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Afonso de Albuquerque | Death | Death
At this time, his political enemies at the Portuguese court were planning his downfall. They had lost no opportunity in stirring up the jealousy of King Manuel against him, insinuating that Afonso intended to usurp power in Portuguese India.Albuquerque, Brás de (1774). Commentarios do grande Afonso Dalboquerque, parte IV, pp. 200–206 While on his return voyage from Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, near the harbor of Chaul, he received news of a Portuguese fleet arriving from Europe, bearing dispatches announcing that he was to be replaced by his personal foe, Lopo Soares de Albergaria. Realizing the plot that his enemies had moved against him, profoundly disillusioned, he voiced his bitterness: "Grave must be my sins before the King, for I am in ill favor with the King for love of the men, and with the men for love of the King."
Feeling himself near death, he donned the surcoat of the Order of Santiago, of which he was a knight, and drew up his will, appointed the captain and senior officials of Ormuz, and organized a final council with his captains to decide the main matters affecting the Portuguese State of India. He wrote a brief letter to King Manuel, asking him to confer onto his natural son "all of the high honors and rewards" that Afonso had received, and assuring Manuel of his loyalty.
On 16 December 1515, Afonso de Albuquerque died within sight of Goa. As his death was known, in the city "great wailing arose", and many took to the streets to witness his body carried on a chair by his main captains, in a procession lit by torches amidst the crowd. Afonso's body was buried in Goa, according to his will, in the Church of Nossa Senhora da Serra (Our Lady of the Hill), which he had been built in 1513 to thank the Madonna for his escape from Kamaran island. That night, the population of Goa, both Hindu and Portuguese, gathered to mourn his death.
In Portugal, King Manuel's zigzagging policies continued, still trapped by the constraints of real-time medieval communication between Lisbon and India and unaware that Afonso was dead. Hearing rumours that the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt was preparing a magnificent army at Suez to prevent the conquest of Ormuz, he repented of having replaced Afonso, and in March 1516 urgently wrote to Albergaria to return the command of all operations to Afonso and provide him with resources to face the Egyptian threat. He organized a new Portuguese navy in Asia, with orders that Afonso (if he was still in India), be made commander-in-chief against the Sultan of Cairo's armies. Manuel would afterwards learn that Afonso had died many months earlier, and that his reversed decision had been delivered many months too late.
After 51 years, in 1566, his body was moved to Nossa Senhora da Graça church in Lisbon, which was ruined and rebuilt after the 1755 Great Lisbon earthquake. |
Afonso de Albuquerque | Legacy | Legacy
thumb|Albuquerque Monument on Afonso de Albuquerque Square in Lisbon (1902)
thumb|Allegorical fresco dedicated to Afonso de Albuquerque, present at the Palace of Justice of Vila Franca de Xira, in Portugal. Executed by Jaime Martins Barata
thumb|Afonso de Albuquerque as governor of India
King Manuel I of Portugal was belatedly convinced of Afonso's loyalty, and endeavoured to atone for his lack of confidence in Afonso by heaping honours upon his son, Brás de Albuquerque (1500–1580), whom he renamed "Afonso" in memory of the father. Afonso de Albuquerque was a prolific writer, having sent numerous letters during his governorship, covering topics from minor issues to major strategies. In 1557 his son published his biography under the title Commentarios do Grande Affonso d'Alboquerque.
In 1572, Afonso's actions were described in The Lusiads, the Portuguese main epic poem by Luís Vaz de Camões (Canto X, strophes 40–49). The poet praises his achievements, but has the muses frown upon the harsh rule of his men, of whom Camões was almost a contemporary fellow. In 1934, Afonso was celebrated by Fernando Pessoa in Mensagem, a symbolist epic. In the first part of this work, called "Brasão" (Coat-of-Arms), he relates Portuguese historical protagonists to each of the fields in the Portuguese coat-of-arms, Afonso being one of the wings of the griffin headed by Henry the Navigator, the other wing being King John II.
A variety of mango, which was created by Portuguese Jesuits in Goa via grafting techniques, was named in his honour.
Numerous homages have been paid to Afonso. He is featured in the Padrão dos Descobrimentos monument. There is a square named after him in Lisbon, which also features a bronze statue, as well as a prominent statue of his enrobed figure in a garden square in Bairro Gomes da Costa in Porto.
Two Portuguese Navy ships have been named in his honour: the sloop NRP Afonso de Albuquerque (1884) and the warship NRP Afonso de Albuquerque. |
Afonso de Albuquerque | Notes | Notes |
Afonso de Albuquerque | References | References |
Afonso de Albuquerque | Citations | Citations |
Afonso de Albuquerque | Bibliography | Bibliography
In other languages
Albuquerque, Afonso de, D. Manuel I, António Baião, "Cartas para el-rei d". Manuel I", Editora Livraria Sá de Costa (1957)
Primary sources
|
Afonso de Albuquerque | External links | External links
Paul Lunde, The coming of the Portuguese, 2006, Saudi Aramco World
Category:16th-century Portuguese explorers
Category:Explorers of Asia
Category:Explorers of South Asia
Category:Viceroys of Portuguese India
Category:Date of birth unknown
Category:1450s births
Category:1515 deaths
Category:Portuguese admirals
Category:Portuguese generals
Category:Portuguese Renaissance writers
Category:Portuguese Roman Catholics
Category:People from Vila Franca de Xira
Category:Shipwreck survivors
Category:16th-century Portuguese military personnel
Category:16th-century Portuguese nobility |
Afonso de Albuquerque | Table of Content | Short description, Early life, Early military service, 1471–1509, First expedition to India, 1503, Second expedition to India, 1506–1509, Return, 1506, First conquest of Socotra, Muscat and Ormuz, 1507, Arrest at Cannanore, 1509, Governor of Portuguese India, 1509–1515, Conquest of Goa, 1510, Conquest of Malacca, 1511, Shipwreck on the ''Flor de la mar'', 1511, Missions from Malacca, Embassies to Pegu, Sumatra and Siam, 1511, Expedition to the "spice islands" (Maluku islands), 1512, Return to Cochin and Goa, Administration and diplomacy, 1512–1515, Ethiopian embassy, 1512, Campaign in the Red Sea, 1513, Submission of Calicut, Goa, 1514, Conquest of Ormuz and Illness, Death, Legacy, Notes, References, Citations, Bibliography, External links |
Alcaeus | short description | thumb|Alcaeus and Sappho, Attic red-figure calathus, c. 470 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 2416)
Alcaeus of Mytilene (; , Alkaios ho Mutilēnaios; – BC) was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. He was a contemporary of Sappho, with whom he may have exchanged poems. He was born into the aristocratic governing class of Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos, where he was involved in political disputes and feuds. |
Alcaeus | Biography | Biography
thumb|right|Alcaeus "A probably authentic Lesbian coin has been preserved, bearing upon the obverse ... a profile head of Alcaeus, and upon the reverse ... a profile head of Pittacus. This coin is said to have belonged to Fulvius Ursinus. It passed through various hands and collections into the Royal Museum at Paris, and was engraved by the Chevalier Visconti." — J. Easby-SmithJ. Easby-Smith, The Songs of Alcaeus, W. H. Lowdermilk and Co. (1901)
The broad outlines of the poet's life are well known.David Mulroy, Early Greek Lyric Poetry, University of Michigan Press, 1992, pp. 77–78David. A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classic Press, 1982, pp. 285–7 He was born into the aristocratic, warrior class that dominated Mytilene, the strongest city-state on the island of Lesbos and, by the end of the seventh century BC, the most influential of all the North Aegean Greek cities, with a strong navy and colonies securing its trade-routes in the Hellespont. The city had long been ruled by kings born to the Penthilid clan but, during the poet's life, the Penthilids were a spent force and rival aristocrats and their factions contended with each other for supreme power. Alcaeus and his older brothers were passionately involved in the struggle but experienced little success. Their political adventures can be understood in terms of three tyrants who came and went in succession:
Melanchrus – he was overthrown sometime between 612 BC and 609 BC by a faction that, in addition to the brothers of Alcaeus, included Pittacus (later renowned as one of the Seven Sages of Greece); Alcaeus at that time was too young to be actively involved;
Myrsilus – it is not known when he came to power but some verses by Alcaeus (frag. 129) indicate that the poet, his brothers and Pittacus made plans to overthrow him and that Pittacus subsequently betrayed them; Alcaeus and his brothers fled into exile where the poet later wrote a drinking song in celebration of the news of the tyrant's death (frag. 332);
Pittacus – the dominant political figure of his time, he was voted supreme power by the political assembly of Mytilene and appears to have governed well (590–580 BC), even allowing Alcaeus and his faction to return home in peace.
Sometime before 600 BC, Mytilene fought Athens for control of Sigeion and Alcaeus was old enough to participate in the fighting. According to the historian Herodotus,Histories 5.95 the poet threw away his shield to make good his escape from the victorious Athenians then celebrated the occasion in a poem that he later sent to his friend, Melanippus. It is thought that Alcaeus travelled widely during his years in exile, including at least one visit to Egypt. His older brother, Antimenidas, appears to have served as a mercenary in the army of Nebuchadnezzar II and probably took part in the conquest of Askelon. Alcaeus wrote verses in celebration of Antimenides's return, including mention of his valour in slaying the larger opponent (frag. 350), and he proudly describes the military hardware that adorned their family home (frag. 357).
thumb|right|upright=1.8|Sappho and Alcaeus by
Lawrence Alma-Tadema. The Walters Art Museum.
Alcaeus was a contemporary and a countryman of Sappho and, since both poets composed for the entertainment of Mytilenean friends, they had many opportunities to associate with each other on a quite regular basis, such as at the Kallisteia, an annual festival celebrating the island's federation under Mytilene, held at the 'Messon' (referred to as temenos in frs. 129 and 130), where Sappho performed publicly with female choirs. Alcaeus's reference to Sappho in terms more typical of a divinity, as holy/pure, honey-smiling Sappho (fr. 384), may owe its inspiration to her performances at the festival. The Lesbian or Aeolic school of poetry "reached in the songs of Sappho and Alcaeus that high point of brilliancy to which it never after-wards approached"James S. Easby-Smith, The Songs of Alcaeus, W. H. Lowdermilk and Co., Washington, 1901 and it was assumed by later Greek critics and during the early centuries of the Christian era that the two poets were in fact lovers, a theme which became a favourite subject in art (as in the urn pictured above). |
Alcaeus | Poetry | Poetry
The poetic works of Alcaeus were collected into ten books, with elaborate commentaries, by the Alexandrian scholars Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace sometime in the 3rd century BC, and yet his verses today exist only in fragmentary form, varying in size from mere phrases, such as wine, window into a man (fr. 333) to entire groups of verses and stanzas, such as those quoted below (fr. 346). Alexandrian scholars numbered him in their canonic nine (one lyric poet per Muse). Among these, Pindar was held by many ancient critics to be pre-eminent,Quintilian 10.1.61; cf. Pseudo-Longinus 33.5 . but some gave precedence to Alcaeus instead.James Easby-Smith, The Songs of Alcaeus p. 31 The canonic nine are traditionally divided into two groups, with Alcaeus, Sappho and Anacreon, being 'monodists' or 'solo-singers', with the following characteristics:Andrew M.Miller (trans.), Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation, Hackett Publishing Co. (1996), Intro. xiii
They composed and performed personally for friends and associates on topics of immediate interest to them;
They wrote in their native dialects (Alcaeus and Sappho in Aeolic dialect, Anacreon in Ionic);
They preferred quite short, metrically simple stanzas or 'strophes' which they re-used in many poems – hence the 'Alcaic' and 'Sapphic' stanzas, named after the two poets who perfected them or possibly invented them.
The other six of the canonic nine composed verses for public occasions, performed by choruses and professional singers and typically featuring complex metrical arrangements that were never reproduced in other verses. However, this division into two groups is considered by some modern scholars to be too simplistic and often it is practically impossible to know whether a lyric composition was sung or recited, or whether or not it was accompanied by musical instruments and dance. Even the private reflections of Alcaeus, ostensibly sung at dinner parties, still retain a public function.
Critics often seek to understand Alcaeus in comparison with Sappho:
The Roman poet, Horace, also compared the two, describing Alcaeus as "more full-throatedly singing"James Michie (trans.), The Odes of Horace, Penguin Classics (1964), p. 116 – see Horace's tribute below. Alcaeus himself seems to underscore the difference between his own 'down-to-earth' style and Sappho's more 'celestial' qualities when he describes her almost as a goddess (as cited above), and yet it has been argued that both poets were concerned with a balance between the divine and the profane, each emphasising different elements in that balance.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus exhorts us to "Observe in Alcaeus the sublimity, brevity and sweetness coupled with stern power, his splendid figures, and his clearness which was unimpaired by the dialect; and above all mark his manner of expressing his sentiments on public affairs",Imit. 422, quoted from Easby-Smith in Songs of Alcaeus while Quintilian, after commending Alcaeus for his excellence "in that part of his works where he inveighs against tyrants and contributes to good morals; in his language he is concise, exalted, careful and often like an orator"; goes on to add: "but he descended into wantonness and amours, though better fitted for higher things".Quintillian 10.1.63, quoted by D.Campbell in G.L.P, p. 288 |
Alcaeus | Poetic genres | Poetic genres
The works of Alcaeus are conventionally grouped according to five genres.
Political songs: Alcaeus often composed on a political theme, covering the power struggles on Lesbos with the passion and vigour of a partisan, cursing his opponents,fr. 129 rejoicing in their deaths,fr. 332 delivering blood-curdling homilies on the consequences of political inactionfr. S262 and exhorting his comrades to heroic defiance, as in one of his 'ship of state' allegories.fr. 6 Commenting on Alcaeus as a political poet, the scholar Dionysius of Halicarnassus once observed that "if you removed the meter you would find political rhetoric".Imit. 422, quoted by Campbell in G.L.P., p. 286
Drinking songs: According to the grammarian Athenaeus, Alcaeus made every occasion an excuse for drinking and he has provided posterity several quotes in proof of it.Athenaeus 10.430c Alcaeus exhorts his friends to drink in celebration of a tyrant's death,fr. 332 to drink away their sorrows,Frs. 335, 346 to drink because life is shortfr. 38A and along the lines in vino veritas,fr. 333 to drink through winter stormsfr. 338 and to drink through the heat of summer.fr. 347 The latter poem in fact paraphrases verses from Hesiod,Hesiod Op. 582–8 re-casting them in Asclepiad meter and Aeolian dialect.
Hymns: Alcaeus sang about the gods in the spirit of the Homeric hymns, to entertain his companions rather than to glorify the gods and in the same meters that he used for his 'secular' lyrics.David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), p. 286 There are for example fragments in 'Sapphic' meter praising the Dioscuri,fr. 34a Hermesfr. 308c and the river Hebrusfr. 45 (a river significant in Lesbian mythology since it was down its waters that the head of Orpheus was believed to have floated singing, eventually crossing the sea to Lesbos and ending up in a temple of Apollo, as a symbol of Lesbian supremacy in song).David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), pp. 292–93 According to Pomponius Porphyrion, the hymn to Hermes was imitated by Horace in one of his own 'sapphic' odes (C.1.10: Mercuri, facunde nepos Atlantis).David Campbell, 'Monody', in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), Cambridge University Press (1985), p. 213
Love songs: Almost all Alcaeus's amorous verses, mentioned with disapproval by Quintilian above, have vanished without trace. There is a brief reference to his love poetry in a passage by Cicero.Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 4.71 Horace, who often wrote in imitation of Alcaeus, sketches in verse one of the Lesbian poet's favourite subjects – Lycus of the black hair and eyes (C.1.32.11–12: nigris oculis nigroque/crine decorum). It is possible that Alcaeus wrote amorously about Sappho, as indicated in an earlier quote.fr. 384; however, Liberman (1999) reads "Aphro" (Ἄφροι; a diminutive of "Aphrodite"), instead of "Sappho".
Miscellaneous: Alcaeus wrote on such a wide variety of subjects and themes that contradictions in his character emerge. The grammarian Athenaeus quoted some verses about perfumed ointments to prove just how unwarlike Alcaeus could befr. 362, Athenaeus 15.687d and he quoted his description of the armour adorning the walls of his housefr. 357 as proof that he could be unusually warlike for a lyric poet.Athenaeus 14.627a Other examples of his readiness for both warlike and unwarlike subjects are lyrics celebrating his brother's heroic exploits as a Babylonian mercenaryfr. 350 and lyrics sung in a rare meter (Sapphic Ionic in minore) in the voice of a distressed girl,fr. 10B "Wretched me, who share in all ills!" – possibly imitated by Horace in an ode in the same meter (C.3.12: Miserarum est neque amori dare ludum neque dulci).David Campbell, 'Monody', in P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), p. 214 He also wrote Sapphic stanzas on Homeric themes but in un-Homeric style, comparing Helen of Troy unfavourably with Thetis, the mother of Achilles.fr. 42 |
Alcaeus | A drinking poem (fr. 346) | A drinking poem (fr. 346)
The following verses demonstrate some key characteristics of the Alcaic style (square brackets indicate uncertainties in the ancient text):
The Greek meter here is relatively simple, comprising the Greater Asclepiad, adroitly used to convey, for example, the rhythm of jostling cups (). The language of the poem is typically direct and concise and comprises short sentences — the first line is in fact a model of condensed meaning, comprising an exhortation ("Let's drink!"), a rhetorical question ("Why are we waiting for the lamps?") and a justifying statement ("Only an inch of daylight left").David Campbell, "Monody", in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), Cambridge University Press (1985), p. 212 The meaning is clear and uncomplicated, the subject is drawn from personal experience, and there is an absence of poetic ornament, such as simile or metaphor. Like many of his poems (e.g., frs. 38, 326, 338, 347, 350), it begins with a verb (in this case "Let's drink!") and it includes a proverbial expression ("Only an inch of daylight left") though it is possible that he coined it himself. |
Alcaeus | A hymn (fr. 34) | A hymn (fr. 34)
Alcaeus rarely used metaphor or simile and yet he had a fondness for the allegory of the storm-tossed ship of state. The following fragment of a hymn to Castor and Polydeuces (the Dioscuri) is possibly another example of this though some scholars interpret it instead as a prayer for a safe voyage.David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), pp. 286, 289
The poem was written in Sapphic stanzas, a verse form popularly associated with his compatriot, Sappho, but in which he too excelled, here paraphrased in English to suggest the same rhythms. There were probably another three stanzas in the original poem but only nine letters of them remain.David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Vol. I, Loeb Classical Library (1990), p. 247 The 'far-away light' () is a reference to St. Elmo's Fire, an electrical discharge supposed by ancient Greek mariners to be an epiphany of the Dioscuri, but the meaning of the line was obscured by gaps in the papyrus until reconstructed by a modern scholar; such reconstructions are typical of the extant poetry (see Scholars, fragments and sources below). This poem does not begin with a verb but with an adverb (Δευτέ) but still communicates a sense of action. He probably performed his verses at drinking parties for friends and political allies – men for whom loyalty was essential, particularly in such troubled times. |
Alcaeus | Tributes from other poets | Tributes from other poets |
Alcaeus | Horace | Horace
The Roman poet Horace modelled his own lyrical compositions on those of Alcaeus, rendering the Lesbian poet's verse-forms, including 'Alcaic' and 'Sapphic' stanzas, into concise Latin – an achievement he celebrates in his third book of odes.Horace Od. 3.30 In his second book, in an ode composed in Alcaic stanzas on the subject of an almost fatal accident he had on his farm, he imagines meeting Alcaeus and Sappho in Hades: |
Alcaeus | Ovid | Ovid
Ovid compared Alcaeus to Sappho in Letters of the Heroines, where Sappho is imagined to speak as follows: |
Alcaeus | Scholars, fragments and sources | Scholars, fragments and sources
thumb|A 2nd century AD papyrus of Alcaeus, one of the many such fragments that have contributed to our greatly improved knowledge of Alcaeus's poetry during the 20th century (P.Berol. inv. 9810 = fr. 137 L.–P.)
The story of Alcaeus is partly the story of the scholars who rescued his work from oblivion.David. A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classic Press, 1982, pp. 285–305 His verses have not come down to us through a manuscript tradition – generations of scribes copying an author's collected works, such as delivered intact into the modern age four entire books of Pindar's odes – but haphazardly, in quotes from ancient scholars and commentators whose own works have chanced to survive, and in the tattered remnants of papyri uncovered from an ancient rubbish pile at Oxyrhynchus and other locations in Egypt: sources that modern scholars have studied and correlated exhaustively, adding little by little to the world's store of poetic fragments.
Ancient scholars quoted Alcaeus in support of various arguments. Thus for example Heraclitus "The Allegorist"Donald. A. Russell and David Konstan (eds. and trans.), Heraclitus:Homeric Problems, Society of Biblical Literature (2005), Introduction quoted fr. 326 and part of fr. 6, about ships in a storm, in his study on Homer's use of allegory.Heraclitus All.5 The hymn to Hermes, fr308(b), was quoted by HephaestionHephaestion Ench. xiv.1 and both he and Libanius, the rhetorician, quoted the first two lines of fr. 350,Hephaestion Ench. x 3; Libanus Or. 13.5 celebrating the return from Babylon of Alcaeus's brother. The rest of fr. 350 was paraphrased in prose by the historian/geographer Strabo.Strabo 13.617 Many fragments were supplied in quotes by Athenaeus, principally on the subject of wine-drinking, but fr. 333, "wine, window into a man", was quoted much later by the Byzantine grammarian, John Tzetzes.Tzetzes Alex. 212
The first 'modern' publication of Alcaeus's verses appeared in a Greek and Latin edition of fragments collected from the canonic nine lyrical poets by Michael Neander, published at Basle in 1556. This was followed by another edition of the nine poets, collected by Henricus Stephanus and published in Paris in 1560. Fulvius Ursinus compiled a fuller collection of Alcaic fragments, including a commentary, which was published at Antwerp in 1568. The first separate edition of Alcaeus was by Christian David Jani and it was published at Halle in 1780. The next separate edition was by August Matthiae, Leipzig 1827.
Some of the fragments quoted by ancient scholars were able to be integrated by scholars in the nineteenth century. Thus for example two separate quotes by AthenaeusAthenaeus 15.674cd, 15.687d were united by Theodor Bergk to form fr. 362. Three separate sources were combined to form fr. 350, as mentioned above, including a prose paraphrase from Strabo that first needed to be restored to its original meter, a synthesis achieved by the united efforts of Otto Hoffmann, Karl Otfried MüllerMüller, Karl Otfried, "Ein Bruder des Dichters Alkäos ficht unter Nebukadnezar", Rheinisches Museum 1 (1827):287. and Franz Heinrich Ludolf Ahrens. The discovery of the Oxyrhynchus papyri towards the end of the nineteenth century dramatically increased the scope of scholarly research. In fact, eight important fragments have now been compiled from papyri – frs. 9, 38A, 42, 45, 34, 129, 130 and most recently S262. These fragments typically feature lacunae or gaps that scholars fill with 'educated guesses', including for example a "brilliant supplement" by Maurice Bowra in fr. 34, a hymn to the Dioscuri that includes a description of St. Elmo's fire in the ship's rigging.David. A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classic Press, 1982, p. 290 Working with only eight letters (; tr. pró...tr...ntes), Bowra conjured up a phrase that develops the meaning and the euphony of the poem (; tr. próton' ontréchontes), describing luminescence "running along the forestays". |
Alcaeus | References | References |
Alcaeus | Citations | Citations |
Alcaeus | Sources | Sources
Sappho et Alcaeus. Fragmenta. Eva-Maria Voigt (ed.). Polak and van Gennep, Amsterdam, 1971.
Greek Lyric Poetry. D.A. Campbell (ed.). Bristol Classical Press, London, 1982.
Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus. D. A. Campbell (ed.). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1982.
Alcée. Fragments. Gauthier Liberman (ed.). Collection Budé, Paris, 1999.
Sappho and the Greek Lyric Poets. Translated by Willis Barnstone. Schoken Books Inc., New York, 1988. |
Alcaeus | External links | External links
Poems by Alcaeus – English translations
A. M. Miller, Greek Lyric: – Alcaeus, many fragments
Alcaeus Bilingual Anthology (in Greek and English, side by side)
Category:620s BC births
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:6th-century BC deaths
Category:Year of death unknown
Category:Nine Lyric Poets
Category:Aeolic Greek poets
Category:Ancient Greek political refugees
Category:Ancient Mytileneans
Category:Poets from ancient Lesbos
Category:6th-century BC Greek poets |
Alcaeus | Table of Content | short description, Biography, Poetry, Poetic genres, A drinking poem (fr. 346), A hymn (fr. 34), Tributes from other poets, Horace, Ovid, Scholars, fragments and sources, References, Citations, Sources, External links |
Alcamenes | Short description | thumb|Herm of Hermes, Roman copy of a late 5th century BC original, the forefront inscription states the herm was made by Alcamenes and dedicated by Pergamios, Istanbul Museums.
Alcamenes () was an ancient Greek sculptor of Lemnos and Athens, who flourished in the 2nd half of the 5th century BC. He was a younger contemporary of Phidias and noted for the delicacy and finish of his works, among which a Hephaestus and an Aphrodite of the Gardens were conspicuous.
Pausanias saysDescription of Greece V. 10. 8 that he was the author of one of the pediments of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, but this seems a chronological and stylistic impossibility. PausaniasDescription of Greece I. 8. 4 also refers to a statue of Ares by Alcamenes that was erected on the Athenian agora, which some have related to the Ares Borghese. However, the temple of Ares to which he refers had only been moved from Acharnes and re-sited in the Agora in Augustus's time, and statues known to derive from Alcamenes' statue show the god in a breastplate,One sculpture of Ares and Aphrodite is depicted in this relief so the identification of Alcamenes' Ares with the Ares Borghese is not secure.
At Pergamum there was discovered in 1903 a Hellenistic copy of the head of the Hermes "Propylaeus" of Alcamenes.Athenische Mittheilungen, 1904, p. 180 As, however, the deity is represented in a Neo-Attic, archaistic and conventional character, this copy cannot be relied on as giving us much information as to the usual style of Alcamenes, who was almost certainly a progressive and original artist.
It is safer to judge him by the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon, in which he must almost certainly have taken a share under the direction of Phidias. He is said to be the most eminent sculptor in Athens after the departure of Phidias for Olympia, but enigmatic in that none of the sculptures associated with his name in classical literature can be securely connected with existing copies. |
Alcamenes | Notes | Notes |
Alcamenes | References | References
Julius Sillig, Dictionary of the artists of antiquity; 1837
Andrew Stewart, One hundred Greek Sculptors : Their Careers and Extant Works
Sir Charles Waldstein, Alcamenes and the establishment of the classical type in Greek art; 1926 |
Alcamenes | External links | External links
Scholars Resource: Works by Alkamenes
Perseus Digital Library: Alcamenes
Herma by Alcamenes - Uni Graz
Category:Pergamene sculpture
Category:5th-century BC Greek sculptors
Category:Ancient Athenian sculptors
Category:Ancient Lemnos
Category:Metics in Classical Athens
Category:People from Lemnos
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:Year of death unknown |
Alcamenes | Table of Content | Short description, Notes, References, External links |
Alcmene | short description | In Greek mythology, Alcmene ( ; ) or Alcmena ( ; ; ; meaning "strong in wrath"Robert Graves. The Greek Myths (1960)) was the wife of Amphitryon, by whom she bore two children, Iphicles and Laonome. She is best known as the mother of Heracles, whose father was the god Zeus.Orphic Argonautica 118-119 Alcmene was also referred to as Electryone (), a patronymic name as a daughter of Electryon.Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 16 |
Alcmene | Mythology | Mythology |
Alcmene | Background | Background
According to the Bibliotheca, Alcmene was born to Electryon, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Tiryns and Mycenae or Medea in Argolis.Pausanias, 2.25.9 Her mother was Anaxo, daughter of Alcaeus and Astydamia.Apollodorus, 2.4.5 Other accounts say her mother was Lysidice, the daughter of Pelops and Hippodameia,Plutarch, Lives Theseus 7.1 or Eurydice, the daughter of Pelops.Diodorus Siculus, 4.9.1 According to Pausanias, the poet Asius made Alcmene the daughter of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle.Pausanias, 5.17.8
Hesiod describes Alcmene as the tallest, most beautiful woman with wisdom surpassed by no person born of mortal parents. It is said that her face and dark eyes were as charming as Aphrodite's, and that she honoured her husband like no woman before her.Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 1 ff. |
Alcmene | Exile to Thebes | Exile to Thebes
According to the Bibliotheca, Alcmene went with Amphitryon to Thebes, where he was purified by Creon for accidentally killing Electryon. Alcmene refused to marry Amphitryon until he had avenged the death of her brothers.Apollodorus, 2.4.6 During Amphitryon's expedition against the Taphians and Teleboans,Apollodorus, 2.4.7 when Zeus desired to sleep with Alcmene, he made one night last longer extending it to three, by ordering Helios, the sun god, not to rise for three whole days.Apollodorus, 2.4.8; Seneca, Hercules Furens 24; Argonautica Orphica 118-121; Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods Hermes and Helios He then visited Alcmene disguised as Amphitryon. Zeus persuaded Alcmene that he was her husband.Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). Thus Zeus slept with Alcmene, his great-granddaughter, thereby conceiving Heracles, while recounting Amphitryon's victories against the Teleboans. When Amphitryon finally returned to Thebes, Alcmene told him that he had come the night before and slept with her; he learned from Tiresias what Zeus had done.Apollodorus, 2.4.8 |
Alcmene | Birth of Heracles | Birth of Heracles |
Alcmene | Homer | Homer
In Homer's Iliad, when Alcmene was about to give birth to Heracles, Zeus announced to all the gods that on that day a child by Zeus himself would be born and rule all those around him. Hera, after requesting Zeus to swear an oath to that effect, descended from Olympus to Argos and made the wife of Sthenelus (son of Perseus) give birth to Eurystheus after only seven months, while at the same time preventing Alcmene from delivering Heracles. This resulted in the fulfillment of Zeus's oath in that it was Eurystheus rather than Heracles.Homer, Iliad 19.95 ff. |
Alcmene | Ovid | Ovid
According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, while in labour, Alcmene was having great difficulty giving birth to such a large child. After seven days and nights of agony, Alcmene stretched out her arms and called upon Lucina, the goddess of childbirth (the Roman equivalent of Eileithyia). While Lucina did go to Alcmene, she had been previously instructed by Juno (Hera) to prevent the delivery. With her hands clasped and legs crossed, Lucina muttered charms, thereby preventing Alcmene from giving birth. Alcmene writhed in pain, cursed the heavens, and came close to death. Galanthis, a maid of Alcmene who was nearby, observed Lucina's behaviour and quickly deduced that it was Juno's doing. To put an end to her mistress's suffering, she announced that Alcmene had safely delivered her child, which surprised Lucina so much that she immediately jumped up and unclenched her hands. As soon as Lucina leapt up, Alcmene was released from her spell, and gave birth to Heracles. As punishment for deceiving Lucina, Galanthis was transformed into a weasel; she continued to live with Alcmene.Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.273 ff. |
Alcmene | Pausanias | Pausanias
In Pausanias' recounting, Hera sent witches (as they were called by the Thebans) to hinder Alcmene's delivery of Heracles. The witches were successful in preventing the birth until Historis, daughter of Tiresias, thought of a trick to deceive the witches. Like Galanthis, Historis announced that Alcmene had delivered her child; having been deceived, the witches went away, allowing Alcmene to give birth.Pausanias, 9.11.3 |
Alcmene | Plautus | Plautus
In contrast to the depictions of a difficult labor above, an alternative version is presented in Amphitryon, a comedic play by Plautus. Here Alcmene calls upon Jupiter, who performs a miracle allowing her to give birth quickly and without pain. After a crash of thunder and light, the baby arrives without anyone's assistance.Plautus, Amphitryon "The Subject" |
Alcmene | Death | Death
After the death of Amphitryon, Alcmene married Rhadamanthys, son of Zeus, and lived with him in exile at Ocaleae in Boeotia.Apollodorus, 2.4.11 It is said that after Heracles was apotheosised, Hyllus, having pursued and killed Eurystheus, cut off Eurystheus' head and gave it to Alcmene, who gouged out the eyes with weaving pins.Apollodorus, 2.8.1 In Metamorphoses, an aging Alcmene recounted the story of the birth of Heracles to Iole.
There are two accounts of Alcmene's death. In the first, according to the Megarians, Alcmene was walking from Argos to Thebes when she died at Megara. The Heracleidae fell into disagreement about where to take Alcmene's body, with some wishing to take her corpse back to Argos, and others wishing to take it to Thebes to be buried with Amphitryon and Heracles' children by Megara. However, the god in Delphi gave the Heracleidae an oracle that it was better to bury Alcmene in Megara.Pausanias, 1.41.1 In the second account given by the Thebans, when Alcmene died, she was turned from human form to a stone.Pausanias, 9.16.7
Pausanias indicated that an altar to Alcmene had been built in the Cynosarges in Athens, alongside altars to Heracles, Hebe, and Iolaus.Pausanias, 1.19.3 Pausanias also said that Alcmene's tomb is located near the Olympieum at Megara. |
Alcmene | Notes | Notes |
Alcmene | References | References
Apollodorus. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, Oldfather, C. H. (Translator) (1935). Library of History: Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts.: Harvard University Press.
Hesiod. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. "Shield of Heracles". Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
Ovid. Metamorphoses. Arthur Golding. London. W. Seres. 1567.
Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives with an English Translation by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912.
Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Alcmene"
Category:Mortal women of Zeus
Category:Princesses in Greek mythology
Category:Perseids (mythology)
Category:Mythology of Argos, Peloponnese
Category:Mythology of Heracles
Category:Metamorphoses characters
Category:Mythological rape victims
Category:Helios in mythology
Category:Deeds of Hera
Category:Metamorphoses into inanimate objects in Greek mythology
Category:Mythological Mycenaeans
Category:Mythological Tirynthians |
Alcmene | Table of Content | short description, Mythology, Background, Exile to Thebes, Birth of Heracles, Homer, Ovid, Pausanias, Plautus, Death, Notes, References |
Alcidamas | short description | Alcidamas (), of Elaea, in Aeolis, was a Greek sophist and rhetorician, who flourished in the 5th-4th century BC . |
Alcidamas | Life | Life
He was the pupil and successor of Gorgias and taught at Athens at the same time as Isocrates, to whom he was a rival and opponent. We possess two declamations under his name: On Sophists (Περὶ Σοφιστῶν), directed against Isocrates and setting forth the superiority of extempore over written speeches (a more recently discovered fragment of another speech against Isocrates is probably of later date); Odysseus (perhaps spurious)O'Sullivan 2008 in which Odysseus accuses Palamedes of treachery during the siege of Troy.
According to Alcidamas, the highest aim of the orator was the power of speaking ex tempore on every conceivable subject. Aristotle (Rhet. iii. 3) criticizes his writings as characterized by pomposity of style and an extravagant use of poetical epithets and compounds and far-fetched metaphors.
Of other works only fragments and the titles have survived: Messeniakos, advocating the freedom of the Messenians and containing the sentiment that "God has left all men free; nature has made no man a slave";Aristotle, Rhet. 1373b 18–19 with the scholium of the anonymous commentator (CAG XXI:2, p. 74.31f.)J.D. Bury and Russell Meiggs, A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great, fourth ed. (New York, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975), page 375. a Eulogy of Death, in consideration of the wide extent of human sufferings; a Techne or instruction-book in the art
of rhetoric; and a Phusikos logos. Lastly, his Mouseion (a word invoking the Muses) seems to have contained the narrative of the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, of which the version that has survived is the work of a grammarian in the time of Hadrian, based on Alcidamas. This hypothesis of the contents of the Mouseion, originally suggested by Nietzsche (Rheinisches Museum 25 (1870) & 28 (1873)), appears to have been confirmed by three papyrus findsone 3rd century BC (Flinders Petrie Papyri, ed. Mahaffy, 1891, pl. xxv.), one 2nd century BC (Basil Mandilaras, 'A new papyrus fragment of the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi''' Platon 42 (1990) 45–51) and one 2nd or 3rd century AD (University of Michigan pap. 2754: Winter, J. G., 'A New Fragment on the Life of Homer' TAPA 56 (1925) 120–129 ).
Notes
References
O'Sullivan, N. (2008) 'The authenticity of [Alcidamas] Odysseus: two new linguistic arguments', Classical Quarterly 58, 638–647
Further reading
Alcidamas' surviving works
Guido Avezzù (ed.), Alcidamante. Orazioni e frammenti (now the standard text, with Italian translation, 1982)
J.V. Muir (ed.), Alcidamas. The works and fragments (text with English translation, 2001) – reviewed in BMCR
Ruth Mariss, Alkidamas: Über diejenigen, die schriftliche Reden schreiben, oder über die Sophisten: eine Sophistenrede aus dem 4. Jh. v. Chr., eingeleitet und kommentiert (Orbis Antiquus, 36), 2002
Friedrich Blass, Teubner edition of the Greek text (1908) online
Alcidamas, "Against the Sophists," trans. Van Hook (1919)
About Alcidamas
Aristotle, Rhetoric III.3
J. Vahlen, "Der Rhetor Alkidamas", Sitzungsberichte der wiener Akademie, Phil.-Hist. Cl., 43 (1863) 491–528 online(=Gesammelte philologische Schriften (Leipzig & Berlin 1911) 1.117–155)
Friedrich Blass, Die attische Beredsamkeit'', part 2 (1892) online, pp. 345–363
M.L. West (1967) for Alcidamas' invention of the contest of Homer and Hesiod , N.J. Richardson (1981) against
Various articles on Alcidamas (1856–1919, with links to further online material)
Additional bibliography is available online at
Category:Sophists
Category:Ancient Greek rhetoricians
Category:4th-century BC Greek philosophers |
Alcidamas | Table of Content | short description, Life |
Aldine Press | short description | thumb|Page from the Aldine Vergil of 1501, the first of the standard octavo Aldines. British Library
alt=First location of the Aldine Press|thumb|The true first location of the Aldine Press, civico numero 2343 Calle della Chiesa, San Polo on the campo Sant'Agostin, Venice
The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was dated and printed under his name appeared in 1495.
The Aldine Press is famous in the history of typography, among other things, for the introduction of italics. The press was the first to issue printed books in the small octavo size, similar to that of a modern paperback, and intended for portability and ease of reading. According to Curt F. Bühler, the press issued 132 books during twenty years of activity under Aldus Manutius. After Manutius' death in 1515, the press was continued by his wife Maria and her father Andrea Torresani (), until Manutius' son Paulus (1512–1574) took over. His grandson Aldus Manutius the Younger then ran the firm until his death in 1597. Today, the antique books printed by the Aldine Press in Venice are referred to as Aldines, as are the letterforms and typefaces pioneered by the Aldine Press.
The press enjoyed a monopoly of works printed in Greek in the Republic of Venice, effectively giving it copyright protection. Protection outside the Republic was more problematic, however. The firm maintained an agency in Paris, but its commercial success was affected by many counterfeit editions, produced in Lyon and elsewhere. |
Aldine Press | Beginnings | Beginnings
Aldus Manutius, the founder of the Aldine Press, was originally a humanist scholar and a teacher. Manutius met Andrea Torresani, who had acquired publishing equipment from the widow of Nicholas Jenson. The ownership of the press was originally split in two, with one half belonging to Pier Francesco Barbarigo, the nephew of Agostino Barbarigo, who was the doge at the time, and the other half belonging to Torresani. Manutius owned one fifth of Torresani's share of the press. Manutius was mainly in charge of the scholarship and editing, leaving financial and operating concerns to Barbarigo and Torresani. In 1496, Manutius established his own location of the press in a building called the Thermae in the Sestiere di San Polo on the campo Sant'Agostin in Venice, today numero civico (house number) 2343 San Polo on the Calle della Chiesa (Alley of the Church), now the location of the restaurant Due Colonne. Though there are two commemorative plaques located on the building numero civico 2311 Rio Terà Secondo, historians regard them to be erroneously placed based on contemporaneous letters addressed to Manutius. The first erroneous plaque had been placed by Abbot don Vincenzo Zenier in 1828.
Manutius lived and worked in the Thermae in order to produce published books from the Aldine Press. This was also the location of the "New Academy", where a group of Manutius' friends, associates, and editors came together to translate Greek and Latin texts. In 1505, Manutius married Maria, the daughter of Torresani. Torresani and Manutius were already business partners, but the marriage combined the two partners' shares in the publishing business. After the marriage, Manutius lived at Torresani's house. Shrinking in popularity, in 1506 the Aldine Press was moved to Torresani's house in the parish of San Paternian. It was later demolished in 1873 and was covered by a bank building in the Venice square, Campo Manin. |
Aldine Press | Accomplishments | Accomplishments
The press was started by Manutius due to a combination of his love of classics and the need for preservation of Hellenic studies. During its initial era, the press printed new copies of Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek and Latin classics.
The first edition of Plato's works (known as the Aldine edition) was dedicated to Pope Leo X and included the poem of Musurus and the life of Plato by Diogenes Laertius, which were also included in the first two editions of Plato's works printed in Basel. The two Basel editions were introduced by a Latin preface written by the German humanist Simon Grynaeus, a scholar of Greek, who dedicated the work to the humanist Thomas More.
Manutius also printed dictionaries and grammars to help people interpret the books, used by scholars wanting to learn Greek, who would employ learned Greeks in order to teach them directly. Historian Elizabeth Eisenstein claims that the fall of Constantinople in 1453 had placed under threat the importance and survival of Greek scholarship, but that publications such as those by the Aldine Press secured it once more. Erasmus was one of the scholars learned in Greek with whom the Aldine Press partnered in order to provide accurately translated text. The Aldine Press also expanded into modern languages, mainly Italian and French.
thumb|left|Aldus Manutius device commemorated in the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. |
Aldine Press | Humanist typefaces | Humanist typefaces
Manutius eventually took on a project to improve upon the Humanistic font designs of Jenson's typefaces, hiring Francesco Griffo to design and cut typefaces for his print editions of classical literature. Humanistic fonts, based on the formal hand of Renaissance humanist scribes and notaries, had been in development from the time movable print arrived in Italy, notably by the French printer Nicolas Jenson in 1470. Griffo developed his own further refinements of style, resulting in one of the earliest roman typefaces produced. |
Aldine Press | Italic typeface | Italic typeface
Adapting this admired and influential roman-faced font, Manutius and Griffo went on to produce a cursive variant, the first of what is now known as italic type. The word italic is derived from early Italian versions of italic faces, which were designed primarily in order to save on the cost of paper. The Aldine Press first used italic type in a woodcut of Saint Catherine of Siena in 1500. Their 1501 edition of Virgil's Opera was the first book to be printed in italic type. The roman typeface and italic form created and pioneered by Manutius and Griffo were highly influential in typographic development. |
Aldine Press | Portable books (or ''libelli portatiles'') | Portable books (or libelli portatiles)
Beginning in 1505, Manutius produced plain texts in a portable form, using the term enchiridion, meaning "handbook" (later misnamed "pocketbook"). The octavo was the first version of the editio minor. Although these new, portable books were not cheap, the books of the Aldine Press did not force upon their buyers a substantial investment comparable to that of large volumes of text and commentary during this era. These books consisted on an edited text issued without commentary, printed in a typeface mimicking chancery script (the cursive handwriting of the humanist), produced in a small book which could sit comfortably in the hand. The editio minor, in many ways, brought financial and logistical benefits to those interested in the classics. An individual no longer had to go to the book, but rather the book came along with them. |
Aldine Press | Imprint and motto | Imprint and motto
In 1501, Aldus used as his publisher's device the image of a dolphin wrapped around an anchor.H. George Fletcher, In praise of Aldus Manutius (New York: Morgan Library, 1995), pp. 26–27. "The dolphin and anchor device owed its origins most immediately to Pietro Bembo. Aldus told Erasmus six years later that Bembo had given him a silver coin minted under the Roman Emperor Vespasian bearing an image of this device. The image of the dolphin and anchor on the coin came with the saying "Festina Lente", meaning "make haste slowly." This would later become the motto for the Aldine Press. |
Aldine Press | After 1515 | After 1515
Manutius died on February 6, 1515. Following his death, the firm was run by Torresani and his daughter Maria, the widow of Manutius. The name of the press was changed in 1508 to "In the House of Aldus and Andrea Torresano," and kept this name until 1529. In 1533, Paulus Manutius managed the firm, starting it up again and changing its name to "Heirs of Aldus and Andrea Torresano". In 1539, the imprint changed to "Sons of Aldo Manuzio". In 1567, Aldus Manutius the Younger (grandson of Aldus Manutius) took over and maintained the business until his death. |
Aldine Press | Publications | Publications
A partial list of publications from the Aldine Press, cited from Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting than Bronze.
Musarum Panagyris, Aldus Manutius, sometime between March 1487 and March 1491.
Erotemata cum interpretatione Latina, Constantine Lascaris, 8 March 1495.
Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, quod et in Latinam Linguam ad verbum tralatum est, Musaeus, before November 1495 (Greek text) and 1497–98 (Latin text).
Dictionarium Graecum, Johannes Crastonus, December 1497.
Institutiones Graecae grammatices, Urban Valeriani, January 1497.
Rudimenta grammatices latinae linguae, Aldus Manutius, June 1501.
Poetae Christiani veteres, June 1502.
Institutionum grammaticarum libri quatuor, Aldus Manutius, December 1514.
Suda, February 1514.
Works published from the Greeks. Manutius printed thirty editiones principes of Greek texts, allowing these texts to escape the fragility of the manuscript tradition.
Eclogae triginta..., Theocritus, February 1496.
Theophrastus de historia plantarum..., Aristotle, 1 June 1497.
De mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum..., Iamblichus, September 1497.
Aristophanis Comoediae novem, Aristophanes, 15 July 1498.
Omnia opera Angeli Politiani..., Angeloa Ambrogini Poliziano, July 1498.
Herodoti libri novem quibus musarum indita sunt nomina, Herodotus, September 1502.
Omnia Platonis opera, Plato, May 1513.
Oratores Graeci, May 1513.
Deipnosophistae, Athenaeus, August 1514.
Latin works
Scriptores astronomici veteres, Firmicus Maternus, 17 October 1499.
Petri Bembi de Aetna ad Angelum Chabrielem liber, Pietro Bembo, February 1496.
Diaria de Bello Carolino, Alessandro Benedetti, 1496 (the first published work of the Aldine Press using the humanist typeface).
Libellus de epidemia, quam vulgo morgum Gallicum vocant, Niccolò Leoniceno, June 1497.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Francesco Colonna, December 1499.
Epistole devotissime de Sancta Catharina da Siena, St. Catherina of Siena, 19 September 1500.
Opera, Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil), April 1501.
Opera, Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace), May 1501.
Rhetoricorum ad C. Herennium...libri, Marcus Tullius Cicero, (Cicero) March 1514.
Libelli Portatiles
Le cose volgari de Messer Francesco Petrarcha, Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), July 1501.
Opera, Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius, January 1502.
Epistolae ad familiares, Marcus Tullius Cicero (Cicero), April 1502.
Le terze rime, Dante Alighieri, August 1502.
Pharsalia, Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Lucan), April 1502.
Tragaediae septem cum commentariis, Sophocles, August 1502.
Tragoediae septendecim, Euripides, February 1503.
Fastorum...libri, de tristibus..., de ponto, Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid), February 1503.
Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum in septem libros, Greek Anthology, November 1503.
Opera, Homer, sometime after 31 October 1504.
Urania sive de stellis, Joannes Jovianus Pontanus, May & August 1505.
Vita, et Fabellae Aesopi..., Aesop, October 1505.
Epistolarum libri decem, Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, November 1508.
Commentariorum de Bello Gallico libri, Gaius Julius Caesar, December 1513.
Odes, Pindar, January 1513.
Sonetti et Canzoni. Triumphi, Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), August 1514. |
Aldine Press | Archives | Archives
The most nearly complete collection of Aldine editions ever brought together was originally housed in the Althorp library of the 2nd Earl Spencer, and is now in the John Rylands Library, Manchester.A Guide to Special Collections (1999)
In North America, the most substantial Aldine holdings can be found in the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine Collection at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas at Austin, and the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. |
Aldine Press | References | References |
Aldine Press | Further reading | Further reading
Barolini, Helen. Aldus and His Dream Book: An Illustrated Essay. New York: Italica Press, 1992.
Braida, L. (2003) Stampa e cultura in Europa. Roma-Bari: Laterza
Davies, Martin (1995) Aldus Manutius: printer and publisher of Renaissance Venice. London: British Library
Febvre, L. & Martin, H. (2001) La nascita del libro. Roma-Bari: Laterza
Fletcher, H. G., III (1988) New Aldine Studies: documentary essays on the life and work of Aldus Manutius. San Francisco
Lowry, Martin (1984) Il mondo di Aldo Manuzio – Affari e cultura della Venezia del Rinascimento. Roma: Il Veltro, pp. 441 (Translated from: The World of Aldus Manutius: Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1979). II edizione, con aggiornamento bibliografico, Roma 2000.
Massey, Stephen C. (2023). "Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library. Magnificent Books and Bindings. The Aldine Collection." The Book Collector 74.no.4 (winter): 710-719.
Nuovo, Angela. 2018. “Aldus Manutius and the World of Venetian Publishing.” Andreas Vesalius and the "Fabrica" in the Age of Printing / Edited by Rinaldo Fernando Canalis and Massimo Ciavolella Seite 19-45.
Renouard, A. A. (1834) Annales de l'imprimerie des Aldes, ou l'histoire des trois Manuce et de leurs éditions; 3ème édition. Paris (the standard bibliography)
Soave, Fiammetta (1991) Bibliotheca Aldina: a collection of one hundred publications of Aldus Pius Manutius and the Aldine Press, including some valuable Aldine conterfeits . Rome: F. Soave |
Aldine Press | External links | External links
Aldus Manutius exhibition at UCLA
1502, Venice: Aldus Manutius
Rylands Aldine collection
Category:Book publishing companies of Italy
Category:Italian Renaissance
Category:Printers of incunabula
Category:1494 establishments in Europe
Category:15th-century establishments in the Republic of Venice
Category:Mass media in Venice
Category:Companies established in the 15th century |
Aldine Press | Table of Content | short description, Beginnings, Accomplishments, Humanist typefaces, Italic typeface, Portable books (or ''libelli portatiles''), Imprint and motto, After 1515, Publications, Archives, References, Further reading, External links |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Short description | Ealdred (or Aldred; died 11 September 1069) was Abbot of Tavistock, Bishop of Worcester, and Archbishop of York in early medieval England. He was related to a number of other ecclesiastics of the period. After becoming a monk at the monastery at Winchester, he was appointed Abbot of Tavistock Abbey in around 1027. In 1046 he was named to the Bishopric of Worcester. Ealdred, besides his episcopal duties, served Edward the Confessor, the King of England, as a diplomat and as a military leader. He worked to bring one of the king's relatives, Edward the Exile, back to England from Hungary to secure an heir for the childless king.
In 1058 he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the first bishop from England to do so.Barlow Edward the Confessor pp. 208–209 As administrator of the Diocese of Hereford, he was involved in fighting against the Welsh, suffering two defeats at the hands of raiders before securing a settlement with Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, a Welsh ruler.
In 1060, Ealdred was elected to the archbishopric of York but had difficulty in obtaining papal approval for his appointment, managing to do so only when he promised not to hold the bishoprics of York and Worcester simultaneously. He helped secure the election of Wulfstan as his successor at Worcester. During his archiepiscopate, he built and embellished churches in his diocese, and worked to improve his clergy by holding a synod which published regulations for the priesthood.
Some sources say that following King Edward the Confessor's death in 1066, it was Ealdred who crowned Harold Godwinson as King of England.Hindley Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 335 Ealdred supported Harold as king, but when Harold was defeated at the Battle of Hastings, Ealdred backed Edgar the Ætheling and then endorsed King William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy and a distant relative of King Edward's. Ealdred crowned King William on Christmas Day in 1066. William never quite trusted Ealdred or the other English leaders, and Ealdred had to accompany William back to Normandy in 1067, but he had returned to York by the time of his death in 1069. Ealdred supported the churches and monasteries in his diocese with gifts and building projects. |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Early life | Early life
Ealdred was probably born in the west of England, and could be related to Lyfing, his predecessor as bishop of Worcester.Lawson "Ealdred" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography His family, from Devonshire, may have been well-to-do.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII p. 124 Another relative was Wilstan or Wulfstan, who under Ealdred's influence became Abbot of Gloucester. Ealdred was a monk in the cathedral chapter at Winchester Cathedral before becoming abbot of Tavistock Abbey about 1027, an office he held until about 1043.Knowles Monastic Order in England p. 72 Even after leaving the abbacy of Tavistock, he continued to hold two properties from the abbey until his death. No contemporary documents relating to Ealdred's time as abbot have been discovered.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII p. 125
Ealdred was made bishop of Worcester in 1046, a position he held until his resignation in 1062.Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 224 He may have acted as suffragan, or subordinate bishop, to his predecessor Lyfing before formally assuming the bishopric,Barlow Edward the Confessor p. 86 as from about 1043 Ealdred witnessed as an episcopus, or bishop, and a charter from 1045 or early 1046 names Sihtric as abbot of Tavistock. Lyfing died on 26 March 1046, and Ealdred became bishop of Worcester shortly after. However, Ealdred did not receive the other two dioceses Lyfing had held, Crediton and Cornwall; King Edward the Confessor (reigned 1043–1066) granted these to Leofric, who combined the two sees at Crediton in 1050. |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Bishop and royal advisor | Bishop and royal advisor
Ealdred was an advisor to King Edward the Confessor, and was often involved in the royal government. He was also a military leader, and in 1046 he led an unsuccessful expedition against the Welsh.Huscroft Ruling England p. 49 This was in retaliation for a raid led by the Welsh rulers Gruffydd ap Rhydderch, Rhys ap Rhydderch, and Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Ealdred's expedition was betrayed by some Welsh soldiers who were serving with the English, and Ealdred was defeated.Maund Welsh Kings pp. 89–90
In 1050, Ealdred went to Rome "on the king's errand",Huscroft Ruling England p. 50 apparently to secure papal approval to move the seat, or centre, of the bishopric of Crediton to Exeter. It may also have been to secure the release of the king from a vow to go on pilgrimage, if sources from after the Norman Conquest are to be believed. While in Rome, he attended a papal council, along with his fellow English bishop Herman.Smith, et al. "Court and Piety" Catholic Historical Review p. 574 That same year, as Ealdred was returning to England he met Sweyn, a son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and probably absolved Sweyn for having abducted the abbess of Leominster Abbey in 1046.Barlow Godwins p. 55 Through Ealdred's intercession, Sweyn was restored to his earldom, which he had lost after abducting the abbess and murdering his cousin Beorn Estrithson.Rex Harold II p. 37Barlow Edward the Confessor p. 103 Ealdred helped Sweyn not only because Ealdred was a supporter of Earl Godwin's family but because Sweyn's earldom was close to his bishopric. As recently as 1049 Irish raiders had allied with Gruffydd ap Rhydderch of Gwent in raiding along the River Usk. Ealdred unsuccessfully tried to drive off the raiders, but was again routed by the Welsh. This failure underscored Ealdred's need for a strong earl in the area to protect against raids.Mason House of Godwine pp. 57–58 Normally, the bishop of Hereford would have led the defence in the absence of an Earl of Hereford, but in 1049 the incumbent, Æthelstan, was blind, so Ealdred took on the role of defender.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII pp. 126–127 |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Diplomatic travels | Diplomatic travels
thumb|upright=1.8|left|Harold Godwinson, from the Bayeux Tapestry, whom Ealdred failed to catch in 1051|alt=Tapestry image of a man on horseback holding a falcon
Earl Godwin's rebellion against the king in 1051 came as a blow to Ealdred, who was a supporter of the earl and his family. Ealdred was present at the royal council at London that banished Godwin's family.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII p. 127 Later in 1051, when he was sent to intercept Harold Godwinson and his brothers as they fled England after their father's outlawing, Ealdred "could not, or would not" capture the brothers.Walker Harold pp. 132–133Barlow Edward the Confessor p. 114 The banishment of Ealdred's patron came shortly after the death of Ælfric Puttoc, the Archbishop of York. York and Worcester had long had close ties, and the two sees had often been held in plurality, or at the same time. Ealdred probably wanted to become Archbishop of York after Ælfric's death, but his patron's eclipse led to the king appointing Cynesige, a royal chaplain, instead. In September 1052, though, Godwin returned from exile and his family was restored to power.Huscroft Ruling England pp. 6–7 By late 1053 Ealdred was once more in royal favour. At some point, he was alleged to have accompanied Swein on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but proof is lacking.Fleming Kings & Lords in Conquest England pp. 79–80
In 1054 King Edward sent Ealdred to Germany to obtain Emperor HenryIII's help in returning Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside, to England. Edmund (reigned 1016) was an elder half-brother of King Edward the Confessor, and Edmund's son Edward was in Hungary with King AndrewI, having left England as an infant after his father's death and the accession of Cnut as King of England.Huscroft Ruling England p. 8 In this mission Ealdred was somewhat successful and obtained insight into the working of the German church during a stay of a yearWalker Harold p. 76 with HermannII, the Archbishop of Cologne.Barlow Edward the Confessor pp. 215–218 He also was impressed with the buildings he saw, and later incorporated some of the German styles into his own constructions.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII p. 128 The main objective of the mission, however, was to secure the return of Edward; but this failed, mainly because HenryIII's relations with the Hungarians were strained, and the emperor was unable or unwilling to help Ealdred.Mason House of Godwine p. 88 Ealdred was able to discover that Edward was alive, and had a place at the Hungarian court.Rex Harold II p. 126 Although some sources say Ealdred attended the coronation of Emperor HenryIV, this is not possible, as on the date Henry was crowned, Ealdred was in England consecrating an abbot.
Ealdred had returned to England by 1055, and brought with him a copy of the Pontificale Romano-Germanicum, a set of liturgies. An extant copy of this work, currently manuscript Cotton Vitellus E xii, has been identified as a copy owned by Ealdred. It appears likely that the Rule of Chrodegang, a continental set of ordinances for the communal life of secular canons, was introduced into England by Ealdred sometime before 1059. Probably he brought it back from Germany, possibly in concert with Harold.Rex Harold II p. 77
After Ealdred's return to England he took charge of the sees of HerefordMason House of Godwine p. 94 and Ramsbury. Ealdred also administered Winchcombe Abbey and Gloucester Abbey.Barlow Edward the Confessor pp. 197–199 The authors of the Handbook of British Chronology Third Edition say he was named bishop of Hereford in 1056, holding the see until he resigned it in 1060,Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 217 but other sources say he merely administered the see while it was vacant,Huscroft Ruling England p. 45 or that he was bishop of Hereford from 1055 to 1060.Greenway "Archbishops" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 6: York
Ealdred became involved with the see of Ramsbury after its bishop Herman got into a dispute with King Edward over the movement of the seat of his bishopric to Malmesbury Abbey. Herman wished to move the seat of his see, but Edward refused permission for the move. Ealdred was a close associate of Herman's, and the historian H. R. Loyn called Herman "something of an alter ego" to Ealdred.Loyn English Church p. 61 According to the medieval chronicler John of Worcester, Ealdred was given the see of Ramsbury to administer while Herman remained outside England. Herman returned in 1058, and resumed his bishopric. There is no contemporary documentary evidence of Ealdred's administration of Ramsbury. |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Welsh affairs, Jerusalem, and Worcester | Welsh affairs, Jerusalem, and Worcester
The king again employed Ealdred as a diplomat in 1056, when he assisted Earls Harold and Leofric in negotiations with the Welsh. Edward sent Ealdred after the death in battle of Bishop Leofgar of Hereford, who had attacked Gruffydd ap Llywelyn after encouragement from the king. However, Leofgar lost the battle and his life, and Edward had to sue for peace.Maund Welsh Kings pp. 94–95 Although details of the negotiations are lacking, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn swore loyalty to King Edward, but the oath may not have had any obligations on Gruffydd's part to Edward. The exact terms of the submission are not known in total, but Gruffydd was not required to assist Edward in war nor attend Edward's court. Ealdred was rewarded with the administration of the see of Hereford, which he held until 1061, and was appointed Archbishop of York.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII pp. 128–129 The diocese had suffered a serious raid from the Welsh in 1055, and during his administration, Ealdred continued the rebuilding of the cathedral church as well as securing the cathedral chapter's rights. Ealdred was granted the administration so that the area might have someone with experience with the Welsh in charge.
In 1058 Ealdred made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the first English bishop to make the journey. He travelled through Hungary, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle said that "he went to Jerusalem in such state as no-one had done before him."Quoted in King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII p. 130 While in Jerusalem he made a gift of a gold chalice to the church of the Holy Sepulchre.Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 89 It is possible that the reason Ealdred travelled through Hungary was to arrange the travel of Edward the Exile's family to England. Another possibility is that he wished to search for other possible heirs to King Edward in Hungary.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII p. 130 It is not known exactly when Edward the Exile's family returned to England, whether they returned with Edward in 1057, or sometime later, so it is only a possibility that they returned with Ealdred in 1058.Rex Harold II p. 129
Very little documentary evidence is available from Ealdred's time as Bishop of Worcester. Only five leases that he signed survive, and all date from 1051 to 1053. Two further leases exist in Hemming's Cartulary as copies only. How the diocese of Worcester was administered when Ealdred was abroad is unclear, although it appears Wulfstan, the prior of the cathedral chapter, performed the religious duties in the diocese. On the financial side, the Evesham Chronicle states that Æthelwig, who became abbot of Evesham Abbey in 1058, administered Worcester before he became abbot.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII pp. 134–137 |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Archbishop of York | Archbishop of York
right|upright=2.0|thumb|The funeral cortège of Edward the Confessor, from the Bayeux Tapestry|alt=Tapestry image of a procession of men carrying a coffin heading towards a church building
Cynesige, the archbishop of York, died on 22 December 1060, and Ealdred was elected Archbishop of York on Christmas Day, 1060. Although a bishop was promptly appointed to Hereford, none was named to Worcester, and it appears Ealdred intended to retain Worcester along with York, which several of his predecessors had done. There were a few reasons for this, one of which was political, as the kings of England preferred to appoint bishops from the south to the northern bishoprics, hoping to counter the northern tendency towards separatism. Another reason was that York was not a wealthy see, and Worcester was. Holding Worcester along with York allowed the archbishop sufficient revenue to support himself.Loyn Governance p. 158
In 1061 Ealdred travelled to Rome to receive the pallium, the symbol of an archbishop's authority. Journeying with him was Tostig, another son of Earl Godwin, who was now earl of Northumbria.Hindley Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 330 William of Malmesbury says that Ealdred, by "amusing the simplicity of King Edward and alleging the custom of his predecessors, had acquired, more by bribery than by reason, the archbishopric of York while still holding his former see."Powell and Wallis House of Lords pp. 13–14 On his arrival in Rome, however, charges of simony, or the buying of ecclesiastical office, and lack of learning were brought against him, and his elevation to York was refused by Pope Nicholas II, who also deposed him from Worcester. The story of Ealdred being deposed comes from the Vita Edwardi, a life of Edward the Confessor, but the Vita Wulfstani, an account of the life of Ealdred's successor at Worcester, Wulfstan, says Nicholas refused the pallium until a promise to find a replacement for Worcester was given by Ealdred.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII p. 131 Yet another chronicler, John of Worcester, mentions nothing of any trouble in Rome, and when discussing the appointment of Wulfstan, says Wulfstan was elected freely and unanimously by the clergy and people. John of Worcester also claims that at Wulfstan's consecration, Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury extracted a promise from Ealdred that neither he nor his successors would lay claim to any jurisdiction over the diocese of Worcester. Given that John of Worcester wrote his chronicle after the eruption of the Canterbury–York supremacy struggle, the story of Ealdred renouncing any claims to Worcester needs to be considered suspect.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII pp. 131–132
For whatever reason, Ealdred gave up the see of Worcester in 1062, when papal legates arrived in England to hold a council and make sure Ealdred relinquished Worcester.Walker Harold p. 50 This happened at Easter in 1062.Darlington "Ecclesiastical Reform" English Historical Review pp. 399–400 Ealdred was succeeded by Wulfstan, chosen by Ealdred, but John of Worcester relates that Ealdred had a hard time deciding between Wulfstan and Æthelwig.Knowles Monastic Order p. 76 The legates had urged the selection of Wulfstan because of his saintliness.Barlow English Church 1000–1066 pp. 106–107 Because the position of Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury, was irregular, Wulfstan sought and received consecration as a bishop from Ealdred. Normally, Wulfstan would have gone to the archbishop of Canterbury, as the see of Worcester was within Canterbury's province.Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 306 Although Ealdred gave up the bishopric, the appointment of Wulfstan was one that allowed Ealdred to continue his considerable influence on the see of Worcester. Ealdred retained a number of estates belonging to Worcester. Even after the Norman Conquest, Ealdred still controlled some events in Worcester, and it was Ealdred, not Wulfstan, who opposed Urse d'Abetot's attempt to extend the castle of Worcester into the cathedral after the Norman Conquest.King "Ealdred" Anglo-Norman Studies XVIII pp. 132–133
While archbishop, Ealdred built at Beverley, expanding on the building projects begun by his predecessor Cynesige,Huscroft Ruling England p. 46 as well as repairing and expanding other churches in his diocese. He also built refectories for the canons at York and Southwell.Darlington "Ecclesiastical Reform" English Historical Review p. 404 He also was the one bishop who published ecclesiastical legislation during Edward the Confessor's reign, attempting to discipline and reform the clergy.Barlow English Church, 1066–1154 p. 122 He held a synod of his clergy shortly before 1066.Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 246 |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | After the death of Edward the Confessor | After the death of Edward the Confessor
thumb|right|A penny from the time of WilliamI|alt=Coin image of a crowned male head with a sceptre in the background
John of Worcester, a medieval chronicler, said Ealdred crowned King HaroldII in 1066, although the Norman chroniclers mention Stigand as the officiating prelate. Given Ealdred's known support of Godwin's family, John of Worcester is probably correct. Stigand's position as archbishop was canonically suspect, and as earl Harold had not allowed Stigand to consecrate one of the earl's churches, it is unlikely Harold would have allowed Stigand to perform the much more important royal coronation.Rex Harold pp. 199–200 Arguments for Stigand having performed the coronation, however, rely on the fact that no other English source names the ecclesiastic who performed the ceremony; all Norman sources name Stigand as the presider.Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 60 footnote 4 In all events, Ealdred and Harold were close, and Ealdred supported Harold's bid to become king.Walker Harold p. 117 Ealdred perhaps accompanied Harold when the new king went to York and secured the support of the northern magnates shortly after Harold's consecration.Douglas William the Conqueror p. 183
According to the medieval chronicler Geoffrey Gaimar, after the Battle of Stamford Bridge Harold entrusted the loot gained from Harald Hardrada to Ealdred.Lawson Battle of Hastings p. 42 footnote 93 Gaimar asserts that King Harold did this because he had heard of Duke William's landing in England, and needed to rush south to counter it.Lawson Battle of Hastings p. 75 After the Battle of Hastings, Ealdred joined the group who tried to elevate Edgar the Ætheling, Edward the Exile's son, as king, but eventually he submitted to William the Conqueror at Berkhamsted.Huscroft Ruling England p. 19Williams English and the Norman Conquest p. 32 John of Worcester says the group supporting Edgar vacillated over what to do while William ravaged the countryside,Rex Harold II p. 130 which led to Ealdred and Edgar's submission to William.Douglas William the Conqueror p. 206
Ealdred crowned William king on Christmas Day 1066.Powell and Wallis House of Lords p. 1 An innovation in William's coronation ceremony was that before the actual crowning, Ealdred asked the assembled crowd, in English, if it was their wish that William be crowned king. The Bishop of Coutances then did the same, but in Norman French. In March 1067, William took Ealdred with him when William returned to Normandy, along with the other English leaders Earl Edwin of Mercia, Earl Morcar, Edgar the Ætheling, and Archbishop Stigand.Walker Harold pp. 185–187 Ealdred at Whitsun 1068 performed the coronation of Matilda, William's wife. The Laudes Regiae, or song commending a ruler, that was performed at Matilda's coronation may have been composed by Ealdred himself for the occasion.Stafford Queen Emma & Queen Edith p. 183 In 1069, when the northern thegns rebelled against William and attempted to install Edgar the Ætheling as king, Ealdred continued to support William. He was the only northern leader to support William, however.Kapelle Norman Conquest of the North p. 109 Ealdred was back at York by 1069. He died there on 11 September 1069, and his body was buried in his episcopal cathedral. He may have taken an active part in trying to calm the rebellions in the north in 1068 and 1069. The medieval chronicler William of Malmesbury records a story that when the new sheriff of Worcester, Urse d'Abetot, encroached on the cemetery of the cathedral chapter for Worcester Cathedral, Ealdred pronounced a rhyming curse on him, saying "Thou are called Urse. May you have God's curse."Quoted in Bates William the Conqueror p. 153 |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Legacy | Legacy
After Ealdred's death, one of the restraints on William's treatment of the English was removed. Ealdred was one of a few native Englishmen who William appears to have trusted, and his death led to fewer attempts to integrate Englishmen into the administration, although such efforts did not entirely stop.Bates William the Conqueror p. 156 In 1070, a church council was held at Westminster and a number of bishops were deposed. By 1073 there were only two Englishmen in episcopal sees, and by the time of William's death in 1087 there was only one, WulfstanII of Worcester.Barlow English Church, 1066–1154 p. 57
Ealdred did much to restore discipline in the monasteries and churches under his authority, and was liberal with gifts to the churches of his diocese. He built the monastic church of St Peter at Gloucester (now Gloucester Cathedral, though nothing of his fabric remains), then part of his diocese of Worcester. He also repaired a large part of Beverley Minster in the diocese of York, adding a presbytery and an unusually splendid painted ceiling covering "all the upper part of the church from the choir to the tower... intermingled with gold in various ways, and in a wonderful fashion."Dodwell Anglo-Saxon Art p. 93, quoting the Chronica Ecclesiae Eboracensis (York chronicle). None of these works remain. He added a pulpit "in German style" of bronze, gold and silver, surmounted by an arch with a rood cross in the same materials; these were examples of the lavish decorations added to important churches in the years before the conquest.Dodwell Anglo-Saxon Art p. 65 and note 151 on pp. 264–265
Ealdred encouraged Folcard, a monk of Canterbury, to write the Life of Saint John of Beverley.Palliser "John of Beverley (St John of Beverley) (d. 721)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This was part of Ealdred's promotion of the cult of Saint John,Blair Church in Anglo-Saxon Society p. 314 who had been canonised only since 1037. Along with the Pontificale, Ealdred may have brought back from Cologne the first manuscript of the Cambridge Songs to enter England, a collection of Latin Goliardic songs which became famous in the Middle Ages.Lapidge "Ealdred" Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England p. 153 The historian Michael Lapidge suggests that the Laudes Regiae, which are included in Cotton Vitellius Exii, might have been composed by Ealdred, or a member of his household. Another historian, H. J. Cowdrey, argued that the laudes were composed at Winchester. These praise songs are probably the same performed at Matilda's coronation, but might have been used at other court ceremonies before Ealdred's death.Lapidge "Ealdred of York" Yorkshire Archaeological Journal pp. 16–18
Historians have seen Ealdred as an "old-fashioned prince-bishop".Loyn English Church p. 62 Others say he "raised the see of York from its former rustic state".Harper-Bill "Anglo-Norman Church" Companion to the Anglo-Norman World p. 158 He was known for his generosity and for his diplomatic and administrative abilities. After the Conquest, Ealdred provided a degree of continuity between the pre- and post-Conquest worlds.Loyn English Church p. 67 One modern historian feels it was Ealdred who was behind the compilation of the D version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and gives a date in the 1050s as its composition.Lawson Battle of Hastings p. 62 footnote 34 Certainly, Ealdred is one of the leading figures in the work, and it is likely one of his clerks compiled the version.Wormald Making of English Law pp. 130–131 |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Notes | Notes |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Citations | Citations |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | References | References
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Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Further reading | Further reading
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Ealdred (archbishop of York) | External links | External links
Category:1069 deaths
Category:Abbots of Tavistock
Category:Archbishops of York
Category:Bishops of Hereford
Category:Bishops of Worcester
Category:11th-century English Roman Catholic bishops
Category:11th-century English Roman Catholic archbishops
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:Burials at York Minster
Category:11th-century Christian abbots |
Ealdred (archbishop of York) | Table of Content | Short description, Early life, Bishop and royal advisor, Diplomatic travels, Welsh affairs, Jerusalem, and Worcester, Archbishop of York, After the death of Edward the Confessor, Legacy, Notes, Citations, References, Further reading, External links |
Alexander I of Epirus | Short description | Alexander I of Epirus (; c. 370 BC – 331 BC), also known as Alexander Molossus (), was a king of Epirus (343/2–331 BC) of the Aeacid dynasty.Ellis, J. R., Philip II and Macedonian Imperialism, Thames and Hudson, 1976, pp. 90–1, 156–7Hammond, N. G. L., Philip of Macedon, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, p. 51 As the son of Neoptolemus I and brother of Olympias, Alexander I was an uncle, and a brother-in-law, of Alexander the Great. He was also an uncle to Pyrrhus of Epirus. |
Alexander I of Epirus | Biography | Biography
Neoptolemus I ruled jointly with his brother Arybbas. When Neoptolemus died in c. 357 BC, his son Alexander was only a child and Arrybas became the sole king. In c. 350 BC, Alexander was brought to the court of Philip II of Macedon in order to protect him. In 343/2 in his late 20s, Philip made him king of Epirus, after dethroning his uncle Arybbas.
When Olympias was repudiated by her husband in 337 BC, she went to her brother, and endeavoured to induce him to make war on Philip. Alexander, however, declined the contest, and formed a second alliance with Philip by agreeing to marry the daughter of Philip (Alexander's niece) Cleopatra. During the wedding in 336 BC, Philip was assassinated by Pausanias of Orestis.
In 334 BC, Alexander I, at the request of the Greek colony of Taras (in Magna Graecia), crossed over into Italy, to aid them in battle against several Italic tribes, including the Lucanians and Bruttii. After a victory over the Samnites and Lucanians near Paestum in 332 BC, he made a treaty with the Romans. He then took Heraclea from the Lucanians, Terina from the Bruttii, and Sipontum on the Adriatic coast. Through the treachery of some Lucanian exiles, he was compelled to engage under unfavourable circumstances in the Battle of Pandosia and was killed by a Lucanian. He left a son, Neoptolemus, and a daughter, Cadmea.Justin. Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, viii.6, ix.6, xii.2Livy. Ab urbe condita, viii.3, 17, 24Aulus Gellius. Noctes Atticae, xvii.21
In a famous passage,Livy 9.19 Livy speculates on what would have been the outcome of a military showdown between Alexander the Great and the Roman Republic. He reports that as Alexander of Epirus lay mortally wounded on the battlefield at Pandosia he compared his fortunes to those of his famous nephew and said that the latter "waged war against women". |
Alexander I of Epirus | References | References |
Alexander I of Epirus | External links | External links
Lendering, Jona. "Alexander of Molossis". Livius.org, 2004. Birth and kingship dates are incorrect)
Category:370s BC births
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:331 BC deaths
Category:Kings of Epirus
Category:4th-century BC Greek monarchs
Category:Ancient Greek generals
Category:Family of Alexander the Great
Category:Monarchs killed in action
Category:Ancient Greeks killed in battle
Category:Courtiers of Philip II of Macedon
Category:Ancient Epirotes |
Alexander I of Epirus | Table of Content | Short description, Biography, References, External links |
Alexander Balas | Short description | Alexander I Theopator Euergetes, surnamed Balas (), was the ruler of the Seleucid Empire from 150 BC to August 145 BC.
Picked from obscurity and supported by the neighboring Roman-allied Kingdom of Pergamon, Alexander landed in Phoenicia in 152 BC and started a civil war against Seleucid King Demetrius I Soter. Backed by mercenaries and factions of the Seleucid Empire unhappy with the existing government, he defeated Demetrius and took the crown in 150 BC. He married the princess Cleopatra Thea to seal an alliance with the neighboring Ptolemaic kingdom. His reign saw the steady retreat of the Seleucid Empire's eastern border, with important eastern satrapies such as Media being lost to the nascent Parthian Empire. In 147 BC, Demetrius II Nicator, the young son of Demetrius I, began a campaign to overthrow Balas, and civil war resumed. Alexander's ally, Ptolemaic king Ptolemy VI Philometor, moved troops into Coele-Syria to support Alexander, but then switched sides and threw his support behind Demetrius II. At the Battle of the Oenoparus River in Syria, he was defeated by Ptolemy VI and he died shortly afterward. |
Alexander Balas | Life | Life |
Alexander Balas | Origins and mission to Rome | Origins and mission to Rome
Alexander Balas claimed to be the son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Laodice IV and heir to the Seleucid throne. The ancient sources, Polybius and Diodorus say that this claim was false and that he and his sister Laodice VI were really natives of Smyrna of humble origin.Polybius 33.18.5-18; Diodorus Bibliotheca 31.32a. However, Polybius became friends with Balas's rival King Demetrius I when both were hostages in Rome, so Polybius is not an unbiased source on this matter.Bevan, Edwyn. The House of Seleucus (1902). Modern scholars disagree about whether the story of Attalus finding a commoner who looked the part is true or was propaganda put about by Alexander's opponents.
According to Diodorus, Alexander was originally put forward as a candidate for the Seleucid throne by Attalus II of Pergamum. Attalus had been disturbed by the Seleucid king Demetrius I's interference in Cappadocia, where he had dethroned king Ariarathes V.Diodorus Bibliotheca 31.32a Boris Chrubasik is sceptical, noting that there is little subsequent evidence for Attalid involvement with Alexander. However, Selene Psoma has proposed that a large set of coins minted in a number of cities under Attalid control in this period was produced by Attalus II in order to fund Alexander's bid for the kingship.
Alexander and his sister were maintained in Cilicia by Heracleides, a former minister of Antiochus IV and brother of Timarchus, an usurper in Media who had been executed by the reigning king Demetrius I Soter. In 153 BC, Heracleides brought Alexander and his sister to Rome, where he presented Alexander to the Roman Senate, which recognised him as the legitimate Seleucid king and agreed to support him in his bid to take the throne. Polybius mentions that Attalus II and Demetrius I also met with the Senate at this time but does not state how this was connected to the recognition of Alexander - if at all.Polybius 33.18; |
Alexander Balas | War with Demetrius I (152–150 BC) | War with Demetrius I (152–150 BC)
thumb|right|Silver coin of Alexander I "Balas". The Greek inscription reads ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΧΑΝΔΡΟΥ (king Alexander). The date ΓΞΡ is year 164 of the Seleucid era, corresponding to 149–148 BC.
After recruiting mercenaries, Alexander and Heracleides departed to Ephesus. From there, they invaded Phoenicia by sea, seizing Ptolemais Akko.Polybius 33.18.14; Josephus AJ 13.35 Numismatic evidence shows that Alexander had also gained control of Seleucia Pieria, Byblos, Beirut, Tyre by 151 BC. On this coinage, Alexander heavily advertised his (claimed) connection to Antiochus IV, depicting Zeus Nicephorus on his coinage as Antiochus had done. He also assumed the title of Theopator ('Divinely Fathered'), which recalled Antiochus' epithet Theos Epiphanes ('God Manifest'). The coinage also presented Alexander Balas in the guise of Alexander the Great, with pronounced facial features and long flowing hair. This was intended to emphasise his military prowess to his soldiers.
Alexander and Demetrius I competed with another to win over Jonathan Apphus, the leader of the ascendant faction in Judaea. Jonathan was won over to Alexander's side by the grant of a high position in the Seleucid court and the high priesthood in Jerusalem.Josephus AJ 13.45; I Maccabees. 10.3-6, 10.20 Reinforced by Jonathan's hardened soldiers, Alexander fought a decisive battle with Demetrius in July 150 BC, in which Demetrius was killed. By autumn, Alexander's kingship was recognised throughout the Seleucid realm.Josephus Jewish Antiquities 13.59–61; I Maccabees 10.48–50; Justin Epitome of Pompeius Trogus 35.1.9–11. Astronomical Diaries III 149 A rev. 1–13 and B obv. 1 |
Alexander Balas | Reign (150–147 BC) | Reign (150–147 BC)
thumb|Marriage commemorative of Alexander I Balas and Cleopatra Thea.
Alexander gained control of Antioch at this time and his chancellor, Ammonius, murdered all the courtiers of Demetrius I, as well as his wife Laodice and his eldest son Antigonus.Livy, Periochae 50; Ptolemy VI Philometor of Egypt entered into an alliance with Alexander, which was sealed by Alexander's marriage to his daughter Cleopatra Thea. The wedding took place at Ptolemais, with Ptolemy VI and Jonathan Apphus in attendance. Alexander took the opportunity to shower honours on Jonathan, whom he treated as his main agent in Judaea.I Maccabees 10.61-65; Josephus AJ 13.80-85 The marriage was advertised by a special coinage issue, depicting the royal pair side by side - only the second depiction of a queen on Seleucid coinage. She is shown with divine attributes (a cornucopia and a calathus) and is depicted in front of the king. Some scholars have seen Alexander as little more than a Ptolemaic puppet, arguing that this coinage emphasises Cleopatra's dominance over him and that the chancellor Ammonius was a Ptolemaic agent.; Other scholars argue that the alliance was advertised as an important one, but that the arguments for Alexander's subservience have been overstated. |
Alexander Balas | Collapse of the East | Collapse of the East
Meanwhile, the Seleucid positions in the eastern Upper Satrapies, already weakened by the previous kings' failure to contain the Parthians and the Greco-Bactrians, suffered almost complete collapse. The Parthians under Mithridates I took advantage of the general instability to invade Media. The region had been lost to Seleucid control by the middle of 148 BC.Inscriptiones d;Iran et d'Asie centrale n. 70; Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus 41.6.6; At around the same time the local nobles in Elymais and Persis asserted their own ephemeral independence, only to be soon also subdued by the Parthians. By 148 BC at the latest the Parthians also secured their hold over Hyrcania at the coast of the Caspian Sea.Rawlinson (1873) By 147 BC the Parthians stood at the doorsteps of Babylonia, one of the Seleucid empire's hearthlands and location of one of its two capital cities, Seleucia-on-Tigris.
Alexander is not recorded to do anything of note to stem the steady erosion of Seleucid power in the East. Ancient historians hostile to him depict him as too distracted by a life of debauchery to take action to stop the Parthians, unlike earlier Seleucid Kings who would mount expeditions to the eastern satrapies to deter the Parthians. He was reputed to hand the administration over to two commanders, Hierax and Diodotus, neither of whom seemed to care for anything but their own interests. This representation is at least partially a product of his opponents' propaganda, but it is true that under Alexander, the Seleucid Empire continued to see its reach and power slip away. |
Alexander Balas | War with Demetrius II and death (147–145 BC) | War with Demetrius II and death (147–145 BC)
thumb|Coin of Demetrius II Nicator
In early 147 BC Demetrius' son Demetrius II returned to Syria with a force of Cretan mercenaries led by a man called Lasthenes. Much of Coele Syria was lost to him immediately, possibly as a result of the succession of the regional commander. Jonathan attacked Demetrius's position from the south, seizing Jaffa and Ashdod, while Alexander Balas was occupied with a revolt in Cilicia.I Maccabees 10.69–89; Josephus AJ 13.88–102 In 145 BC Ptolemy VI of Egypt invaded Syria, ostensibly in support of Alexander Balas. In practice, Ptolemy's intervention came at a heavy cost; with Alexander's permission, he took control of all the Seleucid cities along the coast, including Seleucia Pieria.I Maccabees 11.3-8 He may also have started minting his own coinage in the Syrian cities.
While he was at Ptolemais Akko, however, Ptolemy switched sides. According to Josephus, Ptolemy discovered that Alexander's chancellor, Ammonius, had been plotting to assassinate him, but when he demanded that Ammonius be punished, Alexander refused.Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 13.106-107; I Maccabees does not mention the episode and presents Ptolemy as planning to supported Demetrius II from the start. Josephus presents Ptolemy as genuinely supporting Alexander until this moment. Ptolemy remarried his Cleopatra Thea to Demetrius II and continued his march northward. Alexander's commanders of Antioch, Diodotus and Hierax, surrendered the city to Ptolemy.I Maccabees 11; Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 13.106-107, 115
Alexander returned from Cilicia with his army, but Ptolemy VI and Demetrius II defeated his forces in a Battle of the Oenoparus River.Strabo 16.2.8. Earlier, Alexander had sent his infant son Antiochus to an Arabian dynast called Zabdiel Diocles. Alexander now fled to Arabia in order to join up with Zabdiel, but he was killed. Sources disagree about whether the killer was a pair of his own generals who had decided to switch sides or Zabdiel himself. Alexander's severed head was brought to Ptolemy, who also died shortly after from wounds sustained in the battle.Diodorus 32.9d & 10.1; Zabdiel: I Maccabees 11.17; Josephus AJ 13.118.
Zabdiel continued to look after Alexander's infant son Antiochus, until 145 BC when the general Diodotus declared him king, in order to serve as the figurehead of a rebellion against Demetrius II. In 130 BC, another claimant to the throne, Alexander Zabinas, would also claim to be Alexander Balas' son; almost certainly spuriously.Porphyry FGrH 260 F 32.21; Alexander is the title character of the oratorio Alexander Balus, written in 1747 by George Frideric Handel. |
Alexander Balas | Epithets | Epithets
On some of his coins he is called "Epiphanes" (splendid, glorious) and "Nicephorus" (bringer of victory) after his pretended father and on others "Euergetes" (benefactor) and "Theopator" (of divine descent).A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Alexander Balas In Septuagint it was also called "Epiphanes".Septuagint, 1 Maccabees, 10.1 |
Alexander Balas | See also | See also
List of Syrian monarchs
Timeline of Syrian history
Diophantus of Abae |
Alexander Balas | References | References |
Alexander Balas | Bibliography | Bibliography
Primary
1 Maccabees 10 ff.
Justin xxxv. 1 and 2
Appian, Syrian Wars (=Roman History book 11), 67
Polybius, Histories xxxiii. 14.
Secondary
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Alexander Balas | External links | External links
Alexander Balas, article in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith
Intaglio representing Alexander I
Coin of Alexander Balas in British Museum
Category:146 BC deaths
Category:2nd-century BC Seleucid monarchs
Category:Ptolemaic dynasty
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:Children of Antiochus IV Epiphanes |
Alexander Balas | Table of Content | Short description, Life, Origins and mission to Rome, War with Demetrius I (152–150 BC), Reign (150–147 BC), Collapse of the East, War with Demetrius II and death (147–145 BC), Epithets, See also, References, Bibliography, External links |
Alexander of Pherae | short description | Alexander () was Tyrant or Despot of Pherae in Thessaly, ruling from 369 to 356 BC. Following the assassination of Jason, the tyrant of Pherae and Tagus of Thessaly, in 370 BC, his brother Polyphron ruled for a year, but he was then poisoned by Alexander who assumed power himself. Alexander governed tyrannically and was constantly seeking to control Thessaly and the kingdom of Macedonia. He also engaged in piratical raids on Attica. Alexander was murdered by Tisiphonus, Lycophron and Peitholaus, the brothers of his wife, Thebe, as it was said that she lived in fear of her husband and hated Alexander's cruel and brutal character. |
Alexander of Pherae | Reign | Reign
The accounts of how Alexander came to power vary somewhat in minor points. Diodorus Siculus tells us that upon the assassination of the tyrant Jason of Pherae, in 370 BC, his brother Polydorus ruled for a year, but he was then poisoned by Alexander, another brother.Diodorus Siculus, xv. 60-61 However, according to Xenophon, Polydorus was murdered by his brother Polyphron, who was, in turn,Xenophon, Hellenica vi. 4. ~ 34This date is at variance with Pausanias (vi. 5)Wesseling, On Diodorus Siculus xv. 75 murdered by his nephew Alexander —son of Jason, in 369 BC. Plutarch relates that Alexander worshipped the spear he slew his uncle with as if it were a god.Plutarch, Pelop. p. 293, &c. Alexander governed tyrannically, and according to Diodorus, differently from the former rulers, but Polyphron, at least, seems to have set him the example. The states of Thessaly, which had previously acknowledged the authority of Jason of Pherae, were not so willing to submit to Alexander the tyrant, (especially the old family of the Aleuadae of Larissa, who had most reason to fear him). Therefore, they applied for help from Alexander II of Macedon.
Alexander prepared to meet his enemy in Macedonia, but the king anticipated him, and, reaching Larissa, was admitted into the city. Alexander withdrew to Pherae whilst the Macedonian King placed a garrison in Larissa, as well as in Crannon, which had also come over to him. But once the bulk of the Macedonian army had retired, the states of Thessaly feared the return and vengeance of Alexander, and so sent for aid to Thebes, whose policy it was to put a check on any neighbour who might otherwise become too formidable. Thebes accordingly dispatched Pelopidas to the aid of Thessaly. On arrival of Pelopidas at Larissa, whence according to Diodorus, he dislodged the Macedonian garrison, Alexander presented himself and offered submission. When Pelopidas expressed indignation at the tales of Alexander's profligacy and cruelty, Alexander took alarm and fled.Diodorus Siculus, xv. 67Plutarch, Pelop. p. 291-297, d.
These events appear to refer to the early part of 368 BC. In the summer of that year Pelopidas was again sent into Thessaly, in consequence of fresh complaints against Alexander. Accompanied by Ismenias, he went merely as a negotiator, without any military force, and was seized by Alexander and thrown into prison.Diodorus Siculus, xv. 71-75Polybius, viii. 1 The scholar William Mitford suggested that Pelopidas was taken prisoner in battle, but the language of Demosthenes hardly supports such an inference.Demosthenes, Against Aristocrates p. 660William Mitford, History of Greece ch. 27. sec. 5 The Thebans sent a large army into Thessaly to rescue Pelopidas, but they could not keep the field against the superior cavalry of Alexander, who, aided by auxiliaries from Athens, pursued them with great slaughter. The destruction of the whole Theban army is said to only have been averted by the ability of Epaminondas, who was serving in the campaign, but not as general.
In 367 BC, Alexander carried out a massacre of the citizens of Scotussa.Pausanias, Description of Greece vi. 5 A fresh Theban expedition into Thessaly, under Epaminondas resulted, according to Plutarch, in a three-year truce and the release of prisoners, including Pelopidas. During the next three years, Alexander seemed to renew his attempts to subdue the states of Thessaly, especially Magnesia and Phthiotis, for upon the expiry of the truce, in 364 BC, they again applied to Thebes for protection from him. The Theban army under Pelopidas is said to have been dismayed by an eclipse on 13 July 364 BC, and Pelopidas, leaving the bulk of his army behind, entered Thessaly at the head of three hundred volunteer horsemen and some mercenaries. At Cynoscephalae, the Thebans defeated Alexander, but Pelopidas was killed.Diodorus Siculus, xv. 80 This was closely followed by another Theban victory under Malcites and Diogiton. Alexander was then forced to restore the conquered towns to the Thessalians, confine himself to Pherae, join the Boeotian League, and become a dependent ally of Thebes.
If the death of Epaminondas in 362 freed Athens from fear of Thebes, it appears at the same time to have exposed it to further aggression from Alexander, who made a piratical raid on Tinos and other cities of the Cyclades, plundering them, and making slaves of the inhabitants. He also besieged Peparethus, and "even landed troops in Attica itself, and seized the port of Panormus, a little eastward of Sounion." The Athenian admiral Leosthenes defeated Alexander and managed to relieve Peparethus, but Alexander escaped from being blockaded in Panormus, took several Attic triremes, and plundered the Piraeus.Diodorus Siculus, xv. 95Polyaenus, vi. 2Demosthenes, c. Polycl. pp. 1207-1208Connop Thirlwall, History of Greece vol. v. p. 209 |
Alexander of Pherae | Death | Death
The murder of Alexander is assigned by Diodorus to 357/356 BC. Plutarch gives a detailed account of it, with a lively picture of the palace. Guards watched throughout the night, except at Alexander's bedchamber, which was at the top of a ladder with a ferocious chained dog guarding the door. Thebe, Alexander's wife and cousin (or half-sister, as the daughter of Jason of Pherae), concealed her three brothers (Tisiphonus, Lycophron and Peitholaus) in the house during the day, had the dog removed when Alexander had gone to rest, and, having covered the steps of the ladder with wool, brought up the young men to her husband's chamber. Though she had taken away Alexander's sword, they feared to set about the deed until she threatened to wake him. Her brothers then entered and killed Alexander. His body was cast into the streets, and exposed to every indignity.
Of Thebe's motive for the murder different accounts are given. Plutarch states it to have been fear of her husband, together with hatred of Alexander's cruel and brutal character, and ascribes these feelings principally to the representations of Pelopidas, when she visited him in his prison. In Cicero the deed is ascribed to jealousy. Other accounts have it that Alexander had taken Thebe's youngest brother as his eromenos and tied him up. Exasperated by his wife's pleas to release the youth, he murdered the boy, which drove her to revenge.Diodorus Siculus, xvi. 14Xenophon, Hellenica vi. 4. ~ 37Cicero, De Officiis 2.25Cicero, De Inventione ii. 49Aristot. ap. Cicero de Div. i. 25; the dream of Eudemus |
Alexander of Pherae | Other | Other
It is written in Plutarch's Second Oration On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great (see Moralia), and in Claudius Aelianus' Varia Historia that Alexander left a tragedy in a theatre because he did not wish to weep at fiction when unmoved by his own cruelty.Augustine, trans. Henry Chadwick. Confessions. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991. Page 15. Print. This suggests that while Alexander was a tyrant, perhaps his iron heart could be softened. The actor was threatened with punishment because Alexander was so moved while watching.Aelianus Varia Historia xiv. 40. |
Alexander of Pherae | References | References |
Alexander of Pherae | Other sources | Other sources
Category:350s BC deaths
Category:4th-century BC Greek people
Category:Ancient Greek LGBTQ people
Category:Ancient Greek monarchs
Category:Ancient Greek murder victims
Category:People from Feres
Category:Thessalian kings
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:Year of death uncertain |
Alexander of Pherae | Table of Content | short description, Reign, Death, Other, References, Other sources |
Alexander II of Epirus | Short description | Alexander II (Greek: Άλέξανδρος) was a king of Epirus, and the son of Pyrrhus and Lanassa, the daughter of the Sicilian tyrant Agathocles. |
Alexander II of Epirus | Reign | Reign
He succeeded his father as king in 272 BC, and continued the war which his father had begun with Antigonus II Gonatas, whom he succeeded in driving from the kingdom of Macedon. He was, however, dispossessed of both Macedon and Epirus by Demetrius II of Macedon, the son of Antigonus II; upon which he took refuge amongst the Acarnanians. By their assistance and that of his own subjects, who entertained a great attachment for him, he recovered Epirus. It appears that he was in alliance with the Aetolians.
Alexander married his paternal half-sister Olympias, by whom he had two sons, Pyrrhus ΙΙ, Ptolemy ΙΙ and a daughter, Phthia. Beloch places the death of King Alexander II "about 255", and supports this date with an elaborate chain of reasoning. On the death of Alexander, Olympias assumed the regency on behalf of her sons, and married Phthia to Demetrius.Universal Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, by Joseph Thomas - 1908 - page 90 There are extant silver and copper coins of this king. The former bear a youthful head covered with the skin of an elephant's head. The reverse represents Pallas holding a spear in one hand and a shield in the other, and before her stands an eagle on a thunderbolt.Justin, xvii. 1, xxvi. 2, 3, xxviii. 1Polybius, ii. 45, ix. 34Plutarch, Pyrrhus 9
right|thumb|200px|Alexander II of Epirus on a cameo of agate |
Alexander II of Epirus | References | References |
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