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Ajax the Lesser
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Description
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Description
In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Ajax was described as "stocky, powerfully built, swarthy, a pleasant person, and brave."Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 13
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Ajax the Lesser
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Mythology
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Mythology
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Ajax the Lesser
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Life
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Life
thumb|left|Ajax the Lesser and Cassandra
Ajax's mother's name was Eriopis. According to Strabo, he was born in Naryx in Locris,Strabo, 9. p. 425 where Ovid calls him Narycius heros.Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.468 According to the Iliad,Homer, Iliad 2.527 he led his Locrians in forty ships against Troy.Hyginus, Fabulae 97 gives the number of ships as twenty He is described as one of the great heroes among the Greeks. In battle, he wore a linen cuirass (, ), was brave and intrepid, especially skilled in throwing the spear and, next to Achilles, the swiftest of all the Greeks.Homer, Iliad 14.520 & 23.789 The chronicler Malalas portrayed him as "tall, strong, tawny, squinting, good nose, curly hair, black hair, thick beard, long face, daring warrior, magnanimous, a womanizer."Malalas, Chronography 5.104
In the funeral games at the pyre of Patroclus, Ajax contended with Odysseus and Antilochus for the prize in the footrace; but Athena, who was hostile towards him and favored Odysseus, made him stumble and fall, so that he won only the second prize.Homer, Iliad 23.754
In later traditions, this Ajax is called a son of Oileus and the nymph Rhene, and is also mentioned among the suitors of Helen.Apollodorus, 3.10.8; Hyginus, Fabulae 81 & 97 After the taking of Troy, he rushed into the temple of Athena, where Cassandra had taken refuge, and was embracing the statue of the goddess in supplication. Ajax violently dragged her away to the other captives.Euripides, Tro. 70; Virgil, Aeneid 2.403; Hyginus, Fabulae 116; Dictys Cretensis, 5.12 According to some writers, he raped Cassandra inside the temple.Tryphiodorus, 635; Quintus Smyrnaeus, 13.422; Lycophron, 360 with the Scholion Odysseus called for Ajax's death by stoning for this crime, but Ajax saved himself by claiming innocence with an oath to Athena, clutching her statue in supplication.Pausanias, 10.26.1 & 10.31.1
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Ajax the Lesser
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Death
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Death
Since Ajax dragged the supplicant from her temple, Athena had cause to be indignant. According to the Bibliotheca, no one was aware that Ajax had raped Cassandra until Calchas, the Greek seer, warned the Greeks that Athena was furious at the treatment of her priestess and she would destroy the Greek ships if they did not kill him immediately. Despite this, Ajax managed to hide at the altar of a deity where the Greeks, fearing divine retribution should they kill him and destroy the altar, allowed him to live. When the Greeks left without killing Ajax, despite their sacrifices, Athena became so angry that she persuaded Zeus to send a storm that sank many of their ships.
thumb|Poseidon killing Ajax the Lesser, drawing by Bonaventura Genelli
As Ajax was returning from Troy, Athena hit his ship with a thunderbolt and the vessel was wrecked on the Whirling Rocks (). But he escaped with some of his men, managing to cling onto a rock through the assistance of Poseidon. He would have been saved in spite of Athena, but he then audaciously declared that he would escape the dangers of the sea in defiance of the immortals. Offended by this presumption, Poseidon split the rock with his trident and Ajax was swallowed up by the sea.Homer, Odyssey 4.499 Thetis buried him when the corpse washed up on Mykonos.Apollodore, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Trzaskoma, and Hygin. Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007. 84–85. "5.24–6.6." Other versions depict a different death for Ajax, showing him dying when on his voyage home. In these versions, when Ajax came to the Capharean Rocks on the coast of Euboea, his ship was wrecked in a fierce storm, he himself was lifted up in a whirlwind and impaled with a flash of rapid fire from Athena in his chest, and his body thrust upon sharp rocks, which afterwards were called the rocks of Ajax.Virgil, Aeneid 1.40 & 11.260; Hyginus, Fabulae 116
After Ajax's death, his spirit dwelt in the island of Leuce.Pausanias, 3.19.13 The Opuntian Locrians worshipped Ajax as their national hero, and so great was their faith in him that when they drew up their army in battle, they always left one place open for him, believing that, although invisible to them, he was fighting for and among them.Conon, Narrations 18; Pausanias, 3.19.13 The story of Ajax was frequently made use of by ancient poets and artists, and the hero who appears on some Locrian coins with the helmet, shield, and sword is probably this Ajax.Théodore Edme Mionnet, No. 570, &c.
Other accounts of Ajax's death are offered by Philostratus, Euripides, and the scholiast on Lycophron.Philostratus, Her. 31.6–9; Euripides, Tro. 90; Scholiast on Lycophron
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Ajax the Lesser
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Art
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Art
thumb|upright|Ajax and Cassandra by Solomon Joseph Solomon (1886)
The abduction of Cassandra by Ajax was frequently represented in Greek works of art, such as the chest of Cypselus described by Pausanias and in extant works.Pausanias, 5.17
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Ajax the Lesser
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Notes
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Notes
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Ajax the Lesser
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References
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References
Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Conon, Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Dictys Cretensis, from The Trojan War. The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian translated by Richard McIlwaine Frazer Jr. Indiana University Press. 1966. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960.
Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. 2017.
Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. . Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Lycophron, The Alexandra translated by Alexander William Mair. Loeb Classical Library Volume 129. London: William Heinemann, 1921. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Lycophron, Alexandra translated by A.W. Mair. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1921. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More. Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid. Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Publius Vergilius Maro, Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics. J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy translated by Way. A. S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 19. London: William Heinemann, 1913. Online version at theio.com
Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy. Arthur S. Way. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1913. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Tryphiodorus, Capture of Troy translated by Mair, A. W. Loeb Classical Library Volume 219. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1928. Online version at theoi.com
Tryphiodorus, Capture of Troy with an English Translation by A.W. Mair. London, William Heinemann, Ltd.; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1928. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Tzetzes, John, Allegories of the Iliad translated by Goldwyn, Adam J. and Kokkini, Dimitra. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Harvard University Press, 2015.
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Ajax the Lesser
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External links
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External links
Category:Suitors of Helen
Category:Achaean Leaders
Category:Mythological rapists
Category:Metamorphoses characters
Category:Characters in the Aeneid
Category:Locrians
Category:Deeds of Poseidon
Category:Greek mythological heroes
Category:Cassandra
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Ajax the Lesser
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Table of Content
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short description, Description, Mythology, Life, Death, Art, Notes, References, External links
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Ajax the Great
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short description
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Ajax () or Aias (; , Aíantos; archaic ) is a Greek mythological hero, the son of King Telamon and Periboea, and the half-brother of Teucer."Salamis The Island" Salamis The IslandSalamina MunicipalityGreek Island He plays an important role in the Trojan War, and is portrayed as a towering figure and a warrior of great courage in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War, being second only to Achilles among Greek heroes of the war. He is also referred to as "Telamonian Ajax" (, in Etruscan recorded as Aivas Tlamunus), "Greater Ajax", or "Ajax the Great", which distinguishes him from Ajax, son of Oileus, also known as Ajax the Lesser.
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Ajax the Great
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Family
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Family
Ajax is the son of Telamon. Telamon was the son of Aeacus and grandson of Zeus, and his first wife Periboea. By Telamon, he is also the elder half-brother of Teucer. Through his uncle Peleus (Telamon's brother), he is the cousin of Achilles.
The etymology of his given name is uncertain. By folk etymology, his name was said to come from the root of aiazō which means "to lament", translating to "one who laments; mourner". Hesiod provided a different folk etymology in a story in his "The Great Eoiae", where Ajax the great receives his name when Heracles prays to Zeus that a son might be born to Telemon and Eriboea: Zeus sends an eagle (aetos αετός) as a sign, and Heracles then bids the parents call their son Ajax after the eagle.
Many illustrious Athenians, including Cimon, Miltiades, Alcibiades and the historian Thucydides, traced their descent from Ajax. On an Etruscan tomb dedicated to Racvi Satlnei in Bologna (5th century BC), there is an inscription that says aivastelmunsl, which means "[family] of Telamonian Ajax".Papachristos, Maria. Miti e Leggende. Volume 5 of Miti e Leggende dell'antica Grecia. Edizioni R.E.I. (2015).
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Ajax the Great
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Mythology
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Mythology
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Ajax the Great
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Description
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Description
In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Ajax was illustrated as ". . .powerful. His voice was clear, his hair black and curly. He was perfectly single-minded and unrelenting in the onslaught of battle."Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 13 Meanwhile, In Homer's Iliad he is described as of great stature, colossal frame, and strongest of all the Achaeans. Known as the "bulwark of the Achaeans",Homer, Iliad 6.5. he was trained by the centaur Chiron (who had trained Ajax's father Telamon and Achilles' father Peleus and later died of an accidental wound inflicted by a poison arrow belonging to Heracles). He was described as fearless, strong, and powerful but also with a very high level of combat intelligence. Ajax commands his army wielding a huge shield made of seven cowhides with a layer of bronze. Most notably, Ajax is not wounded in any of the battles described in the Iliad, and he is the only principal character on either side who does not receive substantial assistance from any of the gods (except for Agamemnon) who take part in the battles, although, in book 13, Poseidon strikes Ajax with his staff, renewing his strength. Unlike Diomedes, Agamemnon, and Achilles, Ajax appears as a mainly defensive warrior, instrumental in the defense of the Greek camp and ships and that of Patroclus' body. When the Trojans are on the offensive, he is often seen covering the retreat of the Achaeans. Significantly, while one of the deadliest heroes in the whole poem, Ajax has no aristeia depicting him on the offensive.thumb|The Belvedere Torso, a marble sculpture carved in the first century BC depicting Ajax.
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Ajax the Great
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Trojan War
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Trojan War
In the Iliad, Ajax is notable for his abundant strength and courage, seen particularly in two fights with Hector. In Book 7, Ajax is chosen by lot to meet Hector in a duel which lasts most of a whole day. Ajax at first gets the better of the encounter, wounding Hector with his spear and knocking him down with a large stone,Iliad, 7.268–272. but Hector battles on until the heralds, acting at the direction of Zeus, call a draw, with the two combatants exchanging gifts, Ajax giving Hector his "war-belt, glistening purple" and Hector giving Ajax his "silver-studded sword"Iliad, 7.349–351.
The second fight between Ajax and Hector occurs when the latter breaks into the Mycenaean camp, and battles with the Greeks among the ships. In Book 14, Ajax throws a giant rock at Hector which almost kills him.Iliad, 14.408–417. In Book 15, Hector is restored to his strength by Apollo and returns to attack the ships. Ajax, wielding an enormous spear as a weapon and leaping from ship to ship, holds off the Trojan armies virtually single-handedly. In Book 16, Hector and Ajax duel once again. Hector then disarms Ajax (although Ajax is not hurt) and Ajax is forced to retreat, seeing that Zeus is clearly favoring Hector. Hector and the Trojans succeed in burning one Greek ship, the culmination of an assault that almost finishes the war. Ajax is responsible for the death of many Trojan lords, including Phorcys.
Ajax often fought in tandem with his brother Teucer, known for his skill with the bow. Ajax would wield his magnificent shield, as Teucer stood behind picking off enemy Trojans.
Achilles was absent during these encounters because of his feud with Agamemnon. In Book 9, Agamemnon and the other Mycenaean chiefs send Ajax, Odysseus and Phoenix to the tent of Achilles in an attempt to reconcile with the great warrior and induce him to return to the fight. Although Ajax speaks earnestly and is well received, he does not succeed in convincing Achilles.
When Patroclus is killed, Hector tries to steal his body. Ajax, assisted by Menelaus, succeeds in fighting off the Trojans and taking the body back with his chariot; however, the Trojans have already stripped Patroclus of Achilles' armor. Ajax's prayer to Zeus to remove the fog that has descended on the battle to allow them to fight or die in the light of day has become proverbial. According to Hyginus, in total, Ajax killed 28 people at Troy.Hyginus, Fabulae 114.
thumb|A copy of the 4th century BC fresco from the François Tomb, showing the sacrifice of Trojan slaves. Ajax the Great is the second from the right
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Ajax the Great
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Death
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Death
thumb|The Argument between Ajax and Odysseus over Achilles' armour, by Agostino Masucci
thumb|Sorrowful Ajax (Asmus Jacob Carstens, c. 1791)
As the Iliad comes to a close, Ajax and the majority of other Greek warriors are alive and well. When Achilles dies, killed by Paris (with help from Apollo), Ajax and Odysseus are the heroes who fight against the Trojans to get the body and bury it with his companion, Patroclus.Homer, Odyssey. Ajax, with his great shield and spear, manages to recover the body and carry it to the ships, while Odysseus fights off the Trojans.Arctinus Miletus, "Aethiopis" After the burial, each claims Achilles' magical armor, which had been forged on Mount Olympus by the smith-god Hephaestus, for himself as recognition for his heroic efforts. A competition is held to determine who deserves the armor. Ajax argues that because of his strength and the fighting he has done for the Greeks, including saving the ships from Hector, and driving him off with a massive rock, he deserves this magical protection.Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by Rolfe Humphries (Indianapolis: Indiana University, 1955), Book XIII, pp. 305–309 However, Odysseus proves to be more eloquent, and with the aid of Athena, the council gives him the armor. Ajax, distraught by this result and "conquered by his own grief", plunges his sword into his own chest, killing himself.Metamorphoses, trans. Humphries, p. 318 In the Little Iliad, Ajax goes mad with rage at Odysseus' victory and slaughters the cattle of the Greeks. After returning to his senses, he kills himself out of shame.Lesches of Mitylene, "The Little Iliad (Ilias Mikra)"
The Belvedere Torso, a marble torso now in the Vatican Museums, is considered to depict Ajax "in the act of contemplating his suicide".
In Sophocles' play Ajax, a famous retelling of Ajax's demise, after the armor is awarded to Odysseus, Ajax feels so insulted that he wants to kill Agamemnon and Menelaus. Athena intervenes and clouds his mind and vision, and he goes to a flock of sheep and slaughters them, imagining they are the Achaean leaders, including Odysseus and Agamemnon. When he comes to his senses, covered in blood, he realizes that what he has done has diminished his honor, and decides that he prefers to kill himself rather than live in shame. He does so with the same sword which Hector gave him when they exchanged presents.Iliad, 7.303 From his blood sprang a red flower, as at the death of Hyacinthus, which bore on its leaves the initial letters of his name Ai, also expressive of lament.Pausanias 1.35.4 His ashes were deposited in a golden urn on the Rhoetean promontory at the entrance of the Hellespont.
Ajax's half-brother Teucer stood trial before his father for not bringing Ajax's body or famous weapons back. Teucer was acquitted for responsibility but found guilty of negligence. He was disowned by his father and was not allowed to return to his home, the island of Salamis off the coast of Athens.
Homer is somewhat vague about the precise manner of Ajax's death but does ascribe it to his loss in the dispute over Achilles' armor; when Odysseus visits Hades, he begs the soul of Ajax to speak to him, but Ajax, still resentful over the old quarrel, refuses and descends silently back into Erebus.
Like Achilles, he is represented (although not by Homer) as living after his death on the island of Leuke at the mouth of the Danube.Pausanias, Description of Greece iii. 19. § 13 Ajax, who in the post-Homeric legend is described as the grandson of Aeacus and the great-grandson of Zeus, was the tutelary hero of the island of Salamis, where he had a temple and an image, and where a festival called Aianteia was celebrated in his honour.Pausanias 1.35 At this festival a couch was set up, on which the panoply of the hero was placed, a practice which recalls the Roman Lectisternium. The identification of Ajax with the family of Aeacus was chiefly a matter which concerned the Athenians, after Salamis had come into their possession, on which occasion Solon is said to have inserted a line in the Iliad (2.557–558),Homer, Iliad 2.557–258. for the purpose of supporting the Athenian claim to the island. Ajax then became an Attic hero; he was worshipped at Athens, where he had a statue in the market-place, and the tribe Aiantis was named after him. Pausanias also relates that a gigantic skeleton, its kneecap in diameter, appeared on the beach near Sigeion, on the Trojan coast; these bones were identified as those of Ajax.
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Ajax the Great
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Gallery
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Gallery
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Ajax the Great
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Palace
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Palace
In 2001, Yannis Lolos began excavating a Mycenaean palace near the village of Kanakia on the island of Salamis which he theorized to be the home of the mythological Aiacid dynasty. The multi-story structure covers and had perhaps 30 rooms. The palace appears to have been abandoned at the height of the Mycenaean civilization, roughly the same time the Trojan War may have occurred.
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Ajax the Great
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See also
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See also
Corpus vasorum antiquorum
Troy VII
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Ajax the Great
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Notes
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Notes
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Ajax the Great
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References
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References
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Ajax the Great
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Bibliography
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Bibliography
Homer. Iliad, 7.181–312.
Homer, Odyssey 11.543–67.
Bibliotheca. Epitome III, 11-V, 7.
Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960.
Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. 2017.
Ovid. Metamorphoses 12.620–13.398.
Friedrich Schiller, Das Siegerfest.
Pindar's Nemeans, 7, 8; Isthmian 4
Tzetzes, John, Allegories of the Iliad translated by Goldwyn, Adam J. and Kokkini, Dimitra. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Harvard University Press, 2015.
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Ajax the Great
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External links
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External links
A translation of the debate and Ajax's death. http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.13.thirteenth.html
Category:Suitors of Helen
Category:Achaean Leaders
Category:Kings of Argos
Category:Characters in the Odyssey
Category:Suicides in Greek mythology
Category:Tutelary gods
Category:Metamorphoses characters
Category:Mythological Salaminians
Category:Metamorphoses into flowers in Greek mythology
Category:Greek mythological heroes
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Ajax the Great
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Table of Content
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short description, Family, Mythology, Description, Trojan War, Death, Gallery, Palace, See also, Notes, References, Bibliography, External links
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Ajax
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Wiktionary
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Ajax may refer to:
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Ajax
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Greek mythology and tragedy
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Greek mythology and tragedy
Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
Ajax (play), by the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles, about Ajax the Great
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Ajax
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Arts and entertainment
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Arts and entertainment
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Ajax
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Fictional characters
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Fictional characters
Ajax Duckman, in the animated television series Duckman
Marvel Comics:
Ajax the Greater, another name for Ajak, one of the Eternals from Marvel Comics
Ajax the Lesser, another name for Arex, one of the Eternals from Marvel Comics
Ajax, a member of the Pantheon appearing in Marvel Comics
Ajax (Francis Freeman), a fictional supervillain first appearing in Deadpool #14
Martian Manhunter, a DC Comics superhero called Ajax in Brazil and Portugal
Ajax, a Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 operative
Ajax, the real name of Tartaglia, a character in 2020 video game Genshin Impact
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Ajax
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Music
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Music
A-Jax (band), a South Korean boy band
Ajax (band), an electronic music band from New York City
Ajax (opera), by the French composer Toussaint Bertin de la Doué
DJ Ajax (1971–2013; born Adrian Thomas), an Australian electro mashup DJ
Lisa Ajax (born 1998), Swedish singer
"Ajax" (song), a song by Tante Leen, 1969
Ajax Records, a former North American record company
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Ajax
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Other arts and entertainment
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Other arts and entertainment
Ajax (painting), a painting by John Steuart Curry
Ajax (Disney), a fictional company (the Disney equivalent of Looney Tunes' Acme Corporation)
A-Jax (video game), a 1987 Konami arcade game
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Ajax
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Computing
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Computing
Ajax (floppy disk controller), a floppy disk controller fitted to the Atari STE
Ajax (programming), Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, a method used in web application development, and a software framework for it
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Ajax
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Places
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Places
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Ajax
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Canada
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Canada
Ajax (federal electoral district), in the Durham Region of Ontario
Ajax (provincial electoral district), in Ontario
Ajax, Ontario, a town in the Greater Toronto Area
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Ajax
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United States
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United States
Ajax, Louisiana, an unincorporated community
Ajax, Missouri, a ghost town
Ajax Peak, a summit near Telluride, Colorado
Ajax, South Dakota, an unincorporated community
Ajax, Utah, a ghost town
Ajax, Virginia, an unincorporated community
Ajax, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Aspen Mountain (Colorado), also known as Ajax Mountain
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Ajax
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Elsewhere
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Elsewhere
Mount Ajax, part of the Admiralty Mountains, Victoria Land, Antarctic
1404 Ajax, an asteroid
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Ajax
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People
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People
Ajax (missionary), Arian missionary who converted the Suevi to Christianity ( 466)
Ajax, pen name of Sidney William Jackson (1873–1946), Australian naturalist and ornithologist
Ajax, nickname of Heinrich Bleichrodt (1909–1977), German World War II U-boat commander
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Ajax
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Sport
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Sport
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Ajax
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Association football (soccer)
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Association football (soccer)
AFC Ajax, a football club in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Ajax Cape Town F.C., a South African football club
Ajax Futebol Clube, a Brazilian football club
Ajax de Ouenzé, a Congolese football club
FC Ajax Lasnamäe, an Estonian football club
Ajax Orlando Prospects, American soccer team from Orlando, Florida, a.k.a. Ajax America
Ajax America Women, American women's soccer team from California
Aias Salamina F.C., a football club in Salamina, Greece
Ajax Sportsman Combinatie, a cricket and football club in Leiden, Netherlands
Rabat Ajax F.C., a Maltese football club
Unión Ájax, a football club in Trujillo, Honduras
V.V. Ajax, a Surinamese football club
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Ajax
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Other sports
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Other sports
Aias Evosmou, a Greek sports club
Ajax Kenitra, a Moroccan futsal (indoor football) club
Ajax København, a Danish handball team
Ajax (horse) (born 1901), a French Champion racehorse
Ajax II (born 1934), an Australian Champion racehorse
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Ajax
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Military
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Military
, several ships of the Royal Navy
, several ships of the US Navy
General Dynamics Ajax, a family of armoured fighting vehicles for the British Army
Operation Ajax, the 1953 Iranian coup d'état
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Ajax
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Transport
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Transport
Ajax (1906 automobile), a Swiss automobile
Ajax (1913 automobile), a French automobile by the American Briscoe brothers
Ajax (1914 automobile), an American automobile by Ajax Motors Co. of Seattle, Washington
Ajax (1921 automobile), an American prototype that was not produced
Ajax (Nash Motors), an automobile brand of Nash Motors, 1925–1926
Ajax (locomotive), several train locomotives
Ajax (motorcycle), manufactured in England between 1923 and 1924
Ajax (crane barge), a floating crane used to install the Panama Canal locks
Ajax (ship), various ships
Ajax GO Station, a train and bus station in Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Ajax Motors Co., an American carmaker, manufacturer of the Ajax (1914 automobile)
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Ajax
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Other uses
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Other uses
Ajax (cleaning product), a brand of household cleaning products
AFC Ajax N.V., a sports company associated with AFC Ajax
Kanichee Mine, Temagami, Ontario, also known as Ajax Mine
Ajax High School, a public high school in Ajax, Ontario, Canada
AJAX furnace, a type of open hearth furnace
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Ajax
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See also
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See also
Nike Ajax, the world's first operational surface-to-air missile
Ayaks (Ajax), a hypersonic waverider aircraft program started in the Soviet Union
Ayaks (disambiguation) ()
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Ajax
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Table of Content
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Wiktionary, Greek mythology and tragedy, Arts and entertainment, Fictional characters, Music, Other arts and entertainment, Computing, Places, Canada, United States, Elsewhere, People, Sport, Association football (soccer), Other sports, Military, Transport, Other uses, See also
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Alaric I
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short description
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Alaric I (; , 'ruler of all'; – 411 AD) was the first king of the Visigoths, from 395 to 410. He rose to leadership of the Goths who came to occupy Moesia—territory acquired a couple of decades earlier by a combined force of Goths and Alans after the Battle of Adrianople.
Alaric began his career under the Gothic soldier Gainas and later joined the Roman army. Once an ally of Rome under the Roman emperor Theodosius, Alaric helped defeat the Franks and other allies of a would-be Roman usurper. Despite losing many thousands of his men, he received little recognition from Rome and left the Roman army disappointed. After the death of Theodosius and the disintegration of the Roman armies in 395, he is described as king of the Visigoths. As the leader of the only effective field force remaining in the Balkans, he sought Roman legitimacy, never quite achieving a position acceptable to himself or to the Roman authorities.
He operated mainly against the successive Western Roman regimes, and marched into Italy, where he died. He is responsible for the sack of Rome in 410; one of several notable events in the Western Roman Empire's eventual decline.
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Alaric I
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Early life, federate status in the Balkans
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Early life, federate status in the Balkans
right|thumb|Imaginative portrait of Alaric in C. Strahlheim, Das Welttheater, 4. Band, Frankfurt a.M., 1836
According to Jordanes, a 6th-century Roman bureaucrat of Gothic origin—who later turned his hand to history—Alaric was born on Peuce Island at the mouth of the Danube Delta in present-day Romania and belonged to the noble Balti dynasty of the Thervingian Goths. There is no way to verify this claim. Historian Douglas Boin does not make such an unequivocal assessment about Alaric's Gothic heritage and instead claims he came from either the Thervingi or the Greuthung tribes. When the Goths suffered setbacks against the Huns, they made a mass migration across the Danube, and fought a war with Rome. Alaric was probably a child during this period who grew up along Rome's periphery. Alaric's upbringing was shaped by living along the border of Roman territory in a region that the Romans viewed as a veritable "backwater"; some four centuries before, the Roman poet Ovid regarded the area along the Danube and Black Sea where Alaric was reared as a land of "barbarians", among "the most remote in the vast world."
Alaric's childhood in the Balkans, where the Goths had settled by way of an agreement with Theodosius, was spent in the company of veterans who had fought at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, during which they had annihilated much of the Eastern army and killed Emperor Valens. Imperial campaigns against the Visigoths were conducted until a treaty was reached in 382. This treaty was the first foedus on imperial Roman soil and required these semi-autonomous Germanic tribes—among whom Alaric was raised—to supply troops for the Roman army in exchange for peace, control of cultivatable land, and freedom from Roman direct administrative control. Correspondingly, there was hardly a region along the Roman frontier during Alaric's day without Gothic slaves and servants of one form or another. For several subsequent decades, many Goths like Alaric were "called up into regular units of the eastern field army" while others served as auxiliaries in campaigns led by Theodosius against the western usurpers Magnus Maximus and Eugenius.
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Alaric I
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Rebellion against Rome, rise to Gothic leadership
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Rebellion against Rome, rise to Gothic leadership
A new phase in the relationship between the Goths and the empire resulted from the treaty signed in 382, as more and more Goths attained aristocratic rank from their service in the imperial army. Alaric began his military career under the Gothic soldier Gainas, and later joined the Roman army. He first appeared as leader of a mixed band of Goths and allied peoples, who invaded Thrace in 391 but were stopped by the Roman general Stilicho. While the Roman poet Claudian belittled Alaric as "a little-known menace" terrorizing southern Thrace during this time, Alaric's abilities and forces were formidable enough to prevent the Roman emperor Theodosius from crossing the Hebrus River.
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Alaric I
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Service under Theodosius I
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Service under Theodosius I
By 392, Alaric had entered Roman military service, which coincided with a reduction of hostilities between Goths and Romans. In 394, he led a Gothic force that helped Emperor Theodosius defeat the Frankish usurper Arbogast—fighting at the behest of Eugenius—at the Battle of Frigidus. Despite sacrificing around 10,000 of his men, who had been victims of Theodosius' callous tactical decision to overwhelm the enemies' front lines using Gothic foederati, Alaric received little recognition from the emperor. Alaric was among the few who survived the protracted and bloody affair. Many Romans considered it their "gain" and a victory that so many Goths had died during the Battle of Frigidus River. Alaric biographer Douglas Boin (2020) posited that seeing ten thousand of his (Alaric's) dead kinsmen likely elicited questions about what kind of ruler Theodosius actually had been and whether remaining in direct Roman service was best for men like him. Refused the reward he expected, which included a promotion to the position of magister militum and command of regular Roman units, Alaric mutinied and began to march against Constantinople.
On 17 January 395, Theodosius died of an illness, leaving his two young and incapable sons Arcadius and Honorius in Stilicho's guardianship. Modern writers regard Alaric as king of the Visigoths from 395. According to historian Peter Heather, it is not entirely clear in the sources if Alaric rose to prominence at the time the Goths revolted following Theodosius's death, or if he had already risen within his tribe as early as the war against Eugenius. Whatever the circumstances, Jordanes recorded that the new king persuaded his people to "seek a kingdom by their own exertions rather than serve others in idleness."
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Alaric I
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Semi-independent action in Eastern Roman interests, Eastern Roman recognition
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Semi-independent action in Eastern Roman interests, Eastern Roman recognition
Whether or not Alaric was a member of an ancient Germanic royal clan—as claimed by Jordanes and debated by historians—is less important than his emergence as a leader, the first of his kind since Fritigern. Theodosius's death left the Roman field armies collapsing and the Empire divided again between his two sons, one taking the eastern and the other the western portion of the Empire. Stilicho made himself master of the West and attempted to establish control in the East as well, and led an army into Greece. Alaric rebelled again. Historian Roger Collins points out that while the rivalries created by the two halves of the Empire vying for power worked to Alaric's advantage and that of his people, simply being called to authority by the Gothic people did not solve the practicalities of their needs for survival. He needed Roman authority in order to be supplied by Roman cities.
right|thumb|Alaric (central figure, bearded) rests after capturing Athens, as imagined by Ludwig Thiersch in 1879
Alaric took his Gothic army on what Stilicho's propagandist Claudian described as a "pillaging campaign" that began first in the East. Historian Thomas Burns's interpretation is that Alaric and his men were recruited by Rufinus's Eastern regime in Constantinople, and sent to Thessaly to stave off Stilicho's threat. No battle took place. Alaric's forces made their way down to Athens and along the coast, where he sought to force a new peace upon the Romans. In 396, he marched through Thermopylae and sacked Athens, where archaeological evidence shows widespread damage to the city. Stilicho's propagandist Claudian accuses his troops of plundering for the next year or so as far south as the mountainous Peloponnese peninsula, and reports that only Stilicho's surprise attack with his western field army (having sailed from Italy) stemmed the plundering as he pushed Alaric's forces north into Epirus. Zosimus adds that Stilicho's troops destroyed and pillaged too, and let Alaric's men escape with their plunder.
Stilicho was forced to send some of his Eastern forces home. They went to Constantinople under the command of one Gainas, a Goth with a large Gothic following. On arrival, Gainas murdered Rufinus, and was appointed magister militum for Thrace by Eutropius, the new supreme minister and the only eunuch consul of Rome, who, Zosimus claims, controlled Arcadius "as if he were a sheep". A poem by Synesius advises Arcadius to display manliness and remove a "skin-clad savage" (probably referring to Alaric) from the councils of power and his barbarians from the Roman army. We do not know if Arcadius ever became aware of this advice, but it had no recorded effect.
Stilicho obtained a few more troops from the German frontier and continued to campaign indecisively against the Eastern empire; again he was opposed by Alaric and his men. During the next year, 397, Eutropius personally led his troops to victory over some Huns who were marauding in Asia Minor. With his position thus strengthened he declared Stilicho a public enemy, and he established Alaric as magister militum per Illyricum Alaric thus acquired entitlement to gold and grain for his followers and negotiations were underway for a more permanent settlement. Stilicho's supporters in Milan were outraged at this seeming betrayal; meanwhile, Eutropius was celebrated in 398 by a parade through Constantinople for having achieved victory over the "wolves of the North". Alaric's people were relatively quiet for the next couple of years. In 399, Eutropius fell from power. The new Eastern regime now felt that they could dispense with Alaric's services and they nominally transferred Alaric's province to the West. This administrative change removed Alaric's Roman rank and his entitlement to legal provisioning for his men, leaving his army—the only significant force in the ravaged Balkans—as a problem for Stilicho.
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Alaric I
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In search of Western Roman recognition; invading Italy
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In search of Western Roman recognition; invading Italy
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Alaric I
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First invasion of Italy ({{circa}} 401–403)
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First invasion of Italy ( 401–403)
According to historian Michael Kulikowski, sometime in the spring of 402 Alaric decided to invade Italy, but no sources from antiquity indicate to what purpose. Burns suggests that Alaric was probably desperate for provisions. Using Claudian as his source, historian Guy Halsall reports that Alaric's attack actually began in late 401, but since Stilicho was in Raetia "dealing with frontier issues" the two did not first confront one another in Italy until 402. Alaric's entry into Italy followed the route identified in the poetry of Claudian, as he crossed the peninsula's Alpine frontier near the city of Aquileia. For a period of six to nine months, there were reports of Gothic attacks along the northern Italian roads, where Alaric was spotted by Roman townspeople. Along the route on Via Postumia, Alaric first encountered Stilicho.
Two battles were fought. The first was at Pollentia on Easter Sunday, where Stilicho (according to Claudian) achieved an impressive victory, taking Alaric's wife and children prisoner, and more significantly, seizing much of the treasure that Alaric had amassed over the previous five years' worth of plundering. Pursuing the retreating forces of Alaric, Stilicho offered to return the prisoners but was refused. The second battle was at Verona, where Alaric was defeated for a second time. Stilicho once again offered Alaric a truce and allowed him to withdraw from Italy. Kulikowski explains this confusing, if not outright conciliatory behavior by stating, "given Stilicho's cold war with Constantinople, it would have been foolish to destroy as biddable and violent a potential weapon as Alaric might well prove to be". Halsall's observations are similar, as he contends that the Roman general's "decision to permit Alaric's withdrawal into Pannonia makes sense if we see Alaric's force entering Stilicho's service, and Stilicho's victory being less total than Claudian would have us believe". Perhaps more revealing is a report from the Greek historian Zosimus—writing a half a century later—that indicates an agreement was concluded between Stilicho and Alaric in 405, which suggests Alaric being in "western service at that point", likely stemming from arrangements made back in 402. Between 404 and 405, Alaric remained in one of the four Pannonian provinces, from where he could "play East off against West while potentially threatening both".
Historian A.D. Lee observes, "Alaric's return to the north-west Balkans brought only temporary respite to Italy, for in 405 another substantial body of Goths and other barbarians, this time from outside the empire, crossed the middle Danube and advanced into northern Italy, where they plundered the countryside and besieged cities and towns" under their leader Radagaisus. Although the imperial government was struggling to muster enough troops to contain these barbarian invasions, Stilicho managed to stifle the threat posed by the tribes under Radagaisus, when the latter split his forces into three separate groups. Stilicho cornered Radagaisus near Florence and starved the invaders into submission. Meanwhile, Alaric—bestowed with codicils of magister militum by Stilicho and now supplied by the West—awaited for one side or the other to incite him to action as Stilicho faced further difficulties from more barbarians.
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Alaric I
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Second invasion of Italy, agreement with Western Roman regime
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Second invasion of Italy, agreement with Western Roman regime
Sometime in 406 and into 407, more large groups of barbarians, consisting primarily of Vandals, Sueves and Alans, crossed the Rhine into Gaul while about the same time a rebellion occurred in Britain. Under a common soldier named Constantine it spread to Gaul. Burdened by so many enemies, Stilicho's position was strained. During this crisis in 407, Alaric again marched on Italy, taking a position in Noricum (modern Austria), where he demanded a sum of 4,000 pounds of gold to buy off another full-scale invasion. The Roman Senate loathed the idea of supporting Alaric; Zosimus observed that one senator famously declaimed Non est ista pax, sed pactio servitutis ("This is not peace, but a pact of servitude"). Stilicho paid Alaric the 4,000 pounds of gold nevertheless. This agreement, sensible in view of the military situation, fatally weakened Stilicho's standing at Honorius's court. Twice Stilicho had allowed Alaric to escape his grasp, and Radagaisus had advanced all the way to the outskirts of Florence.
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Alaric I
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Renewed hostilities after Western Roman coup
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Renewed hostilities after Western Roman coup
In the East, Arcadius died on 1 May 408 and was replaced by his son Theodosius II; Stilicho seems to have planned to march to Constantinople, and to install there a regime loyal to himself. He may also have intended to give Alaric a senior official position and send him against the rebels in Gaul. Before Stilicho could do so, while he was away at Ticinum at the head of a small detachment, a bloody coup against his supporters took place at Honorius's court. It was led by Honorius's minister, Olympius. Stilicho's small escort of Goths and Huns was commanded by a Goth, Sarus, whose Gothic troops massacred the Hun contingent in their sleep, and then withdrew towards the cities in which their own families were billeted. Stilicho ordered that Sarus's Goths should not be admitted, but, now without an army, he was forced to flee for sanctuary. Agents of Olympius promised Stilicho his life, but instead betrayed and killed him.
Alaric was again declared an enemy of the emperor. Olympius's men then massacred the families of the federate troops (as presumed supporters of Stilicho, although they had probably rebelled against him), and the troops defected en masse to Alaric. Many thousands of barbarian auxiliaries, along with their wives and children, joined Alaric in Noricum. The conspirators seem to have let their main army disintegrate and had no policy except hunting down supporters of Stilicho. Italy was left without effective indigenous defence forces thereafter.
As a declared 'enemy of the emperor', Alaric was denied the legitimacy that he needed to collect taxes and hold cities without large garrisons, which he could not afford to detach. He again offered to move his men, this time to Pannonia, in exchange for a modest sum of money and the modest title of Comes, but he was refused because Olympius's regime regarded him as a supporter of Stilicho.
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Alaric I
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First siege of Rome, agreed ransom
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First siege of Rome, agreed ransom
When Alaric was rebuffed, he led his force of around 30,000 men—many newly enlisted and understandably motivated—on a march toward Rome to avenge their murdered families. He moved across the Julian Alps into Italy, probably using the route and supplies arranged for him by Stilicho, bypassing the imperial court in Ravenna which was protected by widespread marshland and had a port, and in September 408 he menaced the city of Rome, imposing a strict blockade. No blood was shed this time; Alaric relied on hunger as his most powerful weapon. When the ambassadors of the Senate, entreating for peace, tried to intimidate him with hints of what the despairing citizens might accomplish, he laughed and gave his celebrated answer: "The thicker the hay, the easier mowed!" After much bargaining, the famine-stricken citizens agreed to pay a ransom of 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000 hides dyed scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper. Alaric also recruited some 40,000 freed Gothic slaves. Thus ended Alaric's first siege of Rome.
thumb|The Sack of Rome by the Visigoths on 24 August 410 by J.-N. Sylvestre (1890)
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Alaric I
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Failed agreement with the Western Romans, Alaric sets up his own emperor
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Failed agreement with the Western Romans, Alaric sets up his own emperor
After having provisionally agreed to the terms offered by Alaric for lifting the blockade, Honorius recanted; historian A.D. Lee highlights that one of the points of contention for the emperor was Alaric's expectation of being named head of the Roman Army, a post Honorius was not prepared to grant to Alaric. When this title was not bestowed onto Alaric, he proceeded to not only "besiege Rome again in late 409, but also to proclaim a leading senator, Priscus Attalus, as a rival emperor, from whom Alaric then received the appointment" he desired. Meanwhile, Alaric's newly appointed "emperor" Attalus, who seems not to have understood the limits of his power or his dependence on Alaric, failed to take Alaric's advice and lost the grain supply in Africa to a pro-Honorian comes Africae, Heraclian. Then, sometime in 409, Attalus—accompanied by Alaric—marched on Ravenna and after receiving unprecedented terms and concessions from the legitimate emperor Honorius, refused him and instead demanded that Honorius be deposed and exiled. Fearing for his safety, Honorius made preparations to flee to Ravenna when ships carrying 4,000 troops arrived from Constantinople, restoring his resolve. Now that Honorius no longer felt the need to negotiate, Alaric (regretting his choice of puppet emperor) deposed Attalus, perhaps to re-open negotiations with Ravenna.
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Alaric I
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Sack of Rome
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Sack of Rome
Negotiations with Honorius might have succeeded had it not been for another intervention by Sarus, of the Amal family, and therefore a hereditary enemy of Alaric and his house. He attacked Alaric's men. Why Sarus, who had been in imperial service for years under Stilicho, acted at this moment remains a mystery, but Alaric interpreted this attack as directed by Ravenna and as bad faith from Honorius. No longer would negotiations suffice for Alaric, as his patience had reached its end, which led him to march on Rome for a third and final time.
On 24 August 410, Alaric and his forces began the sack of Rome, an assault that lasted three days. After hearing reports that Alaric had entered the city—possibly aided by Gothic slaves inside—there were reports that Emperor Honorius (safe in Ravenna) broke into "wailing and lamentation" but quickly calmed once "it was explained to him that it was the city of Rome that had met its end and not 'Roma'," his pet fowl. Writing from Bethlehem, St. Jerome (Letter 127.12, to the lady Principia) lamented: "A dreadful rumour reached us from the West. We heard that Rome was besieged, that the citizens were buying their safety with gold … The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken; nay, it fell by famine before it fell to the sword." Nonetheless, Christian writers also cited how Alaric ordered that anyone who took shelter in a Church was to be spared. When liturgical vessels were taken from the basilica of St. Peter and Alaric heard of this, he ordered them returned and had them ceremoniously restored in the church. If the account from the historian Orosius can be seen as accurate, there was even a celebratory recognition of Christian unity by way of a procession through the streets where Romans and barbarians alike "raised a hymn to God in public"; historian Edward James concludes that such stories are likely more political rhetoric of the "noble" barbarians than a reflection of historical reality.
According to historian Patrick Geary, Roman booty was not the focus of Alaric's sack of Rome; he came for needed food supplies. Historian Stephen Mitchell asserts that Alaric's followers seemed incapable of feeding themselves and relied on provisions "supplied by the Roman authorities." Whatever Alaric's intentions were cannot be known entirely, but Kulikowski certainly sees the issue of available treasure in a different light, writing that "For three days, Alaric's Goths sacked the city, stripping it of the wealth of centuries." The barbarian invaders were not gentle in their treatment of property as substantial damage was still evident into the sixth century. Certainly the Roman world was shaken by the fall of the Eternal City to barbarian invaders, but as Guy Halsall emphasizes, "Rome's fall had less striking political effects. Alaric, unable to treat with Honorius, remained in the political cold." Kulikowski sees the situation similarly, commenting:
But for Alaric the sack of Rome was an admission of defeat, a catastrophic failure. Everything he had hoped for, had fought for over the course of a decade and a half, went up in flames with the capital of the ancient world. Imperial office, a legitimate place for himself and his followers inside the empire, these were now forever out of reach. He might seize what he wanted, as he had seized Rome, but he would never be given it by right. The sack of Rome solved nothing and when the looting was over Alaric's men still had nowhere to live and fewer future prospects than ever before.
Still, the importance of Alaric cannot be "overestimated" according to Halsall, since he had desired and obtained a Roman command even though he was a barbarian; his real misfortune was being caught between the rivalry of the Eastern and Western empires and their court intrigue. According to historian Peter Brown, when one compares Alaric with other barbarians, "he was almost an Elder Statesman." Nonetheless, Alaric's respect for Roman institutions as a former servant to its highest office did not stay his hand in violently sacking the city that had for centuries exemplified Roman glory, leaving behind physical destruction and social disruption, while Alaric took clerics and even the emperor's sister, Galla Placidia, with him when he left the city. Many other Italian communities beyond the city of Rome itself fell victim to the forces under Alaric, as Procopius (Wars 3.2.11–13) writing in the sixth century later relates:
For they destroyed all the cities which they captured, especially those south of the Ionian Gulf, so completely that nothing has been left to my time to know them by, unless, indeed, it might be one tower or gate or some such thing which chanced to remain. And they killed all the people, as many as came in their way, both old and young alike, sparing neither women nor children. Wherefore even up to the present time Italy is sparsely populated.
Whether Alaric's forces wrought the level of destruction described by Procopius or not cannot be known, but evidence speaks to a significant population decrease, as the number of people on the food dole dropped from 800,000 in 408 to 500,000 by 419. Rome's fall to the barbarians was as much a psychological blow to the empire as anything else, since some Romans citizens saw the collapse as resulting from the conversion to Christianity, while Christian theologians like St.Augustine (writing City of God) responded in turn. Lamenting Rome's capture, famed Christian theologian Jerome, wrote how "day and night" he could not stop thinking of everyone's safety, and moreover, how Alaric had extinguished "the bright light of all the world." Some contemporary Christian observers even saw Alaric—a professed Christian—as God's wrath upon a still pagan Rome.
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Alaric I
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Move to southern Italy, death from disease
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Move to southern Italy, death from disease
thumb|right|300px|An engraving of Alaric's burial in the bed of the Busento River (1895)
Not only had Rome's sack been a significant blow to the Roman people's morale, they had also endured two years' worth of trauma brought about by fear, hunger (due to blockades), and illness. However, the Goths were not long in the city of Rome, as only three days after the sack, Alaric marched his men south to Campania, from where he intended to sail to Sicily—probably to obtain grain and other supplies—when a storm destroyed his fleet. During the early months of 411, while on his northward return journey through Italy, Alaric took ill and died at Consentia in Bruttium. His cause of death was likely fever, and his body was, according to legend, buried under the riverbed of the Busento in accordance with the pagan practices of the Visigothic people. The stream was temporarily turned aside from its course while the grave was dug, wherein the Gothic chief and some of his most precious spoils were interred. When the work was finished, the river was turned back into its usual channel and the captives by whose hands the labour had been accomplished were put to death that none might learn their secret.
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Alaric I
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Aftermath
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Aftermath
Alaric was succeeded in the command of the Gothic army by his brother-in-law, Ataulf, who married Honorius' sister Galla Placidia three years later.
Following in the wake of Alaric's leadership, which Kulikowski claims, had given his people "a sense of community that survived his own death...Alaric's Goths remained together inside the empire, going on to settle in Gaul. There, in the province of Aquitaine, they put down roots and created the first autonomous barbarian kingdom inside the frontiers of the Roman empire." The Goths were able to settle in Aquitaine only after Honorius granted the once Roman province to them, sometime in 418 or 419. Not long after Alaric's exploits in Rome and Athaulf's settlement in Aquitaine, there is a "rapid emergence of Germanic barbarian groups in the West" who begin controlling many western provinces. These barbarian peoples included: Vandals in Spain and Africa, Visigoths in Spain and Aquitaine, Burgundians along the upper Rhine and southern Gaul, and Franks on the lower Rhine and in northern and central Gaul.
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Alaric I
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Sources
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Sources
The chief authorities on the career of Alaric are: the historian Orosius and the poet Claudian, both contemporary, neither disinterested; Zosimus, a historian who lived probably about half a century after Alaric's death; and Jordanes, a Goth who wrote the history of his nation in 551, basing his work on Cassiodorus's Gothic History.
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Alaric I
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See also
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See also
Alaric II
Gaiseric
Odoacer
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Alaric I
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References
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References
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Alaric I
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Notes
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Notes
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Alaric I
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Citations
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Citations
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Alaric I
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Bibliography
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Bibliography
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Alaric I
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Online
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Online
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Alaric I
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External links
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External links
Alaric I
Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 30 and Chapter 31.
The Legend of Alaric's Burial
For a modern-day novel exploring the historical sources relating to Alaric's riverbed grave, see Alaric's Gold by Robert Fortune
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Category:410s deaths
Category:5th-century Visigothic monarchs
Category:Balt dynasty
Category:People from Tulcea County
Category:5th-century Arian Christians
Category:Ancient Italian history
Category:Gothic warriors
Category:4th-century monarchs in Europe
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:4th-century Gothic people
Category:390s in the Byzantine Empire
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Alaric I
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Table of Content
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short description, Early life, federate status in the Balkans, Rebellion against Rome, rise to Gothic leadership, Service under Theodosius I, Semi-independent action in Eastern Roman interests, Eastern Roman recognition, In search of Western Roman recognition; invading Italy, First invasion of Italy ({{circa}} 401–403), Second invasion of Italy, agreement with Western Roman regime, Renewed hostilities after Western Roman coup, First siege of Rome, agreed ransom, Failed agreement with the Western Romans, Alaric sets up his own emperor, Sack of Rome, Move to southern Italy, death from disease, Aftermath, Sources, See also, References, Notes, Citations, Bibliography, Online, External links
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Alaric II
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Short description
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Alaric II (, , 'ruler of all';Kelsie B. Harder, Names and their varieties: a collection of essays in onomastics, American Name Society, University Press of America, 1984, pp. 10–11 ; – August 507) was the King of the Visigoths from 484 until 507. He succeeded his father Euric as King of the Visigoths in Toulouse on 28 December 484;Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, translated by Thomas J. Dunlap (Berkeley: University of California, 1988), p. 190. he was the great-grandson of the more famous Alaric I, who sacked Rome in 410. He established his capital at Aire-sur-l'Adour (Vicus Julii) in Aquitaine. His dominions included not only the majority of Hispania (excluding its northwestern corner) but also Gallia Aquitania and the greater part of an as-yet undivided Gallia Narbonensis.
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Alaric II
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Reign
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Reign
Herwig Wolfram opens his chapter on the eighth Visigothic king, "Alaric's reign gets no full treatment in the sources, and the little they do contain is overshadowed by his death in the Battle of Vouillé and the downfall of the Toulosan kingdom."Wolfram, History of the Goths, p. 191 One example is Isidore of Seville's account of Alaric's reign: consisting of a single paragraph, it is primarily about Alaric's death in that battle.Isidore of Seville, Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum, chapter 36. Translation by Guido Donini and Gordon B. Ford, Isidore of Seville's History of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi, second revised edition (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970), pp. 17f
The earliest-documented event in Alaric's reign concerned providing refuge to Syagrius, the former ruler of the Domain of Soissons (in what is now northwestern France) who had been defeated by Clovis I, King of the Franks. According to Gregory of Tours' account, Alaric was intimidated by Clovis into surrendering Syagrius to Clovis; Gregory then adds that "the Goths are a timorous race." The Franks then imprisoned Syagrius, and once his control over Syagrius' former kingdom was secure, Clovis had him beheaded.Gregory of Tours, Decem Libri Historiarum, II.27; translated by Lewis Thorpe, History of the Franks (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974), p. 139 However, Wolfram points out that at the time "Clovis got no farther than the Seine; only after several more years did the Franks succeed in occupying the rest of the Gallo-Roman buffer state north of the Loire." Any threat of war Clovis could make would only be effective if they were neighbors; "it is nowhere written that Syagrius was handed over in 486 or 487."
Despite Frankish advances in the years that followed, Alaric was not afraid to take the military initiative when it presented itself. In 490, Alaric assisted his fellow Gothic king, Theodoric the Great, in his conquest of Italy by dispatching an army to raise Odoacer's siege of Pavia, where Theodoric had been trapped.Wolfram, History of the Goths, pp. 281f Then when the Franks attacked the Burgundians in the decade after 500, Alaric assisted the ruling house, and according to Wolfram the victorious Burgundian king Gundobad ceded Avignon to Alaric.Wolfram, History of the Goths, p. 291 By 502 Clovis and Alaric met on an island in the Loire near Amboise for face-to-face talks, which led to a peace treaty.
In 506, the Visigoths captured the city of Dertosa in the Ebro valley. There they captured the Roman usurper Peter and had him executed.Collins, Roger. Visigothic Spain, 409–711. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004, p. 35.
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Alaric II
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Battle of Vouillé and aftermath
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Battle of Vouillé and aftermath
thumb|left|The Kingdom of the Visigoths under Alaric II
After a few years, however, Clovis violated the peace treaty negotiated in 502. Despite the diplomatic intervention of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths and father-in-law of Alaric, Clovis led his followers into Visigothic territory. Alaric was forced by his magnates to meet Clovis in the Battle of Vouillé (summer 507) near Poitiers; there the Goths were defeated and Alaric slain, according to Gregory of Tours, by Clovis himself.Wolfram, History of the Goths, pp. 292f
The most serious consequence of this battle was not the loss of their possessions in Gaul to the Franks; with Ostrogothic help, much of the Gallic territory was recovered, Wolfram notes, perhaps as far as Toulouse.Wolfram, History of the Goths, p. 245 Nor was it the loss of the royal treasury at Toulouse, which Gregory of Tours writes Clovis took into his possession. As Peter Heather notes, the Visigothic kingdom was thrown into disarray "by the death of its king in battle".Peter Heather, The Goths (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), p. 215 Alaric's heirs were his eldest son, the illegitimate Gesalec, and his younger son, the legitimate Amalaric, who was still a child. Gesalec proved incompetent, and in 511 King Theodoric assumed the throne of the kingdom ostensibly on behalf of Amalaric—Heather uses the word "hijacked" to describe his action. Although Amalaric eventually became king in his own right, the political continuity of the Visigothic kingdom was broken; "Amalaric's succession was the result of new power structures, not old ones," as Heather describes it. With Amalaric's death in 531, the Visigothic kingdom entered an extended period of unrest which lasted until Leovigild assumed the throne in 569.Heather, The Goths, p. 277
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Alaric II
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Ability as king
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Ability as king
In religion Alaric was an Arian, like all the early Visigothic nobles, but he greatly mitigated the persecution policy of his father Euric toward the Catholics and authorized them to hold in 506 the council of Agde. He was on uneasy terms with the Catholic bishops of Arelate (modern Arles) as epitomized in the career of the Gallo-Roman Caesarius, bishop of Arles, who was appointed bishop in 503. Caesarius was suspected of conspiring with the Burgundians, whose king had married the sister of Clovis, to assist the Burgundians capture Arles. Alaric exiled him for a year to Bordeaux in Aquitania, then allowed him to return unharmed when the crisis had passed.
Alaric displayed similar wisdom in political affairs by appointing a commission headed by the referendary Anianus to prepare an abstract of the Roman laws and imperial decrees, which would form the authoritative code for his Roman subjects. This is generally known as the Breviarium Alaricianum or Breviary of Alaric.
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Alaric II
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Legacy
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Legacy
thumb|upright|Speculative portrait by Carlos Esquivel y Rivas, 1856
The (Alaric's Mountain), near Carcassonne, is named after the Visigoth king. Local rumour has it that he left a vast treasure buried in the caves beneath the mountain.Montagne d’Alaric
The (Alaric's Canal) in the Hautes-Pyrénées department is named after him.Theodoric the Goth: the barbarian champion of civilisation by Hodgkin, Thomas, 1891 New York : G.P. Putnam's Son pg. 239
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Alaric II
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References
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References
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Alaric II
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Further reading
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Further reading
Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 38
Alarico II , Diccionario biográfico español, Luis Agustín García Moreno, Real Academia de la Historia.
Category:507 deaths
Category:5th-century births
Category:5th-century Visigothic monarchs
Category:6th-century Visigothic monarchs
Category:Ancient child monarchs
Category:Balt dynasty
Category:Monarchs killed in action
Category:Year of birth uncertain
Category:Year of birth unknown
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Alaric II
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Table of Content
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Short description, Reign, Battle of Vouillé and aftermath, Ability as king, Legacy, References, Further reading
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Albertus Magnus
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Short description
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Albertus Magnus ( – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great, Albert of Swabia
or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop, considered one of the greatest medieval philosophers and thinkers.
Canonized in 1931, he was known during his lifetime as Doctor universalis and Doctor expertus; late in his life the sobriquet Magnus was appended to his name. Scholars such as James A. Weisheipl and Joachim R. Söder have referred to him as the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages.Joachim R. Söder, "Albert der Grosse – ein staunen- erregendes Wunder," Wort und Antwort 41 (2000): 145; J.A. Weisheipl, "Albertus Magnus," Joseph Strayer ed., Dictionary of the Middle Ages 1 (New York: Scribner, 1982) 129. The Catholic Church distinguishes him as one of the Doctors of the Church.
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Albertus Magnus
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Biography
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Biography
It seems likely that Albertus Magnus was born sometime before 1200, given well-attested evidence that he was aged over 80 on his death in 1280. Two later sources say that Albert was about 87 on his death, which has led 1193 to be commonly given as the date of Albert's birth, but this information does not have enough evidence to be confirmed. Albert was probably born in Lauingen (now in Bavaria), since he called himself 'Albert of Lauingen', but this might simply be a family name. Most probably his family was of ministerial class; his familial connection with (being son of the count) the Bollstädt noble family is almost certainly mere conjecture by 15th century hagiographers.
Albert was probably educated principally at the University of Padua, where he received instruction in Aristotle's writings. A late account by Rudolph de Novamagia refers to Albertus' encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary, who convinced him to enter Holy Orders. In 1223 (or 1229), he became a member of the Dominican Order, and studied theology at Bologna and elsewhere. Selected to fill the position of lecturer at Cologne, Germany, where the Dominicans had a house, he taught for several years there, as well as in Regensburg, Freiburg, Strasbourg, and Hildesheim. During his first tenure as lecturer at Cologne, Albert wrote his Summa de bono after having a discussion with Philip the Chancellor concerning the transcendental properties of being.Kovach, Francs, and Rober Shahan. Albert the Great: Commemorative Essays . Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980, p. x. In 1245, Albert became master of theology under Guerric of Saint-Quentin, the first German Dominican to achieve this distinction. Following this turn of events, Albert was able to teach theology at the University of Paris as a full-time professor, holding the seat of the Chair of Theology at the College of St. James. During this time Thomas Aquinas began to study under Albertus.Kennedy, Daniel. "St. Albertus Magnus." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 10 Sept. 2014
thumb|right|Bust of Albertus Magnus by Vincenzo Onofri,
Albert was the first to comment on virtually all of the writings of Aristotle, thus making them accessible to wider academic debate. The study of Aristotle brought him to study and comment on the teachings of Muslim academics, notably Avicenna and Averroes, and this would bring him into the heart of academic debate.
In 1254, Albert was made provincial of the Dominican Order and fulfilled the duties of the office with great care and efficiency. During his tenure, he publicly defended the Dominicans against attacks by the secular faculty of the University of Paris, commented on John the Evangelist, and answered what he perceived as errors of the Islamic philosopher Averroes.
In 1259, Albert took part in the General Chapter of the Dominicans at Valenciennes together with Thomas Aquinas, masters Bonushomo Britto, Florentius,Probably Florentius de Hidinio, a.k.a. Florentius Gallicus, Histoire littéraire de la France: XIIIe siècle, Volume 19, p. 104, Accessed October 27, 2012 and Peter (later Pope Innocent V), establishing a ratio studiorum or program of studies for the DominicansEncyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Volume 10, p. 701. Accessed 9 June 2011 that featured the study of philosophy as an innovation for those not sufficiently trained to study theology. This innovation initiated the tradition of Dominican scholastic philosophy put into practice, for example, in 1265 at the Order's studium provinciale at the convent of Santa Sabina in Rome, out of which would develop the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the "Angelicum".Weisheipl O.P., J. A., "The Place of Study In the Ideal of St. Dominic" , 1960. Accessed 19 March 2013
thumb|Roman sarcophagus containing the relics of Albertus Magnus in the crypt of St. Andrew's Church, Cologne, Germany
In 1260, Pope Alexander IV made him bishop of Regensburg, an office from which he resigned after three years. During the exercise of his duties he enhanced his reputation for humility by refusing to ride a horse, in accord with the dictates of the Order, instead traversing his huge diocese on foot. In 1263, Pope Urban IV relieved him of the duties of bishop and asked him to preach the eighth Crusade in German-speaking countries.Führer, Markus, "Albert the Great", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), After this, he was especially known for acting as a mediator between conflicting parties. In Cologne, he is known not only for being the founder of Germany's oldest university there, but also for "the big verdict" (der Große Schied) of 1258, which brought an end to the conflict between the citizens of Cologne and the archbishop. Among the last of his labors was the defense of the orthodoxy of his former pupil, Thomas Aquinas, whose death in 1274 grieved Albert (the story that he travelled to Paris in person to defend the teachings of Aquinas can not be confirmed).
Albert was a scientist, philosopher, astrologer, theologian, spiritual writer, ecumenist, and diplomat. Under the auspices of Humbert of Romans, Albert molded the curriculum of studies for all Dominican students, introduced Aristotle to the classroom and probed the work of Neoplatonists, such as Plotinus. Indeed, it was the thirty years of work done by Aquinas and himself that allowed for the inclusion of Aristotelian study in the curriculum of Dominican schools.
After suffering declining health in 1278, he died on 15 November 1280 in the Dominican convent in Cologne, Germany. His relics are located in a Roman sarcophagus in the crypt of the Dominican St. Andrew's Church in Cologne. His body was claimed to be incorrupt during an exhumation three years after his death. However, a later exhumation in 1483 found that only a skeleton remained.
Albert was beatified in 1622. He was canonized and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on 16 December 1931 by Pope Pius XIFüllenbach, Elias H.: The Canonization of Albert the Great in 1931, in: Fra trionfi e sconfitte. "Politica della santità" dell'Ordine dei predicatori, ed. by Viliam S. Doci and Gianni Festa, Rome 2021 (Dissertationes Historicae, vol. 39), p. 131-147. Article and the patron saint of natural scientists in 1941. St. Albert's feast day is November 15.
Among the first biographical sources, there were Heinrich von HerfordEnrico di Herford, August Potthast (editor), Liber de rebus memorabilioribus sive chronicon Henrici de Hervordia. Göttingen 1859 and Luis of ValladolidesLuigi di Valladolid, Tabula Alberti Magni, in «Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum Bibl. Regia Bruxellensis», 1.2, Bruxelles, 1889. As quoted in (Academia.edu)Luis de Valladolid, Historia de vita et doctrina Alberti Magni, in Subsidia hagiographica 1(1889): 96–105 (Google Scholar). As quoted in and, in modern times, the study by James A. Weisheipl (1980), who reconstructs the life and works of Albertus Magnus taking into account all previous biographies and places his date of birth around 1200.James a. Weisheipl, Thomas d'Aquino and Albert His Teacher, Étienne Gilson series (n°. 2), Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto 1980.
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Albertus Magnus
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Writings
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Writings
thumb|right|upright|Albertus Magnus monument at the University of Cologne
Saint Albertus Magnus, a fresco by Tommaso da Modena (1352), Chapter hall of convent of St. Nicholas, Treviso, Italy|thumb|right
Albert's writings collected in 1899 went to thirty-eight volumes. These displayed his prolific habits and encyclopedic knowledge of topics such as logic, theology, botany, geography, astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology, phrenology, justice, law, friendship, and love. He digested, interpreted, and systematized the whole of Aristotle's works, gleaned from the Latin translations and notes of the Arabian commentators, in accordance with Church doctrine. Most modern knowledge of Aristotle was preserved and presented by Albert.
His principal theological works are a commentary in three volumes on the Books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Magister Sententiarum), and the Summa Theologiae in two volumes. The latter is in substance a more didactic repetition of the former.
Albert's activity, however, was more philosophical than theological (see Scholasticism). The philosophical works, occupying the first six and the last of the 21 volumes, are generally divided according to the Aristotelian scheme of the sciences, and consist of interpretations and condensations of Aristotle's relative works, with supplementary discussions upon contemporary topics, and occasional divergences from the opinions of the master. Albert believed that Aristotle's approach to natural philosophy did not pose any obstacle to the development of a Christian philosophical view of the natural order.
thumb|upright|De animalibus (c. 1450–1500, cod. fiesolano 67, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana)
Albert's knowledge of natural science was considerable and for the age remarkably accurate. His industry in every department was great: not only did he produce commentaries and paraphrases of the entire Aristotelian corpus, including his scientific works, but Albert also added to and improved upon them. His books on topics like botany, zoology, and minerals included information from ancient sources, but also results of his own empirical investigations. These investigations pushed several of the special sciences forward, beyond the reliance on classical texts. In the case of embryology, for example, it has been claimed that little of value was written between Aristotle and Albert, who managed to identify organs within eggs. Furthermore, Albert also effectively invented entire special sciences, where Aristotle has not covered a topic. For example, prior to Albert, there was no systematic study of minerals. For the breadth of these achievements, he was bestowed the name Doctor Universalis.
Much of Albert's empirical contributions to the natural sciences have been superseded, but his general approach to science may be surprisingly modern. For example, in De Mineralibus (Book II, Tractate ii, Ch. 1) Albert claims, "For it is [the task] of natural science not simply to accept what we are told but to inquire into the causes of natural things."
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Albertus Magnus
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Alchemy
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Alchemy
thumb|left|upright| Albertus Magnus, Chimistes Celebres, Liebig's Extract of Meat Company Trading Card, 1929
In the centuries since his death, many stories arose about Albert as an alchemist and magician. "Much of the modern confusion results from the fact that later works, particularly the alchemical work known as the Secreta Alberti or the Experimenta Alberti, were falsely attributed to Albertus by their authors to increase the prestige of the text through association."Katz, David A., "An Illustrated History of Alchemy and Early Chemistry", 1978 On the subject of alchemy and chemistry, many treatises relating to alchemy have been attributed to him, though in his authentic writings he had little to say on the subject, and then mostly through commentary on Aristotle. For example, in his commentary, De mineralibus, he refers to the power of stones, but does not elaborate on what these powers might be.Georg Wieland, "Albert der Grosse. Der Entwurf einer eigenständigen Philosophie," Philosophen des Mittelalters (Darmstadt: Primus, 2000) 124-39. A wide range of Pseudo-Albertine works dealing with alchemy exist, though, showing the belief developed in the generations following Albert's death that he had mastered alchemy, one of the fundamental sciences of the Middle Ages. These include Metals and Materials; the Secrets of Chemistry; the Origin of Metals; the Origins of Compounds, and a Concordance which is a collection of Observations on the philosopher's stone; and other alchemy-chemistry topics, collected under the name of Theatrum Chemicum.Walsh, John, The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries. 1907:46 (available online). He is credited with the discovery of the element arsenic and experimented with photosensitive chemicals, including silver nitrate. He did believe that stones had occult properties, as he related in his work De mineralibus. However, there is scant evidence that he personally performed alchemical experiments.
According to legend, Albert is said to have discovered the philosopher's stone and passed it on to his pupil Thomas Aquinas, shortly before his death. Albert does not confirm he discovered the stone in his writings, but he did record that he witnessed the creation of gold by "transmutation."Julian Franklyn and Frederick E. Budd. A Survey of the Occult. Electric Book Company. 2001. p. 28-30. . Given that Thomas Aquinas died six years before Albert's death, this legend as stated is unlikely.
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Albertus Magnus
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Astrology
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Astrology
Albert was deeply interested in astrology, as has been articulated by scholars such as Paola ZambelliPaola Zambelli, "The Speculum Astronomiae and its Enigma" Dordrecht. and Scott Hendrix. Throughout the Middle Ages –and well into the early modern period– astrology was widely accepted by scientists and intellectuals who held the view that life on earth is effectively a microcosm within the macrocosm (the latter being the cosmos itself). It was believed that correspondence therefore exists between the two and thus the celestial bodies follow patterns and cycles analogous to those on earth. With this worldview, it seemed reasonable to assert that astrology could be used to predict the probable future of a human being. Albert argued that an understanding of the celestial influences affecting us could help us to live our lives more in accord with Christian precepts.Scott E. Hendrix, How Albert the Great's Speculum Astronomiae Was Interpreted and Used by Four Centuries of Readers (Lewiston: 2010), 44-46. The most comprehensive statement of his astrological beliefs is to be found in two separate works that he authored around 1260, known as the Speculum astronomiae and De Fato. However, details of these beliefs can be found in almost everything he wrote, from his early De natura boni to his last work, the Summa theologiae.Hendrix, 195. His speculum was critiqued by Gerard of Silteo.
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Albertus Magnus
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Tides and the Moon
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Tides and the Moon
Albert considered the tides to be influenced by the moon. Based on ancient Greek theories of light and Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi’s astrological explanations, he proposed a mixed theory where the Moon doubly attracts the water by its intrinsic astrological humid nature and by the heat that the moonlight produces.
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Albertus Magnus
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Matter and form
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Matter and form
Albert believed that all natural things were compositions of matter and form, to which he referred as quod est and quo est. Albert also believed that God alone is the absolute ruling entity. Albert's version of hylomorphism is very similar to the Aristotelian doctrine.
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Albertus Magnus
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Music
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Music
Albert is known for his commentary on the musical practice of his times. Most of his written musical observations are found in his commentary on Aristotle's Poetics. He rejected the idea of "music of the spheres" as ridiculous: movement of astronomical bodies, he supposed, is incapable of generating sound. He wrote extensively on proportions in music, and on the three different subjective levels on which plainchant could work on the human soul: purging of the impure; illumination leading to contemplation; and nourishing perfection through contemplation. Of particular interest to 20th-century music theorists is the attention he paid to silence as an integral part of music.
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Albertus Magnus
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Metaphysics of morals
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Metaphysics of morals
Both of his early treatises, De natura boni and De bono, start with a metaphysical investigation into the concepts of the good in general and the physical good. Albert refers to the physical good as bonum naturae. Albert does this before directly dealing with the moral concepts of metaphysics. In Albert's later works, he says in order to understand human or moral goodness, the individual must first recognize what it means to be good and do good deeds. This procedure reflects Albert's preoccupations with neo-Platonic theories of good as well as the doctrines of Pseudo-Dionysius.Cunningham, Stanley. Reclaiming Moral Agency: The Moral Philosophy of Albert the Great. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 2008 p. 93 Albert's view was highly valued by the Catholic Church and his peers.
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Albertus Magnus
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Natural law
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Natural law
Albert devoted the last tractatus of De Bono to a theory of justice and natural law. Albert places God as the pinnacle of justice and natural law. God legislates and divine authority is supreme. Up until his time, it was the only work specifically devoted to natural law written by a theologian or philosopher.Cunningham, Stanley. Reclaiming Moral Agency: The Moral Philosophy of Albert the Great. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 2008 p.207
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Albertus Magnus
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Friendship
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Friendship
Albert mentions friendship in his work, De bono, as well as presenting his ideals and morals of friendship in the very beginning of Tractatus II. Later in his life he published Super Ethica.Cunningham, Stanley. Reclaiming Moral Agency: The Moral Philosophy of Albert the Great. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 2008 p.242 With his development of friendship throughout his work it is evident that friendship ideals and morals took relevance as his life went on. Albert comments on Aristotle's view of friendship with a quote from Cicero, who writes, "friendship is nothing other than the harmony between things divine and human, with goodwill and love". Albert agrees with this commentary but he also adds in harmony or agreement.Cunningham, Stanley. Reclaiming Moral Agency: The Moral Philosophy of Albert the Great. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 2008 p.243 Albert calls this harmony, consensio, itself a certain kind of movement within the human spirit. Albert fully agrees with Aristotle in the sense that friendship is a virtue. Albert relates the inherent metaphysical contentedness between friendship and moral goodness. Albert describes several levels of goodness; the useful (utile), the pleasurable (delectabile) and the authentic or unqualified good (honestum). Then in turn there are three levels of friendship based on each of those levels, namely friendship based on usefulness (amicitia utilis), friendship based on pleasure (amicitia delectabilis), and friendship rooted in unqualified goodness (amicitia honesti; amicitia quae fundatur super honestum).Cunningham, Stanley. Reclaiming Moral Agency: The Moral Philosophy of Albert the Great. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 2008 p.244
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Albertus Magnus
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Cultural references
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Cultural references
thumb|The tympanum and archivolts of Strasbourg Cathedral, with iconography inspired by Albertus Magnus
The iconography of the tympanum and archivolts of the late 13th-century portal of Strasbourg Cathedral was inspired by Albert's writings.France: A Phaidon Cultural Guide, Phaidon Press, 1985, , p. 705 Albert is frequently mentioned by Dante, who made his doctrine of free will the basis of his ethical system. In his Divine Comedy, Dante places Albertus with his pupil Thomas Aquinas among the great lovers of wisdom (Spiriti Sapienti) in the Heaven of the Sun.
In The Concept of Anxiety, Søren Kierkegaard wrote that Albert, "arrogantly boasted of his speculation before the deity and suddenly became stupid." Kierkegaard cites Gotthard Oswald Marbach whom he quotes as saying "Albertus repente ex asino factus philosophus et ex philosopho asinus" [Albert was suddenly transformed from an ass into a philosopher and from a philosopher into an ass].The Concept of Anxiety, Princeton University Press, 1980, , pp. 150–151
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the titular scientist, Victor Frankenstein, studies the works of Albertus Magnus.
Pastor Johann Eduard Erdmann considered Albert greater and more original than his pupil Aquinas.Erdmann - History of Philosophy vol 1 trans Hough - London 1910. p. 422
In Open All Hours, Arkwright invents St Albert's day so Granville can check customers' pockets.
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Albertus Magnus
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Influence and tribute
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Influence and tribute
thumb|left|upright|Painting by Joos (Justus) van Gent, Urbino, c. 1475
A number of schools have been named after Albert, including Albertus Magnus High School in Bardonia, New York; Albertus Magnus Lyceum in River Forest, Illinois; and Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut.
Albertus Magnus Science Hall at Thomas Aquinas College, in Santa Paula, California, is named in honor of Albert. The main science buildings at Providence College and Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, are also named after him.
The central square at the campus of the University of Cologne features a statue of Albert and is named after him. Made by Gerhard Marcks around 1950s, this statue is one of four replicas found in different places around the world (along with University of Jena, University of the Andes, and University of Houston).
The Academy for Science and Design in New Hampshire honored Albert by naming one of its four houses Magnus House.
As a tribute to the scholar's contributions to the law, the University of Houston Law Center displays a statue of Albert. It is located on the campus of the University of Houston.
The Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium is found in Rottweil, Germany.
In Managua, Nicaragua, the Albertus Magnus International Institute, a business and economic development research center, was founded in 2004.
thumb|University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines
In the Philippines, the Albertus Magnus Building at the University of Santo Tomas that houses the Conservatory of Music, College of Tourism and Hospitality Management, College of Education, and UST Education High School is named in his honor. The Saint Albert the Great Science Academy in San Carlos City, Pangasinan, which offers preschool, elementary and high school education, takes pride in having St. Albert as their patron saint. Its main building was named Albertus Magnus Hall in 2008. San Alberto Magno Academy in Tubao, La Union is also dedicated in his honor. This century-old Catholic high school continues to live on its vision-mission up to this day, offering Senior High school courses.
Due to his contributions to natural philosophy, the bacterium Agrobacterium albertimagni, the plant species Alberta magna, the crustacean Bodigiella albertimagni, the fossil brachiopod Albasphe albertimagni, and the asteroid 20006 Albertus Magnus were named after him.
Numerous Catholic elementary and secondary schools are named for him, including schools in Toronto; Calgary; Cologne; and Dayton, Ohio.
The Albertus typeface is named after him.
At the University of Notre Dame du Lac in Notre Dame, Indiana, the Zahm Hall Chapel is dedicated to St. Albert the Great. Fr. John Zahm, C.S.C., after whom the men's residence hall is named, looked to St. Albert's example of using religion to illumine scientific discovery. Fr. Zahm's work with the Bible and evolution is sometimes seen as a continuation of St. Albert's legacy.
The second largest student's fraternity of the Netherlands, located in the city of Groningen, is named Albertus Magnus, in honor of the saint.
The Colegio Cientifico y Artistico de San Alberto, Hopelawn, New Jersey, USA with a sister school in Nueva Ecija, Philippines was founded in 1986 in honor of him who thought and taught that religion, the sciences and the arts may be advocated as subjects which should not contradict each other but should support one another to achieve wisdom and reason.
The Vosloorus Catholic parish (located in Vosloorus Extension One, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa) is named after the saint.
The Catholic parish in Leopoldshafen, near Karlsruhe in Germany is also named after him, too, since Albert is the patron saint of scientists and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has a large research center nearby.
Since the death of King Albert I, the King's Feast is celebrated in Belgium on Albert's feast day.
Edinburgh's Catholic Chaplaincy which serves the city's universities, is named after St Albert.
Sant'Alberto Magno is a titular church in Rome.
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Albertus Magnus
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Bibliography
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Bibliography
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Albertus Magnus
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Translations
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Translations
The Paradise of the Soul: Forty-Two Virtues to Reach Heaven, translated by Fr. Robert Nixon, OSB (Gastonia, NC: TAN Books: 2023) [translation of Paradisus Animae]
On Fate, translated by D.P. Curtin (Philadelphia, PA: Dalcassian Publishing Company: 2023) [translation of De fato]
On Resurrection, translated by Irven M. Resnick and Franklin T. Harkins (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press: 2020) [translation of De resurrectione]
On the Body of the Lord, translated by Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, OP (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press: 2017) [translation of De corpore Domini]
On the Causes of the Properties of the Elements, translated by Irven M. Resnick (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2010) [translation of Liber de causis proprietatum elementorum]
Questions concerning Aristotle's on Animals, translated by Irven M. Resnick and Kenneth F. Kitchell Jr. (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2008) [translation of Quaestiones super De animalibus]
The Cardinal Virtues: Aquinas, Albert, and Philip the Chancellor, translated by R. E. Houser (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediæval Studies, 2004) [contains the translations of Parisian Summa, part six: On the good and Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, book 3, dist. 33 & 36]
The Commentary of Albertus Magnus on Book 1 of Euclid's Elements of Geometry, edited by Anthony Lo Bello (Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003) [translation of Priumus Euclidis cum commento Alberti]
On Animals: A Medieval Summa Zoologica, translated by Kenneth F. Kitchell Jr. and Irven Michael Resnick (Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999) [translation of De animalibus]
Paola Zambelli, The Speculum Astronomiae and Its Enigma: Astrology, Theology, and Science in Albertus Magnus and His Contemporaries (Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992) [includes Latin text and English translation of Speculum astronomiae]
Albert & Thomas: Selected Writings, translated by , Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1988) [contains translation of Super Dionysii Mysticam theologiam]
On Union with God, translated by a Benedictine of Princethorpe Priory (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1911) [reprinted as (Felinfach: Llanerch Enterprises, 1991) and (London: Continuum, 2000)] [translation of De adherendo Deo]
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Albertus Magnus
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See also
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See also
Christian mysticism
List of Catholic saints
List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics
Saint Albert the Great, patron saint archive
Science in the Middle Ages
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Albertus Magnus
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Notes
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Notes
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Albertus Magnus
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References
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References
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Albertus Magnus
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Citations
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Citations
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Albertus Magnus
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Sources
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Sources
Sighart, Joachim (1876), Albert the Great : his life and scholastic labours: from original documents.
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Albertus Magnus
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Further reading
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Further reading
Collins, David J. "Albertus, Magnus or Magus? Magic, Natural Philosophy, and Religious Reform in the Late Middle Ages." Renaissance Quarterly 63 (2010): 1–44.
Collins, David J. Disenchanting Albert the Great: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Magician. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2024.
Honnefelder, Ludger (ed.) Albertus Magnus and the Beginnings of the Medieval Reception of Aristotle in the Latin West. From Richardus Rufus to Franciscus de Mayronis, (collection of essays in German and English), Münster Aschendorff, 2005.
Jong, Jonathan. "Albert the Great: Patron Saint of Scientists", in: St Mary Magdalen School of Theology, Thinking Faithfully.
Kovach, Francis J. & Shahan, Robert W. Albert the Great. Commemorative Essays, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
Lemay, Helen Rodnite. Women's Secrets: A Translation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus's De secretis mulierum with Commentaries. SUNY Series in Medieval Studies. Albany: SUNY Press, 1992.
Miteva, Evelina. , in: Philosophia: E-Journal of Philosophy and Culture, 1/2012. .
Resnick, Irven (ed.), A Companion to Albert the Great: Theology, Philosophy, and the Sciences, Leiden, Brill, 2013.
Resnick, Irven e Kitchell Jr, Kenneth (eds.), Albert the Great: A Selective Annotated Bibliography, (1900–2000), Tempe, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2004.
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Albertus Magnus
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External links
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External links
Alberti Magni Works in Latin Online
Albertus Magnus on Astrology & Magic
"Albertus Magnus & Prognostication by the Stars"
, London, 1604, full online version.
Albertus Magnus – De Adhaerendo Deo – On Cleaving to God
Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries – High resolution images of works by Albertus Magnus in .jpg and .tiff format.
Albertus Magnus works at SOMNI in the collection of the Duke of Calabria.
Alberti Magni De laudibus beate Mariae Virginis, Italian digitized codex of 1476 with a completed transcription of his work "Liber de laudibus gloriosissime Dei genitricis Marie"
Albertus Magnus De mirabili scientia Dei, Italian digitized codex of 1484 with a transcription of the first part of his Summa Theologicae.
Category:1280 deaths
Category:13th-century Christian mystics
Category:13th-century Christian saints
Category:13th-century German Catholic theologians
Category:13th-century German philosophers
Category:13th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Bavaria
Category:13th-century alchemists
Category:13th-century astrologers
Category:13th-century jurists
Category:13th-century writers in Latin
Category:Academic staff of the University of Paris
Category:Alsatian saints
Category:Aristotelian philosophers
Category:Canonizations by Pope Pius XI
Category:Catholic clergy scientists
Category:Catholic philosophers
Category:Characters in the Divine Comedy
Category:Discoverers of chemical elements
Category:Doctors of the Church
Category:Dominican bishops
Category:Dominican mystics
Category:Dominican saints
Category:German Dominicans
Category:German Roman Catholic saints
Category:German astrologers
Category:German entomologists
Category:German male non-fiction writers
Category:Incorrupt saints
Category:Latin commentators on Aristotle
Category:Natural law ethicists
Category:Natural philosophers
Category:People from Lauingen
Category:Provincial superiors
Category:Roman Catholic bishops of Regensburg
Category:Scholastic philosophers
Category:University of Padua alumni
Category:Writers about religion and science
Category:Year of birth unknown
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Albertus Magnus
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Table of Content
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Short description, Biography, Writings, Alchemy, Astrology, Tides and the Moon, Matter and form, Music, Metaphysics of morals, Natural law, Friendship, Cultural references, Influence and tribute, Bibliography, Translations, See also, Notes, References, Citations, Sources, Further reading, External links
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Alboin
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Short description
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Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effect on Italy and the Pannonian Basin; in the former, his invasion marked the beginning of centuries of Lombard rule, and in the latter, his defeat of the Gepids and his departure from Pannonia ended the dominance there of the Germanic peoples.
The period of Alboin's reign as king in Pannonia following the death of his father, Audoin, was one of confrontation and conflict between the Lombards and their main neighbours, the Gepids. The Gepids initially gained the upper hand, but in 567, thanks to his alliance with the Avars, Alboin inflicted a decisive defeat on his enemies, whose lands the Avars subsequently occupied. The increasing power of his new neighbours caused Alboin some unease however, and he therefore decided to leave Pannonia for Italy, hoping to take advantage of the Byzantine Empire's vulnerability in defending its territory in the wake of the Gothic War.
After gathering a large coalition of peoples, Alboin crossed the Julian Alps in 568, entering an almost undefended Italy. He rapidly took control of most of Venetia and Liguria. In 569, unopposed, he took northern Italy's main city, Milan. Pavia offered stiff resistance, however, and was taken only after a siege lasting three years. During that time Alboin turned his attention to Tuscany, but signs of factionalism among his supporters and Alboin's diminishing control over his army increasingly began to manifest themselves.
Alboin was assassinated on 28 June 572, in a coup d'état instigated by the Byzantines. It was organized by the king's foster brother, Helmichis, with the support of Alboin's wife, Rosamund, daughter of the Gepid king whom Alboin had killed some years earlier. The coup failed in the face of opposition from a majority of the Lombards, who elected Cleph as Alboin's successor, forcing Helmichis and Rosamund to flee to Ravenna under imperial protection. Alboin's death deprived the Lombards of the only leader who could have kept the newborn Germanic entity together, the last in the line of hero-kings who had led the Lombards through their migrations from the vale of the Elbe to Italy. For many centuries following his death Alboin's heroism and his success in battle were celebrated in Saxon and Bavarian epic poetry.
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Alboin
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Etymology
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Etymology
The name Alboin derives from the Proto-Germanic roots *albiz ("elf") and *winiz ("friend"); it is thus cognate with the Old English name Ælfwine. He was known in Latin as Alboinus and in Greek as Ἀλβοΐνος (Alboinos). In modern Italian he is Alboino and in modern Lombard Alboin.
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Alboin
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Father's rule
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Father's rule
The Lombards under King Wacho had migrated towards the east into Pannonia, taking advantage of the difficulties facing the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy following the death of its founder, Theodoric, in 526. Wacho's death in about 540 brought his son Walthari to the throne, but, as the latter was still a minor, the kingdom was governed in his stead by Alboin's father, Audoin, of the Gausian clan. Seven years later Walthari died, giving Audoin the opportunity to crown himself and overthrow the reigning Lethings.Jarnut 1995, pp. 16–18
Alboin was probably born in the 530s in Pannonia,Martindale 1992, s.v. Alboin, pp. 38–40 the son of Audoin and his wife, Rodelinda. She may have been the niece of King Theodoric and betrothed to Audoin through the mediation of Emperor Justinian.Rovagnati 2003, pp. 28–29Amory 2003, p. 462 Like his father, Alboin was raised a pagan, although Audoin had at one point attempted to gain Byzantine support against his neighbours by professing himself a Christian.Wickham 1989, pp. 29–30 Alboin took as his first wife the Christian Chlothsind, daughter of the Frankish King Chlothar. This marriage, which took place soon after the death of the Frankish ruler Theudebald in 555, is thought to reflect Audoin's decision to distance himself from the Byzantines, traditional allies of the Lombards, who had been lukewarm when it came to supporting Audoin against the Gepids. The new Frankish alliance was important because of the Franks' known hostility to the Byzantine empire, providing the Lombards with more than one option.Jarnut 1995, p. 21Bertolini 1960, pp. 34–38. However, the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire interprets events and sources differently, believing that Alboin married Chlothsind when already a king in or shortly before 561, the year of Chlothar's death.
Alboin first distinguished himself on the battlefield in a clash with the Gepids. At the Battle of Asfeld (552), he killed Turismod, son of the Gepid king Thurisind, in a victory that resulted in Emperor Justinian's intervention to maintain equilibrium between the rival regional powers.Rovagnati 2003, p. 28 After the battle, according to a tradition reported by Paul the Deacon, to be granted the right to sit at his father's table, Alboin had to ask for the hospitality of a foreign king and have him donate his weapons, as was customary. For this initiation, he went to the court of Thurisind, where the Gepid king gave him Turismod's arms.Ausenda 1999, p. 433 Walter Goffart believes it is probable that in this narrative Paul was making use of an oral tradition, and is sceptical that it can be dismissed as merely a typical topos of an epic poem.Goffart 1988, p. 387
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