text:
Gospel of Barnabas

The Gospel of Barnabas is a non-canonical, pseudepigraphical gospel written in the Late Middle Ages and attributed to the early Christian disciple Barnabas, who (in this work) is one of the apostles of Jesus. It is about the same length as the four canonical gospels combined and largely harmonizes stories in the canonical gospels with Islamic elements such as the denial of Jesus' crucifixion. The gospel presents a detailed account of the life of Jesus. It begins with the nativity of Jesus, which includes the annunciation by the archangel Gabriel to Mary which precedes Jesus' birth. The gospel follows his ministry, ending with the message of Jesus to spread his teachings around the world. Judas Iscariot replaced Jesus at the crucifixion.

The gospel survives in two manuscripts (in Italian and Spanish), both dated to the Middle Ages. It is one of three works with Barnabas' name; the others are the Epistle of Barnabas and the Acts of Barnabas, although they are not related to each other. The earliest known mention of the Gospel of Barnabas has been discovered in a 1634 manuscript by a Morisco which was found in Madrid, and the earliest published reference to it was in the 1715 book Menagiana by the French poet Bernard de la Monnoye.

The gospel's origins and author have been debated; several theories are speculative, and none has general acceptance. The Gospel of Barnabas is dated to the 13th to 15th centuries, much too late to have been written by Barnabas (fl. 1st century CE). Many of its teachings are synchronous with those in the Quran and oppose the Bible, especially the New Testament.

Contents
The Gospel of Barnabas, as long as the four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) combined, contains 222 chapters and about 75,000 words. Its original title, appearing on the cover of the Italian manuscript, is The True Gospel of Jesus, Called Christ, a New Prophet Sent by God to the World: According to the Description of Barnabas His Apostle;  The author, who claims to be the biblical Barnabas, wishes "peace and consolation to all them that dwell upon the earth." Then a critique follows of those (including Paul the Apostle) who are "deceived by Satan into preaching a 'most impious doctrine' by 'calling Jesus son of God, repudiating the circumcision [...] and permitting every unclean meat'."

It appears to be a gospel harmony, focusing on the ministry and passion of Jesus. The gospel begins with combined elements of Matthew and Luke, such as the annunciation by the archangel Gabriel to Mary, the Adoration of the Magi, the massacre of the Innocents, the circumcision of Jesus, and his finding in the Temple. It then jumps to Jesus at age 30, when he goes to the Mount of Olives with his mother to gather olives; while praying there, he received the gospel from Gabriel. After this revelation, he tells his mother that he will no longer live with her. Jesus later goes to Jerusalem and begins preaching there. He appoints twelve apostles to accompany him during his ministry; the gospel mentions only ten, including Barnabas. The gospel follows teachings attributed to Jesus about the origins of circumcision, condemnation of the uncircumcised, and the life of Abraham (including his destruction of idols and the sacrifice of his son Ishmael).

The gospel recounts the transfiguration of Jesus and his proclamation of the prophet, Muhammad, who will come after him. After a number of his parables and teachings it describes his passion, beginning with his confrontations with the scribes and Pharisees about the woman taken in adultery. Mary is told by Gabriel about her son's forthcoming crucifixion and his protection from it; the high priest, Herod Antipas, and Pontius Pilate discuss what to do about him. Jesus and his disciples hide in Nicodemus' house, where they have the Last Supper. Judas Iscariot betrays him for thirty pieces of silver; God then commands Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel to save Jesus by taking him "out by the window that looketh toward the South" to the third heaven.

Judas, whose face and speech are changed to resemble those of Jesus, returns to the house while the other disciples are sleeping. He is surprised to know that they think he is Jesus, and he is arrested. Pilate orders his crucifixion, and he is placed in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. Jesus prays for the ability to see his mother and disciples and tell them what actually happened. He turns to Barnabas, whom he charges with writing about what occurred. The gospel ends with the dispersion of the disciples and another criticism of Paul.

Textual history
The Gospel of Barnabas is dated from the 14th to the 17th centuries, :57 too late to have been written by the biblical Barnabas (fl. 1st century CE). :3 It is one of three extant works bearing his name, along with the Epistle of Barnabas and the Acts of Barnabas. :53–60 A "Gospel according to Barnabas" was first mentioned in the sixth-century Gelasian Decree, and was condemned as apocryphal. Another mention of a gospel using his name is in the seventh-century List of the Sixty Books, or the Catalogue of the Sixty Canonical Books. Historians are uncertain whether these refer to this Gospel of Barnabas, since no quotes have been preserved for confirmation. Jomier believes a forger could have taken the title after the publishing of the Gelasian Decree by printing press.

The earliest reference to the gospel may have been in a 1634 letter in the Biblioteca Nacional de España written in Tunisia by Ibrahim al-Taybil (Juan Pérez in Spanish), an Arabic-Spanish translator and author. He referred to the "Gospel of Saint Barnabas, where one can find the light". The first published reference to the gospel was by the French poet Bernard de la Monnoye in his 1715 book, Menagiana. Dutch orientalist Adriaan Reland referred to the gospel's Spanish version in his 1717 De religione Mohamedica (On the Mohammedan Religion). The following year, a reference to the Italian version appeared in the Irish philosopher John Toland's Nazarenus. British Orientalist George Sale cited the Italian and Spanish manuscripts in his 1734 The Preliminary Discourse to the Koran.

Italian
In Nazarenus, Toland said that he was shown the manuscript he called the "Mahometan Gospel" in 1709 in Amsterdam through an ambassador in the city and the anti-Trinitarian scholar Jean Frederic Cramer (counsellor of Frederick I of Prussia). His description is not detailed, and provides no information about the gospel's general contents. However, he quotes the opening of the gospel ("The true Gospel of Jesus called Christ, a new prophet sent by God to the world, according to the relation of Barnabas his apostle"); a fragment ("The Apostle Barnabas says, 'He gets the worst of it who overcomes in evil contentions; because he thus comes to have the more sin), and the ending:

"Jesus being gone, the Disciples scattered themselves into many parts of Palestine, and of the rest of the world; and the truth, being hated of Satan, was persecuted by falshood, as it ever happens. For certain wicked men, under pretence of being Disciples, preached that Jesus was dead, and not risen again: others preached that Jesus was truly dead, and risen again: others preached, and still continued to preach, that Jesus is the Son of God, among which persons Paul has been deceived. We therefore, according to the measure of our knowledge, do preach to those who fear God, to the end that they may be saved at the last day of divine judgment; Amen. The end of the Gospel."

Dated to the end of the sixteenth century, the manuscript was anonymous. Toland observed that it was written on a "Turkish paper delicately gummed and polished", bound in the "Turkish manner", and the fine quality of its ink and orthography led him to assume that it was at least three hundred years old. In the appendix of his book, Toland wrote: "[I]t was an octavo volume six inches long, four broad, and one-and-a-half thick, and containing 229 leaves, each of about eighteen and nineteen lines." The manuscript was obtained by Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1738 through Cramer, who wrote in a dedicatory preface that no Christian had ever been allowed to see it "although they strove with all means at their disposal to find it and take a look at it". It is currently held by the Austrian National Library.

The scholars Lonsdale and Laura Ragg published an English translation of the Italian manuscript by Oxford University Press in 1907. An Arabic translation, at the initiative of the Egyptian scholar Rashid Rida, was published the following year and became popular in the Muslim world; Saʿādeh, a Christian, translated it. Rida began publishing promotional excerpts and information about the Arabic translation before its publication in July 1907 in his magazine,. The Raggs' English translation (without their critical preface) became popular in 1973 in Pakistan, when it was published by M. A. Rahim and promoted as the "true gospel of Jesus" by local newspapers. In Indonesia, it was translated in 1969, 1970, and 1980; the 1970 translation, by Husein bin Abu Bakar Al-Habsyi and Abubakar Basymeleh, was republished with additional footnotes in 1987. Translations in Dutch (1990), German (1994), modern Italian, Persian (1927), Spanish, Turkish, and Urdu (1916) have also been published.

Spanish
The Spanish manuscript was lost for more than a century; Sale became the only source for a detailed description in his 1734 book, The Koran. He wrote, "The book is a moderate quarto [...] written in a very legible hand, but a little damaged towards the latter end. It contains two hundred and twenty-two chapters of unequal length, and four hundred and twenty pages." Sale saw the manuscript while it was still in the possession of rector George Holme. It later passed to Thomas Monkhouse, a fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford, and was seen by the Reverend Joseph White. White quoted several extracts from the English translation in a 1784 lecture, before the gospel's whereabouts became unknown.

A Spanish Gospel of Barnabas was found at the University of Sydney's Fisher Library, among the books of Australian politician Charles Nicholson, in 1976. A copy of Sale's manuscript, made between 1736 and 1745, is incomplete and has differences from the Italian manuscript; the subheaders of chapters 1–27 are missing. Only the first third of chapter 120 exists, ending on page 116 with a note: "Cap. 121 to 200 wanting". The next page continues with chapter 200, chapter 199 in the Italian manuscript (a discrepancy which continues until chapter 222 in the Spanish manuscript, 221 in the Italian). The Spanish 218th chapter has different lines, and the subheader "En que se cuenta la passion de Judas Traydor" ("In which the passion of Judas the Betrayer is recounted"). The Italian chapter 222 is missing from the Spanish manuscript. J. E. Fletcher, who discovered the latter, published his findings in the October 1976 issue of Novum Testamentum.

Scholars note parallels in the manuscript to a series of Morisco forgeries (collectively known as the Lead Books of Sacromonte), which may date it to the 16th century. Claiming to be a translation of an Italian manuscript – probably not the extant one – it opens with a prologue by Fra Marino (likely a pseudonym). According to Fra Marino, he first encountered writings by the Church Father Irenaeus which criticized Paul and referred to the Gospel of Barnabas. While with his friend Pope Sixtus V at a Vatican City library, he then found a copy of the Gospel of Barnabas and converted to Islam after reading it. Mustafa de Aranda, an Aragonese Muslim who lived in Istanbul (then Constantinople), is identified in the translator's note as the translator of the Italian manuscript into Spanish. Nothing further is known about this, and none of Irenaeus' writings mentioned the gospel. Through the University of Granada, Luis Bernabé Pons published the incomplete Spanish manuscript (with missing parts derived from the Italian manuscript) in a 1998 book entitled El texto morisco del Evangelio de San Bernabé (The Moorish Text of the Gospel of Saint Barnabas).

Syriac

In 1985, Turkish media reported that an alleged Syriac-language copy of the Gospel of Barnabas had been found in the city of Hakkâri. In February 2012, the Turkish press reported that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism confirmed that a 52-page biblical manuscript thought to be the Gospel of Barnabas had been deposited at the Ethnography Museum of Ankara. The manuscript was reportedly found in Cyprus in 2000 in a police anti-smuggling operation, and had been in a police repository since then. Photographs of a cover page were widely published, on which can be read an inscription in a neo-Aramaic hand: "In the name of our Lord, this book is written on the hands of the monks of the high monastery in Nineveh, in the 1,500th year of our Lord."

Authorship and origins
The Gospel of Barnabas is probably of late-medieval or later origin, since its author is familiar with works during this period. Nothing is known about its author, however; many hypotheses have been made, but none are conclusive. Researchers who argue for an Italian origin note its similarities to Dante Alighieri's early-14th-century Divine Comedy. Barnabas says that God made nine heavens, in contrast to the Quran's seven, and uses Dante's catchphrase "Dei falsi e bugiardi" ("false and lying gods") three times. Others also find textual similarities between passages in the gospel and late-medieval vernacular harmonies of the canonical gospels, speculated as deriving from a lost Vetus Latina version of the second-century Diatessaron.

The gospel has been hypothesized as having Spanish origins or connections. Spanish academic Mikel de Epalza suggested that the Italian manuscript was created by a Spaniard, with elements of Tuscan and Venetian dialects. Epalza said that the author may have been a Spanish student at the University of Bologna (where the dialects were spoken), since Spaniards commonly studied there during the Middle Ages. Analysis indicates linguistic errors in the manuscript, demonstrating the author's unfamiliarity with Italian. Author David Fox wrote about Arabic gospel forgeries written in 1588 by two Moriscos in Granada, theorizing that the Gospel of Barnabas may have been another Morisco forgery.

This theory also leads other researchers to advocate a Spanish priority; they believe that the preface in the Spanish manuscript was a fabrication, a "mere literary device". According to Luis Bernabé Pons, the Lead Books of Sacromonte (found in Granada in 1595) were meant to begin the Gospel of Barnabas. The books, written on round lead leaves, deal with the arrival of James the Great and his disciples in Spain. The books say that James was tasked to hide them in Spain, where a priest (helped by Arabs) would discover them. The "great conqueror king of the Arab kings" – probably referring to the Ottoman Empire – later summoned a council in Cyprus, the traditional site of Barnabas' martyrdom. Pons said that Barnabas' name was used because the Lead Books were "suspected and scrutinized" for Islamic content, including the. The plan failed when the Moriscos were expelled between 1609 and 1614.

A comparison of the Italian and Spanish texts indicates several places where the Spanish reading appears secondary; words or phrases necessary for meaning are missing from the Spanish text, but appear in the Italian. Biblical scholar Jan Joosten hypothesized a lost Italian original, which he dated to the mid-14th century and may have been used by both manuscripts. Joosten noted that the Spanish text adapts a number of "Italianisms". The Italian text uses the conjunction pero ("therefore"), and the Spanish text reads pero ("however"); the Italian word is the one required in the context. Only the Spanish reading makes sense in several passages, however, and many features of the Italian text are not found in the Spanish.

Jan Slomp wrote in Islamochristiana that the names in the Spanish manuscript (Fra Marino and Mustafa de Aranda) may refer to the same person, since converts at the time often changed their names. Slomp said that they may have been a Jew, with the name "Fra Marino" based on marrano: a derisive term for conversos (Jewish converts to Catholicism). Other theories about an Arabic original are based on Sale's description of an Arabic gospel popular among Muslims, attributed to Barnabas, which he had never seen. The Raggs assumed that Sale misunderstood Toland's challenge to Muslims in Nazarenus to produce a gospel similar to Barnabas'. No further proof for it exists, and Sale's conjecture has been generally dismissed by researchers.

Anachronisms and factual errors
The Gospel of Barnabas contains historic anachronisms, as well as geographical and other factual errors. According to the Raggs, they prove its medieval origins and the author's ignorance of first-century Judea. Anachronisms include:

 * In chapter three, Pontius Pilate is said to have governed Judea and Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests when Jesus was born (c. 4 BC). Annas became high priest in AD 6, and his son-in-law Caiaphas succeeded him in AD 18. Pilate did not become procurator until AD 26–27.
 * In chapter 15, during the first year of Jesus' ministry, it is said that the "feast of Tabernacles was near". In chapter 30, the author writes of the Senofegia which would also take place that year; Tabernacles and Senofegia are synonymous.
 * In chapters 20–21, it is said that Jesus and his disciples arrived in Nazareth after embarking on the Sea of Galilee and "went up to Capernaum"; Capernaum was on the shore, and Nazareth more than 15 miles inland.
 * In chapters 42 and 96, Jesus said: "I am not the Messiah". The authors appear to not realise that the Greek Christ and the Hebrew Messiah are synonymous; both mean "the anointed one".
 * In chapter 63, Nineveh is described as near the Mediterranean Sea; it was 400 mi away, in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).
 * In chapter 65, Jesus is said to go to the "Probatica" pool. According to the author, it is so called "because the angel of God every day troubled the water, and whosoever first entered the water after its movement was cured of every kind of infirmity";, Greek for the Aramaic , means "of the sheep".
 * In chapter 82, it is said that a jubilee occurs every hundred years; the Jewish jubilee is every fifty years. Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed 1300 as the first Christian jubilee, and the next jubilee would take place a hundred years later.
 * In chapter 99, Tyre is said to be near the Jordan River; in reality, it is more than 30 mi away.
 * In chapter 144, the word Pharisee is said to mean "seeking God"; derived from the Hebrew, it means "separated". In the next chapter, it is said that the Pharisees began when the Canaanites had power in Judea; this would have been in the 11th century BC or earlier; the Pharisees, a Jewish religious movement, began no earlier than the second century BC.
 * In chapter 152, it is said that wine barrels were in use during Jesus' time; large jars (pithoi) were used then to store wine.
 * In chapters 214 and 217, the "pagan" Herod Antipas is said to rule Jerusalem and Judea; his authority was in Galilee, and he followed the Jewish religion.

Anti-Pauline tone
Scholarly analysis indicates that the Gospel of Barnabas had an anti-Pauline tone, most clearly shown in its prologue and epilogue; these depict Paul preaching a perverted version of Jesus' teachings, and as "deceived" in thinking that Jesus was God (or the Son of God). In his Connecting with Muslims: A Guide to Communicating Effectively (2014), Lebanese author and Christian missionary Fouad Masri called the gospel anachronistic; in the Acts of the Apostles, Barnabas was Paul's best friend and not an enemy. For the Journal of Higher Criticism, R. Blackhirst wrote that the Epistle to the Galatians account of conflict between Paul and Barnabas may have been why the gospel's author attributed it to Barnabas.

Crucifixion of Jesus
In the Gospel of Barnabas, Jesus was not crucified. Judas Iscariot (whose face was made to resemble his) replaced him on the cross, and Jesus was raised into heaven by God. This agrees with the mainstream interpretations of An-Nisa 157–158, affirming that Jesus was not crucified but instead his lookalike was:

and for boasting, “We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.” But they neither killed nor crucified him—it was only made to appear so. Even those who argue for this ˹crucifixion˺ are in doubt. They have no knowledge whatsoever—only making assumptions. They certainly did not kill him. Rather, Allah raised him up to Himself. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.

— Qur'ān 4:157-158

In its narrative of Jesus' crucifixion, the gospel is thought to be influenced by (or adopt) docetism: a heterodox doctrine that Jesus' human form was an illusion. David Sox wrote that the Gospel of Barnabas' portrayal of Judas Iscariot is more sympathetic than that in the canonical gospels, where he is cast as a villainous betrayer; in Christian tradition, his name is synonymous with one who deceives under the guise of friendship. The Raggs said that since the alleged substitution in the Quran is unnamed and unexplained, the author of the gospel attempted to fill this void.

Ghulam Murtaza Azad described the gospel as a medieval forgery in Islamic Studies, but found its narrative more reasonable than that of the canonical gospels: "A man who is not religious minded can hardly believe that a person who wrought such great miracles could not save himself from humiliation and cross. The Christians say that he was crucified in order to save mankind from their sins. This explanation of crucifixion is strange and difficult to understand. And stranger than that is that the traitor was saved and the master was hanged." Although it would appear that the canonical gospels do not portray Judas as being saved. In his Understand My Muslim People (2004), Abraham Sarker wrote that the narrative is popular in Quranic exegesis.

Prediction of Muhammad
In accordance with As-Saff 6, Muslims believe that Jesus was the forerunner of Muhammad and predicted Muhammad's coming:

And ˹remember˺ when Jesus, son of Mary, said, “O children of Israel! I am truly Allah’s messenger to you, confirming the Torah which came before me, and giving good news of a messenger after me whose name will be Aḥmad.” Yet when the Prophet came to them with clear proofs, they said, “This is pure magic.”

—Qur'ān 61:6

In Islam, the word (Arabic for "the praised one") refers to Muhammad. The Gospel of Barnabas contains a number of sayings attributed to Jesus, who Muslims believe predicted the coming of Muhammad. The gospel places Jesus as being a forerunner for Muhammad;

Nontrinitarianism
According to the Nicene Creed, the concept of the Trinity means that God is one and also exists consubstantially as three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit); Jesus is the Son. Trinitarianism is rejected by Islam, which believes in the concept of (indivisible oneness) and considers the Trinity a  equating God with his creation. Muslims believe that, like other Islamic prophets, Jesus was human and never claimed to be God. The Gospel of Barnabas contains statements, attributed to Jesus, in which he denies being the Son of God. The gospel says that Jesus appeared to be crucified as punishment for people who claimed his divinity, and Muhammad was sent later to expose the transgressions by the Christians for worshipping Jesus.

Christian
The Gospel of Barnabas was not accepted by Christians, who consider it inferior to the four canonical gospels and a forgery. According to Togardo Siburian of the Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Bandung, it is often used "by [Muslim] propagandists in a guerrilla manner to prey on Christians with weak theological commitments. This is what is said to be the efficacy of the book, as new material for the stealth 'Islamization' of Christian churches today." Jan Joosten called it a "hotchpotch of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim materials". J. N. J. Kritzinger wrote for Religion in Southern Africa that the gospel is an obstacle to Christian–Muslim interfaith dialogue, and neither side should use it to discredit the other's religion. Christian theologian Norman Geisler criticised Muslims who use it to validate their arguments:

"It is not surprising that Muslim apologists appeal to the Gospel of Barnabas in that it supports a central Islamic teaching in contrast to the New Testament. It claims that Jesus did not die on the cross [...] Rather, it argues that Judas Iscariot died in Jesus' stead [...] having been substituted for him at the last minute. This view has been adopted by many Muslims, since the vast majority of them believe that someone else was substituted on the cross for Jesus."

Jan Slomp wrote that it was difficult to understand the absence of mentions of the gospel in early Islamic writings if it had existed since antiquity, a view shared by A. H. Mathias Zahniser in his The Mission and Death of Jesus in Islam and Christianity (2017). Slomp called it a "conscious attempt at imitating a Diatessaron". :35 Egyptian Catholic philosopher جورج قنواتى wrote for the 1971 Encyclopaedia of Islam, "The appearance of a forgery entitled the Gospel of Barnabas put into the hands of the Muslim polemicists [...] a new weapon whose effects on the ordinary public, and even on some insufficiently informed members of universities are felt even today." A critical book, William F. Campbell's The Gospel of Barnabas: Its True Value, was published in 1989.

Acceptance
Some have identified it as the Injil, one of four Islamic holy books sent by God. About the gospel's generally-positive reception in the Muslim world, Scottish orientalist W. Montgomery Watt said that it is not uncommon for Muslims to be persuaded to believe in it without question; some are unaware of the scholarly consensus that it is a forgery. According to German scholar Christine Schirrmacher, Muslim positivity about the gospel is based on its claim of being written by an eyewitness and disagreement (favoured by Islam) with mainstream Christian doctrines.

Among Muslims, the gospel was first cited by Pakistani scholar Rahmatullah Kairanawi in his (1853). It became more popular after the 1908 publication of Rashid Rida's Arabic translation. According to Pakistani scholar Abul A'la Maududi, the Gospel of Barnabas is "more genuine than the four canonical gospels". Rida agreed that it was "superior" to the canonical gospels in its "divine knowledge, glorification of the Creator, and knowledge of ethics, manners and values". During a 1940 course at Al-Azhar University, Egyptian intellectual Muhammad Abu Zahra challenged Christians to study and refute the gospel: "The most significant service to the religions and to humanity would be that the church take the trouble to study the gospel according to Barnabas and refute it and to bring us the proofs on which this refutation is based."

At a 1976 Christian–Muslim dialogue in Libya, each Muslim delegate first received copies of the Gospel of Barnabas and the Quran; the gospel was withdrawn after a protest by the Vatican. Rahim published Jesus: A Prophet of Islam, defending the gospel, in 1979. M. A. Yusseff wrote in The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Gospel of Barnabas, and the New Testament (1985) that no other gospels can equal its authenticity. A 2007 Iranian film, The Messiah, was apparently based on the gospel and was the first film to depict Jesus from Christian and Islamic perspectives. It had a mixed critical response, praised for "generating interfaith dialogue" but criticised for its controversial account of the crucifixion. Director Nader Talebzadeh said, "I pray for Christians. They've been misled. They will realize one day the true story."

Rejection
The Gospel of Barnabas is criticized by Muslim scholars, who reject it partially  or completely. According to American scholar Amina Inloes, the many differences between the gospel and the Quran dilute its importance. In the January 1977 issue of the Islamic World League journal, Syrian writer Yahya al-Hashimi called it a polemic by a Jew to generate hostility between Christians and Muslims. Al-Hashimi said that there was no need to use apocryphal gospels to prove that Muhammad was a prophet, because he believed Muhammad had been foretold by Jesus as the Paraclete in the Gospel of John. Egyptian literary critic Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad cited several reasons to reject the gospel, including the use of Andalusi Arabic phrases and teachings which conflict with the Quran.

title: Gospel of Barnabas


text:
Georgius Agricola

Georgius Agricola (born Georg Bauer; 24 March 1494 – 21 November 1555) was a German Humanist scholar, mineralogist and metallurgist. Born in the small town of Glauchau, in the Electorate of Saxony of the Holy Roman Empire, he was broadly educated, but took a particular interest in the mining and refining of metals. He was the first to drop the Arabic definite article al-, exclusively writing chymia and chymista in describing activity that we today would characterize as chemical or alchemical, giving chemistry its modern name. For his groundbreaking work De Natura Fossilium published in 1546, he is generally referred to as the Father of mineralogy and the founder of geology as a scientific discipline.

He is well known for his pioneering work De re metallica libri XII, that was published in 1556, one year after his death. This 12-volume work is a comprehensive and systematic study, classification and methodical guide on all available factual and practical aspects, that are of concern for mining, the mining sciences and metallurgy, investigated and researched in its natural environment by means of direct observation. Unrivalled in its complexity and accuracy, it served as the standard reference work for two centuries. Agricola stated in the preface, that he will exclude "all those things which I have not myself seen, or have not read or heard of". He continued, "That which I have neither seen, nor carefully considered after reading or hearing of, I have not written about."

As a scholar of the Renaissance he was committed to a universal approach towards learning and research. He published over 40 complete scholarly works during his professional life on a wide range of subjects and disciplines, such as pedagogy, medicine, metrology, mercantilism, pharmacy, philosophy, geology, history, and many more. His innovative and comprehensive scholarly work, based on new and precise methods of production and control, has made his work a central part of scholarship and understanding of science during that period.

Etymology
He is often, although not universally referred to as "the Father of mineralogy" and the founder of geology as a scientific discipline. Poet Georg Fabricius has bestowed a brief honorary title on him in recognition of his legacy, that his fellow Saxons cite regularly: die ausgezeichnete Zierde des Vaterlandes, (literally: the distinguished ornament of the Fatherland). He was baptized with his birth name Georg Pawer. Pawer is a vernacular form of the modern German term Bauer, which translates to farmer in English. His teacher, the Leipzig professor Petrus Mosellanus convinced him to consider the common practice of name latinisation, particularly popular among Renaissance scholars, so "Georg Pawer" became "Georgius Agricola". Coincidentally, the name Georg/Georgius derives from Greek and also means "farmer".

Youth
Agricola was born in 1494 as Georg Pawer, the second of seven children of a clothier and dyer in Glauchau. At the age of twelve he enrolled in the Latin school in Chemnitz or Zwickau. From 1514 to 1518 he studied at the Leipzig University where, under the name Georgius Pawer de Glauchaw, he first inscribed to the summer semester for theology, philosophy and philology under rector Nikolaus Apel and for ancient languages, Greek and Latin in particular, He received his first Latin lectures under Petrus Mosellanus, a celebrated humanist of the time and adherent of Erasmus of Rotterdam.

Humanist education
Gifted with a precocious intellect and his freshly acquired title of Baccalaureus artium, Agricola early threw himself into the pursuit of the "new learning", with such effect that at the age of 24 he was appointed Rector extraordinarius of Ancient Greek at the 1519 established Zwickau Greek school, which was soon to be united with the Great School of Zwickau (Zwickauer Ratsschule). In 1520 he published his first book, a Latin grammar manual with practical and methodical hints for teachers. In 1522 he ended his appointment to again study at Leipzig for another year, where, as rector, he was supported by his former tutor and professor of classics, Peter Mosellanus, with whom he had always been in correspondence. He also subscribed to the studies of medicine, physics, and chemistry.

In 1523 he traveled to Italy and enrolled in the University of Bologna and probably Padua and completed his studies in medicine. It remains unclear where he acquired his diploma. In 1524 he joined the Aldine Press, a prestigious printing office in Venice that was established by Aldus Manutius, who had died in 1515. Manutius had established and maintained contacts and the friendship in a network among the many scholars, including the most celebrated, from all over Europe, whom he had encouraged to come to Venice and take care of the redaction of the numerous publications of the classics of antiquity. At the time of Agricola's visit, the business was run by Andrea Torresani and his daughter Maria. Agricola participated in the edition of a work in several volumes on Galen until 1526.

Town physician and pharmacist

He returned to Zwickau in 1527 and to Chemnitz in autumn of the same year, where he married Anna Meyner, a widow from Schneeberg. Upon his search for employment as town physician and pharmacist in the Ore Mountains, preferably a place, where he could satisfy his ardent longings for the studies on mining, he settled in the suitable little town Joachimsthal in the Bohemian Erzgebirge, where in 1516 significant silver ore deposits were found. The 15,000 inhabitants made Joachimsthal a busy, booming centre of mining and smelting works with hundreds of shafts for Agricola to investigate.

His primary post proved to be not very demanding and he lent all his spare time to his studies. Beginning in 1528 he immersed himself in comparisons and tests on what had been written about mineralogy and mining and his own observations of the local materials and the methods of their treatment. He constructed a logical system of the local conditions, rocks and sediments, the minerals and ores, explained the various terms of general and specific local territorial features. He combined this discourse on all natural aspects with a treatise on the actual mining, the methods and processes, local extraction variants, the differences and oddities he had learnt from the miners. For the first time, he tackled questions on the formation of ores and minerals, attempted to bring the underlying mechanisms to light and introduce his conclusions in a systematic framework. He laid out the whole process in a scholarly dialogue and published it under the title Bermannus, sive de re metallica dialogus, (Bermannus, or a dialogue on metallurgy) in 1530. The work was highly praised by Erasmus for the attempt to put the knowledge, won by practical inquiry into order and further investigate in reduced form. Agricola, in his capacity of physician, also suggested, that minerals and their effects on and relationship to human medicine should be a future subject of investigation.

In 1531 Christian Egenolff in Frankfurt published his German book named ''Rechter Gebrauch d'Alchimei, mitt vil bissher verborgenen, nutzbaren unnd lustigen Künsten, nit allein den fürwitzigen Alchimismisten, sonder allen kunstbaren Werckleutten, in und ausserhalb Feurs. Auch sunst aller menglichen inn vil wege zugebrauchen (The Proper Use of Alchemy'') which argued that true "alchemy" should not attempt transmutation of metals to gold or synthesizing the philosopher's stone but rather study and develop the industrial methods of skilled craftsmen.

Mayor of Chemnitz
In the same year Agricola received an offer of the city of Kepmnicz (Chemnitz) for the position of Stadtleybarzt (town physician), which he accepted and he relocated to Chemnitz in 1533. Although little is known about his work as physician, Agricola entered his most productive years and soon became lord mayor of Chemnitz and served as diplomat and historiographer for Duke George, who was looking to uncover possible territorial claims and commissioned Agricola with a large historical work, the Dominatores Saxonici a prima origine ad hanc aetatem (Lords of Saxony from the beginning to the present time), which took 20 years to accomplish and was only published in 1555 at Freiberg.

In his work De Mensuris et ponderibus, published in 1533, he described the systems of Greek and Roman measures and weights. In the 16th century Holy Roman Empire there were no uniform dimensions, measures, and weights, which impeded trade and commerce. This work laid the foundation for Agricola's reputation as a humanist scholar; as he committed himself to the introduction of standardized weights and measures, he entered the public stage and occupied a political position.

In 1544, he published the De ortu et causis subterraneorum (On Subterranean Origins and Causes), in which he criticized older theories and laid out the foundations of modern physical geology. It discusses the effect of wind and water as powerful geological forces, the origin and distribution of ground water and mineralizing fluids, the origin of subterranean heat, the origin of ore channels, and the principal divisions of the mineral kingdom. However, he maintained that a certain 'materia pinguis' or 'fatty matter,' set into fermentation by heat, gave birth to fossil organic shapes, as opposed to fossil shells having belonged to living animals.

In 1546, he published the four volumes of De natura eorum quae effluunt e terra (The nature of the things that flow out of the earth's interior). It deals with the properties of water, its effects, taste, smell, temperature etc. and air under the earth, which, as Agricola reasoned, is responsible for earthquakes and volcanoes.

The ten books of De veteribus et novis metallis, more commonly known as De Natura Fossilium were published in 1546 as a comprehensive textbook and account of the discovery and occurrence of minerals, ores, metals, gemstones, earths and igneous rocks, followed by De animantibus subterraneis in 1548 and a number of smaller works on the metals during the following two years. Agricola served as Burgomaster (lord mayor) of Chemnitz in 1546, 1547, 1551 and 1553.

De re metallica

Agricola's most famous work, the De re metallica libri xii was published the year after his death, in 1556; it was perhaps finished in 1550, since the dedication to the elector and his brother is dated to that year. The delay is thought to be due to the book's many woodcuts. The work is a systematic, illustrated treatise on mining and extractive metallurgy. It shows processes to extract ores from the ground, and metals from ore.

Until that time, Pliny the Elder's work Historia Naturalis was the main source of information on metals and mining techniques. Agricola acknowledged his debt to ancient authors, such as Pliny and Theophrastus, and made numerous references to Roman works. In geology, Agricola described and illustrated how ore veins occur in and on the ground. He described prospecting for ore veins and surveying in detail, as well as washing the ores to collect the heavier valuable minerals, such as gold and tin. The work shows water mills used in mining, such as the machine for lifting men and material into and out of a mine shaft. Water mills found application especially in crushing ores to release the fine particles of gold and other heavy minerals, as well as working giant bellows to force air into the confined spaces of underground workings.

Agricola described mining methods which are now obsolete, such as fire-setting, which involved building fires against hard rock faces. The hot rock was quenched with water, and the thermal shock weakened it enough for easy removal. It was a dangerous method when used underground, and was made redundant by explosives.

The work contains, in an appendix, the German equivalents for the technical terms used in the Latin text. Modern words that derive from the work include fluorspar (from which was later named fluorine) and bismuth. In another example, believing the black rock of the Schloßberg at Stolpen to be the same as Pliny the Elder's basalt, Agricola applied this name to it, and thus originated a petrological term.

In 1912, the Mining Magazine (London) published an English translation of De re metallica. The translation was made by Herbert Hoover, the American mining engineer and his wife Lou Henry Hoover. Hoover was later President of the United States.

Death

Agricola died on November 21, 1555. His "lifelong friend," the Protestant poet and classicist Georg Fabricius, wrote in a letter to the Protestant theologian Phillip Melanchthon, "He who since the days of childhood had enjoyed robust health was carried off by a four-days' fever." Agricola was a fervent Catholic, who, according to Fabricius, "despised our Churches" and "would not tolerate with patience that anyone should discuss ecclesiastical matters with him". That did not stop Fabricius in the same letter from calling Agricola "that distinguished ornament of our Fatherland," whose "religious views...were compatible with reason, it is true, and were dazzling," though not "compatible with truth"; in 1551 Fabricius had already written the introductory poem to De re metallica in praise of Agricola.

According to traditional urban customs, as a former lord mayor he was entitled to a burial in the local mother church. His religious affiliation, however, outweighed his secular prerogatives and monumental services for the city. Chemnitz Protestant superintendent Tettelbach urged Prince August to command the refusal of a burial inside the city. The command was issued and Tettelbach immediately informed the Agricola party.

Upon the initiative of his childhood friend, Naumburg bishop Julius von Pflug, four days later Agricola's body was carried off to Zeitz, more than 50 km away and interred by von Pflug in the Zeitz cathedral. His wife had a memorial plate commissioned and placed inside, that was already removed during the 17th century. Its text, however has been preserved in the Zeitz annals, and reads:

"To the physician and mayor of Chemnitz, Georgius Agricola, a man most distinguished by piety and scholarship, who had rendered outstanding services to his city, whose legacy will bestow immortal glory on his name, whose spirit Christ himself absorbed into his eternal kingdom. His mourning wife and children. He died in the 62nd year of life on November 21, 1555 and was born in Glauchau on March 24, 1494"

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Georgius Agricola


text:
Talk:Gospel of Barnabas

Joseph Wright -> Joseph White
I have changed it, since it was Joseph White (orientalist) who gave the 1784 Bampton Lectures. Feel free to revert if "Joseph Wright" really was the right person in this matter.Jeff5102 (talk) 13:37, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Spanish Manuscript
I did some google-searches for the Spanish manuscript. These are the most important results:

1.: A CATALOGUE of the collection of scarce printed books, and curious Manuscripts, of mr. Joseph Ames, lately deceased;

Item 339. (page 33) says: El Evangelio de Barnabas Apostol, transcribed from one in the Possession of Mr. Edm. Calamy, who bought it at the Decease of Mr.Geo. Sale, fol. After the item we find the initials "P.T.", which probably stands for Ames's old friend and antiquarian Sir Peter Thompson.

2. At the end of William Hone's book Ancient mysteries described (1823), there is an announcement for Hones's other book, Apocryphal New Testament, which has a "To the reader"-section (p. 314-315 in the PDF).

This says: ''It is said that the Gospel of Barnabas ought to have been included. Of that Gospel, the Rev. Jeremiah Jones supposed that there were no fragments extant. He refers to the Italian MS. of it in Prince Eugene's Library, quoted by Toland and La Monnoy, and gives their citations, at the same time observing that the piece is a Mahometan imposture. From another MS. belonging to Dr. Monkhouse, the Rev. Joseph White, in the notes to his Bampton Lectures, produces a long extract. Sale, who in his translation of the Koran, notices this Gospel, likewise had a MS. of it, which after his death was purchased by the Rev. Edm. Calamy, who permitted a copy to be taken by Mr. John Nickolls, the portrait collector: on his decease it became the property of Mr. Joseph Ames, author of the History of Printing, and is now in my possession. The authors mentioned, show, that if any portion of this be the remains of the ancient Gospel, it is obscured by Mahometan interpolation; while their extracts suffice to satisfy the inquisitive concerning its tendency, and to convince the reasonable, that its claim to be considered a production of the first four centuries is not properly supported.''

Are these texts and sources useful for the article? Or would that be a violation o the WP:OR-policy? Best regards,Jeff5102 (talk) 21:09, 16 April 2017 (UTC)

 * As it is a published source; I do not see how it should be excluded as Original Research. Tells us a bit more about the history of the Spanish trancript before it got to Sydney.  I did a bit of google ferreting myself to try to track down any subsequent references to the original Spanish manuscript; but aside from confirming its bequest to Queen's College Oxford in George Holme's will, I drew a blank.  But that would have been OR in Wikipedia terms, had there been no published citation. Of the manuscripts noted by William Hone, we know the current location of his transcript and of the Italian Ms.  But we still don't know what happened to the original Spainsh MS; after the death of Dr. Monkhouse.  It was supposed to have gone to Queen's College library, but they have no record of ever receiving it; likely Monkhouse (George Holme's successor at Headly, and also his executor) filched it. Monkhouse (or White) appear to have commissioned an English translation, which is also lost.  And then also lost is George Sale's own transcript, from which Hone's transcript was made. It is not impossible that any of these could resurface; either in the rediscovery of the manuscripts themselves, or in finding some notice of them in a secondary work of 18th or 19th century date.  One place that might be worth checking on the off-chance could be Teddy Hall library, as both Holme and Monkhouse made bequests there too.  TomHennell (talk) 00:14, 18 April 2017 (UTC)

 * At least one could discover a reference to the book; the 1915 British Museum's list of catalogues of English book sales (1676–1900) has catalogues of the book sales of Sale, Calamy, Thompson and a catalogue of a "Collection of vocal and instrumental Music" from a certain "Rev. dr. Monkhouse," December 1823. I hope someday one would take a look at those catalogues. Meanwhile, I'll see how I can put my findings into the text. Best regards,Jeff5102 (talk) 11:45, 18 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Done. Tom, maybe my edits are a bit too long for the article. If you think my edits need to be shortened, please do. All the best,Jeff5102 (talk) 09:23, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

In the Roman Catholic Church
Hopefully, a so short section could be integrated in a previous one. But it is significant the fact that the socalled Gospel of Barnabas is cited withihn the Roman Catechism (article 1905), even if it is not officially part of the biblical canon that is read during any Holy Mass. This point can be read a some sort of implicit recognition of its divine inspiration. Apart from that, Barnabas is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and he is also mentioned for more times in the Acts of the Apostles.Theologian81sp (talk) 14:52, 8 July 2021 (UTC)

 * Are you sure it's this "Gospel of Barnabas", and not the Epistle of Barnabas? -- AnonMoos (talk) 15:45, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
 * The article should clearly distinguish between the Gospel of Barnabas and the Epistle, which is in the Codex Sinaiticus, and the more-important text, as it was taken to be canonical by many early Christians. Philgoetz (talk) 03:02, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

Jesus being a forerunner doesn’t contradict Islam
It aligns with Quran 61:6 2A00:23EE:1D10:40CE:E445:8AC3:6B1B:28F7 (talk) 22:17, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Gospel of Barnabas


text:
Germanicus

Germanicus Julius Caesar (24 May 15 BC – 10 October AD 19) was an ancient Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia. The agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4 he was adopted by his paternal uncle Tiberius, himself the stepson and heir of Germanicus' great-uncle Augustus; ten years later, Tiberius succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor. As a result of his adoption, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family, to which he was related on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii Caesares was further consolidated through a marriage between him and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus. He was also the father of Caligula, the maternal grandfather of Nero, and the older brother of Claudius.

During the reign of Augustus, Germanicus enjoyed an accelerated political career, entering the office of quaestor five years before the legal age in AD 7. He held that office until AD 11, and was elected consul for the first time in AD 12. The year after, he was made proconsul of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior, and all of Gaul. From there he commanded eight legions, about one-third of the entire Roman army at the time, which he led against the Germanic tribes in his campaigns from AD 14 to 16. He avenged the Roman Empire's defeat in the Teutoburg Forest and retrieved two of the three legionary eagles that had been lost during the battle. In AD 17, he returned to Rome, where he received a triumph before leaving to reorganize the provinces of Asia Minor, whereby he incorporated the provinces of Cappadocia and Commagene in AD 18.

While in the eastern provinces, Germanicus came into conflict with the governor of Syria, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso. During their feud, Germanicus became ill in Antioch and died on 10 October AD 19. His death has been attributed to poison by ancient sources, but that was never proven. As a famous general, he was widely popular and regarded as the ideal Roman long after his death. To the Roman people, Germanicus was the Roman equivalent of Alexander the Great due to the nature of his death at a young age, his virtuous character, his dashing physique, and his military renown.

Name
Germanicus's praenomen (personal name) at birth is unknown, but he was probably named Nero Claudius Drusus after his father (conventionally called "Drusus"), or possibly Tiberius Claudius Nero after his paternal uncle. Some historians such as Iosif Constantin Drăgan believe he may have been named Decimus Claudius Nero or Decimus Claudius Drusus at his Dies lustricus, since his father's praenomen at birth was "Decimus". He took the agnomen (nickname) "Germanicus", awarded posthumously to his father in honor of his victories in Germania, at which point he nominally became head of the family in 9 BC. By AD 4 his uncle Tiberius adopted Germanicus as his son and heir. As a result, Germanicus was adopted out of the gens Claudia and into that of the gens Julia. In accordance with Roman naming conventions, he adopted the name "Julius Caesar" while retaining his agnomen, becoming Germanicus Julius Caesar. Upon Germanicus' adoption into the Julii, his brother Claudius became the sole legal representative of his father, inheriting the agnomen "Germanicus" as the new head of the family.

House and early life
Germanicus was born in Rome on 24 May 15 BC to Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor and had two younger siblings: a sister, Livilla, and a brother, Claudius. His paternal grandmother was Livia, who had divorced his grandfather Tiberius Claudius Nero around 24 years before Germanicus' birth. Livia's second marriage was to the Roman emperor Augustus. His maternal grandparents were the triumvir Mark Antony and Augustus' sister Octavia Minor. Germanicus was a key figure in the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the early Roman Empire. Tiberius, Germanicus' uncle, became the second Roman emperor and would be succeeded by Germanicus' son Gaius. Germanicus was also the brother of the fourth emperor, Claudius, and the grandfather of the fifth emperor, Nero.

When Augustus' chosen successor, Gaius Caesar, died in AD 4, he briefly considered Germanicus as his heir. His wife Livia persuaded him to choose his stepson Tiberius instead. As part of the succession arrangements, Augustus adopted Tiberius on 26 June AD 4, but first required him to adopt Germanicus, thus placing him next in the line of succession after Tiberius. Germanicus married Augustus' granddaughter, Agrippina the Elder, probably the next year, to further strengthen his ties to the imperial family. The couple had nine children: Nero Julius Caesar; Drusus Caesar; Tiberius Julius Caesar (not to be confused with emperor Tiberius); a child of unknown name (normally referred to as Ignotus); Gaius the Elder; Gaius the Younger (the future emperor "Caligula"); Agrippina the Younger (the future empress); Julia Drusilla; and Julia Livilla. Only six of his children came of age; Tiberius and the Ignotus died as infants, and Gaius the Elder in his early childhood.

Batonian War
Germanicus became a quaestor in AD 7, four years before the legal age of 25. He was sent to Illyricum the same year to help Tiberius suppress a rebellion by the Pannonians and Dalmatians. He brought with him an army of levied citizens and former slaves to reinforce Tiberius at Siscia, his base of operations in Illyricum. Towards the end of the year, additional reinforcements arrived; three legions from Moesia commanded by Aulus Caecina Severus, and two legions with Thracian cavalry and auxiliary troops from Anatolia commanded by Silvanus.

By the time Germanicus had arrived in Pannonia, the rebels had resorted to raiding from the mountain fortresses to which they had withdrawn. Because the Roman legions were not so effective at countering this tactic, Tiberius deployed his auxiliary forces and divided his army into small detachments, allowing them to cover more ground and conduct a war of attrition against the rebels in their strong defensive positions. The Romans also began to drive the rebels out of the countryside, offering amnesty to those tribes that would lay down their arms, and implemented a scorched earth policy in an effort to starve the enemy out. During this period, Germanicus' detachments were in action against the Mazaei, whom he defeated.

The rebel position in Pannonia collapsed in AD 8 when one of their commanders, Bato the Breucian, surrendered their leader Pinnes to the Romans and laid down his arms in return for amnesty. This was nullified when Bato the Breucian was defeated in battle and subsequently executed by his former ally Bato the Daesitiate, but this left the Pannonians divided against each other, and the Romans were able to subdue the Breuci without battle. The pacification of the Breuci, with their large population and resources, was a significant victory for the Romans, who would be reinforced by eight cohorts of Breuci auxiliaries towards the end of the war. Bato the Daesitiate withdrew from Pannonia to Dalmatia, where he occupied the mountains of Bosnia and began conducting counter-attacks, most likely against the indigenous people who sided with the Romans. Later in the year, Tiberius left Lepidus in command of Siscia and Silvanus at Sirmium.

Roman forces took the initiative in AD 9, and pushed into Dalmatia. Tiberius divided his forces into three divisions: one under Silvanus, which advanced south-east from Sirmium; another commanded by Lepidus, which advanced north-west along the Una Valley from Siscia toward Burnum; and the third led by Tiberius and Germanicus in the Dalmatian hinterland. The divisions under Lepidus and Silvanus practically exterminated the Perustae and Daesitiate in their mountain strongholds. Roman forces captured many cities, and those commanded by Germanicus took Raetinum, near Seretium (although it was destroyed in a fire set by the rebels during the siege), Splonum (in modern-day northern Montenegro) and Seretium itself (in modern-day western Bosnia). The Roman forces under Tiberius and Germanicus pursued Bato to the fortress of Andretium near Salona, to which they laid siege. When it became clear Bato would not surrender, Tiberius assaulted the fortress and captured him. While Tiberius negotiated the terms of surrender, Germanicus was sent on a punitive expedition across the surrounding territory, during which he forced the surrender of the fortified town of Arduba and surrounding towns. He then sent a deputy to subdue the remaining districts and returned to Tiberius.

Interim
After a distinguished start to his military career, Germanicus returned to Rome in late AD 9 to personally announce his victory. He was honored with a triumphal insignia (without an actual triumph) and the rank (not the actual title) of praetor. He was also given permission to be a candidate for consul before the regular time and the right to speak first in the Senate after the consuls. According to Cassius Dio, Germanicus was a popular quaestor because he acted as an advocate as much in capital jurisdiction cases before Augustus as he did before lesser judges in standard quaestiones (trials). He successfully defended, for example, a quaestor accused of murder in AD 10 in which the prosecutor, fearing the jurors would find in favor of the defense out of deference for Germanicus, demanded a trial before Augustus.

In AD 9, three Roman legions commanded by Varus were destroyed by a coalition of German tribes led by Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. As proconsul, Germanicus was dispatched with Tiberius to defend the empire against the Germans in AD 11. The two generals crossed the Rhine, made various excursions into enemy territory and, in the beginning of autumn, recrossed the river. The campaigns of Tiberius and Germanicus in Germania in the years AD 11–12, combined with an alliance with the Marcomannic federation of Marbod, prevented the German coalition from crossing the Rhine and invading Gaul and Italy. In winter, Germanicus returned to Rome, where he was, after five mandates as quaestor and despite never having been aedile or praetor, appointed consul for the year AD 12. He shared the consulship with Gaius Fonteius Capito. He continued to advocate for defendants in court during his consulship, a popular move reminiscent of his previous work defending the accused in front of Augustus. He also courted popularity by ministering the Ludi Martiales (games of Mars), as mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis, in which he released two hundred lions in the Circus Maximus.

On 23 October AD 12, Tiberius held a triumph for his victory over the Pannonians and Dalmatians, which he had postponed on account of the defeat of Varus at Teutoburg Forest. He was accompanied, among his other generals, by Germanicus, for whom he had obtained the triumphal regalia. Unlike his adoptive brother Drusus, who received no recognition beyond being the son of a triumphator, Germanicus played a distinguished part in the celebration and was given the opportunity to display his consular insignia and triumphal ornaments.

Commander of Germania
In AD 13, Augustus appointed him commander of the forces in the Rhine, which totaled eight legions and was about one-third of Rome's total military force. The next year in August, Augustus died and on 17 September the Senate met to confirm Tiberius as princeps. That day the Senate also dispatched a delegation to Germanicus' camp to send its condolences for the death of his grandfather and to grant him proconsular imperium. The delegation would not arrive until October.

In Germany and Illyricum, the legions were in mutiny. In Germany, the legions in mutiny were those of the Lower Rhine under Aulus Caecina (the V Alaudae, XXI Rapax, I Germanica, and XX Valeria Victrix). The army of the Lower Rhine was stationed in summer quarters on the border of the Ubii. They had not been paid the bonuses promised them by Augustus and, when it became clear a response from Tiberius was not forthcoming, they revolted. Germanicus dealt with the troops in Germania, and Tiberius' son Drusus dealt with Illyricum.

The army of the Lower Rhine sought an increase in pay, the reduction of their service to 16 years (down from 20) to mitigate the hardship of their military tasks, and vengeance against the centurions for their cruelty. After Germanicus arrived, the soldiers listed their complaints to him and attempted to proclaim him emperor. His open and affable manners made him popular with the soldiers, but he remained loyal to the emperor. When news of the mutiny reached the army of the Upper Rhine under Gaius Silius (the Legions II Augusta, XIII Gemina, XVI Gallica, and XIV Gemina) a meeting was held to meet their demands. Germanicus negotiated a settlement:
 * After 20 years of service, a full discharge was given, but after 16 years an immunity from military tasks, except to take part in actions (missio sub vexillo).
 * The donative left by Augustus to the troops was to be doubled and discharged.

First campaign against the Germanic tribes
To satisfy the requisition promised to the legions, Germanicus paid them out of his own pocket. All eight legions were given money, even if they did not demand it. Both the armies of the Lower and Upper Rhine had returned to order. It seemed prudent to satisfy the armies, but Germanicus took it a step further. In a bid to secure the loyalty of his troops, he led them on a raid against the Marsi, a Germanic people on the upper Ruhr river. Germanicus massacred the villages of the Marsi he encountered and pillaged the surrounding territory. On the way back to their winter quarters at Castra Vetera, they pushed successfully through the opposing tribes (Bructeri, Tubantes, and Usipetes) between the Marsi and the Rhine.

Back at Rome, Tiberius instituted the Sodales Augustales, a priesthood of the cult of Augustus, of which Germanicus became a member. When news arrived of his raid, Tiberius commemorated his services in the Senate. The Senate, in absence of Germanicus, voted that he should be given a triumph. Ovid's Fasti dates the Senate vote of Germanicus' triumph to 1 January AD 15.

Second campaign against the Germanic tribes
For the next two years, he led his legions across the Rhine against the Germans, where they would confront the forces of Arminius and his allies. Tacitus says the purpose of those campaigns was to avenge the defeat of Varus at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, and not to expand Roman territory.

In early spring AD 15, Germanicus crossed the Rhine and struck the Chatti. He sacked their capital Mattium (modern Maden near Gudensberg), pillaged their countryside, then returned to the Rhine. Sometime this year, he received word from Segestes, who was held prisoner by Arminius's forces and needed help. Germanicus's troops released Segestes and took his pregnant daughter, Arminius's wife Thusnelda, into captivity. Again he marched back victorious and at the direction of Tiberius, accepted the title of Imperator.

Arminius called his tribe, the Cherusci, and the surrounding tribes to arms. Germanicus coordinated a land and riverine offensive, with troops marching eastward across the Rhine, and sailing from the North Sea up the Ems River in order to attack the Bructeri and Cherusci. Germanicus' forces went through Bructeri territory, where a general, Lucius Stertinius, recovered the lost eagle of the XIX Legion from among the equipment of the Bructeri after routing them in battle.

Germanicus's legions met up to the north, and ravaged the countryside between the Ems and the Lippe, and penetrated to the Teutoburg Forest, a mountain forest in western Germany situated between these two rivers. There, Germanicus and some of his men visited the site of the disastrous Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, and began burying the remains of the Roman soldiers that had been left in the open. After half a day of the work, he called off the burial of bones so that they could continue their war against the Germans. He made his way into the heartland of the Cherusci. At a location Tacitus calls the pontes longi ("long causeways"), in boggy lowlands somewhere near the Ems, Arminius's troops attacked the Romans. Arminius initially caught Germanicus's cavalry in a trap, inflicting minor casualties, but the Roman infantry reinforced the rout and checked them. The fighting lasted for two days, with neither side achieving a decisive victory. Germanicus's forces withdrew and returned to the Rhine.

Third campaign against the Germanic tribes
In preparations for his next campaign, Germanicus sent Publius Vitellius and Gaius Antius to collect taxes in Gaul, and instructed Silius, Anteius, and Caecina to build a fleet. A fort on the Lippe called Castra Aliso was besieged, but the attackers dispersed on sight of Roman reinforcements. The Germans destroyed the nearby mound and altar dedicated to his father Drusus, but he had them both restored and celebrated funerary games with his legions in honor of his father. New barriers and earthworks were put in place, securing the area between Fort Aliso and the Rhine.

Germanicus commanded eight legions with Gallic and Germanic auxiliary units overland across the Rhine, up the Ems and Weser rivers as part of his last major campaign against Arminius in AD 16. His forces met those of Arminius on the plains of Idistaviso, by the Weser River near modern Rinteln, in an engagement called the Battle of the Weser River. Tacitus says that the battle was a Roman victory:

Arminius and his uncle Inguiomer were both wounded in the battle but evaded capture. The Roman soldiers involved on the battlefield honored Tiberius as Imperator, and raised a pile of arms as a trophy with the names of the defeated tribes inscribed beneath them.

The sight of the Roman trophy constructed on the battlefield enraged the Germans who were preparing to retreat beyond the Elbe, and they launched an attack on the Roman positions at the Angrivarian Wall, thus beginning a second battle. The Romans had anticipated the attack and again routed the Germans. Germanicus stated that he did not want any prisoners, as the extermination of the Germanic tribes was the only conclusion he saw for the war. The victorious Romans then raised a mound with the inscription: "The army of Tiberius Caesar, after thoroughly conquering the tribes between the Rhine and the Elbe, has dedicated this monument to Mars, Jupiter, and Augustus."

Germanicus sent some troops back to the Rhine, with some of them taking the land route, but most of them took the fast route and traveled by boat. They went down the Ems toward the North Sea, but as they reached the sea, a storm struck, sinking many of the boats and killing many men and horses.

Then Germanicus ordered Gaius Silius to march against the Chatti with a mixed force of 3,000 cavalry and 33,000 infantry and lay waste to their territory, while he himself, with a larger army, invaded the Marsi for the third time and devastated their land. He forced Mallovendus, the defeated leader of the Marsi, to reveal the location of another of the three legion's eagles lost in AD 9. Immediately Germanicus despatched troops to recover it. The Romans advanced into the country, defeating any foe they encountered.

Germanicus's successes in Germany had made him popular with the soldiers. He had dealt a significant blow to Rome's enemies, quelled an uprising of troops, and returned lost standards to Rome. His actions had increased his fame, and he had become very popular with the Roman people. Tiberius took notice, and had Germanicus recalled to Rome and informed him that he would be given a triumph and reassigned to a different command.

Result
The effort it would have taken to conquer Germania Magna was deemed too great when compared with the low potential for profit from acquiring the new territory. Rome regarded Germany as a wild territory of forests and swamps, with little wealth compared to territories Rome already had. However, the campaign significantly healed the Roman psychological trauma from the Varus disaster, and greatly recovered Roman prestige. In addition to the recovery of two of the three lost eagles, Germanicus had fought Arminius, the leader who destroyed the three Roman legions in AD 9. In leading his troops across the Rhine without recourse to Tiberius, he contradicted the advice of Augustus to keep that river as the boundary of the empire, and opened himself to potential doubts from Tiberius about his motives in taking such independent action. This error in political judgment gave Tiberius reason to controversially recall his nephew. Tacitus attributed the recall to Tiberius' jealousy of the glory Germanicus had acquired, and, with some bitterness, claims that Germanicus could have completed the conquest of Germania had he been given full operational independence.

Recall
At the beginning of AD 17, Germanicus returned to the capital and on 26 May he celebrated a triumph. He had captured a few important prisoners, but Arminius was still at large. And yet, Strabo, who may have been in Rome at the time, in mentioning the name of Thusnelda, the captured pregnant wife of Arminius, draws attention to the fact that her husband, the victor at Teutoburg Forest, had not been captured and the war itself had not been won. Nonetheless, this did not take away from the spectacle of his triumph: a near contemporary calendar marks 26 May as the day in "which Germanicus Caesar was borne into the city in triumph", while coins issued under his son Gaius (Caligula) depicted him on a triumphal chariot, with the reverse reading "Standards Recovered. Germans Defeated."

His triumph included a long procession of captives including the wife of Arminius, Thusnelda, and her three-year-old son, among others of the defeated German tribes. The procession displayed replicas of mountains, rivers, and battles; and the war was considered closed.

Tiberius gave money out to the people of Rome in Germanicus' name, and Germanicus was scheduled to hold the consulship next year with the emperor. As a result, in AD 18, Germanicus was granted the eastern part of the empire, just as Agrippa and Tiberius had received before, when they were successors to the emperor.

Command in Asia
Following his triumph, Germanicus was sent to Asia to reorganize the provinces and kingdoms there, which were in such disarray that the attention of a domus Augusta was deemed necessary to settle matters. Germanicus was given imperium maius (extraordinary command) over the other governors and commanders of the area he was to operate; however, Tiberius had replaced the governor of Syria with Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, who was meant to be his helper (adiutor), but turned out to be hostile. According to Tacitus, this was an attempt to separate Germanicus from his familiar troops and weaken his influence, but the historian Richard Alston says Tiberius had little reason to undermine his heir.

Germanicus had a busy year in 17. He restored a temple of Spes, and allegedly won a chariot race in the name of Tiberius at the Olympic Games that year. However, Eusebius, our main reference for this, does not name Germanicus, and Tacitus makes no reference to this occasion either, which would have required Germanicus to make two trips to Greece within a year. Also, not waiting to take up his consulship in Rome, he left after his triumph but before the end of AD 17. He sailed down the Illyrian coast of the Adriatic Sea to Greece. He arrived at Nicopolis near the site of the Battle of Actium, where he took up his second consulship on 18 January AD 18. He visited the sites associated with his adoptive grandfather Augustus and his natural grandfather Mark Antony, before crossing the sea to Lesbos and then to Asia Minor. There he visited the site of Troy and the oracle of Apollo Claros near Colophon. Piso left at the same time as Germanicus, but traveled directly to Athens and then to Rhodes where he and Germanicus met for the first time. From there Piso left for Syria where he immediately began replacing the officers with men loyal to himself in a bid to win the loyalty of his soldiers.

Next Germanicus traveled through Syria to Armenia where he installed king Artaxias as a replacement for Vonones, whom Augustus had deposed and placed under house arrest at the request of the king of Parthia, Artabanus. The king of Cappadocia died too, whereupon Germanicus sent Quintus Veranius to organize Cappadocia as a province – a profitable endeavor as Tiberius was able to reduce the sales tax down to .5% from 1%. The revenue from the new province was enough to make up the difference lost from lowering the sales tax. The kingdom of Commagene was split on whether or not to remain free or to become a province with both sides sending deputations, so Germanicus sent Quintus Servaeus to organize the province.

Having settled these matters he traveled to Cyrrhus, a city in Syria between Antioch and the Euphrates, where he spent the rest of AD 18 in the winter quarters of the Legion X Fretensis. Evidently here Piso attended Germanicus, and quarreled because he failed to send troops to Armenia when ordered. Artabanus sent an envoy to Germanicus requesting that Vonones be moved further from Armenia as to not incite trouble there. Germanicus complied, moving Vonones to Cilicia, both to please Artabanus and to insult Piso, with whom Vonones was friendly.

Egypt
He then made his way to Egypt, arriving to a tumultuous reception in January AD 19. He had gone there to relieve a famine in the country vital to Rome's food supply. The move upset Tiberius, because it had violated an order by Augustus that no senator shall enter the province without consulting the emperor and the Senate (Egypt was an imperial province, and belonged to the emperor). Germanicus entered the province in his capacity as proconsul without first seeking permission to do so. He returned to Syria by summer, where he found that Piso had either ignored or revoked his orders to the cities and legions. Germanicus in turn ordered Piso's recall to Rome, although this action was probably beyond his authority.

In the midst of this feud, Germanicus became ill and despite the fact Piso had removed himself to the port of Seleucia, he was convinced that Piso was somehow poisoning him. Tacitus reports that there were signs of black magic in Piso's house with hidden body-parts and Germanicus's name inscribed on lead tablets. Germanicus sent Piso a letter formally renouncing their friendship (amicitia). Germanicus died soon after on 10 October of that year. His death aroused much speculation, with several sources blaming Piso, acting under orders from Emperor Tiberius. This was never proven, and Piso killed himself while facing trial. Tacitus says Tiberius was involved in a conspiracy against Germanicus, and Tiberius's jealousy and fear of his nephew's popularity and increasing power was the true motive.

The death of Germanicus in dubious circumstances greatly affected Tiberius's popularity in Rome, leading to the creation of a climate of fear in Rome itself. Also suspected of connivance in his death was Tiberius's chief advisor, Sejanus, who would, in the 20s, create an atmosphere of fear in Roman noble and administrative circles by the use of treason trials and the role of delatores, or informers.

Post-mortem
When Rome had received word of Germanicus' death, the people began observing a iustitium before the Senate had officially declared it. Tacitus says this shows the true grief that the people of Rome felt, and this also shows that by this time the people already knew the proper way to commemorate dead princes without an edict from a magistrate. At his funeral, there were no procession statues of Germanicus. There were abundant eulogies and reminders of his fine character and a particular eulogy was given by Tiberius himself in the Senate.

The historians Tacitus and Suetonius record the funeral and posthumous honors of Germanicus. His name was placed into the Carmen Saliare, and onto the curule seats that were placed with oaken garlands over them as honorary seats for the Augustan priesthood. His ivory statue was at the head of the procession during the Circus Games; his posts as priest of Augustus and Augur were to be filled by members of the imperial family; knights of Rome gave his name to a block of seats at a theatre in Rome, and rode behind his effigy on 15 July AD 20.

After consulting with his family, Tiberius made his wishes known whereupon the Senate collected the honors into a commemorative decree, the Senatus Consultum de memoria honoranda Germanini Caesaris, and ordered the consuls of AD 20 to issue a public law honoring the death of Germanicus, the Lex Valeria Aurelia. Although Tacitus stressed the honors paid to him, the funeral and processions were carefully modeled after those of Gaius and Lucius, Agrippa's sons. This served to emphasize the continuation of the domus Augusta across the transition from Augustus to Tiberius. Commemorative arches were built in his honor and not just in Rome, but at the frontier on the Rhine and in Asia where he had governed in life. The arch of the Rhine was placed alongside that of his father, where the soldiers had built a funerary monument honoring him. Portraits of him and his natural father were placed in the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine in Rome. Several cities in Asia Minor were named Germanicopolis in honor of the general (among them Gangra and Germanicia).

On the day of Germanicus' death his sister Livilla gave birth to twins by Drusus. The oldest was named Germanicus and died young. In 37, Germanicus' only remaining son, Caligula, became emperor and renamed September Germanicus in honor of his father. Many Romans, in the account of Tacitus, considered Germanicus to be their equivalent to Alexander the Great, and believed that he would have easily surpassed the achievements of Alexander had he become emperor. In book eight of his Natural History, Pliny connects Germanicus, Augustus, and Alexander as fellow equestrians: when Alexander's horse Bucephalus died he named a city, Bucephalia, in his honor. Less monumental, Augustus' horse received a funeral mound, which Germanicus wrote a poem about.

Trial of Piso
Piso was rumored to have been responsible for Germanicus' death. As accusations accumulated, it was not long before the well known accuser, Lucius Fulcinius Trio, brought charges against him. The Pisones were longtime supporters of the Claudians, and had allied themselves with Octavian early on. The continued support of the Pisones and his own friendship with Piso made Tiberius hesitant to hear the case himself. After briefly hearing both sides, Tiberius referred the case to the Senate, making no effort to hide his deep anger toward Piso. Tiberius made allowances for Piso to summon witnesses of all social orders, including slaves, and he was given more time to plead than the prosecutors, but it made no difference: before the trial was over Piso died; ostensibly by suicide, but Tacitus supposes Tiberius may have had him murdered before he could implicate the emperor in Germanicus' death.

The accusations brought against Piso are numerous, including:

 * Insubordination
 * Corruption
 * Abandoning and reentering a province
 * Summary justice
 * Destroying military discipline
 * Misusing the fiscus principis (emperor's money)
 * Fomenting civil war
 * Violating the divinity of Divus Augustus (sacrilege).

He was found guilty and punished posthumously for treason. The Senate had his property proscribed, forbade mourning on his account, removed images of his likeness, such as statues and portraits, and his name was erased from the base of one statue in particular as part of his damnatio memoriae. Yet, in a show of clemency not unlike that of the emperor, the Senate had Piso's property returned and divided equally between his two sons, on condition that his daughter Calpurnia be given 1,000,000 sesterces as dowry and a further 4,000,000 as personal property. His wife Plancina was absolved.

Literary activity
In AD 4, Germanicus wrote a Latin version of Aratus's Phainomena, which survives, wherein he rewrites the contents of the original. For example, he replaces the opening hymn to Zeus with a passage in honor of the Roman emperor. He avoided writing in the poetic style of Cicero, who had translated his own version of the Phainomena, and he wrote in a new style to meet the expectations of a Roman audience whose tastes were shaped by "modern" authors like Ovid and Virgil. For his work, Germanicus is ranked among Roman writers on astronomy, and his work was popular enough for scholia to be written on it well into the Medieval era.

Historiography
Germanicus and Tiberius are often contrasted by ancient historians and poets who wrote using themes found in drama, with Germanicus playing the tragic hero and Tiberius the tyrant. The endurance of the Principate is challenged in these narratives, by the emperor's jealous trepidation toward competent commanders such as Germanicus. Attention is paid particularly to their leadership styles, i.e., in their relationship with the masses. Germanicus is painted as a competent leader able to handle the masses whereas Tiberius is indecisive and envious.

Despite the poetics attached to Germanicus by ancient authors, it is accepted by historians such as Anthony A. Barrett that Germanicus was an able general. He fought against the Pannonians under Tiberius, quelled the mutiny in the Rhine, and led three successful campaigns into Germania. As for his popularity, he was popular enough that the mutinous legions of the Rhine attempted to proclaim him emperor in AD 14; however, he remained loyal and led them against the German tribes instead. Tacitus and Suetonius claim that Tiberius was jealous of Germanicus' popularity, but Barrett suggests their claim might be contradicted by the fact that, following his campaigns in Germany, Germanicus was given command of the eastern provinces – a sure sign he was intended to rule. In accordance with the precedent set by Augustus, Agrippa had been given command of those same provinces in the east when Agrippa was the intended successor to the empire.

Publius Cornelius Tacitus

The Annals by Tacitus is one of the most detailed accounts of Germanicus' campaigns against the Germans. He wrote his account in the early years of the second century. Tacitus described Germanicus as a fine general who was kind and temperate, saying that his early death had taken a great ruler from Rome.

Book 1 of Annals extensively focuses on the mutinies of the legions in Pannonia and Germany (AD 14). The riotous army figures into the unpredictable wrath of the Roman people giving Tiberius the chance to reflect on what it means to lead. It serves to contrast the "old-fashioned" Republican values assigned to Germanicus, and the imperial values possessed by Tiberius. The mood of the masses is a recurring theme, with their reactions to the fortunes of Germanicus being a prominent feature of the relationship between him and Tiberius well into the Annals (as far as Annals 3.19).

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
Suetonius was an equestrian who held administrative posts during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. The Twelve Caesars details a biographical history of the Principate from the birth of Julius Caesar to the death of Domitian in AD 96. Like Tacitus, he drew upon the imperial archives, as well as histories by Aufidius Bassus, Cluvius Rufus, Fabius Rusticus and Augustus' own letters.

The attitude of Suetonius toward Germanicus' personality and moral temperament is that of adoration. He dedicates a good portion of his Life of Caligula to Germanicus, claiming Germanicus' physical and moral excellence surpassed that of his contemporaries. Suetonius also says that Germanicus was a gifted writer, and that despite all these talents, he remained humble and kind.

Legacy
Due to his prominence as heir to the imperial succession, he is depicted in many works of art. He often appears in literature as the archetypal ideal Roman. His life and character have been portrayed in many works of art, the most notable of which include:

 * Germanico in Germania (1732), an Italian opera by Nicola Porpora. He was played by Domenico Annibali.
 * Death of Germanicus (1773–1774), a marble sculpture by British sculptor Thomas Banks.
 * Thusnelda im Triumphzug des Germanicus (1873), a painting by German painter Karl von Piloty.
 * I, Claudius (1934), a historical fiction novel by classicist Robert Graves.
 * The Caesars (1968), a British television series by Philip Mackie. He was played by Eric Flynn.
 * I, Claudius (1976), a British television series by Jack Pulman. He was played by David Robb.

title: Germanicus


text:
Giulio Alberoni

Giulio Alberoni (21 May 1664 OS – 26 June NS 1752) was an Italian cardinal and statesman in the service of Philip V of Spain.

Early years
He was born near Piacenza on May 21, 1664, probably at the village of Fiorenzuola d'Arda in the Duchy of Parma.

His father was a gardener, and he himself became first connected with the church in the humble position of a bellringer and verger in the Duomo of Piacenza; he was twenty-one when the judge Ignazio Gardini, of Ravenna, was banished, and he followed Gardini to Ravenna, where he met the vice-legate Giorgio Barni, who was made bishop of Piacenza in 1688 and appointed Alberoni chamberlain of his household. Alberoni took priest's orders, and afterwards accompanied the son of his patron to Rome.

During the War of the Spanish Succession Alberoni laid the foundation of his political success by the services he rendered to Louis-Joseph, duc de Vendôme, commander of the French forces in Italy, to whom the duke of Parma had sent him. That a low-ranking priest was used as an envoy was due to the duke's rude manners: the previous envoy, the bishop of Parma, had quit because the duke had wiped his buttocks in front of him: Saint-Simon in his Mémoires relates that Alberoni gained Vendôme's favour when he was received in the same way, but reacted adroitly by kissing the duke's buttocks and crying "O culo di angelo!". The duke was amused, and this joke started Alberoni's brilliant career. When the French forces were recalled in 1706, he accompanied the duke to Paris, where he was favourably received by Louis XIV.

Middle years
Alberoni accompanied Vendôme to Spain as his secretary and became very active in promoting the cause of the French candidate Philip V. Following Vendôme's death, in 1713 he was made a Count and appointed Consular agent for Parma at Philip's court where he was a Royal favourite.

Under the terms of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, Philip became King of Spain but the Spanish Empire was effectively partitioned. The Southern Netherlands and their Italian possessions were ceded to the Austrian Habsburgs and Savoy, Menorca and Gibraltar went to Britain while British merchants gained trading rights in the previously closed market of the Spanish Americas.

At this time, the key powerbroker at the Spanish court was Marie-Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des Ursins who dominated Phillip and his wife Maria Luisa of Savoy. Alberoni worked with her and when Maria Luisa died in 1714 they arranged for Philip to marry Elisabetta Farnese, daughter of the Duke of Parma.

Elisabetta was a strong personality herself and formed an alliance with Alberoni, their first action being to banish the Princesse des Ursins. By the end of 1715, Alberoni had been made a Duke and Grandee of Spain, a member of the King's council, Bishop of Málaga and Chief Minister of the Hispanic Monarchy. In July 1717, Pope Clement XI appointed him Cardinal, allegedly because of his assistance in resolving several ecclesiastical disputes between Rome and Madrid in favour of Rome.

One outcome of the war was to reduce the powers of Castile and Aragon and create a Spanish state similar to the centralised French system. This allowed Alberoni to copy the economic reforms of Colbert and he passed a series of decrees aimed at restoring the Spanish economy. These abolished internal custom-houses, promoted trade with the Americas, instituted a regular mail service to the colonies and reorganised state finances along lines established by the French economist Jean Orry. Some attempts were made to satisfy Spanish conservatives e.g. a new School of Navigation was reserved for the sons of the nobility.

These reforms made Spain confident enough to attempt the recovery of territories in Italy ceded to Savoy and Charles VI of Austria. In 1717, a Spanish force occupied Sardinia unopposed; neither Austria or Savoy had significant naval forces and Austria was engaged in the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18. This assumed the British would not intervene but when 38,000 Spanish troops landed on Sicily in 1718, Britain declared it a violation of Utrecht. On 2 August 1718, Britain, France, the Netherlands and the Austrians formed the Quadruple Alliance and on 11 August the Royal Navy destroyed a Spanish fleet off Sicily at the Battle of Cape Passaro.

Alberoni now attempted to offset British in the Mediterranean by sponsoring a Jacobite landing to divert their naval resources; he also sought to end the 1716 Anglo-French Alliance by using the Cellamare conspiracy to replace the current French Regent the Duke of Orleans with Phillip of Spain. However, he failed to appreciate that Britain was now powerful enough to maintain naval superiority in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic while France declared war on Spain in December 1718 on the discovery of the Conspiracy.

France invaded eastern Spain and in October 1719 a British naval expedition captured the Spanish port of Vigo; they landed 6,000 troops, held Vigo for ten days, destroyed vast quantities of stores and equipment and then re-embarked unopposed. The nearby city of Santiago de Compostela even paid £40,000 in return for being left alone. As intended, this was a crushing demonstration of British naval power and showed the Spanish Britain could land anywhere along their coastline and leave when they wanted to. The failure of his policy meant Alberoni was dismissed on 5 December 1719 and ordered to leave Spain, with the Treaty of The Hague in 1720 confirming the outcome of Utrecht.

Later years
He went to Italy, escaped from arrest at Genoa, and had to take refuge among the Apennines, Pope Clement XI, who was his bitter enemy, having given strict orders for his arrest. On the death of Clement in 1721, Alberoni boldly appeared at the conclave, and took part in the election of Innocent XIII, after which he was for a short time imprisoned by the new pontiff on the demand of Spain on charges including sodomy (Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatine noted in her diaries that he was a pederast). He was ultimately cleared by a commission of his fellow Cardinals. At the next election (1724) he was himself proposed for the papal chair, and secured ten votes at the conclave that elected Benedict XIII.

Benedict's successor, Clement XII (elected 1730), named him legate of Ravenna, where he erected the Porta Alberoni (1739), a magnificent gateway that formerly provided access to the city's dockyards, and has since been moved to the entrance of the Teatro Rasi. That same year, the strong and unwarrantable measures he adopted to subject the grand republic of San Marino to the papal states incurred the pope's displeasure and left a historical scar in that place's memory. He was soon replaced by another legate in 1740, and he retired to Piacenza, where in 1730 Clement XII appointed him administrator of the hospital of San Lazzaro, an institute founded in the medieval era for the benefit of lepers. Since leprosy had nearly disappeared in Italy, Alberoni obtained the consent of the pope to suppress the hospital, which had fallen into great disorder, and replaced it with a seminary for the priestly education of seventy poor boys, under the name of the Collegio Alberoni, which it still bears. The Cardinal's collections of art gathered in Rome and Piacenza, housed in his richly appointed private apartments, have been augmented by the Collegio. There are remarkable suites of Flemish tapestries, and paintings, among which the most famous is the Ecce Homo by Antonello da Messina (1473), but which also include panels by Jan Provoost and other Flemish artists, oil paintings by Domenico Maria Viani and Francesco Solimena.

Alberoni was a gourmand. Interspersed in his official correspondence with Parma are requests for local delicacies triffole (truffles), salame, robiola cheeses, and agnolini (kind of pasta). The pork dish "Coppa del Cardinale", a specialty of Piacenza, is named for him. A "timballo Alberoni" combines maccaroni, shrimp sauce, mushrooms, butter and cheese.

Death and legacy
He died leaving a sum of 600,000 ducats to endow the seminary he had founded. He left the rest of the immense wealth he had acquired in Spain to his nephew. Alberoni produced many manuscripts. The genuineness of the Political Testament, published in his name at Lausanne in 1753, has been questioned.

References and sources

 * References

 * Sources
 * Kuethe, Allan J. "Cardinal Alberoni and Reform in the American Empire." in Francisco A. Eissa-Barroso y Ainara Vázquez Varela, eds. Early Bourbon Spanish America. Politics and Society in a forgotten Era (1700–1759) (Brill, 2013): 23–38.
 * Kuethe, Allan J. "Cardinal Alberoni and Reform in the American Empire." in Francisco A. Eissa-Barroso y Ainara Vázquez Varela, eds. Early Bourbon Spanish America. Politics and Society in a forgotten Era (1700–1759) (Brill, 2013): 23–38.

 * Catholic Encyclopedia: Giulio Alberoni
 * Catholic Hierarchy: Giulio Cardinal Alberoni
 * Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Conclave of 31 March – 8 May 1724
 * Collegio Alberoni, Piacenza
 * The San Marino event of 1739–40

title: Giulio Alberoni