Theodore II Doukas Laskaris or Ducas Lascaris (; 1221/1222 – 16 August 1258) was Emperor of Nicaea from 1254 to 1258. He was the only child of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and Empress Irene Laskarina. His mother was the eldest daughter of Theodore I Laskaris, who had established the Empire of Nicaea as a successor state to the Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor after the crusaders captured the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Theodore received an excellent education from two renowned scholars, Nikephoros Blemmydes and George Akropolites. He made friends with young intellectuals, especially with a page of low birth, George Mouzalon. Theodore began to write treatises on theological, historical and philosophical themes in his youth.

Emperor John III arranged for Theodore to marry Elena Asenina in 1235, to forge an alliance with her father, Ivan Asen II, Emperor of Bulgaria, against the Latin Empire of Constantinople. According to Theodore himself, their marriage was happy, and they had five or six children. From 1241, Theodore acted as his father's lieutenant in Asia Minor during his frequent military campaigns in the Balkan Peninsula. From around 1242, he was his father's co-ruler, but was not crowned as co-emperor. During this period, his relationship with some prominent aristocrats, particularly Theodore Philes and Michael Palaiologos, grew tense.

Theodore succeeded his father on 4 November 1254. He dismissed many high officials and army commanders of aristocratic origin, replacing them with loyal friends, including some of low birth. The same year, he made a defensive alliance with Kaykaus II, the Seljuk Sultan of Rum, against the Mongol Empire. In 1256, he repelled a Bulgarian invasion of Thrace and Macedonia and forced Michael II Komnenos Doukas, the ruler of Epirus, to cede Dyrrachium on the coast of the Adriatic Sea to Nicaea. He reformed the military, recruiting more soldiers from among the native peasantry of Asia Minor. Eventually, Michael II of Epirus forged an alliance with Stefan Uroš I, King of Serbia, and Manfred of Sicily against Nicaea. Theodore's newly appointed generals could not resist their joint invasion in 1257. Theodore fell seriously ill and could rarely take part in state administration during the last months of his life. He appointed George Mouzalon regent for his underage son, John IV, before dying of either chronic epilepsy or cancer. In ten days, Mouzalon fell victim to an aristocratic plot, and Michael Palaiologos assumed the regency, usurping the throne soon after.

Early life

Childhood

Theodore was born to Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes () and Irene Laskarina in the imperial palace in Nicaea in late 1221 or early 1222. Irene was the eldest daughter of Theodore I Laskaris (), the founder of the Empire of Nicaea. Nicaea was a successor state of the Byzantine Empire, established after the Catholic ("Latin") crusaders captured Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Vatatzes was Irene's third husband. He was born into a Byzantine aristocratic family related to the imperial dynasties of Komnenos and Angelos, and served as the commander of the imperial guard. Although Irene's two brothers had died prematurely, Theodore I did not name Vatatzes as his official heir. He most likely expected that his third wife, the Latin Maria of Courtenay, would bear sons, but he did not father children with her. Theodore I died in November 1221. Vatatzes had to defeat the late emperor's brothers, Alexios and Isaac Laskaris, to seize the throne. His victory over them and their Latin allies in the Battle of Poimanenon in the winter of 1223–1224 opened the way for the reconquest of Byzantine territories lost to the Latins in Asia Minor.

Theodore was his parents' only child. His mother had been in a horse riding accident and could not bear children after his birth. He adopted his mother's family name. He was "raised as usual for a royal child", according to his own words, most probably referring to his upbringing in the women's quarter of the palace and the luxury surrounding him. His childhood was joyful and he "often received greatest solace" from his father. He also remembered his parents did not punish him when his tutor had accused him of misdemeanors.

Education

Theodore was probably entrusted to an elementary teacher's care in 1228 as most Nicaean aristocratic children's formal education began around the age of six. As part of his education, he memorized texts from the Bible and prayed three times a day. He could quote from the Psalms and the parables of Jesus by heart until the end of his life. Theodore's secondary education began around 1230. He detested his principal tutor (or baioulos) and described him as a "great babbler" in his works, without mentioning his name. He studied grammar (that is Attic Greek), poetry, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, astronomy, geometry and music for three years. His grammatical studies raised his lifelong interest in words with multiple meanings and in etymologies. The young Theodore was captivated by the orations of Demosthenes and Hermogenes of Tarsus. He also held theologian Gregory of Nazianzus in high esteem. His tutor mocked him for "philosophizing" and urged Theodore to spend more time with military and diplomatic studies. Theodore was a passionate hunter and polo player with remarkable riding skills.

Negotiations over Theodore's marriage with Elena Asenina began shortly after the Battle of Klokotnitsa, where Elena's father, Emperor (or Tzar) Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria (), inflicted a crushing defeat on the Emperor of Thessalonica and ruler of Epirus, Theodore Komnenos Doukas (). The battle weakened Epirus–Thessalonica, Nicaea's western rival for the revival of the Byzantine Empire, and made Bulgaria the dominant power of the Balkan Peninsula. The marriage of Theodore and Elena sealed their fathers' alliance against the Latin Empire of Constantinople in 1235. In the same year, Bulgarian and Nicaean troops laid siege to Constantinople, but could not capture the city. In 1237, Ivan Asen then reversed his position, allying himself with the Latins to stop Nicaean expansion in Thrace, only to return to his alliance with Nicaea before the end of the year. His father-in-law's tactical moves convinced Theodore that he could not fully trust the Bulgarians—a view he held for the rest of his life.

Theodore took philosophy classes from a most renowned teacher, Nikephoros Blemmydes. As Blemmydes was the hegumenos (abbot) of a monastery at Ephesus, Theodore attended his classes while he was staying in his father's winter palace at nearby Nymphaion. Blemmydes' zealous Aristotelianism had a strong impact on Theodore, who often mentioned Aristotelian notions, like potentiality and actuality, in his writings. Blemmydes was accused of embezzlement by one of his students early in the 1240s. Although Vatatzes' intervention saved him from imprisonment, he abandoned teaching. Theodore continued to visit Blemmydes regularly and maintained a correspondence with him. A young scholar, George Akropolites, replaced Blemmydes as Theodore's principal tutor. Born in Constantinople, Akropolites had firsthand experience with the Latin rule in the city. He completed Theodore's education in logic and mathematics. Also a historian, Akropolites would complete the most detailed chronicle of the Empire of Nicaea.

Theodore's mother died late in 1239. Vatatzes remarried in late summer of 1240, taking an illegitimate daughter of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (), Constanza, whose name was changed to Anna. She was around ten and Vatatzes started a scandalous affair with one of her Italian ladies-in-waiting, named Marchesina. She was granted the right to wear purple shoes and to harness her horse with purple trappings, like the Emperor's closest relatives.

Youth

First administrative tasks

If Vatatzes followed the practice of his predecessors, Theodore was proclaimed co-ruler while still a child. In his history, Akropolites mentioned Theodore as a co-emperor when narrating events that occurred from 1235 to 1237 and in 1242. In his correspondence, Theodore referred to himself as "my imperial majesty" from around 1242. He was not crowned during his father's lifetime—a likely explanation for the denial of his co-emperorship by two later Byzantine historians, George Pachymeres and Nicephorus Gregoras. Theodore's authority was considerable: he granted estates and salaries and intervened in legal disputes. On Blemmydes' petition, he ordered Nikephoros, the metropolitan bishop of Ephesus, to return an allegedly unlawfully purchased piece of land to Blemmydes' monastery. During his father's absence, he presided over sessions of the privy council and proposed candidates to vacant Church offices.

John III Vatatzes again laid siege to Constantinople in May 1241, but he quickly realized he could not capture the city. He started peace negotiations, and Theodore accompanied his father to the meetings with the Latin envoys. They signed a two-year truce on 24 June. Ivan II Asen died in the same month and his death weakened Bulgaria. Vatatzes launched a military campaign against the Bulgarians' Epirote allies late in 1241. Before departing for the military campaign, he appointed Theodore his lieutenant in Asia Minor. Theodore, like his father and grandfather, held an itinerant court and visited most Nicaean towns and villages in Anatolia.

At this time, a Mongol general, Baiju, invaded Nicaea's eastern neighbor, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, from the east and captured Erzurum. Theodore informed his father, who was besieging Thessalonica, but Vatatzes did not abandon the siege. His persistence was rewarded when the ruler of Thessalonica John Komnenos Doukas () renounced the title of emperor in return for the Byzantine court title of despot from Vatatzes. The Mongols launched a new military campaign against the Seljuks and routed Sultan Kaykhusraw II () at the Battle of Köse Dağ on 26 June 1243. After the Seljuks agreed to pay a yearly tribute to the Mongols, Nicaea remained the only Anatolian state that preserved full independence. The fear of a Mongol invasion became a constant element of Nicaean diplomacy.

Vatatzes again charged Theodore with the administration of Asia Minor when he launched a new military campaign in Thrace in 1246. After Vatatzes captured Serres, the leading citizens of Thessalonica did not risk a prolonged siege. They opened the gates of their city and paid voluntary homage to Vatatzes. As most Macedonian towns followed their example, Vatatzes almost doubled his empire's territory.

Friends and critics

Theodore forged a bond of close friendship with a circle of young intellectuals. All born after the Latin conquest of Constantinople, they did not experience the shock of exile, unlike many of their fathers' "humiliated generation" (as Patriarch Germanus II of Constantinople referred to them). His friends' companionship helped Theodore come through his periods of melancholy, likely caused by anxiety over his public duties. His closest friend, George Mouzalon, was a page in his retinue during their childhood. The three Mouzalon brothers—George, Theodore and Andronikos—were, in Blemmydes's words, "of despicably low birth", but they were talented singers and musicians. Most of Theodore's other confidants, like Joseph Mesopotamites and Konstas Hagiotheodorites, were related to high-ranking officials and churchmen.

His fellows often teased Theodore for his style of reasoning during philosophical discussions. His friends' mockery upset him but critical remarks made by bishops and aristocrats were more dangerous to his reputation. Metropolitan Nikephoros of Ephesus rebuked him for his pride and for his non-observance of the rules of fasting. The governor of Thessalonica, Theodore Philes, circulated defamatory poems about Theodore's alleged affair with an unnamed woman. Philes's accusations reached the ears of Blemmydes, and Theodore could not convince his former tutor of his innocence. Blemmydes did not tolerate sexual misconduct, and completed a mirror for princes (instruction), entitled Imperial Statue, warning both Theodore and his father against lechery. On the other hand, Theodore often made fun of bishops for their self-aggrandizement, their barbaric speech or ignorantly heretical statements, or even for their physical appearance.

Towards sole rule

Vatatzes was making preparations for a new attack on Constantinople in the spring of 1252, but the ruler of Epirus, Michael II Komnenos Doukas (), invaded Nicaean territory in Macedonia. Vatatzes appointed Theodore his viceroy in Asia Minor and launched a counter-attack against Michael II, forcing him to return to Epirus. Elena of Bulgaria died unexpectedly of unknown causes before the end of August. Theodore mourned his wife for more than the customary forty days. He abandoned fasting and wearing black only on his father's command. His wife's death intensified Theodore's melancholy. He secluded himself in the palace and dedicated his time to philosophical studies and writing. He only resumed his regular visits to the towns of Asia Minor in 1253.

Early in 1253, Emperor Frederick II's son and successor, Conrad (), forced most relatives of his father's mistress, Bianca Lancia, into exile. They fled to Nicaea and sought asylum from Bianca's daughter, Empress Constanza-Anna. Since his father was staying in Thrace, the exiles were received by Theodore. Conrad changed his mind and sent the erudite Berthold of Hohenburg, an in-law of the Lancias, to Nicaea to begin negotiations with them. While waiting for his father's return from Thrace, Theodore had philosophical conversations with Hohenburg. The study of ancient Greek philosophers had intensified in Europe, and Hohenburg asked Theodore for Greek philosophical works. This request reinforced Theodore's pride in the Greeks' ancient heritage, and he decided to publish his own works.

Vatatzes returned to Nicaea in the winter of 1253. Early in 1254, he fell ill suddenly and never fully recovered. His illness made Theodore the actual ruler of the empire. Vatatzes was still alive when news of the Mongols' preparations for a new invasion of Asia Minor reached Nicaea.

Reign

Accession
John III Vatatzes died in Nicaea on 4 November 1254, leaving a flourishing empire to Theodore. Theodore was acclaimed emperor, but he was not crowned because the patriarchal throne was vacant. In his funerary speech at Vatatzes' burial, Akropolites expressed his hope that Theodore would lead the Nicaeans to expel the Latins from Constantinople, comparing him with the "pillar of fire" of the Book of Exodus, guiding the Israelites. Theodore could not risk launching an attack against Constantinople, because his empire was surrounded by hostile powers.

Theodore forbade his father's widow, Anna-Constanza, from returning to her Sicilian homeland. This act outraged her brother, Manfred (), who had recently assumed power in the Kingdom of Sicily. Theodore had a meeting with the Seljuk Sultan of Rum, Kaykaus II (), in Philadelphia. They concluded a defensive alliance against the Mongols. Kaykaus had acknowledged the Mongols' suzerainty, but had not visited the court of Great Khan Möngke to pay homage to him.

Theodore wanted to make Blemmydes the new patriarch, but his old tutor refused. His next candidate, a hermit with an aristocratic background, Arsenios Autoreianos, accepted the offer. The new patriarch crowned and anointed Theodore emperor—on Christmas 1254. According to sources hostile to Arsenios, he was Theodore's sole nominee to the patriarchal throne although tradition required the presentation of three candidates to the electors. Arsenios's allegedly irregular appointment would give rise to the conflict known as the "Arsenite Schism", lasting from 1265 to 1310. Arsenios was always Theodore's loyal supporter and obeyed his commands.

Theodore did not trust the aristocrats and wrote of "illicit love affairs and very unjust plots", without naming his opponents, in a letter addressed to George Mouzalon in December 1254. The historian Michael Angold proposes that Emperor Frederick II's similar policy may have inspired Theodore's "more autocratic stance towards his aristocracy". Theodore appointed George Mouzalon to be the new  (or commander-in-chief) of the mobile army. George's brother, Andronikos, was designated as the new protovestiarites (commander of the guards of the imperial palace). Theodore also demonstrated his favor towards a general of common origin, Constantine Margarites. He offered offices to some aristocrats who had been put aside during his father's reign. He recalled his mother's uncles, Michael and Manuel Laskaris, from their exile and made two members of the rebellious Nestongos family, George and Isaac, generals. His appointments offended most aristocrats.

Wars with Bulgaria

The young Bulgarian Tzar, Michael II Asen (), took advantage of Vatatzes' death to reconquer the lands he had seized from Bulgaria after 1241. Michael invaded Macedonia and Thrace in December 1254 or January 1255. Most Nicaean garrisons in the local fortresses were small, and the local Bulgarians supported the invaders. The Bulgarians quickly seized most Thracian fortresses. Two Macedonian towns, Veles and Skopje, also surrendered to them. A hastily summoned council of war accepted George Mouzalon's proposal of an immediate counter-attack. Theodore decided to lead the campaign himself, and entrusted Mouzalon with the administration of Asia Minor in February 1255. His surprise attack forced the invaders to withdraw from Thrace, and he ordered two Nicaean aristocrats, Alexios Strategopoulos and Demetrios Tornikes, to pursue the Bulgarians. The two generals led their troops across the passes of the Rhodope Mountains in constant fear of an ambush. When they unexpectedly heard the sounds of the horns of shepherds and swineherds, they retreated in a panic, abandoning their baggage. The fiasco outraged Theodore, and he ordered them to hurry to his camp at Adrianople, but both commanders disobeyed.

A Bulgarian renegade in Nicaean service, Dragotas, switched sides and laid siege to Melnik in the summer. Theodore hastily departed from Adrianople to lead relief forces to the town. The Bulgarians laid an ambush for him along the Rupel Pass, but he avoided it and Dragotas abandoned the siege on Theodore's arrival. From Melnik, Theodore went to Thessalonica and dismissed his old opponent, Philes, from the governorship. He closed down the local mint, because he wanted to establish a centralized system of financial administration in Asia Minor, with a new treasury at Astritzion on the Asian coast of the Hellespont. Theodore invaded Macedonia and forced the Bulgarian garrison in Veles to surrender, but drought prevented him from continuing the military campaign across the arid Ovče Pole. He went to Serres, where he confirmed the fiscal privileges of the Macedonian towns. He also ordered the arrest of Constantine Kabasilas, Archbishop of Ohrid, assuming that Kabasilas was Michael II of Epirus' loyal supporter.

A report of a Mongol invasion of Asia Minor forced Theodore to leave Macedonia in late autumn of 1255. After the report had proved false, he launched an attack against the fortress of Tzepaina. He had to abandon the campaign, because his army could not pass across the narrow and frosty mountain passes. He returned to Anatolia around the end of the year. He showered his confidants with honors and gifts. He made Manuel Laskaris and Constantine Margarites the commanders-in-chief of his troops in Thrace and charged George Mouzalon with implementing military reforms. In parallel, he turned against members of the old aristocratic families whom he distrusted. Constantine Strategopoulos and Theodore Philes—two aristocrats who had offended him—were blinded. Alexios Strategopoulos and Alexios Raoul's four sons were imprisoned. Theodore's cousin, Michael Palaiologos, fled to the Seljuks to escape imprisonment. Theodore took advantage of the emperors' right to control aristocratic marriages to establish family ties between his lowborn favorites and the old aristocracy. George Mouzalon married Palaiologos' niece, Theodora Kantakouzene Palaiologina, Andronikos Mouzalon wed a daughter of Alexios Raoul.

Theodore decided to resume negotiations about a church union between the Orthodox Nicaean and the Catholic Churches with Pope Alexander IV () and sent envoys to Rome in April or May 1256. Divergent  views on the procession of the Holy Spirit had always been an important cause of the schism between the two Churches. Orthodox theologians maintained that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father alone, but Catholic theologians stated that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father "and the Son". Theodore commissioned Blemmydes to summarize the Orthodox position. Blemmydes adopted a conciliatory approach, concluding that a statement about the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father through the Son was fully in conformity with the Bible and the Church Fathers' works. Theodore did not accept his tutor's view and insisted on the traditional Orthodox doctrine.

Michael II of Bulgaria dispatched Cuman raiders to plunder Thrace early in 1256. Although Theodore had instructed Laskaris and Margarites to adopt a defensive strategy, they pursued the Cumans, but the invaders inflicted a heavy defeat on their troops. Theodore assembled a new army, partially mustered among the Anatolian peasantry, and crossed the Hellespont. He sent troops, including Cuman horsemen in his service, against the invaders and they routed the enemy forces in two battles in Thrace. He entered into peace negotiations with Michael II with the mediation of Rostislav Mikhailovich, Duke of Macsó (). Michael II had recently married Rostislav's daughter, and Rostislav's wife, Anna of Hungary, was Theodore's cousin. Rostislav came to Thrace to reach an agreement with Theodore. Akropolites drafted a treaty about the restoration of the prewar boundaries between Nicaea and Bulgaria. Rostislav accepted it and signed the peace treaty on Michael II's behalf on 29 June. The treaty prescribed that Michael II cede Tzepaina to the Nicaeans, but the Bulgarian garrison was not withdrawn immediately from the fortress. Theodore became convinced that Rostislav had deceived him and ordered the public whipping of Akropolites. His act proved imprudent, because the Bulgarians ceded the fortress in early September. Theodore sent George Mouzalon to Akropolites to seek a reconciliation.

The peace treaty aroused much indignation in Bulgaria, enabling Michael II's cousin, Kaliman (r. 1256), to stage a plot and dethrone the Tzar. Kaliman seized the throne, but he never gained the support of the army. After Kaliman fell victim to a new plot, Rostislav Mikhailovich and Michael II's brother-in-law, Mitso (), laid claim to the throne. Most boyars (noblemen) preferred a third candidate, one of their number, Konstantin Tih (), although he was not related to the ruling Asen dynasty.

Expansion

Theodore's war against Bulgaria brought about a  rapprochement between Epirus and Serbia. Michael II of Epirus made a formal alliance with Stefan Uroš I, King of Serbia (). He also sent gifts to the Albanian chiefs who had acknowledged Nicaean suzerainty to gain their support. Theodore's daughter, Maria, and Michael II's son and heir, Nikephoros (), had been engaged during Vatatzes' reign. After making peace with the Bulgarians, Theodore ordered Michael II to send Nikephoros to Thessalonica to wed Maria. Nikephoros was accompanied by his mother, Theodora Petraliphaina. Theodore took her into custody, only allowing her to return to Epirus after Michael II ceded Servia and Dyrrachium to him. The possession of the two towns secured the Nicaean control of the Via Egnatia, but Michael II remained hostile to Theodore.

Theodore received the papal legate, Bishop Constantine of Orvieto, in Thessalonica. Their negotiations about the church union and a new ecumenical council—a general assembly of Orthodox and Catholic bishops—proved fruitless, because the legate's authorization to make concessions was limited and Theodore was unwilling to make theological concessions. He also preserved the right to convoke the Orthodox bishops to a synod to discuss the conditions of the union. Theodore maintained a correspondence with the Holy See, but he did not initiate new negotiations with it.

The Mongols invaded Asia Minor and defeated Kaykaus II on 14 October 1256. Theodore hurried back to Anatolia to oversee the preparations for its defense. Kaykaus sought asylum in Nicaea and the Mongols installed his brother, Kilij Arslan IV (), as the new sultan of Rum. Theodore assembled his troops on the plains near Magnesia. The Mongol ruler of Persia, the Ilkhan Hülagü (), sent a delegation to Theodore to begin negotiations about Kaykaus' future. Hülegü agreed to withdraw his army from Rum and ordered the division of the sultanate between Kaykaus and Kilij Arslan in the spring of 1257. Before leaving for Rum, Kaykaus ceded four fortresses in the valley of the river Lycus to Nicaea in return for a contingent of 300 auxiliary troops. His achievements made Theodore self-confident. He proudly stated that his empire included territories as far as Dyrrachium on the Adriatic Sea and Cape Karambis on the Black Sea. His success during the war against Bulgaria had convinced him he should recruit soldiers from among Anatolian peasants. In a letter to Blemmydes, he stated that the native "Hellenes" were more reliable than foreign mercenaries.

Illness and death

Theodore fell seriously ill in November 1257. George Pachymeres, who was less than sixteen years old at the time, would diagnose his illness as epilepsy, mentioning that Theodore had often lost consciousness and "collapsed to the ground". Pachymeres also described Theodore's unusual appointments and his attempts to forge marriage alliances between aristocrats and commoners as symptoms of his disease. Akropolites only noticed extreme weight loss, reducing Theodore's entire body to a skeleton; Blemmydes described Theodore's illness as "a scourge and a strange disease", also mentioning Theodore's melancholy and phobias. Theodore himself wrote of insufferable aching and paralysis in the arms. Modern historians of diseases have not agreed on a diagnosis of Theodore's illness. The medical historian John Lascaratos and the neurologist Panaghiotis Zis maintain that Pachymeres' diagnosis was correct, concluding that Theodore developed epilepsy of the tonic-clonic type in his late twenties.  The historian Donald M. Nicol proposes that Theodore's illness "made him the prey of his moods, and he compensated for his nervousness by an autocratic and obstinate temper". The medical historian Georgios Makris concludes in his 1995 study on epilepsy in the Byzantine Empire that Theodore did not have epilepsy. The historian Dimiter Angelov, who does not accept Pachymeres' diagnosis, proposes that Theodore's symptoms—fits and loss of balance—indicate that he had cancer of the brain, the spine, or the lungs.

Theodore's illness prevented him from commanding his troops in person. The commanders of the army in Macedonia, most of them of humble origin, recently appointed by Theodore, could not prevent the Epirotes, Albanians and Serbians from raiding Nicaean territories. Stefan Uroš I defeated the Nicaean troops near Prilep. Michael II's sister-in-law, Maria Petraliphaina, entered into a correspondence with Theodore's commander, Constantine Chabaron, making him believe that she was eager to marry him, but Chabaron was captured during their meeting. Theodore's newly assembled army of Anatolian peasants was routed at Edessa. Michael Palaiologos, who had been allowed to return from his exile, led a new army to Macedonia. He defeated the Epirotes, but Theodore ordered him to return instead of marching to Prilep. Palaiologos' withdrawal enabled Michael II to seize Prilep and capture Akropolites, who was its governor. Michael II was planning to launch an attack against Thessalonica, but Manfred of Sicily renewed his predecessors' claim to Byzantine territories in the Balkans and invaded Epirus from the west. Michael II, who did not want to abandon his plan, concluded an alliance with Manfred who expelled the Nicaean garrisons from Dyrrachium and other fortresses on the Adriatic by the end of February 1258.

Konstantin Tih of Bulgaria repudiated his first wife and sued for the hand of Theodore's eldest daughter, Irene. He knew that his marriage to Irene, who was Tzar Ivan Asen II's granddaughter, could strengthen his claim to rule. Theodore wanted to confirm his peace treaty with Bulgaria and accepted Konstantin Tih's offer. Irene went to Bulgaria to marry Konstantin Tih.

Theodore rarely left his palace at Magnesia during the last months of his life. He was convinced that sorcery caused his illness and accused his courtiers of casting spells on him, sending many of them for trial. Michael Palaiologos's sister, Maria-Martha, was the most famous victim of Theodore's paranoia. Theodore had forced her daughter, Theodora, to marry the elderly Basil Kaballarios, but the marriage was never consummated. After Kaballarios had attributed his impotence to his mother-in-law's spells, Theodore had her put into a sack filled with cats that tore her flesh. She was only released because Theodore suddenly panicked, fearing her spells. Also fearing her brother's revenge, Theodore had Michael Palaiologos imprisoned on charges of poisoning, but soon set him free. The dying emperor named his seven-year-old son, John (), as his sole heir, appointing George Mouzalon regent until John came of age. Theodore became a monk, but he kept his baptismal name. He summarized his sins in a treatise and asked the patriarchal synod to grant him absolution. He died in the imperial palace at Magnesia on 16 August 1258. He was buried next to his father in the Sosandra monastery on Mount Sipylus. His grave and the monastery were destroyed after the Turkish conquest of the region in the 14th century.

The aristocrats had taken an oath of loyalty to Mouzalon at Theodore's deathbed, but they soon began conspiring against him. In ten days, Mouzalon was murdered, and Michael Palaiologos assumed the regency for the child-emperor, John IV Laskaris. Palaiologos convinced the aristocrats that an empire ruled by a boy could not resist enemy attacks, and he was proclaimed co-emperor as Michael VIII () before the end of the year. When Michael VIII and John IV were crowned together early in 1259, the Patriarch put the crown first on Michael VIII's head. After concluding an agreement with Genoa against the Latin Empire, he dispatched Alexios Strategopoulos to spy on the defences of Constantinople. Taking advantage of the absence of the bulk of the Latin army, Strategopoulos seized Constantinople by a surprise attack on 25 July 1261. Michael VIII was crowned for the second time, alone, in the Hagia Sophia. The child John IV was blinded on 25 December 1261, which prevented him from ruling. To emphasize that the Laskaris family had lost their imperial status, Michael VIII  married off John's three sisters to minor Italian and Bulgarian noblemen.

Scholarship

A man of letters devoted to philosophical and theological studies, Theodore transformed his court into a center for renowned scholars shortly after his accession to the throne. He ordered that books which he and his father had collected in urban libraries be made available to all who wanted to read them. During his father's lifetime he began to write treatises on philosophical, theological and historical subjects, but decided to prepare manuscript editions of his works only after his meeting with Berthold of Hohenburg in 1253. They were collected in four codices, but only three survived.

Theodore's Satire of the Tutor, written most likely in 1240, is his earliest extant work. The satire is dedicated to his principal tutor, portraying him as an under-educated and rude man, who learned magic while staying in Bulgaria. He also wrote encomia in praise of the citizens of Nicaea, his father and Akropolites. Theodore's theological works—including his First Oration against the Latins, or, on the Procession of the Holy Spirit, and his treatise On the Trinity—demonstrate his adherence to Orthodox theology. Theodore's Great Supplicatory Canon to Our Lady, a supplicatory canon to the Virgin Mary, is his best known work. He composed it just months before his death and it is still sung in Orthodox ceremonies.

Family

Neither Theodore nor Elena had reached the minimum legal age of marriage—fourteen for boys and twelve for girls—when they were married, but such an early marriage was not unique among Nicaean aristocrats and commoners. The wedding took place at Lampsakos in early 1235. Years later, Theodore described Elena as the flower of his youth and stated that their "bond of incomparable love" made them "happier than all people". She gave birth to four or five daughters, and one son. Their children were:
Irene, who married Constantine Tikh of Bulgaria, was Emperor Michael VIII's implacable enemy until her death around 1270.
Maria, who married Nikephoros I of Epirus, deceased between early in 1257 and 1265.
Theodora was married off by Michael VIII to a Moreot nobleman, "Maïos Débélikourtos", according to Pachymeres and Nicephorus Gregoras. The historian Albert Failler identifies him as Matthew of Mons who held the Barony of Veligosti in the Principality of Achaea.
Eudoxia first married Count William-Peter of Ventimiglia, who died around 1280. Her second husband, Roger Arnau, Count of Pallars, died in 1288. The widowed Eudoxia had a love affair with the Aragonese admiral Bernat de Serria. She died in 1309.
A Bulgarian boyar, Despot Jacob Svetoslav, married Theodore's unnamed daughter, according to Pachymeres. She may have been Theodore's illegitimate daughter, because other Byzantine historians failed to mention her.
Theodore's only son, John, survived his mutilation, but he spent the rest of his life in prison. He died around 1309.

See also

List of Byzantine emperors

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

13th-century Byzantine emperors
13th-century Byzantine writers
13th-century Greek people
13th-century Eastern Orthodox theologians
Theodore 02
Theodore 02
Eastern Orthodox monarchs
Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars
Vatatzes family
Royalty and nobility with epilepsy
1220s births
1258 deaths
Sons of Byzantine emperors

Theodore II Laskaris


The Five Gold Bands is a  science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance, first published in the November 1950 issue of  Startling Stories  magazine.  It was published in 1953 as a separate book under the title The Space Pirate, and in 1963 it was paired with Vance's Hugo Award-winning novella The Dragon Masters in the form of an Ace Double.

Plot summary
Twenty generations ago, an Earthman named Langtry stumbled on a way to travel efficiently among the stars.  He divided the secret among his five sons, each of whom settled on a different planet.  The heirs of the five, known as the Sons of Langtry, now dominate the human universe.  Generations of life on strange worlds have made them visibly distinct from each other and from Earthers, who are held in contempt on each of the Sons' five homeworlds.

Picaresque Irish adventurer Paddy Blackthorn is caught attempting to steal a space drive, and is sentenced to death.  In escaping from his sentence, Paddy accidentally kills the Sons of Langtry and takes from each a bracelet containing a clue to the location of one-fifth of the secret. With the help of a beautiful human secret agent, Fay Bursill, Paddy follows the clues on each of the five dominant worlds, in the hope that Earthfolk will be able to resume their rightful place in space.

Major themes

Although one of Vance's earliest efforts, The Five Gold Bands exhibits many of the stylistic elements that would come to characterize many of his later works: a colorful protagonist who unintentionally achieves the greater good in a frantic and desperate attempt to save his own life (and fortune), numerous exotic locales populated by equally exotic sentient species, and the theme of a treasure hunt. It also introduces another frequent theme of Vance's work – that the environment of an alien planet will change any human colonists within a few generations to the extent that they will scarcely be recognizable as human.

References

External links
 Jack Vance home page and archive

1950 American novels
1950 science fiction novels
American science fiction novels
Novels by Jack Vance
Picaresque novels
Space exploration novels
Works originally published in Startling Stories

The Five Gold Bands


Los Vilos (From mapuche: Filu, 'snake')? is both a Chilean coastal commune and a coastal city with over 9,000 inhabitants (18,275 in comuna), located in the Province of Choapa, part of the IV Region of Coquimbo. The city has a harbour called  Puerto Punta Chungo, that ships the material of Los Pelambres mine. Fishing is one of its main activities. The city also has a significant amount of tourism, mainly due to its two beaches: La Principal and Las Conchas. It is located at  from La Serena and  from Santiago.

The city was founded in 1830, and was declared a minor harbor in 1855.

History
Los Vilos has existed as a small informal settlement since 1835, when the government realised that a port was needed in that region to expand the reach of commerce in the country. On January 3, 1855, it was declared a minor port by then president, Manuel Montt and by his Minister of Finance, José María Berganza, through a supreme decree of the Finance Ministry.

On April of that same year a permission was granted by the government to start the construction of a dock, warehouses and commerce related buildings. On December 1857, it was determined that a town needed to be built so 25 blocks, that used to belong to the Conchali Hacienda, were designed and sold by Hernán Jequier as a public utility. The town was located around the small pre-existing settlement.

The port responded to the need to regulate the commerce in the area, so a customs office, that depended on the Valparaiso custom, was created. The economy of Los Vilos initially depended largely on commerce.

Demographics
According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Los Vilos spans an area of  and has 17,453 inhabitants (8,858 men and 8,595 women). Of these, 12,859 (73.7%) lived in urban areas and 4,594 (26.3%) in rural areas. The population grew by 10.4% (1,648 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

Administration
As a commune, Los Vilos is a third-level administrative division of Chile administered by a municipal council, headed by an alcalde who is directly elected every four years.

The current alcalde is Manuel Marcarián Julio (an independent that is part of the New Majority pact, and the current council has the following members
 Christian Gross Hidalgo (PS)
 Iris Hidalgo (UDI
 Juan Hisi Espinoza (PRI)
 Berta Martínez (RN)
 Héctor Molina Fuenzalida (PPD)
 Julio Werner (DC)
Within the electoral divisions of Chile, Los Vilos is represented in the Chamber of Deputies by Adriana Muñoz (PDC) and Luis Lemus (Ind.) as part of the 9th electoral district, (together with Combarbalá, Punitaqui, Monte Patria, Illapel, Salamanca and Canela). The commune is represented in the Senate by Adriana Muñoz (PPD) and Jorge Pizarro Soto (PDC) as part of the 4th senatorial constituency (Coquimbo Region).

Tourism
The comuna has a considerable amount of tourism, in both the Los Vilos City, and in the small coastal town of Pichidangui.

References

External links
  Municipality of Los Vilos

Communes of Chile
Port cities in Chile
Populated places in Choapa Province
1830 establishments in Chile
Coasts of Coquimbo Region

Los Vilos


Thomas "Tam" McGraw (19 February 1952 – 30 July 2007), also known as "The Licensee" or "Wan-Baw McGraw", was a gangster involved in organised crime including extortion and drug trafficking in Glasgow, Scotland.

Once one of the wealthiest businessmen in Glasgow, he owned numerous businesses including security companies and taxi firms as well as properties throughout Scotland and Ireland with an estimated worth of £10 million. His drug trafficking activities were worth an estimated £14 million.

Early life
Thomas McGraw was born in Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire, to the north of Glasgow. In his early life, he would spell his name "Thomas McGrow". At an early age he became involved in criminal activity, including shoplifting and burglary during the early 1960s. Although in and out of approved schools and Borstals during his teenage years, he was involved in setting up the small Bar-L team, based around the Barlanark area of Glasgow and specialising in armed robbery.

He participated in the gang's post office raids throughout Scotland, eventually becoming one of the most wanted criminals in the country. He and the others managed to evade police for some time before eventual arrest in a failed robbery of a social club outside Glasgow, as he loaded several crates of alcohol into his van. McGraw had evaded police during a brief high speed chase before his vehicle overturned, but was arrested while trying to flee on foot. However, given the circumstance of his arrest, there was speculation that McGraw may have been a police informant for the Serious Crime Squad, supplying information on associates in exchange for police protection from his own illegal activities. Indeed, the charges were dropped and he was released the morning after his arrest. Similarly, he was tried and acquitted for the attempted murder of a police officer in 1978.

Entry into organised crime
During the early 1980s, he began expanding his criminal operations becoming involved in narcotics such as heroin as he began purchasing nightclubs and pubs. Paul Ferris, another rival Glasgow organised crime figure, claimed in his autobiography The Ferris Conspiracy that McGraw became involved in dealing heroin due to his connections to corrupt police officers, receiving confiscated drugs which he sold on the streets.

Also identified as a figure involved in the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars in 1984, McGraw was attempting to expand his own ice-cream van business and had been known to use violence and intimidation to secure the most lucrative rounds for himself.

Later years

In 1998, he was arrested for drug smuggling. While several of his associates were convicted, McGraw was once again acquitted.

In 2002, he was attacked by unidentified assailants less than a mile from his East End home and stabbed several times, suffering wounds to his arms, wrists and buttocks. Protected by a bulletproof vest, he received only minor injuries.

During this time, with imported bodyguards from Ireland as well as surveillance by the Serious Crime Squad, McGraw was one of the most heavily protected criminals in the city. He later reportedly brokered a deal with Ferris, with whom he had been feuding for some time over allegations in the latter's first book. It was also reported that McGraw paid Ferris £1.5 to £2 million to keep the peace and make sure Paul Ferris didn't take revenge on him. In the last few years after Ferris was freed from prison, McGraw was said to be spending more time in his villa abroad, with a few of his henchmen.

Death
Tam McGraw died of a suspected heart attack at his home in Mount Vernon, Glasgow at the age of 55.  Paramedics and doctors arrived at his home at about 1500 BST on Monday 30 July 2007 but were unable to resuscitate him. He was declared dead on arrival at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

In popular culture
Tam McGraw is portrayed by John Hannah in the 2013 film The Wee Man.

References

Further reading
Leslie, David. Crimelord: The Licensee': The True Story of Tam McGraw. Mainstream Publishing, 2005.

1952 births
2007 deaths
British crime bosses
Criminals from Glasgow
Fugitives
Scottish gangsters
Stabbing survivors

Tam McGraw


An angle plate is a work holding device used as a fixture in metalworking.

Angle plates are used to hold workpieces square to the table during marking out operations. Adjustable angle plates are also available for workpieces that need to be inclined, usually towards a milling cutter. Angle plates are made from high quality material (generally spheroidal cast iron) that has been stabilized to prevent further movement or distortion. Slotted holes or "T" bolt  slots are machined into the surfaces to enable the secure attachment or clamping of workpieces to the plate, and the plate to the worktable.

See also
 Lathe faceplate

Machine tools
Metalworking measuring instruments

Angle plate


In mathematics, Veblen's theorem, introduced by ,  states that the set of edges of a finite graph can be written as a union of  disjoint simple cycles if and only if every vertex has even degree. Thus, it is closely related to the theorem of  that a finite graph has an Euler tour (a single non-simple cycle that covers the edges of the graph) if and only if it is connected and every vertex has even degree. Indeed, a representation of a graph as a union of simple cycles may be obtained from an Euler tour by repeatedly splitting the tour into smaller cycles whenever there is a repeated vertex. However, Veblen's theorem applies also to disconnected graphs, and can be generalized to infinite graphs in which every vertex has finite degree .

If a countably infinite graph G has no odd-degree vertices, then it may be written as a union of disjoint (finite) simple cycles if and only if every finite subgraph of G can be extended (by including more edges and vertices from G) to a finite Eulerian graph. In particular, every countably infinite graph with only one end and with no odd vertices can be written as a union of disjoint cycles .

See also
Cycle basis
Cycle double cover conjecture
Eulerian matroid

References
. Reprinted and translated in .
.

Theorems in graph theory

Veblen's theorem


Helen M. Winslow (pen name, Aunt Philury; April 13, 1851 – March 27, 1938) was an American editor, author, publisher, and journalist. She began her work on Boston papers. Winslow served as dramatic editor on The Beacon, 1891–97; editor, Woman's Club Department, Boston Transcript, 1893–98; editor, Woman's Club Department of the Delineator, 1897, and again 1912; editor and publisher, The Club Woman, 1897-1904; and she was the publisher of the Official Register of Women's Clubs in America from 1897. She was the author of Salome Sheppard, Reformer. 1893; Concerning Cats, 1900; Concerning Polly, 1902; Literary Boston or To-day, 1902; The Woman of To-morrow, 1905; The President of Quex, 1906; Peggy at Spinster Farm, 1908; A Woman for Mayor, 1910; The Pleasuring of Susan Smith, 1912; and At the Sign of the Town Pump, 1913. She collaborated with Frances Willard in Occupations for Women, and with Marie Wright in Picturesque Mexico.

Early life and education
Helen Maria Winslow was born in Westfield, Vermont, April 13, 1851. She was in the ninth generation of descent from Kenelm Winslow, a brother of Governor Edward Winslow, of the Plymouth Colony. Her great-grandmother Winslow was Abigail Adams. In her infancy, her family removed to Greenfield, Massachusetts, and afterwards to St. Albans, Vermont, where her father, Don Avery Winslow (1824–1902), was a leader in musical circles. He was a musical composer of note and a member of the first English opera company organized in the United States. The mother, Mary F. (Newton) Winslow (died 1882), was a scholar, a linguist and a poet. Winslow's siblings included, Edward W. (drowned in early youth), Mary A., Isabel N., and Harriet P. After the father's second marriage in 1886, Amanda became Winslow's stepmother.

Winslow was educated at the Vermont Academy and State Normal schools, with special studies in languages and literature in Boston.

Career

Winslow became a writer early in life, sometimes using the pen name, "Aunt Philury". She published her "Aunt Philury Papers" first, which was followed by the story, "Jack," both of which were well received. After her mother's death and her father's remarriage, Winslow went to Boston, living in the Roxbury District with her three sisters. Her first serial story, "The Shawsheen Mills," was published in the Yankee Blade. In 1886, she published "A Bohemian Chapter" as a serial in the Boston Beacon, a story telling of the struggles of a woman artist in Boston. In addition to traditional stories, Winslow also wrote poetry. Many of her poems were devoted to nature.

As a journalist, she served first on the Boston Transcript, and later, she became one of the regular staff of the Boston Advertiser, doing work at the same time for the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. Besides doing work on almost every Boston daily, The Christian Union, Christian at Work, Interior, Drake's Magazine, Demorest's Magazine, the Arena, Journal of Education, Wide Awake, Youth's Companion, Cottage Hearth, and other periodicals were mediums through which she addressed the public. Her work covered a wide range.

Winslow served as commissioner from Massachusetts to the Cotton States and International Exposition of Atlanta, 1893; director of Board of Trustees of the Frances Willard Hospital, Bedford, Massachusetts; and State regent of the Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution, 1901–02. She served as treasurer of the New England Woman's Press Association, and was one of its six founders. She was also the founder of the Boston Authors' Club; and served as vice-president of the Press League.

Winslow lectured before many women's clubs and societies. She was a member of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, the Ex-Club of Boston, Pioneer Workers, the Lyceum Club of England, Professional Woman's Club, the Daughters of Vermont, Roxburghe Club, and the Altrurian Club.

Personal life
In religion, she was a Congregationalist. Winslow died March 27, 1938, in Shirley, Massachusetts, and was buried in Center Cemetery in Shirley.

Selected works

 Salome Shepard, Reformer, 1893
 Concerning Cats, 1900
 Concerning Polly, 1902
 Literary Boston or To-day, 1902
 The Woman of To-morrow, 1905
 The President of Quex, 1906
 Peggy at Spinster Farm, 1908
 A Woman for Mayor, 1910
 The Pleasuring of Susan Smith, 1912
 At the Sign of the Town Pump, 1913

References

Attribution

Bibliography

External links

1851 births
1938 deaths
19th-century American writers
19th-century American women writers
19th-century American women journalists
19th-century American journalists
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
19th-century pseudonymous writers
20th-century pseudonymous writers
People from Orleans County, Vermont
Journalists from Massachusetts
Pseudonymous women writers
American publishers (people)
American editors
American women non-fiction writers
Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century
Vermont Academy alumni

Helen M. Winslow


"Maybellene" is a rock and roll song by American artist Chuck Berry, adapted in part from the Western swing fiddle tune "Ida Red". Released in 1955, Berry's song tells the story of a hot rod race and a broken romance, the lyrics describing a man driving a V8 Ford and chasing his unfaithful girlfriend in her Cadillac Coupe DeVille. It was released in July 1955 as a single by Chess Records, of Chicago, Illinois. Berry's first hit, "Maybellene" is considered a pioneering rock and roll song. Rolling Stone magazine wrote of it, "Rock & roll guitar starts here." The record was an early instance of the complete rock and roll package: youthful subject matter; a small, guitar-driven combo; clear diction; and an atmosphere of unrelenting excitement.

The song was a major hit with both black and white audiences, reaching number 1 on Billboards Rhythm and Blues chart and number 5 on the Popular Records chart. It has received numerous honors and awards. Soon after its initial release, cover versions were recorded by several other artists. The title is misspelled "Maybelline" on several releases.

Origins and writing
"Maybellene" adapted parts of the Western Swing song "Ida Red", as recorded by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys in 1938. According to Berry, Wills's version, an uptempo dance number, was his favorite song to sing at racially integrated clubs ("salt and pepper clubs", as he called them). Encouraged by Muddy Waters, in 1955 Berry brought to Chess Records a recording of Wills's song, renamed "Ida May"  and a blues song he wrote, "Wee Wee Hours", which he said was inspired by Big Joe Turner's "Wee Baby Blue". To Berry's surprise, Leonard Chess showed little interest in the blues material but was enthusiastic about the commercial possibilities in a "hillbilly song sung by a black man".

Chess wanted a bigger beat for the song and added a bass and a maracas player to Berry's trio at the recording session. He also thought the titles "Ida Red" and "Ida May" were "too rural". Spotting a mascara box on the floor of the studio, according to Berry's pianist Johnnie Johnson, Chess said, "Well, hell, let's name the damn thing Maybellene", altering the spelling to avoid a suit by the cosmetic company (the song would be covered as "Maybelline" almost as often as with the altered spelling). The lyrics were rewritten, also at the direction of Chess. "The kids wanted the big beat, cars and young love," Chess recalled. "It was the trend and we jumped on it." According to Berry he abridged the song's lyrics (Chuck Berry quote:) "from memories of high school and trying to get girls to ride in my 1934 V-8 Ford", adding that "Maybellene" was his own choice as "Ida May"'s replacement title, Maybellene being a name he recalled from a third-grade reader in which it was the name of a cow.

As Chess had predicted, the lyrics appealed to teenagers fascinated by cars, speed and sexuality. "Maybellene" was one of the first records to be a hit on the rhythm and blues, country and western, and pop charts. Featuring some inimitable Berry riffs, some blues-style picking on a guitar and Johnson's piano, which added a hummable rhythm to the steady backbeat, "Maybellene" was a pivotal song in the emergence of rock and roll. This exciting fusion of a rhythm-and-blues beat with a rural country style was the catalyst for the emergence of rock and roll in the mid-1950s.

When Berry first saw a copy of the record, he was surprised that two other individuals, including DJ Alan Freed had been given writing credit; that would entitle them to some of the royalties. After a court battle, Berry was able to regain full writing credit.

Personnel
Recorded May 21, 1955
 Chuck Berry – vocals, guitar
 Johnnie Johnson – piano
 Willie Dixon – bass
 Jerome Green – maracas
 Ebby Hardy – drums

Co-composers
In the 1950s, some record companies assigned publishing credits to disc jockeys and others who helped to promote a record, a form of payola by means of composer royalties. For this reason, the disc jockey Alan Freed received credit as a co-writer of "Maybellene".  Robert Christgau's October 1972 essay on Berry suggests this was the case for Freed's publishing credit.  Leonard Chess, in Christgau's words, "flipped" for Berry's "Maybellene" and "forwarded it to Alan Freed."  "Having mysteriously acquired 25 percent of the writer's credit," Christgau writes, "Freed played 'Maybellene' quite a lot, and it became one of the first nationwide rock and roll hits."

Russ Fratto, who had loaned money to Chess, also received credit. (Some Chess insiders have said that Chess owed money to Fratto, a printer and stationer, for producing record labels.  Other accounts describe Fratto as "a record distributor.") The Freed and Fratto credits, which do not appear on the original Chess single (see the photograph above), were withdrawn in 1986. However, as of 2014, these credits still appear on some reissues of Berry's recordings.

The first edition of Charlie Gillett's The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll in 1970 erroneously identifies Fratto as a disc jockey and suggests that both Freed and Fratto were present at the recording session in Chicago in May 1955.

Bruce Pegg's Brown Eyed Handsome Man on the life and recording career of Berry identifies Fratto as the owner of Victory Stationery, a print shop next door to 4750 South Cottage Grove, the location of the first offices of Chess Records. Pegg identifies Victory Stationery's owner Fratto as "4750's landlord."

In an interview with Patrick William Salvo for Rolling Stone published in November 1972, Berry told Salvo that Freed "didn't sit down with me at all and write anything."  "He [Freed] got that money solely for doing us some favors in those days," Berry told Salvo.

Charts
In 1955, the song peaked at number five on the Billboard pop chart and was number one on the R&B chart. Billboards year-end charts in 1955 ranked "Maybellene" number 3 on the Top R&B Records Retail Sales and Juke Box Plays charts.

The record sold one million copies by the end of 1955.

Honors and awards
According to the Acoustic Music organization, "the song ushers in descending pentatonic double-stops, which becomes the essence of rock guitar".

In 1988, "Maybellene" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for its influence as a rock-and-roll record. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included "Maybellene" in its list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" (also included are Berry's recordings of "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B. Goode"). In 1999, National Public Radio included it in the "NPR 100", the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century, chosen by NPR music editors. "Maybellene" is currently ranked as the 98th greatest song of all time, as well as the second best song of 1955, by Acclaimed Music. The song is ranked number 18 on Rolling Stones list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Cover versions

Columbia Records released a version by Marty Robbins (21351), entitled "Maybelline," by the end of August 1955. His version was the number 13 "Most Played by Jockeys" in the country-and-western market by mid-October. and soon Columbia was touting it as one of its "Best Selling Folk Records". By November, it was noted that the record had "won considerable pop play". Other versions available in mid-October 1955 were by J. Long (Coral 61478), J. Lowe (Dot 15407), and R. Marterie (Mercury 70682) with the song listed as number 14 top selling in the nation.

Allmusic lists cover versions by more than 70 performers, including Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers (as "Maybelline"), John Hammond, Paul Simon (in a medley with "Kodachrome"), George Jones and Johnny Paycheck, Carl Perkins (as "Maybelline"), Johnny Cash, Bubba Sparks, Foghat (as "Maybelline"), The Dovells, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and Chubby Checker (as "Maybelline").

In 1964, a cover version by Johnny Rivers, entitled "Maybelline," reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 9 on RPM magazine's Top 40 Singles chart.

Also in 1964, The Syndicats featuring guitarist Steve Howe, who would later play for the band Yes, recorded and published their own cover version of the song.

References

External links
 Chuck Berry Collector's Guide - The Chess Era (1955-1966)
 Chuck Berry at Encyclopedia FunTrivia

1955 debut singles
Chess Records singles
Imperial Records singles
Chuck Berry songs
1955 singles
1964 singles
Johnny Rivers songs
Songs written by Chuck Berry
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Marty Robbins songs
Foghat songs
1955 songs
George Jones songs
Johnny Paycheck songs
Songs about infidelity
Songs about cars

Maybellene


WrestleMania Axxess is a professional wrestling fan convention held by WWE during the week of WrestleMania. The event typically runs for four days—from Thursday to WrestleMania Sunday—and features WWE talent and alumni autograph signings, interviews, fan activities, memorabilia displays, meet-and-greets, and matches.

History
The first event happened in 1988, when the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) in association with The Trump Organization prepared a small festival to celebrate WrestleMania IV. It included autograph signings, a brunch, and a five kilometer run; the event was held again in 1989 for WrestleMania V. In 1992, a festival was held the day of WrestleMania VIII which included a WWF wrestler look-alike contest and a tournament for the WWF WrestleFest arcade game. In 1993, the WWF held a "WrestleMania Brunch" the day of WrestleMania IX at Caesars Palace, during the course of which Lex Luger attacked Bret Hart. In 1994, the WWF offered "Fan Fest" for the weekend of WrestleMania X, which allowed fans to step inside a WWF ring, participate in games, meet wrestlers, and purchase merchandise; the event was followed up in 1995 with another "Fan Fest" for WrestleMania XI. In 1999, the WWF held its first Saturday pre-WrestleMania event taking place on March 27, 1999. WrestleMania Rage Party, as it was known, was televised live on the USA Network from 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (EST). The event was to be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The idea of the event was "...to celebrate the final WrestleMania of the millennium..."

The following year, the WWF held its first WrestleMania Axxess event at the Anaheim Convention Center expanding upon the party idea of WrestleMania Rage Party. The event included autograph signings and mementos of inductees of the WWE Hall of Fame. There were also activities where fans could enter a wrestling ring and commentate a wrestling match. In 2001, WrestleMania Axxess was held at the Reliant Hall which expanded upon the event by adding numerous activities including areas where attendees could buy special merchandise, see a production truck, and check out special WWE vehicles. In 2002, WrestleMania Axxess was extended to a three-day event and was held at the Skydome (now Rogers Centre). The three-day event included similar activities to that of the one-day line-up. In 2007, WrestleMania Axxess went on tour around cities in both the United States and Canada. In recent years, Axxess has become a four-day event, with one session on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, and three sessions on Saturday.

Since 2013, NXT matches have been held at WrestleMania Axxess, and since 2017, matches from various independent promotions have been held, such as Insane Championship Wrestling, Progress Wrestling, and Evolve. In 2018, WWE held four invitational tournaments for NXT championship matches. The winners of the WWE United Kingdom Championship Invitational, NXT North American Championship Invitational, NXT Tag Team Championship Invitational, and NXT Women's Championship Invitational tournaments received matches for the respective titles on April 8.

WWE has cancelled the traditional WrestleMania Axxess events since 2020 due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently announced that the 2022 event during WrestleMania 38 weekend will be replaced by a Superstore Axxess shop with superstar panels and premium experiences. Unlike previous events, no live wrestling matches or autograph signings will be involved.

WrestleMania Superstore

Every year during the week leading up to WrestleMania, the WrestleMania Superstore is open at WrestleMania Axxess. The WrestleMania Superstore has "the largest selection of WrestleMania and WWE merchandise under one roof". It has over 700 items and includes exclusive Superstore-only merchandise. The store is open to the public, and no ticket is required.

Hall of Fame statue

Beginning in 2013, WWE has honored a Hall of Famer by unveiling a bronze statue at WrestleMania Axxess.

See also

List of professional wrestling conventions

References

Axxess
Recurring events established in 1999
Professional wrestling conventions

WrestleMania Fan Axxess


Suzanne Neve (born 6 September 1939) is an English actress who appeared regularly on British television during the 1960s, including the lead role of Isabel Archer in the BBC's 1968 adaptation of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, for which she won Outstanding Television Personality in the Pye Colour Television Awards.

Neve first came to public attention as Ethel Brown in a 1962 series based on the William books of Richmal Crompton.  She subsequently had leading roles in Smuggler's Bay (1964) and as Fleur de Lys in a dramatisation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1966). Her big break came with the BBC's flagship production of The Forsyte Saga (1967), in which she played Holly Forsyte.

Following Portrait of a Lady, Neve continued to appear in television dramas, including further adaptations of the classics, such as Bel Ami (1971). She also had a recurring role as Mary, the wife of Commander Straker, in the science fiction series UFO (1970–71).

Neve appeared in several films including Play It Cool (1962), Naked Evil (1966), Mosquito Squadron (1969) and Scrooge (1970). Her last screen appearance was in the series Spooky (1983). The latter part of Neve's working life has been as a teacher of drama.

References

IMDb entry

1939 births
English television actresses
Living people
Actresses from London

Suzanne Neve


In modal logic, a classical modal logic L is any modal logic containing (as axiom or theorem) the duality of the modal operators

that is also closed under the rule

Alternatively, one can give a dual definition of L by which L is classical if and only if it contains (as axiom or theorem)

and is closed under the rule

The weakest classical system is sometimes referred to as E and is non-normal. Both algebraic and neighborhood semantics characterize familiar classical modal systems that are weaker than the weakest normal modal logic K.

Every regular modal logic is classical, and every normal modal logic is regular and hence classical.

References

 Chellas, Brian. Modal Logic: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Modal logic

Classical modal logic


Yuan Xun (元恂) (27 May 483–497), né Tuoba Xun (拓拔恂, changed 496), courtesy name originally Yuandao (元道), then Xuandao (宣道, changed 496), was a crown prince of the Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty of China.

Tuoba Xun was born in May 483, as Emperor Xiaowen's oldest son.  His mother was Consort Lin.  At the time he was born, Emperor Xiaowen's step-grandmother Grand Empress Dowager Feng was the regent, and she opined that, pursuant to Northern Wei's tradition that a crown prince's mother should be forced to commit suicide, Consort Lin, because Tuoba Xun would presumably eventually become crown prince, should be forced to commit suicide.  Even though Emperor Xiaowen did not want to follow that tradition, he did not want to disobey Grand Empress Dowager Feng, and Consort Lin was forced to commit suicide.  He did, however, posthumously honor her as Empress Zhen, and buried her at the ancestral tomb of the emperors.

Grand Empress Dowager Feng raised Tuoba Xun herself.  In 486, when he was three (four by East Asian reckoning), she formally named him "Xun", and also gave him the courtesy name "Yuandao".  She died in 490, and it is not clear who raised him after that point.  In 493, Emperor Xiaowen created him crown prince.  In 494, when Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital from Pingcheng (平城, in modern Datong, Shanxi) to Luoyang as a major part of sinicization campaign, Tuoba Xun accompanied his father south.  In 496, when Emperor Xiaowen changed the imperial clan's family name from Tuoba to Yuan, the crown prince's courtesy name was changed from Yuandao to Xuandao.

Yuan Xun was described as obese and uninterested in studies, but liked horseriding.  Because he could not endure Luoyang's much warmer weather, he often wanted to return to Pingcheng, but did not get a chance to do so until 495, when Emperor Xiaowen sent him to Pingcheng to mourn Grand Empress Dowager Feng's brother Feng Xi (馮熙), who was in charge of the old capital.  From this point on, whenever Emperor Xiaowen conducted campaigns against rival Southern Qi, Yuan Xun would often be formally in charge of the capital, although high-level officials were actually responsible for important matters.  It was also around this time that Emperor Xiaowen considered having him marry Feng Xi's granddaughter as his wife, but because she was young, Emperor Xiaowen took for Yuan Xun two concubines first—Consorts Liu and Zheng, both daughters of his officials.  However, on advice of Yuan Xun's teachers, who believed that overly engaging in sexual relations would stunt the crown prince's growth and interfere with his studies, Emperor Xiaowen did not permit him to have sexual intercourse with them during the day.  (The implication of the passage in question from the Book of Wei appears to suggest that he did not have sexual relations with them at all, but it is not clear; in any case, neither had children.)

In fall 496, while Emperor Xiaowen was away from the capital, Yuan Xun, unable to endure the heat in Luoyang, made an impulsive decision to seize horses and flee with his attendants to Pingcheng.  His assistant Gao Daoyue (高道悅) tried to persuade him not to carry out this action, and Yuan Xun killed him.  However, the news leaked, and the general Yuan Yan (元儼) closed the city gates and prevented the crown prince from leaving.  Once Emperor Xiaowen returned to the capital, he, along with his brother Yuan Xi (元禧) the Prince of Xianyang, caned Yuan Xun more than 100 times, and then imprisoned him.  About one and a half months later, Emperor Xiaowen deposed Yuan Xun and demoted him to commoner rank, changed his courtesy name to Xuandao and put him under house arrest with minimal supplies. On 23 February 497, Emperor Xiaowen created Yuan Xun's oldest younger brother Yuan Ke as crown prince, to replace him.

Once deposed, Yuan Xun much regretted his actions.  However, the official Li Biao (李彪), in charge of guarding him, then made a false report to Emperor Xiaowen that Yuan Xun was still plotting with his attendants.  In summer 497, Emperor Xiaowen sent Yuan Xi and the official Xing Luan (邢巒) to give Yuan Xun poison and order him to take it. He was given a commoner's burial near his place of house arrest. His mother Consort Lin was posthumously demoted from empress to commoner status as well.

References

Northern Wei imperial princes
483 births
497 deaths
Place of birth missing
Heirs apparent who never acceded
Suicides in Northern Wei
Royalty who died as children

Yuan Xun


Jaiyeola Aduke Alakija (March 1921 – March 2016) was a Nigerian welfare officer, lawyer and diplomat who was the country's ambassador to Sweden from 1984 to 1987. She was also a former president of the International Federation of Women Lawyers.

Life
Alakija was born to the family of Adeyemo Alakija, she was the only daughter and last child of her father's first marriage. She started her education at the Claxton House School, Marina, Lagos but left for Wales in 1930 and finished her secondary school at Penrhos College, North Wales. She initially wanted to study medicine at Glasgow University but then transferred to the London School of Economics to study social science. On returning to Nigeria, she worked as a welfare officer in the Lagos judiciary. There she initiated the creation of a juvenile court and caused the establishment of a number of girls clubs in Lagos, as well as assisting in the formation of the Lagos branch of the British Leprosy Relief Association.  In 1949, she left Nigeria to study law, qualifying as a barrister in 1953. Thereafter, she set up a law practice with Miss Gloria Rhodes and worked in the chambers of John Idowu Conrad Taylor. She briefly left law to work as a Social Welfare Officer, becoming the first African woman to hold the position in Nigeria.

In Alakija's professional career, she was an assistant to the general manager of Mobil Oil, and later became a director and legal advisor to Mobil Oil Nigeria in 1957. In 1961, Mobil won a concession for oil exploration in Nigeria, and Alakija later became a director in this new venture. In 1967, she was the executive secretary of the Lagos State Chamber of Commerce. From 1961 to 1965, she was a member of Nigeria's delegation to the United Nations.

Alakija was a co-founder of New Era Girls College, a member of the International Women Society of Nigeria and member of Soroptimist International.

She held an honorary degree from Barnard College.

References

1921 births
2016 deaths
Nigerian women lawyers
Nigerian women diplomats
Ambassadors of Nigeria to Sweden
Alumni of the London School of Economics
20th-century Nigerian lawyers
Lawyers from Lagos
Nigerian expatriates in the United Kingdom
Founders of Nigerian schools and colleges
History of women in Lagos
Aduke
Nigerian women ambassadors
20th-century Nigerian women
Nigerian social workers
20th-century women lawyers
Yoruba people

Aduke Alakija


Trickbaby is a London based band, influenced by modern dance music and Indian Bollywood classics. They are based around the songwriting partnership of Saira Hussain and Steve Ager, and the rhythms of Vikaash Sankadecha. Lead singer Saira cites influences from modern Western music through to Bollywood movies.

Career
Trickbaby's debut single, "Indie-Yarn" received mainstream media attention. It reached #46 in the UK Singles Chart,  and was the first Hindi language single to be playlisted at BBC Radio One. Following media support for "Neelaa" after its inclusion on the Asian Flavas album, particularly at Radio One, Trickbaby released their debut album, Hanging Around on their own Chachaman label. Five stars in OK!, Mojo, and a good reviews in The Times, The Observer and in the main Asian press resulted in Trickbaby signing to EMI's Far East head office in Hong Kong. MTV in the SE Asia region made Trickbaby artist of the month on their "Alert" programme, and playlisted the band's self-produced "Slipping Through Your Fingers" video (which features members of the GB synchronised swimming team). Three Trickbaby songs were used in the cult Indian film Hyderabad Blues 2. Virgin UK released a compilation album, Asian Beat Bazaar, devised and compiled by Trickbaby and the band toured India, including a performance at MTV's Style Awards.

In 2006, Rohan Sippy asked the band for songs for his movie Bluffmaster, starring Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra, which has gone on to become one of the biggest modern Indian movies of recent times. "Sabse Bada Rupaiya/Bluffmaster", a Trickbaby track based around the original 1970's Mehmood song became the title track, and a hit in the India diaspora. "Neelaa", "Indie-Yarn" and a reworked Hindi version of "Nine Parts Of Desire" also all had key roles in the film and featured on a soundtrack album.

Trickbaby wrote the title track to Ashok Thakeria's movie, Pyare Mohan, and they remixed two tracks for Victoria No. 203 (2007 film). The band spent 2007 finishing their second album, Chor Bazaar, named after a market in Mumbai famous for selling stolen goods.  Featuring eleven songs and guest appearances by Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz, Sergey Ryabtzev (violin), and Yuri Lemeshev (accordion), as well as Marcella Detroit  (harmonica).

To accompany Chor Bazaar the band made two videos. "To Fighter", an animation directed by Mox, and to a new version of "Nine Parts" ("Parde Ke Peeche" produced by Ramesh Sippy (director of Sholay)) and starring Bollywood's Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra.

Their music video "Nine Parts" was also screened at Deejay Ra's music video night in Toronto, at the FILMI festival, North America's longest running South Asian film festival.

Album discography
Hanging Around (2004)
 "Nine Parts Of Desire"
 "Slipping Through Your Fingers"
 "Neelaa"
 "December Blues" (Aluminium Headz mix)
 "Dildara"
 "Three Minds"
 "Hanging Around" (Aluminium Headz mix)
 "Because you Know"
 "Sea Of Stories"
 "Lost Ones"
 "54"
 "SSS"

Chor Bazaar (2008)
 "Fighter"
 "Crisis"
 "Baja (featuring Marcella Detroit)"
 "Light Up My Life"
 "Babu"
 "Drove A Chevvy To The Devi"
 "Chor Bazaar (featuring Eugene Hutz, Sergey Ryabtzev and Yuri Lemeshev)"
 "Mujay Tujay"
 "Broken Dream"
 "Nine Parts (Parde Ke Peeche)"
 "Neelaa" (remix)

References

External links
Trickbaby's official site
MySpace

British dance music groups

Trickbaby


HR 3803 or N Velorum (N Vel) is a 3rd-magnitude star on the border between the southern constellations Carina and Vela. Based upon parallax measurements, it is approximately  from Earth. It is an orange-hued K-type giant star and has twice the mass of the Sun. The measured angular diameter of this star, after correction for limb darkening, is . At the estimated distance of HR 3803, this yields a physical size of about 29 times the radius of the Sun.

In 1752, French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille divided the former constellation Argo Navis into three separate constellations, and then referenced its stars by extending Bayer's system of star nomenclature; this star was given the designation N Velorum. In 1871 Benjamin Apthorp Gould discovered this star to be variable, but this occurred prior to the standardization of variable star nomenclature by German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander during the nineteenth century, so it does not fall into the standard range of variable star designations.

References

Velorum, N
082668
K-type giants
Vela (constellation)
3803
046701
Durchmusterung objects

HR 3803


The Helgoland underwater laboratory (UWL) is an underwater habitat.  It was built by Dräger in Lübeck, Germany in 1968 for the Biological Institute Helgoland, and was the first of its kind in the world built for use in colder waters. It is named after the island Helgoland.

The habitat allowed divers to spend several weeks under water using saturation diving techniques. The scientists and technicians would live and work in the laboratory, returning there after each dive. Only once they had reached the end of their stay did they decompress in the UWL itself, being able to then resurface without coming to any harm. After experience gained in the first deployment, a wet section was added.

The UWL was used in the waters of the North and Baltic Seas and, in 1975, on Jeffreys Ledge, in the Gulf of Maine along the coast of New England in the United States.

History

The station was delivered to the GKSS Research Center in Geesthacht in 1972. It was used until 1981 in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the North Atlantic. The first stage of deployment was in 1969 off Helgoland. During this deployment Karl-Heinz Schumann and the student Winfried Kreytenberg died on 6 December 1969 at a depth of 25 meters south-east of the island Düne during work on the underwater laboratory while disconnecting the underwater laboratory and the supply line.

The laboratory was lifted by the floating crane "Magnus 4" in April 1970 and placed on the mole of the South Helgoland harbour.

Further deployments were off Eckernförde at 9 m depth, off Helgoland again in 1973 in 23 m depth, in Lübeck Bay in 1974 in 15 m depth, off Rockport in 1975 in 33 m depth and from 1975 to 1981 in Lübeck Bay between 11 and 15 m depth. On September 25, 1975, German aquanaut Joachim Wendler died of an air embolism while returning to the surface of the Gulf of Maine from Helgoland.  He was participating in a checkout mission for the First International Saturation Study of Herring and Hydroacoustics (FISSHH) project.

At the end of the 1970s the laboratory was decommissioned, and in the summer of 1998 it was donated to the German Oceanographic Museum by the GKSS Research Centre, Geesthacht. It can be visited at the Nautineum, an outpost of the museum in Stralsund.

Technical data

The interior of the UWL Helgoland consists of a living area 2.5 m long, an instrumentation and engine room 6.5 m long and since 1973 a wet laboratory 4 m long. With a diameter of 2.5 m, this provided a useful area of 32.5 m2.
The laboratory provided all necessary facilities for a stay of several weeks on the seabed. The internal pressure was the same as the external pressure, and decompression from saturation was done at the end of the mission.

The habitat had air conditioning and good thermal insulation. It was lowered by flooding the ballast tanks with seawater, and raised by blowing the water out of the tanks using compressed air.

Principal dimensions:
Overall length: 14 meters
Overall width: 7 meters
Total height: 7 meters
Total weight (with ballast): 110 tonnes

References

External links

Underwater habitats

Helgoland Habitat


Stephen Terrence Buckland (born 28 July 1955) is a British statistician and professor at the University of St Andrews.  He is best known for his work on distance sampling, a widely used technique for estimating the size of animal populations.  He has also made significant contributions in the following areas: bootstrap resampling methods; modelling the dynamics of wild animal populations and measuring biodiversity.

Biography
Buckland was born in Dorset, England, the youngest of three children. After secondary education at Foster's School, Sherborne, he studied mathematics at the University of Southampton and the University of Edinburgh, followed by a PhD in statistics from the University of Aberdeen in 1983. He had a keen interest in natural history from a young age, and now has a strong interest in wildlife photography.  He became "Photographer in Residence" at Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve in 2018.

Academic career
From 1977–1985 he was lecturer in statistics, University of Aberdeen. He then became senior scientist at the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, based at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, estimating trends in dolphin abundance in the eastern tropical Pacific, to assess the impacts of tuna fisheries on dolphin stocks. In 1988 he accepted the post of statistician at Scottish Agricultural Statistics Service (now Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland), based at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (now the James Hutton Institute).

In 1993 he was appointed professor of statistics, University of St Andrews, and still holds the position as of 2019.

At St Andrews, he established the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM)  in 1999, and was its Director from 1999 to 2004, and again from 2009 to 2014. He co-founded the National Centre for Statistical Ecology (NCSE) in 2005, with Byron Morgan at the University of Kent, and Steve Brooks, then at the University of Cambridge. He was Director or Co-Director until 2019.

With others he established the biennial International Statistical Ecology Conferences, with both the first conference (in 2008) and the sixth conference (in 2018) hosted by St Andrews.

Buckland has published around 190 refereed papers spanning statistics, mathematics, ecology, conservation, wildlife management, experimental and theoretical biology, fisheries, environmental science, botany, zoology, geography, geology, epidemiology, agroforestry, remote sensing and analytical chemistry.  He is one of the developers of distance sampling methods, and is first author on four books on the subject.
Buckland was editor of the Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics from 2016–2018.

Awards
Buckland was elected a Fellow of the International Statistical Institute in 1995 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007.  He was a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow in 2005-06.  He was a Member of the Council of the Royal Statistical Society during 2005-09.  In 2019, he was awarded the Royal Statistical Society's Guy Medal in Gold, the 38th recipient since its inception in 1892.

Selected publications

Books authored

Books edited

Selected journal articles

References

Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Academics of the University of St Andrews
Living people
1955 births
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
British statisticians
Alumni of the University of Southampton
Alumni of the University of Aberdeen
People from Dorset
Academics of the University of Aberdeen
British expatriates in the United States

Stephen Buckland


Song Yu (;  298–263 BC) was a Chinese poet from the late Warring States period, and is known as the traditional author of a number of poems in the Verses of Chu (Chu ci 楚辭).  Among the Verses of Chu poems usually attributed to Song Yu are those in the Jiu Bian section. Also credited to Song Yu, somewhat improbably, are several fu collected in the 6th century literary anthology Wen Xuan.

Biography
Biographic information about Song Yu tends to be anecdotal, rather than truly historical, and little reliable information about Song's life exists.  Historical accounts agree that Song was from the state of Chu, and was born in the city of Yan  (modern Yicheng, Hubei Province), and lived during the reign of King Xiang of Chu (r. 298–263 BC).

Works
According to the section covering literature and art in the Book of Han, Song wrote 16 works, but only 14 of them have been handed down, such as Jiu Bian and Dengtuzi Haose Fu (). However, it is uncertain if, with the exception of Jiu Bian, these works were actually written by Song.  Wang Yi the noted Chu Ci anthologist and commentator also attributes the "Zhao Hun" (Summons of the Soul) to Song Yu. As a writer of cifu, Song was an accomplished successor to Qu Yuan with his own original style. In the fu poems attributed to Song Yu in the Wen Xuan literary anthology compiled by Xiao Tong (501–531), the poems appear in the context of a purported dialogue between Song Yu and King Xiang of Chu, in which the King requests a fu on a certain subject.  However, this is likely to be a literary device deployed by a later author, rather than an authentic historical record of a real event. Song's name has long been put together with Qu Yuan's as "Qu-Song". Qu Yuan is known for writing poems with a strong personal voice.

Song Yu's main contribution to Classical Chinese poetry can be considered to be the development of the theme of nature together with an implicit sense of inherent pathos. Apart from proving a rich source of reference points for Chinese poets in centuries to come, many Chinese idioms that are still widely used today can be traced back to his poems.

See also
Chu ci
Fu (poetry)
List of Chuci contents
Liu An
Liu Xiang (scholar)
Nine Changes
Qu Yuan
Wang Yi (librarian)

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

3rd-century BC Chinese poets
Chu state people
Zhou dynasty poets

Song Yu