of these survives in modified form as the chapel of Marischal College. + +St Machar's Cathedral was built twenty years after David I (1124–1153) transferred the pre-Reformation diocese from Mortlach in Banffshire to Old Aberdeen in 1137. With the exception of the episcopate of William Elphinstone (1484–1511), building progressed slowly. Gavin Dunbar, who followed him in 1518, completed the structure by adding the two western spires and the southern transept. It is now a congregation of the Church of Scotland. Aberdeen has two other cathedrals: St. Mary's Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Gothic style, erected in 1859. In addition, St. Andrew's Cathedral serves the Scottish Episcopal Church. It was constructed in 1817 as Archibald Simpson's first commission and contains a memorial to the consecration of the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, which took place nearby. In 1804, St Peter's Church, the first permanent Roman Catholic church in the city after the Reformation was built. + +Numerous other Protestant denominations have a presence in Aberdeen. The Salvation Army citadel on the Castlegate dominates the view of east end of Union Street. In addition, there is a Unitarian church, established in 1833 and located in Skene Terrace. Christadelphians have been present in Aberdeen since at least 1844. Over the years, they have rented space to meet at a number of locations and currently meet in the Inchgarth Community Centre in Garthdee. There is also a Quaker meetinghouse on Crown Street, the only purpose built Friends meeting house in Scotland that is still in use today. In addition, there are a number of Baptist congregations in the city, and Evangelical congregations have been appearing in significant numbers since the late 2000s. The city also has two meeting houses of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). + +There are also four mosques in Aberdeen which serve the Islamic community in the city. There is an Orthodox Jewish Synagogue established in 1945. There is also a Thai Buddhist temple located in the Hazelhead area of the city. There are no formal Hindu buildings, although there is a fortnightly Hindu religious gathering on the first and third Sunday afternoons at Queens Cross Parish church hall. The University of Aberdeen has a small Baháʼí society. + +Economy + +Traditionally, Aberdeen was home to fishing, textile mills, shipbuilding and paper-making. These industries have been largely replaced. High technology developments in the electronics design and development industry, research in agriculture and fishing and the oil industry, which have been largely responsible for Aberdeen's economic growth, are now major parts of Aberdeen's economy. + +Until the 1970s, most of Aberdeen's leading industries dated from the 18th century; mainly these were textiles, foundry work, shipbuilding and paper-making, the oldest industry in the city, with paper having been first made there in 1694. Paper-making has reduced in importance since the closures of Donside Paper Mill in 2001 and the Davidson Mill in 2005 leaving the Stoneywood Paper Mill with a workforce of approximately 500. Textile production ended in 2004 when Richards of Aberdeen closed. + +Grey granite was quarried at Rubislaw quarry for more than 300 years, and used for paving setts, kerb and building stones, and monumental and other ornamental pieces. Aberdeen granite was used to build the terraces of the Houses of Parliament and Waterloo Bridge in London. Quarrying finally ceased in 1971. The current owners have begun pumping 40 years of rainwater from the quarry with the aim of developing a heritage centre on the site. + +In-shore fishing was once the predominant industry but was surpassed by deep-sea fisheries, which derived a great impetus from improved technologies throughout the 20th century. Catches have fallen because of overfishing and the use of the harbour by oil support vessels, and so although still an important fishing port it is now eclipsed by the more northerly ports of Peterhead and Fraserburgh. The Fisheries Research Services are headquartered in Aberdeen, and there is a marine research laboratory there. + +Aberdeen is well regarded for the agricultural and soil research carried out at The James Hutton Institute (formerly the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute), which has close links to the city's two universities. The Rowett Research Institute is a world-renowned research centre for studies into food and nutrition located in Aberdeen. It has produced three Nobel laureates and there is a high concentration of life scientists working in the city. + +As oil reserves in the North Sea decrease there is an effort to rebrand Aberdeen as "Energy Capital of Europe" rather than "Oil Capital of Europe", and there is interest in the development of new energy sources, and technology transfer from oil into renewable energy and other industries is underway. The "Energetica" initiative led by Scottish Enterprise has been designed to accelerate this process. Aberdeen has become a major world centre for undersea petroleum technology. + +North Sea oil and gas + +Aberdeen had been a major maritime centre throughout the 19th century, when a group of local entrepreneurs launched the first steam-powered trawler. The steam trawling industry expanded and by 1933 Aberdeen was Scotland's top fishing port, employing nearly 3,000 men with 300 vessels sailing from its harbour. By the time oil was coming on stream, much of the trawling fleet had relocated to Peterhead. + +Geologists had speculated about the existence of oil and gas in the North Sea since the middle of the 20th century, but tapping its deep and inhospitable waters was another story. With the Middle Eastern oil sheiks becoming more aware of the political and economic power of their oil reserves and government threats of rationing, the industry began to consider the North Sea as a viable source of oil. Exploration commenced in the 1960s and the first major find in the British sector was in November 1970 in the Forties field, east of Aberdeen. + +By late 1975, after years of intense construction, the necessary infrastructure was in place. Oil flowed through the Forties pipeline system directly to the refinery at far-away Grangemouth. + +Business +In 2011, the Centre for Cities named Aberdeen as the best placed city for growth in Britain, as the country looked to emerge from the recent economic downturn. With energy still providing the backbone of the local economy, recent years have seen very large new investment in the North Sea owing to rising oil prices and favourable government tax incentives. This has led to several oil majors and independents building new global offices in the city. + +Five of Scotland's top ten businesses are based in Aberdeen with a collective turnover of £14 billion, yielding a profit in excess of £2.4 billion. Alongside this 29 of Scotland's top 100 businesses are located in Aberdeen with an employment rate of 77.9%, making it the second highest UK city for employment. + +Figures released in 2016 ranked Aberdeen as having the second highest number of patents processed per person in the UK. + +Shopping + +The traditional shopping streets are Union Street and George Street, now complemented by shopping centres, including the Bon Accord Centre and the Trinity Shopping Centre. A £190 million retail development, Union Square, reached completion in late September/early October 2009. Major retail parks away from the city centre include the Berryden Retail Park, the Kittybrewster Retail Park and the Beach Boulevard Retail Park. Aberdeen Market has been rebuilt twice, but closed in 2020. + +In March 2004, Aberdeen was awarded Fairtrade City status by the Fairtrade Foundation. + +Landmarks + +Aberdeen's architecture is known for its principal use during the Victorian era of granite, which has led to its local nickname of the Granite City. + +Amongst the notable buildings in the city's main street, Union Street, are the Town and County Bank, the Music Hall, the Trinity Hall of the incorporated trades (originating between 1398 and 1527, although completely rebuilt in the 1860s), now a shopping mall; the former office of the Northern Assurance Company, and the National Bank of Scotland. In Castle Street, a continuation eastwards of Union Street, is the new Aberdeen Town House, a very prominent landmark in Aberdeen, built between 1868 and 1873 to a design by Peddie and Kinnear. + +Alexander Marshall Mackenzie's extension to Marischal College on Broad Street, opened by King Edward VII in 1906, created the second largest granite building in the world (after the Escorial, Madrid). + +In addition to the many fine landmark buildings, Aberdeen has many prominent public statues, three of the most notable being William Wallace at the junction between Union Terrace and Rosemount Viaduct, Robert Burns on Union Terrace above Union Terrace Gardens, and Robert the Bruce holding aloft the charter he issued to the city in 1319 on Broad Street, outside Marischal College. + +Parks, gardens and open spaces + +Aberdeen has long been famous for its 45 parks and gardens, and citywide floral displays which include two million roses, eleven million daffodils and three million crocuses. The city has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Britain in Bloom 'Best City' award ten times, the overall Scotland in Bloom competition twenty times and the large city category every year since 1968. However, despite recent spurious reports, Aberdeen has never been banned from the Britain in Bloom competition. The city won the 2006 Scotland in Bloom "Best City" award along with the International Cities in Bloom award. The suburb of Dyce also won the Small Towns award. + +Duthie Park opened in 1899 on the north bank of the River Dee. It was named after and given to the city by Miss Elizabeth Crombie Duthie of Ruthrieston in 1881. Hazlehead Park, is large and forested, and located on the outskirts of the city. + +Johnston Gardens is a small park of one hectare in the west end of the city. In 2002, the garden was named the best garden in the British Islands. Seaton Park, formerly the grounds of a private house, is on the edge of the grounds of St Machar's Cathedral and was acquired for the city in 1947. + +Theatres and concert halls + +Aberdeen has hosted several theatres throughout its history, some of which have subsequently been converted or destroyed. The most +famous include: + His Majesty's Theatre (HMT), on Rosemount Viaduct + The Tivoli, on Guild Street + Capitol Theatre, on Union Street + Aberdeen Arts Centre, on King Street + The Palace Theatre, on Bridge Street + The main concert hall is the Music Hall on Union Street, built in 1822. + +Transport + +Aberdeen Airport (ABZ), in Dyce in the north of the city, serves domestic and international destinations including France, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Scandinavian countries. The heliport which serves the oil industry and rescue services is one of the world's busiest commercial heliports. + +Aberdeen has two railway stations. Aberdeen railway station has frequent direct trains operated by ScotRail to major cities Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. London North Eastern Railway and the Caledonian Sleeper operate direct trains to London. The UK's longest direct rail journey runs from Aberdeen to Penzance. It is operated by CrossCountry, leaving Aberdeen at 08:20 and taking 13 hours and 23 minutes. Today, all railway services to the south run via Dundee. The faster mainline from Aberdeen to Perth via Forfar and Strathmore closed in 1967 as a result of the Beeching cuts, and the faster main line from Perth to Edinburgh via Glenfarg also subsequently closed in 1970. The other railway station, Dyce railway station in Dyce to the north of the city centre, is on the Aberdeen–Inverness line. + +There are six major roads in and out of the city. The A90 is the main arterial route into the city from the north and south, linking Aberdeen to Edinburgh (via the M90), Dundee, Brechin and Perth in the south and Ellon, Peterhead and Fraserburgh in the north. The A96 links Elgin and Inverness and the northwest. The A93 is the main route to the west, heading towards Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms. After Braemar, it turns south, providing an alternative tourist route to Perth. The A944 also heads west, through Westhill and on to Alford. The A92 was the original southerly road to Aberdeen prior to the building of the A90, and is now used as a tourist route, connecting the towns of Montrose and Arbroath and on the east coast. The A947 exits the city at Dyce and goes on to Newmachar, Oldmeldrum and Turriff finally ending at Banff and Macduff. In 2019, the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route bypass was completed. + +Aberdeen Harbour is important as the largest in the north of Scotland and serves the ferry route to Orkney and Shetland. Established in 1136, the harbour has been referred to as the oldest business in Britain. + +FirstGroup operates the city buses under the name First Aberdeen, as the successor of Grampian Regional Transport (GRT) and Aberdeen Corporation Tramways. Aberdeen is the global headquarters of FirstGroup plc, having grown from the GRT Group. First is still based at the former Aberdeen Tramways depot on King Street, which has now been redeveloped into a new headquarters and bus depot. + +National Express operate express coach services to London twice daily. The 590 service, operated by Bruce's Coaches of Salsburgh operates in the morning and runs through the day, calling at Dundee, Perth, Glasgow, Hamilton, Carlisle, Milton Keynes, Golders Green and Victoria Coach Station, whilst the 592 (operated by Parks of Hamilton) leaves in the evening and travels overnight, calling at Dundee, Glasgow, Hamilton, Carlisle, Heathrow Airport and Victoria Coach Station. + +Aberdeen is connected to the UK National Cycle Network, and has a track to the south connecting to cities such as Dundee and Edinburgh and one to the north that forks about from the city into two different tracks heading to Inverness and Fraserburgh respectively. Two popular footpaths along old railway lines are the Deeside Way to Banchory (which will eventually connect to Ballater) and the Formartine and Buchan Way to Ellon, both used by a mixture of cyclists, walkers and occasionally horses. + +The Dee Estuary, Aberdeen's harbour, has continually been improved. Starting out as a fishing port, moving onto steam trawlers, the oil industry, it is now a major port of departure for the Baltic and Scandinavia. + +Education + +Universities and colleges + +Aberdeen has two universities, the ancient University of Aberdeen, and Robert Gordon University, a modern university often referred to as RGU. Aberdeen's student rate of 11.5% is higher than the national average of 7%. + +The University of Aberdeen began as King's College, Aberdeen, which was founded in 1495 by William Elphinstone (1431–1514), Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of Scotland. Marischal College, a separate institution, was founded in "New" Aberdeen by George Keith, fifth Earl Marischal of Scotland in 1593. These institutions were merged by order of Parliament in 1860 to form the University of Aberdeen. The university is the fifth oldest in the English-speaking world and offers degrees in a full range of disciplines. Its main campus is in Old Aberdeen in the north of the city and it currently has approximately 14,000 students. The university's debating society is the oldest in Scotland, founded in 1848 as the King's College Debating Society. Today, Aberdeen is consistently ranked among the top 200 universities in the world and is ranked within the top 20 universities in the United Kingdom. Aberdeen was also named the 2019 Scottish University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide. In early 2022, Aberdeen opened the Science Teaching Hub. + +Robert Gordon's College (originally Robert Gordon's Hospital) was founded in 1750 by the merchant Robert Gordon, grandson of the map maker Robert Gordon of Straloch, and was further endowed in 1816 by Alexander Simpson of Collyhill. Originally devoted to the instruction and maintenance of the sons of poor burgesses of guild and trade in the city, it was reorganised in 1881 as a day and night school for secondary and technical education. In 1903, the vocational education component of the college was designated a Central Institution and was renamed as the Robert Gordon Institute of Technology in 1965. In 1992, university status was awarded and it became Robert Gordon University. The university has expanded and developed significantly in recent years, and was named Best Modern University in the UK for 2012 by The Sunday Times. It was previously The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year for 2011, primarily because of its record on graduate employment. The citation for the 2011 award read: "With a graduate unemployment rate that is lower than the most famous universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, plus a flourishing reputation for research, high student satisfaction rates and ambitious plans for its picturesque campus, the Robert Gordon University is The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year". + +Aberdeen is also home to two artistic schools: Gray's School of Art, founded in 1886, which is one of the oldest established colleges of art in the UK. Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment, was one of the first architectural schools to have its training courses recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Both are now part of Robert Gordon University and are based at its Garthdee campus. North East Scotland College has several campuses in the city and offers a wide variety of part-time and full-time courses leading to several different qualifications in science. The Scottish Agricultural College is based just outside Aberdeen, on the Craibstone Estate. This is situated beside the roundabout for Aberdeen Airport on the A96. The college provides three services—Learning, Research and Consultancy. The college features many land-based courses such as Agriculture, Countryside Management, Sustainable Environmental Management and Rural Business Management. There are a variety of courses from diplomas to master's degrees. The Marine Laboratory Aberdeen, which specialises in fisheries, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (soil science), and the Rowett Research Institute (animal nutrition) are some other higher education institutions. + +The Aberdeen College of Performing Arts also provides full-time Drama and Musical Theatre training at Further Education level. + +Schools + +There are currently 15 secondary schools and 54 primary schools which are run by the city council. There are a number of private schools in Aberdeen: Robert Gordon's College, Albyn School for Girls (co-educational as of October 2022), St Margaret's School for Girls, the International School of Aberdeen and a Waldorf/Steiner School. + +State primary schools in Aberdeen include Airyhall Primary School, Ashley Road Primary School, Balgownie Primary School, Bramble Brae Primary School, Broomhill Primary School, Cornhill Primary School (the city's largest), Culter Primary School, Cults Primary School, Danestone Primary School, Fernielea Primary school, Ferryhill Primary School, Gilcomstoun Primary School, Glashieburn Primary School, Greenbrae School, Hamilton School, Kaimhill Primary School, Kingsford Primary School, Kittybrewster Primary School, Middleton Park Primary School, Mile End School, Muirfield Primary School, Skene Square Primary School, and St. Joseph's Primary School. + +State secondary schools in Aberdeen include Aberdeen Grammar School, Albyn School, Bridge of Don Academy, Bucksburn Academy, Cults Academy, Dyce Academy, Harlaw Academy, Hazlehead Academy, Lochside Academy, Northfield Academy, Oldmachar Academy, Robert Gordon's College, St Machar Academy, St Margaret's School for Girls, and The International School Aberdeen. + +Independent primary schools in Aberdeen include Albyn School, Robert Gordon's College, St Margaret's School for Girls, and the International School of Aberdeen. + +Culture +The city has a wide range of cultural activities, amenities, and museums, and is regularly visited by Scotland's National Arts Companies. + +It was awarded the Nicholson Trophy for the best-kept town at the Britain in Bloom contest in 1975. + +Museums and galleries + +The Aberdeen Art Gallery houses a collection of Impressionist, Victorian, Scottish and 20th-century British paintings as well as collections of silver and glass. It also includes The Alexander Macdonald Bequest, a collection of late 19th-century works donated by the museum's first benefactor and a constantly changing collection of contemporary work and regular visiting exhibitions. The Aberdeen Art Gallery reopened in 2019 after a four-year refurbishment costing £34.6m. + +The Aberdeen Maritime Museum, located in Shiprow, tells the story of Aberdeen's links with the sea from the days of sail and clipper ships to the latest oil and gas exploration technology. It includes an model of the Murchison oil production platform and a 19th-century assembly taken from Rattray Head lighthouse +Provost Ross' House is the second oldest dwelling house in the city. It was built in 1593 and became the residence of Provost John Ross of Arnage in 1702. The house retains some original medieval features, including a kitchen, fireplaces and beam-and-board ceilings. The Gordon Highlanders Museum tells the story of one of Scotland's best known regiments. + +Provost Skene's House on Flourmill Lane dates from 1545 and is the oldest surviving townhouse in the city. It reopened in October 2021 after significant refurbishment costing £3.8m. One of the new exhibitions is a Hall of Heroes featuring 100 Aberdonians who have made a significant contribution to the city. + +The Tollbooth Museum on the Castlegate (currently closed to visitors) is a former jail, which first opened as a public museum in 1995. + +The Aberdeen Treasure Hub is a storage facility for Aberdeen Museums and Galleries containing over 100,000 items. The store is open for infrequent tours, for example as part of Doors Open Day. + +Marischal Museum holds the principal collections of the University of Aberdeen, comprising some 80,000 items in the areas of fine art, Scottish history and archaeology, and European, Mediterranean and Near Eastern archaeology. The permanent displays and reference collections are augmented by regular temporary exhibitions, and since its closure to the public it now has a virtual online presence It closed to the public in 2008. The King's Museum acts as the main museum of the university now. + +Festivals and performing arts +Aberdeen is home to a number of events and festivals including the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (the world's largest arts festival for young performers), Aberdeen Jazz Festival, Aberdeen Alternative Festival, Rootin' Aboot (a folk and roots music event), Triptych, the University of Aberdeen's annual May Fest (formerly the Word festival) and DanceLive, Scotland's only festival of contemporary dance, produced by the city's Citymoves dance organisation. + +The Aberdeen Student Show, performed annually without interruption since 1921, under the auspices of the Aberdeen Students' Charities Campaign, is the longest-running of its kind in the United Kingdom. It is written, produced and performed by students and graduates of Aberdeen's universities and higher education institutions. Since 1929—other than on a handful of occasions—it has been staged at His Majesty's Theatre. + +National festivals which visited Aberdeen in 2012 included the British Science Festival in September, hosted by the University of Aberdeen but with events also taking place at Robert Gordon University and at other venues across the city. In February 2012 the University of Aberdeen also hosted the Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival, the longest-running folk festival in the United Kingdom. + +Aberdeen is home to Spectra, an annual light festival hosted in different locations across the city. + +Aberdeen is home to Nuart, a festival showcasing street art around the city. The festival has run since 2017. + +Music and film + +Music venues include Aberdeen Music Hall and the P&J Live. + +Dialect + +The local dialect of Lowland Scots is often known as Doric and is spoken not just in the city, but across the northeast of Scotland. It differs somewhat from other Scots dialects: most noticeable are the pronunciation "f" for what is normally written "wh" and "ee" for what in standard English would usually be written "oo" (Scots "ui"). Every year the annual Doric Festival takes place in Aberdeenshire to celebrate the history of the north-east's language. + +Media + +Aberdeen is home to Scotland's oldest newspaper the Press and Journal, a local and regional newspaper first published in 1747. The Press and Journal and its sister paper the tabloid Evening Express are printed six days a week by Aberdeen Journals. There was one free newspaper, the Aberdeen Citizen. BBC Scotland has a network studio production base in the city's Beechgrove area, and BBC Aberdeen produces The Beechgrove Potting Shed for radio while Tern Television produces The Beechgrove Garden. The city is also home to STV North (formerly Grampian Television), which produces the regional news programmes such as STV News at Six, as well as local commercials. The station, based at Craigshaw Business Park in Tullos, was based at larger studios in Queens Cross from September 1961 until June 2003. + +There are three commercial radio stations operating in the city, Northsound 1, Greatest Hits Radio North East Scotland, and independent station Original 106. Other radio stations include NECR FM (North-East Community Radio FM) DAB station, and shmu FM managed by Station House Media Unit which supports community members to run Aberdeen's full-time community radio station, broadcasting on 99.8 MHz FM. + +Food +The Aberdeen region has given its name to a number of dishes, including the Aberdeen buttery (also known as "rowie") and Aberdeen Sausage. + +In 2015, a study was published in The Scotsman which analysed the presence of branded fast food outlets in Scotland. Of the ten towns and cities analysed, Aberdeen was found to have the lowest per capita concentration, with just 0.12 stores per 1,000 inhabitants. + +Sport + +Football +The first ever recorded game of football, was outlined by teacher David Wedderburn in his book "Vocabula" written in 1633, during his time teaching at Aberdeen Grammar School. + +There are two Aberdeen-based football clubs in the SPFL, the senior branch of Scottish football. Aberdeen F.C. (The Dons) play in the Scottish Premiership at Pittodrie Stadium. The club won the European Cup Winners Cup and the European Super Cup in 1983, the Scottish Premier League Championship four times (1955, 1980, 1984 and 1985), and the Scottish Cup seven times (1947, 1970, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986 and 1990). Under the management of Alex Ferguson, Aberdeen was a major force in British football during the 1980s. + +After 8 seasons in charge, the most recent of Managers Derek McInnes, was relieved of his duties, the club's failure to achieve anything more than 1 trophy in 24 competitions during his tenure and a recent run of games which saw 1 goal in ten matches ultimately proved costly for the Manager and his Assistant Tony Docherty. Under the management of McInnes the team won the 2014 Scottish League Cup and followed it up with a second-place league finish for the first time in more than 20 years in the following season. But it was over the last few seasons that results stagnated and McInnes was replaced by former Aberdeen and Newcastle player Stephen Glass. + +The other senior team is Cove Rangers of League One, who play at Balmoral Stadium in the suburb of Cove Bay. Cove won the Highland Football League championship in 2001, 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2019, winning the League Two play-offs in 2019 and earning promotion. At the point at which the 2019/20 League Two season was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cove was sitting top of the League Two table and were promoted as Champions. + +Local junior teams include Banks O' Dee F.C., Culter F.C., F.C. Stoneywood, Glentanar F.C., Sunnybank and Hermes F.C. + +Rugby Union +Aberdeen hosted Caledonia Reds, a Scottish rugby team, before they merged with the Glasgow Warriors in 1998. The city is also home to the Scottish Premiership Division One rugby club Aberdeen GSFP RFC who play at Rubislaw Playing Fields, and Aberdeenshire RFC which was founded in 1875 and runs Junior, Senior Men's, Senior Ladies and Touch sections from the Woodside Sports Complex and also Aberdeen Wanderers RFC. + +In 2005 the President of the SRU said it was hoped eventually to establish a professional team in Aberdeen. In November 2008 the city hosted a rugby international at Pittodrie between Scotland and Canada, with Scotland winning 41–0. In November 2010 the city once again hosted a rugby international at Pittodrie between Scotland and Samoa, with Scotland winning 19–16. + +Rugby League +Aberdeen Warriors rugby league team play in the Rugby League Conference Division One. The Warriors also run Under 15's and 17's teams. Aberdeen Grammar School won the Saltire Schools Cup in 2011. + +Golf + +The Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, founded in 1780 is the sixth oldest golf club in the world, and hosted the Senior British Open in 2005, and the amateur team event the Walker Cup in 2011. Royal Aberdeen also hosted the Scottish Open in 2014, won by Justin Rose. The club has a second course, and there are public golf courses at Auchmill, Balnagask, Hazlehead and King's Links. + +There are new courses planned for the area, including world-class facilities with major financial backing, the city and shire are set to become important in golf tourism. In Summer 2012, Donald Trump opened a new state of the art golf course at Menie, just north of the city, as the Trump International Golf Links, Scotland. + +Swimming +The City of Aberdeen Swim Team (COAST) was based in Northfield swimming pool, but since the opening of the Aberdeen Aquatics Centre in 2014, it is now based there, as it has a 50 m pool as opposed to the 25 m pool at Northfield. It has been in operation since 1996. The team comprises several smaller swimming clubs and has enjoyed success throughout Scotland and in international competitions. Three of the team's swimmers qualified for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. + +Rowing + +There are four boat clubs that row on the River Dee: Aberdeen Boat Club (ABC), Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association (ASRA), Aberdeen University Boat Club (AUBC) and Robert Gordon University Boat Club (RGUBC). + +Cricket +The city has one national league side, Stoneywood-Dyce. Local "Grades" cricket has been played in Aberdeen since 1884. Aberdeenshire were the 2009 and 2014 Scottish National Premier League and Scottish Cup Champions. + +Ice hockey +Aberdeen Lynx are an ice hockey team that plays in the Scottish National League and is based at the Linx Ice Arena. + +Shinty + +Aberdeen University Shinty Club (Scottish Gaelic: Club Camanachd Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is the oldest constituted shinty club in the world, dating back to 1861. + +Other sports +The city council operates public tennis courts in various parks including an indoor tennis centre at Westburn Park. The Beach Leisure Centre is home to a climbing wall, gymnasium and a swimming pool. There are numerous swimming pools dotted around the city notably the largest, the Bon Accord Baths which closed down in 2008. + +In common with many other major towns and cities in the UK, Aberdeen has an active roller derby league, Granite City Roller Derb. + +American Football +The Aberdeen Roughnecks American football club is a new team that started in 2012 and is the first team that Aberdeen has witnessed since the Granite City Oilers that began in 1986 and were wound up in the mid-1990s. + +Aberdeen Oilers Floorball Club was founded in 2007. The club initially attracted a range of experienced Scandinavian and other European players who were studying in Aberdeen. Since their formation, Aberdeen Oilers have played in the British Floorball Northern League and went on to win the league in the 2008/09 season. The club played a major role in setting up a ladies league in Scotland. The Oilers' ladies team ended up second in the first ladies league season (2008/09). + +Public services + +The public health service in Scotland, NHS Scotland provides for the people of Aberdeen through the NHS Grampian health board. Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is the largest hospital in the city and one of the largest in Europe (the location of the city's A&E department), Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, a paediatric hospital, Royal Cornhill Hospital for mental health, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, an antenatal hospital, Woodend Hospital, which specialises in rehabilitation and long-term illnesses and conditions, and City Hospital and Woolmanhill Hospital, which host several out-patient clinics and offices. Albyn Hospital is a private hospital located in the west end of the city. + +Aberdeen City Council is responsible for city-owned infrastructure which is paid for by a mixture of Council Tax and income from the Scottish Government. Infrastructure and services run by the council include: nursery, primary and secondary education, roads, clearing snow in winter, city wardens, maintaining parks, refuse collection, economic development, public analyst, public mortuary, street cleaning and street lighting. Infrastructure in private hands includes electricity, gas and telecoms. Water and sewerage services are provided by Scottish Water. + Police: Policing in Aberdeen is the responsibility of Police Scotland (the British Transport Police has responsibility for railways). + Ambulance: The North East divisional headquarters of the Scottish Ambulance Service is located in Aberdeen. + Fire and rescue: This is the responsibility of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. + Lifeboat: The Royal National Lifeboat Institution operates Aberdeen Lifeboat Station. It is located at Victoria Dock Entrance in York Place. + +Twin cities +Aberdeen is twinned with + Stavanger, Norway, since 1990 + Regensburg, Germany, since 1955 + Clermont-Ferrand, France, since 1983 + Gomel, Belarus, since 1990 + Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, since 1986 + Houston, Texas, US, since 1979, is twinned with the former region of Grampian of which Aberdeen is the regional centre + Kobe, Japan, since 2022, is twinned with Aberdeen for its hydrogen work. + +Notable people and residents + + William Alexander (1826 - 1894), journalist and author of Johnny Gibb of Gushetneuk. + Leslie Benzies, Former president of Rockstar North, creators of the critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series. + Scott Booth, former football player, played for Aberdeen F.C., FC Twente, Borussia Dortmund and the Scotland national football team. + Alf Burnett, footballer who played for Dundee United + Lord Byron FRS (1788–1824), poet, was raised (age 2–10) in Aberdeen. + Andrew Cant, (1584–1663) Presbyterian minister and leader of the Scottish Covenanters + David Carry, swimmer, 2x 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist. + Henry Cecil, one of the most successful horse trainers of all time. + Oswald Chambers, author of My Utmost for His Highest + Alexander Christie, portrait painter. + Dan Crenshaw, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 2nd district. + Andrew Cruickshank, actor famous for his role in Dr Finlay's Casebook + John Mathieson Dodds, apprentice and engineer with Metrovick, Manchester and radar pioneer in Chain Home defence system for 1940 Battle of Britain. + Neil Fachie, cyclist, 2012 Paralympic Games gold and silver medalist. + Simon Farquhar, playwright. + Graeme Garden, author, actor, comedian, artist, TV presenter, famous for The Goodies. + Martin Gatt, principal bassoonist English Chamber Orchestra, LPO and LSO. + Ryan Gauld, footballer who currently plays for Sporting Lisbon in the Portuguese Primeira Liga. + James Gibbs, 18th-century architect. + Quentin Gibson FRS (1918–2011), physiologist and biochemist + James Gregory FRS (1638–1675), Scottish mathematician and astronomer, born in the manse at Drumoak, just outside Aberdeen. Attended Aberdeen Grammar School and Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. Discovered diffraction gratings a year after Newton's prism experiments, and invented the Gregorian telescope design in 1663 which is used in telescopes such as the Arecibo Observatory. + David Gregory FRS (1659–1708), Scottish mathematician and astronomer. Attended Aberdeen Grammar School and Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. A professor of mathematics. Based on his uncle James Gregory's work, he extended or discovered the method of quadratures by infinite series. His principle work "Astronomiae physicae et geometricae elementa" (1702) was the first text-book on gravitational principles. + Michael Gove, politician and MP. + George Jamesone, Scotland's first eminent portrait-painter. + Reginald Victor Jones, physicist, Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, author. + John Michael Kosterlitz, physicist, professor of physics at Brown University. Awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 2016. + Denis Law, former football player, played for Manchester City, Manchester United and the Scotland national team, joint all-time record Scotland goalscorer with 30 goals. + Paul Lawrie, golfer, winner of the 1999 Open Championship. + Annie Lennox, musician, winner of eight Brit Awards, grew up in Ellon. + Rose Leslie, actress, best known for playing Ygritte in HBO's Game of Thrones. + John Macleod FRSE FRS LLD (1876–1935) Biochemist and Physiologist. For his role in the discovery and isolation of insulin he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1923. + John Alexander MacWilliam FRS (1857–1937), Professor of the Institutes of Medicine (later Physiology) at the University of Aberdeen. Pioneer in the field of cardiac electro-physiology & ventricular fibrillation of the heart. First to propose ventricular fibrillation as the most common cause of sudden death through heart attack. First to propose use of life saving electrical de-fibrilators. His work laid the frame work for the development of the pace maker. + Laura Main, actress, best known for playing Sister Bernadette/Shelagh Turner in the BBC's Call the Midwife + James Clerk Maxwell FRSE FRS (1831–1879), Chair of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen from 1856 to 1860. Formulated the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation. + Robert Morison (1620–1683), a Scottish botanist and taxonomist. He elucidated and developed the first systematic classification of plants. Gained his Master of Arts from the University of Aberdeen at the age of eighteen. For ten years Director of Louis XIV's royal gardens at Blois, France, then physician, botanist & superintendent of all royal gardens for Charles II of Scotland. + Alberto Morrocco OBE FRSA FRSE RSW RP RGI LLD (1917–1998), Scottish artist and teacher famous for his landscapes of Scotland and abroad. + Andy Nisbet (1953–2019), a Scottish mountaineer, guide, climbing instructor, and editor of climbing guidebooks. A pioneer of mixed rock and ice climbing techniques over 45 years. Developed over 1,000 new winter climbing routes in Scotland. + Ara Paiaya, film producer and director of Skin Traffik, Instant Death and Purge of Kingdoms. + Robbie Renwick, swimmer, 1x 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medalist. + Professor Sir C. Duncan Rice, historian, former principal of the University of Aberdeen. + Lawson Robertson (1883–1951), born in Aberdeen, competed for the U.S. Olympic Team at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, winning the bronze medal in the standing high jump. Head coach of U.S. track team at 4 successive Olympic games, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936. + Archibald Simpson, architect, one of Aberdeen's major architects. + John Smith, architect, Aberdeen's other major architect and official City Architect + Nicol Stephen, former Scottish Liberal Democrats leader, former Deputy First Minister of Scotland + John Strachan, first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. + Annie Wallace, actress in Hollyoaks. + Ron Yeats, former football player, captain of the first great Liverpool team of the 1960s, also played for the Scotland national team. + +Aberdeen in popular culture + Stuart MacBride's crime novels Cold Granite, Dying Light, Broken Skin, Flesh House, Blind Eye and Dark Blood (a series with main protagonist, DS Logan McRae) are all set in Aberdeen. + A large part of the plot of the World War II thriller Eye of the Needle by Welsh author, Ken Follett, takes place in wartime Aberdeen, from which a German spy is trying to escape to a submarine waiting offshore. + A portion of Ian Rankin's novel Black and Blue (1997) is set in Aberdeen, where its nickname "Furry Boots" is noted. + Songs titled "Aberdeen" have been recorded by the music groups Danny Wilson, Royseven, and Cage the Elephant. + The Scottish rock band The Xcerts released the song "Aberdeen 1987" on their debut album In the Cold Wind We Smile, released on 30 March 2009. The first verse contains the line "15, sitting in a graveyard talking about their history". The graveyard referenced in the song is the graveyard of the Kirk of St Nicholas on Union Street. + +See also + + Aberdeen Bestiary + Aberdeen City Youth Council + Aberdeen Safer Community Trust + Aberdeen typhoid outbreak 1964 + Aberdonia (disambiguation) + List of places in Aberdeen + List of places in Scotland + Our Lady of Aberdeen + Voluntary Service Aberdeen + Freedom of the City of Aberdeen + +Notes + +References + +Further reading + + + + Shepherd, Mike (2015). Oil Strike North Sea: A first-hand history of North Sea oil. Luath Press. + +External links + + Aberdeen City Council + + A collection of historic maps of Aberdeen from the 1660s onward at National Library of Scotland + A selection of archive films relating to Aberdeen at the Scottish Screen Archive + Engraving of Aberdeen in 1693 by John Slezer at National Library of Scotland + + + +Cities in Scotland +Council areas of Scotland +Fishing communities in Scotland +Lieutenancy areas of Scotland +Port cities and towns in Scotland +Port cities and towns of the North Sea +Royal burghs +Grampian + + +Events + +Pre-1600 +30 BC – After the successful invasion of Egypt, Octavian executes Marcus Antonius Antyllus, the eldest son of Mark Antony, and Caesarion, the last king of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and only child of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. +79 – Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. + 476 – Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic tribes (Herulic - Scirian foederati), is proclaimed rex Italiae ("King of Italy") by his troops. +1244 – Siege of Jerusalem: The city's citadel, the Tower of David, surrenders to the Khwarazmiyya. +1268 – The Battle of Tagliacozzo marks the fall of the Hohenstaufen family from the Imperial and Sicilian thrones, and leading to the new chapter of Angevin domination in Southern Italy. +1328 – Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers. +1382 – Siege of Moscow: The Golden Horde led by Tokhtamysh lays siege to the capital of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. +1514 – The Battle of Chaldiran ends with a decisive victory for the Sultan Selim I, Ottoman Empire, over the Shah Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty. +1521 – Christian II of Denmark is deposed as king of Sweden and Gustav Vasa is elected regent. +1541 – French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada. +1572 – French Wars of Religion: Mob violence against thousands of Huguenots in Paris results in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. +1595 – Long Turkish War: Wallachian prince Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Călugăreni and achieves a tactical victory. +1600 – Battle of Gifu Castle: The eastern forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu defeat the western Japanese clans loyal to Toyotomi Hideyori, leading to the destruction of Gifu Castle and serving as a prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara. + +1601–1900 +1628 – George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, is assassinated by John Felton. +1655 – Battle of Sobota: The Swedish Empire led by Charles X Gustav defeats the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. +1703 – Edirne event: Sultan Mustafa II of the Ottoman Empire is dethroned. +1775 – American Revolutionary War: King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the Court of St James's stating that the American colonies have proceeded to a state of open and avowed rebellion. +1782 – British forces under Edward Despard complete the reconquest of the Black River settlements on the Mosquito Coast from the Spanish. +1784 – Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it is not accepted into the United States, and only lasts for four years. +1799 – Napoleon I of France leaves Egypt for France en route to seizing power. +1813 – At the Battle of Großbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army. +1831 – Nat Turner's rebellion of enslaved Virginians is suppressed. +1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for the First Opium War with Qing China. +1864 – American Civil War: The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico except Galveston, Texas. +1866 – The Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague. +1873 – The Albert Bridge in Chelsea, London opens. +1898 – The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departs from London. + +1901–present +1904 – The automobile tire chain is patented. +1914 – World War I: The British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army begin their Great Retreat before the German Army. + 1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany. +1921 – British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull in England and crashes in the Humber Estuary; of her 49 British and American training crew, only four survive. +1923 – Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter perform the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours. +1927 – Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed after a lengthy, controversial trial. +1929 – Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine occur, continuing until the next day, resulting in the death of 65–68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city. +1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret protocol to the pact, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania are divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence". +1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad. +1943 – World War II: Kharkiv is liberated by the Soviet Red Army for the second time after the Battle of Kursk. +1944 – World War II: Marseille is liberated by the Allied forces. + 1944 – World War II: King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of Marshal Antonescu, who is later arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies. + 1944 – Freckleton air disaster: A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England, killing 61 people. +1945 – World War II: Soviet–Japanese War: The USSR State Defense Committee issues Decree no. 9898cc "About Receiving, Accommodation, and Labor Utilization of the Japanese Army Prisoners of War". +1946 – Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Länder (states) of Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein. +1948 – The World Council of Churches is formed by 147 churches from 44 countries. +1954 – The first flight of the Lockheed C-130 multi-role aircraft takes place. +1958 – Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy. +1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon. +1970 – Organized by Mexican American labor union leader César Chávez, the Salad Bowl strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history, begins. +1973 – A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome". +1975 – The start of the Wave Hill walk-off by Gurindji people in Australia, lasting eight years, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia, commemorated in a 1991 Paul Kelly song and an annual celebration. + 1975 – The Pontiac Silverdome opens in Pontiac, Michigan, northwest of Detroit, Michigan +1985 – Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany. +1989 – Singing Revolution: Two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius–Tallinn road, holding hands. +1990 – Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War. + 1990 – Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union. + 1990 – West and East Germany announce that they will reunite on October 3. +1991 – The World Wide Web is opened to the public. +1994 – Eugene Bullard, the only African American pilot in World War I, is posthumously commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. +2000 – Gulf Air Flight 072 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143. +2006 – Natascha Kampusch, who had been abducted at the age of ten, escapes from her captor Wolfgang Přiklopil, after eight years of captivity. +2007 – The skeletal remains of Russia's last royal family members Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Grand Duchess Anastasia are discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia. +2010 – The Manila hostage crisis occurred near the Quirino Grandstand in Manila, Philippines killing 9 people including the perpetrator while injuring 9 others. +2011 – A magnitude 5.8 (class: moderate) earthquake occurs in Virginia. Damage occurs to monuments and structures in Washington, D.C. and the resulted damage is estimated at 200 million–300 million USD. + 2011 – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the Libyan Civil War. +2012 – A hot-air balloon crashes near the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, killing six people and injuring 28 others. +2013 – A riot at the Palmasola prison complex in Santa Cruz, Bolivia kills 31 people. +2023 – Chandrayaan-3 mission initiated first Moon landing in Indian history. +2023 – A business jet carrying key leadership members of the Russian private military company Wagner Group crashes, killing all ten people on-board. + +Births + +Pre-1600 +1482 – Jo Gwang-jo, Korean philosopher (d. 1520) +1486 – Sigismund von Herberstein, Slovenian historian and diplomat (d. 1566) +1498 – Miguel da Paz, Prince of Portugal (d. 1500) +1524 – François Hotman, French lawyer and jurist (d. 1590) +1579 – Thomas Dempster, Scottish scholar and historian (d. 1625) + +1601–1900 +1623 – Stanisław Lubieniecki, Polish astronomer, theologian, and historian (d. 1675) +1724 – Abraham Yates Jr., American lawyer and civil servant (d. 1796) +1741 – Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, French admiral and explorer (d. 1788) +1754 – Louis XVI of France (d. 1793) +1768 – Astley Cooper, British surgeon and anatomist (d. 1841) +1769 – Georges Cuvier, French biologist and academic (d. 1832) +1783 – William Tierney Clark, English engineer, designed the Hammersmith Bridge (d. 1852) +1785 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American commander (d. 1819) +1800 – Evangelos Zappas, Greek patriot, philanthropist, and businessman (d. 1865) +1805 – Anton von Schmerling, Austrian judge and politician (d. 1893) +1814 – James Roosevelt Bayley, American archbishop (d. 1877) +1829 – Moritz Cantor, German mathematician and historian (d. 1920) +1843 – William Southam, Canadian publisher (d. 1932) +1846 – Alexander Milne Calder, Scottish-American sculptor (d. 1923) +1847 – Sarah Frances Whiting, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1927) +1849 – William Ernest Henley, English poet and critic (d. 1903) +1850 – John Cockburn, Scottish-Australian politician, 18th Premier of South Australia (d. 1929) +1852 – Radha Gobinda Kar, Indian physician and philanthropist (d. 1918) + 1852 – Clímaco Calderón, Colombian lawyer and politician, 15th President of Colombia (d. 1913) + 1852 – Arnold Toynbee, English economist and historian (d. 1883) +1854 – Moritz Moszkowski, Polish-German pianist and composer (d. 1925) +1864 – Eleftherios Venizelos, Greek lawyer, jurist, and politician, 93rd Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1936) +1867 – Edgar de Wahl, Ukrainian-Estonian linguist and academic (d. 1948) +1868 – Edgar Lee Masters, American lawyer, author, poet, and playwright (d. 1950) +1872 – Tanguturi Prakasam, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Minister of Andhra (d. 1957) +1875 – William Eccles, English physicist and engineer (d. 1966) + 1875 – Eugene Lanceray, Russian painter and sculptor (d. 1946) +1877 – István Medgyaszay, Hungarian architect and academic (d. 1959) +1880 – Alexander Grin, Russian sailor and author (d. 1932) +1882 – Volin, Russia anarchist intellectual (d. 1945) +1883 – Jonathan M. Wainwright, American general, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1953) +1884 – Will Cuppy, American author and critic (d. 1949) + 1884 – Ogden L. Mills, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 50th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1937) +1890 – Harry Frank Guggenheim, American businessman and publisher, co-founded Newsday (d. 1971) +1891 – Roy Agnew, Australian pianist and composer (d. 1944) + 1891 – Minna Craucher, Finnish socialite and spy (d. 1932) +1894 – John Auden, English solicitor, deputy coroner and a territorial soldier (d. 1959) +1897 – Henry F. Pringle, American historian and journalist (d. 1958) +1900 – Frances Adaskin, Canadian pianist (d. 2001) + 1900 – Ernst Krenek, Austrian-American composer and educator (d. 1991) + 1900 – Malvina Reynolds, American singer-songwriter and activist (d. 1978) + +1901–present +1901 – Guy Bush, American baseball player and manager (d. 1985) + 1901 – John Sherman Cooper, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 2nd United States Ambassador to East Germany (d. 1991) +1904 – William Primrose, Scottish viola player and educator (d. 1982) +1905 – Ernie Bushmiller, American cartoonist (d. 1982) + 1905 – Constant Lambert, English composer and conductor (d. 1951) +1906 – Zoltan Sarosy, Hungarian-Canadian chess master (d. 2017) +1908 – Hannah Frank, Scottish sculptor and illustrator (d. 2008) +1909 – Syd Buller, English cricketer and umpire (d. 1970) +1910 – Lonny Frey, American baseball player and soldier (d. 2009) + 1910 – Giuseppe Meazza, Italian footballer and manager (d. 1979) +1911 – Betty Robinson, American sprinter (d. 1999) + 1911 – J.V. Cunningham, American poet, literary critic, and translator (d. 1985) +1912 – Gene Kelly, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1996) + 1912 – Igor Troubetzkoy, Russian aristocrat and race car driver (d. 2008) +1913 – Bob Crosby, American swing singer and bandleader (d. 1993) +1917 – Tex Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1985) +1919 – Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin, Azerbaijani mathematician and theorist (d. 1984) +1921 – Kenneth Arrow, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2017) + 1921 – Sam Cook, English cricketer and umpire (d. 1996) +1922 – Nazik Al-Malaika, Iraqi poet and academic (d. 2007) + 1922 – Jean Darling, American actress and singer (d. 2015) + 1922 – George Kell, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2009) +1924 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli author, screenwriter, and director (d. 2005) + 1924 – Robert Solow, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate +1925 – Robert Mulligan, American director and producer (d. 2008) +1926 – Clifford Geertz, American anthropologist and academic (d. 2006) + 1926 – Gyula Hernádi, Hungarian author and screenwriter (d. 2005) +1927 – Dick Bruna, Dutch author and illustrator (d. 2017) + 1927 – Allan Kaprow, American painter and author (d. 2006) + 1927 – Martial Solal, Algerian-French pianist and composer +1928 – Marian Seldes, American actress (d. 2014) +1929 – Vladimir Beekman, Estonian poet and translator (d. 2009) + 1929 – Zoltán Czibor, Hungarian footballer (d. 1997) + 1929 – Vera Miles, American actress + 1929 – Peter Thomson, Australian golfer (d. 2018) +1930 – Michel Rocard, French civil servant and politician, 160th Prime Minister of France (d. 2016) +1931 – Barbara Eden, American actress and singer + 1931 – Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate +1932 – Houari Boumediene, Algerian colonel and politician, 2nd President of Algeria (d. 1978) + 1932 – Enos Nkala, Zimbabwean soldier and politician, Zimbabwean Minister of Defence (d. 2013) + 1932 – Mark Russell, American comedian and pianist +1933 – Robert Curl, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2022) + 1933 – Don Talbot, Australian swim coach and administrator (d. 2020) + 1933 – Pete Wilson, American commander and politician, 36th Governor of California +1934 – Sonny Jurgensen, American football player and sportscaster +1935 – Roy Strong, English historian, curator, and author +1936 – Rudy Lewis, American R&B singer (d. 1964) + 1936 – Henry Lee Lucas, American murderer (d. 2001) + 1936 – Chuck Brown, American musician, "The Godfather of Go-Go" (d. 2012) +1938 – Giacomo Bini, Italian priest and missionary (d. 2014) + 1938 – Roger Greenaway, English singer-songwriter and producer +1940 – Galen Rowell, American mountaineer and photographer (d. 2002) + 1940 – Richard Sanders, American actor and screenwriter +1941 – Onora O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve, British philosopher, academic, and politician +1942 – Nancy Richey, American tennis player +1943 – Dale Campbell-Savours, Baron Campbell-Savours, English businessman and politician + 1943 – Nelson DeMille, American lieutenant and author + 1943 – Peter Lilley, English politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills + 1943 – Pino Presti, Italian bass player, composer, conductor, and producer +1944 – Antonia Novello, Puerto Rican-American physician and admiral, 14th Surgeon General of the United States +1945 – Rayfield Wright, American football player and coach +1946 – Keith Moon, English drummer, songwriter, and producer (d. 1978) +1947 – David Robb, Scottish actor + 1947 – Willy Russell, English playwright and composer + 1947 – Linda Thompson, English folk-rock singer-songwriter +1948 – Atef Bseiso, Palestinian intelligence officer (d. 1992) + 1948 – Andrei Pleșu, Romanian journalist and politician, 95th Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs + 1948 – Rudy Ruettiger, American football player + 1948 – Lev Zeleny, Russian physicist and academic +1949 – Vicky Leandros, Greek singer and politician + 1949 – Shelley Long, American actress + 1949 – Rick Springfield, Australian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor +1950 – Luigi Delneri, Italian footballer and manager +1951 – Mark Hudson, American record producer and musician + 1951 – Jimi Jamison, American singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2014) + 1951 – Akhmad Kadyrov, Chechen cleric and politician, 1st President of the Chechen Republic (d. 2004) + 1951 – Queen Noor of Jordan +1952 – Santillana, Spanish footballer + 1952 – Georgios Paraschos, Greek footballer and manager +1953 – Bobby G, English singer-songwriter +1954 – Charles Busch, American actor and screenwriter + 1954 – Halimah Yacob, Singaporean unionist and politician, 9th Speaker and 8th President of Singapore +1955 – David Learner, British actor +1956 – Andreas Floer, German mathematician and academic (d. 1991) + 1956 – Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, Norwegian educator and politician, Norwegian Minister of Culture + 1956 – Skipp Sudduth, American actor +1957 – Tasos Mitropoulos, Greek footballer and politician +1958 – Julio Franco, Dominican baseball player and manager +1959 – Edwyn Collins, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist + 1959 – George Kalovelonis, Greek tennis player and coach +1960 – Gary Hoey, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer +1961 – Dean DeLeo, American guitarist and songwriter + 1961 – Alexandre Desplat, French composer and conductor + 1961 – Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iranian commander and politician, 54th Mayor of Tehran + 1961 – Gary Mabbutt, English footballer + 1961 – Hitomi Takahashi, Japanese actress +1962 – Martin Cauchon, Canadian lawyer and politician, 46th Canadian Minister of Justice + 1962 – Shaun Ryder, English singer-songwriter and actor +1963 – Park Chan-wook, South Korean director, producer, and screenwriter + 1963 – Glória Pires, Brazilian actress + 1963 – Richard Illingworth, English cricketer and umpire + 1963 – Kenny Wallace, American race car driver +1964 – Ray Ferraro, Canadian ice hockey player and broadcaster + 1964 – Kong Hee, Singaporean minister and criminal +1965 – Roger Avary, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter +1966 – Rik Smits, Dutch-American basketball player +1967 – Jim Murphy, Scottish lawyer and politician, Minister of State for Europe + 1967 – Richard Petrie, New Zealand cricketer +1968 – Laura Claycomb, American soprano + 1968 – Chris DiMarco, American golfer + 1968 – Cortez Kennedy, American football player (d. 2017) +1969 – Tinus Linee, South African rugby player and coach (d. 2014) + 1969 – Jack Lopresti, English soldier and politician