title: Carmine Persico

text: At the start of the commission trial Persico decided to serve as his own lawyer. He believed that his history of convictions gave him sufficient experience to defend himself. His co-defendants vehemently disagreed with this decision, and the judge warned Persico that he would be waiving "incompetent counsel" as the grounds for an appeal. Persico received counsel from lawyers to help guide him when the prosecutors questioned him. He tried to project a friendly image to the jury and urged them to put aside any preconceptions about "the Mafia" or "Cosa Nostra". Many believe that Persico inadvertently sabotaged his own defense by acknowledging criminal activities during his cross-examinations of prosecution witnesses.


title: Carmine Persico

text: On June 14, 1986, Persico was convicted of racketeering in the Colombo Trial. On November 17, he was sentenced to 39 years in prison. The sentencing judge, John F. Keenan, nonetheless praised Persico's performance as his own lawyer in the commission trial and said, "Mr. Persico, you're a tragedy. You are one of the most intelligent people I have ever seen in my life." On November 19, Persico and the other commission trial defendants were convicted on all charges. On January 13, 1987, Keenan sentenced Persico to 100 years in prison, to run consecutively with his 39-year sentence in the Colombo trial, a $240,000 fine, and given no option for parole.


title: Carmine Persico

text: "The New York Times" organized crime writer Selwyn Raab thought the Colombos were the most damaged by the trial, even though most of the top leaders of New York's Mafia families were sent to prison, with the Luccheses losing their entire hierarchy. In his book "Five Families", Raab noted that Persico was only 53 years old at the time of the commission trial, making him by far the youngest boss in New York. However, Raab noted, Persico had already led the family for 14 years and was "at the peak of his abilities." He believed Persico would have potentially had a long reign ahead of him had he not been taken off the streets. By comparison, the other bosses were in their 70s, and would have likely passed the reins to men of Persico's generation even without the trial intervening. Persico was sent to United States Penitentiary near Marion, Illinois, to serve his combined 139-year sentence.


title: Carmine Persico

text: By 2017, Persico was in the medium-security Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina. The facility has medical facilities for elderly inmates. Press reports indicated he had become friends with convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff.


title: Carmine Persico

text: In June 1987, Persico ordered acting boss Joel Cacace to kill lawyer William Aronwald, a retired prosecutor who had allegedly been disrespectful to the Mafia. Cacace delegated the job to two hitmen who mistakenly killed Aronwald's father George. In response to outrage from the other New York families, Cacace recruited two more gunmen to kill the first hit team. After those murders were accomplished, Cacace killed the second set of gunmen. In 2004, Cacace would plead guilty to the Aronwald murder. No charges were filed against Persico.


title: Carmine Persico

text: Persico realized that he would likely die in prison, and would thus never be able to resume active control of the family. He was, however, determined to ensure that his cut of the Colombo rackets continued to flow to his relatives. To that end, soon after he was sentenced, he named his brother, Allie Boy, as acting boss. Allie Boy did not reign long, however; he was arrested for loansharking and averted bail. Persico then named a three-man ruling panel to run the family. In 1988, he dissolved the panel and named Victor "Little Vic" Orena, a loyal capo from Brooklyn, as temporary acting boss. While giving Orena the power to induct members and order murders on his own authority—unusual for an acting boss—Persico made it clear that Orena was merely a placeholder until Persico's son, Little Allie Boy, was released from prison. Indeed, Persico picked Orena in part because he was the capo of Little Allie Boy's old crew. Knowing that Little Allie Boy would be 40 years old by the time he was paroled, Perisco wanted to ensure that his son would be able to inherit the family's riches as soon as he was released.


title: Carmine Persico

text: In 1990, the government transferred Persico to what was then the United States Penitentiary in Lompoc, California. There he established an Italian Cultural Club for the inmates. He socialized with people such as Patriarca family consigliere Joseph Russo and Lucchese family associate Anthony Senter. Persico formed the "Lompoc Four", a band in which Russo played guitar and Persico played drums.


title: Carmine Persico

text: By 1991, Orena had become disgruntled with the current leadership scheme and was tired of the constant stream of orders that he received from Persico in prison. He also grew to resent that he would have to turn over the family to Little Allie Boy. Gotti encouraged Orena's rebellion, since he and Persico had long been enemies, and went so far as to label Persico a "rat", the worst possible accusation for a Cosa Nostra figure.


title: Carmine Persico

text: In the spring of 1991, Orena made a push to become boss in his own right. He requested that consigliere Carmine Sessa quietly poll all the Colombo capos as to whom they wanted as boss. Orena believed that if he had enough support from the capos, it would strengthen his argument that the Commission should recognize Orena, not Persico, as the rightful leader of the family. However, Sessa instead told Persico about Orena's plot. Persico then allegedly ordered Sessa to lead a team to kill Orena. On June 20, Sessa took a five-man hit team and parked on the street close to Orena's residence on Long Island, waiting for his return home. As Orena drove down the street, he recognized the men in the car and quickly sped away. For the next several months, the Persico and Orena factions engaged in peace negotiations brokered by the Commission. Despite Persico's claim as the legitimate boss, the Commission refused to take sides in the Colombo conflict.


title: Carmine Persico

text: On November 18, 1991, the Third Colombo War started when Orena lieutenant William Cutolo sent a hit team to try to kill Scarpa, a Persico loyalist, in Brooklyn. By the end of 1991, the two Colombo factions had traded several successful murder attempts. Responding to public outrage over the carnage, law enforcement threw resources into prosecuting the Colombo mobsters, resulting in 68 indictments, 58 convictions and ten mobsters turning state's evidence. In December 1992, Orena was convicted of racketeering and murder and was sentenced to life in prison, dissolving his belligerent faction and leaving the Persicos in control again.


title: Carmine Persico

text: With the end of the war with Orena, Persico had to set up another ruling structure for the family. Since Little Allie Boy was facing prosecution on new charges, Persico installed a ruling committee comprising his brother, Theodore, mobster Joseph Baudanza and Joseph Tomasello. In 1994, when Andrew Russo was released from prison, Persico disbanded the committee and designated Russo as acting boss. In 1996, Russo went to prison and Persico replaced him with his son, Little Allie Boy, who by now had been released from prison. In early 1999, with Alphonse in legal trouble, Persico made Cacace the acting boss.


title: Carmine Persico

text: However, later in 1999, either Carmine or Alphonse Persico ordered Cutolo's murder. The recently released Alphonse was facing new federal charges that threatened to send him back to prison, and the Persicos were worried about Cutolo seizing control of the family. On May 26, 1999, Alphonse ordered Cutolo to meet him at a Brooklyn park. Cutolo was then taken to a mob associate's apartment and murdered, and his body was buried in Long Island. Police would not recover the remains until November 2008.


title: Carmine Persico

text: On December 20, 2001, Alphonse Persico pleaded guilty to the loan-sharking charges, accepted a 13-year prison sentence and agreed to forfeit $1 million. On October 14, 2004, he was indicted on federal racketeering charges, including conspiring to murder Cutolo and Joe Campanella. No charges were filed against Carmine Persico. However, the Cutolo murder trial ended in a mistrial due to juror deadlock.


title: Carmine Persico

text: In 2004, with the conversion of Lompoc into a different correctional facility, the government transferred Carmine Persico to the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner, a medium-security correctional facility in North Carolina.


title: Carmine Persico

text: On December 28, 2007, in a second trial, Alphonse Persico and DeRoss were convicted of Cutolo's murder. Like his father, Alphonse Persico was sentenced to life in prison.


title: Carmine Persico

text: In 2011, Carmine Persico was still the official boss of the Colombo crime family. His street boss at the time was Andrew Russo, his official underboss, John Franzese, the acting underboss Benjamin Castellazzo and the consigliere Richard Fusco.


title: Carmine Persico

text: In March 2010, the Reuters News Agency reported that Carmine Persico had been socializing in prison with convicted swindler Bernard Madoff. The "New York Post" further reported that Persico loved to play pinochle and bocce with other mobsters and regale them with stories from his past.


title: Carmine Persico

text: Persico's projected release date was March 20, 2050—when he would have been 117 years old. Raab wrote in "Five Families" that Persico's attempts to protect his own position and ensure that his son succeeded him nearly destroyed the Colombo family. By Raab's estimate, Persico's "deceitful schemes" led directly to 70 of his fellow mobsters and associates being sent to prison, as well as 12 deaths.


Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a cluster C personality disorder marked by an excessive need for orderliness and neatness. Symptoms are usually present by the time a person reaches adulthood, and are visible in a variety of situations. The cause of OCPD is thought to involve a combination of genetic and environmental factors, namely problems with attachment.


title: Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder

text: This is a distinct disorder from obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and the relation between the two is contentious. Some studies have found high comorbidity rates between the two disorders but others have shown little comorbidity. Both disorders may share outside similarities, such as rigid and ritual-like behaviors. Attitudes toward these behaviors differ between people affected with either of the disorders: for people with OCD, these behaviors are egodystonic, unwanted and involuntary, being the product of anxiety-inducing and involuntary thoughts. On the other hand, for people with OCPD, they are egosyntonic; the person perceives them as rational and wanted, being the result of, for example, strong adherence to routines, a desire for control, or a need for perfection. OCPD is highly comorbid with other personality disorders, autism spectrum, eating disorders, anxiety, mood disorders, and substance use disorders.


text: The disorder is the most common personality disorder in the United States, and is diagnosed twice as often in males as in females, however, there is evidence to suggest the prevalence between men and women is equal.


text: Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is marked by an excessive obsession with rules, lists, schedules, and order; a need for perfectionism that interferes with efficiency and the ability to complete tasks; a devotion to productivity that hinders interpersonal relationships and leisure time; rigidity and zealousness on matters of morality and ethics; an inability to delegate responsibilities or work to others; restricted functioning in interpersonal relationships; restricted expression of emotion and affect; and a need for control over one's environment and self.


text: Some of OCPD's symptoms are persistent and stable, whilst others are unstable. The obsession with perfectionism, reluctance to delegate tasks to others, and rigidity and stubbornness are stable symptoms. On the other hand, the symptoms that were most likely to change over time were the miserly spending style and the excessive devotion to productivity. This discrepancy in the stability of symptoms may lead to mixed results in terms of the course of the disorder, with some studies showing a remission rate of 58% after a 12-month period, whilst others suggesting that the symptoms are stable and may worsen with age.


text: People with OCPD tend to be obsessed with controlling their environments; to satisfy this need for control, they become preoccupied with trivial details, lists, procedures, rules, and schedules.


text: This preoccupation with details and rules makes the person unable to delegate tasks and responsibilities to other people unless they submit to their exact way of completing a task because they believe that there is only one correct way of doing something. They stubbornly insist that a task or job must be completed their way, and only their way, and may micromanage people when they are assigned a group task. They are frustrated when other people suggest alternative methods. A person with this disorder may reject help even when they desperately need it as they believe that only they can do something correctly.


text: People with OCPD are obsessed with maintaining perfection. The perfectionism and the extremely high standards that they establish are to their detriment and may cause delays and failures to complete objectives and tasks. Every mistake is thought of as a major catastrophe that will soil their reputation for life. For example, a person may write an essay for a college, and then believe that it fell short of "perfection", so they continue rewriting it until they miss the deadline. They may never complete the essay due to the self-imposed high standards. They are unaware that other people may become frustrated and annoyed by the repeated delays and hassles that this behavior causes. Work relationships may then become a source of tension.


text: Individuals with OCPD devote themselves to work and productivity at the expense of interpersonal relationships and recreation. Economic necessity, such as poverty, cannot account for this behavior. They may believe that they do not have sufficient time to relax because they have to prioritize their work above all. They may refuse to spend time with friends and family because of that. They may find it difficult to go on a vacation, and even if they book a vacation, they may keep postponing it until it never happens. They may feel uncomfortable when they do go on a vacation and will take something along with them so they can work. They choose hobbies that are organized and structured, and they approach them as a serious task requiring work to perfect. The devotion to productivity in OCPD, however, is distinct from work addiction. OCPD is controlled and egosyntonic, whereas work addiction is uncontrolled and egodystonic, and the affected person may display signs of withdrawal.


text: Individuals with OCPD are overconscientious, scrupulous and rigid, and inflexible on matters of morality, ethics and other areas of life. They may force themselves and others to follow rigid moral principles and strict standards of performance. They are self-critical and harsh about their mistakes. These symptoms should not be accounted for or caused by a person's culture or religion. Their view of the world is polarised and dichotomous; there is no grey area between what is right and what is wrong. Whenever this dichotomous view of the world cannot be applied to a situation, this causes internal conflict as the person's perfectionist tendencies are challenged.


text: People with this disorder are so obsessed with doing everything the "right and correct" way that they have a hard time understanding and appreciating the ideas, beliefs, and values of other people, and are reluctant to change their views, especially on matters of morality and politics.


text: Individuals with this disorder may display little affection and warmth; their relationships and speech tend to have a formal and professional approach, and not much affection is expressed even to loved ones, such as greeting or hugging a significant other at an airport or train station.


text: They are extremely careful in their interpersonal interactions. They have little spontaneity when interacting with others, and ensure that their speech follows rigid and austere standards by excessively scrutinising it. They filter their speech for embarrassing or imperfect articulation, and they have a low bar for what they consider to be such. They lower their bar even further when they are communicating with their superiors or with a person of high status. Communication becomes a time-consuming and exhausting effort, and they start avoiding it altogether. Others regard them as cold and detached as a result.


text: Their need for restricting affection is a defense mechanism used to control their emotions. They may expunge emotions from their memories and organize them as a library of facts and data; the memories are intellectualized and rationalized, not experiences that they can feel. This helps them avoid unexpected emotions and feelings and allows them to remain in control. They view self-exploration as a waste of time and have a patronising attitude towards emotional people.


text: Individuals with OCPD are at one extreme of the conscientiousness continuum. While conscientiousness is a desirable trait generally, its extreme presentation for those with OCPD leads to interpersonal problems. OCPD individuals present as over-controlled and this extends to the relationships they have with other people. Individuals with OCPD are referential to authority and rules. OCPD individuals may therefore punish those who violate their strict standards. The inability to accept differences in belief or behaviors from others often leads to high conflict and controlling relationships with coworkers, spouses, and children.


text: The cause of OCPD is thought to involve a combination of genetic and environmental factors. There is clear evidence to support the theory that OCPD is genetically inherited, however, the relevance and impact of genetic factors vary with studies placing it somewhere between 27% and 78%.


text: Other studies have found links between attachment theory and the development of OCPD. According to this hypothesis, those with OCPD have never developed a secure attachment style, had overbearing parents, were shown little care, and were unable to develop empathetically and emotionally.


text: The fifth edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," a widely used manual for diagnosing mental disorders, places obsessive-compulsive personality disorder under section II, under the "personality disorders" chapter, and defines it as: "a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts". A diagnosis of OCPD is only received when four out of the eight criteria are met.


text: The eight criteria of OCPD described in the DSM-5 (of which four are required to be present in a patient for a diagnosis) are:


text: The list of criteria for the ICD-10 is similar, but does not include the last three criteria in the above list, and additionally includes the symptoms "intrusive thoughts" and "excessive doubt and caution" as criteria for diagnosis.


text: The DSM-5 also includes an alternative set of diagnostic criteria as per the dimensional model of conceptualizing personality disorders. Under the proposed set of criteria, a person only receives a diagnosis when there is an impairment in two out of four areas of one's personality functioning, and when there are three out of four pathological traits, one of which must be rigid perfectionism.


text: The patient must also meet the general criteria C through G for a personality disorder, which state that the traits and symptoms being displayed by the patient must be stable and unchanging over time with an onset of at least adolescence or early adulthood, visible in a variety of situations, not caused by another mental disorder, not caused by a substance or medical condition, and abnormal in comparison to a person's developmental stage and culture/religion.


text: There are several mental disorders in the DSM-5 that are listed as differential diagnoses for OCPD. They are as follows:


text: The World Health Organization's ICD-10 uses the term "" (). At least four of the following must be present:


text: In his book, Personality Disorders in Modern Life, Theodore Millon describes 5 types of obsessive–compulsive personality disorder, which he shortened to compulsive personality disorder.


text: OCPD is often confused with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Despite the similar names, they are two distinct disorders. Some OCPD individuals do have OCD, and the two can be found in the same family, sometimes along with eating disorders.


text: The rate of comorbidity of OCPD in patients with OCD is estimated to be around 15–28%. However, due to the addition of the hoarding disorder diagnosis in the DSM-5, and studies showing that hoarding may not be a symptom of OCPD, the true rate of comorbidity may be much lower.


text: There is significant similarity in the symptoms of OCD and OCPD, which can lead to complexity in distinguishing them clinically. For example, perfectionism is an OCPD criterion and a symptom of OCD if it involves the need for tidiness, symmetry, and organization. Hoarding is also considered both a compulsion found in OCD and a criterion for OCPD in the DSM-5. Even though OCD and OCPD are seemingly separate disorders there are obvious redundancies between the two concerning several symptoms.


text: Regardless of similarities between the OCPD criteria and the obsessions and compulsions found in OCD, there are discrete qualitative dissimilarities between these disorders, predominantly in the functional part of symptoms. Unlike OCPD, OCD is described as invasive, and stressful. Time-consuming obsessions and habits are aimed at reducing obsession-related stress. OCD symptoms are at times regarded as egodystonic because they are experienced as alien and repulsive to the person. Therefore, there is a greater mental anxiety associated with OCD.


text: In contrast, the symptoms seen in OCPD, although repetitive, are not linked with repulsive thoughts, images, or urges. OCPD characteristics and behaviors are known as ego-syntonic, as people with this disorder view them as suitable and correct. On the other hand, the main features of perfectionism and inflexibility can result in considerable suffering in an individual with OCPD as a result of the associated need for control.


text: The presence of OCPD in patients with OCD has been linked to a worse prognosis of OCD, especially when cognitive behavioral therapy was used. This may be due to the ego-syntonic nature of OCPD which may lead to the obsessions becoming aligned with one's personal values. In contrast, the trait of perfectionism may improve the outcome of treatment as patients are likely to complete homework assigned to them with determination. The findings with regards to pharmacological treatment has also been mixed, with some studies showing a lower reception to SRIs in OCD patients with comorbid OCPD, with others showing no relationship.


text: Comorbidity between OCD and OCPD has been linked to a more severe presentation of symptoms, a younger age of onset, more significant impairment in functioning, poorer insight, and higher comorbidity of depression and anxiety.


text: There are considerable similarities and overlap between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and OCPD, such as list-making, inflexible adherence to rules, and obsessive aspects of ASD, although the latter may be distinguished from OCPD especially regarding affective behaviors, worse social skills, difficulties with Theory of Mind and intense intellectual interests, e.g. an ability to recall every aspect of a hobby. A 2009 study involving adult autistic people found that 32% of those diagnosed with ASD met the diagnostic requirements for a comorbid OCPD diagnosis.


text: Perfectionism has been linked with Anorexia Nervosa in research for decades. A researcher in 1949 described the behavior of the average "anorexic girl" as being "rigid" and "hyperconscious", observing a tendency to "[n]eatness, meticulosity, and a mulish stubbornness not amenable to reason [which] make her a rank perfectionist". So common are such traits as perfectionism and rigidity among anorectics, that they have been referred to in clinical literature as "classical childhood features of patients with anorexia nervosa" or classical premorbid personality descriptors of anorexia nervosa".


text: Regardless of the prevalence of the full-fledged OCPD among eating disordered samples, the presence of this personality disorder or its traits, such as perfectionism, has been found to be positively correlated with a range of complications in eating disorders and a negative outcome, as opposed to impulsive features—those linked with histrionic personality disorder, for example—which predict a better outcome from treatment. OCPD predicts more severe symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa, and worse remission rates, however, OCPD and perfectionistic traits predicted a higher acceptance of treatment, which was defined as undergoing 5 weeks of treatment.


text: People with Anorexia Nervosa who exercise excessively display a higher prevalence of several OCPD traits when compared to their counterparts who did not exercise excessively. The traits included self-imposed perfectionism, and the childhood OCPD traits of being rule-bound and cautious. It may be that people with OCPD traits are more likely to use exercise alongside restricting food intake in order to mitigate fears of increased weight, reduce anxiety, or reduce obsessions related to weight gain. Samples that had the childhood traits of rigidity, extreme cautiousness, and perfectionism endured more severe food restriction and higher levels of exercise and underwent longer periods of underweight status. It may be that OCPD traits are an indicator of a more severe manifestation of AN which is harder to treat.


text: A majority of those with lifelong gambling disorder have some sort of personality disorder, and the most common personality disorder amongst them is obsessive compulsive personality disorder. OCPD has a strong comorbidity with individuals who have gambling disorder. A study of data collected in the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions looked at pathological gambling and psychiatric conditions as defined by the DSM-IV. Of the surveyed population consistent with gambling disorder, 60.8% also had a personality disorder, with OCPD appearing most frequently at 30%. About 300,000 U.S citizens have both a gambling disorder and obsessive compulsive personality disorder; and yet, there is little research on the comorbidity of the two disorders. Those with gambling disorders and OCPD do, indeed, exhibit different behavioral patterns than those with gambling disorders alone. More research on the relationship between the disorders is thought to help uncover causes and develop treatments for patients.


text: Recently, in 2020, the connection between mental fatigue and OCPD was published for the first time, even though mental fatigue has been previously associated with identified characteristics of OCPD such as workaholic behavior and perfectionism.


text: A diagnosis of OCPD is common with anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and mood disorders. OCPD is also highly comorbid with Cluster A personality disorders,[4]


text: OCPD is also linked to hypochondriasis, with some studies estimating a rate of co-occurrence as high as 55.7%.


text: Moreover, OCPD has been found to be very common among some medical conditions, including Parkinson's disease and the hypermobile subtype of Ehler-Danlos syndrome. The latter may be explained by the need for control that arises from musculoskeletal problems and the associated features that arise early in life, whilst the former can be explained by dysfunctions in the fronto-basal ganglia circuitry.


text: The best-validated treatment for OCPD is cognitive therapy (CT) or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), with studies showing an improvement in areas of personality impairment, and reduced levels of anxiety and depression. Group CBT is also associated with an increase in extraversion and agreeableness and reduced neuroticism. Interpersonal psychotherapy has been linked to even better results when it came to reducing depressive symptoms.


text: Estimates for the prevalence of OCPD in the general population are 3%, making it the most common personality disorder. Current evidence is inconclusive as to whether OCPD is more common in men than women, or in equal rates among sexes. It is estimated to occur in 8.7% of psychiatric outpatient settings.


text: A study of data collected in the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions looked specifically for seven personality disorders as defined by the DSM-IV. The study concluded the most prevalent personality disorder of the survey's population to be OCPD, at 7.88%. This study also concluded there were no gender differences in prevalence and that OCPD was not a predicter of disability.


text: In 1908, Sigmund Freud named what is now known as obsessive–compulsive or anankastic personality disorder "anal retentive character". He identified the main strands of the personality type as a preoccupation with orderliness, parsimony (frugality), and obstinacy (rigidity and stubbornness). The concept fits his theory of psychosexual development. Freud believed that the anal retentive character faced difficulties regulating the control of defecation, leading to repercussions by the parents, and it is the latter that would cause the anal retentive character.


text: Aubrey Lewis, in his 1936 book "Problems of Obsessional Illness", suggests that anal-erotic characteristics are found in patients without obsessive thoughts, and proposed two types of obsessional personality, one melancholy and stubborn, the other uncertain and indecisive.


text: In the book "Contributions to the theory of the anal character," Karl Abraham noted that the core feature of the anal character is being perfectionistic, and he believed that these traits will help an individual in becoming industrious and productive, whilst hindering their social and interpersonal functioning, such as working with others.


text: OCPD was included in the first edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" in 1952 by the American Psychiatric Association under the name "compulsive personality". It was defined as a chronic and excessive preoccupation with adherence to rules and standards of conscience. Other symptoms included rigidity, over-conscientiousness, and a reduced ability to relax.


text: The DSM-II (1968) changed the name to "obsessive-compulsive personality", and also suggested the term "anankastic personality" in order to reduce confusion between OCPD and OCD, but the proposed name was removed from later editions. The symptoms described in the DSM-II closely resembled those in the original DSM.


text: In 1980, the DSM-III was released, and it renamed the disorder back to "compulsive personality disorder", and also included new symptoms of the disorder: a restricted expression of affect, and an inability to delegate tasks. Devotion to productivity, perfectionism, and indecisiveness were the other symptoms included. The DSM-III-R (1987) renamed the disorder again to "obsessive-compulsive personality disorder" and the name has remained since then. A diagnosis of OCPD was given when 5 of the 9 symptoms were met, and the 9 symptoms included perfectionism, preoccupation with details, an insistence that others submit to one's way, indecisiveness, devotion to work, restricted expression of affect, excessive conscientiousness, lack of generosity, and hoarding.


text: With DSM-IV, OCPD was classified as a 'Cluster C' personality disorder. There was a dispute about the categorization of OCPD as an Axis II anxiety disorder. Although the DSM-IV attempted to distinguish between OCPD and OCD by focusing on the absence of obsessions and compulsions in OCPD, OC personality traits are easily mistaken for abnormal cognitions or values considered to underpin OCD. The disorder is a neglected and understudied area of research.


title: Laura Spencer (actress)

text: Laura Spencer (born May 8, 1986) is an US actress. She is known for playing Jane Bennet in the 2012 web series "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" which is an adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice", intern Jessica Warren in seasons 9 to 12 of "Bones," and Emily Sweeney in seasons 7 to 10 of the CBS comedy series "The Big Bang Theory". She recently had a guest role on fellow Oklahoman Sterlin Harjo's FX on Hulu's TV series "Reservation Dogs".


title: Laura Spencer (actress)

text: Spencer was born on May 8, 1986, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and grew up in Edmond where she attended Santa Fe High School, graduating in 2004. She went on to the University of Oklahoma, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2008.


title: Laura Spencer (actress)

text: Spencer played Jane Bennet in the web series "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries". She had a main role as Emily Sweeney, Raj Koothrappali's girlfriend on "The Big Bang Theory", which began in that show's seventh season, in the March 6, 2014, episode "The Friendship Turbulence". That same year, she had begun a formerly recurring role as Jessica Warren on "Bones."


title: Blasphemy

text: Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religious crime, especially the Abrahamic religions, including the speaking the "sacred name" in Judaism and the "eternal sin" in Christianity.


title: Blasphemy

text: In the early history of the Church heresy received more attention than blasphemy because it was considered a more serious threat to Orthodoxy. Blasphemy was often regarded as an isolated offense wherein the faithful lapsed momentarily from the expected standard of conduct. When iconoclasm and the fundamental understanding of the sacred became more contentious matters during the Reformation, blasphemy was treated similar to heresy, and accusations of blasphemy were made not only against people who made off-the-cuff profane remarks while drunk, but against those types of persons who espoused unorthodox ideas that religious officials considered dangerous.


title: Blasphemy

text: Blasphemy laws were abolished in England and Wales in 2008, and in Ireland in 2020. Scotland repealed its blasphemy laws in 2021. Many other countries have abolished blasphemy laws including Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway and New Zealand. , 40 percent of the world's countries still had blasphemy laws on the books, including 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, or 90% of countries in that region. Dharmic religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, have no concept of blasphemy and hence prescribe no punishment.


title: Blasphemy

text: The word "blasphemy" came via Middle English and Old French and Late Latin "blasphemare" from Greek βλασφημέω, from βλασ, "injure" and φήμη, "utterance, talk, speech". From "blasphemare" also came Old French , from which the English word "blame" came. Blasphemy: 'from Gk. blasphemia "a speaking ill, impious speech, slander," from blasphemein "to speak evil of." "In the sense of speaking evil of God this word is found in Ps. 74:18; Isa. 52:5; Rom. 2:24; Rev. 13:1, 6; 16:9, 11, 21. It denotes also any kind of calumny, or evil-speaking, or abuse (1 Kings 21:10 LXX; Acts 13:45; 18:6, etc.)."


title: Blasphemy

text: Heresy received more attention than blasphemy throughout the Middle Ages because it was considered a more serious threat to Orthodoxy, while blasphemy was mostly seen as irreverent remarks made by persons who may have been drunk or diverged from good standards of conduct in what was treated as isolated incidents of misbehavior. When iconoclasm and the fundamental understanding of the sacred became more contentious matters during the Reformation, blasphemy started to be regarded as similar to heresy.


title: Blasphemy

text: In "The Whole Duty of Man" (sometimes attributed to Richard Allestree or John Fell) blasphemy is described as "speaking any evil Thing of God":


title: Blasphemy

text: ...the highest Degree whereof is cursing him; or if we do not speak it with our Mouths, yet if we do it in our Hearts, by thinking any unworthy Thing of him, it is look'd on by God, who sees the Heart, as the vilest Dishonour.


title: Blasphemy

text: The intellectual culture of the early English Englightenment had embraced ironic or scoffing tones in contradistinction to the idea of sacredness in revealed religion. The characterization of "scoffing" as blasphemy was defined as profaning the Scripture by irreverent "Buffoonery and Banter". From at least the 18th century on, the clergy of the Church of England justified blasphemy prosecutions by distinguishing "sober reasoning" from mockery and scoffing. Religious doctrine could be discussed "in a calm, decent and serious way" (in the words of Bishop Gibson) but mockery and scoffing, they said, were appeals to sentiment, not to reason.


title: Blasphemy

text: In "Whitehouse v. Lemon" (1976), the last blasphemy prosecution heard by English courts, the court repeated what had by then become a textbook standard for blasphemy cases:


title: Blasphemy

text: It is not blasphemous to speak or publish opinions hostile to the Christian religion, or to deny the existence of God, if the publication is couched in decent and temperate language. The test to be applied is as to the manner in which the doctrines are advocated and not as to the substance of the doctrines themselves.


title: Blasphemy

text: Christian theology condemns blasphemy. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain", one of the Ten Commandments, forbids blasphemy, which Christians regard as "an affront to God's holiness". Leviticus 24:16 states that "anyone who blasphemes the name of Yahweh will be put to death". In Mark , blaspheming the Holy Spirit is spoken of as unforgivable—an eternal sin.


title: Blasphemy

text: In 2 Kings 18, the Rabshakeh gave the word from the king of Assyria, dissuading trust in the Lord, asserting that God is no more able to deliver than other deities of the land.


title: Blasphemy

text: Blasphemy has been condemned as a serious sin by the major creeds and Church theologians, along with apostasy and infidelity [unbelief], cf. Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologiae".


title: Blasphemy

text: In the Catholic Church, there are specific prayers and devotions as Acts of Reparation for blasphemy. For instance, The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion (Prayer) first introduced by Sister Marie of St Peter in 1844 is recited ""in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy"". This devotion (started by Sister Marie and then promoted by the Venerable Leo Dupont) was approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1885. The Raccoltabook includes a number of such prayers. The Five First Saturdays devotions are done with the intention in the heart of making reparation to the Blessed Mother for blasphemies against her, her name and her holy initiatives.


title: Blasphemy

text: The Holy See has specific "Pontifical organizations" for the purpose of the reparation of blasphemy through Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ, e.g. the "Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face."


title: Blasphemy

text: In 1636, the Puritan controlled Massachusetts Bay Colony made blasphemy – defined as "a cursing of God by atheism, or the like" – punishable by death. The last person hanged for blasphemy in Great Britain was Thomas Aikenhead aged 20, in Scotland in 1697. He was prosecuted for denying the veracity of the Old Testament and the legitimacy of Christ's miracles.


title: Blasphemy

text: In England, under common law, blasphemy came to be punishable by fine, imprisonment or corporal punishment. Blackstone, in his commentaries, described the offence as,


title: Blasphemy

text: Blasphemy (and blasphemous libel) remained a criminal offence in England & Wales until 2008. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this meant that promoting atheism could be a crime and was vigorously prosecuted. It was last successfully prosecuted in the case of "Whitehouse v Lemon" (1977), where the defendant was fined £500 and given a nine-month suspended prison sentence (the publisher was also fined £1,000). It ended with the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 which abolished the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.


title: Blasphemy

text: During the Middle Ages a series of debates on Judaism were staged by the Catholic Church, including the Disputation of Paris (1240), the Disputation of Barcelona (1263), and Disputation of Tortosa (1413–14), and during those disputations, Jewish converts to Christianity, such as Nicholas Donin (in Paris) and Pablo Christiani (in Barcelona) claimed the Talmud contained insulting references to Jesus.


title: Blasphemy

text: The Disputation of Paris, also known as the Trial of the Talmud, took place in 1240 at the court of the reigning king of France, Louis IX (St. Louis). It followed the work of Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity, who translated the Talmud and pressed 35 charges against it to Pope Gregory IX by quoting a series of alleged blasphemous passages about Jesus, Mary or Christianity. Four rabbis defended the Talmud against Donin's accusations. A commission of Christian theologians condemned the Talmud to be burned and on 17 June 1244, twenty-four carriage loads of Jewish religious manuscripts were set on fire in the streets of Paris. The translation of the Talmud from Hebrew to non-Jewish languages stripped Jewish discourse from its covering, something that was resented by Jews as a profound violation.


title: Blasphemy

text: Between 1239 and 1775, the Roman Catholic Church at various times either forced the censoring of parts of the Talmud that it considered theologically problematic or the destruction of copies of the Talmud.


title: Blasphemy

text: Blasphemy in Islam is impious utterance or action concerning God, Muhammad or anything considered sacred in Islam. The Quran admonishes blasphemy, but does not specify any worldly punishment for blasphemy. The hadiths, which are another source of Sharia, suggest various punishments for blasphemy, which may include death. However, it has been argued that the death penalty applies only to cases where there is treason involved that may seriously harm the Muslim community, especially during times of war. Different traditional schools of jurisprudence prescribe different punishment for blasphemy, depending on whether the blasphemer is Muslim or non-Muslim, a man or a woman. In the modern Muslim world, the laws pertaining to blasphemy vary by country, and some countries prescribe punishments consisting of fines, imprisonment, flogging, hanging, or beheading. Blasphemy laws were rarely enforced in pre-modern Islamic societies, but in the modern era some states and radical groups have used charges of blasphemy in an effort to burnish their religious credentials and gain popular support at the expense of liberal Muslim intellectuals and religious minorities. In recent years, accusations of blasphemy against Islam have sparked international controversies and played part in incidents of mob violence and assassinations of prominent figures.


title: Blasphemy

text: The campaign for worldwide criminal penalties for the "defamation of religions" had been spearheaded by Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on behalf of the United Nations' large Muslim bloc. The campaign ended in 2011 when the proposal was withdrawn in Geneva, in the Human Rights Council because of lack of support, marking an end to the effort to establish worldwide blasphemy strictures along the lines of those in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. This resolution had passed every year since 1999, in the United Nations, with declining number of "yes" votes with each successive year. In the early 21st century, blasphemy became an issue in the United Nations (UN). The United Nations passed several resolutions which called upon the world to take action against the "defamation of religions". However, in July 2011, the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) released a 52-paragraph statement which affirmed the freedom of speech and rejected the laws banning "display of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system'.


title: Blasphemy

text: In the punishment for blasphemy is death. In Jewish law the only form of blasphemy which is punishable by death is blaspheming the name of the Lord.


title: Blasphemy

text: In one of the texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, called the Damascus Document, violence against non-Jews (also called Gentiles) is prohibited, except in cases where it is sanctioned by a Jewish governing authority "so that they will not blaspheme".


title: Blasphemy

text: Indian-origin religions (also called Dharma religions), Hinduism and its contemporary Buddhism and Jainism, have no concept of blasphemy. It is an alien concept in Indian-origin theology and culture. In contrast, in West Asia, the birthplace of Abrahamic religions (namely Islam, Judaism and Christianity), there was no room for such tolerance and respect for dissent where heretics and blasphemers had to pay with their lives. Nāstika, meaning "atheist" or "atheism", is a valid and accepted stream of Indian origin religions where Buddhism, Jainism, as well as Cārvāka, Ajñana and Ājīvika are considered atheist schools of philosophy.


title: Blasphemy

text: Blasphemy is considered as the submission to the vanity of the Five inner thieves and especially excessive egoistical pride. According to the Sri Guru Granth Sahib 1st (832/5/2708), ""He is a swine, a dog, a donkey, a cat, a beast, a filthy one, a mean man and a pariah (outcaste), who turns his face away from the Guru."" Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1381-70-71 contains, ""Fareed: O faithless dog, this is not a good way of life. You never come to the mosque for your five daily prayers. Rise up, Fareed, and cleanse yourself; chant your morning prayer. The head which does not bow to the Lord – chop off and remove that head."" In the Guru Granth Sahib, page 89–2 contains, ""Chop off that head which does not bow to the Lord. O Nanak, that human body, in which there is no pain of separation from the Lord-let that be to the flames."" Further in the Guru Granth Sahib page 719 contains, ""Even if someone slanders the Lord's humble servant, he does not give up his own goodness.""


title: Blasphemy

text: Multilateral global institutes, such as the Council of Europe and UN, have rejected the imposition of ""anti-blasphemy laws"" (ABL) and have affirmed the freedom of speech.


title: Blasphemy

text: The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, after deliberating on the issue of blasphemy law passed the resolution that blasphemy should not be a criminal offence, which was adopted on 29 June 2007 in the ""Recommendation 1805 (2007) on blasphemy, religious insults and hate speech against persons on grounds of their religion"". This Recommendation set a number of guidelines for member states of the Council of Europe in view of Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights.


title: Blasphemy

text: After OIC's ("Organisation of Islamic Cooperation") campaign at UN (United Nations) seeking impose of punishment for "defamation of religions" was withdrawn due to consistently dwindling support for their campaign, the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), in July 2011, released a 52-paragraph statement which affirmed the freedom of speech and rejected the laws banning "display of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system'. UNHRC's ""General Comment 34 - Paragraph 48"" on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 1976, concerning freedoms of opinion and expression states:


title: Blasphemy

text: International Blasphemy Day, observed annually on September 30, encourages individuals and groups to openly express criticism of religion and blasphemy laws. It was founded in 2009 by the Center for Inquiry. A student contacted the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York to present the idea, which CFI then supported. Ronald Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, said, regarding Blasphemy Day, "[W]e think religious beliefs should be subject to examination and criticism just as political beliefs are, but we have a taboo on religion", in an interview with CNN.


title: Blasphemy

text: Events worldwide on the first annual Blasphemy Day in 2009 included an art exhibit in Washington, D.C. and a free speech festival in Los Angeles.


title: Blasphemy

text: Other countries have removed bans on blasphemy. France did so in 1881 (this did not extend to Alsace-Moselle region, then part of Germany, after it joined France) to allow freedom of religion and freedom of the press. Blasphemy was abolished or repealed in Sweden in 1970, England and Wales in 2008, Norway with Acts in 2009 and 2015, the Netherlands in 2014, Iceland in 2015, France for its Alsace-Moselle region in 2016, Malta in 2016, Denmark in 2017, Canada in 2018, New Zealand in 2019, and Ireland in 2020.


title: Blasphemy

text: In some states, blasphemy laws are used to impose the religious beliefs of a majority, while in other countries, they are justified as putatively offering protection of the religious beliefs of minorities. Where blasphemy is banned, it can be either some laws which directly punish religious blasphemy, or some laws that allow those who are offended by blasphemy to punish blasphemers. Those laws may condone penalties or retaliation for blasphemy under the labels of blasphemous libel, expression of opposition, or "vilification," of religion or of some religious practices, religious insult, or hate speech.


title: Blasphemy

text: As of 2012, 33 countries had some form of anti-blasphemy laws in their legal code. Of these, 21 were Muslim-majority nations – Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Maldives, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Turkey, the UAE and Western Sahara. Blasphemy is treated as a capital crime (death penalty) in some Muslim nations. In these nations, such laws have led to the persecution, lynchings, murder or arrest of minorities and dissident members, after flimsy accusations.


title: Blasphemy

text: The other twelve nations with anti-blasphemy laws in 2012 included India and Singapore, as well as Christian majority states, including Denmark (abolished in 2017), Finland, Germany, Greece (abolished in 2019), Ireland (abolished in 2020), Italy, Malta (abolished in 2016), the Netherlands (abolished in 2014), Nigeria, Norway (abolished in 2015) and Poland. Spain's "offending religious feelings" law is also, effectively, a prohibition on blasphemy. In Denmark, the former blasphemy law which had support of 66% of its citizens in 2012, made it an offence to "mock legal religions and faiths in Denmark". Many Danes saw the "blasphemy law as helping integration because it promotes the acceptance of a multicultural and multi-faith society."


title: Blasphemy

text: In the judgment "E.S. v. Austria" (2018), the European Court of Human Rights declined to strike down the blasphemy law in Austria on Article 10 (freedom of speech) grounds, saying that criminalisation of blasphemy could be supported within a state's margin of appreciation. This decision was widely criticised by human rights organisations and commentators both in Europe and North America.


title: Blasphemy

text: In contemporary language, the notion of blasphemy is often used hyperbolically (in a deliberately exaggerated manner). This usage has garnered some interest among linguists recently, and the word "blasphemy" is a common case used for illustrative purposes.


title: Rugby league

text: Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112–122 metres (122 to 133 yards) long with H shaped posts at both ends. It is one of the two codes of rugby football, the other being rugby union. It originated in 1895 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire as the result of a split from the Rugby Football Union over the issue of payments to players. The rules of the game governed by the new Northern Rugby Football Union progressively changed from those of the RFU with the specific aim of producing a faster and more entertaining game to appeal to spectators, on whose income the new organisation and its members depended. Due to its high-velocity contact, cardio-based endurance and minimal use of body protection, rugby league is widely regarded as the toughest and most brutal collision sport in the world.


title: Rugby league

text: In rugby league, points are scored by carrying an oval shape ball and touching it to the ground beyond the opposing team's goal line; this is called a "try", and is the primary method of scoring, worth 4 points. The opposing team attempts to stop the attacking side scoring points by tackling the player carrying the ball and denying forward progress. On occasion, where a clear try scoring opportunity has been thwarted by foul play, a penalty try may be awarded without the ball being grounded over the try line. In addition to tries, points can be scored by kicking goals. Field goals or drop goals can be attempted from the hand at any time for a single point, and following a successful try, the scoring team gains a free kick to "try at goal" with a conversion worth a further two points. Penalty kicks at goal, known simply as penalties may also be awarded for general foul play, and are also worth two points. Unlike drop goals, penalty kicks and conversions are taken from the ground, with the ball usually set in a kicking tee, and the opposing team not allowed to directly challenge the kicker.


title: Rugby league

text: The Super League in Europe and the National Rugby League (NRL) in Australasia are the world's premier club competitions. Globally, rugby league is played internationally, predominantly by European, Australasian, and Pacific Island countries, and is governed by the International Rugby League (IRL). Rugby league is the national sport of Papua New Guinea, and is a popular sport in countries such as England, Australia, New Zealand, France, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, and Lebanon.


title: Rugby league

text: The first Rugby League World Cup was held in France in 1954, the first World Cup of either Rugby code; the current holders are Australia.


title: Rugby league

text: A short-sided version of the sport, Rugby league nines, using modified rugby league rules also exists, and is comparable to Rugby sevens. Wheelchair rugby league is a mixed-gender sport using heavily modified rugby league rules for disabled and able-bodied players. Unlike Wheelchair rugby which adopted its name after the invention of the sport previously called Murderball and is not directly linked to rugby union, wheelchair rugby league has grown out of the parent sport, and retains key aspects of that sport such as an egg shaped ball, the forward-pass rule and conversions. while not a Paralympic sport, the sport has its own Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup. A further variation for ambulatory disabled players, Physical disability rugby league or PDRL was created and had its first world cup in 2022 to coincide with the rescheduled 2021 Rugby League World Cup competitions.


title: Rugby league

text: Rugby league football takes its name from the bodies that split to create a new form of rugby, distinct from that run by the Rugby Football Unions, in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand between 1895 and 1908.


title: Rugby league

text: The first of these, the Northern Rugby Football Union, was established in 1895 as a breakaway faction of England's Rugby Football Union (RFU). Both organisations played the game under the same rules at first, although the Northern Union began to modify rules almost immediately, thus creating a new simpler game that was intended to be a faster-paced form of rugby football. Similar breakaway factions split from RFU-affiliated unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, renaming themselves "rugby football "league"s" and introducing Northern Union rules. In 1922, the Northern Union also changed its name to the Rugby Football League and thus over time the sport itself became known as "rugby league" football.


title: Rugby league

text: In 1895, a schism in Rugby football resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU). The success of working class northern teams led to some compensating players who otherwise would be on their job and earning income on Saturdays. This led to the RFU reacting to enforce the amateur principle of the sport, preventing "broken time payments" to players who had taken time off work to play rugby. Northern teams typically had more working class players (coal miners, mill workers etc.) who could not afford to play without this compensation, in contrast to affluent southern teams who had other sources of income to sustain the amateur principle. In 1895, a decree by the RFU banning the playing of rugby at grounds where entrance fees were charged led to twenty-two clubs (including Stockport, who negotiated by telephone) meeting at the George Hotel, Huddersfield on 29 August 1895 and forming the "Northern Rugby Football Union". Within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby league.


title: Rugby league

text: In 1897, the line-out was abolished and in 1898 professionalism introduced. In 1906, the Northern Union changed its rules, reducing teams from 15 to 13 a side and replacing the ruck formed after tackles with the play-the-ball.


title: Rugby league

text: A similar schism to that which occurred in England took place in Sydney, Australia. There, on 8 August 1907 the New South Wales Rugby Football League was founded at Bateman's Hotel in George Street. Rugby league then went on to displace rugby union as the primary football code in New South Wales and Queensland.


title: Rugby league

text: On 5 May 1954 over 100,000 (official figure 102,569) spectators watched the 1953–54 Challenge Cup Final replay at Odsal Stadium, Bradford, England, setting a new record for attendance at a rugby football match of either code. Also in 1954 the Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, was formed at the instigation of the French. In 1966, the International Board introduced a rule that a team in possession was allowed three play-the-balls and on the fourth tackle a scrum was to be formed. This was increased to six tackles in 1972 and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover. 1967 saw the first professional Sunday matches of rugby league played.


title: Rugby league

text: The first sponsors, Joshua Tetley and John Player, entered the game for the 1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season. Television had an enormous impact on the sport of rugby league in the 1990s, when News Corporation paid for worldwide broadcasting rights. The media giant's "Super League" movement created changes for the traditional administrators of the game. In Europe, it resulted in a move from Rugby League being a winter sport to a summer one, as the new Super League competition tried to expand its market. In Australasia, the Super League war resulted in long and costly legal battles and changing loyalties, causing significant damage to the code in an extremely competitive sporting market. In 1997 two competitions were run alongside each other in Australia, after which a peace deal in the form of the National Rugby League was formed. The NRL has since become recognised as the sport's flagship competition and since that time has set record TV ratings and crowd figures.


title: Rugby league

text: The objective in rugby league is to score more points through tries, goals and field goals (also known as drop goals) than the opposition within the 80 minutes of play. If after two-halves of play, each consisting of forty minutes, the two teams are drawing, a draw may be declared, or the game may enter extra time under the golden point rule, depending on the relevant competition's format.


title: Rugby league

text: The try is the most common form of scoring, and a team will usually attempt to score one by running and kicking the ball further upfield or passing from player-to-player in order to manoeuvre around the opposition's defence. A try involves touching the ball to the ground on or beyond the defending team's goal-line and is worth four points. A goal is worth two points and may be gained from a conversion or a penalty. A field goal, or drop goal, is only worth one point and is gained by dropping and then kicking the ball on the half volley between the uprights in open play.


title: Rugby league

text: Field position is crucial in rugby league, achieved by running with or kicking the ball. Passing in rugby league may only be in a backward or sideways direction. Teammates, therefore, have to remain on-side by not moving ahead of the player with the ball. The ball may be kicked ahead, but if teammates are in front of the kicker when the ball is kicked, they are deemed off-side.


title: Rugby league

text: Tackling is a key component of rugby league play. Only the player holding the ball may be tackled. A tackle is complete, for example, when the player is held by one or more opposing players in such a manner that he can make no further progress and cannot part with the ball, or when the player is held by one or more opposing players and the ball or the hand or arm holding the ball comes into contact with the ground. An attacking team gets a maximum of six tackles to progress up the field before possession is changed over. Once the tackle is completed, the ball-carrier must be allowed to get to his feet to 'play-the-ball'. Ball control is also important in rugby league, as a fumble of the ball on the ground forces a handover, unless the ball is fumbled backwards. The ball can also be turned over by going over the sideline.


title: Rugby league

text: Rugby league and rugby union are distinct sports with many similarities and a shared origin. Both have the same fundamental rules, are played for 80 minutes and feature an oval-shaped ball and H-shaped goalposts. Both have rules that the ball cannot be passed forward, and dropping it forwards leads to a scrum. Both use tries as the central scoring method and conversion kicks, penalty goals and drop goals as additional scoring methods. However, there are differences in how many points each method is worth.


title: Rugby league

text: One of the main differences is the rules of possession. When the ball goes into touch, possession in rugby union is contested through a line-out, while in rugby league a scrum restarts play. The lesser focus on contesting possession means that play focuses more on powerful running, hard tackling, forward progression and the contest for field position (commonly compared to an "arm wrestle"); as a result play stops much less frequently in rugby league, with the ball typically in play for 50 out of the 80 minutes compared to around 35 minutes for professional rugby union. Other differences include that there are fewer players in rugby league (13 compared to 15) and different rules for tackling. Rugby union has more detailed rules than rugby league and has changed less since the 1895 schism.


title: Rugby league

text: Since rugby union turned professional in the mid-1990s, it has increasingly borrowed techniques, tactics and even laws from rugby league, while high profile players and coaches from the league game have increasingly gone on to success in the union code in those countries where both codes are popular (e.g. Andy Farrell, Jason Robinson and Henry Paul). The inherent similarities between rugby league and rugby union have at times led to experimental hybrid games being played that use a mix of the two sports' rules.


title: Rugby league

text: Much more so than rugby union, rugby league shares significant similarities with North American gridiron codes. Although described as evolving from both rugby and association football, the basic structures of American and Canadian football are remarkably similar to rugby league through a process of parallel evolution: a try-and-goal based scoring system, a set number of plays before handover of the football, each play restarting from a set piece position and ended by a tackle. The introduction of the forward pass and unlimited substitution in North America, however, created a fundamentally different game from either original rugby code.


title: Rugby league

text: Players on the pitch are divided into forwards and backs, although the game's rules apply to all players the same way. Each position has a designated number to identify himself from other players. These numbers help to identify which position a person is playing. The system of numbering players is different depending on which country the match is played in. In Australia and New Zealand, each player is usually given a number corresponding to their playing position on the field. However, since 1996 European teams have been able to grant players specific squad numbers, which they keep without regard to the position they play, similarly to association football.


title: Rugby league

text: Substitutes (generally referred to as "the bench") are allowed in the sport, and are typically used when a player gets tired or injured, although they can also be used tactically. Each team is currently allowed four substitutes, and in Australia and New Zealand, these players occupy shirt numbers 14 to 22. There are no limitations on which players must occupy these interchangeable slots. Generally, twelve interchanges are allowed in any game from each team, although in the National Rugby League, this was reduced to ten prior to the 2008 season and further reduced to eight prior to the 2016 season. If a team has to interchange a player due to the blood bin rule or due to injury, and this was the result of misconduct from the opposing team, the compromised team does not have to use one of its allocated interchanges to take the player in question off the field.


title: Rugby league

text: The backs are generally smaller, faster and more agile than the forwards. They are often the most creative and evasive players on the field, relying on running, kicking and handling skills, as well as tactics and set plays, to break the defensive line, instead of brute force. Generally forwards do the majority of the work (hit-ups/tackling).


title: Rugby league

text: Usually, the stand-off/five-eighth and scrum-half/half-back are a team's creative unit or 'playmakers'. During the interactions between a team's 'key' players (five-eighth, half-back, fullback, lock forward, and hooker), the five-eighth and half-back will usually be involved in most passing moves. These two positions are commonly called the "halves".


title: Rugby league

text: The forwards' two responsibilities can be broken into "normal play" and "scrum play". For information on a forward's role in the scrum see rugby league scrummage. Forward positions are traditionally named after the player's position in the scrum yet are equal with respect to "normal play" with the exception of the hooker. Forward positions are traditionally assigned as follows:


title: Rugby league

text: Rugby league is played in over 70 nations throughout the world. Four countries – Australia, England, France, & New Zealand, – have teams that play at a professional level, while the rest are semi-professional, mainly Papua New Guinea and Wales, or amateur. 45 national teams are ranked by the RLIF and a further 32 are officially recognized and unranked. The strongest rugby league nations are Australia, England, New Zealand and Tonga. Two countries, Papua New Guinea and Cook Islands, have Rugby league as their national sport.


title: Rugby league

text: The Rugby League World Cup is the highest form of representative rugby league. Countries that have contested are Australia, Cook Islands, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Tonga, USA and Wales. Australia won the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. The 2021 Rugby League World Cup hosted by England during October and November 2022, staged the Men's, Women's and Wheelchair competitions together for the first time. The competition currently features 16 teams.


title: Rugby league

text: The Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation's purpose is to spread the sport of rugby league throughout their region along with other governing bodies such as the ARL and NZRL. Since rugby league was introduced to Australia in 1908,


title: Rugby league

text: it has become the largest television sport and 3rd most attended sport in Australia. Neighbouring Papua New Guinea is one of two countries to have rugby league as its national sport (with Cook Islands). Australia's elite club competition also features a team from Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city. Rugby league is the dominant winter sport in the eastern Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland. The game is also among the predominant sports of Tonga and is played in other Pacific nations such as Samoa and Fiji. Researchers have found that rugby league has been able to help with improving development in the islands. In Australia, and indeed the rest of the region, the annual State of Origin series ranks among the most popular sporting events.


title: Rugby league

text: The Rugby League European Federation are responsible for developing rugby league in Europe and the Northern Hemisphere.


title: Rugby league

text: In England, rugby league has traditionally been associated with the historic northern counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cumberland, where the game originated, especially in towns and cities along the M62 corridor. Its popularity has also increased elsewhere. , only one of the twelve Super League teams are based outside of these traditional counties: Catalans Dragons (Perpignan, France). One other team from outside the United Kingdom, Toulouse Olympique, competes in the British rugby league system, although not at the highest tier Super League level, but rather in the second tier Championship.


title: Rugby league

text: Super League average attendances are in the 8,000 to 9,500 range. The average Super League match attendance in 2014 was 8,365. In 2018 average Super League match attendance was 8,547. Ranked the eighth most popular sport in the UK overall, rugby league is the 27th most popular participation sport in England according to figures released by Sport England; the total number of rugby league participants in England aged 16 and over was 44,900 in 2017. This is a 39% drop from 10 years ago. While the sport is largely concentrated in the north of England there have been complaints about its lack of profile in the British media. On the eve of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup Final where England would face Australia, English amateur rugby league coach Ben Dawson stated, "we’re in the final of a World Cup. First time in more than 30 years and there's no coverage anywhere".


title: Rugby league

text: France first played rugby league as late as 1934, where in the five years prior to the Second World War, the sport's popularity increased as Frenchmen became disenchanted with the state of French rugby union in the 1930s. However, after the Allied Forces were defeated by Germany in June 1940, the Vichy regime in the south seized assets belonging to rugby league authorities and clubs and banned the sport for its association with the left-wing Popular Front government that had governed France before the war. The sport was unbanned after the Liberation of Paris in August 1944 and the collapse of the Vichy regime, although it was still actively marginalised by the French authorities until the 1990s. Despite this, the national side appeared in the finals of the 1954 and 1968 World Cups, and the country hosted the 1954 event. In 1996, a French team, Paris Saint-Germain was one of eleven teams which formed the new Super League, although the club was dissolved in 1997. In 2006, the Super League admitted the Catalans Dragons, a team from Perpignan in the southern Languedoc-Roussillon region. They have subsequently reached the 2007 Challenge Cup Final and made the playoffs of the 2008 Super League XIII season. The success of the Dragons in Super League has initiated a renaissance in French rugby league, with new-found enthusiasm for the sport in the south of the country where most of the Elite One Championship teams are based. In other parts of Europe, the game is played at semi-professional and amateur level.


title: Rugby league

text: From 2017 to 2020, the Toronto Wolfpack were North America's only active professional Rugby League team, competing in the English Rugby League system. They won the 2017 Kingstone Press League 1 in their inaugural season and earned promotion to the 2018 Rugby League Championship. In 2019 The Wolfpack won promotion to the Super League, lasting only a few months before having to withdraw due to the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Toronto play their home games at Lamport Stadium in downtown Toronto. Beginning in 2022, the Ottawa Aces will join the English league pyramid, becoming the only Canadian team in the system after the Wolfpack were denied re-entry. The Aces will play out of TD Place Stadium.


title: Rugby league

text: Starting in 2021, the North American Rugby League will be North America's professional championship, with Canadian club Toronto Wolfpack joining several USA Rugby League clubs, New York Freedom and Cleveland Rugby League to form the league's inaugural season. Several brand new clubs from Western USA will join up in 2022. The new competition is sanctioned by Canada Rugby League, but not yet by the United States governing body.


title: Rugby league

text: The early 21st century has seen take up the game and compete in international rugby league with the Rugby League European Federation and Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation expanding the game to new areas such as Chile, Canada, Ghana, Philippines, Czech Republic, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, Thailand and Brazil to name a few.


title: Rugby league

text: The two most prominent full-time professional leagues are the Australian/New Zealand National Rugby League and the British Super League.


title: Rugby league

text: Other professional and semi professional leagues include Australia's Queensland Cup (which includes a team from Papua New Guinea) and NSW Cup, the British RFL Championship and RFL League 1, the French Elite One Championship and Elite Two Championship and the new North American Rugby League.


title: Rugby league

text: The Papua New Guinea National Rugby League operates as a semi-professional competition and enjoys nationwide media coverage, being the national sport of the country.


title: Rugby league

text: Touch (also known as touch football or touch rugby) is a variant of rugby league that is conducted under the direction of the Federation of International Touch (FIT). Though it shares similarities and history with rugby league, it is recognised as a sport in its own right due to its differences which have been developed over the sport's lifetime.


title: Rugby league

text: Touch is a variation of rugby league with the tackling of opposing players replaced by a touch. As touches must be made with minimal force, touch is therefore considered a limited-contact sport. The original basic rules of touch were established in the 1960s by members of the South Sydney Junior Rugby League Club in Sydney, Australia.


title: Rugby league

text: OzTag is a non-contact form of rugby league, and can be seen as a variation of British tag rugby. Cronulla Sharks and St George Dragons halfback Perry Haddock introduced the sport in Australia while coaching the 1992 St George Jersey Flegg side. Together with Chris Parkes, the two took the sport to fields across Australia. Today, it is played by over 200,000 players in organised leagues across the country.


title: Rugby league

text: League Tag replaces tackling with the removal of one of two tags carried on an opponents hips, attached directly to specific League Tag shorts with Velcro patches, but otherwise retains almost all other rules of traditional rugby league (such as kicking). A number of additional rules are also added relating to the specific issues associated with a tag based game.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: The First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt ( '), or The Jewish War, was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire, fought in Roman-controlled Judea, resulting in the destruction of Jewish towns, the displacement of its people and the appropriation of land for Roman military use, as well as the destruction of the Jewish Temple and polity.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: The Great Revolt began in the year 66 CE, during the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, originating in Roman and Jewish religious tensions. The crisis escalated due to anti-taxation protests and attacks upon Roman citizens by the Jews. The Roman governor, Gessius Florus, responded by plundering the Second Temple and arresting numerous senior Jewish figures. This prompted widespread rebellion in Jerusalem that culminated in the capture of the Roman military garrison by rebel forces as the pro-Roman king Herod Agrippa II and Roman officials fled. To quell the unrest, Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, brought in the Syrian army, consisting of the Legion XII "Fulminata" and auxiliary troops. Despite initial advances and the conquest of Jaffa, the Syrian Legion was ambushed and defeated by Jewish rebels at the Battle of Beth Horon with 6,000 Romans massacred and the Legion's aquila lost. In 66, a Judean provisional government was formed in Jerusalem led by former High Priest Ananus ben Ananus, Joseph ben Gurion and Joshua ben Gamla. Yosef ben Matityahu (Josephus) was appointed as the rebel commander in Galilee and Eleazar ben Hanania as the commander in Edom. Later, in Jerusalem, an attempt by Menahem ben Yehuda, leader of the Sicarii, to take control of the city failed. He was executed and the remaining Sicarii were ejected from the city. Simon bar Giora, a peasant leader, was also expelled by the new government.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: The Roman general Vespasian was given four legions and tasked by Nero with crushing the rebellion. Assisted by forces of King Agrippa II, Vespasian invaded Galilee in 67, and within several months had claimed the major Jewish strongholds of Galilee, Jodapatha and Tarichaea. Driven from Galilee, Zealot rebels and thousands of refugees arrived in Jerusalem, creating tensions between the mainly Sadducee Jerusalemites and the Zealot rebel factions that soon erupted into bitter infighting. In 69, Vespasian was called to Rome and appointed emperor, leaving Titus to besiege Jerusalem in 70 CE. Following a brutal seven-month siege, during which Zealot infighting resulted in the burning of the entire food supplies of the city, the Romans finally succeeded in breaching the defenses in the summer of 70. Following the fall of Jerusalem, Titus departed for Rome, leaving the Legion X "Fretensis" to defeat the remaining Jewish strongholds, including Herodium and Machaerus. The Roman campaign ended with the Romans’ success at the siege of Masada in 73–74.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: The Roman suppression of the revolt had a significant impact on the local population, with many rebels perishing in battle or being sold into slavery. The temple of Jerusalem and much of the city was destroyed by fire and the Jewish community was thrown into turmoil by the devastation of its political and religious leadership.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: King Herod ruled Jerusalem from 37 BCE – 4 BCE as a vassal king for the Roman Empire, having been appointed "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate. Herod the Great was known as a tyrant, mostly because of his campaign to kill anyone who could claim the throne. Herod had all relatives of the previous dynasty, the Hasmonean dynasty, executed. This included his wife, the daughter of a Hasmonean King, and all of her family members. Herod also created a new line of nobility that would have loyalties to only him, known as the Herodians. He appointed new high priests from families that were not connected to the past dynasty. After Herod's death, several relatives made claims to the region, beginning with the Herodian Tetrarchy.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Another aspect of Herod's legacy was economic hardship. Labor workers, which had been employed at Herod's large-scale construction sites, became impoverished. After Herod's death, the poor economy led to riots, and due to the lack of leadership in the region, the violence was not controlled. Herod's void of leadership made the region vulnerable to riots and can be considered an anticipatory cause of the Great Revolt.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Following increasing Roman domination of the Eastern Mediterranean, the initially semi-independent Herodian dynasty was officially merged into the Roman Empire in the year 6 CE. The transition of the client kingdom into a Roman province brought a great deal of tension and a Jewish uprising by Judas of Galilee erupted as a response to the Census of Quirinius.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: After the death of Herod the Great and the deposition of Herod Archelaus, the Romans instituted procurators (technically prefects before 41 CE) to rule the Judeans. In the beginning, the Roman procurators respected the laws and customs of the Jewish people, allowing them to rest on the Sabbath, granting them exemption from pagan rituals, and even minting coins free of images despite the fact that elsewhere the coins bore images. When confronted with a procurator who disrespected their laws and customs, the Jews petitioned the governor of Syria to get the official removed, Roman Judea being essentially a "satellite of Syria".


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: The years 7–26 CE were relatively calm, but after 37 the province again began to be a source of trouble, this time for Emperor Caligula. The cause of tensions in the east of the Empire was complicated, involving the spread of Greek culture, Roman Law and the rights of Jews in the empire. Caligula did not trust the prefect of Egypt, Aulus Avilius Flaccus. Flaccus had been loyal to Tiberius, had conspired against Caligula's mother and had connections with Egyptian separatists. In 38, Caligula sent Agrippa to Alexandria unannounced to check on Flaccus. According to Philo, the visit was met with jeers from the Greek population, who saw Agrippa as the king of the Jews. Flaccus tried to placate both the Greek population and Caligula by having statues of the emperor placed in Jewish synagogues.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: As a result, extensive religious riots broke out in the city. Caligula responded by removing Flaccus from his position and executing him. In 39, Agrippa accused Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, of planning a rebellion against Roman rule with the help of Parthia. Herod Antipas confessed and Caligula exiled him. Agrippa was rewarded with his territories.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Riots again erupted in Alexandria in 40 between Jews and Greeks. Jews were accused of not honoring the emperor. Disputes occurred also in the city of Jamnia. Jews were angered by the erection of a clay altar and destroyed it. In response, Caligula ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem. The governor of Syria, Publius Petronius, fearing civil war if the order were carried out, delayed implementing it for nearly a year. Agrippa finally convinced Caligula to reverse the order.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: In the year 46, an insurrection by the Jews broke out in Judea province. The Jacob and Simon uprising was instigated by the two eponymous brothers, and lasted between 46 and 48. The revolt, which concentrated in the Galilee, began as sporadic insurgency and in 48 was put down by Roman authorities and both brothers executed.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: The relatively conciliatory Roman policy in Judaea changed with the institution of Gessius Florus as a procurator (64–66 CE). Florus helped set the revolt in motion by stealing from the temple treasury and murdering Jews who opposed the desecration. Faced with Florus as a procurator, the Jews attempted to garner support from the governor of Syria—at the time, Cestius Gallus. This plea for help failed to garner any support, however. The consequent riot which erupted was the first in a series of revolts, and led to the formation of several revolutionary factions. The revolt was further intensified when Florus attempted to stop the riots, which actually incited more revolutionary zeal.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: According to Josephus, the violence which began at Caesarea in 66 was provoked by Greeks of a certain merchant house sacrificing birds in front of a local synagogue. In reaction, one of the Jewish Temple clerks Eleazar ben Hanania ceased prayers and sacrifices for the Roman Emperor at the Temple. Protests over taxation joined the list of grievances and random attacks on Roman citizens and perceived 'traitors' occurred in Jerusalem. The Jewish Temple was then breached by Roman troops at the order of the procurator Gessius Florus, who had seventeen "talents" removed from the treasury of the Temple, claiming the money was for the Emperor. In response to this action, the city fell into unrest and some of the Jewish population began to openly mock Florus by passing a basket around to collect money as if Florus was poor. Florus reacted to the unrest by sending soldiers into Jerusalem the next day to raid the city and arrest a number of the city leaders, who were later whipped and crucified, despite many of them being Roman citizens. Shortly, outraged Judean nationalist factions took up arms and the Roman military garrison of Jerusalem was quickly overrun by rebels. Fearing the worst, the pro-Roman king Herod Agrippa II and his sister Berenice fled Jerusalem to Galilee. Judean militias later moved upon Roman citizens of Judaea and pro-Roman officials, cleansing the country of any Roman symbols. Among other events, the Sicarii rebel faction surprised the Roman garrison of Masada and took over the fortress.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Initially the outbreak of violence had been an internal factional conflict between the Jews; those who were in favour of rebellion and those who were opposed. Huge loss of life occurred, including that of the former High Priest Ananias. The Roman garrison on Jerusalem's western border became besieged and was unable to assist those who opposed rebellion. Eventually, led by their commander Metilius, the garrison surrendered in exchange for unhindered passage from the city, but, led by Eliezar, the Jewish rebels slaughtered all the surrendered soldiers, except for Metilius, who was forced to convert to Judaism.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: According to fourth-century church fathers Eusebius and Epiphanius of Salamis, Jerusalem's Jewish Christians fled to Pella before the beginning of the war.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: As a result of the unrest in Judaea, Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, assembled the Syrian legion XII "Fulminata", reinforced with units of III "Gallica", IV "Scythica", and VI "Ferrata", plus auxiliaries and allies – a total of approximately 30,000–36,000 troops, in order to restore order in the neighbouring province. The Syrian legion captured Narbata and also took Sepphoris, which surrendered without a fight. The Judean rebels, who withdrew from Sepphoris, took refuge at Atzmon hill, but were defeated following a short siege. Gallus later reached Acre in Western Galilee, and then marched on Caesarea and Jaffa, where he massacred some 8,400 people. Continuing his military campaign, Gallus took Lydda and Afek (Antipatris) and engaged Jerusalemite rebels in Geva, where he lost nearly 500 Roman troops to Judean rebels led by Simon bar Giora, reinforced by allied volunteers from Adiabene.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: The Syrian legion then invested Jerusalem, but for uncertain reasons and despite initial gains withdrew back towards the coast, where it was ambushed and defeated by Judean rebels at the Battle of Beth Horon, a result that shocked the Imperial leadership. The defeat of the Romans in Beth Horon is considered one of the worst military defeats of the Roman Empire by a rebel province throughout its history. Some 6,000 Roman troops were killed and many more wounded in the battle, with Legio XII "Fulminata" losing its "aquila", as Gallus abandoned his troops in disarray, fleeing to Syria. Victorious Judean militias included Sadducee and Pharisee factions, with a major role also played by the peasantry led by Simon Bar Giora, Zealot faction led by Eleazar ben Simon, as well as elements of the Sicarii.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Victorious Judean troops then took an initiative and attempted to expand their control to the Hellenistic city of Ashkelon, assembling an army commanded by Niger the Perean, Yohanan the Issean, and Shila the Babylonian and laying siege to the city. Despite the pillage of Ashkelon's countryside, the campaign was a disaster for the Judeans, who failed to take the city and lost some 8,000 militia men to the small defending Roman garrison. Many Jewish residents of Ashkelon were butchered by their Greco-Syrian and Roman neighbours as well in the aftermath. The failure to take Ashkelon changed the tactics of rebel Judean forces from open engagement to fortified warfare.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Following the defeat of Gallus in Beth Horon, the People's Assembly was called under the spiritual guidance of Simeon ben Gamliel and thus the Judean provisional government was formed in Jerusalem. Former High Priest Ananus ben Ananus (Hanan ben Hanan) was appointed one of the government heads and began reinforcing the city, with other prominent figure of Joseph ben Gurion, with Joshua ben Gamla taking a leading role. Josephus Matthias (Yosef ben Matityahu) was appointed the commander in Galilee and Golan, while Josephus Simon (Yosef ben Shimon) was appointed commander of Jericho, John the Issene (Yohanan Issean) commander of Jaffa, Lydda, Ammeus-Nikopolis and the whole Tamna area. Elazar Ananias (Eliezar ben Hananiya) the joint commander in Edom together with Jesus ben Sapphas (Joshua ben Zafia), with Niger the Perean the war hero during the Gallus campaign under their command. Menasseh was appointed for Perea and John Ananias (Yohanan ben Hananiya) to Gophna and Acrabetta.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Later, in Jerusalem, an attempt by Menahem ben Yehuda, leader of the Sicarii, to take control of the city failed. He was executed and the remaining Sicarii were ejected from the city to their stronghold Masada, previously taken from a Roman garrison. Headquartered in Masada, the Sicarii notably terrorized nearby Judean villages such as Ein Gedi. Simon bar Giora, a charismatic and radical peasant leader, was also expelled from Jerusalem by the new government. The faction of the ousted Bar Giora took refuge in Masada as well and stayed there until the winter of 67–68.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Emperor Nero sent the general Vespasian to crush the rebellion. Vespasian, along with legions X "Fretensis" and V "Macedonica", landed at Ptolemais in April 67. There he was joined by his son Titus, who arrived from Alexandria at the head of Legio XV "Apollinaris", as well as by the armies of various local allies including that of king Agrippa II. Fielding more than 60,000 soldiers, Vespasian began operations by subjugating Galilee. Judean rebels in Galilee were divided into two camps, with forces loyal to the central government in Jerusalem commanded by Josephus and representing the wealthy and priesthood classes, whereas local Zealot militias were largely packed with the poor fishermen, farmers and refugees from Roman Syria. Many towns associated with the Jewish elite gave up without a fight – including Sepphoris and Tiberias, although others had to be taken by force. Of these, Josephus provides detailed accounts of the sieges of Tarichaea, Yodfat (Jotapata) and Gamla; Gischala, the stronghold of Zealots, was also taken by force, as Zealot leaders abandoned it in the midst of the siege, heading with the bulk of their force for Jerusalem.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: By the year 68, Jewish resistance in the north had been crushed, and Vespasian made Caesarea Maritima his headquarters and methodically proceeded to cleanse the coastline of the country, avoiding direct confrontation with the rebels at Jerusalem. Based on questionable numbers from Josephus, it has been estimated that the Roman vanquishing of Galilee resulted in 100,000 Jews killed or sold into slavery.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Vespasian remained camped at Caesarea Maritima until spring 68, preparing for another campaign in the Judean and Samarian highlands. The Jews, who were driven out of Galilee, rebuilt Joppa (Jaffa), which had been destroyed earlier by Cestius Gallus. Surrounded by the Romans, they rebuilt the city walls, and used a light flotilla to demoralize commerce and interrupt the grain supply to Rome from Alexandria.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Zealot leaders of the collapsed Northern revolt, headed by John of Giscala, managed to escape from Galilee to Jerusalem with the bulk of their forces. Packed with militants of many factions, including remains of forces loyal to the Judean provisional government and significant Zealot militia headed by Eleazar ben Simon, and largely cut off by Roman forces, Jerusalem quickly descended into anarchy, with the radical Zealots taking control of large parts of the fortified city. A brutal civil war then erupted, with the Zealots and the fanatical Sicarii executing anyone advocating surrender.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: Following a false message that the Judean provisional government had come to terms with the Roman Army, delivered by the Zealots to the Idumeans, a major force of some 20,000 armed Idumeans arrived to Jerusalem. It was allowed in by the Zealots and thus, with Idumeans entering Jerusalem and fighting by the side of the Zealots, the heads of the Judean provisional government, Ananus ben Ananus and Joseph ben Gurion, were killed with severe civilian casualties in the notorious Zealot Temple Siege, where Josephus reported 12,000 dead. Receiving the news of the carnage in Jerusalem, Simon bar Giora left Masada and began pillaging Idumea with his loyal troops, setting his headquarters in Na'an; he met little resistance and joined forces with Idumean leaders, including Jacob ben Susa.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: In the spring of 68, Vespasian began a systematic campaign to subdue various rebel-held strongholds in Judea proper, recapturing Afeq, Lydda, Javneh, and Jaffa that spring. He later continued into Idumea and Perea, and eventually to the Judean and Samarian highlands where Bar Giora's faction was causing major concern to the Romans. The Roman Army took Gophna, Akrabta, Bet-El, Ephraim and Hebron by July 69.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: While the war in Judea was in progress, great events were occurring in Rome. In the middle of 68, the emperor Nero's increasingly erratic behavior finally lost him all support for his position. The Roman Senate, the Praetorian Guard and several prominent army commanders conspired for his removal. When the senate declared Nero an enemy of the people, he fled Rome and committed suicide with the help of a secretary. The newly installed emperor, the former Governor of Spain Galba, was murdered after just a few months by his rival, Otho, triggering a civil war that came to be known as the Year of the Four Emperors. In 69, though previously uninvolved, the popular Vespasian was also hailed emperor by the legions under his command. He decided, upon gaining further widespread support, to leave his son Titus to finish the war in Judea, while he returned to Rome to claim the throne from the usurper Vitellius, who had already deposed Otho.


title: First Jewish–Roman War

text: With the departure of Vespasian, who had opposed an open siege upon Jerusalem, fearing to lose many troops against the fortified city, Titus advanced his legions upon the capital of the rebellious province. Conquering town after town, Titus quickly advanced through the hill country, while the brutal suppression created an immense wave of Judean refugees, seeking shelter in fortified Jerusalem. The Judean rebels avoided direct confrontation with the Roman troops, as multiple factions were mostly interested in their own control and survival, rather than Roman defeat. Though weakened by the brutal civil war within the city, the Zealot factions could still field a significant number of troops to oppose an immediate Roman conquest of the capital. John tricked and assassinated Eleazar and began a despotic rule over the city. Simon bar Giora, commanding a major force of 15,000 troops, was then invited into Jerusalem by the remaining provisional government leaders to stand against the Zealot faction of John, and quickly took control over much of the city. Bitter infighting between the factions of Bar-Giora and John followed through the year 69.