Phonology.

Consonants.

Nauruan has 16–17 consonant phonemes. Nauruan makes phonemic contrasts between velarized and palatalized labial consonants. Velarization is not apparent before long back vowels and palatalization is not apparent before non-low front vowels.  Voiceless stops are geminated and nasals also contrast in length. Dental stops and become and respectively before high front vowels.  The approximants become fricatives in "emphatic pronunciation." transcribes them as and but also remarks that they contrast with the non-syllabic allophones of the high vowels.  Depending on stress, may be a flap or a trill. The precise phonetic nature of is unknown. transcribes it as and speculates that it may pattern like palatalized consonants and be partially devoiced.  Between a vowel and word-final, an epenthetical appears.

Vowels.

There are 12 phonemic vowels (six long, six short). In addition to the allophony in the following table from, a number of vowels reduce to :  Non-open vowels (that is, all but ) become non-syllabic when preceding another vowel, as in → ('hide').

Stress.

Stress is on the penultimate syllable when the final syllable ends in a vowel, on the last syllable when it ends in a consonant, and initial with reduplications.

Writing system.

In the Nauruan written language, 17 letters were originally used:  The letters c, f, h, l, s, v, x, y and z were not included. With the growing influence of foreign languages (most of all German, English and Kiribati and some minority of Malay) more letters were incorporated into the Nauruan alphabet. In addition, phonetic differences of a few vowels arose, so that umlauts and other similar-sounding sounds were indicated with a tilde.

Attempt at language reform of 1938.

In 1938 there was an attempt by the Nauruan language committee and Timothy Detudamo to make the language easier to read for Europeans and Americans. It was intended to introduce as many diacritical symbols as possible for the different vowel sounds to state the variety of the Nauruan language in writing. It was decided to introduce only a grave accent in the place of the former tilde, so that the umlauts "õ" and "ũ" were replaced by "ô" and "û". The "ã" was substituted with "e".  Also, "y" was introduced in order to differentiate words with the English "j" ("puji"). Thus, words like "ijeiji" were changed to "iyeyi". In addition, "ñ" (which represented the velar nasal) was replaced with "ng", to differentiate the Spanish Ñ, "bu" and "qu" were replaced with "bw" and "kw" respectively, "ts" was replaced with "j" (since it represented a pronunciation similar to English "j"), and the "w" written at the end of words was removed.  These reforms were only partly carried out: the umlauts "õ" and "ũ" are still written with tildes. However, the letters "ã" and "ñ" are now only seldom used, being replaced with "e" and "ng", as prescribed by the reform. Likewise, the writing of the double consonants "bw" and "kw" has been implemented. Although the "j" took the place of "ts", certain spellings still use "ts." For example, the districts Baiti and Ijuw (according to the reform "Beiji" and "Iyu") are still written with the old writing style. The "y" has largely become generally accepted.  Today the following 29 Latin letters are used.

Dialects.

According to a report published in 1937 in Sydney, there was a diversity of dialects until Nauru became a colony of Germany in 1888, and until the introduction of publication of the first texts written in Nauruan. The varieties were largely so different that people of various districts often had problems understanding each other completely. With the increasing influence of foreign languages and the increase of Nauruan texts, the dialects blended into a standardized language, which was promoted through dictionaries and translations by Alois Kayser and Philip Delaporte.  Today there is significantly less dialectal variation. In the district of Yaren and the surrounding area there is an eponymous dialect spoken, which is only slightly different.

Delaporte's Nauruan dictionary.

In 1907, Philip Delaporte published his pocket German-Nauruan dictionary. The dictionary is small (10.5 × 14 cm), with 65 pages devoted to the glossary and an additional dozen to phrases, arranged alphabetically by the German. Approximately 1650 German words are glossed in Nauruan, often by phrases or synonymous forms. There are some 1300 'unique' Nauruan forms in the glosses, including all those occurring in phrases, ignoring diacritical marks. The accents used there are not common; just one accent (the tilde) is in use today.

Sample text.

The following example of text is from the Bible (Genesis, 1.1–1.8):  "Ñaga ã eitsiõk õrig imim, Gott õrig ianweron me eb. Me eitsiõk erig imin ñana bain eat eb, me eko õañan, mi itũr emek animwet ijited, ma Anin Gott õmakamakur animwet ebõk. Me Gott ũge, Enim eaõ, me eaõen. Me Gott ãt iaõ bwo omo, me Gott õekae iaõ mi itũr. Me Gott eij eget iaõ bwa Aran, me E ij eget itũr bwa Anũbũmin. Ma antsiemerin ma antsioran ar eken ũrõr adamonit ibũm. Me Gott ũge, Enim tsinime firmament inimaget ebõk, me enim ekae ebõk atsin eat ebõk. Me Gott eririñ firmament, mõ õ ekae ebõk ñea ijõñin firmament atsin eat ebõk ñea itũgain firmament, mõ ũgan. Me Gott eij egen firmament bwe Ianweron. Ma antsiemerin ma antsioran ar eke ũrõr karabũmit ibũm."  It is notable that the Nauruan vocabulary contains a few German loanwords (e.g. "Gott", "God"; and "Firmament", "celestial sphere"), which is traced back to the strong influence of German missionaries.

The Nauruan or Nauru<ref name="ISO 639-2/RA"><ref name="ISO 639-3/RA"> language ("dorerin Naoero") is an Austronesian language, spoken natively by around 6,000 people in the island country of Nauru. Its relationship to the other Micronesian languages is not well understood.


Construction.

In contrast to a telephoto lens, for any given focal length a simple lens of non-telephoto design is constructed from one lens (which can, to minimize aberrations, consist of several elements to form an achromatic lens). To focus on an object at infinity, the distance from this single lens to focal plane of the camera (where the sensor or film is respectively) has to be adjusted to this focal length. For example, given a focal length of 500 mm, the distance between lens and focal plane is 500 mm. The farther the focal length is increased, the more the physical length of such a simple lens makes it unwieldy.  But such simple lenses are not telephoto lenses, no matter how extreme the focal length – they are known as "long-focus lenses". While the optical centre of a simple ("non-telephoto") lens is within the construction, the telephoto lens moves the optical centre in front of the construction. While the length of a long-focus lens approximates its focal length, a telephoto lens manages to be shorter than its focal length. E.g., a telephoto lens might have a focal length of 400 mm, while it is shorter than that.  A telephoto lens works by having the outermost (i.e. light gathering) element of a much shorter focal length than the equivalent long-focus lens and then incorporating a second set of elements close to the film or sensor plane that extend the cone of light so that it appears to have come from a lens of much greater focal length. The basic construction of a telephoto lens consists of front lens elements that, as a group, have a positive focus. The focal length of this group is shorter than the effective focal length of the lens. The converging rays from this group are intercepted by the rear lens group, sometimes called the "telephoto group," which has a negative focus. The simplest telephoto designs could consist of one element in each group, but in practice, more than one element is used in each group to correct for various aberrations. The combination of these two groups produces a lens assembly that is physically shorter than a long-focus lens producing the same image size.  This same property is achieved in camera lenses that combine mirrors with lenses. These designs, called catadioptric,'reflex', or'mirror' lenses,have a curved mirror as the primary objective with some form of negative lens in front of the mirror to correct optical aberrations. They also use a curved secondary mirror to relay the image that extends the light cone the same way the negative lens telephoto group does. The mirrors also fold the light path. This makes them much shorter, lighter, and cheaper than an all refractive lens, but at the cost of some optical compromises due to aberrations caused by the central obstruction from the secondary mirror.  The heaviest non-Catadioptric telephoto lens for civilian use was made by Carl Zeiss and has a focal length of 1700 mm with a maximum aperture of, implying a entrance pupil. It is designed for use with a medium format Hasselblad 203 FE camera and weighs.  The telephoto lens design has also been used for wide angles, at least once in the case of the Olympus XA where it permitted a 35mm focal length to fit in an extra compact camera body.

Retrofocus lenses.

Inverting the telephoto configuration, employing one or more negative lens groups in front of a positive lens group, creates a wide-angle lens with an increased back focal distance. These are called retrofocus lenses or inverted telephotos, which have greater clearance from the rear element to the film plane than their focal length would permit with a conventional wide-angle lens optical design. This allows for greater clearance for other optical or mechanical parts such as the mirror parts in a single-lens reflex camera. Zoom lenses that are telephotos at one extreme of the zoom range and retrofocus at the other are now common.

History.

The concept of the telephoto lens, in reflecting form, was first described by Johannes Kepler in his "Dioptrice" of 1611, and re-invented by Peter Barlow in 1834.  Histories of photography usually credit Thomas Rudolphus Dallmeyer with the invention of the photographic telephoto lens in 1891, though it was independently invented by others about the same time; some credit his father John Henry Dallmeyer in 1860.  In 1883 or 1884 New Zealand photographer Alexander McKay discovered he could create a much more manageable long-focus lens by combining a shorter focal length telescope objective lens with negative lenses and other optical parts from opera glasses to modify the light cone. Some of his photographs are preserved in the holdings of the Turnbull Library in Wellington, and two of these can be unequivocally dated as having been taken during May 1886. One of McKay’s photographs shows a warship anchored in Wellington harbour about two and a half kilometres away, with its rigging lines and gun ports clearly visible. The other, taken from the same point, is of a local hotel, the Shepherds Arms, about 100 metres distant from the camera. The masts of the ship are visible in the background. McKay's other photographic achievements include photo-micrographs, and a ‘shadow-less technique’ for photographing fossils.  McKay presented his work to the Wellington Philosophical Society (the precursor of the Royal Society of New Zealand) in 1890.

A telephoto lens, in photography and cinematography, is a specific type of a long-focus lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. This is achieved by incorporating a special lens group known as a "telephoto group" that extends the light path to create a long-focus lens in a much shorter overall design. The angle of view and other effects of long-focus lenses are the same for telephoto lenses of the same specified focal length. Long-focal-length lenses are often informally referred to as "telephoto lenses" although this is technically incorrect: a telephoto lens specifically incorporates the telephoto group.


History.

Early history.

Construction of the fortress began in 1077 under Archbishop Gebhard von Helfenstein. The original design was a basic bailey with a wooden wall. In the Holy Roman Empire, the archbishops of Salzburg were already powerful political figures and they expanded the fortress to protect their interests. Helfenstein's conflict with Emperor Henry IV during the Investiture Controversy influenced the expansion of the fortress, with the Archbishop taking the side of Pope Gregory VII and the German anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfelden. The fortress was gradually expanded during the following centuries. The ring walls and towers were built in 1462 under Prince-Archbishop Burkhard II von Weißpriach.  Prince-Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach further expanded the fortress during his term from 1495 until 1519. His coadjutor Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, who was later to succeed Leonhard, in 1515 wrote a description of the Reisszug, a very early and primitive funicular railway that provided freight access to the upper courtyard of the fortress. The line still exists, albeit in updated form, and is probably the oldest operational railway in the world. The current external bastions, begun in the 16th century and completed in the 17th, were added as a precaution because of fears of Turkish Invasion.  The only time that the fortress actually came under siege was during the German Peasants' War in 1525, when a group of miners, farmers and townspeople tried to oust Prince-Archbishop Matthäus Lang, but failed to take the fortress. In 1617 the deposed Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau died in the fortress prison. During the Thirty Years' War, Archbishop Count Paris of Lodron strengthened the town's defenses, including Hohensalzburg. He added various parts to the fortress, such as the gunpowder stores and additional gatehouses. The fortress was surrendered without a fight to French troops under General Jean Victor Marie Moreau during the Napoleonic War of the Second Coalition in 1800 and the last Prince-Archbishop Count Hieronymus von Colloredo fled to Vienna. In the 19th century, it was used as barracks, storage depot and dungeon before being abandoned as a military outpost in 1861.

Recent history.

Hohensalzburg Fortress was refurbished from the late 19th century onwards and became a major tourist attraction with the Festungsbahn funicular railway, opened in 1892, leading up from the town to the Hasengrabenbastei. It stands today as one of the best preserved castles in Europe.  During the early 20th century it was used as a prison, holding Italian prisoners of war during World War I and Nazi activists before Germany's annexation of Austria in March 1938.  German ceramicist, sculptor and painter Arno Lehmann lived and created in Hohensalzburg Fortress from 1949 until his death in 1973.  Hohensalzburg Fortress was selected as main motif for the Austrian Nonnberg Abbey commemorative coin minted on April 5, 2006. This was the first coin of the series "Great Abbeys of Austria". It shows the Benedictine convent of Nonnberg Abbey. In the hilltop on the background, the fortress and the Kajetaner church can be seen. Also in 1977 the Austrian Mint issued a coin for the 900th anniversary of Hohensalzburg Fortress.

Interior.

The fortress consists of various wings and courtyard. The Prince-Bishop's apartments are located in the so-called "Hoher Stock" (high floor).

Salzburg Bull.

The "Krautturm" houses a large aerophon of more than 200 pipes which is called the "Salzburg Bull" ("Salzburger Stier"). This huge mechanical organ was built in 1502 by Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach. It was renewed by Rochus Egedacher in 1735.  From Palm Sunday to 31 October the "Salzburg Bull" is played daily at 7, 11 and 18 o'clock. The aerophone thus initiated the playing of the carillon at the Residenzplatz and ended it again.  One of Austria's most famous cabaret groups is named after it.

Golden Hall.

Starting in 1498, Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach had the magnificent state apartments installed on the third floor. The rooms in which the archbishops would normally have lived were one floor below. The state apartments were primarily used for representative purposes and for festivities. The Golden Hall was richly decorated and indicates that the fortress served the archbishops not only as a refuge in times of crisis, but frequently also as a residence up to the 16th century.  In order to gain more space, Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach had four massive marble pillars constructed on the right-hand outer wall and had a loggia added on. As in the other rooms the ceiling is coffered, each coffer being adorned with gold buttons symbolising the stars in the sky.  The 17-metre-long beam, supporting the ceiling, is particularly worth mentioning. The coat of arms of Leonhard von Keutschach together with those of the Holy Roman Empire, the most powerful German towns and the bishoprics that were connected to Salzburg, are painted on it.

Chapel of Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach.

Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach (1495-1519) had the chapel built at a later time. One of the figure consoles in the beam ceiling had to be removed to make room for it. A richly ornamented star vault decorates the ceiling of the chapel. The inner part of the door at the entrance is covered with stucco. The painted frame shows red columns on a high plinth with grey capitals. The coat of arms of Salzburg and of Leonhard von Keutschach is reproduced in the tympanum beneath the mitre, legate cross and sword. A special feature of the coat of arms is the turnip and in many places in the fortress this can be found as an indication of prince-archbishop Keutschach's building activity. In the north wall of the chapel there are two openings which made it possible to attend the church service from the side room.

Golden Chamber.

The Golden Chamber is the most magnificently furnished room of the princely chambers. The two long walls are taken up by benches that are richly decorated with vines, grapes, foliage and animals. These benches used to be covered with cloth or leather, but the upholstery has not survived into the modern age. The walls also used to be covered in gold-embossed leather tapestry which adorned the lower part of the wall.

Bedchamber.

The bedchamber is the most intimate room of the princely chambers. The original furniture and precious textiles, such as tapestry, were in the course of time replaced by more "modern" ones. The elaborate wainscoting to keep out the cold still bears witness to the splendour of the past. The upper part of the panels is decorated with gilded buttons and rosettes, whereas the lower part, which is bare today, was probably covered with leather or velvet tapestry. The door conceals a toilet, which is basically a hole in the floor with a wooden frame. Back in the past this was a highly modern sanitary facility and was accessible from each floor.

Hohensalzburg Fortress () sits atop the Festungsberg, a small hill in the Austrian city of Salzburg. Erected at the behest of the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg with a length of and a width of, it is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. Hohensalzburg Fortress is situated at an altitude of 506 m.


Terminology.

In law, affinity relatives by marriage are known as affines.  More commonly, they are known as or family-in-law, with affinity being usually signified by adding to a degree of kinship. This is standard for the closest degrees of kinship, such as "father-in-law", "daughter-in-law", "brother/sister-in-law", etc., but is frequently omitted in the case of more extended relations. As "uncle" and "aunt" are frequently used to refer indifferently to friends of the family, the terms may be used without specifying whether the person is a cognate or affine. Similarly, the spouse of a cousin may not be called a relation at all or may be referenced as a "cousin by marriage".

Examples.

In South Africa, sexual relations are prohibited within the first degree of affinity, that is, where one person is the direct ancestor or descendant of the spouse of the other person.  Brazilian law, by the Article 1521 of the Civil Code, also extends the invalidity of marriage between parents and children to grandparents and grandchildren or any other sort of ascendant-descendant relationship (both consanguineous and adoptive), parents-in-law and children-in-law even after the divorce of the earlier couple, as well as to stepparents and stepchildren, and former husbands or wives to an adoptive parent who did this unilaterally (regarded as an equivalent, in families formed by adoption, to stepparents and stepchildren); and extends the invalidity of marriage between siblings to biological cousin-siblings.  In Hawaii, sexual penetration and marriage is prohibited within close degrees affinity and is punishable by up to 5 years.  In Michigan, sexual contact between persons related "by blood or affinity to the third degree" are chargeable as criminal sexual conduct in the 4th degree and punishable by a 2-year sentence or a fine of up to $500 or both.  In New Jersey, sexual contact is prohibited when the actor is "related to the victim by blood or affinity to the 3rd degree" and the victim is at least 16 but less than 18 years old.

In law and in cultural anthropology, affinity is the kinship relationship created or that exists between two people as a result of someone's marriage. It is the relationship which each party to a marriage has to the relations of the other partner to the marriage, but it does not cover the marital relationship itself. Laws, traditions and customs relating to affinity vary considerably, sometimes ceasing with the death of one of the marriage partners through whom affinity is traced, and sometimes with the divorce of the marriage partners. In addition to kinship by marriage, "affinity" can sometimes also include kinship by adoption or a step relationship.


Early life.

Born in Lwów in 1677, he was the son of Rafał Leszczyński, voivode of Poznań Voivodeship, and Princess Anna Katarzyna Jabłonowska. He married Katarzyna Opalińska, by whom he had a daughter, Maria, who became Queen of France as wife of Louis XV. In 1697, as Cup-bearer of Poland, he signed the confirmation of the articles of election of August II the Strong. In 1703 he joined the Lithuanian Confederation, which the Sapiehas with the aid of Sweden had formed against August.

King for first time.

The following year, Stanisław was selected by Charles XII of Sweden after a successful Swedish invasion of Poland, to supersede Augustus II, who was hostile towards the Swedes. Leszczyński was a young man of blameless antecedents, respectable talents, and came from an ancient family, but certainly without sufficient force of character or political influence to sustain himself on so unstable a throne.  Nevertheless, with the assistance of a bribing fund and an army corps, the Swedes succeeded in procuring his election by a scratch assembly of half a dozen castellans and a few score of gentlemen on 12 July 1704. A few months later, Stanisław was forced by a sudden inroad of Augustus II to seek refuge in the Swedish camp, but finally on 24 September 1705, he was crowned king with great splendor. Charles himself supplied his nominee with a new crown and scepter "in lieu" of the ancient Polish regalia, which had been carried off to Saxony by August. During this time the King of Sweden sent Peter Estenberg to King Stanislaw to act as an ambassador and correspondence secretary. The Polish king's first act was to cement an alliance with Charles XII whereby the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth engaged to assist Sweden against the Russian tsar. Stanisław did what he could to assist his patron. Thus, he induced Ivan Mazepa, the Cossack hetman, to desert Peter the Great at the most critical period of the Great Northern War between Russia and Sweden, and Stanisław placed a small army corps at the disposal of the Swedes and was beaten in Battle of Koniecpol. However, Stanisław depended so entirely on the success of Charles' arms that after the Battle of Poltava (1709), his authority vanished as a dream at the first touch of reality. Stanisław then resided in the town of Rydzyna.

First loss of throne.

The vast majority of Poles hastened to repudiate Stanisław and make their peace with August. Henceforth a mere pensioner of Charles XII, Stanisław accompanied Krassow's army corps in its retreat to Swedish Pomerania. On the restoration of Augustus, Stanisław resigned the Polish Crown (though he retained the royal title) in exchange for the little principality of Zweibrücken. In 1716, an assassination was attempted by a Saxon officer, Lacroix, but Stanisław was saved by Stanisław Poniatowski, father of the future king. Forced to leave Zweibrücken in 1719 after the death of Charles XII in whose name he was Count Palatine, Stanisław Leszczyński then resided at Wissembourg in Alsace. In 1725, he had the satisfaction of seeing his daughter Maria become queen consort of Louis XV of France. From 1725 to 1733, Stanisław lived at the Château de Chambord.

King for second time.

Stanislaw's son-in-law Louis XV supported his claims to the Polish throne after the death of August II the Strong in 1733, which led to the War of the Polish Succession. In September 1733, Stanisław himself arrived at Warsaw, having traveled night and day through central Europe disguised as a coachman. On the following day, despite many protests, Stanisław was duly elected King of Poland for the second time. However, Russia was opposed to any nominee of France and Sweden. Russia protested against his election at once, in favor of the new Elector of Saxony, as being the candidate of her Austrian ally.  On 30 June 1734, a Russian army of 20,000 under Peter Lacy, after proclaiming August III the Saxon at Warsaw, proceeded to besiege Stanisław at Danzig, where he was entrenched with his partisans (including the Primate and the French and Swedish ministers) to await the relief that had been promised by France.  The siege began in October 1734. On 17 March 1735, Marshal Münnich superseded Peter Lacy, and on 20 May 1735 the long-expected French fleet appeared and disembarked 2,400 men on Westerplatte. A week later, this little army gallantly attempted to force the Russian entrenchments, but was finally compelled to surrender. This was the first time that France and Russia had met as foes in the field. On 30 June 1735, Danzig capitulated unconditionally, after sustaining a siege of 135 days which cost the Russians 8,000 men.  Disguised as a peasant, Stanisław had contrived to escape two days before. He reappeared at Königsberg (where he briefly met the future King Frederick the Great of Prussia), whence he issued a manifesto to his partisans which resulted in the formation of a confederation on his behalf, and the despatch of a Polish envoy to Paris to urge France to invade Saxony with at least 40,000 men. In Ukraine too, Count Nicholas Potocki kept on foot to support Stanisław a motley host of 50,000 men, which was ultimately scattered by the Russians.

Duke of Lorraine.

On 26 January 1736, Stanisław again abdicated the throne but received in compensation the Duchy of Lorraine and of Bar, which was to revert to France on his death. In 1738, he sold his estates of Rydzyna and Leszno to Count (later Prince) Alexander Joseph Sułkowski. He settled at Lunéville, founded there in 1750 both the Académie de Stanislas and Bibliothèque municipale de Nancy, and devoted himself for the rest of his life to science and philanthropy, engaging most notably in controversy with Rousseau. He also published "Głos wolny wolność ubezpieczający", one of the most important political treatises of the Polish Enlightenment.

Death.

Stanisław was still alive when his great-great-granddaughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, was born in 1762. In his last years, his close friend, the Hungarian-born Marshal of France Ladislas Ignace de Bercheny lived on his estate to provide company.  Leszczyński died in 1766, aged 88 as a result of serious burns – his silk attire caught fire from a spark while the King was snoozing near the fireplace in his palace in Lunéville. He was medically treated for several days but died of wounds on 23 February. He was the longest living Polish king.  Originally buried in the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours, Nancy, following the French Revolution his remains were brought back to Poland and buried in the royal tomb of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.  His wife also suffered many miscarriages.

Play and opera.

Loosely based on an incident of King Stanisław's life are the play "Le faux Stanislas" written by the Frenchman Alexandre Vincent Pineu-Duval in 1808, transformed into the opera "Un giorno di regno, ossia Il finto Stanislao" ("A One-Day Reign, or The Pretend Stanislaus", but often translated into English as "King for a Day") by Giuseppe Verdi, to an Italian libretto written in 1818 by Felice Romani.

Stanisław I Leszczyński (; ; ; 20 October 1677 – 23 February 1766), also Anglicized and Latinized as Stanislaus I, was King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Duke of Lorraine and a count of the Holy Roman Empire.


History.

The area where Alcúdia is located has been inhabited since the Bronze Age, but it is with the arrival of the Romans that the city makes its entry in the history books. The Romans used the beaches of Alcúdia bay when they captured the island in 123 B.C. Shortly after this the capital Palma was founded and then the city of Pollentia. From Pollentia it was possible to view both the bay of Pollenca and the bay of Alcúdia. Pollentia served as a guard for other invaders. The city was also mentioned in Rome since they here produced excellent fabrics that were used in the most exclusive togas.  After Rome lost its position as the dominant power in the western Mediterranean, Pollentia was attacked by pirates and several times by the Vandals. Finally, the city was abandoned, and the remaining population left to create a new town at a more protected location. This town became Pollenca and the area where Pollentia stood was left to ruins.  After the invasion of the Moors, a farmstead was created very close to where the ancient village of Pollentia had been. The farm was called Alcúdia, which is Arabic for "on the hill". In 1229, the Moors were defeated by King James I of Aragon, who overtook the power of the area. In 1298, King James II of Aragon bought the farmstead Alcúdia and founded the new town. A church, a graveyard, a house for priests, and a square were created in the same year. The construction of the walls was also initiated at the same time and finished in 1362. The city plan that was made at the time remains the same for Alcúdia today. During the Renaissance, walls were reconstructed, and a second wall was constructed outside the first one. This wall has since been torn down and only details show where it once was.  During the 16th century pirates attacked the city several times. The population shrank, and there was from time to time a risk that the city would be abandoned totally. In 1779 a decision was taken to support the city by constructing a harbour. This really improved the economy of Alcúdia and the village was saved. But it remained a rather small and poor village.

Alcúdia today.

In the 1920s the first tourists began to visit Mallorca and also Alcúdia. This was in a very limited scale and the economy of the village stayed weak. In the early '70s it started to be clear that the future of Alcúdia would be in tourism. 15 years later the old harbour of Puerto de Alcúdia had developed into a major resort for European tourism. In the '90s the construction boom calmed down and several regulations were put in place to secure the quality of the resort. The focus is on visitors searching for both relaxation and activity. A golf course has been constructed and both bicycle and hiking trips are commonplace. The old town has been preserved and pedestrianised. It has now become one of the most visited villages in Majorca.

Main sights.

The old town has a 14th-century wall and it is possible to step up on the wall and follow it almost all around the village. There are remains of a Roman town just outside the medieval town walls, in front of the Church of St. Jaume, belonging to the ancient city of Pollentia (see also the Italian Pollentia). There is also a small Roman theatre. North of the town is a bull ring from the 19th century.  The old town also hosts a market both on Sundays and Tuesdays all year round. Inside the walls there are several popular restaurants and bistros famous for good home-cooked food in small settings. In Port d'Alcúdia most of the restaurants are located around the marina. Most of these restaurants are only open in the tourist season. Further north and west are some coves and beaches ideal for sunbathing, swimming or snorkeling. The beach at Alcúdia is c. 14 km long and stretches as far as C'an Picafort. Alcúdia joins onto Playa de Muro which is home to S'Albufera; a natural park that is very popular with birders.  Alcúdia celebrates the festival of St. Jaume every summer. It goes on for nine days at the beginning of July. Before the festival starts the town is decorated and each street picks out a theme for that year's look. During the festival several traditional evening festivities are arranged in the old town such as the Night of the Romans where the streets are full of locals dressed in traditional ancient Roman dresses. There are also outdoor theatres, sport tournaments, exhibitions and the traditional bullfight. The fiesta is finished with La Noche de Sant Jaume, a fireworks display and philharmonic concert by the old walls.  Alcúdia hosts also many other fairs and festivals throughout the year. During the summer, there are plenty of al fresco events, with dramatised tours of the old town, and theatre productions in the old Roman amphitheatre. The Alcúdia Jazz Festival starts at the end of August and runs for a month. International sporting events are held down the road at the port, with an Ironman Triathlon twice a year, beach volleyball and beach rugby... There is an agricultural fair in the Autumn at the beginning of October and a nautical fair in April, which features the cuttlefish.  Taking place every three years is the Triennial of Sant Crist, a religious procession where the population slowly walks barefoot through the town in silence, for several hours. The origin of this procession dates back to 1507. According to tradition, the image of Sant Crist sweated blood and water, thus putting an end to a drought. Alcúdia is home to UD Alcúdia who plays at Els Arcs, which has a capacity of 1,750.  Alcúdia is home to one of Europe's largest hotel complexes, Bellevue. With 8 swimming pools and 17 apartment blocks the complex is set in 150,000 square meters of gardens.

External links.

Alcúdia tourist guide Things to see in Alcúdia

Alcúdia () is a municipality and township of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It is the main tourist centre in the North of Majorca on the eastern coast. It is a large resort popular with families. Most of the hotels are located in Port d'Alcúdia and Platja d'Alcúdia along the 14 km long beach that stretches all the way to Can Picafort. In Alcúdia the old town is well preserved with houses dating back to the 13th century. The old town is surrounded by a medieval wall.


Taxonomy.

The scientific name "Felis bieti" was proposed by Alphonse Milne-Edwards in 1892 who described the Chinese mountain cat based on a skin collected in Sichuan Province. He named it "Felis Bieti" after the French missionary Félix Biet.  Some authorities consider the "chutuchta" and "vellerosa" subspecies of the wildcat as Chinese mountain cat subspecies.

Characteristics.

The Chinese mountain cat has sand-coloured fur with dark guard hairs. Faint dark horizontal stripes on the face and legs are hardly visible. Its ears have black tips. It has a relatively broad skull, and long hair growing between the pads of their feet. It is whitish on the belly, and its legs and tail bear black rings. The tip of the tail is black. It is long in head and body with a long tail. Adults weigh from.

Distribution and habitat.

The Chinese mountain cat is endemic to China and lives on the north-eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. It was recorded only in eastern Qinghai and north-western Sichuan. It inhabits high-elevation steppe grassland, alpine meadow, alpine shrubland and coniferous forest edges between elevation. It has not been confirmed in true desert or heavily forested mountains.  The first photographs of a wild Chinese mountain cat were taken by camera traps during light snow in May 2007 at elevation in Sichuan. These photographs were taken in rolling grasslands and brush-covered mountains. One individual was observed and photographed in May 2015 in the Ruoergai grasslands. Between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, Chinese mountain cats were documented in an alpine meadow in the southeastern Sanjiangyuan region.

Ecology and behaviour.

The Chinese mountain cat is active at night and preys on pikas, rodents and birds. It breeds between January and March. Females give birth to two to four kittens in a secluded burrow.  Until 2007, the Chinese mountain cat was known only from six individuals, all living in Chinese zoos, and a few skins in museums.

Threats.

The Chinese mountain cat is threatened due to the organised poisoning of pikas. The poison used diminishes prey species and also kills cats unintentionally.

Conservation.

"Felis bieti" is listed on CITES Appendix II. It is protected in China.

The Chinese mountain cat ("Felis bieti"), also known as Chinese desert cat and Chinese steppe cat, is a wild cat endemic to western China that has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2002, as the effective population size may be fewer than 10,000 mature breeding individuals.


Canonical status.

According to canon law, the FSSP is a "Clerical Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right". It is not, therefore, an Institute of Consecrated Life and members take no religious vows, but are instead bound by the same general laws of celibacy and obedience as diocesan clergy and, in addition, swear an oath as members of the society. The fraternity's pontifical-right status means that it has been established by the Pope and is answerable only to him in terms of its operation (through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; prior to January 17, 2019, through the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei"), rather than to local bishops. A local bishop still governs the fraternity's work within his respective diocese. In this sense its organization and administrative reporting status are similar to those of religious orders of pontifical right (for example, the Jesuits or Dominicans).

Mission and charism.

The FSSP consists of priests and seminarians who intend to pursue the goal of Christian perfection according to a specific charism, which is to offer the Mass and other sacraments according to the Roman Rite as it existed before the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council. Thus, the fraternity uses the Roman Missal, the Roman Breviary, the Pontifical ("Pontificale Romanum"), and the Roman Ritual in use in 1962, the last editions before the revisions that followed the Council.  The 2007 "motu proprio" "Summorum Pontificum" has authorized use of the 1962 Roman Missal by all Latin Rite priests as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite without limit when celebrating Mass "without a congregation". Its use for Mass with a congregation is allowed with the permission of the priest in charge of a church for stable groups attached to this earlier form of the Roman Rite, provided that the priest using it is "qualified to do so and not juridically impeded" (as for instance by suspension).  Following from its charism, the fraternity's mission is twofold: to sanctify each priest through the exercise of his priestly function, and to deploy these priests to parishes. As such, they are to celebrate the sacraments, catechise, preach retreats, organize pilgrimages, and generally provide a full sacramental and cultural life for lay Catholics who are likewise drawn to the rituals of the 1962 missal. In order to help complete its mission, the fraternity has built its own seminaries with the goal of forming men to serve the fraternity.

Founding.

The FSSP was established on July 18, 1988, at the Abbey of Hauterive, Switzerland, by twelve priests and twenty seminarians, led by Josef Bisig, all of whom had formerly belonged to Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's Society of Saint Pius X; they were unwilling to follow that movement into what the Congregation for Bishops and Pope John Paul II declared to be a schismatic act and grounds for excommunication "latae sententiae" due to the consecration of four bishops without a papal mandate. Josef Bisig became the fraternity's first superior general.

Organization.

, the fraternity included 482 members: 320 priests, 17 deacons, and 145 non-deacon seminarians in 142 dioceses spread among Australia, Austria, Benin, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Switzerland, and the United States. The fraternity's membership represents 35 nationalities, and the average age of its members is 38. The lay Confraternity of Saint Peter enrolls 6 996 members who spiritually support the fraternity's charism.

Superiors General.

The FSSP's current superior general is Andrzej Komorowski.

Districts and regions.

The fraternity is divided into three districts and one region:

Educational institutions.

The fraternity has two seminaries:  Ezekiel House, a house of formation for first-year seminarians, exists in the city of Sydney, Australia. The Director of Ezechiel House is Duncan Wong.  In 2015, the fraternity established in Guadalajara, Mexico, Casa Cristo Rey, an apostolate which it plans to develop into a house of formation for first-year seminarians for native Spanish-speaking postulants. Presently, Casa Cristo Rey serves as a priestly discernment program for young men from Spain and Latin America. In 2016 Casa Cristo Rey opened the Junipero Serra Spanish Institute, a program offering 6 or 8 weeks of Spanish immersion for priests and seminarians.  Until 2012, the fraternity also operated an American boarding school: St. Gregory's Academy in Elmhurst, Pennsylvania.

The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (; FSSP) is a traditionalist Catholic society of apostolic life for priests and seminarians which is in communion with the Holy See.


Early life and career.

World War I.

Born in 1881 into an aristocratic family, Maximilian von Weichs entered the Bavarian Cavalry in 1900 and participated in World War I as a staff officer. After the war he remained in the newly created Reichswehr where he worked at a number of General Staff positions.

Inter-war years.

Transferred from the 3rd Cavalry Division to command Germany's 1st Panzer Division upon its formation in October 1935, he led the unit in maneuvers that impressed Army Commander in Chief Werner von Fritsch. Weichs' aristocratic and cavalry credentials demonstrated the continuing influence of these military elites in Germany's modernizing force. In October 1937 he became the commander of the 13th Army Corps, that later served in the 1938 German annexation of the Sudetenland.

World War II.

For the German invasion of Poland beginning World War II in 1939, Weichs was appointed head of his own Army Corps "Weichs". After the Polish surrender, he was made Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Army, a part of Rundstedt's Army Group A in the West. After the Battle of France, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and promoted to colonel-general. Leading his army, Weichs later took part in the Balkans Campaign, and in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, he was assigned to lead the 2nd Army as a part of Fedor von Bock’s Army Group Centre. He led the 2nd Army in 1941 through the Battle of Kiev, the Battle of Smolensk, and then on to Vyazma and Bryansk.  In 1942, for Fall Blau, Weichs was assigned to lead the newly created Army Group B. Army Group B was composed of Salmuth's 2nd Army, Hoth’s 4th Panzer Army, and Paulus's 6th Army. In addition to the German armies, Army Group B included the 2nd Hungarian Army, 8th Italian Army, the Third and the Fourth Romanian Armies. The 6th Army was assigned to take the city of Stalingrad and cover approximately 800 km of front.  The Soviet Operation Uranus broke through the Romanian armies on his flanks, cutting off the 6th Army inside Stalingrad. Suggesting retreat, Weichs fell out of Hitler’s favor. Consequently, parts of Army Group B were taken away from the command of Weichs and incorporated into a new "Army Group Don", led by Manstein. Later in February, the remaining part merged with the Don Group into a newly reinstated Army Group South, also led by Manstein. Weichs was relieved of command.  Weichs was promoted to Field Marshal on 1 February 1943. In August 1943 Weichs was appointed Commander of Army Group F in the Balkans directing operations against local partisan groups. Since August 1943 Weichs was also OB Südost, commander-in-chief of the German occupied Greece and the Balkans (Yugoslavia, Albania and Thrace) whose headquarters were first in Belgrade and since 5 October 1944 in Vukovar. In April 1944 Weichs was appointed to the position of commander of all German troops stationed in Hungary. In late 1944, he oversaw the German retreat from Greece and most of Yugoslavia.  Weichs was retired on 25 March 1945 and was arrested by American troops in May. During the Nuremberg Trials, Weichs was said to be implicated in war crimes committed while suppressing the partisans. He was removed from the US Army's Hostages Trial for medical reasons without having been judged or sentenced.

References.

Citations Bibliography

Maximilian Maria Joseph Karl Gabriel Lamoral Reichsfreiherr von und zu Weichs an der Glon (12 November 1881 – 27 September 1954) was a field marshal in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II.


History.

The Yakuts, also known as the Sakha people, migrated to the area during the 13th and 14th centuries from other parts of Siberia. When they arrived they mixed with other indigenous Siberians in the area. The Russian settlement of Yakutsk was founded in 1632 as an "ostrog" (fortress) by Pyotr Beketov. In 1639, it became the center of a "voyevodstvo". The Voivode of Yakutsk soon became the most important Russian official in the region and directed expansion to the east and south.

Climate.

With an extremely continental subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification: "Dfd"), Yakutsk has the coldest winter temperatures for any major city on Earth. Average monthly temperatures in Yakutsk range from in July to in January. Yakutsk is the largest city built on continuous permafrost, and many houses there are built on concrete piles.  The lowest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast of Yakutsk, making it the coldest major city in the world. Although winters are extremely cold and long – Yakutsk has never recorded a temperature above freezing between 10 November and 14 March inclusive – summers are warm (though rather short), with daily maximum temperatures occasionally exceeding, making the seasonal temperature differences for the region the greatest in the world at. The lowest temperature recorded in Yakutsk was on 5 February 1891 and the highest temperatures on 17 July 2011 and on 15 July 1942. The hottest month in records going back to 1834 has been July 1894, with a mean of, and the coldest, January 1900, which averaged.  Yakutsk has a distinct inland location, being almost from the Pacific Ocean, which coupled with the high latitude means exposure to severe winters and also lack of temperature moderation. July temperatures soar to an above-normal average for this parallel, with the average being several degrees hotter than such more southerly Far East cities as Vladivostok or Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The July daytime temperatures are even hotter than some marine subtropical areas. The warm summers ensure that Yakutsk, despite its freezing winters, is far south of the tree line.  The climate is quite dry, with most of the annual precipitation occurring in the warmest months, due to the intense Siberian High forming around the very cold continental air during the winter. However, summer precipitation is not heavy since the moist southeasterly winds from the Pacific Ocean lose their moisture over the coastal mountains well before reaching the Lena valley.  With the Lena River navigable in the summer, there are various boat cruises offered, including upriver to the Lena Pillars, and downriver tours which visit spectacular scenery in the lower reaches and the Lena Delta.

Economy.

Yakutia Airlines has its head office in the city.

Culture.

There are several theaters in Yakutsk: the State Russian Drama Theater, named after A. S. Pushkin; the Sakha Theater, named after P. A. Oiyunsky; the Suorun Omoloon Young Spectator's Theater; and the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, named after D. K. Sivtsev.  There are a number of museums as well: the National Fine Arts Museum of Sakha; the Museum of Local Lore and History, named after E. Yaroslavsky; and the only museums in the world dedicated to the khomus and permafrost.  The annual Ysyakh summer festival takes place the last weekend in June. The traditional Yakut summer solstice festivities include a celebration of the revival and renewal of the nature, fertility and beginning of a new year. It is accompanied by national Yakut rituals and ceremonies, folk dancing, horse racing, Yakut ethnic music and singing, national cuisine, and competitions in traditional Yakut sports.  There is a local punk scene in Yakutsk, with many bands. Shows can bring up to 300 people, young but also older too.

Administrative and municipal status.

Yakutsk is the capital of the Sakha Republic. As an inhabited locality, Yakutsk is classified as a city under republic jurisdiction. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with the settlement of Zhatay and eleven rural localities, incorporated as the city of republic significance of Yakutsk—an administrative unit with a status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, Yakutsk and the eleven rural localities are incorporated as Yakutsk Urban Okrug. The settlement of Zhatay is not a part of Yakutsk Urban Okrug and is independently incorporated as Zhatay Urban Okrug.

Transportation.

Yakutsk is a destination of the Lena Highway. The city's connection to that highway is only usable by ferry in the summer, or in the dead of winter, by driving directly over the frozen Lena River, since Yakutsk lies entirely on its western bank, and there is no bridge anywhere in the Sakha Republic that crosses the Lena. The river is impassable for long periods of the year when it contains loose ice, when the ice cover is not thick enough to support traffic, or when the water level is too high and the river is turbulent with spring flooding. The highway ends on the eastern bank of Lena in Nizhny Bestyakh (Нижний Бестях), an urban-type settlement of some four thousand people. Yakutsk is connected with Magadan by the Kolyma Highway.  A highway bridge over the Lena in the Okrug had been scheduled to be built by the year 2020. However, as of 2018, no decision to actually build the bridge has been taken. The bridge had originally been planned to be a dual-use railroad and highway bridge so the Amur Yakutsk Mainline, the North–South railroad being extended from the south, could connect the city with the East–West Baikal Amur Mainline. The railroad reached the settlement of Nizhny Bestyakh, on the opposite bank of the Lena from Yakutsk, in November 2011.  The new river bridge would be over long and would be constructed upriver at Tabaga, where the river narrows and does not create a wide flooded area in spring. In the dead of winter, the frozen Lena River makes for a passable highway for ice truckers using its channel to deliver provisions to far-flung outposts. Yakutsk is also connected to other parts of Russia by Yakutsk Airport.  Construction of a road bridge over the River Lena to Yakutsk was approved by president Vladimir Putin on 9 November 2019. Cost of the bridge and its of approaches was estimated at 63.7 billion Rubles (83 billion rubles including VAT [НДС]), of which a grant of 54.2 billion Rubles was to be provided, with the remainder to be sourced from investors. The bridge was to be toll-free for cars, with a toll for trucks.  The 2019 completion of a new rail line to the eastern bank of the Lena permitted the start of passenger rail services between Yakutsk and the rest of Russia.

Education and research.

M.K.Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University is situated in the city. There is also a branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which contains, among other things, the "Institute of Cosmophysical Research", which runs the Yakutsk Extensive Air Shower installation (one of the largest cosmic-ray detector arrays in the world), and the Melnikov Permafrost Institute, developed with the aim of solving the serious and costly problems associated with construction of buildings on frozen soil.  At the primary and secondary levels, the city has a number of UNESCO Associated Schools, including the Sakha-Turkish College, Sakha-French School, Sakha-Korean School, and School #16.

Twin towns and sister cities.

Yakutsk is twinned with:

Yakutsk (;, "Cokuuskay", ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle.


History.

UNECE was formed in 1947, and their first major act to improve transport was a joint UN declaration no. 1264, the Declaration on the Construction of Main International Traffic Arteries, signed in Geneva on September 16, 1950, which defined the first E-road network. Originally it was envisaged that the E-road network would be a motorway system comparable to the US Interstate Highway System. The declaration was amended several times before November 15, 1975, when it was replaced by the European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries or "AGR", which set up a route numbering system and improved standards for roads in the list. The AGR last went through a major change in 1992 and in 2001 was extended into Central Asia to include the Caucasus nations. There were several minor revisions since, last in 2008 ().  These were the historical roads before 1975:

Numbering system.

The route numbering system is as follows:

Exceptions.

In the first established and approved version, the road numbers were well ordered. Since then a number of exceptions to this principle have been allowed.  Two Class-A roads, E6 and E4 were originally scheduled to be renamed into E47 and E55, respectively. However, since Sweden and Norway have integrated the E-roads into their national networks, signposted as E6 and E4 throughout, a decision was made to officially keep the pre-1992 numbers for the roads in those two countries. These exceptions were granted because of the excessive expense connected with re-signing not only the long routes themselves, but also the associated road network in the area. The new numbers are, however, used from Denmark and southward, though, as do other European routes within Scandinavia. These two roads are the most conspicuous exceptions to the rule that even numbers signify west-to-east E-roads.  Further exceptions are E67, going from Finland to Czech Republic (wrong side of E75 and E77), assigned around year 2000, simply because it was best available number for this new route, most of E63 in Finland (wrong side of E75) E8 in Finland (partly on the wrong side of E12 after a lengthening around 2002) and E82 (Spain and Portugal, wrong side of E80). These irregularities exist just because it is hard to maintain good order when extending the network, and the UNECE does not want to change road numbers unnecessarily.  Because the Socialist People's Republic of Albania refused to participate in international treaties such as the AGR, it was conspicuously excluded from the route scheme, with E65 and E90 making noticeable detours to go around it. In the 1990s, Albania opened up to the rest of Europe, but only ratified the AGR in August 2006, so its integration into the E-road network remains weak.

Signage.

Where the European routes are signed, green signs with white numbers are used. There are different strategies for determining how frequently to signpost the roads.

Road design standards.

The following design standards should be applied to Euroroutes unless there are exceptional circumstances (such as mountain passes etc.):  These requirements are meant to be followed for road construction. When new E-roads have been added these requirements have not been followed stringently. For example, the E45 in Sweden, added in 2006, has long parts with width or the E22 in eastern Europe forcing drivers to slow down to by taking the route through villages. In Norway, parts of the E10 are wide and in Central Asia some gravel roads have even been included.

Cultural significance.

In Belgium, for example, motorway E-numbers have taken on the same kind of persistent cultural integration and significance as M-numbers in the UK, or Interstate numbers in the United States. Local businesses will refer to, or even incorporate the road designator in their business name. The annual road cycling race "E3 Harelbeke" takes part of its name from the former E3 (the part between Antwerp and Lille was renamed E17 in 1992). The same applies to the retail chain "E5-mode" (E5-fashion) that started with shops easily accessible from the former E5 (renamed E40 in 1992).

List of roads.

Notes to the listings.

In the road listings below, a dash ('–') indicates a land road connection between two towns/cities—the normal case—while an ellipsis ('...') denotes a stretch across water. There aren't ferry connections at all of these places and operating ferry connections are usually run by private companies without support from the respective governments, i.e. may cease operating at any time.

The international E-road network is a numbering system for roads in Europe developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The network is numbered from E1 up and its roads cross national borders. It also reaches Central Asian countries like Kyrgyzstan, since they are members of the UNECE.


History.

German settlers were called into this region by Bohemian rulers from the Přemyslid dynasty in the 12th Century. Although the town itself is only about two hundred years old, the locality has been inhabited much longer. The first written record dates back to 1273, when there was a village of Úšovice. The springs first appear in a document dating from 1341 where they are called "the Auschowitzer springs" belonging to the Teplá Abbey. It was only through the efforts of Dr Josef Nehr, the abbey's physician, who from 1779 until his death in 1820 worked hard to demonstrate the curative properties of the springs, that the waters began to be used for medicinal purposes. The place obtained its current name of Marienbad in 1808; became a watering-place in 1818, and received its charter as a town in 1868.  By the early 20th century, approximately 1,000,000 bottles of mineral water were exported annually from Marienbad. The water from the Cross Spring ("Kreuzquelle", "Křížový pramen") was evaporated and the final product was sold as a laxative under the name of "sal teplensis". The modern spa town was founded by the Teplá abbots, namely Karl Kaspar Reitenberger, who also bought some of the surrounding forests to protect them. Under the guidance of gardener Václav Skalník, architect Jiří Fischer, and builder Anton Turner the inhospitable marshland valley was changed into a park-like countryside with colonnades, neoclassical buildings and pavilions around the springs.  The name Marienbad first appeared in 1786; since 1865 it has been a town. Then came a second period of growth, the town's Golden Era. Between 1870 and 1914 many new hotels, colonnades and other buildings, designed by Friedrich Zickler, Josef Schaffer, and Arnold Heymann, were constructed or rebuilt from older houses. In 1872 the town got a railway connection with the town of Cheb (Eger) and thus with the whole Austro-Hungarian Empire and the rest of Europe.  The town soon became one of the top European spas, popular with notable figures and rulers who often returned there. Among them were such names as Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Frédéric Chopin, Thomas Edison, Richard Wagner or Prince Friedrich of Saxony, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, the Russian Czar Nicholas II, and Emperor Franz Joseph I and many others. At those times, about 20,000 visitors came every year.  Marienbad remained a popular destination between World War I and World War II. After World War II, the ethnic German population of the town was forcibly expelled according to the Potsdam agreement, thereby emptying the town of the majority of its population. After the communist coup-d'état in 1948; it got sealed off from most of its foreign visitors. After the return of democracy in 1989 much effort was put into restoring the town into its original character. Today it is not only a spa town but also a popular holiday resort thanks to its location among the green mountains of the Slavkovský les and the Český les, sport facilities (the town's first golf course was opened in 1905 by the British King Edward VII) and the proximity to other famous spa towns, such as Karlovy Vary ("Carlsbad") or Františkovy Lázně ("Franzensbad").

Population.

Until their expulsion in 1945 the majority of the population of the city spoke German (see Sudetenland). Nowadays, however, most of the inhabitants are Czechs.

Main sights.

Mineral springs and colonnades.

The top attraction of the town is its 100 mineral springs (53 of them are tapped) with high carbon dioxide content and often also higher iron content, both in the town itself and its surroundings. Most of them are well-kept and often pavilions and/or colonnades are built around them. The most notable ones are:

Churches.

Because of the diverse number of visitors the town is able to maintain churches of several denominations. These include the Anglican Church designed by the notable Victorian architect William Burges and founded by Lady Anna Scott in memory of her husband who died in Mariánské Lázně in 1867. The church was constructed in 1879, shortly before Burges's own death. It is no longer in use as a place of worship and is now a concert hall.

Public transport.

The town's public transport is operated mainly by trolleybuses and accompanied by buses servicing the neighbouring villages. There are currently 4 trolleybus lines and 4 bus lines in operation (2016).  The trolleybus system in Mariánské Lázně has been disputed several times since late 1990s by the town's council, claiming high network maintenance costs. Although this is true the current town's representation is looking for ways to keep the system running and asking for state and EU funds to preserve the system. The fact trolleybuses are emission-less makes them more suitable for a spa town than regular polluting buses - or even battery powered buses which are inadequate for a small system with minimal backups due to their low reliability. In addition Mariánské Lázně is one of the smallest towns in the world to operate a trolleybus system and may be viewed as one of the local tourist attractions, rising the value of the town.

Sport.

Mariánské Lázně has a very famous motorcycle racing circuit. The venue, a Speedway Longtrack, has hosted six Long Track World Champion finals and five rounds of Grand-Prix racing.  A number of notable people visited Mariánské Lázně, among them:

Twin towns – sister cities.

Mariánské Lázně is twinned with:

Mariánské Lázně (; ) is a spa town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. The town, surrounded by green mountains, is a mosaic of parks and noble houses. Most of its buildings come from the town's Golden Era in the second half of the 19th century, when many celebrities and top European rulers came to enjoy the curative carbon dioxide springs.


History.

The earliest historical reference to the Bohemian fortress of "Sacz" is in the Latin chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg of 1004, when King Henry II of Germany reconquered it from the Polish duke Bolesław I Chrobry. During the 11th century it belonged to the Vršovci - a powerful Czech aristocratic family. It received the privileges of a royal town under King Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1265. A coat-of-arms was given to the citizens by King Vladislav II for their courage during the storming of Milan.  From the outbreak of the Hussite Wars in 1419 to the Thirty Years' War, the town was Hussite or Protestant, but after the Battle of White Mountain (1620) the greater part of the Czech inhabitants left the town, which remained German and Roman Catholic until 1945, when the German speaking inhabitants were forced to leave their home and expelled to Germany. On June 3, 1945 about 5,000 German inhabitants were gathered on the Market place and marched to Postoloprty, where at least 763 were murdered in the Postoloprty massacre, estimates range up to 2,000 victims killed by Czechoslovak military in Žatec and on the March.  During and after the Second World War a Messerschmitt production facility and air base for testing aircraft, including new jet fighters, was located close to the town. In 1948 the production facility continued to produce the Avia S-199, a version of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft which were sold to Israel, with the initial training for the Israeli pilots provided at the air base. Many other military supplies were flown to Israel from the air base, which helped the new state to secure its independence.  The Czech Culture Ministry sent the nomination of Zatec as the town of hops for listing among the world heritage to the UNESCO committee on 29/05/2007. Unfortunately within this round Zatec did not make UNESCO World Heritage Sites list, but it has been encouraged by the respective committee assessing nominations to try again.  In 2018, Žatec was used as one of the locations for the Oscar-winning film, Jojo Rabbit.

Twin towns — sister cities.

Žatec is twinned with:

Žatec (; ) is a historic town in Louny District, Ústí nad Labem Region, in the Czech Republic. It is famous for an over-700-year-long tradition of growing Saaz noble hops used by several breweries. Žatec produces its own beer and hosts 'Dočesná', its hops-related harvest festival every year on the town square.


Early life.

Montecuccoli was born on 21 February 1609 in the Castello di Montecuccolo in Pavullo nel Frignano, near Modena.

Early military service.

At the age of sixteen Montecuccoli began as a private soldier under his uncle, Count Ernest Montecuccoli (died 1633), a distinguished Austrian general. Four years later, after much active service in Germany and the Low Countries, he became a captain of infantry. He was severely wounded at the storming of New Brandenburg, and again in the same year (1631) at the first battle of Breitenfeld, where he fell into the hands of the Swedes.  He was again wounded at Lützen in 1632, and on his recovery was made a major in his uncle's regiment. Shortly afterwards he became a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry. He did good service at the first battle of Nordlingen (1634), and at the storming of Kaiserslautern in the following year won his colonelcy by a feat of arms of unusual brilliance, a charge through the breach at the head of his heavy cavalry.  He fought in Pomerania, Bohemia and Saxony (surprise of Wolmirstadt, battles of Wittstock and Chemnitz), and in 1639 he was taken prisoner at Melnik and detained for two and a half years in Stettin and Weimar. In captivity he studied military science, and also geometry by the way of Euclid, history of Tacitus, and Vitruvius' architecture, all the while planning his great work on war.

Commanding officer.

Returning to Italy and to the field in 1642, Montecuccoli commanded mercenaries loyal to the Duke of his native Modena during the First War of Castro, but when that conflict ground to an unproductive stalemate he departed. His involvement, though understandable given his allegiance to Modena, was nonetheless unusual in that his service pitted him against the papal forces of Pope Urban VIII.  In 1643 he was promoted to lieutenant-field-marshal and obtained a seat in the Council of War. In 1645–46 he served in Hungary against Prince Rákóczy of Transylvania, on the Danube and Neckar against the French, and in Silesia and Bohemia against the Swedes. The victory of Triebel in Silesia won him the rank of "General of Cavalry", and at the battle of Zusmarshausen in 1648 his stubborn rearguard fighting rescued the imperials from annihilation.  For some years after the Peace of Westphalia Montecuccoli was chiefly concerned with the business of the council of war, though he went to Flanders and England as the representative of the emperor, and to Sweden as the envoy of the pope to Queen Christina, and at Modena his lance was victorious in a great tourney.  In 1657, soon after his marriage with Countess Margarethe de Dietrichstein, he was ordered by the Emperor to take part in the Habsburg expedition (as agreed between the King of Poland and the Emperor) against Prince Rákóczy, Charles X Gustav of Sweden and the Cossacks, who had already, in 1655, attacked the Kingdom of Poland in the war known in Poland as "The Deluge" or elsewhere as the "Second Northern War". During the conflict he was promoted to commanding officer of the division.  He became field-marshal in the imperial army and his division, along with Stefan Czarniecki's division, Frederick William's army and Danish forces, participated in the struggle in Denmark against the invading Swedes. Eventually the war ended with the Peace of Oliva in 1660 and Montecuccoli returned to his sovereign.  From 1661 to 1664 Montecuccoli, with inferior numbers, defended Austria against the Turks but at St. Gotthard Abbey, on the Rába, he and Carl I. Ferdinand Count of Montenari defeated the Turks so comprehensively that they entered into a twenty-year truce. They were given the Order of the Golden Fleece, and Montecuccoli became president of the council of war and director of artillery. He also devoted much time to compiling his various works on military history and science. He opposed the progress of the French arms under Louis XIV, and when the inevitable war broke out he received command of the imperial forces. In the campaign of 1673 he completely outmanoeuvred his rival Turenne on the Neckar and the Rhine, captured Bonn and joined his army with that of William III, the prince of Orange on the lower Rhine.  He retired from the army when, in 1674, the Great Elector was named command in chief, but the brilliant successes of Turenne in the winter of 1674 and 1675 brought him back. For months the two famous commanders manoeuvred against each other in the Rhine valley, but on the eve of a decisive battle Turenne was killed and Montecuccoli promptly invaded Alsace, where he engaged in another war of manoeuvre with the Great Condé. The siege of Philippsburg was Montecuccoli's last achievement in war.

Retirement and death.

The rest of Montecuccoli's life was spent in military administration and literary and scientific work at Vienna. In 1679 the emperor made him a prince of the empire, and shortly afterwards he received the dukedom of Melfi from the King of Spain.  Montecuccoli died in an accident at Linz in October 1680.

Assessment.

As a general, Montecuccoli shared with Turenne and Condé the first place among European soldiers of his time. For his success in halting the Turkish advance he had been hailed the savior of Europe. He was also influential as a military theorist, with perhaps his most famous quote being "For war you need three things: 1. Money. 2. Money. 3. Money." His "Memorie della guerra" profoundly influenced the age which followed his own. "Unequalled as a master of 17th-century warfare, Montecuccoli excelled in the art of fortification and siege, march and countermarch, and cutting his enemy’s lines of communications. In advocating standing armies, he clearly foresaw future trends in the military field".

Family.

In 1657, Montecuccoli married Countess Margarethe de Dietrichstein. With the death of his only son Leopold Philip Montecuccoli in 1698 the principality became extinct, but the title of count descended through his daughters to two branches, Austrian and Modenese.

Bibliography.

The "Memorie della guerra" was published at Venice in 1703 and at Cologne in 1704. A French edition was issued in Paris in 1712 and a Latin edition appeared in 1718 at Vienna, and the German "Kriegsnachrichten des Fürsten Raymundi Montecuccoli" was issued at Leipzig in 1736. Of this work there are manuscripts in various libraries, and many memoirs on military history, tactics, fortification, written in Italian, Latin and German, remain still unedited in the archives of Vienna. The collected "Opere di Raimondo Montecuccoli" were published at Milan (1807), Turin (1821) and Venice (1840), and include political essays and poetry.

Memorials.

In 1934 the Italian navy launched the "Raimondo Montecuccoli", a "Condottieri "class light cruiser named in his honour which served with the "Regia Marina" during World War II.

Raimondo, Count of Montecuccoli (; ; 21 February 1609 – 16 October 1680) was an Italian-born professional soldier who served the Habsburg Monarchy. He was also a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Melfi, in the Kingdom of Naples.


Early life.

Piccolomini was born in Florence and received a military education as a young boy. He became a tercio pikeman for the Crown of Spain at the age of sixteen.  1618 saw the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War. Piccolomini was appointed captain of a cavalry regiment in Bohemia, sent by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to the emperor's army. He fought with distinction under Count Charles Bucquoy at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 and later in Hungary. In 1624 he served for a short time again in the Spanish army and then as lieutenant-colonel of Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim's cuirassier regiment in the war with the Milanese. In 1627 he returned to the Imperial service as colonel and captain of the personal guard of Albrecht von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland. In this capacity Piccolomini fell into disgrace for attempting to extort money from people of Stargard in Pomerania. But his dedication and contrition saw him returned to the rank of "colonel of horse and foot".  In 1629 his younger brother, Ascanio Piccolomini, was appointed Archbishop of Siena which secured the older Piccolomini brother a position of influence in the diplomatic world. Italians were at the centre of diplomacy in Europe (due in no small part to the influence of the Roman Catholic Church) and this was even more so the case for a family that had seen two of its members elected to the papal throne (Popes Pius II and Pius III). Wallenstein made use of his subordinate's capacity for negotiation and intrigue. During the Mantuan War, Piccolomini took a prominent part in the dual role of subtle diplomat and plundering soldier of fortune.  In 1630 came the invasion of Germany by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Piccolomini was captured and held hostage at Ferrara for helping in unauthorised negotiations for peace with the Swedish Empire. Despite his support for Wallenstein, he was not included in the list of promotions when the Duke resumed action against Saxony, Brandenburg, Sweden and France. Thereafter, Piccolomini served as a colonel under Feldmarschallleutnant Heinrich Holk, a Danish officer, in the battle of Lützen and other operations.  Nineteenth-century authors were so impressed by Piccolomini's role in the battle of Lützen that they falsely ascribed to him the command of the entire Imperial left wing. He did, though, play a pivotal role at the head of his cavalry regiment, leading numerous cavalry charges against the Swedish army, having five horses shot under him, and receiving five painful bruises from musket balls that deflected off his armour.

As a commanding officer.

Piccolomini's efforts at Lützen were recognised by his contemporaries too – on reading the official report of the battle, the emperor made him "General-Feldwachtmeister" (a rank equivalent to major-general). At the same time, however, Holk, who had played an even more crucial role in holding the Imperial army together at Lützen, was promoted to field marshal at Wallenstein's insistence, much to Piccolomini's chagrin.  In the campaign of 1633 Piccolomini was appointed commander of a detachment posted at Königgratz assigned to bar the enemy's advance from Silesia into Bohemia. In May, Wallenstein entered Silesia with the main army in an attempt to compel the electors of Brandenburg and Saxony to join the Holy Roman Empire against the Swedes. Piccolomini was with Wallenstein but disapproved of his policy and joined in the military conspiracy to oust the Duke. On 24 January 1634 Ferdinand II signed a decree dismissing Wallenstein and instructed Count Gallas and Piccolomini to determine a course of action for removing the Duke, but did not specifically demand his death. Nevertheless, the conspiracy developed into a plot to assassinate the Duke; Wallenstein was killed on 25 February 1634 at Cheb Castle. Piccolomini's reward was his marshal's baton, 100,000 gulden and the estate of Náchod in the Orlické mountains in East Bohemia. Piccolomini's part in the assassination was set out in fictionalised form in Friedrich Schiller's play, "Wallenstein".  On 5 and 6 September of that same year, Piccolomini distinguished himself at the Battle of Nördlingen. By 1635, Piccolomini was again allied with a Spanish army but complained that their laziness and caution ruined every strategy he developed.  In 1638 he was made a Count of the Empire. In 1639, having won a great victory over the French (at the relief of Thionville, on 7 July), he was rewarded with elevation to the office of privy councillor and the dukedom of Amalfi from King Philip IV of Spain.  Following these illustrious rewards, Piccolomini had expected to be appointed as successor to Matthias Gallas. Instead of being appointed, though, he was called in to act as an assistant to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, with whom he served in the second battle of Breitenfeld in 1642. Thereafter he spent several years in the Spanish service and received the title of grandee and induction into the Order of the Golden Fleece.

Promotion to Generalissimo.

Some years later, having re-entered the Imperial army, he was again disappointed with the chief command's selection of Peter Melander, Count Holzapfel. But when in 1648 Melander fell in battle at Zusmarshausen, Piccolomini was at last appointed lieutenant-general of the emperor, and thus conducted as generalissimo the final weary and desultory campaign of the Thirty Years' War.  Three days after the commission for executing the peace had finished its labours, the emperor addressed a letter of thanks to the Prince Piccolomini, and awarded him a gift of 114,566 gulden.

Marriage, Death and legacy.

On 4 June 1651 he married Maria Benigna Francisca of Saxe-Lauenburg, daughter of Duke Julius Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg with no legitimate children.  He left an illegitimate son Josef Silvio, who was murdered by the Swedes after the Battle of Jankov (near Votice in the district of Tábor) in southern Bohemia in 1645. (His son Max in "Wallenstein" is a fictional character invented by Schiller.) Piccolomini's titles and estates passed to his brother's son. He had two known illegitimate sons – Ascanio and Diego, who left descendants, one in Bohemia the other in Italy. His elder son Ascanio died as a captain of infantry in the battle near Mírov in September 1643, while the younger son Diego died in Italy, gaining the title "don" and becoming a "noble" married to Nobile Donna Maria Anna Tarragona Ruxoto. Ascanio himself had an illegitimate son with Liduska Nyvlt. With the death of the latter's nephew Octavio Aeneas Josef in 1757, the line became extinct.  Piccolomini died after an accident on 11 August 1656 (falling from a horse).

Ottavio Piccolomini (11 November 1599 – 11 August 1656) was an Italian nobleman whose military career included service as a Spanish general and then as a field marshal of the Holy Roman Empire.


Biography.

Early life.

Andrey Kolmogorov was born in Tambov, about 500 kilometers south-southeast of Moscow, in 1903. His unmarried mother, Maria Y. Kolmogorova, died giving birth to him. Andrey was raised by two of his aunts in Tunoshna (near Yaroslavl) at the estate of his grandfather, a well-to-do nobleman.  Little is known about Andrey's father. He was supposedly named Nikolai Matveevich Kataev and had been an agronomist. Nikolai had been exiled from St. Petersburg to the Yaroslavl province after his participation in the revolutionary movement against the czars. He disappeared in 1919 and was presumed to have been killed in the Russian Civil War.  Andrey Kolmogorov was educated in his aunt Vera's village school, and his earliest literary efforts and mathematical papers were printed in the school journal "The Swallow of Spring". Andrey (at the age of five) was the "editor" of the mathematical section of this journal. Kolmogorov's first mathematical discovery was published in this journal: at the age of five he noticed the regularity in the sum of the series of odd numbers: formula_1 etc.  In 1910, his aunt adopted him, and they moved to Moscow, where he graduated from high school in 1920. Later that same year, Kolmogorov began to study at the Moscow State University and at the same time Mendeleev Moscow Institute of Chemistry and Technology. Kolmogorov writes about this time: "I arrived at Moscow University with a fair knowledge of mathematics. I knew in particular the beginning of set theory. I studied many questions in articles in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron, filling out for myself what was presented too concisely in these articles."  Kolmogorov gained a reputation for his wide-ranging erudition. While an undergraduate student in college, he attended the seminars of the Russian historian S. V. Bachrushin, and he published his first research paper on the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries' landholding practices in the Novgorod Republic. During the same period (1921–22), Kolmogorov worked out and proved several results in set theory and in the theory of Fourier series.

Adulthood.

In 1922, Kolmogorov gained international recognition for constructing a Fourier series that diverges almost everywhere. Around this time, he decided to devote his life to mathematics.  In 1925, Kolmogorov graduated from the Moscow State University and began to study under the supervision of Nikolai Luzin. He formed a lifelong close friendship with Pavel Alexandrov, a fellow student of Luzin. Kolmogorov (together with Aleksandr Khinchin) became interested in probability theory. Also in 1925, he published his work in intuitionistic logic, "On the principle of the excluded middle", in which he proved that under a certain interpretation, all statements of classical formal logic can be formulated as those of intuitionistic logic. In 1929, Kolmogorov earned his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree, from Moscow State University.  In 1930, Kolmogorov went on his first long trip abroad, traveling to Göttingen and Munich, and then to Paris. He had various scientific contacts in Göttingen. First of all with Richard Courant and his students working on limit theorems, where diffusion processes turned out to be the limits of discrete random processes, then with Hermann Weyl in intuitionistic logic, and lastly with Edmund Landau in function theory. His pioneering work, "About the Analytical Methods of Probability Theory," was published (in German) in 1931. Also in 1931, he became a professor at the Moscow State University.  In 1933, Kolmogorov published his book, "Foundations of the Theory of Probability", laying the modern axiomatic foundations of probability theory and establishing his reputation as the world's leading expert in this field. In 1935, Kolmogorov became the first chairman of the department of probability theory at the Moscow State University. Around the same years (1936) Kolmogorov contributed to the field of ecology and generalized the Lotka–Volterra model of predator-prey systems.  In 1936, Kolmogorov and Alexandrov were involved in the political persecution of their common teacher Nikolai Luzin, in the so-called Luzin affair.  In a 1938 paper, Kolmogorov "established the basic theorems for smoothing and predicting stationary stochastic processes"—a paper that had major military applications during the Cold War. In 1939, he was elected a full member (academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences.  During World War II Kolmogorov contributed to the Russian war effort by applying statistical theory to artillery fire, developing a scheme of stochastic distribution of barrage balloons intended to help protect Moscow from German bombers.  In his study of stochastic processes, especially Markov processes, Kolmogorov and the British mathematician Sydney Chapman independently developed the pivotal set of equations in the field, which have been given the name of the Chapman–Kolmogorov equations.  Later, Kolmogorov focused his research on turbulence, where his publications (beginning in 1941) significantly influenced the field. In classical mechanics, he is best known for the Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser theorem, first presented in 1954 at the International Congress of Mathematicians. In 1957, working jointly with his student Vladimir Arnold, he solved a particular interpretation of Hilbert's thirteenth problem. Around this time he also began to develop, and was considered a founder of, algorithmic complexity theory – often referred to as Kolmogorov complexity theory.  Kolmogorov married Anna Dmitrievna Egorova in 1942. He pursued a vigorous teaching routine throughout his life, not only at the university level but also with younger children, as he was actively involved in developing a pedagogy for gifted children (in literature, music, and mathematics). At the Moscow State University, Kolmogorov occupied different positions, including the heads of several departments: probability, statistics, and random processes; mathematical logic. He also served as the Dean of the Moscow State University Department of Mechanics and Mathematics.  In 1971, Kolmogorov joined an oceanographic expedition aboard the research vessel "Dmitri Mendeleev". He wrote a number of articles for the "Great Soviet Encyclopedia." In his later years, he devoted much of his effort to the mathematical and philosophical relationship between probability theory in abstract and applied areas.  Kolmogorov died in Moscow in 1987, and his remains were buried in the Novodevichy cemetery.  A quotation attributed to Kolmogorov is [translated into English]: "Every mathematician believes that he is ahead of the others. The reason none state this belief in public is because they are intelligent people."  Vladimir Arnold once said: "Kolmogorov – Poincaré – Gauss – Euler – Newton, are only five lives separating us from the source of our science".

Awards and honours.

Kolmogorov received numerous awards and honours both during and after his lifetime:  The following are named in Kolmogorov's honour:

Bibliography.

A bibliography of his works appeared in Textbooks:

Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (, 25 April 1903 – 20 October 1987) was a Soviet mathematician who made significant contributions to the mathematics of probability theory, topology, intuitionistic logic, turbulence, classical mechanics, algorithmic information theory and computational complexity.


Early life.

His career before becoming emperor is documented in the "Historia Augusta" and confirmed in many places by existing inscriptions. He was born in Alba Pompeia in Italy, the son of freedman Helvius Successus. Pertinax through the help of patronage was commissioned an officer in a cohort.  In the Parthian war that followed, he was able to distinguish himself, which resulted in a string of promotions, and after postings in Britain (as military tribune of the Legio VI "Victrix") and along the Danube, he served as a procurator in Dacia. He suffered a setback as a victim of court intrigues during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, but shortly afterwards he was recalled to assist Claudius Pompeianus in the Marcomannic Wars. In 175, he received the honor of a suffect consulship and until 185, Pertinax was governor of the provinces of Upper and Lower Moesia, Dacia, Syria and finally governor of Britain.  During the 180s, Pertinax took a pivotal role in the Roman Senate until the praetorian prefect Sextus Tigidius Perennis forced him out of public life. He was recalled after three years to Britain, where the Roman army was in a state of mutiny. He tried to quell the unruly soldiers there but one legion attacked his bodyguard, leaving Pertinax for dead. When he was forced to resign in 187, the reason given was that the legions had grown hostile to him because of his harsh rule.  He served as proconsul of Africa from 188–189, and followed this term of service with the urban prefecture of Rome, and a second consulship as ordinarius with the emperor Commodus as his colleague.

Emperor.

When Commodus' behaviour became increasingly erratic throughout the early 190s, a conspiracy led to his assassination on 31 December 192. The plot was carried out by the Praetorian prefect Quintus Aemilius Laetus, Commodus' mistress Marcia, and his chamberlain Eclectus. After the murder had been carried out, Pertinax, who was serving as urban prefect at this time, was hurried to the Praetorian Camp and proclaimed emperor the following morning. His short reign (86 days) was an uneasy one. He attempted to emulate the restrained practices of Marcus Aurelius, and made an effort to reform the alimenta but he faced antagonism from many quarters.  Ancient writers detail how the Praetorian Guard expected a generous donativum on his ascension, and when they were disappointed, agitated until he produced the money, selling off Commodus' property, including the concubines and youths Commodus kept for his sexual pleasures. He reformed the Roman currency dramatically, increasing the silver purity of the denarius from 74% to 87% – the actual silver weight increasing from 2.22 grams to 2.75 grams.  Pertinax attempted to impose stricter military discipline upon the pampered Praetorians. In early March he narrowly averted one conspiracy by a group to replace him with the consul Quintus Sosius Falco while he was in Ostia inspecting the arrangements for grain shipments. The plot was betrayed; Falco himself was pardoned but several of the officers behind the coup were executed.  On 28 March 193, Pertinax was at his palace when, according to the "Historia Augusta", a contingent of some three hundred soldiers of the Praetorian Guard rushed the gates (two hundred according to Cassius Dio). Ancient sources suggest that they had received only half their promised pay. Neither the guards on duty nor the palace officials chose to resist them. Pertinax sent Laetus to meet them, but he chose to side with the insurgents instead and deserted the emperor.  Although advised to flee, he then attempted to reason with them, and was almost successful before being struck down by one of the soldiers. Pertinax must have been aware of the danger he faced by assuming the purple, for he refused to use imperial titles for either his wife or son, thus protecting them from the aftermath of his own assassination.

Aftermath.

After Pertinax's death, the Praetorians auctioned off the imperial title, which was won by the wealthy senator Didius Julianus, whose reign would end on 1 June 193. Julianus was succeeded by Septimius Severus. After his entry to Rome, Septimius recognized Pertinax as a legitimate emperor, executed the soldiers who killed him, and not only pressured the Senate to deify him and provide him a state funeral, but also adopted his "cognomen" of Pertinax as part of his name. For some time, he held games on the anniversary of Pertinax's ascension and his birthday.

Historical reputation.

Pertinax's historical reputation is largely a positive one, beginning with the assessment of Cassius Dio, a historian and senator who was a colleague of Pertinax. Dio refers to him as "an excellent and upright man" who displayed "not only humaneness and integrity in the imperial administrations, but also the most economical management and the most careful consideration for the public welfare."  Dio's approval is not unqualified, however. He acknowledges that while some would call Pertinax's decision to confront the soldiers that would wind up killing him "noble", others would call it "senseless". He is also critical of Pertinax's judgment when it came to the speed with which he tried to reform the excesses of the reign of Commodus, suggesting that a more tempered approach would have been less likely to result in his murder.  Pertinax is discussed in "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli. When discussing the importance of a prince not being hated, Machiavelli provides Pertinax as an example of how it is as easy for a ruler to be hated for good actions as for bad ones. Though describing him as a good man, Machiavelli considered Pertinax's attempt to reform a soldiery that had become "accustomed to live licentiously" a mistake, as it inspired their hatred of him, which led to his overthrow and death.  Pertinax is described by David Hume in his essay "Of the Original Contract" as an "excellent prince" possessing an implied modesty when, on the arrival of soldiers who had come to proclaim him emperor, he believed that Commodus had ordered his death.  During the debate over ratification of the United States Constitution, Virginia politician John Dawson, at the state's ratifying convention in 1788, spoke of the "atrocious murder" of Pertinax by the Praetorian Guard as an example of the danger of establishing a standing army.

In popular culture.

Pertinax was the pseudonym of the French journalist André Géraud (1882–1974).  In ""Romanitas"", a fictional alternate history novel by Sophia McDougall, Pertinax's reign is the point of divergence. In the history as established by the novel, the plot against Pertinax was thwarted, and Pertinax introduced a series of reforms that would consolidate the Roman Empire to such a degree that it would still be a major power in the 21st century.

Pertinax (; Publius Helvius Pertinax; 1 August 126 – 28 March 193) was a Roman soldier and politician who ruled as Roman emperor for the first three months of 193. He succeeded Commodus to become the first emperor during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors.