A repeal is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal. A repeal with re-enactment (or replacement) of the repealed law, or a repeal without replacement.  The move to rescind, repeal, or annul is used in parliamentary procedure to cancel or countermand an action or order previously adopted by the assembly. Removal of secondary legislation is normally referred to as revocation rather than repeal in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Under the common law of England and Wales, the effect of repealing a statute was "to obliterate it completely from the records of Parliament as though it had never been passed." This, however, is now subject to savings provisions within the Interpretation Act 1978.

Partial or full repeals

A partial repeal occurs when a specified part or provision of a previous act is repealed but other provisions remain in force. For example, the Acts of Union 1800, providing for the union between the formerly separate kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland as the United Kingdom, was partially repealed in 1922. This was when (as a consequence of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty), twenty-six of the thirty-two counties of Ireland were constituted as the Irish Free State, and ceased to be part of the United Kingdom.

A full repeal occurs where the entire Act in question is repealed.

Repeal with or without re-enactment

A typical situation where an Act is repealed and re-enacted is where the law in the area is being updated but the law being repealed needs to be replaced with one suitable for the modern era.  Re-enactment can be with or without amendment. However, repeal and re-enactment without amendment normally occurs only in the context of a Consolidation Bill (a bill to consolidate the law in a particular area).

For example the repeal of the Poor Laws in England in 1948 reflected their replacement by modern social welfare legislation.

A repeal without replacement is generally done when a law is no longer effective, or it is shown that a law is having far more negative consequences than were originally envisioned. Many repeals without replacement are the result of significant changes in society.  Major examples include:
the old Jim Crow laws or blue laws in the US
The Corn Laws in England, repealed in 1846 after a passionate campaign.
Repeal of Prohibition in the United States. Enacted by the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, it proved to be so ineffective that it had to be repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment. This is the only constitutional amendment to be repealed in the U.S.
The massive Statute Law Revision Act 2007 in the Republic of Ireland, through which 3,225 Acts were repealed, dating back over eight centuries to 1171 and the earliest laws enacted by England when it began its invasion of Ireland. The statutes repealed include a number of Acts of significant historical interest, including an Act of 1542 providing that the Kings of England shall be Kings of Ireland. This Act is the largest single repealing statute in the history of Ireland.
Don't ask, don't tell was a policy of the US military signed into law by president Bill Clinton in 1993. Service members could not be asked their sexual orientation. They were also not allowed to discuss the subject among themselves. Congress passed a law in 2010 to repeal the policy.

References

Law
Legal terms

Repeal


Gregory Blaxland (17 June 1778 – 1 January 1853) was an English pioneer farmer and explorer in Australia, noted especially for initiating and co-leading the first successful crossing of the Blue Mountains by European settlers.

Early life

Gregory Blaxland was born 17 June 1778 at Fordwich, Kent, England, the fourth son of John Blaxland, mayor from 1767 to 1774, whose family had owned estates nearby for generations, and Mary, daughter of Captain Parker, R.N. Gregory attended The King's School, Canterbury. In July 1799 in the church of St George the Martyr there, he married 20-year-old Elizabeth, daughter of John Spurdon; they had five sons and two daughters.

The Blaxlands were friends of Sir Joseph Banks who appears to have strongly influenced the decision of Gregory and his eldest brother, John, to emigrate to Australia. The government promised them land, convict servants and free passages, in accord with its policy of encouraging 'settlers of responsibility and capital'. Leaving John to sell their Kent estates, Gregory sailed in the William Pitt on 1 September 1805 with his wife, the three children they then had, two servants, an overseer, a few sheep, seed, bees, tools, groceries and clothing.

Blaxland and his family reached Sydney on 1 April 1806, where he sold many of the goods he brought with him very profitably, bought eighty head of cattle so as to enter the meat trade, located  of land at St Marys and was promised forty convict servants. Soon afterwards he also bought  at the Brush Farm (near Eastwood) from D'Arcy Wentworth for £1500, while also displaying some of his future characteristics by commencing litigation against the master of the William Pitt. A further parcel of  was granted for a farm at the South Creek.

Blue Mountains expedition

Early in 1813 Blaxland, who needed more grazing land, obtained the approval of Governor Lachlan Macquarie for an attempt to cross the Great Dividing Range, known as the Blue Mountains, following the mountain ridges, instead of following the rivers and valleys. He secured the participation of William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth in the expedition, which was successful (though the expedition stopped short of actually crossing over the mountains) and enabled the settlers to access and use the land west of the mountains for farming. The crossing took 21 days, and only 6 days to return.

In February 1823 Blaxland published his Journal of a Tour of Discovery Across the Blue Mountains (London, 1823) in which he wrote:
"On Tuesday, May 11, 1813, Mr. Gregory Blaxland, Mr. William Wentworth, and Lieutenant Lawson, attended by four servants, with five dogs, and four horses laden with provisions, ammunition, and other necessaries, left Mr. Blaxland's farm at the South Creek, for the purpose of endeavouring to effect a passage over the Blue Mountains ..."

In recognition of the successful crossing, all three explorers were granted by Macquarie  of land west of the mountains.

Other activities
Blaxland is also noted as one of the first settlers to plant grapes for wine-making purposes. He was engaged during the next few years in wine-making. He had brought vines from the Cape of Good Hope and found a species resistant to blight.

Blaxland's diaries show that he had a clear grasp of the scale upon which agricultural and pastoral activities would be profitable in Australia. In 1814, like many others almost insolvent because of drought and depression, he tried to persuade Governor Macquarie to sanction a scheme for the exploitation of the interior by a large agricultural company similar to the later Australian Agricultural Company of the 1820s. Macquarie would not agree nor would he allow Blaxland land in the interior for his own flocks. Blaxland then had to dispose of his livestock, and joined the colonial opposition to Macquarie, and in 1819 sharply criticized his administration to Commissioner John Thomas Bigge.

Blaxland visited England in 1822 taking with him a sample of his wine. While in England he published in February 1823 his Journal of a Tour of Discovery Across the Blue Mountains. Later the same year, Blaxland was awarded the silver medal of the Royal Society of Arts for the wine he had brought to London.

Later years
His wife died in December 1826. In January 1827 Blaxland was elected by a public meeting with two others to present a petition to Governor Darling asking that "Trial by jury" and "Taxation by Representation" should be extended to the colony. Still opposed to the governor's authority, he made another visit to England, taking a petition in support of trial by jury and some form of representative government, and again carried samples of his wine, for which he won a gold medal of the Royal Society of Arts in 1828.

He successfully petitioned the Colonial Office for a drawback on the import duty on brandy imported into the colony and 'actually used in the manufacture of wine'. Always a man of moody and mercurial character, Blaxland devoted his colonial activities almost entirely to the pursuit of his agricultural and viticultural interests.

He suffered great personal loss with the early and untimely deaths of his second son, youngest son and wife along with others quite close to him in rapid succession, which bore very heavily on his heart. He committed suicide on 1 January 1853 in New South Wales and was buried in All Saints Cemetery in Parramatta.

His son John was a prominent businessman. He was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council and served there from 1863 until his death in 1884.

Publications
 A Journal of a Tour of Discovery Across the Blue Mountains, 1823
 Wine from New South Wales, 1828

Recognition

 The township of Blaxland in the Blue Mountains is named after him, as is the Australian Electoral Division of Blaxland.
 Blaxland Creek runs near his land grant in western Sydney.
 Gregory, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth Avenues are found in the Melbourne suburb of Frankston where the Blaxland Avenue Reserve runs through.
 Blaxland Road
 Eastwood
 Wentworth Falls

In 1963 he was honoured, together with Lawson and Wentworth, on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post depicting the Blue Mountains crossing.

See also
 Land exploration of Australia
 List of Blue Mountains articles

References

External links

English explorers
Explorers of Australia
British emigrants to the Colony of New South Wales
Suicides in the British Empire
People from the Blue Mountains (New South Wales)
Burials in New South Wales
1778 births
1853 deaths
History of the Blue Mountains (New South Wales)
Eastwood, New South Wales
1850s suicides

Gregory Blaxland


Marduk (Cuneiform:  dAMAR.UTU; Sumerian: amar utu.k "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) was a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon who eventually rose to become the king of the gods in the First Millennium BCE. In the city of Babylon, Marduk was worshipped in the temple Esagila. His symbol is the spade and he is associated with the Mušḫuššu.

By the First Millennium BCE, Marduk had become astrologically associated with the planet Jupiter.

Name

The name of Marduk was solely spelled as dAMAR.UTU in the Old Babylonian Period, although other spellings such as MES and dŠA.ZU were also in use since the Kassite Period. In the First Millennium, the ideograms dŠU and KU were regularly used. The logogram for Adad is also occasionally used to spell Marduk.

Texts from the Old Babylonian period support the pronunciation Marutu or Marutuk, with the shortened spelling Martuk or Marduk attested starting from the Kassite period. His name in Hebrew, Merodak, supports the longer version, and First Millennium Assyrian and Babylonian texts employ the long spelling when the circumstances call for the precise form of the name. The personal name Martuku is not to be confused with the god Marduk. Marduk was commonly called Bēl (lord) in the First Millennium BCE.

The etymology for the name Marduk is generally understood to be derived from damar-utu-(a)k, meaning "bull-calf of Utu". Sommerfield suggests this is used to explain the name Marduk in the Enuma Elish:

lu-ú ma-ru Šamši ša ilāni né-bu-ú šu-ma

"He is the "son of the sun" of the gods, radiant is he."
While the name may suggest a relationship with Shamash, Marduk has no genealogy with the sun god. However, Babylon was closely associated with the city of Sippar in this period, which may have been the reason for the name.

History

Third Millennium BCE

Marduk, along with the city of Babylon, was unimportant and sparsely attested in the Third Millennium BCE. The earliest mention to Marduk comes from a fragmentary inscription, most likely dating to the Early Dynastic II period. It is left by an unnamed ruler of the city of BAR.KI.BAR (likely Babylon) who constructed a temple for Marduk. A text from the Fara period seems to mention Marduk without the divine determinative, and a fragment of a god list from Abu Salabikh contains dutu-ama[r], likely Marduk written with reversed sign order. A dubious reference to Marduk in the Ur III period comes from the possible personal name"Amar-Sin is the star of Marduk," although Johandi suggests that the god Martu who appeared together with Enki and Damgalnuna in the Ur III period could possibly refer instead to the similarly named Marduk who is otherwise missing in Ur III documentation, as Martu is later attested to have a different parentage (Anu and Urash) and Marduk is later considered the son of Enki/Ea. If so, this could be evidence that Marduk was already part of the pantheon of Eridu in the Ur III period.

Old Babylonian Period

Under Sumu-la-el, Marduk appeared in oaths and several year names, namely year name 22 which recorded fashioning a throne for Marduk and year name 24 which recorded making a statue for Zarpanitum. Marduk also started to appear in theophoric names, which would become more frequent in the following decades but would remain rare, appearing in less than 1% of names, although it would grow to 1-2% under Hammurabi. During the reigns of Sabium, Apil-Sin and Sin-muballit, Marduk started to be mentioned outside of the city of Babylon and was invoked alongside local gods in cities subject to the Babylonian kings. Starting from the reign of Hammurabi, sanctuaries to Marduk were found in other cities.

In the Old Babylonian Period, while Marduk is acknowledged to be the ruler of the people, there is no evidence that Hammurabi or his successors promoted Marduk at the expense of other gods. Enlil was still recognized as the highest authority, and Marduk was far from being the pantheon head, instead appearing to be a mediator between the great gods and Hammurabi. This is also expressed in inscriptions from Hammurabi's successor Samsu-iluna, expressing that he receives Enlil's orders through the other gods, such as Ishtar, Zababa, Shamash and of course Marduk.

A key development during the Old Babylonian period was the association of Marduk with the pantheon of Eridu. Marduk was syncretized with Asalluhi in the later half of the Old Babylonian period, and the opening of the Code of Hammurabi identify Ea as the father of Marduk, a genealogy that would remain canonical. God lists from the Old Babylonian period place him within Enki's circle, sometimes as an intrusion by another scribe.

According to the Marduk prophecy and inscriptions of Agum II, the statue of Marduk and Zarpanitum were removed from Babylon by Mursili I, which was returned during the reign of Agum II.

Middle Babylonian Period

In the Kassite period, theophoric names containing Marduk grew to over 10%, and the local temple to Marduk in Nippur was firmly integrated and well established. The Kassite kings sometimes gave Marduk pompous epithets, showing Marduk's growing popularity, however Enlil still ranks as the most important Mesopotamian god, still heading the list along with Anu and Ea. At least five Kassite kings bore theophoric names containing Enlil, and Kassite kings, especially Nazi-Maruttash and Kudur-Enlil, are known to have visited Nippur at the beginning of the year. Kurigalzu calls himself the "regent of Enlil" and Dur-Kurigalzu's temple complex holds temples to Enlil, Ninlil and Ninurta.

There are two administrative documents from Nippur from the reigns of two Kassite kings, perhaps Nazi-Maruttash and Shagarakti-Shuriash, that mention the celebration of the akitu festival connected to Marduk. Another text claims the late Kassite king Adad-shuma-usur embarked on a pilgrimage from Babylon to Borsippa and Kutha, Marduk, Nabu and Nergal respectively. However, there are reasons to doubt the historicity of these texts, especially the alleged journey of Adad-shuma-usur since the trio of Marduk, Nabu and Nergal fit the ideology of the first millennium. Nonetheless, the texts could be evidence that the rise of Marduk was a gradual process that began before Nebuchadnezzar I. Similarly, in the god list An = Anum the number 50, Enlil's number, was assigned to Marduk instead.

Marduk was found in Ugarit in an Akkadian hymn that may have been part of the scribal school curriculum.

During the Kassite period, Nabu, previously the scribe of Marduk, came to be viewed as Marduk's son.

Second Dynasty of Isin

By the time of the Isin II dynasty, an established syncretism of Babylon and Nippur (and by extension Marduk and Enlil) was in place. The names of the city walls were switched, with Imgur-Enlil and Nimit-Enlil in Babylon while Imgur-Marduk and Nimit-Marduk were in Nippur. A first millennium bilingual hymn to Nippur links Babylon and Nippur together:

Nippur is the city of Enlil, Babylon is his favorite.
Nippur and Babylon, their meaning is the same.

The ideology of the supremacy of Marduk is generally viewed to have been promoted by Nebuchadnezzar I and his successors. Nebuchadnezzar's second campaign into Elam and the return of the statue of Marduk that was carried off to Elam by either Shutruk-Nahhunte or his son Kutir-Nahhunte in 1155 BCE is thought to be the trigger. However, there are chronological problems regarding the abduction of the statue by the Elamites, as the statue of Marduk abducted by Tukulti-Ninurta wasn't returned yet by the Assyrians before the Elamites sacked Babylon in 1155 BCE. Johnson suggests that Tukulti-Ninurta could have taken a different statue of Marduk while the main cult statue was taken by Kuter-Nahhunte, while Bányai believes that immediately following the return of the statue of Marduk by Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur a second invasion by Kuter-Nahhunte carried off the same statue.

Nonetheless, beginning from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, acknowledgement of Marduk's supremacy over other gods was now the norm. A kudurru dating to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar claims that Marduk, now the "king of the gods" directly dispatched Nebuchadnezzar and gave him weapons, and in the Epic of Nebuchadnezzar, it is Marduk who commanded the gods to abandon Babylonia. A kudurru from the reign of Enlil-nadin-apli calls Marduk the "king of the gods, the lord of the lands," a title that Enlil traditionally held. Likewise, when Simbar-shipak, the first king of the Second Dynasty of Sealand, made Enlil a replacement throne for the one made by Nebuchadnezzar, in his mind this was actually dedicated to Marduk. Other texts, such as Akkadian prayers and incantations also call Marduk the king of the gods.

First Millennium BCE

The earliest copy of the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, was found in the city of Assur and dated to the 9th Century, although the text could go back to the Isin II period. Dalley believes that the Enuma Elish may have been composed during the Old Babylonian Period, although other scholars consider it unlikely. The Enuma Elish describes Marduk's ascendance to kingship by defeating Tiamat. In the end, Marduk is proclaimed the ruler, declares Babylon as the city of kingship, received his fifty names (fifty being the number of Enlil), while Enlil is ignored.

In Assyrian sources, most of the mentions of Marduk's supreme power and authority came from the reigns of the Sargonids. Generally, the Neo-Assyrian kings cared for Babylon and the cult of Marduk. Shalmaneser III visited multiple Babylonian sanctuaries, including that of Marduk's. Tiglath-pileser, after conquering Babylonia, participated in the Akitu festival in Babylon, and Sargon made Babylon his temporary residence while Dur-Sharrukin was under construction and took part in the Akitu. Things changed during the reign of Sennacherib, who after a series of revolts and the extradition of the crown prince Assur-nadin-shumi to the Elamites who probably killed him, decided to destroy Babylon. The Destruction of Babylon in 689 BCE was, judging from Sennacherib's own accounts, bad by Neo-Assyrian standards. However, outside of claiming to have destroyed the temples and the cult statues, there was no explicit mention of the fate of Marduk's statue, although Esarhaddon would later claim that the cult statue was taken from Babylon. Sennacherib followed with a religious reform, the infrastructure of Assur was refashioned on the model of Babylon's, and the Assyrian edition of the Enuma Elish replaced Marduk with the god Ashur (spelled as Anshar) and Babylon with Assur (spelled as Baltil). Other texts referencing Marduk were also adapted and changed to fit Ashur instead, and a bed and throne dedicated to Marduk were rededicated to Ashur after the furniture was brought from Babylon to Assur. The Marduk Ordeal contained cultic commentaries on the Akitu festival reinterpreted to refer to instead Marduk's punishment. However, the more radical reforms were reversed under the reign of his successor Esarhaddon, who also oversaw the reconstruction of Babylon and the eventual return of the statue of Marduk under Šamaš-šuma-ukin. Esarhaddon also crafted a narrative justifying both Sennacherib's destruction and his rebuilding by citing Marduk's divine anger as the cause for the destruction of Babylon. Marduk originally decreed for the city to be abandoned for seventy years, but relented and allowed Esarhaddon to rebuild it.

Nabonassar claimed that Marduk proclaimed him lordship and had ordered him to "plunder his enemy's land" (referring to Assyria), who only ruled Babylonia due to divine anger. He claimed that he killed the Assyrian and laid waste to his lands by the command of Marduk and Nabu and with the weapons of Erra, which was the main trio of the First Millennium Babylonian ideology. In literary texts from the Achaemenid and Seleucid eras, Marduk is said to have commissioned Nabonassar to take revenge on the land of Akkad (Babylonia). In royal inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian kings, Marduk is exalted as the king of the gods and as the source of their authority, while Enlil is hardly ever mentioned except when in relation to the city of Nippur. In a Late Babylonian god list, all the gods on the list were identified with Marduk. For example, Ninurta was Marduk of the pickaxe, Nabu was Marduk of accounting, Shamash was Marduk of justice and Tishpak was Marduk of the troops. This "syncretistic tendency" is observed in other late texts, where the other gods appear as aspects of Marduk.

Cyrus, justifying his conquest of Babylonia, claimed that Marduk had abandoned Nabonidus who offended Marduk by turning his back on the Esagila in the Cyrus Cylinder. Another anti-Nabonidus text, the Verse Account, explains that Nabonidus favoured Sin over Marduk. Nabonidus' reverence for the moon god may have been because of familial roots to the city of Harran, and later he even revived the religious institutions of Ur, the main sanctuary of Sin.

Characteristics

His symbol is the spade and he is associated with the Mušḫuššu, a dragon-like creature from Mesopotamian mythology.

Since sources pertaining to Marduk in the early periods are sparse, Marduk's original role is unknown. However, since Marduk appeared in the Abu Salabikh list behind three minor deities whose names point to a possible connection with the underworld, Johandi suggests that Marduk may have been a minor god connected to the underworld. Similarly, Oshima recently proposed that Marduk may have originally had a role similar to Nergal, which may even explain why the logogram dAMAR.UTU is used in Hittite texts to write the name of the god Šanta, who was similar in nature to Nergal. In the earlier forerunners to the Udug Hul where both Marduk and Asalluhi appear together in a passage Marduk, in contrast to Asalluhi, does not help the victim but instead captures him, either because of his powerlessness or because he simply refused to help. Oshima interpreted the passage as supporting the idea that Marduk's original role was illness and death. Similarly, in Sin-iddinam's prayer to Ninisina, Asalluhi (here identified with Marduk) imposing an evil spell on Sin-iddinam (the king of Larsa) causing him to become sick may reflect that Marduk's power to cause illness extended beyond the dominion of Babylon. However Sommerfield, who previously believed that there was little evidence for Marduk being related to magic, more recently suggested that Marduk was originally a god of incantations before his syncretism with Asalluhi. Jacobsen suggests that Marduk was originally a storm god due to the storm imageries in the Enuma Elish, wielding the four winds and storms as weapons, and assigning to himself the rain and clouds that came from Tiamat's corpse. Abusch, citing Jacobsen, also believes that Marduk was a storm god, and may have been associated with water and vegetation before joining the pantheon of Eridu as it is improbable to suppose that all of Marduk's traits with water as being taken from the circle of Enki. However, there is no other evidence suggesting that Marduk was originally a local storm god, and the usage of wind and storm as weapons are not limited to storm gods. Schwemer points to Ninurta (who is not a storm god) as the original model for Marduk using storms, winds and floods as weapons. Marduk's symbol, the spade, may point to him originally being an god of agriculture, or more likely as a god of canals and by extension fertility. Unlike Abusch, Oshima believes that Marduk's association with water came from his association with canals. He is depicted as the supplier of water in Prayer to Marduk no.2, dating to the Kassite period, and was praised as the bringer of water from rivers, seasonal floods and rains to the fields. Various prayers to Marduk refer to his connection with springs and rivers, and Ashurbanipal applies the epithet "the canal inspector of the heavens and the earth" to Marduk.

Sin-iddinam's prayer to Ninisina shares similar motifs with the Prayer to Marduk no.1 and Ludlul bel nemeqi, where Marduk's anger is blamed for some certain ailment affecting the sufferer, and can only be remedied by Marduk having mercy and forgiving them. In the Prayer to Marduk no.1, Marduk is asked to not kill his client, and in Ludlul Marduk is praised for his mercy after forgiving his client. As such, some scholars claim that Marduk was being praised for his wrath, and others claim that Marduk comes off as having "unpredictable mood swings." Lambert also points to one of Marduk's names in the Enuma Elish, Meršakušu ("savage, yet relenting"), suggests that the Babylonians may have stressed Marduk's mercy so he could be less savage, although Oshima proposes that the Babylonians had to stress both his wrath and mercy to appease him. Others believe that the purpose of the poem was to stress that Marduk's true inner quality was mercy and benevolence. The Prayer to Marduk no.2, on the other hand, praises Marduk's power to heal, which may have been as a result of syncretism with Asalluhi.

Due to being the son of Ea, Marduk had connections with the River Ordeal.

Myths and Literature

Enuma Elish

The Enuma Elish, generally believed to have been composed in the Isin II period, details Marduk's rise to power as the king of the gods. There are similarities between the Epic of Creation and the Anzu myth as well as other traditions related to Ninurta. The Tablet of Destinies is a key object in both myths, and Marduk uses largely the same weapons as Ninurta. A ritual tablet mentions how the Epic of Creation would be recited and possibly reenacted during the Akitu festival, on the fourth day of the month of Nisannu. The epic starts off by mentioning Apsu and Tiamat, here the oldest gods, and created a younger generation of the gods. However, Apsu was disturbed by their noisiness and decided to kill them. Ea, however, found out about the plot and kills Apsu and takes his splendour. Later Marduk was born to Ea and Damkina, and already at birth he was special. Tiamat then decides to wage war against the younger generation of the gods, giving Kingu the Tablet of Destinies and appointing him as the commander. Marduk volunteers to do battle against Tiamat and defeats her. The world was fashioned from Tiamat's corpse with Babylon as the center, and Marduk assumes kingship and receives his fifty names.
The fifty names taken was based on the An = Anum god list, the columnar arrangement removed and slotted in.
One of his titles, bēl mātāti (king of the lands) originally belonged to Enlil, who was conspicuously missing from the epic except when he gave this title to Marduk

Ludlul bel nemeqi

Also known as the "Babylonian Job," the poem describes the narrator's suffering caused by Marduk's anger, causing him to lose his job and to experience hostility from his friends and family. Diviners were incapable of helping him and his personal protective spirits and gods also did not come to help. He claims that nobody understood the actions of the gods, and despite the narrator's protests of innocence and that he had always been pious to the gods and never abandoned him, he quickly became ill and was on death's bed. Then, in a series of dreams, he met a young man, an incantation priest that purified him, a young woman with a godlike appearance who came to say that his suffering had ended, and an incantation priest from Babylon. Afterwards, the narrator praises Marduk's mercy which was the main point of the text despite the expressions of Marduk's anger.

Epic of Erra
In the Erra epic, Erra convinced Marduk to leave Esagil and to go to the netherworld, leaving Erra to become king. Afterwards, Erra wreaks havoc on all the cities and causes instability. Marduk came back and lamented the state of Babylon. Unlike the Enuma Elish which championed Marduk as the bringer of peace and stability, Marduk is here the one who brought instability by leaving his seat, thus bringing darkness upon the world. He also indirectly brought war by yielding to Erra.

Marduk Ordeal

Written in the Assyrian dialect, versions of the so-called Marduk Ordeal Text are known from Assur, Nimrud and Nineveh. Using sceneries and language familiar to the procession of the Akitu Festival, here Marduk is instead being held responsible for crimes committed against Ashur and was subject to a river ordeal and imprisonment. The text opens with Nabu arriving in Babylon looking for Marduk, his father. Tashmetum prayed to Sin and Shamash. Meanwhile, Marduk was being held captive, the color red on his clothes was reinterpreted to be his blood, and the case was brought forward to the god Ashur. The city of Babylon also seemingly rebelled against Marduk, and Nabu learned that Marduk was taken to the river ordeal. Marduk claims that everything was done for the good of the god Ashur and prays to the gods to let him live. After various alternate cultic commentaries, the Assyrian version of the Enuma Elish was recited, proclaiming Ashur's superiority. However, despite the content, the Marduk Ordeal was not simply an anti-Marduk piece of literature. At no point was Marduk actually accused of a crime, and the end of the text seems to suggest that the gods fought to get Marduk out by drilling holes through the door which he is locked behind. Marduk also appeared in the curse section, so it is possible that the majority of the blame was put on the Babylonians for leading Marduk astray, while Marduk retains a position within the pantheon. While most attribute this text to Sennacherib's destruction of Babylon, Frymer-Kensky suggests that the background could be the return of Marduk's statue to Babylon in 669 BCE.

Enmesharra's Defeat

Known from only 1 copy and with a badly damaged top half, Enmesharra's Defeat is likely composed in the Seleucid or Parthian era. Structurally similar to the Enuma Elish, the text starts with Enmesharra and his seven sons going against Marduk, who subsequently defeated them and threw them into jail with Nergal as the prison warden. The preserved portion starts with Nergal announcing Marduk's judgement to Enmesharra that he and his sons would all be put to death, and Enmesharra laments about Marduk's terrible judgement and pleads with Nergal. Nergal replies, but the text breaks off. Nergal is then shown to be escorting Enmesharra and his sons to Marduk, who first beheads the sons, and Enmesharra's radiance was then taken and given to Shamash. Nabu was also given the power of Ninurta, Nergal those of Erra, and Marduk took Enlil's power. Marduk, Nabu and Nergal then shared the throne, which likely previously belonged to Anu, together. The gods were then assigned their cities, and a voice from heaven could be heard. A fish-goat praised Marduk as the exalted lord, and the text ends with the gods gathering at Babylon.

Syncretisms

Asalluhi
The earliest evidence of Asalluhi's syncretism with Marduk is Sin-iddinam's prayer to Ninisina, where Asalluhi was called the "king of Babylon." An Old Babylonian text substitutes "son of Eridu" for "lord of Tintir" as a title for Asalluhi (Tintir being another attested name for Babylon.) In Hammurabi's prayer to Asalluhi, he is clearly viewed as synonymous with Marduk. However, in a prayer for Samsu-iluna, Marduk and Asalluhi were mentioned as separate gods, suggesting that the syncretism Marduk = Asalluhi was not yet fully established as canonical in the Old Babylonian period. Johandi also suggests that keeping Marduk and Asalluhi separate was a deliberate act on the part of Samsu-iluna to reclaim authority over the southern cities, which were centers of rebellion during the early years of his reign.

Sommerfield suggested that the syncretism of may have been due to both having a similar role as a god of incantations, or because Asalluhi was more well known in Southern Babylonia compared to Marduk, who was still a local god. Lambert also believes the syncretism to be a means to elevate Marduk to a more respectable position. Johandi proposes that Marduk and Asalluhi were identified for some other reason other than magic, and Marduk only became a god associated with magic after being syncretized with Asalluhi.

Enlil

The syncretism of Babylon and Nippur was in place from the Isin II period, and the names of the city walls were switched, with Imgur-Enlil and Nimit-Enlil in Babylon while Imgur-Marduk and Nimit-Marduk were in Nippur. By extension, Marduk was also identified with Enlil, and in the Isin II period Marduk was attested with Enlil's titles. Marduk was often called the "Enlil of the gods" in the First Millennium.

A statue of Marduk, conveniently named "King of the gods of Heaven and the Underworld" was placed in Enlil's sanctuary in Babylon, and Marduk receives the title bēl mātāti "king of the lands" in the Enuma Elish.

Tutu

The previous patron deity of Borsippa. Although Hammurabi recognized Tutu's dominion as extending over Borsippa and E-zida, Tutu became another name for Marduk after Hammurabi, but became a byname for Nabu in the First Millennium. Tutu was also a name for Marduk in the Enuma Elish. In the bird call text, the bird of Enmesharra calls that he sinned against Tutu, here meaning Marduk.

Notes

Citations

References

See also
 Mesopotamian Religion
 Babylon
 Zakmuk
 Akitu

External links

 Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Marduk (god)
 Enuma Elish – The Babylonian Creation Story

Characters in the Enūma Eliš
Creator deities
Creator gods
Deities in the Hebrew Bible
Jovian deities
Justice gods
Magic gods
Medicine gods
Mesopotamian gods
Nature gods
Tutelary gods
Water gods

Marduk


Hajji Mohammad Hossein Isfahani (born 1758, Isfahan - died 1823) was an architect and political leader in Isfahan, Persia under the rule of Qajar Persian emperor Fath Ali Shah.

Biography
In 1795 or 1796 he was named governor (beglarbegi) of Isfahan, Qom, and Kashan. In this role, Mohammad Hossein invested heavily in agriculture, which increased his own wealth and contributed to Isfahan's economic revival. In 1806 he was appointed mostowfi ol-mamalek, given the title Amin ol-Dowleh, and his son, Abd ol-Hossein Khan Isfahani succeeded him as beglarbegi. In 1809, Mohammad Hossein presented the Peacock Throne to the shah at the shah's marriage to Tarvus Khanum Taj ol-Dowleh. In 1813 he was given the title Nizam al-Dawla. In 1818, Mirza Shafi Mazandarani died and Mohammad Hossein was appointed to the position of sadr-e a'zam which he held until his death in 1823.

Mohammad Hossein was close to Scottish diplomat John Macdonald Kinneir, whose reports play an important role in our understanding of Mohammad Hossein's career and building. Mohammad Hossein's term as governor led to the most extensive renovating and building in Qajar times. He renovated Masjid-e Jami, and Madrasa-e Abdallah. He built three madrasas, including Sadr school, built a new palace, renovating many bazaars, restoring and expanding the canal system, and enclosing slums. He removed the famous clock on the Naqsh-e Jahan, rebuilt parts of the Safavid Haft Dast palace and renovated the Bagh-e Anguristan, the Hasht Behesht, and the Talar-e Tavila. He also built a new avenue through the Khaju quarter, Chahar Bagh-e Chinarsu (aka Bagh e Now and Bagh-e Sadri). He also constructed the royal garden, Imarat-e Sadr (aka Imarat-i Naw). Mohammad Hossein was not universally praised, Rustam al-Hukama considered him an "uneducated parvenu" and claimed that Mohammad Hossein and his brothers had stolen the possessions and royal insignia of Jafar Khan Zand when Zand fled to Shiraz in 1785.

Mohammad Hossein's son, Mohammad Ibrahim Khan Nazir ol-Dowleh, married one of the Fath Ali Shah Qajar's daughters (Khadijeh Soltan Begom, "Esmat-ed-Dowleh)  and Khan's daughter married Husayn Ali Mirza Farmanfarma, governor of Shiraz. Khan died October 19, 1823.

See also
 Abdollah Khan Amin ol-Dowleh

References

Sources

Afnan, Mirza Habibu'llah, ed. The Genesis of the Bâabâi-Bahâaâi Faiths in Shâirâaz and Fâars. Vol. 122. Brill, 2008.
Ansari, Passim, and Abd al-Husayn Sipanta, Tarikhshan-i awqaf-i Isfahan (Isfahan, 1364/1967), 4
Lambton, Ann SK. Landlord and peasant in Persia: a study of land tenure and land revenue administration. IB Tauris, 1991.

19th-century Iranian politicians
1758 births
1823 deaths
Qajar governors of Isfahan
Mostowfi ol-Mamaleks (title)
19th-century Iranian architects
18th-century Iranian politicians

Hajji Mohammad Hossein Isfahani


Himilco (died 396 BC) was a member of the Magonids, a Carthaginian family of hereditary generals, and had command over the Carthaginian forces between 406 BC and 397 BC. He is chiefly known for his war in Sicily against Dionysius I of Syracuse.

Between 550 BC and 375 BC, the Magonid Family of Carthage played a central role in the political and military affairs of the Carthaginian Empire. Himilco came to prominence after being selected as deputy to his cousin Hannibal Mago in 406 BC for the Carthaginian expedition to Sicily. He took command of the expedition after Hannibal's death and sacked Akragas, Gela and Camarina while fighting off determined Greek opposition led by successive leaders of Syracuse.

The peace treaty Himilco concluded with Dionysius of Syracuse in 405 BC expanded Carthaginian holdings in Sicily to their maximum extent. Elected "king" around 398 BC, Himilco then led the Carthaginian effort against Dionysius from that date. Although initially successful, Himilco suffered a reverse at Syracuse in 396 BC when his forces were decimated by the plague and then defeated by Dionysius. He managed to bring the Carthaginian members of his army home after bribing Dionysius and abandoning his other troops. Himilco publicly assumed full responsibility for the debacle, and after visiting all the temples of the city dressed as a slave to offer penance, he is said to have starved himself to death.

Early life
Nothing is known about the early life or family of Himilco. His family had been active in Carthaginian politics since 550 BC, expanding the empire in Sicily, Africa, Iberia and Sardinia during between 550 BC and 480 BC. The power of the position of "king" diminished after the defeat of his grandfather Hamilcar Mago at Himera in 480 BC with the rise of the council of Hundred and Four with the power to try and punish Carthaginian commanders. The Magonid family continued to be active in Carthaginian foreign affairs while Himilco was alive.

Himilco's father, probably Hanno, led a famous expedition down the west African coast to Cameroon, while his uncle, perhaps the famous Himilco the Navigator, had explored the western coast of Iberia, Gaul and may have reached England, seeking to tap into the tin trade with the Celts. Hanno, Himilco and their brother Gisco, along with Hannibal, Hasdrubal and Sappho (sons of Hasdrubal, the brother of Hamilcar Mago), also were active in expanding the Carthaginian domain in northern Africa and Sardinia and ending the payment of tribute to the Libyans. Gisco, however, had been exiled to Selinus, a Greek city on the south-western coast of Sicily, after the defeat at Himera. Hannibal Mago, son of Gisco, was the suffet of Carthage in 409 BC and led the expedition to Sicily which destroyed both Selinus and Himera and made Segesta a vassal entity. It is not known if Himilco had played a part in these activities, although the army had attracted a large number of Carthaginian citizens at that time. Hannibal Mago was elected "king" for his successes in Sicily.

Deputy to Hannibal Mago
The Carthaginian Senate requested Hannibal Mago to command the Carthaginian expedition to Sicily in 406 BC to punish Hermocrates for raiding Carthaginian possessions around Motya and Panormus. Hannibal initially refused, pleading old age, but accepted when the Carthaginian Senate elected Himilco as his deputy. Hannibal led 60,000 soldiers and 1000 transports, escorted by 120 triremes to Sicily, where the cities of Akragas and Syracuse had gathered soldiers from Sicily and southern Italy to oppose the Carthaginians.

In the spring of 406 BC, Hannibal laid siege to Akragas, the wealthiest city in Sicily by "straddling" the city with 2 camps, while the Carthaginian fleet was based at Motya.   The main Carthaginian army was in the western camp while the eastern one housed the Iberian and Campanian mercenaries. Akragas could field 10,000 hoplites  and some cavalry and also had 1,500 crack mercenaries under the Spartan Dexippus in the city.

After the initial Carthaginian assault on the city gate nearest to the main Carthaginian camp with two siege towers failed, Hannibal then began to build siege ramps to assault the city from several directions.   However, a plague swept through the Carthaginian army and Hannibal perished with many of his soldiers. Himilco was elected as the commander of the Carthaginian force. Because the Carthaginians had demolished tombs to get materials for the siege ramps, many of the Carthaginian soldiers believed that divine anger had caused the plague.

Appeasing the divine
Himilco's first challenge was to tackle the plague. Left unchecked, the plague would have decimated the Carthaginians, and if Himilco retreated, the Greeks might have carried the war into Carthaginian territories in Sicily. Himilco was in no position to force an advantageous truce – and defeated generals were often crucified in Carthage.

Himilco chose to sacrifice some animals to the sea and also sacrificed a child to a god Greeks associated with Cronos. It is not known if the Carthaginians had taken any practical measures to combat the plague, but the plague stopped. Himilco then resumed the ramp building and also dammed the Hypsas River to gain better access to the city.   Before he could complete his siege of Akragas, Daphaenus of Syracuse arrived with 35,000 Sicilian soldiers along with Greek soldiers from the Italian mainland.   Himilco kept a part of his army in the main camp to watch Akragas while the mercenaries marched east to fight the Greeks. Daphaenus defeated the mercenaries, drove the survivors to the main camp and occupied the eastern camp, thus lifting the siege.   Himilco chose not to offer battle to the victorious Greeks, but he did not abandon his position either.

Starvation and mutiny
The Carthaginians were dependent of supplies brought overland from Western Sicily and through foraging. There were no natural harbours near Akragas to house a large supply fleet, while beached ships could be surprised and captured while ships remaining on the open seas could be destroyed by storms.  Daphenaus began to harass the Carthaginians using peltasts and cavalry from Akragas and soon the Carthaginians faced a food shortage as less and less supplies got through.  With morale falling, the mercenaries came close to mutiny as winter approached.

Managing men and fortune
Himilco temporarily placated the unruly mercenaries by bribing them with the gold and silver tableware of the Carthaginian officers. He still needed to improve his supply situation – and he seized on opportune information to achieve this.   The Greeks were using grain ships escorted by 30 triremes to supply Akragas and their army, and had become lax due to the absence of Carthaginian ships in the vicinity. Just prior to the winter the Carthaginians managed to learn of the approach of one such convoy. Himilco then summoned 40 triremes from Motya and Panormus, which sailed up during the night and remained hidden from Greek scouts, then surprised the Greek flotilla at dawn.  The Carthaginians sank 8 Greek triremes and captured the entire supply flotilla.   The Carthaginians now had food to last for several months and their morale improved.

The Greeks now faced a problem – there was not enough food stocked at Akragas to feed both the population and the army until further supplies could be gathered – and organizing that would take time because of the winter season.   Mistrust between Greeks from various quarters now burst open when this news became public – thus reducing their ability to take a joint decision regarding continuing the conflict. Himilco further aggravated the situation by bribing some Campanian mercenaries – who deserted to him. Rumours circulated that the Spartan general, Dexippus, leading 1,500 mercenaries, had also been bribed by Himilco.   The tension now caused the Greek army to fall apart. Italian Greeks quit Akragas rather than face starvation, and soon other Greeks contingents along the whole population marched east to Gela. Himilco took possession of the city, which was sacked and the Carthaginian army wintered in the city.

Siege of Gela and Sack of Camarina
In the following spring Himilco levelled Akragas and marched east to Gela. He did not surround the city with siege walls or "straddle" it by building several camps, but chose to encamp to the west of the city and capture the city through a direct assault. The Carthaginians duly attacked the west wall of Gela with battering rams but the Greeks beat back the attack and repaired the breaches in the walls during the night.   Dionysius soon arrived with a relief force consisting of 30,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 50 triremes and camped to the east of the city. Himilco chose to await developments in his camp and did not offer battle.

Following the script used at Akragas, Dionysius harassed Carthaginian supply columns for 3 weeks with light troops. Greek soldiers had other ideas and forced him to attack the Carthaginians. The Greeks then launched a three pronged attack on the Carthaginian camp. The imaginative battle plan, if implemented properly, might have trapped the Carthaginians but for the lack of coordination among Greek army units, which enabled the Carthaginians to defeat the Greeks. Dionysus then abandoned Gela and fell back to Camarina, and then left Camarina for Syracuse, while both the cities were sacked by Himilco's forces as the Carthaginians marched towards Syracuse.

Himilco did not press the pursuit but marched on Syracuse slowly. He thus missed an opportunity to destroy the forces loyal to Dionysius – because some Greek rebels had managed to seize Syracuse while the Greeks of Gela and Camarina had marched off to Leontini with the Italian Greeks. Dionysius was left adrift between the Carthaginian army and a hostile Syracuse, although he took speedy action and managed to recapture Syracuse. Himilco and the Carthaginians camped near Syracuse but made no attempt to besiege the city. After a few weeks Himilco sent a herald with a peace offer. It has been speculated that a plague had broken out in the Carthaginian camp, causing the Carthaginians to request a truce. During the whole campaign Himilco had lost more than half his army to the plague.

Treaty of 405 BC
The treaty left Carthaginians supreme in Sicily with Syracuse isolated and Dionysius under suspicion of being a Carthaginian collaborator. The main conditions were:
 Carthage kept full control of the Phoenician cities in Sicily;
 Elymian and Sikan cities were to be in the Carthaginian "sphere of influence";
 the Greeks were allowed to return to Selinus, Akragas, Camarina and Gela. These cities, including the new city of Therma, would pay tribute to Carthage;
 Gela and Camarina were forbidden to repair their walls;
 the Sicels and Messina were to remain free of Carthaginian and Syracusan influence, as was Leontini. This effectively isolated Syracuse from the rest of Sicily;
 Dionysius was confirmed as ruler of Syracuse; and
 both sides agreed to release prisoners and ships captured during the campaign.
In return for recognizing Dionysius as the ruler of Syracuse, Himilco ensured the total reversal of all the conquests of Gelo and Hieron. Neutral powers now bordered the Syracusan domain, and the independence of these was guaranteed by both Carthage and Dionysius.

Gela, Camarina, Akragas and Himera had become tribute paying Carthaginian vassals, while the Sicanians and Elymians were part of the Carthaginian domain. Himilco had ensured Carthaginian rule was at its apex in Sicily, a position it would not again reach until 289 BC. Himilco garrisoned Western Sicily and disbanded the army.

King of Carthage
Himilco was elected "king" between 405 BC and 398 BC, so he was in Carthage part of that time. It is not known if he had any part in ruling the Sicilian territories, where Carthaginian rule was deemed harsh on her new subjects. When Dionysius broke the peace treaty in 404 BC by attacking the Sicel city of Herbessus, Carthage, possibly weakened by the plague, did not respond. In 403 BC Carthage provided mercenaries to restore Dionysius to power after he was besieged in Syracuse by a coalition of Sicilian Greek cities led by Syracusan rebels.

Dionysius massively fortified the city of Syracuse between 400 BC and 398 BC and built up his forces, adding new weapons like the catapult and quinqueremes to his arsenal. In 398 BC he attacked the Carthaginian city of Motya, sparking off the first of four wars he would launch on Carthage. The Greeks and Sicilians rebelled and joined Dionysius, leaving only 5 cities (Panormus, Solus, Segesta, Entella and Ankyara) in Sicily loyal to Carthage. The Greeks besieged simultaneously Motya, Segesta and Entella in Sicily while Himilco began to mobilize Carthaginian forces.

Siege of Motya
Without a standing army Himilco could not go to the aid of Motya immediately. While Carthage raised mercenaries and organized logistics, Himilco sent 10 triremes to attack Syracuse itself, hoping to draw off the Greeks from Motya. Although the Carthaginians sank whatever was afloat in the harbour of Syracuse, Dionysius did not withdraw his soldiers from Western Sicily. Himilco could not mount an assault on undefended Syracuse as he lacked soldiers.

Himilco next manned 100 triremes and sailed to Selinus in Sicily and then arrived at Motya the following day. The Greeks had beached their transports to the south of Motya and their warships to the north, while the crews were busy building siege works. The Carthaginians first burned all beached transports then sailed north, trapping the Greek ships in the shallow waters north of the island of Motya. Had Himilco attacked the beached Greeks warships he may have won a great victory. The Carthaginian ships were positioned superbly on the narrow mouth of the channel between the Island of Motya and the isthmus, so the Greeks would not be able to sail out with their whole fleet, and if they sailed out in small groups they would face difficulty in manoeuvring and reforming.

Himilco's stratagem failed because instead of trying to engage the Carthaginian fleet, Dionysius sent his catapult armed ships and land based catapults to engage the Carthaginians with missiles. While Himilco's crews suffered casualties, Dionysius had his men drag 80 triremes across the base of the isthmus to the north of Motya into the open sea beyond. These ships then sailed south so the Carthaginians in turn were almost trapped between the Greeks firing catapults and the triremes. The Carthaginians sailed back to Carthage, and Motya eventually fell after days of fierce street fighting.

Sicilian Campaign 398 BC - 396 BC
After capturing Motya, Dionysius kept Segesta and Entella under siege, garrisoned Motya and withdrew to Syracuse, while his brother Leptines was posted at Eryx with 120 ships (triremes and quinqueremes). Himilco marshalled an army of 50,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 400 chariots, while the Carthaginian navy mobilized 400 triremes and 600 transports.   In term of number of warships this was the largest armada ever mobilized by Carthage. To keep any information from leaking to the Greeks, Himilco wrote down the armada's destinations in sealed letters, which were issued to his captains at the last moment.  These letters were to be opened only if a storm caused the ships to become separated and lose sight of their flagship. The Carthaginian armada split into two groups: the transports headed straight for Panormus while the warships sailed north before turning east. Leptines managed to sink 50 transports (with 5,000 men and 200 chariots) but the rest of the transports reached Panormus aided by an opportune wind.

Motya retaken
The Carthaginians, reinforced by Elymian and Sikan soldiers first marched to Motya from Panormus. Eryx, which had been betrayed to Dionysius through treachery, now fell to Himilco.  Himilco next attacked and captured Motya,   but decided to establish a city at Lilybaeum to replace Motya before marching north. When the Sicanis refused to join Dionysius or leave their cities and the Sicel city Halyciae switched sides, Dionysius retreated to Syracuse after despoiling lands in Western Sicily. The siege of Segesta and Entella was over.

Lipari subdued
Himilco chose not to march to Syracuse along the southern coast of Sicily, as Dionysius had destroyed all the crops and hostile Greek cities stood on his path. After garrisoning Carthaginian territory, he made treaties with the cities of Thermae and Cephaleodium on the north coast of Sicily to secure his supply route. Himilco attacked Lipari (whose Dorian Greek inhabitants were notorious pirates and could pose a threat to Carthaginian supplies) with 300 triremes and 300 transports, captured the island and forced the Greeks to pay 30 talents as ransom. Then he sailed and disembarked at Cape Pelorum, 12 miles to the north of Messina.

Messina captured
Himilco did not march directly to Messina. When the Messinian army marched north, Himilco sent 200 triremes manned with picked rowers and soldiers to the city. Aided by a favourable wind, this fleet managed to arrive and capture the city before the Greeks doubled back. Had Himilco also defeated the Messinian army his would have won a complete victory, but he allowed the surviving Greeks to take refuge in nearby mountain fortresses, which Carthaginians could not quickly reduce.

Strategic Solution: founding of Tauromenium
Himilco chose not to occupy Messina permanently, although it would have given Carthage permanent control over the Strait of Messina. Himilco probably was not confident of holding an area so far from Carthage. He faced a strategic dilemma: if he took time to reduce the mountain fortresses of Messina, Dionysius would have time to prepare or launch an attack on Carthaginian Sicily. If Himilco simply marched off, the Messinian Greeks could harass his rear. Dividing the army would weaken his striking power against Dionysius. Himilco found a clever solution to his strategic problem. The Carthaginians founded a city at Tauromenium, south of Messina and populated it with Sicels. This encouraged all the Sicel cities except Assurous to abandon Dionysius. Thus Himilco weakened his enemy while gaining additional allies and protection from the Messinian Greeks.

Battle of Catana
The Carthaginians marched south, with the fleet sailing along the coast but an eruption of Mt. Etna made the roads near Naxos impassable. The Carthaginian army under Himilco marched around the mountain while the navy under Mago sailed to Catana, where the army rejoined Mago's force after covering the 110 km trek in two days. Without the army's protection, the beached Carthaginian ships were vulnerable to the army of Dionysius, which had assembled at Catana. However, Mago managed to defeat the Greek fleet under Leptines, and Dionysius withdrew to Syracuse before Himilco arrived with the Carthaginian army.

Siege of Syracuse
From Catana Himilco marched south to Syracuse and camped to the south of the city while the Carthaginian fleet entered the Great Harbour. Himilco built his fortified camp  near the temple of Zeus,  then built 3 additional forts and employed 3,000 transports to bring in supplies for the Carthaginian force, while 208 warships were stationed at Syracuse. The land around Syracuse was ravaged for 30 days. The winter of 397 BC was spent in small skirmishes. In the spring of 396 BC, the Carthaginians captured the areas of the city not protected by walls and destroyed the temple of Demeter. During the summer a plague swept through the Carthaginian army, decimating their ranks. Dionysius launched a night attack that captured 2 forts but was unable to take the main camp. The Greek fleet also managed to burn and capture many of the Carthaginian ships – many of which was not properly manned.

Himilco chose to open negotiations with Dionysius. A bribe of 300 silver talents ensured the safe passage of 40 ships bearing all the Carthaginian citizens to Carthage. Himilco abandoned his mercenaries and allies to their fate. The Sicilians went home, the Iberians joined Dionysius while the rest were enslaved.

The people of Carthage were outraged by Himilco's actions and the Libyans revolted and besieged the city. It is not known if Himilco was summoned before the tribunal of Hundred and Four. It was said that Himilco accepted full responsibility for the disaster, dressed up as a slave and then went to all the temples of the city, begging forgiveness. After that he bricked himself up in his house, refused to see his family and starved himself to death. His successor was Mago the Second.

Bibliography

See also
 Agrigentum inscription
 Greek-Punic wars

References

Citations

Bibliography
Diodorus Siculus translated by G. Booth (1814) Complete book (scanned by Google)

 Lewis, D. M. "Sicily, 413-368 B.C." In The Cambridge ancient history. Volume VI: the fourth century B.C., ed. D. M. Lewis, John Boardman, Simon Hornblower and M. Ostwald. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. pp. 120–155.

Magonids
Carthaginian generals
Monarchs of Carthage
396 BC deaths
Ancient suicides
5th-century BC births
People of the Sicilian Wars
5th-century BC Punic people

Himilco (general)


The Hong Kong Outstanding Teens Election () is a biannual election in Hong Kong. It aims at recognizing exceptional personal achievement or overcoming of challenges, encouraging contribution to society, and impacting other young people with winners' personal stories.

The election is co-organized by the Hong Kong Playground Association and Radio Television Hong Kong Channel 2 and supported by the Hong Kong Ten Outstanding Young Persons' Association and the Hong Kong Outstanding Teens Association. Every other year ten teenagers are selected to be Hong Kong Outstanding Teens while another twenty receive merit awards. The award itself is presented by the First Lady of Hong Kong: formerly, Selina Tsang (wife of Donald Tsang, the second Chief Executive) and Betty Tung (wife of Tung Chee-hwa, the first Chief Executive). Winners in each election publish together a book to share their experiences and aspirations.

Eligibility and criteria of selection

Teenagers living in Hong Kong between the ages of 11 and 17 including disabled persons are eligible to apply.

Apart from those who possess exceptional academic and extracurricular achievement and good character, candidates who actively participate in community service or demonstrate outstanding resilience facing physical, personal, family or other challenges are also recognized.

Classes of selection

The selection is divided into three classes, of which applicants may choose when applying. They are respectively 1. Class of Personal Achievement 2. Class of Exceptional Personal Endeavor and 3. Class of Outstanding Social Contribution.

Elections

References

External links
Hong Kong Outstanding Teens Association

Education in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Outstanding Teens Election


Elias Hesse (born November 12, 1658) was a German man who travelled through Southeast Asia in the 17th century, and the author of an account on the topic, Ost-Indische Reise-Beschreibung.

Hesse was the son of a miller, born in Saxony. In 1680, he was recruited by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a clerk in Benjamin Olitzsch's ill-fated gold mining expedition, where they were sent, along with 20 miners, to investigate the reserves at Sillida (south of Padang) in Sumatra.
The operation suffered heavily from a variety of misfortunes. The operating costs were too high, and the company had to employ the assistance of a large number of slaves for labour; although they did not need to pay them, feeding and providing for them proved costly. They also had to pay military posts for protection. This, coupled with a shortage of supplies and various tropical diseases which the Europeans were not prepared for made the operation slow going.
The gold reserves themselves were not worth the effort, there was hardly any worth mining, no rich veins. Mining stopped in 1694, although Hesse left in 1683.

On his return, Hesse wrote his account of the trip, and it was published in 1687 in Dresden. Three years later, a revised and improved edition was released in Leipzig. This was then reprinted in 1735.

The current issue of the travel description is titled Gold Mines in Sumatra 1680-1683 (Haag, Martinus Nijhoff, 1931) and is based on the second edition of 1690.

References

 Gold-Bergwerke in Sumatra 1680–1683 (Haag, Martinus Nijhoff, 1931)

People from the Electorate of Saxony
Year of death missing
German explorers

1658 births
German male writers

Elias Hesse


NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe is a trade name of NASDAQ OMX Oslo ASA, the single financial energy market for Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.  Before 1 November 2010, it was known by the name Nord Pool (not to be confused with the physical energy exchange Nord Pool AS, former Nord Pool Spot).  , Nord Pool was the largest power derivatives exchange and the second largest exchange in European Union emission allowances (EUAs) and global certified emission reductions (CERs) trading.

History
In 1991 the Parliament of Norway decided to deregulate the market for power trading. In 1993 Statnett Marked AS was established as an independent company.  Nord Pool market was created in 1996 as a result of the establishment of common electricity market of Norway and Sweden. The name was changed to Nord Pool ASA. It was owned by the two national grid companies, Statnett in Norway (50%) and Svenska Kraftnät in Sweden (50%).  Finland joined Nord Pool market area in 1998, Western Denmark in 1999 and Eastern Denmark in 2000.

In 2000, Nord Pool participated in establishing the Leipzig Power Exchange (now part of the European Energy Exchange). Nord Pool also supplied its technology to France's Powernext exchange.  In 2002, spot market activities were transferred into a newly established company, Nord Pool Spot AS.  In 2005, Nord Pool started trading and clearing of EU emission allowances, becoming the first exchange to expand its activities into this area.

On 21 December 2007, Nord Pool agreed to sell its two subsidiaries—Nord Pool Clearing, which deals with clearing transactions, and Nord Pool Consulting—to the global exchange operator NASDAQ OMX.  On 17 March 2010, NASDAQ OMX announced it will acquire all shares of Nord Pool ASA. The deal does not include Nord Pool Spot AS, which will continue physical electricity market trading operations independently.  The deal was approved by market regulators on 31 May 2010.   On 1 November 2010, Nord Pool ASA changed its name to NASDAQ OMX Oslo ASA and introduced a trade name NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe.

Organization
NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe provides a marketplace for financial trading in electrical power, and emission allowances and emission credits. It has its main office in Oslo with offices in Stockholm and Helsinki.

Members
The NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe market membership includes energy producers, energy intensive industries, large consumers, distributors, funds, investment companies, banks, brokers, utility companies and financial institutions. It has more than 420 members in total, including exchange members, clearing clients, members and representatives in 20 countries. The customer base for NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe includes 400 members.

Services
NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe provides a market place for the trade on derivative contracts in the financial market. Financial electricity contracts are used to guarantee prices and manage risk when trading power. NASDAQ OMX Commodities offers contracts of up to ten years' duration, with contracts for days, weeks, months, quarters and years. NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe also trades EUAs.

See also

 Energy in Denmark
 Energy in Finland
 Energy in Norway
 Energy in Sweden

References

External links

Commodities
Financial services companies of Norway
Stock exchanges in Norway
Energy exchanges in Europe
Formerly government-owned companies of Norway
Companies based in Oslo
Energy in Europe
Financial services companies established in 1993
1993 establishments in Norway

Nasdaq Commodities


Youth is the opposite of elderly. When something is new, it can be called young. Sometimes "young" is only for living things, and things that are not alive are "new". The word youth is often used to describe young people from the beginning of the teen years to the beginning of adulthood.
Old can refer to someone or something's age.
Young can mean that something is current to date or well before its "best by" date.

Different things lose their youth or grow old at different rates.  For example, some machines are only be considered young for roughly one year.  There are laws about the age of majority when young teenagers are legally treated as adults.  Even after that age, these youth may still be seen as immature.  This is because complete mental and emotional development is not done until around age 25, and because many young people have not yet had adult life experiences.

For some people, youth is an obsession. They want to look young.  Because of this, they use various products like face cream and plastic surgery, to stop or slow their looking older.  The "Fountain of Youth" was a popular myth, and people thought that if you took water from the fountain, you would never be old.  Now however, we know that this was a myth, and it was not magical at all.

Related pages
Adolescence

Life

Youth


Sfendoni (Greek: Α/Τ Σφενδόνη, "Sling") was a Thyella class destroyer that served in the Royal Hellenic Navy (1907-1945). It was the second ship of that name in the Hellenic Navy, but the first destroyer-type vessel bearing the name.

The ship, along with her three sister ships, was ordered from Britain in 1905 and was built in the Yarrow shipyard at Cubitt Town, London.

During World War I, Greece belatedly entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente and, due to Greece's neutrality the four Thyella class ships were seized by the Allies in October 1916, taken over by the French in November and served in the French Navy 1917–18. By 1918, they were back on escort duty under Greek colors, mainly in the Aegean Sea. Sfendoni saw action in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922).

After the declaration of war by Italy in World War II, Sfendoni saw action in the area of North Ionian Sea and the strait of Otranto, executing escort missions for cargo ships carrying ammunition, fuel and food to Allied forces. In between escort missions, attack operations of limited scale were planned and executed without any losses to the Hellenic Navy.  After the German invasion of Greece in April 1941, the Royal Hellenic Navy suffered serious losses, but Sfendoni evacuated with the remaining ships of the Greek fleet to Alexandria, Egypt and served under British command for the duration of the war.  After the war, Sfendoni was decommissioned.

See also
History of the Hellenic Navy

Thyella-class destroyers
Ships built in Cubitt Town
1907 ships
World War I destroyers of Greece
Military units and formations of Greece in the Balkan Wars

Greek destroyer Sfendoni (1907)


Ettore Mazzoleni (18 June 1905 – 1 June 1968) was a Canadian conductor, music educator, writer, and arts administrator of Swiss birth. He was one of the Canadian Opera Company's principal conductors during its early years, working there from 1958 to 1968. For many years he was the program annotator of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and also served as the orchestra's associate conductor from 1942–1948. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1949.

Born to Swiss-Italian parents in Brusio, Ticino, Switzerland, Mazzoleni earned a Bachelor of Music and a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from the University of Oxford in 1927. He went on to study piano at the Royal College of Music while simultaneously working on the school's opera staff from 1927–1929. While there he had the opportunity to work closely with Sir Adrian Boult and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

In 1929 Mazzoleni immigrated to Canada to join the music and English faculties of the Upper Canada College, where he remained until 1945. He also frequently worked as a consultant for the opera program at the Toronto Conservatory of Music (TCM), beginning with the school's 1929 production of Vaughan Williams's Hugh the Drover. In 1932 he joined the TCM's music faculty where he taught music history and conducting. He later succeeded Donald Heins as the director of the TCM's symphony orchestra in 1934.

While still teaching at the TCM, Mazzoleni was appointed the director of the Opera Division at the University of Toronto (UTOD) in 1952, a post he held until 1966. During his tenure he also worked with the Opera Festival of Toronto (OFT) which had been founded by the UTOD in 1950; serving variously as the festival's artistic director (1953), managing director (1954), and general director (1955–56). In 1958 the OFT became a full-time professional opera company, the Canadian Opera Company, and Mazzoleoni was highly active conducting operas with the company until his sudden death in a car accident in 1968. Among his notable pupils were musicians Howard Cable, Robert Fleming, James Gayfer, Godfrey Ridout, and Rudy Toth.

References

1905 births
1968 deaths
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Male conductors (music)
Academic staff of The Royal Conservatory of Music
Upper Canada College faculty
Swiss music educators
Canadian music educators
20th-century Canadian conductors (music)
20th-century Canadian male musicians
Swiss emigrants to Canada

Ettore Mazzoleni


Sister Mary Gertrude Joyce (born Margaret Alice Joyce; 18 January 1884 – 1 March 1964) was an Irish Sisters of Mercy nun and musician.

Early life and family
Sister Mary Gertrude Joyce was born Margaret Alice Joyce at 41 Brighton Square West, Rathgar, Dublin on 18 January 1884. She was the second eldest child of ten surviving children of John Stanislaus Joyce and Mary (née Murray). Through her grandmother, Ellen O'Connell Joyce, she was related to Daniel O'Connell. James Joyce, her older brother, was 18 months older than her. He called her "Poppie" due to a red cloak she wore to sodality meetings. It is said that she was his favourite sister. The Joyce family lived at 16 different addresses in Dublin and Bray owing to the differing fortunes of their father. Joyce was educated by Mrs Elizabeth Conway, a family governess, later attended St Catherine's Dominican Convent at Sion Hill and Dominican College, Eccles Street.

After the death of her mother on 13 August 1903, when Joyce was 19, she cared for her younger siblings. She had to beg her father for money for food and other necessities, caught between the promise she made to her mother and her father's demands. Joyce's difficulties in raising the younger children with her father was the basis of the "Eveline" story in Dubliners. Joyce was the first person that her brother James told that he was in love with Nora Barnacle. She tried to talk James and Nora from going to the continent. She took Nora shopping for some clothes before they left in 1904, and helped the couple with their travel arrangements. She also tried to get James to reconcile with their father.

Career
Joyce entered the Convent of Mercy Missionary College, Callan, County Kilkenny on 20 August 1909. She originally intended to become a nun in Germany, but James suggested she go to New Zealand. She left for New Zealand on 10 November 1909. James was in Dublin at the time of her departure, and saw Joyce off from North Wall to England where she would sail to New Zealand. He promised her that if she ever wished to return he would send her the fare. She never returned to Ireland or saw any of her family again. On 30 December 1909 she entered the Convent of Mercy, Greymouth, New Zealand, receiving the habit on 13 July 1910. Taking the name Sister Mary Gertrude, she professed on 13 July 1912.

From 1912 to 1949, Joyce taught piano, violin and singing in Greymouth and Runanga. She left to teach the boys of Loreto College in Papanui, Christchurch, teaching until three weeks before her death at age 80. When she was told she was dying, she requested that her letters and photographs be destroyed which included 30 years of weekly letters from James and other members of the Joyce family. She had never read any of her brother's works, possibly until 1962, when Fr Godfrey Ainsworth gave her a copy of A portrait of the artist as a young man.

Joyce died in Calvary Hospital, Christchurch on 1 March 1964, and was buried in Waimairi cemetery, Christchurch.

References

Nuns from Dublin (city)
1884 births
1964 deaths
20th-century Irish nuns
Sisters of Mercy
20th-century New Zealand Roman Catholic nuns
People from Rathgar

Mary Gertrude Joyce


A megaflood is a flood which suddenly releases a huge amount of water. In geomorphology it is sometimes called an outburst flood. At the end of the last ice age, many large floods were caused by the collapse of ice sheets or glaciers which formed the dams of glacial lakes.

Examples of older outburst floods are known from the geological past of the Earth. Landslides, lahars, and volcanic dams can block rivers and create lakes. When the rock or earth barrier collapses, or is eroded, this triggers a flood. Lakes also form behind glacial moraines, which can collapse and create outburst floods.

Examples

The Black Sea (~7,600 years ago)

It is claimed that a rising sea flood led to refilling of the freshwater glacial Black Sea with water from the Aegean. It is described as "a violent rush of salt water into a depressed fresh-water lake in a single catastrophe that has been the inspiration for the flood mythology".

The marine incursion was caused by the rising level of the Mediterranean about 7,600 years ago. It is the subject of debate among geologists. The existence of the flood is not certain, and the theory that it was the basis for later flood myths is not proven.

The Caspian and Black Seas (around 16,000 years ago)
A theory proposed by Andrey Tchepalyga of the Russian Academy of Sciences dates the flooding of the Black Sea basin to an earlier time and from a different cause. According to Tchepalyga, global warming beginning from about 16,000 years ago caused the melting of the Scandinavian ice sheet. This caused a massive river discharge which flowed into the Caspian Sea. The Caspian basin could not contain all the floodwater, which flowed into the ancient Black Sea basin. This would have flooded large areas that were previously settled or used for hunting. Tchepalyga suggests this may have formed the basis for legends of the great Deluge.

English Channel floods
Originally there was an isthmus across the Strait of Dover. During an earlier glacial maximum, the exit from the North Sea was blocked to the north by an ice dam, and the water flowing out of rivers backed up into a vast lake on the bed of what is now the North Sea. A gently upfolding chalk ridge linked the Weald of Kent and Artois, perhaps some 30 metres (100 feet) higher than the current sea level.

At some time, probably around 425,000 years ago, and again around 225,000 years later, the barrier failed.

This let loose a catastrophic flood which diverted the Rhine into the English Channel and separated Britain from the continent of Europe. A sonar study of the sea bed of the English Channel showed unmistakable signs of a megaflood on the English Channel seabed.

Refilling the Mediterranean (5.3 million years ago)
A catastrophic flood refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5.3 million years ago. The flood occurred when Atlantic waters found their way through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean basin, which was then a salt lake and salt bed.

Glacial lake floods in North America
In North America during glacial maximum, there were no Great Lakes as we know them. but "proglacial" (ice-frontage) lakes formed and shifted. The most famous of these proglacial lakes was Lake Agassiz. Melting ice caused a series of great floods from Lake Agassiz. Massive amounts of freshwater was added to the world's oceans.

The last of the North American proglacial lakes, north of the present Great Lakes, reached its largest volume around 8,500 years ago, when joined with Lake Agassiz. But its outlet was blocked by the great wall of the glaciers and it drained by tributaries into the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers far to the south. About 8,300 to 7,700 years ago, the ice-dam failed catastrophically. Lake Ojibway's beach terraces show that it was  above sea level. The volume of Lake Ojibway is estimated to have been about 163,000 cubic kilometres, more than enough water to cover a flattened-out Antarctica with a sheet of water  deep. That volume was added to the world's oceans in a matter of months.

The detailed timing and rates of change after the onset of melting of the great ice-sheets are subjects of continuing study.

Overflow of lakes formed by landslides
A landslide dam on Sichuan's Dadu River burst and caused a flood on 10 June 1786. The flood extended 1400 km downstream and killed 100,000 people. This was one of the worst landslide-related disasters in history.

References

Floods

Megaflood


The 2008 United States presidential election in Illinois  was held on November 4, 2008. Illinois voters chose between Republican John McCain, a Senator from Arizona, and his running mate, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, and Democrat Barack Obama, a Senator from Illinois, and his running mate, Joe Biden, a Senator from Delaware. Ultimately, Obama, who came from Illinois itself, won the state and its 21 electoral votes. This was largely due to the fact that he was from Illinois, and his popularity in Chicago. He won 3.42 million votes. McCain won, in contrast, just 2.03 million votes. This was the last presidential election in which over 20 counties in Illinois voted for a Democrat, and the first presidential election in which 6 Illinois counties a Democrat won the election (including Kane, Caroll, Kendall and McHenry Counties). This was the only presidential election in which 3 counties in Illinois, Boone, McHenry and Kendall Counties, voted for the Democratic candidate.

2008 in Illinois


Frank Varey (31 March 1908 in Eldwick, England – 8 February 1988 in Sheffield, England) was a former international speedway rider who featured in the Speedway World Championship finals in 1937 and 1938. He also featured in two Star Riders' Championships, the forerunner to the World Championship, in 1932 and 1933.

Career summary

Rider
Varey began his speedway career competing in open meetings in 1928 before signing for the Belle Vue Aces who had joined the newly formed Northern League in 1929. Varey began succeeding quickly but had a reputation of being a hard, uncompromising rider which often led him to disciplinary problems with speedway authorities, confrontations and occasional scuffles with other riders and on several occasions needing police escorts from stadiums after on-track action upset the home fans at other tracks.

During the winter of 1929-1930, Varey rode in meetings in Argentina, where the local fans gave him the nickname of El Diablo Rojo (The Red Devil) which further established his tough image even further.

Varey was very successful at Belle Vue. After being made captain in 1931 following the retirement of his friend and rival Arthur Franklyn, the team won the National League Championship four seasons in a row from 1933 to 1936 and were leading in the 1939 season until it was abandoned due to the outbreak of World War II. The Aces also won the National Trophy in those same four seasons.

Varey was selected to ride for England in the first ever Ashes Test Match series against Australia and was awarded the captaincy in the test held at Belle Vue.

He continued to ride during the war and in 1944 won the British Wartime Championship.

Promoter

At the end of 1945 he decided to retire from racing and began promoting speedway at the Owlerton Stadium in Sheffield, staying as promoter of the Sheffield Tigers until 1950 before a spell promoting the Edinburgh Monarchs. Varey restarted speedway at Sheffield in 1960 in the Provincial League and remained until ill health forced him to relinquish control.

Varey returned to Belle Vue as team manager following the death of Dent Oliver the previous year but despite ongoing health problems he still helped with track preparation at Sheffield.

Varey died in February 1988.

World Final Appearances
 1937 -  London, Wembley Stadium - 15th - 3pts + 8 semi-final points
 1938 -  London, Wembley Stadium - 17th - 0pts + 4 semi-final points

Players cigarette cards
Varey is listed as number 46 of 50 in the 1930s Player's cigarette card collection.

References

1908 births
1988 deaths
British speedway riders
English motorcycle racers
Belle Vue Aces riders
Speedway promoters

Frank Varey