title: WrestleMania 33

text: There had been much speculation that Undertaker had competed in his final match. While it was not confirmed on air, the WWE online merchandise store released a commemorative photo plaque showing a photo of Undertaker's gear that he left in the ring, with the description stating that he had ended his in-ring career. In addition, Dave Meltzer of "Wrestling Observer" reported that Undertaker would be getting surgeries for his injuries, specifically a hip replacement surgery that Undertaker held off due to his commitments with WWE. However, after being challenged to a match at WrestleMania the following year, Undertaker made an impromptu return and defeated John Cena at WrestleMania 34. Undertaker continued to wrestle sporadically over the next couple of years until he had his official final match at WrestleMania 36 where he defeated AJ Styles in a Boneyard match. His retirement ceremony was then held at Survivor Series on November 22, 2020, which also celebrated the 30th anniversary of his WWE debut, which occurred at the 1990 Survivor Series.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: Although John Cena had proposed to Nikki Bella at the event with plans to wed the following year, on April 15, 2018, Nikki announced on her Instagram account that she and Cena had ended their six-year-long relationship.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: Chris Jericho admitted in 2021 during his appearance on "The Broken Skull Sessions" that the placement of his match with Kevin Owens was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back with WWE, making him seek work elsewhere. The original plan for WrestleMania was for Jericho to win the Universal Championship from Owens in the main event, but then Vince McMahon changed his mind. Jericho stated he understood why McMahon changed his mind, but opined that at the very least, his match with Owens should have been first. To have it shunted to the second match of the show meant to Jericho that he was always going to be a "mid-card guy" in WWE and he felt he still had main event potential, so he decided to look for work elsewhere.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: On the post-WrestleMania 33 "Raw" the following night, the show opened with "Undertaker" and "Roman sucks" chants from the live audience, which was interrupted by Roman Reigns. After the crowd blasted Reigns with torrid boos and several minutes of hostile chants, Reigns left after only stating, "This is my yard now!" A lot of the crowd hostility arose from the speculation that WrestleMania 33 was The Undertaker's last match, as well as the long running fan opposition to Reigns. After that segment, WWE commentators labelled the post-WrestleMania 33 crowd as "non-traditional WWE fans" who may cheer for those they normally boo and boo those they normally cheer "all in the name of fun". This echoed similar comments a year prior for the post-WrestleMania 32 crowd, which "The A.V. Club" described as WWE's "aggressive" and condescending "disclaimers" meant to shame the hardcore audience.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: Later, new Universal Champion Brock Lesnar's advocate, Paul Heyman, declared that Goldberg would not be seen again and teased a match between Lesnar and Roman Reigns. Braun Strowman came out and declared that after he himself was done with Reigns, who he had been feuding with prior to WrestleMania, he would be coming for Lesnar and his title. After the show, on "Raw Talk", Goldberg stated that his WrestleMania match may have been his last, but hinted that he could return. The following week, Strowman brutally attacked Reigns during a backstage interview and overturned the ambulance that Reigns was in. Afterwards, Reigns was taken to the hospital in another ambulance. A match between the two was scheduled for Payback. Lesnar would hold on to the title for the remainder of the year. At WrestleMania 34, Lesnar and Reigns had a match for the title after it was teased by Heyman over a year ago.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: Also on the post-WrestleMania "Raw", WWE Chairman Vince McMahon explained that his daughter, Stephanie, would be off television for a while due to her crashing through a table at WrestleMania, and then introduced 2017 WWE Hall of Fame inductee Kurt Angle as the new Raw General Manager. He also announced that there would be a Superstar Shake-up the following week between Raw and SmackDown, a talent trade between the two brands.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: Chris Jericho was granted a rematch for the United States Championship against Kevin Owens at Payback. He was then attacked backstage by Owens and Samoa Joe. Jericho was subsequently replaced in a tag team match by the returning Finn Bálor. On the April 11 episode of "SmackDown", the Superstar Shake-up moved Owens to SmackDown, but it was decided that if Jericho won the United States Championship at Payback, he would also move to SmackDown. Also, Seth Rollins resumed his rivalry with Samoa Joe and the two were scheduled to fight at Payback.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: Also on the post-WrestleMania "Raw", The Hardy Boyz retained their Raw Tag Team Championship against Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, while Cesaro and Sheamus earned a title shot at Payback by defeating Enzo Amore and Big Cass. The New Day issued an open challenge, which was answered by NXT's The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) in their main roster debut. The Revival defeated and continued to beat down New Day, injuring Kofi Kingston's ankle. The following week, The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) lost a rematch against Revival and were moved to SmackDown as part of the Superstar Shake-up.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: In the women's division, Raw Women's Champion Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Dana Brooke defeated Charlotte Flair, Nia Jax, and the returning Emma. The following week, Banks was about to challenge Bayley to a title match when she was interrupted by Alexa Bliss and Mickie James, who moved over from SmackDown as a result of the Superstar Shake-up; Charlotte was moved to the SmackDown brand. Bliss subsequently earned a title match at Payback by winning a fatal four-way match.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: On the post-WrestleMania "SmackDown", Bray Wyatt challenged the newly-crowned WWE Champion Randy Orton to a "House of Horrors" non-title match, which Orton accepted. In the ensuing brawl, Luke Harper and the returning Erick Rowan came out to help Orton and Wyatt, respectively. Subsequently, Orton and Harper defeated Wyatt and Rowan. Wyatt was moved to Raw the following week and his rematch with Orton was scheduled for the Raw-exclusive pay-per-view, Payback.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: Also on the post-WrestleMania "SmackDown", SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon addressed the Superstar Shake-Up. His WrestleMania opponent, AJ Styles, interrupted him, saying that he wanted to stay on SmackDown, and then shook Shane's hand out of respect. The following week, Styles was confirmed to stay on SmackDown and he defeated Baron Corbin and Sami Zayn, who had moved over from Raw, to become the number one contender for the United States Championship at Backlash.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: In a non-title rematch, Baron Corbin defeated Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose in a Street Fight. This would be their last encounter as Ambrose, with the championship, moved to the Raw brand as a result of the Superstar Shake-up.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: The Miz and Maryse continued their impersonation of John Cena and Nikki Bella. They claimed credit for Cena proposing to Nikki and mocked the newly-engaged couple, as they were taking a break from WWE post-WrestleMania. As they were leaving the ring, they were interrupted by the main roster debut of Shinsuke Nakamura. The Miz and Maryse were then moved to Raw, where they resumed their rivalry with Dean Ambrose. Jinder Mahal moved to SmackDown, where he continued his feud with Mojo Rawley and Rob Gronkowski. Rawley defeated Mahal following interference by Gronkowski. Both Mahal and Rawley then participated in a six-pack challenge, which Mahal won to become the #1 contender for the WWE Championship at Backlash.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: In the women's division, Alexa Bliss lost her rematch for the SmackDown Women's Championship against Naomi. The following week, Alexa and Mickie James moved to Raw as a result of the Superstar Shake-up. Charlotte Flair, who moved over from Raw, defeated Naomi in a non-title match to become the number one contender.


title: WrestleMania 33

text: In the cruiserweight division on the post-WrestleMania "205 Live", Austin Aries earned another title shot by winning a fatal four-way match, and it was scheduled for Payback.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: Squad numbers are used in association football to identify and distinguish players that are on the field. Numbers very soon became a way to also indicate position, with starting players being assigned numbers 1–11, although in the modern game they are often influenced by the players' favourite numbers and other less technical reasons, as well as using "surrogates" for a number that is already in use. However, numbers 1–11 are often still worn by players of the previously associated position.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: As national leagues adopted squad numbers and game tactics evolved over the decades, numbering systems evolved separately in each football scene, and so different countries have different conventions. Still, there are some numbers that are universally agreed upon being used for a particular position, because they are quintessentially associated with that role.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: For instance, "1" is frequently used by the starting goalkeeper, as the goalkeeper is the first player in a line-up. It is also the only position on the field that is required to be occupied. "10" is one of the most emblematic squad numbers in football, due to the sheer number of football legends that used the number 10 shirt; playmakers, second strikers, centre-forwards and attacking midfielders usually wear this number. "7" is often associated with effective and profitable wingers or second strikers. "9" is usually worn by strikers, who hold the most advanced offensive positions on the pitch, and are often the highest scorers in the team.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: The first record of numbered jerseys in football date back to 1911, with Australian teams Sydney Leichardt and HMS Powerful being the first to use squad numbers on their backs. One year later, numbering in football would be ruled as mandatory in New South Wales.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: The next recorded use was on 23 March 1914, when the English Wanderers, a team of amateur players from Football League clubs, played Corinthians at Stamford Bridge, London. This was Corinthians first match after their FA ban for joining the Amateur Football Association was rescinded. Wanderers won 4–2.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In South America, Argentina was the first country with numbered shirts. It was during the Scottish team Third Lanark tour to South America of 1923, they played a friendly match v a local combined team ("Zona Norte") on 10 June. Both squads were numbered from 1–11.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: 30 March 1924, saw the first football match in the United States with squad numbers, when the Fall River Marksmen played St. Louis Vesper Buick during the 1923–24 National Challenge Cup, although only the local team wore numbered shirts.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: The next recorded use in association football in Europe was on 25 August 1928 when The Wednesday played Arsenal and Chelsea hosted Swansea Town at Stamford Bridge. Numbers were assigned by field location:


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In the first game at Stamford Bridge, only the outfield players wore numbers (2–11). "The Daily Express" (p. 13, 27 August 1928) reported, "The 35,000 spectators were able to give credit for each bit of good work to the correct individual, because the team were numbered, and the large figures in black on white squares enabled each man to be identified without trouble." "The Daily Mirror" ("Numbered Jerseys A Success", p. 29, 27 August 1928) also covered the match: "I fancy the scheme has come to stay. All that was required was a lead and London has supplied it." When Chelsea toured Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil at the end of the season in the summer of 1929, they also wore numbered shirts, earning the nickname ""Los Numerados"" ("the numbered") from locals.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: A similar numbering criteria was used in the 1933 FA Cup Final between Everton and Manchester City. Nevertheless, it was not until the 1939–40 season when The Football League ruled that squads had to wear numbers for each player.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: Early evolutions of formations involved moving specific positions; for example, moving the centre half back to become a defender rather than a half back. Their numbers went with them, hence central defenders wearing number 5, and remnants of the system remain. For example, in friendly and championship qualifying matches England, when playing the 4–4–2 formation, generally number their players (using the standard right to left system of listing football teams) four defenders – 2, 5, 6, 3; four midfielders – 7, 4, 8, 11; two forwards – 10, 9. This system of numbering can also be adapted to a midfield diamond with the holding midfielder wearing 4 and the attacking central midfielder wearing 8. Similarly the Swedish national team number their players: four defenders – 2, 3, 4, 5; four midfielders – 7, 6, 8, 9; two forwards – 10, 11.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the first FIFA competition to see squad numbers for each players, but persistent numbers would not be issued until the 1954 World Cup, where each man in a country's 22-man squad wore a specific number from 1 to 22 for the duration of the tournament.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In 1993, The Football Association (The FA) switched to persistent squad numbers, abandoning the mandatory use of 1–11 for the starting line-up. The first league event to feature this was the 1993 Football League Cup Final between Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday, and it became standard in the FA Premier League the following season, along with names printed above the numbers. Charlton Athletic were among the ten Football League clubs who chose to adopt squad numbers for the 1993–94 season (with squad numbers assigned to players in alphabetical order according to their surname), before reverting to 1–11 shirt numbering a year later.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: Squad numbers became optional in the three divisions of The Football League at the same time, but only 10 out of 70 clubs used them. One of those clubs, Brighton & Hove Albion, issued 25 players with squad numbers but reverted to traditional 1–11 numbering halfway through the season. In the Premier League, Arsenal temporarily reverted to the old system halfway through that same season, but reverted to the new numbering system for the following campaign. Most European top leagues adopted the system during the 1990s. The Football League made squad numbers compulsory for the 1999–2000 season, and the Football Conference followed suit for the 2002–03 season.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: The traditional 1–11 numbers have been worn on occasions by English clubs since their respective leagues introduced squad numbers. Premier League clubs often used the traditional squad numbering system when competing in domestic or European cups, often when their opponents still made use of the traditional squad numbering system. This included Manchester United's Premier League clash with Manchester City at Old Trafford on 10 February 2008, when 1950s style kits were worn as part of the Munich air disaster's 50th anniversary commemorations.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: This changes from formation to formation, however the defensive number placement generally remain the same. The use of inverted wingers now sees traditional right wingers, the number 7's, like Cristiano Ronaldo, on the left, and traditional left wingers, the number 11's, like Gareth Bale, on the right.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: Argentina developed its numeration system independently from the rest of the world. This was because until the 1960s, Argentine football developed more or less isolated from the evolution brought by English, Italian and Hungarian coaches, owing to technological limitations at the time in communications and travelling with Europe, lack of information as to keeping up with news, lack of awareness and/or interest in the latest innovations, and strong nationalism promoted by the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (for example, back then Argentines playing in Europe were banned from playing in the Argentine national team).


title: Squad number (association football)

text: The first formation used in Argentine football was the 2–3–5 and, until the '60s, it was the sole formation employed by Argentine clubs and the Argentina national football team, with only very few exceptions like River Plate's "La Máquina" from the '40s that used 3–2–2–3. It was not until the mid 1960s in the national team, with Argentina winning the Taça das Nações (1964) using 3–2–5, and the late '60s, for clubs, with Estudiantes winning the treble of the Copa Libertadores (1968, 1969, 1970) using 4–4–2, that Argentine football finally adopted modern formations on major scale, and caught up with its counterparts on the other side of the Atlantic.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: While the original 2–3–5 formation used the same numbering system dictated by the English clubs in 1928, subsequent changes were developed independently.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: The basic formation to understand the Argentine numeration system is the 4–3–3 formation, like the one used by the coach César Menotti that made Argentina win the 1978 World Cup, the squad numbers employed are:


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In Brazil, the 4–2–4 formation was developed independently from Europe, thus leading to a different numbering – here shown in the 4–3–3 formation to stress that in Brazil, number ten is midfield:


title: Squad number (association football)

text: When in 4–2–4, number 10 passes to the Ponta de Lança (striker), and 4–4–2 formations get this configuration: four defenders – 2 (right wingback), 4, 3, 6 (left wingback); four midfielders – 5 (defensive), 8 ("second midfielder"), similar to a central midfielder), 7, 10 (attacking); two strikers – 9, 11


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In France, players must be registered between numbers 1–30, with 1 and 16 reserved for goalkeepers and 33 left empty for extra signings. In case a fourth goalkeeper has to be registered, he wears number 40.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In Eastern Europe, the defence numbering is slightly different. The Hungarian national team under Gusztáv Sebes switched from a 2–3–5 formation to 3–2–5. So the defence numbers were 2 to 4 from right to left thus making the right back (2), centre back (3) and the left back (4). Since the concept of a flat back four the number (5) has become the other centre back.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In 1995, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) also switched to persistent squad numbers for Serie A and Serie B (second division), abandoning the mandatory use of 1–11 for the starting lineup. After some years during which players had to wear a number between 1–24, now they can wear any number between 1–99 without restrictions. Notably, Chievo Verona had the goalkeeper Cristiano Lupatelli wearing number 10 from 2001 to 2003 and midfielder Jonathan de Guzman wearing number 1 in 2016.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In the Spanish La Liga, players in the A-squad (maximum 25 players, including a maximum of three goalkeepers) must wear a number between 1–25. Goalkeepers must wear either 1, 13 or 25. When players from the reserve team are selected to play for the first team, they are given squad numbers between 26 and 50.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: Players are not generally allowed to change their number during a season, although a player may change number if they change clubs mid-season. Players may change squad numbers between seasons, this often happens when a player’s role in the first team increases or diminishes. Occasionally, when a player has two loan spells at the same club in a single season (or returns as a permanent signing after an earlier loan spell), an alternative squad number is needed if the original number assigned during the player's first loan spell has been reassigned by the time the player returns.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: A move from a high number to a low one may be an indication that the player is likely to be a regular starter for the coming season, particularly after at least one preceding season of increased first team opportunities. An example of this is Celtic's Scott McDonald, who, after the departure of former number 7 Maciej Żurawski, was given the number, a move down from 27. Another example is Steven Gerrard, who wore number 28 (which was his academy number) during his debut 1998–99 season, then switched to number 17 in 2000–01. In 2004–05, after Emile Heskey left Liverpool, Gerrard then changed his number again to 8. More recently, Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane changed his number 37 shirt from the 2013–14 season to 18 for the 2014–15 season when he became one of the club's first-choice strikers after Jermain Defoe was sold and the number 18 was vacated. Kane then switched to the number 10 for the 2015–16 season after Emmanuel Adebayor left the club and the number was vacated. Manchester City's Sergio Agüero also did a similar switch in jersey number, from number 16 in 2014–15 to number 10 in 2015–16, a number he took over from Edin Džeko following his loan departure to Roma. During the 1990s, David Beckham wore a different shirt number for Manchester United during four consecutive seasons. He was assigned with the number 28 shirt for the 1993-94 season and retained it for the 1994-95 season, before switching to the number 24 shirt for the 1995-96 season, when he established himself as a regular player. He then switched to the number 10 shirt for the 1996-97 season, and following the retirement of Eric Cantona at the end of that season, he switched to the number 7 shirt for the 1997-98 season, with new signing Teddy Sheringham taking the number 10 shirt.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: Some players keep the number they start their career at a club with, such as Chelsea defender John Terry, who wore the number 26 during his long spell at the club, rather than adopting a number 4, 5 or 6 shirt which he might have been expected to take on once he was established as a regular player. On occasion, players have moved numbers to accommodate a new player; for example, Chelsea midfielder Yossi Benayoun handed new signing Juan Mata the number 10 shirt, and changed to the number 30, which doubles his "lucky" number 15. Upon signing for Everton in 2007, Yakubu refused the prestigious number 9 shirt and asked to be assigned number 22, setting this number as a goal-scoring target for his first season, a feat he ultimately fell one goal short of achieving.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In a traditional 4–4–2 system in the UK, the squad numbers 1–11 would usually have been occupied in this manner:


title: Squad number (association football)

text: Higher-level clubs have a tendency to field reserve and fringe players in the English Football League Cup as well as insignificant games near the end of the league campaign when there are no major issues (eg a league title, European place or promotion or relegation issues) to be decided, so high squad numbers are not uncommon. Nico Yennaris wore 64 for Arsenal in the competition on 26 September 2012 in a match against Coventry City and on 24 September 2014, again in the League Cup, Manchester City forward José Ángel Pozo wore the number 78 shirt in a match against Sheffield Wednesday. In a quarter-final tie on 17 December 2019, Liverpool player Tom Hill became the first player in English football history to wear the number 99 shirt in a competitive match. In The Football League, the number 55 has been worn by Ade Akinbiyi for Crystal Palace, and Dominik Werling for Barnsley.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: When Sunderland signed Cameroonian striker Patrick Mboma on loan in 2002, he wanted the number 70 to symbolize his birth year of 1970. The Premier League refused, however, and he wore the number 7 instead.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In England, in a now traditional 4–4–2 formation, the standard numbering is usually: 2 (right fullback), 5, 6, 3 (left fullback); 4 (defensive midfielder), 7 (right midfielder), 8 (central/attacking midfielder), 11 (left midfielder); 10 (second/support striker), 9 (striker). This came about based on the traditional 2–3–5 system. Where the 2 fullbacks retained the numbers 2, 3. Then of the halves, 4 was kept as the central defensive midfielder, while 5 and 6 were moved backward to be in the central of defence. 7 and 11 stayed as the wide attacking players, whilst 8 dropped back a little from inside forward to a (sometimes attacking) midfield role, and 10 stayed as a second striker in support of a number 9. The 4 is generally the holding midfielder, as through the formation evolution it was often used for the sweeper or libero position. This position defended behind the central defenders, but attacked in front – feeding the midfield. It is generally not used today, and developed into the holding midfielder role.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: When substitutions were introduced to the game in 1965, the substitute typically took the number 12; when a second substitute was allowed, they wore 14. Players were not compelled to wear the number 13 if they were superstitious.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: North American professional association football club follows a model similar to that of European clubs, with the exception that many American and Canadian clubs do not have "reserve squads", and thus do not assign higher numbers to those players.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: Most American and Canadian clubs have players numbered from 1 to 30, with higher numbers being reserved for second and third goalkeepers. In the United Soccer Leagues First Division and Major League Soccer (MLS), there were only 20 outfield players wearing squad numbers higher than 30 on the first team in the 2009 season, suggesting that the traditional model has been followed.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In 2007, MLS club LA Galaxy retired the former playing number of Cobi Jones, number 13, becoming the first MLS team to do so.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: The first-choice goalkeeper is usually assigned the number 1 shirt as he or she is the first player in a line-up.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: The second-choice goalkeeper wears, on many occasions, shirt number 12 which is the first shirt of the second line up, or number 13. In the past, when it was permitted to assign five substitute players in a match, the goalkeeper would also often wear the number 16, the last shirt number in the squad. Later on, when association football laws changed and it was permitted to assign seven substitute players, second-choice goalkeepers often wore the number 18. In the A-League, second-choice goalkeepers mostly wear number 20, based on that competition having a 20-man regulated "first team" squad size.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In international tournaments (such as FIFA World Cup or continental cups) each team must list a squad of 23 players, wearing shirts numbered 1 through 23. Thus, in this case, third-choice goalkeepers often wear the number 23. Prior to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, only 22 players were permitted in international squads; therefore, the third goalkeeper was often awarded the number 22 jersey in previous tournaments.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: The move to a fixed number being assigned to each player in a squad was initiated for the 1954 World Cup where each man in a country's 22-man squad wore a specific number for the duration of the tournament. As a result, the numbers 12 to 22 were assigned to different squad players, with no resemblance to their on-field positions. This meant that a team could start a match not necessarily fielding players wearing numbers one to eleven. Although the numbers one to eleven tended to be given to those players deemed to be the "first choice line-up", this was not always the case for a variety of reasons – a famous example was Johan Cruyff, who insisted on wearing the number 14 shirt for the Netherlands.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In the 1958 World Cup, the Brazilian Football Confederation forgot to send the player numbers list to the event organization. However, the Uruguayan official Lorenzo Villizzio assigned random numbers to the players. The goalkeeper Gilmar received the number 3, and Garrincha and Zagallo wore opposite winger numbers, 11 and 7, while Pelé was randomly given the number 10, for which he would become famous.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: Argentina defied convention by numbering their squads for the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups alphabetically, resulting in outfield players (not goalkeepers) wearing the number 1 shirt (although Diego Maradona was given an out-of-sequence number 10 in both 1982 and 1986 while Mario Kempes in 1982 and Jorge Valdano in 1986 were allowed to use number 11). In 1974 Argentina also used the alphabetical system, but only to line players and goalkeepers Daniel Carnevali and Ubaldo Fillol wore traditional goalkeeping numbers 1 and 12 respectively. England used a similar alphabetical scheme for the 1982 World Cup, but retained the traditional numbers for the goalkeepers (1, 13 and 22) and the team captain (7), Kevin Keegan. In the 1990 World Cup, Scotland assigned squad numbers according to the number of international matches each player had played at the time (with the exception of goalkeeper Jim Leighton, who was assigned an out-of-sequence number 1): Alex McLeish, who was the most capped player, wore number 2, whereas Robert Fleck and Bryan Gunn, who only had one cap each, wore numbers 21 and 22, respectively. In a practice that ended after the 1998 World Cup, Italy gave low squad numbers to defenders, medium to midfielders, and high ones to forwards, while numbers 1, 12 and 22 were assigned to goalkeepers. In July 2007, a FIFA document issuing regulations for the 2010 World Cup finally stated that the number 1 jersey must be issued to a goalkeeper.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: Before the 2002 World Cup, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) attempted to retire the number 10 in honour of Maradona by submitting a squad list of 23 players for the tournament, listed 1 through 24, with the number 10 omitted. FIFA rejected Argentina's plan, with the governing body's president Sepp Blatter suggesting the number 10 shirt be instead given to the team's third-choice goalkeeper, Roberto Bonano. The AFA ultimately submitted a revised list with Ariel Ortega, originally listed as number 23, as the number 10.


title: Squad number (association football)

text: In early era of Chinese football, number 0 was often assigned to a substitute goalkeeper. At least 4 goalkeepers had been recorded wearing number 0 on field during the early years of professional league of China: Zhao Lei from Sichuan Quanxing, Wang Zhenjie from August 1, Li Jiming from Tianjin Lifei and Li Yun from Shanghai Yuyuan.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Pride and Prejudice is a six-episode 1995 British television drama, adapted by Andrew Davies from Jane Austen's 1813 novel of the same name. Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth starred as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, respectively. Produced by Sue Birtwistle and directed by Simon Langton, the serial was a BBC production with additional funding from the American A&E Network. BBC1 originally broadcast the 55-minute episodes from 24 September to 29 October 1995. The A&E Network aired the series in double episodes on three consecutive nights beginning 14 January 1996.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Critically acclaimed and a popular success, "Pride and Prejudice" was honoured with several awards, including a BAFTA Television Award for Jennifer Ehle for "Best Actress" and an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special". The role of Mr Darcy elevated Colin Firth to stardom. A scene showing Firth in a wet shirt was recognised as "one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history". "The New York Times" called the adaptation "a witty mix of love stories and social conniving, cleverly wrapped in the ambitions and illusions of a provincial gentry". The series inspired author Helen Fielding to write the popular "Bridget Jones" novels, and their screen adaptations subsequently featured Firth as Bridget's love interest, Mark Darcy.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Mr. Charles Bingley, a wealthy gentleman from the north of England, settles down at Netherfield estate near Meryton village in Hertfordshire for the autumn. Mrs. Bennet, unlike her husband, is excited at the prospect of marrying off one of her five daughters (Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia) to the newcomer. Mr. Bennet claims to have no intention of calling on Mr. Bingley; unless he does so, his wife and daughters are unable to socialise with Mr. Bingley. Mrs. Bennett, perturbed at Mr. Bennett's refusal to make Bingley's acquaintance, declares that she wishes the girls would stop talking about Mr. Bingley all together, as they will never meet him anyway. Mr. Bennet replies that he wishes he would have known that earlier, as he has already paid Mr. Bingley a visit. Mrs. Bennett and all the girls are shocked and ecstatic. Bingley takes an immediate liking to Jane at a local country dance, while his best friend Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, rumoured to be twice as rich, refuses to dance with anyone, including Elizabeth. Elizabeth's poor impression of his character is confirmed at a later gathering at Lucas Lodge, and she and Darcy verbally clash on the two nights she spends at Netherfield, caring for the sick Jane who fell ill after riding in the rain.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Mr William Collins, a sycophantic dimwitted clergyman, visits his cousins, the Bennets. As Mr and Mrs Bennett do not have a son, he is the entailed heir of their home and estate, Longbourn. He intends to marry a Bennet daughter as an act of benign goodwill, to reassure Mrs Bennet that she and her unwed daughters would not be rendered homeless once Mr Collins inherits the estate. He therefore invites himself for a two-week visit to get to know the Bennets better and select a daughter to marry. However, the Bennet girls judge Mr Collins to be a rather ridiculous man, an "oddity" with many peculiarities of speech and deportment. They nevertheless treat him civilly and take him to balls and social events in Meryton. One day, while on a walk around Meryton village, they meet members of a newly arrived militia regiment, including Mr George Wickham. At a social event, Wickham befriends Elizabeth and says that his father was the steward for Darcy's late father, and that he originally planned to join the clergy. However, Darcy denied Wickham the "living" (a curacy) that Mr Darcy's father promised him. At a ball at Netherfield, Darcy asks Elizabeth to dance, which she grudgingly but politely accepts. Mrs Bennet tells Mr Collins that she expects Jane to soon be engaged, so he instead proposes to Elizabeth. She resoundingly rejects him. While Mrs Bennet reacts angrily to Elizabeth's decision, her close friend, Charlotte Lucas, invites Mr Collins to visit at Lucas Lodge.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Elizabeth is stunned and appalled to learn that Charlotte Lucas has accepted Mr Collins' marriage proposal. When the Netherfield party departs for London in autumn, Jane stays with her modest London relatives, the Gardiners, but she soon notices that the Bingleys ignore her. After befriending Mr Wickham, Elizabeth departs for the Collins' home in Kent in the spring to visit Charlotte. They live near Rosings, the estate of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Darcy's aunt. Elizabeth meets Darcy several times. Elizabeth learns of Darcy's direct responsibility for Jane and Bingley's separation. Soon after, Darcy unexpectedly tells her that he admires her and loves her, so much that in spite of her greatly inferior social standing, he proposes marriage. Elizabeth flatly rejects him, noting his arrogant, disagreeable, and proud character, and for his part in her sister's failed romance and Mr Wickham's misfortune.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Darcy justifies his previous actions in a long letter to Elizabeth: he misjudged Jane's affection for Bingley, and he exposes Wickham as a gambler who once attempted to elope with his young sister, Georgiana, to obtain her inheritance. Back at Longbourn, Mr Bennet allows Lydia to accompany the militia to Brighton as a personal friend of the militia colonel's wife. Elizabeth joins the Gardiners on a sightseeing trip to Derbyshire and visits Pemberley, Darcy's estate, during his absence. Greatly impressed by the immense scale and richness of the estate, Elizabeth listens to the housekeeper's earnest tales of her master's lifelong goodness, while Darcy refreshes from his unannounced journey home by taking a swim in a pond. After an unexpected and awkward encounter with Elizabeth, a damp Darcy is able to prevent the party's premature departure with an unusual degree of friendliness and politeness.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Elizabeth and the Gardiners receive an invitation to Pemberley, where Darcy and Elizabeth share significant glances. The next morning, Elizabeth receives two letters from Jane, revealing that Lydia has eloped with Wickham. As Elizabeth is about to return to Longbourn, Darcy arrives and offers help, but upon hearing the bad news about Lydia, becomes disturbed and leaves in haste. Elizabeth supposes she will never see him again. The Bennets are all dismayed by the scandal, until Mr Gardiner writes that Lydia and Wickham have been found. They are not married, but soon will be under the Gardiners' care. The Bennets are relieved, but Mr Bennet wonders what it cost Mr Gardiner to get Wickham to marry a girl with no fortune. Elizabeth tells Jane of her last meeting with Darcy, including her ambivalent feelings for him.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: After Lydia carelessly mentions Darcy's involvement in her wedding, Mrs Gardiner enlightens Elizabeth: Darcy found the errant couple and paid for everything, including a large payoff to Wickham. When Bingley and Darcy return to Netherfield in the autumn, Darcy apologises to Bingley for interfering in his relationship with Jane and gives his blessing for the couple to wed. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who intends for Darcy to marry her sickly daughter, Anne, has heard rumours of an engagement between Darcy and Elizabeth. She calls on Elizabeth, demanding that she deny the engagement and renounce Darcy forever. Elizabeth confirms that there is no engagement, but refuses any pledge for the future. When Elizabeth thanks Darcy for his role in Lydia's marriage, he says that Lady Catherine's story had encouraged him to reconfirm his feelings for Elizabeth. Elizabeth admits the complete transformation of her feelings and agrees to an engagement, taking her family by surprise. The series ends with a double winter wedding: Jane to Bingley, and Elizabeth to Darcy.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: When casting the many characters of "Pride and Prejudice", the producer Sue Birtwistle and director Simon Langton were looking for actors with wit, charm and charisma, who could play the Regency period. Their choices for the protagonists, 20-year-old Elizabeth Bennet and 28-year-old Mr Darcy, determined the other actors cast. Hundreds of actresses between 15 and 28 auditioned for the younger female characters, and those with the right presence were screen-tested, performing several prepared scenes in period costumes and makeup in a television studio. Straight offers were made to several established actors.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Jennifer Ehle was chosen from six serious candidates to play Elizabeth, the second Bennet daughter, the brightest girl, and her father's favourite. At the time in her mid-20s, Ehle had read "Pride and Prejudice" at the age of 12 and was the only actor to be present throughout the whole filming schedule. Sue Birtwistle particularly wanted Colin Firth, a relatively unknown British actor in his mid-30s at the time, to play the wealthy and aloof Mr Darcy. Birtwistle had worked with him on the mid-1980s comedy film "Dutch Girls", but he repeatedly turned down her offer as he neither felt attracted to Austen's feminine perspective nor believed himself to be right for the role. Birtwistle's persistent coaxing and his deeper examination of the Darcy character finally convinced him to accept the role. Firth and Ehle began a romantic relationship during the filming of the series, which received media attention only after the couple's separation.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Benjamin Whitrow was cast to play Mr Bennet, Elizabeth's distinguished but financially imprudent and occasionally indulgent gentry father. BAFTA-nominated Alison Steadman was cast to play the parvenu Mrs Bennet, Elizabeth's mortifyingly affected social-climbing mother. Steadman was offered the role without auditions or screen tests. Elizabeth's four sisters, whose ages ranged between 15 and 22, were cast to look dissimilar from each other. Susannah Harker portrayed Elizabeth's beautiful older sister Jane, who desires to only see good in others. Lucy Briers, Polly Maberly, and Julia Sawalha played Elizabeth's younger sisters – the plain Mary, the good-natured but flighty and susceptible Kitty, and frivolous and headstrong Lydia. Being 10 years older than 15-year-old Lydia, Julia Sawalha, of "Absolutely Fabulous" fame, had enough acting experience to get the role without screen tests. Joanna David and Tim Wylton appeared as the Gardiners, Elizabeth's maternal aunt and uncle. David Bamber played the unctuous clergyman, Mr Collins, a cousin of Mr Bennet. Lucy Scott portrayed Elizabeth's best friend and Mr Collins's wife, Charlotte Lucas, and David Bark-Jones portrayed Lt Denny.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The producers found Crispin Bonham-Carter to have the best physical contrast to Firth's Darcy and gave him his first major television role as the good-natured and wealthy Mr Charles Bingley. Bonham-Carter had originally auditioned for the part of Mr George Wickham, a handsome militia lieutenant whose charm conceals his licentiousness and greed, but Adrian Lukis was cast instead. Anna Chancellor, of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" fame, played Mr Bingley's sister Caroline Bingley. (Chancellor is also Jane Austen's six-times-great-niece) Mr Bingley's other sister and his brother-in-law were played by Lucy Robinson (Louisa Hurst) and Rupert Vansittart (Mr Hurst). Casting the role of Darcy's young sister, Georgiana, proved hard as the producers were looking for a young actress who appeared innocent, proud and yet shy, had class and could also play the piano. After auditioning over 70 actresses, Simon Langton suggested Emilia Fox, the real-life daughter of Joanna David (Mrs Gardiner), for the part. Barbara Leigh-Hunt was cast as Darcy's meddling aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, without auditions or screen tests.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice" had already been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations, including BBC television versions in 1938, 1952, 1958, 1967 and 1980. In the autumn of 1986, after watching a preview of Austen's "Northanger Abbey", Sue Birtwistle and Andrew Davies agreed to adapt "Pride and Prejudice", one of their favourite books, for television. Birtwistle in particular felt that a new adaptation on film would serve the drama better than the previous videotaped "Pride and Prejudice" television adaptations, which looked too "undernourished" and "unpoetic". The needs of TV scheduling forced Davies to change his original plan of a five-episode adaptation to six. Birtwistle and Davies then offered the first three scripts to ITV in late 1986 to build on the guaranteed BBC audience, but the recent TV adaptation led to a delay. When ITV announced its renewed interest in 1993, Michael Wearing of the BBC commissioned the final scripts with co-funding from the American A&E Network. Director Simon Langton and the art department joined pre-production in January and February 1994.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Although Birtwistle and Davies wished to remain true to the tone and spirit of the novel, they wanted to produce "a fresh, lively story about real people", not an "old studio-bound BBC drama that was shown in the Sunday teatime slot". Emphasising sex and money as the themes of the story, Davies shifted the focus from Elizabeth to Elizabeth and Darcy and foreshadowed Darcy's role in the narrative resolution. To portray the characters as real human beings, Davies added short backstage scenes such as the Bennet girls dressing up to advertise themselves in the marriage market. New scenes where men pursue their hobbies with their peers departed from Jane Austen's focus on women. The biggest technical difficulty proved to be adapting the long letters in the second half of the story. Davies employed techniques such as voice-overs, flashbacks, and having the characters read the letters to themselves and to each other. Davies added some dialogue to clarify events from the novel to a modern audience but left much of the novel's dialogue intact.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Director of photography John Kenway used Super 16mm film, which has a slightly smaller widescreen aspect ratio than , but the series was originally broadcast pan and scan.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The budget of about £1 million per episode (totalling US$9.6 million) allowed 20 shooting weeks of five days to film six 55-minute episodes. Production aimed for 10.5-hour shooting days plus time for costume and make-up. Two weeks before filming began, about 70 of the cast and crew gathered for the script read-through, followed by rehearsals, lessons for dancing, horse-riding, fencing, and other skills that needed to be ready ahead of the actual filming. Filming took place between June 1994 and 1 November 1994 to reflect the changing seasons in the plot, followed by post-production until mid-May 1995. Scenes in the same place were grouped in the filming schedule.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Twenty-four locations, most of them owned by the National Trust, and eight studio sets were used for filming. Reflecting the wealth differences between the main characters, the filming location for Longbourn showed the comfortable family house of the Bennet family, whereas Darcy's Pemberley needed to look like the "most beautiful place", showing good taste and the history of the aristocracy.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The first location that the producers agreed on was Lacock in Wiltshire to represent the village of Meryton. Luckington Court nearby served as the interior and exterior of Longbourn. Lyme Hall in Cheshire was chosen as Pemberley but management problems forced production to film Pemberley's interiors at Sudbury Hall in Sudbury, Derbyshire.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The producers found Belton House in Grantham, Lincolnshire the best match for Rosings, Lady Catherine de Bourgh's estate, which needed to appear "over-the-top" to reflect her disagreeableness. Old Rectory at Teigh in Rutland was chosen as Hunsford parsonage, Mr Collins's home. Edgcote House in south-west Northamptonshire served as the interior and exterior of Bingley's Netherfield, along with Brocket Hall in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire as the Netherfield ballroom. The London streets were filmed in Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick, Warwickshire. Wickham's and Georgiana's planned elopement in Ramsgate was filmed in the English seaside resort Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. Wickham's wedding takes place in St Paul's in Deptford, London.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Because "Pride and Prejudice" was a period drama, the design required more research than contemporary films. The personality and wealth of the characters were reflected in their costumes; the wealthy Bingley sisters were never shown in print dresses and they wore big feathers in their hair. As the BBC's stock of early 19th century costumes was limited, costume designer Dinah Collin designed most of the costumes, visiting museums for inspiration while trying to make the clothes attractive to a modern audience (although some costumes, mostly worn by extras, were re-used from earlier BBC productions or hired). Elizabeth's clothes had earthy tones and were fitted to allow easy and natural movements in line with the character's activity and liveliness. In contrast, Collin chose pale or creamy white colours for the clothes of the other Bennet girls to highlight their innocence and simplicity and richer colours for Bingley's sisters and Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Colin Firth participated in the wardrobe decisions and wanted his character to wear darker colours, leaving the warmer colours for Bingley.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The producers imagined Darcy to be dark despite no such references in the novel and asked Firth to dye black his light-brown hair, eyebrows and lashes; they instructed all male actors to let their hair grow before filming and shave off their moustaches. Three brunette wigs were made to cover Ehle's short, blonde hair and one wig for Alison Steadman (Mrs. Bennet) because of her thick, heavy hair. Susannah Harker's (Jane) hair was slightly lightened to contrast with Elizabeth's and was arranged in a classic Greek style to highlight the character's beauty. Mary's plainness was achieved by painting spots on Lucy Briers's face; her hair was greased to suggest an unwashed appearance and was arranged to emphasise the actress's protruding ears. As Kitty and Lydia were too young and wild to have their hair done by the maids, the actresses' hair was not changed much. Makeup artist Caroline Noble had always considered Mr Collins a sweaty character with a moist upper lip; she also greased David Bamber's hair and gave him a low parting to suggest baldness.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Carl Davis had been writing scores for BBC adaptations of classic novels since the mid-1970s and approached Sue Birtwistle during pre-production. Aiming to communicate the wit and vitality of the novel and its theme of marriage and love in a small town in the early 19th century, he used contemporary classical music as inspiration, in particular a popular Beethoven septet of the period, as well as a theme strongly reminiscent of the finale of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. For control over the sound, the music was recorded in six hours by a group of up to 18 musicians and was then fed into tiny earpieces of the screen musicians, who mimed playing the instruments. The actresses whose characters played the piano, Lucy Briers (Mary) and Emilia Fox (Georgiana), were already accomplished pianists and were given the opportunity to practice weeks ahead of filming. Among the songs and movements that were played in the serial were Handel's "Air con Variazioni" from Suite No. 5 in E Major HWV 430 and "Slumber, Dear Maid" from his opera "Xerxes" (in 1813 these works by Handel would have been considered quite old-fashioned, adding to the perception that Mary's tastes are a bit out of fashion), Mozart's "Rondo alla turca", "Voi che sapete" and other music from his operas "The Marriage of Figaro" and "Don Giovanni", Beethoven's "Andante favori", the second movement from Muzio Clementi's Sonatina No.4 and the traditional folk song "The Barley Mow". A soundtrack with Davis's themes was released on CD in 1995. The text of Mozart's "Voi, che sapete"(sung in an English translation) is a particularly meaningful choice: the original Italian is a love song, including the words "You, who know what love is, tell me, is that what I feel in my heart?" Lizzie sings this, and soon after, she graciously "saves" Georgiana from embarrassment at the mention of Wickham, and Darcy further realizes her good heart. This musical theme is soon echoed, after that episode, as Darcy walks along the hall; tell me, is love what I feel in my heart?


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Many scenes in the book were set at dances or balls. Jane Gibson based her choreography on "The Apted Book of Country Dances" (1966) by W.S. Porter, which had several late-18th-century dances by Charles and Samuel Thompson such as "The Shrewsbury Lasses", "A Trip to Highgate" and "Mr. Beveridge's Maggot". Although these dances gave the story an impression of authenticity, they were anachronistic, being out of fashion by the time of the story. Some fifteen dances were choreographed and rehearsed before filming. Polly Maberly and Julia Sawalha, the dance-mad Kitty and Lydia, had three days to learn the dances. Three days were allotted for the filming of the ball at Netherfield, whose pace and style concentrated on elegance rather than the community enjoying themselves as at the dance at Meryton. The musicians and dancers had earpieces with music playing to allow dialogue recording. Many wide-shots of Elizabeth's and Darcy's dance at Netherfield later turned out to be unusable because of a hair in front of a lens so the editors resorted to close-up shots and material provided by a steadicam.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The adaptation received praise for its faithfulness to the novel, which highlights the importance of environment and upbringing on peoples' development, although privilege is not necessarily advantageous. Describing the adaptation as "a witty mix of love stories and social conniving, cleverly wrapped in the ambitions and illusions of a provincial gentry", critics noted that Davies's focus on sex and money and Austen's wry, incisive humour and the "deft" characterisation, prevented the television adaptation from "descending into the realm of a nicely-costumed, brilliantly-photographed melodrama".


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: To avoid a narrator, the serial delegates the novel's first ironic sentence to Elizabeth in an early scene. The adaptation opens with a view of Darcy's and Bingley's horses as they race across a field toward the Netherfield estate, expressing vitality; Elizabeth watches them before breaking into a run. While the novel indicates Elizabeth's independence and energy in her three-mile trek to Netherfield, the adaptation of this scene also shows her rebelliousness and love of nature.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: In what is "perhaps the most radical revision of Austen's text", the BBC drama departs from a late 18th-century vision of emotional restraint and portrays emotions in a "modern" interpretation of the story. The novel leaves Elizabeth and the reader uncertain of Darcy's emotions and the adaptation uses additional scenes to hint at Darcy's inability to physically contain or verbally express his emotional turmoil. On the other hand, whereas the climax of the novel describes Darcy expressing his ardent love for Elizabeth at length (though Austen leaves his actual words to the reader's imagination), the adaptation elides this moment and passes directly to the next lines of dialogue. Scholars argue that activities such as billiards, bathing, fencing and swimming (see the lake scene) offer Darcy to a female gaze; he is often presented in profile by a window or a fireplace when his friends discuss Elizabeth. Many passages relating to appearance or characters' viewpoints were lifted from the novel.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The novel shows irony with "unmistakable strains of cynicism, ... laughing at human nature without any real hope of changing it". Laughter in the story, which ranges from irresponsible laughter to laughter at people and laughter of amusement and relief, can also be linked to the sexual tensions among the different characters. Despite their appeal to modern audiences, laughter and wit were seen as vulgar and irreverent in Austen's time. The BBC drama made changes "with a view to exposing a character, or adding humour or irony to a situation". The adaptation comically exaggerates the characters of Mrs Bennet, Miss Bingley and Mr Collins, even showing Mrs Bennet on the verge of hysteria in many of the early scenes.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The serial expands on Austen's metaphorical use of landscapes, reinforcing beauty and authenticity. Elizabeth takes every opportunity to enjoy nature and to escape exposure to Mr Collins and Lady Catherine. The most symbolic use of nature in the novel is Elizabeth and the Gardiners' visit to Pemberley in Derbyshire, where Elizabeth becomes conscious of her love for Darcy. The story makes nature integral in the form of Old England. Elizabeth's appreciation of the beauties of Derbyshire elevates Darcy in her and her relatives' opinion. Darcy's gaze through the window works as a movie screen, projecting Elizabeth's actions for him and the viewer. His participation in the English landscape is his redemption.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Between 10 and 11 million people watched the original six-episode broadcast on BBC One on Sunday evenings from 24 September to 29 October 1995. The episodes were repeated each week on BBC Two. The final episode of "Pride and Prejudice" had a market share of about 40 percent in Britain, by which time eight foreign countries had bought the rights to the serial. 3.7 million Americans watched the first broadcast on the A&E Network, which aired the serial in double episodes on three consecutive evenings beginning 14 January 1996.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The serial was released on VHS in the UK in the week running up to the original transmission of the final episode. The entire first run of 12,000 copies of the double-video set sold out within two hours of release. 70,000 copies had been sold by the end of the first week of sales, increasing to 200,000 sold units within the first year of the original airing. A BBC spokeswoman called the initial sale results "a huge phenomenon", as "it is unheard of for a video to sell even half as well, especially when viewers are able to tape the episodes at home for free". The CD soundtrack was also popular, and 20,000 copies of an official making-of book were sold within days. The serial was released on DVD four times, initially in 2000, as a digitally remastered "Tenth Anniversary Edition" in September 2005, and in April 2007 as part of a "Classic Drama DVD" magazine collection. A high-definition transfer was produced from the original negatives and released as a Blu-ray in October 2008. The HD version has not been broadcast on television; the BBC refuses to broadcast anything shot in 16 mm in HD. The same restored version was released on DVD in March 2009. The Blu-ray was released on 14 April 2009.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: A 2010 Remastered Edition and a 2014 Keepsake Edition have the same footage, time lengths, and format. The 2014 Keepsake Edition has improved colors. The 2010 Remastered Edition begins with piracy warnings and then movie begins playing. The 2014 Keepsake Edition begins with five compulsory previews which can only be bypassed by skipping forward through each individual preview. The second disc of the Keepsake set also begins with the same five compulsory previews. The 2014 Keepsake Edition has 50" of new bonus materials plus the 1'45" of bonus materials that was presented in the 2010 Remastered Edition. These bonus materials include interviews with the producer, screenwriter, director, musical composer, and cast members. The cast interviews in both editions do not include interviews with the two main characters, Colin Firth (Mr. Darcy) and Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennet).


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The critical response to "Pride and Prejudice" was overwhelmingly positive. Gerard Gilbert of "The Independent" recommended the opening episode of the serial one day before the British premiere, saying the television adaptation is "probably as good as it [can get for a literary classic]. The casting in particular deserves a tilt at a BAFTA, Firth not being in the slightest bit soft and fluffy – and Jennifer Ehle showing the right brand of spirited intelligence as Elizabeth." He considered Benjamin Whitrow a "real scene-stealer with his Mr Bennet", but was undecided about Alison Steadman's portrayal of Mrs Bennet. Reviewing the first episode for the same newspaper on the day after transmission, Jim White praised Andrew Davies for "injecting into the proceedings a pace and energy which at last provides a visual setting to do justice to the wit of the book. With everyone slinging themselves about at high speed (the dances, in a first for the genre, actually involve a bit of sweat), it looks like people are doing something you would never have suspected they did in Austen's time: having fun."


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: A few days before the American premiere, Howard Rosenberg of the "Los Angeles Times" considered the adaptation "decidedly agreeable" despite its incidental liberties with Austen's novel, and named Elizabeth's parents and Mr Collins as the main source of humour. John O'Connor of "The New York Times" lauded the serial as a "splendid adaptation, with a remarkably faithful and sensitively nuanced script". He commented on Jennifer Ehle's ability to make Elizabeth "strikingly intelligent and authoritative without being overbearing", and noted how Firth "brilliantly captures Mr Darcy's snobbish pride while conveying, largely through intense stares, that he is falling in love despite himself". O'Connor praised Barbara Leigh-Hunt's portrayal of Lady Catherine as "a marvellously imperious witch" and considered her scenes with David Bamber (Mr Collins) "hilarious".


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: However, O'Connor remarked that American audiences might find the "languorous walks across meadows" and "ornately choreographed dances" of the British production too slow. In one of the most negative reviews, "People Magazine" considered the adaptation "a good deal more thorough than necessary" and "not the best Austen on the suddenly crowded market". Although the reviewer thought Firth "magnificent", he rebuked the casting of Jennifer Ehle as her oval face made her "look like Anaïs Nin in period clothes, and that ain't right". The official A&E Network magazine summarised a year later that "critics praised the lavish production, audiences adored it, and women everywhere swooned over Darcy. So much, in fact, that newspapers began to joke about 'Darcy fever.'" Commendation for the serial continued in the years following its original transmission.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: "Pride and Prejudice" received BAFTA Television Award nominations for "Best Drama Serial", "Best Costume Design", and "Best Make Up/Hair" in 1996. Jennifer Ehle was honoured with a BAFTA for "Best Actress", while Colin Firth and Benjamin Whitrow, nominated for "Best Actor", lost to Robbie Coltrane of "Cracker". Firth won the 1996 Broadcasting Press Guild Award for "Best Actor", complemented by the same award for "Best Drama Series/Serial". The serial was recognised in the United States with an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special", and was Emmy-nominated for its achievements as an "Outstanding Miniseries" as well as for choreography and writing. Among other awards and nominations, "Pride and Prejudice" received a Peabody Award, a Television Critics Association Award, and a Golden Satellite Award nomination for outstanding achievements as a serial.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: As one of the BBC's and A&E's most popular presentations ever, the serial was "a cultural phenomenon, inspiring hundreds of newspaper articles and making the novel a commuter favourite". With the 1995 and 1996 films "Persuasion", "Sense and Sensibility" and "Emma", the serial was part of a wave of Jane Austen enthusiasm which caused the membership of the Jane Austen Society of North America to jump fifty percent in 1996 and to over 4,000 members in the autumn of 1997. Some newspapers like "The Wall Street Journal" explained this "Austen-mania" as a commercial move of the television and film industry, whereas others attributed Austen's popularity to escapism.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: While Jennifer Ehle refused to capitalise on the success of the serial and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, the role of Mr. Darcy unexpectedly elevated Colin Firth to stardom. Although Firth did not mind being recognised as "a romantic idol as a Darcy with smouldering sex appeal" in a role that "officially turned him into a heart-throb", he expressed the wish to not be associated with "Pride and Prejudice" forever and was reluctant to accept similar roles. He took on diverse roles and co-starred in productions such as "The English Patient" (1996), "Shakespeare in Love" (1998), "Bridget Jones's Diary" (2001 – although this film is essentially an adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" in which Firth effectively reprises the role of Darcy), "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (2003), "Love Actually" (2003) and "" (2004).


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: "Pride and Prejudice" continued to be honoured years later. A 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute ranked the serial at 99 in the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, which the BFI attributed to its "managing to combine faithfulness to the novel with a freshness that appealed across the generations". "Radio Times" included the serial in their list of "40 greatest TV programmes ever made" in 2003. It was also named by "Entertainment Weekly" as one of the 20 best miniseries of all time. In 2007, the UK Film Council declared "Pride and Prejudice" one of the television dramas that have become "virtual brochures" for British history and society. Lyme Hall, Cheshire, which had served as the exterior of Pemberley, experienced a tripling in its visitor numbers after the series' broadcast and is still a popular travel destination.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The adaptation is famous for a scene in its fourth episode where a fully dressed Darcy, having emerged from a swim in a lake at Pemberley, accidentally encounters Elizabeth. While many critics attributed the scene's appeal to Firth's sexual attractiveness, Andrew Davies thought that it unwittingly "rerobed, not disrobed, Austen". When Davies wrote the scene (it was not part of Austen's novel), he did not intend a sexual connection between Elizabeth and Darcy but to create "an amusing moment in which Darcy tries to maintain his dignity while improperly dressed and sopping wet". The BBC opposed Davies's plan to have Darcy naked but the producers discarded the alternative of using underpants as fatuous. According to Davies, Firth had "a bit of the usual tension about getting [his] kit off", the scene was filmed with Firth in linen shirt, breeches and boots. A stuntman, who appears in midair in a very brief shot, was hired because of the risk of infection with Weil's disease at Lyme Park. A short underwater segment was filmed separately with Firth in a tank at Ealing Studios in west London.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: "The Guardian" declared the lake scene "one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history". The sequence also appeared in Channel 4's Top 100 TV Moments in 1999, between the controversial programme "Death on the Rock" and the Gulf War. "The New York Times" compared the scene to Marlon Brando shouting "Stella!" in his undershirt in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Firth's projects began alluding to it – screenwriter-director Richard Curtis added in-joke moments of Firth's characters falling into the water to "Love Actually" and "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason", and Firth's character from the 2007 film "St Trinian's" emerges from a fountain in a soaking wet shirt before meeting up with an old love. The creators of the 2008 ITV production "Lost in Austen" emulated the lake scene in their "Pride and Prejudice" through their contemporary heroine who cajoles Darcy into recreating the moment.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Cheryl L. Nixon suggested in "Jane Austen in Hollywood" that Darcy's dive is a "revelation of his emotional capabilities", expressing a "Romantic bond with nature, a celebration of his home where he can 'strip down' to his essential self, a cleansing of social prejudices from his mind, or ... a rebirth of his love for Elizabeth". Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield wrote that the scene "tells us more about our current decade's obsession with physical perfection and acceptance of gratuitous nudity than it does about Austen's Darcy, but the image carves a new facet into the text".


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: The fictional journalist Bridget Jones (in reality Helen Fielding of "The Independent") wrote of her love of the serial in the paper's "Bridget Jones's Diary" column during the original British broadcast, mentioning her "simple human need for Darcy to get off with Elizabeth" and regarding the couple as her "chosen representatives in the field of shagging, or rather courtship". Fielding loosely reworked the plot of "Pride and Prejudice" in her 1996 novel of the column, naming Bridget's uptight love interest "Mark Darcy" and describing him exactly like Colin Firth. Following a first meeting with Firth during his filming of "Fever Pitch" in 1996, Fielding asked Firth to collaborate in what would become a multi-page interview between Bridget Jones and Firth in her 1999 sequel novel, "". Conducting the real interview with Firth in Rome, Fielding lapsed into Bridget Jones mode and obsessed over Darcy in his wet shirt for the fictional interview. Firth participated in the editing of what critics called "one of the funniest sequences in the diary's sequel". Both novels make various other references to the BBC serial.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: Andrew Davies collaborated on the screenplays for the 2001 and 2004 "Bridget Jones" films, in which Crispin Bonham-Carter (Mr. Bingley) and Lucy Robinson (Mrs. Hurst) appeared in minor roles. The self-referential in-joke between the projects convinced Colin Firth to accept the role of Mark Darcy, as it gave him an opportunity to ridicule and liberate himself from his "Pride and Prejudice" character. Film critic James Berardinelli would later state that Firth "plays this part [of Mark Darcy] exactly as he played the earlier role, making it evident that the two Darcys are essentially the same". The producers never found a way to incorporate the Jones-Firth interview in the second film but shot a spoof interview with Firth as himself and Renée Zellweger staying in character as Bridget Jones after a day's wrap. The scene, which extended Bridget's Darcy obsession to cover Firth's lake scene in "Love Actually", is available as a bonus feature on the DVD.


title: Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

text: For almost a decade, the 1995 TV serial was considered "so dominant, so universally adored, [that] it has lingered in the public consciousness as a cinematic standard". Comparing six "Pride and Prejudice" adaptations in 2005, the "Daily Mirror" gave 9/10 to the 1995 serial ("what may be the ultimate adaptation") and the 2005 film adaptation, leaving the other adaptations such as the 1940 film behind with six or fewer points. The 2005 film was "obviously [not as] daring or revisionist" as the 1995 adaptation but the youth of the film's leads, Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, was mentioned favourably over the 1995 cast, as Jennifer Ehle had formerly been "a little too 'heavy' for the role". The president of the Jane Austen Society of North America noted in an otherwise positive review that the casting of the 2005 leads was "arguably a little more callow than Firth and Ehle" and that "Knightley is better looking than Lizzy should strictly be". The critical reception of Macfadyen's Darcy, whose casting had proven difficult because "Colin Firth cast a very long shadow", ranged from praise to pleasant surprise and dislike. Several critics did not observe any significant impact of Macfadyen's Darcy in the following years. Garth Pearce of "The Sunday Times" noted in 2007 that "Colin Firth will forever be remembered as the perfect Mr. Darcy", and Gene Seymour stated in a 2008 "Newsday" article that Firth was "'universally acknowledged' as the definitive Mr. Darcy".


title: Cato the Younger

text: Marcus Porcius Cato "Uticensis" ("of Utica"; ; 95 BC – April 46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger (), was an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. His conservative principles were focused on the preservation of what he saw as old Roman values in decline. A noted orator and a follower of Stoicism, his scrupulous honesty and professed respect for tradition gave him a powerful political following which he mobilised against powerful generals (including Julius Caesar and Pompey) of his day.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Before Caesar's civil war, Cato served in a number of political offices. During his urban quaestorship in 63 BC, he was praised for his honesty and incorruptibility in running Rome's finances. He passed laws during his tribunate in 62 BC to expand the grain dole and force generals to give up their armies and commands before standing in elections. He also frustrated Pompey's ambitions by opposing a bill brought by Pompey's allies to transfer to him the military command against the Catilinarian conspirators. He opposed, with varying success, Caesar's legislative programme during Caesar's first consulship in 59 BC. Leaving for Cyprus the next year, he was praised for his honest administration and was elected as praetor for 54 BC.


title: Cato the Younger

text: He supported Pompey's sole consulship in 52 BC as a practical matter and to draw Pompey from his alliance with Caesar. In this, he was successful. He and his political allies advocated a policy of military confrontation with Caesar; though it seemed that Cato never advocated for actual civil war, it greatly contributed to the outbreak of civil war at the beginning of 49 BC. During the civil war, he joined Pompey and tried to minimise the deaths of his fellow citizens. But after Pompey's defeat and his own cause's defeat by Caesar in Africa, he preferred to take his own life rather than beg or receive Caesar's pardon. His suicide turned him into a martyr for and a symbol of the Republic.


title: Cato the Younger

text: His political influence was greatly related by his moralist principles and his embodiment of Roman traditions that appealed to both senators and the innately conservative Roman populace. He was criticised by contemporaries and by modern historians for being too uncompromising in his use of obstructive tactics against Caesar and other powerful generals. The success of those tactics helped form the First Triumvirate and cause the civil war. The epithet "the Younger" distinguishes him from his great-grandfather, Cato the Elder, who was viewed by ancient Romans in similar terms as embodying tradition and propriety.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Cato was born in 95 BC, the son of his homonymous father and Livia. He was descended from Cato the Elder – this Cato's great-grandfather – who was a "novus homo" ("new man") and the first of his family to be elected to the consulship. The elder Cato was famed for his austerity and "aggressive[] championing [of values] he considered to be traditionally Roman", which was "partly a façade or political tool" and meant to embellish his reputation as "the foremost representative of the "mos maiorum".


title: Cato the Younger

text: He and his sister Porcia were orphaned, probably before Cato was four years old, and the children were taken in by their maternal uncle, Marcus Livius Drusus. After Drusus' death and the resulting start of the Social War in 91 BC, Cato and his sister probably came into the household of his mother's older brother, Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus. Moving in with Cato and his sister were a half-brother and two half-sisters from his mother Livia's first marriage to Quintus Servilius Caepio. Cato was especially close with his half-brother, Gnaeus Servilius Caepio, and his elder half-sister, Servilia, who would later marry Marcus Junius Brutus (the father of the tyrannicide) and become the mistress of Julius Caesar.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Stories of Cato's early childhood are broadly unreliable and told mainly to suggest that Cato's character as an adult "had been established in childhood". They include claims that Cato was a poor student whose "tenacity was in reality the result of a lack of imagination", a dubious tale that Quintus Poppaedius Silo once threatened to hang Cato out of a window unless he voiced support for Italian citizenship (Cato supposedly remained silent), and a claim that Cato asked his tutor for a sword with which to assassinate Sulla during the proscriptions.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Around the age of 16, Cato was inducted into the "quindecimviri sacris faciundis", a board of priests in charge of the consultation and interpretation of the Sibylline Oracles. This was a prestigious honour, for which he was likely selected on the initiative of his uncle Mamercus Lepdius, and it introduced Cato "to a powerful circle of influential senators".


title: Cato the Younger

text: Shortly after his induction into the "quindecimviri", he received his inheritance, which immediately made him a wealthy citizen (though modest among the elite). Plutarch reports around this time, he also began to study Stoicism under the philosopher Antipater of Tyre, Epicureanism under a Philostratus, and Peripatetism under a certain Demetrius. His education in popular oratory and rhetoric was "highly unusual for a student of Stoic philosophy", implying that philosophy was only one part of his wider education.


title: Cato the Younger

text: He also started to adopt an ostentatious pattern of public antiquarianism. To that end, he adopted an austere lifestyle where he refused to travel long distances on horseback (preferring to walk), travelled the city barefoot, and wore only a toga without a tunic. His sartorial choices were modelled on statues of Rome's legendary founders and heroes, who were depicted wearing togas alone, rather than any philosophical inclinations. His choices were deliberate and political:


title: Cato the Younger

text: His first appearance on the public stage was to oppose changes to the Basilica Porcia, a public building commissioned by his great-grandfather Cato the Elder during his term as censor in 184 BC. The plebeian tribunes proposed moving a column that impeded their view of the Forum. Cato may have been expected to defend the monument – "public buildings such as the Basilica Porcia were prized heirlooms that perpetuated a family's fame and greatness, so men could be expected to defend their family monuments" – but the column may not have actually been part of the Basilica. Regardless, Cato used the opportunity to enter public life with an appearance defending his family's honour and reputation, showing his "pietas", and connecting himself to his famous ancestor.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Cato's first marriage was early in his twenties. He was first betrothed to his cousin Aemilia Lepida (and daughter of Mamercus Lepidus). The reasons were unclear: because of his close relations to Mamercus Lepidus, the match would not have been very useful politically in building new alliances; he may have been motivated by love or by the large size of the dowry. Aemilia Lepida had previously been betrothed to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, but Scipio broke off the match, after which Cato was betrothed. However, some time later, Scipio changed his mind and Lepidus evidently decided that a match with Scipio was more desirable. The two were married shortly after. Cato was angry and threatened a lawsuit against his uncle to enforce his engagement, but was dissuaded by his friends.


title: Cato the Younger

text: He instead married Atilia, the daughter of an Atilius Serranus (the specific identity is unknown). While the "gens Atilia" had consular ancestors, it had not been successful in reaching the consulship after the end of the second century BC. By her, he later had a son, Marcus Porcius Cato, and a daughter, Porcia. Around this time he also secured an excellent marriage for his sister in Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. His half-sisters' very favourable matches helped develop a strong network of political allies.


title: Cato the Younger

text: In 72 BC, Cato volunteered to fight in the war against Spartacus, presumably to support his half-brother Caepio, who was serving as a military tribune in the consular army of Lucius Gellius. Although the army was defeated twice in battle, Cato's valour was recognised. Although the consul Gellius recommended Cato for awards, he publicly declined them and "advertised that his standard for military accomplishment were much more stringent than the consul's, and the strangeness of this act was so shocking that it was talked about and remembered back in Rome".


title: Cato the Younger

text: A few years later, in 67 BC, he stood for the military tribunate. After winning election, he was dispatched to Macedonia under propraetor Marcus Rubrius, where he earned the respect of the soldiers by sharing their burdens and treating them justly. He also maintained his "unusual habit of walking everywhere instead of riding a horse". Over a winter, he travelled to Pergamum and became the patron of a Greek Stoic philosopher named Athenodorus, contradicting Cato the Elder's "famous position against Greek philosophers", who accompanied Cato back to Rome.


title: Cato the Younger

text: During his service in Macedonia, he received the news that his beloved half-brother Caepio was ill and dying in Thrace. He immediately went to see him but was unable to arrive before his brother's death. Cato was overwhelmed by grief and, ignoring Stoic principles of "apatheia" (living without passions), he spared no expense to organise lavish funeral ceremonies. After the end of his military commission, he travelled through Asia Minor and through Galatia "in such a quiet and unassuming way that he was often mistaken for a man of low status". Before returning to Rome, he also visited Pompey, who was then supervising the final stages of the Third Mithridatic War. Cato, according to Plutarch, received an exaggerated and deferential welcome from the proconsul, which most scholars doubt actually occurred.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Cato returned to Rome in early 65 BC and intended to stand for the quaestorship later that year. He spent substantial time familiarising himself with the laws related to the office - which related to administration of state finances both in Rome and in the provinces – and may have been angling to engage in reforms of state treasury operations. He was easily elected and took office on 5 December 65 BC.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Around this time, Lucullus – one of the wealthiest men in Rome and long-time commander of troops against Mithridates VI Eupator in the Third Mithridatic War – approached him about marrying Cato's younger half-sister Servilia. This was likely part of Lucullus' attempt to win allies in his bid for a triumph against Mithridates, which had been stymied by Pompey's supporters, who wanted to permit Pompey (then in Asia) to return and claim all the credit. After the marriage, during his quaestorship, he helped Lucullus (by this point in the second or third year of campaigning for a triumph) in browbeating his opponents into eventually granting a triumph in 63 BC.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Cato was assigned to the state treasury (the "aerarium") in Rome as one of the urban quaestors. The complexity of Roman financial law and the treasury's record-keeping had led to Roman aristocrats "abdicating their supervisory roles to the professional clerks who worked in the treasury" and resulted in widespread corruption. Cato started his term by prosecuting a number of the clerks and firing a number of others; even after one was acquitted after intervention from one of the censors, Cato refused to rehire him.


title: Cato the Younger

text: He also started the process of collecting on long-standing state debts and made prompt payments to state creditors. In doing so, he cooperated with Julius Caesar, who had then just completed a term as "curule aedile" and was acting as a prosecutor in court, in challenging the legal immunity and payments given to men who had received bounties for killings during the Sullan proscriptions. He also changed procedures to ensure that the treasury archives rejected fraudulent documents.


title: Cato the Younger

text: On his last day in the "aerarium", Plutarch reports that he discovered that his old friend and colleague in the urban quaestorship, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, was entering fraudulent records; Cato apparently stormed back to erase them before the end of his term. He also spent an enormous amount of money – some five talents, about four per cent of his inheritance - to make copies of all the treasury archives from Sulla to his own day "to facilitate the prosecution of future wrongdoers" that might succeed him in the "aerarium".


title: Cato the Younger

text: Cato's reputation in the "aerarium" was exemplary. According to Plutarch's biography, he "taught men that a city can be rich without treating its citizens unjustly" and "brought the quaestorship into greater esteem than the senate, so that everybody thought and said that Cato had given the quaestorship the dignity of the consulship".


title: Cato the Younger

text: In 63 BC, Cato stood for the plebeian tribunate of 62 BC. After his election but before his term started in December, he opposed granting additional honours to Pompey, engaged in an unsuccessful prosecution of Lucius Licinius Murena, and was part of in a famous debate on the Catilinarian conspiracy.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Lucius Sergius Catilina, a noble patrician, led a rebellion against the state, raising an army in Etruria. Upon discovery of an associated plot against the lives of the consuls and other magistrates in Rome, Cicero arrested the conspirators within the city and proposed executing them without trial, a violation of citizen rights to appeal. While Cicero could have done this on his own authority (augmented by a "senatus consultum ultimum"), he convened the senate, almost certainly to diffuse responsibility. The matter of killing the conspirators was a novel one: while the use of deadly force against citizens under arms was generally accepted, "the disposal of captured and unarmed conspirators was a more difficult matter".


title: Cato the Younger

text: Cato's brother-in-law, Decimus Junius Silanus, who was one of the consuls-elect, spoke first in favour of death, as did the rest of the former consuls. But Julius Caesar, then praetor-elect, countered with a proposal to imprison the conspirators, which started to gain the support of the house. Cato spoke two or three speeches after Caesar. According to Sallust, among other things he argued that the senate was being too soft against enemies of the state, that it was folly to await the ultimate test of the conspirators' guilt – the overthrow of the state – because the very proof of their guilt would make it impossible to enforce the law, and that precedent and religious scruples demanded severe action. In Sallust's depiction, both Cato and Caesar make appeals to precedent and "mos maiorum": Caesar calls executing the subdued conspirators "a new type of punishment" and attempted to draw Cato into contradicting his great-grandfather's lenient stance on the Rhodians after the Third Macedonian War; Cato viewed executing traitors as consistent with ancient Roman tradition. While Caesar's speech – due to the fact he was praetor-elect and would soon assume office – seemed to come with "an unspoken threat... of prosecution under a hostile judge", Cato's counter-arguments "stiffened [the senators'] resolve [and excited] their fears that they may not even live to see the next year if they did not take the hardest line possible".


title: Cato the Younger

text: Cato and his political allies also saw in the Catilinarian crisis an opportunity to ruin Caesar's career, if not have him killed, by falsely incriminating him as being a part of the conspiracy. The famous story of Cato's misinterpreting a love letter from Servilia (Cato's half-sister and wife of consul-elect Silanus) to Caesar as incriminating evidence comes from this episode and "highlights how desperate Cato was to destroy Caesar". The source of the enmity was both political and personal: historians speculate various reasons, from political opposition to envy of Caesar's social and political success (by this time he had already been elected "pontifex maximus", beating out a family ally,) to retaliation for malicious rumours of Caesar's having been Cato's nephew's father or that Caesar was purchasing sexual favours from his Servilia's daughter. At the same time, it is easy to see contemporary parallels between Caesar and Catiline: Caesar had likely supported Catiline's bids for the consulship; Caesar, like Catiline, was buried under massive debts; Caesar too hailed from an ancient patrician clan that had fallen on hard times; and Caesar too would have been forced into exile or bankrupt obscurity if he were to fail in his political career.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Cato's first action on entering his tribunate in December 63 BC was to propose a law expanding the grain dole. He brought the bill with the support of the senate late in the year, according to Plutarch, to calm discontent in the city and strengthen the senate's political position. The law more than doubled the number of people receiving subsidised grain, placed a considerable burden on the republic's finances, and possibly made Cato one of the most generous politicians in the history of the grain dole. His grain bill also showed that the "lex frumentaria" was not the exclusive preserve of the so-called ""populares"", but rather, that "the advocacy of corn distribution knew no party".


title: Cato the Younger

text: One of the other tribunes of the plebs, Metellus Nepos, proposed two bills to grant Pompey additional honours. The first would transfer command of the (nearly completed) campaign against Catiline in northern Italy to Pompey. The second would have allowed Pompey to stand "in absentia" for the consulship of 61 BC and to lead troops into the "pomerium" (the sacred boundary of the city). Cato strongly opposed both. When Nepos initially presented the bill, Cato tried to talk him down as a friend but was unsuccessful, returning to invective after Nepos refused. The senate, at Cato's urging, voted down the bills; Nepos therefore moved to bring them before the popular assemblies regardless.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Nepos, along with his ally Caesar, assembled the assembly at the Forum before the Temple of Castor and Pollux. Cato and one of his allies, another tribune named Quintus Minucius Thermus, forced their way to the front and Cato then "brusquely took a seat between Nepos and Caesar [to prevent] them from communicating privately". When Nepos directed the bill to be read, he vetoed it; when Nepos started to read it himself, Cato snatched the draft from his hands; when Nepos started to recite it from memory, Thermus put his hand over the Nepos' mouth to stop him from speaking. A fight accordingly broke out in the Forum. In response to the mob violence, the senate passed a "senatus consultum ultimum"; Nepos fled Rome to Pompey in the east and Caesar backed down. Suetonius and Plutarch then assert that Nepos, Caesar, or both were removed from their offices; modern scholars do not believe these assertions, as the senate during the republic had no such powers. More contemporaneous sources imply that the senate may have moved to ratify Nepos' departure from the city (tribunes were legally forbidden from leaving the city), which Cato likely objected to.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Later, Cato, with another fellow tribune named Lucius Marius, passed a law establishing penalties for military commanders who misrepresented the number of enemies or Roman soldiers killed in battles and required commanders to swear as to the accuracy of the numbers in their reports when returning from campaign. The law may have been aimed at Caesar, who would take up in the following year a governorship in Spain, where he would have opportunities to campaign against the Spanish tribes. Cato may also have been involved in the passage of a law requiring candidates at elections to make their official declarations of candidacy in person before an official within the city; such a law precluded a general from holding a military command and standing for office, as entering the "pomerium" vitiated promagisterial "imperium" (military command authority). This law may have been aimed at Pompey, who was thought to desire another consulship on his return, or Caesar, to force him to choose between the consulship and military glory.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Near the end of 62 BC, a scandal occurred involving Publius Clodius Pulcher's sacrilegious intrusion into secret rites to Bona Dea. When Clodius was acquitted on charges of sacrilege, apparently due to jury tampering via bribery, Cato moved to correct a loophole in the law. While the "lex Aurelia" in 70 BC had distributed the jury pool between senators, equestrians, and the "tribuni aerarii", the anti-graft provisions of then-existing laws applied only to senators, meaning that bribing the non-senatorial jurors was legal. Cato's push against bribery was opposed by some of his normal allies, such as Cicero, who believed that it undermined senatorial government in alienating the equestrians.


title: Cato the Younger

text: Cato was fortunate to emerge into politics during a "changing of the guard" in the senate. The previous Social War, followed by Sulla's civil war and then the proscriptions, had destroyed a great number of senatorial families. Because of the great bloodletting of previous decades and a growing trend toward semi-retirement rather than active political life after leaving office, by 65 BC, the number of senior leaders – "consulares", that is, former consuls – in the senate had fallen to just nine. Cato's pro-senatorial beliefs and oratorical skills positioned him in taking an active role in opposing those "men who[,] in his view[,] threatened the conventional order of the senate":


title: Cato the Younger

text: Moreover, his archaic mannerisms also helped him gain influence among the senators and the people: by making "himself into a living example of the old-fashioned Roman... [he] tapped into the deep vein of patriotism and conservatism that ran through the blood of every Roman citizen... disagreeing with [Cato] seemed to be a rejection of Roman tradition and therefore of Rome itself". His antiquarianism and birth to a family that had produced consuls more than a century into the past also helped win prestige among the senatorial elite, "who believed that their right to govern Rome was in large part inherited".


title: Cato the Younger

text: For Fred Drogula, Cato's posturing as "the voice of the ancestors enabled him to push or shame others into agreeing with his opinions", which also helped to make up for his meagre financial resources in an expensive political environment where large bribes paid to voters was a normal part of campaigning. His policies also symbolised "for the aristocracy a nobility of purpose and principle that they liked to associate with their whole order". It, however, made him a difficult ally or potential ally whose "extreme interpretation of conservatism gave him little room to compromise without seeming to abandon his principles".


title: Cato the Younger

text: By the end of his tribunate, he was very popular among the nobility: "such influence was remarkable for a man who had not yet reached the praetorship or commanded an army". He also was instrumental in uniting the senate, even at this earlier time, against Caesar; his success in his anti-Caesarian politics, however, forced Caesar "look elsewhere to achieve political success" and thereby forced Caesar to adopt more aggressive "popularis" tactics.


title: Cato the Younger

text: In the years after his tribunate, many of the other leading conservative senators died or retired. Cato then assumed a loose leadership of the more conservative wing of senators.


title: Cato the Younger

text: After his tribunate, Caesar left for Spain and Pompey returned to Rome in February 61 BC. Pompey divorced his wife, Mucia, the half-sister of Metellus Nepos, partly due to her adultery and partly to distance himself from the riots for which Metellus Nepos was blamed, and asked to marry one of Cato's nieces. The alliance proposal reflected Cato's recognition as a major political player; Cato rejected the offer, however, as "he did not want to lose or limit his freedom to act as he thought best in politics", indicating that he likely had already made up his mind to oppose Pompey's settlements and proposals.