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Caracalla

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname Caracalla, was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor Septimius Severus and Empress Julia Domna. Severus proclaimed Caracalla co-ruler in 198, doing the same with his other son Geta in 209. The two brothers briefly shared power after their father's death in 211, but Caracalla soon had Geta murdered by the Praetorian Guard and became sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Julia Domna had a significant share in governance, since Caracalla found administration to be mundane. His reign featured domestic instability and external invasions by the Germanic peoples.

Caracalla issued the Antonine Constitution (Constitutio Antoniniana), also known as the Edict of Caracalla, which granted Roman citizenship to all free men throughout the Roman Empire. The edict gave all the enfranchised men Caracalla's adopted praenomen and nomen: "Marcus Aurelius". Other landmarks of his reign were the construction of the Baths of Caracalla, the second-largest bathing complex in the history of Rome, the introduction of a new Roman currency named the antoninianus, a sort of double denarius, and the massacres he ordered, both in Rome and elsewhere in the empire. In 216, Caracalla began a campaign against the Parthian Empire. He did not see this campaign through to completion due to his assassination by a disaffected soldier in 217. Macrinus succeeded him as emperor three days later.

The ancient sources portray Caracalla as a cruel tyrant; his contemporaries Cassius Dio (c. 155 – c.  235) and Herodian (c.  170 – c.  240) present him as a soldier first and an emperor second. In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth started the legend of Caracalla's role as king of Britain. Later, in the 18th century, the works of French painters revived images of Caracalla due to apparent parallels between Caracalla's tyranny and that ascribed to king Louis XVI ((r. 1774 – 1792)). Modern works continue to portray Caracalla as an evil ruler, painting him as one of the most tyrannical of all Roman emperors.

Names
Caracalla's name at birth was Lucius Septimius Bassianus. He was renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus at the age of seven as part of his father's attempt at union with the families of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. According to the 4th-century historian Aurelius Victor in his Epitome de Caesaribus, he became known by the agnomen "Caracalla" after a Gallic hooded tunic that he habitually wore and made fashionable. He may have begun wearing it during his campaigns on the Rhine and Danube. Cassius Dio, who was still writing his Historia romana during Caracalla's reign, generally referred to him as "Tarautas", after a famously diminutive and violent gladiator of the time, though he also calls him "Caracallus" in various occasions.

Early life
Caracalla was born in Lugdunum, Gaul (now Lyon, France), on 4April 188 to Septimius Severus ((r. 193 – 211)) and Julia Domna, thus giving him Punic paternal ancestry and Arab maternal ancestry. He had a slightly younger brother, Geta, with whom Caracalla briefly ruled as co-emperor. Caracalla was five years old when his father was acclaimed Augustus on 9 April 193.

Caesar
In early 195, Caracalla's father Septimius Severus had himself adopted posthumously by the deified emperor (divus) Marcus Aurelius ((r. 161 – 180)); accordingly, in 195 or 196 Caracalla was given the imperial rank of Caesar, adopting the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caesar, and was named imperator destinatus (or designatus) in 197, possibly on his birthday, 4 April, and certainly before 7 May. He thus technically became a part of the well-remembered Antonine dynasty.

Co-augustus
Caracalla's father appointed Caracalla joint Augustus and full emperor from 28 January 198. This was the day Septimius Severus's triumph was celebrated, in honour of his victory over the Parthian Empire in the Roman–Persian Wars; he had successfully sacked the Parthian capital, Ctesiphon, after winning the Battle of Ctesiphon, probably in October 197. He was also awarded tribunician power and the title of imperator. In inscriptions, Caracalla is given from 198 the title of the chief priesthood, pontifex maximus. His brother Geta was proclaimed nobilissimus caesar on the same day, and their father Septimius Severus was awarded the victory name Parthicus Maximus.

In 199, he was inducted into the Arval Brethren. By the end of 199 he was entitled pater patriae. In 202, he was Roman consul, having been named consul designatus the previous year. His colleague was his father, serving his own third consulship.''

In 202, Caracalla was forced to marry the daughter of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, Fulvia Plautilla, a woman whom he hated, though for what reason is unknown. The wedding took place between the 9 and the 15 April.

In 205, Caracalla was consul for the second time, in company with Geta – his brother's first consulship. By 205 Caracalla had got Plautianus executed for treason, though he had probably fabricated the evidence of the plot. It was then that he banished his wife, whose later killing might have been carried out under Caracalla's orders.

On 28 January 207, Caracalla celebrated his decennalia, the tenth anniversary of the beginning of his reign. The year 208 was the year of his third and Geta's second consulship.  Geta was himself granted the rank of Augustus and tribunician powers in September or October 209.

During the reign of his father, Caracalla's mother Julia Domna had played a prominent public role, receiving titles of honour such as "Mother of the camp", but she also played a role behind the scenes helping her husband administer the empire. Described as ambitious, Julia Domna surrounded herself with thinkers and writers from all over the empire. While Caracalla was mustering and training troops for his planned Persian invasion, Julia remained in Rome, administering the empire. Julia's growing influence in state affairs was the beginning of a trend of emperors' mothers having influence, which continued throughout the Severan dynasty.

Geta as co-augustus
On 4February 211, Septimius Severus died at Eboracum (present day York, England) while on campaign in Caledonia, to the north of Roman Britain.

This left his two sons and co-augusti, Caracalla and his brother, Geta, as joint inheritors of their father's throne and empire. Caracalla adopted his father's cognomen, Severus, and assumed the chief priesthood as pontifex maximus. His name became Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Augustus.

Caracalla and Geta ended the Roman invasion of Caledonia after concluding a peace with the Caledonians that returned the border of Roman Britain to the line demarcated by Hadrian's Wall. During the journey back from Britain to Rome with their father's ashes, Caracalla and his brother continuously argued with one another, making relations between them increasingly hostile. Caracalla and Geta considered dividing the empire in half along the Bosphorus to make their co-rule less hostile. Caracalla was to rule in the west and Geta was to rule in the east. They were persuaded not to do this by their mother.

Geta's murder
On 26 December 211, at a reconciliation meeting arranged by their mother, Geta was assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard loyal to Caracalla. Geta died in his mother's arms. It is widely accepted, and clearly most likely, that Caracalla ordered the assassination himself, as the two had never been on favourable terms with one another, much less after succeeding their father.

Caracalla then persecuted and executed most of Geta's supporters and ordered a damnatio memoriae pronounced by the Senate against his brother's memory. Geta's image was removed from all paintings, coins were melted down, statues were destroyed, his name was struck from papyrus records, and it became a capital offence to speak or write Geta's name. In the aftermath of the damnatio memoriae, an estimated 20,000 people were massacred. Those killed were Geta's inner circle of guards and advisers, friends, and other military staff under his employ.

Reign as sole emperor
When Geta died in 211, Julia Domna's responsibilities increased, because Caracalla found administrative tasks to be mundane. She may have taken on one of the more important civil functions of the emperor; receiving petitions and answering correspondence. The extent of her role in this position, however, is probably overstated. She may have represented her son and played a role in meetings and answering queries; however, the final authority on legal matters was Caracalla. The emperor filled all of the roles in the legal system as judge, legislator, and administrator.

Constitutio Antoniniana
The Constitutio Antoniniana (lit. "Constitution of Antoninus", also called "Edict of Caracalla" or "Antonine Constitution") was an edict issued in 212 by Caracalla declaring that all free men in the Roman Empire were to be given full Roman citizenship, with the exception of the dediticii, people who had become subject to Rome through surrender in war, and freed slaves.

Before 212, the majority of Roman citizens had been inhabitants of Roman Italia, with about 4–7% of all peoples in the Roman Empire being Roman citizens at the time of the death of Augustus in AD 14. Outside Rome, citizenship was restricted to Roman coloniae – Romans, or their descendants, living in the provinces, the inhabitants of various cities throughout the Empire – and small numbers of local nobles such as kings of client countries. Provincials, on the other hand, were usually non-citizens, although some magistrates and their families and relatives held the Latin Right.

Dio maintains that one purpose for Caracalla issuing the edict was the desire to increase state revenue; at the time, Rome was in a difficult financial situation and needed to pay for the new pay raises and benefits that were being conferred on the military. The edict widened the obligation for public service and gave increased revenue through the inheritance and emancipation taxes that only had to be paid by Roman citizens. However, few of those that gained citizenship were wealthy, and while it is true that Rome was in a difficult financial situation, it is thought that this could not have been the sole purpose of the edict. The provincials also benefited from this edict because they were now able to think of themselves as equal partners to the Romans in the empire.

Another purpose for issuing the edict, as described within the papyrus upon which part of the edict was inscribed, was to appease the gods who had delivered Caracalla from conspiracy. The conspiracy in question was in response to Caracalla's murder of Geta and the subsequent slaughter of his followers; fratricide would only have been condoned if his brother had been a tyrant. The damnatio memoriae against Geta and the large payments Caracalla had made to his own supporters were designed to protect himself from possible repercussions. After this had succeeded, Caracalla felt the need to repay the gods of Rome by returning the favour to the people of Rome through a similarly grand gesture. This was done through the granting of citizenship.

Another purpose for issuing the edict might have been related to the fact that the periphery of the empire was now becoming central to its existence, and the granting of citizenship may have been simply a logical outcome of Rome's continued expansion of citizenship rights.

Alamannic war
In 213, about a year after Geta's death, Caracalla left Rome, never to return. He went north to the German frontier to deal with the Alamanni, a confederation of Germanic tribes who had broken through the limes in Raetia. During the campaign of 213–214, Caracalla successfully defeated some of the Germanic tribes while settling other difficulties through diplomacy, though precisely with whom these treaties were made remains unknown. While there, Caracalla strengthened the frontier fortifications of Raetia and Germania Superior, collectively known as the Agri Decumates, so that it was able to withstand any further barbarian invasions for another twenty years.

Provincial tour
In spring 214, Caracalla departed for the eastern provinces, travelling through the Danubian provinces and the Anatolian provinces of Asia and Bithynia. He spent the winter of 214/215 in Nicomedia. By 4 April 215 he had left Nicomedia, and in the summer he was in Antioch on the Orontes. By December 215 he was in Alexandria in the Nile Delta, where he stayed until March or April 216.

When the inhabitants of Alexandria heard of Caracalla's claims that he had killed his brother Geta in self-defence, they produced a satire mocking this as well as Caracalla's other pretensions. Caracalla responded to this insult by slaughtering the deputation of leading citizens who had unsuspectingly assembled before the city to greet his arrival in December 215, before setting his troops against Alexandria for several days of looting and plunder.

In spring 216 he returned to Antioch and before 27 May had set out to lead his Roman army against the Parthians. During the winter of 215/216 he was in Edessa. Caracalla then moved east into Armenia. By 216 he had pushed through Armenia and south into Parthia.

Baths
Construction on the Baths of Caracalla began in 211 at the start of Caracalla's rule. The thermae are named for Caracalla, though it is most probable that his father was responsible for their planning. In 216, a partial inauguration of the baths took place, but the outer perimeter of the baths was not completed until the reign of Severus Alexander.

These large baths were typical of the Roman practice of building complexes for social and state activities in large densely populated cities. The baths covered around 50 acres (or 202,000 square metres) of land and could accommodate around 1,600 bathers at any one time. They were the second largest public baths built in ancient Rome and were complete with swimming pools, exercise yards, a stadium, steam rooms, libraries, meeting rooms, fountains, and other amenities, all of which were enclosed within formal gardens. The interior spaces were decorated with colourful marble floors, columns, mosaics, and colossal statuary.

Caracalla and Serapis
At the outset of his reign, Caracalla declared imperial support for the Graeco-Egyptian god of healing Serapis. The Iseum and Serapeum in Alexandria were apparently renovated during Caracalla's co-rule with his father Septimius Severus. The evidence for this exists in two inscriptions found near the temple that appear to bear their names. Additional archaeological evidence exists for this in the form of two papyri that have been dated to the Severan period and also two statues associated with the temple that have been dated to around 200AD. Upon Caracalla's ascension to being sole ruler in 212, the imperial mint began striking coins bearing Serapis' image. This was a reflection of the god's central role during Caracalla's reign. After Geta's death, the weapon that had killed him was dedicated to Serapis by Caracalla. This was most likely done to cast Serapis into the role of Caracalla's protector from treachery.

Caracalla also erected a temple on the Quirinal Hill in 212, which he dedicated to Serapis. A fragmented inscription found in the church of Sant' Agata dei Goti in Rome records the construction, or possibly restoration, of a temple dedicated to the god Serapis. The inscription bears the name "Marcus Aurelius Antoninus", a reference to either Caracalla or Elagabalus, but more likely to Caracalla due to his known strong association with the god. Two other inscriptions dedicated to Serapis, as well as a granite crocodile similar to one discovered at the Iseum et Serapeum, were also found in the area around the Quirinal Hill.

Monetary policy
The expenditures that Caracalla made with the large bonuses he gave to soldiers prompted him to debase the coinage soon after his ascension. At the end of Severus' reign and early into Caracalla's, the Roman denarius had an approximate silver purity of around 55%, but by the end of Caracalla's reign the purity had been reduced to about 51%.

In 215 Caracalla introduced the antoninianus, a coin intended to serve as a double denarius. This new currency, however, had a silver purity of about 52% for the period between 215 and 217 and an actual size ratio of 1antoninianus to 1.5denarii. This in effect made the antoninianus equal to about 1.5denarii. The reduced silver purity of the coins caused people to hoard the old coins that had higher silver content, aggravating the inflation problem caused by the earlier devaluation of the denarii.

Military policy
During his reign as emperor, Caracalla raised the annual pay of an average legionary from 2000 sesterces (500 denarii) to 2700–3000 sesterces (675–750 denarii). He lavished many benefits on the army, which he both feared and admired, in accordance with the advice given by his father on his deathbed always to heed the welfare of the soldiers and ignore everyone else. Caracalla needed to gain and keep the trust of the military, and he did so with generous pay raises and popular gestures. He spent much of his time with the soldiers, so much so that he began to imitate their dress and adopt their manners.

After Caracalla concluded his campaign against the Alamanni, it became evident that he was inordinately preoccupied with emulating Alexander the Great. He began openly mimicking Alexander in his personal style. In planning his invasion of the Parthian Empire, Caracalla decided to arrange 16,000 of his men in Macedonian-style phalanxes, despite the Roman army having made the phalanx an obsolete tactical formation. The historian Christopher Matthew mentions that the term Phalangarii has two possible meanings, both with military connotations. The first refers merely to the Roman battle line and does not specifically mean that the men were armed with pikes, and the second bears similarity to the 'Marian Mules' of the late Roman Republic who carried their equipment suspended from a long pole, which were in use until at least the 2nd century AD. As a consequence, the phalangarii of Legio II Parthica may not have been pikemen, but rather standard battle line troops or possibly triarii.

Caracalla's mania for Alexander went so far that he visited Alexandria while preparing for his Persian invasion and persecuted philosophers of the Aristotelian school based on a legend that Aristotle had poisoned Alexander. This was a sign of Caracalla's increasingly erratic behaviour.

Parthian war
In 216, Caracalla pursued a series of aggressive campaigns in the east against the Parthians, intended to bring more territory under direct Roman control. He offered the king of Parthia, Artabanus IV of Parthia, a marriage proposal between himself and the king's daughter. Artabanus refused the offer, realizing that the proposal was merely an attempt to unite the kingdom of Parthia under the control of Rome. In response, Caracalla used the opportunity to start a campaign against the Parthians. That summer Caracalla began to attack the countryside east of the Tigris in the Parthian war of Caracalla. In the following winter, Caracalla retired to Edessa, modern Şanlıurfa in south-east Turkey, and began making preparations to renew the campaign by spring.

Death
At the beginning of 217, Caracalla was still based at Edessa before renewing hostilities against Parthia. On 8April 217 Caracalla was travelling to visit a temple near Carrhae, now Harran in southern Turkey, where in 53BC the Romans had suffered a defeat at the hands of the Parthians. After stopping briefly to urinate, Caracalla was approached by a soldier, Justin Martialis, and stabbed to death. Martialis had been incensed by Caracalla's refusal to grant him the position of centurion, and the praetorian prefect Macrinus, Caracalla's successor, saw the opportunity to use Martialis to end Caracalla's reign. In the immediate aftermath of Caracalla's death, his murderer, Martialis, was killed as well. When Caracalla was murdered, Julia Domna was in Antioch sorting out correspondence, removing unimportant messages from the bunch so that when Caracalla returned, he would not be overburdened with duties. Three days later, Macrinus declared himself emperor with the support of the Roman army.

Portraiture
Caracalla's official portrayal as sole emperor marks a break from the detached images of the philosopher-emperors who preceded him: his close-cropped haircut is that of a soldier, his pugnacious scowl a realistic and threatening presence. This rugged soldier-emperor, an iconic archetype, was adopted by most of the following emperors, such as Maximinus Thrax, who were dependent on the support of the troops to rule the empire.

Herodian describes Caracalla as having preferred northern European clothing, Caracalla being the name of the short Gaulish cloak that he made fashionable, and he often wore a blond wig. Dio mentions that when Caracalla was a boy, he had a tendency to show an angry or even savage facial expression.

The way Caracalla wanted to be portrayed to his people can be seen through the many surviving busts and coins. Images of the young Caracalla cannot be clearly distinguished from his younger brother Geta. On the coins, Caracalla was shown laureate after becoming augustus in 197; Geta is bareheaded until he became augustus himself in 209. Between 209 and their father's death in February211, both brothers are shown as mature young men who were ready to take over the empire.

Between the death of the father and the assassination of Geta towards the end of 211, Caracalla's portrait remains static with a short full beard while Geta develops a long beard with hair strains like his father. The latter was a strong indicator of Geta's effort to be seen as the true successor to their father, an effort that came to naught when he was murdered. Caracalla's presentation on coins during the period of his co-reign with his father, from 198 to 210, are in broad terms in line with the third-century imperial representation; most coin types communicate military and religious messages, with other coins giving messages of saeculum aureum and virtues.

During Caracalla's sole reign, from 212 to 217, a significant shift in representation took place. The majority of coins produced during this period made associations with divinity or had religious messages; others had non-specific and unique messages that were only circulated during Caracalla's sole rule.

Damnatio memoriae
Caracalla was not subject to a proper damnatio memoriae after his assassination; while the Senate disliked him, his popularity with the military prevented Macrinus and the Senate from openly declaring him to be a hostis. Macrinus, in an effort to placate the Senate, instead ordered the secret removal of statues of Caracalla from public view. After his death, the public made comparisons between him and other condemned emperors and called for the horse race celebrating his birthday to be abolished and for gold and silver statues dedicated to him to be melted down. These events were, however, limited in scope; most erasures of his name from inscriptions were either accidental or occurred as a result of re-use. Macrinus had Caracalla deified and commemorated on coins as Divus Antoninus. There does not appear to have been any intentional mutilation of Caracalla in any images that were created during his reign as sole emperor.

Classical portrayal
Caracalla is presented in the ancient sources of Dio, Herodian, and the Historia Augusta as a cruel tyrant and savage ruler. This portrayal of Caracalla is only further supported by the murder of his brother Geta and the subsequent massacre of Geta's supporters that Caracalla ordered. Alongside this, these contemporary sources present Caracalla as a "soldier-emperor" for his preference of the soldiery over the senators, a depiction that made him even less popular with the senatorial biographers. Dio explicitly presented Caracalla as an emperor who marched with the soldiers and behaved like a soldier. Dio also often referred to Caracalla's large military expenditures and the subsequent financial problems this caused. These traits dominate Caracalla's image in the surviving classical literature. The Baths of Caracalla are presented in classical literature as unprecedented in scale, and impossible to build if not for the use of reinforced concrete. The Edict of Caracalla, issued in 212, however, goes almost unnoticed in classical records.

The Historia Augusta is considered by historians as the least trustworthy for all accounts of events, historiography, and biographies among the ancient works and is full of fabricated materials and sources. The works of Herodian of Antioch are, by comparison, "far less fantastic" than the stories presented by the Historia Augusta. Historian Andrew G. Scott suggests that Dio's work is frequently considered the best source for this period. However, historian Clare Rowan questions Dio's accuracy on the topic of Caracalla, referring to the work as having presented a hostile attitude towards Caracalla and thus needing to be treated with caution. An example of this hostility is found in one section where Dio notes that Caracalla is descended from three different races and that he managed to combine all of their faults into one person: the fickleness, cowardice, and recklessness of the Gauls, the cruelty and harshness of the Africans, and the craftiness that is associated with the Syrians. Despite this, the outline of events as presented by Dio are described by Rowan as generally accurate, while the motivations that Dio suggests are of questionable origin. An example of this is his presentation of the Edict of Caracalla; the motive that Dio appends to this event is Caracalla's desire to increase tax revenue. Olivier Hekster, Nicholas Zair, and Rowan challenge this presentation because the majority of people who were enfranchised by the edict would have been poor. In her work, Rowan also describes Herodian's depiction of Caracalla: more akin to a soldier than an emperor.

Medieval legends
Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudohistorical History of the Kings of Britain makes Caracalla a king of Britain, referring to him by his actual name "Bassianus", rather than by the nickname Caracalla. In the story, after Severus' death the Romans wanted to make Geta king of Britain, but the Britons preferred Bassianus because he had a British mother. The two brothers fought until Geta was killed and Bassianus succeeded to the throne, after which he ruled until he was overthrown and killed by Carausius. However, Carausius' revolt actually happened about seventy years after Caracalla's death in 217.

Eighteenth-century artworks and the French Revolution
Caracalla's memory was revived in the art of late eighteenth-century French painters. His tyrannical career became the subject of the work of several French painters such as Greuze, Julien de Parme, David, Bonvoisin, J.-A.-C. Pajou, and Lethière. Their fascination with Caracalla was a reflection of the growing discontent of the French people with the monarchy. Caracalla's visibility was influenced by the existence of several literary sources in French that included both translations of ancient works and contemporary works of the time. Caracalla's likeness was readily available to the painters due to the distinct style of his portraiture and his unusual soldier-like choice of fashion that distinguished him from other emperors. The artworks may have served as a warning that absolute monarchy could become the horror of tyranny and that disaster could come about if the regime failed to reform. Art historian Susan Wood suggests that this reform was for the absolute monarchy to become a constitutional monarchy, as per the original goal of revolution, rather than the republic that it eventually became. Wood also notes the similarity between Caracalla and his crimes leading to his assassination and the eventual uprising against, and death of, King Louis XVI: both rulers had died as a result of their apparent tyranny.

Modern portrayal
Caracalla has had a reputation as being among the worst of Roman emperors, a perception that survives even into modern works. The art and linguistics historian John Agnew and the writer Walter Bidwell describe Caracalla as having an evil spirit, referring to the devastation he wrought in Alexandria. The Roman historian David Magie describes Caracalla, in the book Roman Rule in Asia Minor, as brutal and tyrannical and points towards psychopathy as an explanation for his behaviour. The historian Clifford Ando supports this description, suggesting that Caracalla's rule as sole emperor is notable "almost exclusively" for his crimes of theft, massacre, and mismanagement.

18th-century historian Edward Gibbon, author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, takes Caracalla's reputation, which he had received for the murder of Geta and subsequent massacre of Geta's supporters, and applied it to Caracalla's provincial tours, suggesting that "every province was by turn the scene of his rapine and cruelty". Gibbon compared Caracalla to emperors such as Hadrian who spent their careers campaigning in the provinces and then to tyrants such as Nero and Domitian whose entire reigns were confined to Rome and whose actions only impacted upon the senatorial and equestrian classes residing there. Gibbon then concluded that Caracalla was "the common enemy of mankind", as both Romans and provincials alike were subject to "his rapine and cruelty".

This representation is questioned by the historian Shamus Sillar, who cites the construction of roads and reinforcement of fortifications in the western provinces, among other things, as being contradictory to the representation made by Gibbon of cruelty and destruction. The history professors Molefi Asante and Shaza Ismail note that Caracalla is known for the disgraceful nature of his rule, stating that "he rode the horse of power until it nearly died of exhaustion" and that though his rule was short, his life, personality, and acts made him a notable, though likely not beneficial, figure in the Roman Empire.

title: Caracalla


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Pat Robertson

Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (March 22, 1930 – June 8, 2023) was an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, political commentator, presidential candidate, and charismatic minister. Robertson advocated a conservative Christian ideology and was known for his involvement in Republican Party politics. He was associated with the Charismatic movement within Protestant evangelicalism. He served as head of Regent University and of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).

Robertson's career spanned over five decades, and was the founder of several organizations, including CBN, Regent University, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, the International Family Entertainment Inc. (ABC Family Channel/Freeform), the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), the Founders Inn and Conference Center, and the Christian Coalition. Robertson was also a best-selling author and the host of The 700 Club, a Christian News and TV program broadcast live weekdays on Freeform (formerly ABC Family) from CBN studios, as well as on channels throughout the United States, and on CBN network affiliates worldwide. Robertson retired from The 700 Club in October 2021.

The son of U.S. Senator A. Willis Robertson, Robertson was a Southern Baptist and was active as an ordained minister with that denomination for many years, but held to a charismatic theology not traditionally common among Southern Baptists. He unsuccessfully campaigned to become the Republican nominee in the 1988 presidential election. As a result of his seeking political office, he never again served in an official role for any church.

Robertson remained a controversial figure, especially known for evangelical religiocentrism. While he became a recognized and influential public voice for conservative Christianity in the U.S. and around the world, his opposition to various progressive causes, including LGBT rights, feminism, and the right to abortion, was frequently criticized.

Early life
Marion Gordon Robertson was born on March 22, 1930, in Lexington, Virginia, into a prominent political family, the younger of two sons. His parents were Absalom Willis Robertson (1887–1971), a conservative Democratic Senator, and Gladys Churchill (née Willis; 1897–1968), a housewife and a musician. At a young age, Robertson was nicknamed 'Pat' by his six-year-old brother, Willis Robertson, Jr., who enjoyed patting him on the cheeks when he was a baby while saying "pat, pat, pat". Later, Robertson thought about which first name he would like people to use. He considered "Marion" to be effeminate, and "M. Gordon" to be affected, so he opted for his childhood nickname "Pat".

When he was eleven, Robertson was enrolled in the preparatory McDonogh School outside Baltimore, Maryland. From 1940 until 1946, he attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he graduated with honors. He gained admission to Washington and Lee University, where he earned a B.A. in History, graduating magna cum laude. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's most prestigious academic honor society. He joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Robertson said, "Although I worked hard at my studies, my real major centered around lovely young ladies who attended the nearby girls schools."

In 1948, the draft was reinstated and Robertson was given the option of joining the U.S. Marine Corps or being drafted into the U.S. Army; he opted for the former. Robertson described his military service as follows: "We did long, grueling marches to toughen the men, plus refresher training in firearms and bayonet combat." In the same year, he transferred to Korea, "I ended up at the headquarters command of the First Marine Division," says Robertson. "The Division was in combat in the hot and dusty, then bitterly cold portion of North Korea just above the 38th Parallel later identified as the 'Punchbowl' and 'Heartbreak Ridge'." For Robertson's service in the Korean War, he was awarded three Battle Stars.

In 1986, former Republican Congressman Paul "Pete" McCloskey, Jr., who served with Robertson in Camp Pendleton, wrote a public letter challenging Robertson's record in the military. Robertson filed a libel suit against McCloskey but he dropped the case in 1988 in order to devote "his full time and energies toward the successful attainment of the Republican nomination for the president of the United States."

Robertson was promoted to First Lieutenant in 1952 upon his return to the United States. He then went on to receive a law degree from Yale Law School in 1955, near the top of his class. However, he failed his first and only attempt at the New York bar exam necessary for admission to the New York State Bar Association, which did not deter Robertson because he never intended to practice law anyway. Shortly thereafter he underwent a religious conversion and decided against pursuing a career in business. Instead, Robertson attended The Biblical Seminary in New York, where he received a Master of Divinity degree in 1959. He became a born again Christian while having dinner at a restaurant in Philadelphia with author and World War II veteran, Cornelius Vanderbreggen. After his conversion, Robertson left the corporate world and went into ministry.

Christian Broadcasting Network
In 1956, Robertson met Dutch missionary Cornelius Vanderbreggen, who impressed Robertson both with his lifestyle and his message. Vanderbreggen quoted Proverbs (3:5, 6), "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths", which Robertson considered being the "guiding principle" of his life. In 1961, he was ordained as a Southern Baptist minister by Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk, Virginia.

In 1960, Robertson established the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, Virginia, by buying the license of a defunct UHF station in nearby Portsmouth. The station, with the call sign WYAH-TV, first broadcast on October 1, 1961. The network became known for producing the long-running TV series The 700 Club, starting in 1966, which Robertson served as a long time co-host. On April 29, 1977, CBN launched a religious cable network, the CBN Satellite Service, which eventually became The Family Channel. It was the first satellite television channel in America to connect to cable systems across the country. The venture became extremely lucrative, so Robertson spun off The Family Channel as a commercial entity that was sold to News Corporation for $1.9 billion in 1997.

In 1994, he endorsed the document "Evangelicals and Catholics Together". Robertson announced his retirement at the age of 91 from The 700 Club in October 2021, on the sixtieth anniversary of the first telecast on October 1, 1961, of what eventually became CBN.

Regent University

Robertson founded CBN University, a private Christian university, in 1977 on CBN's Virginia Beach campus. Since its founding, the university has established eight academic schools and offers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in over 150 areas of study. It was renamed Regent University in 1990. According to the school's catalog, "a regent is one who represents Christ, our Sovereign, in whatever sphere of life he or she may be called to serve Him."

With more than 11,000 current students, Regent University has ranked the #1 Best Online Bachelor's Program in Virginia for ten years in a row by U.S. News & World Report 2022, as well as 2023 Best Graduate Schools-Law, Best Graduate Schools – Social Sciences and Humanities Doctoral Programs – Psychology, 2023 Best Graduate Schools – Public Affairs, and 2023 Best Education Schools by U.S. News & World Report. Robertson served as its chancellor and CEO.

Robertson was also founder and president of the American Center for Law & Justice, a public interest law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., associated with Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which defends constitutional freedoms and conservative Christian ideals. Critics have characterized Robertson as an advocate of dominionism.

Operation Blessing
Robertson's Operation Blessing organization sent medical teams to developing countries to help people who had no access to medical care. In 1994, in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, Robertson solicited donations to provide medical supplies to refugees in neighboring Zaire (present-day Congo), where Robertson also had exploratory diamond mining operations. According to a 1999 article in The Virginian-Pilot, two Operation Blessing pilots who were interviewed alleged that the organization's planes were used to haul diamond-mining equipment to Robertson's mines in Zaire. Robertson denied the pilots' accounts.

In its 2021 ranking of "100 Largest Charities," Forbes ranked Operation Blessing/CBN at #44, with an efficiency rating of over 90%.

Other ventures
Robertson was the founder and chairman of The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) Inc., and founder of International Family Entertainment Inc., Regent University, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, American Center for Law and Justice, The Flying Hospital, Inc., and several other organizations and broadcast entities. Robertson was the founder and co-chairman of International Family Entertainment Inc. (IFE).

Formed in 1990, IFE produced and distributed family entertainment and information programming worldwide. IFE's principal business was The Family Channel, a satellite delivered cable-television network with 63 million U.S. subscribers. IFE, a publicly held company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, was sold in 1997 to Fox Kids Worldwide, Inc. for $1.9billion, whereupon it was renamed Fox Family Channel. Disney acquired FFC in 2001 and its name was changed again, to ABC Family. The network was renamed to Freeform on January 12, 2016, though Robertson's sale of the channel continues to require Freeform to carry four hours of CBN/700 Club programming per weekday, along with CBN's yearly telethon.

Robertson was a global businessman with media holdings in Asia, the United Kingdom, and Africa. He struck a deal with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based General Nutrition Center to produce and market a weight-loss shake he created and promoted on The 700 Club.

In 1999, Robertson entered into a joint venture with the Bank of Scotland to provide financial services in the United States. However, the venture fell through as it was met with criticism from civil rights groups in the UK, owing to Robertson's controversial views on homosexuality. The Bank was forced to cancel the deal when Robertson described Scotland as a "dark land overrun by homosexuals".

While some have estimated his wealth to have been between$200million and $1 billion, Robertson claimed that these estimates were not based on any facts and were incorrect.

A June 2, 1999, article in The Virginian-Pilot alleged that Robertson had business dealings with Liberian president Charles Taylor, with whom Robertson, according to the article, negotiated a multimillion-dollar contract for gold mining operations in Liberia. Robertson denied any business dealings with Taylor, and he also denied ever speaking to President George W. Bush about Taylor's alleged activities. On February 4, 2010, at his war crimes trial in the Hague, Taylor testified that Robertson was his main political ally in the U.S., while Robertson has denied ever meeting or speaking to Charles Taylor.

Beginning in the latter part of the 1990s, Robertson raced thoroughbred horses under the nom de course Tega Farm. His gelding named Tappat won the 1999 Walter Haight Handicap at Laurel Park and the 2000 Pennsylvania Governor's Cup Handicap at Penn National Race Course. Following this success, Robertson paid $520,000 for a colt he named Mr. Pat. Trained by John Kimmel, Mr. Pat was not a successful runner. He was nominated for, but did not run in, the 2000 Kentucky Derby.

Political career and activism

Robertson was a past president of the Council for National Policy. In 1982, he served on the Victims of Crime Task Force for U.S. President Ronald Reagan. In Virginia, he served on the Board of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and on the Governor's Council of Economic Advisors. After his unsuccessful presidential campaign, Robertson started the Christian Coalition, a 1.7-million-member Christian right organization that campaigned mostly for conservative candidates. Billy McCormack, a Southern Baptist pastor in Shreveport, Louisiana, served as one of the four directors of the coalition as well as its vice president. The coalition was sued by the Federal Election Commission "for coordinating its activities with Republican candidates for office in 1990, 1992 and 1994 and failing to report its expenditures," yet the complaint was dismissed by a federal judge. In March 1986, he told Israeli Foreign Affairs that South Africa was a major contributor to the Reagan administration's efforts to help the anti-Sandinista forces.

In 1994, the Coalition was fined for "improperly [aiding] then Representative Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and Oliver North, who was then the Republican Senate nominee in Virginia."

Robertson was a governing member of the Council for National Policy (CNP) and served on its Board of Governors in 1982, was the President of its Executive Committee from 1985 to 1986, and a member in 1984, 1988, and 1998.

On November 7, 2007, Robertson announced that he was endorsing Rudy Giuliani to be the Republican nominee in the 2008 Presidential election. Some social conservatives criticized Robertson's endorsement of Giuliani, a pro-choice candidate who supported gay rights.

While usually associated with the political right, Robertson endorsed environmental causes. He appeared in a commercial with Al Sharpton, joking about this, and urging people to join the We Can Solve It campaign against global warming.

In January 2009, on a broadcast of The 700 Club, Robertson stated that he was "adamantly opposed" to the division of Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians. He also stated that Armageddon was "not going to be fought at Megiddo" but would be the "battle of Jerusalem," when "the forces of all nations come together and try to take Jerusalem away from the Jews. Jews are not going to give up Jerusalem – they shouldn't – and the rest of the world is going to insist they give it up." Robertson added that Jerusalem is a "spiritual symbol that must not be given away" because "Jesus Christ the Messiah will come down to the part of Jerusalem that the Arabs want," and this would be "not good."

Robertson repeatedly called for the legalization of cannabis, saying that it should be treated in a manner analogous to the regulation of alcoholic beverages and tobacco. Robertson stated that "I just think it's shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hard-core criminals because they had a possession of a very small amount of controlled substance. The whole thing is crazy." In 2014, he turned against the legalization of cannabis.

1988 presidential bid

In September 1986, Robertson announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Robertson said he would pursue the nomination only if three million people signed up to volunteer for his campaign by September 1987. Three million responded, and by the time Robertson announced he would be running in September 1987, he also had raised millions of dollars for his campaign fund. He surrendered his ministerial credentials and turned leadership of CBN over to his son, Tim. In 1987, he left the Southern Baptist Convention to run.

Robertson ran on a standard conservative platform, and as a candidate he embraced the same policies as Ronald Reagan: lower taxes, a balanced budget, and a strong defense.

Robertson's campaign achieved a strong second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of Bush. He did poorly in the subsequent New Hampshire primary, however, and was unable to be competitive once the multiple-state primaries began. Robertson ended his campaign before the primaries were finished. His best finish was in Washington, winning the majority of caucus delegates.

Marriage and family
In 1954, Robertson married Adelia "Dede" Elmer a fashion model and beauty queen in the Miss Ohio State contest, who was studying for her masters in nursing at Yale University. She had also been a nursing student at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. They remained married until her death in 2022, and had four children, among them Gordon P. Robertson.

Illness and death
On August 11, 2017, Robertson was hospitalized after sustaining minor injuries in a fall from a horseback riding incident.

On February 2, 2018, Robertson suffered an embolic stroke at his home in Virginia Beach. A member of his family noticed his symptoms and alerted emergency medical personnel. He was then taken to the nearest stroke center where he was administered the clot-busting drug tPA. Robertson was responsive, awake, and moving all of his limbs about eighty minutes after his stroke began. He was discharged two days later and recovered at home. Following this incident, Robertson and his family thanked the paramedics and medical staff for their "extraordinary care and rapid response." They also urged people to learn about stroke, its symptoms and treatments. Robertson resumed his hosting duties on The 700 Club on February 12.

In June 2019, Robertson was absent from The 700 Club for several days after he broke three ribs in a fall. Upon his return, described the experience as very painful but said "Us old guys are tough, and we try to stay in there and keep on going." He then thanked viewers for their prayers.

On June 8, 2023, Robertson died at his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the age of 93.

Controversies
As a commentator and minister, Robertson's statements frequently generated controversy.

Robertson's service as a minister included the belief in the healing power of God. He cautioned believers that some Protestant denominations may harbor the spirit of the Antichrist; prayed to deflect hurricanes; denounced Hinduism as "demonic" and Islam as "Satanic".

Robertson denounced left-wing views of feminism, activism regarding homosexuality, abortion, and liberal college professors. Critics claim Robertson had business dealings in Africa with former president of Liberia and convicted war criminal Charles Taylor, and former Zaire president Mobutu Sese Seko, both of whom had been globally denounced for claims of human rights violations. Robertson was criticized worldwide for his call for Hugo Chávez's assassination, and for his remarks concerning Ariel Sharon's ill health as an act of God.

During the week of September 11, 2001, Robertson interviewed Jerry Falwell, who expressed his own opinion that "the ACLU has to take a lot of blame for this" in addition to "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays, and the lesbians [who have] helped [the terror attacks of September 11th] happen." Robertson replied, "I totally concur". Both evangelists were seriously criticized by President George W. Bush for their comments, for which Falwell later issued an apology.

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836 people, Robertson implied on the September 12, 2005, broadcast of The 700 Club that the storm was God's punishment in response to America's abortion policy. He suggested that the September 11 attacks and the disaster in New Orleans "could[...] be connected in some way".

In 2009, Robertson said that Islam is "a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination". He went on to elaborate that "you're dealing with not a religion, you're dealing with a political system, and I think we should treat it as such, and treat its adherents as such as we would members of the communist party, members of some fascist group".

Robertson's response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake also sparked worldwide condemnation. Robertson claimed that Haiti's founders had sworn a "pact to the Devil" in order to liberate themselves from the French slave owners and indirectly attributed the earthquake to the consequences of the Haitian people being "cursed" for doing so. CBN later issued a statement saying that Robertson's comments "were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French". Various figures in mainline and evangelical Christianity have on occasion disavowed some of Robertson's remarks.

In March 2015, Robertson compared Buddhism to a disease on The 700 Club. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a conservative Christian watchdog group Robertson founded to promote Christian prayer in public schools, called for a multi-pronged attack on mindfulness programs because "they appear to be similar to Buddhist religious practices. Proponents of secular mindfulness say mindfulness is not a Buddhist practice; it is a contemplative practice used in religious traditions around the world by many different names."

Publications
Robertson's book The New World Order (1991) became a New York Times best seller. A review by Ephraim Radner, an Episcopalian professor of theology, stated: "In his published writings, especially his 1991 book The New World Order, Pat Robertson has propagated theories about a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Michael Land raised the issue in February in The New York Times Book Review, and in April Jacob Heilbrun, writing in The New York Review of Books, cited chapter and verse of Robertson's borrowings from well-known anti-Semitic works." In October 2003, Robertson was interviewed by author Joel Mowbray about his book Dangerous Diplomacy, a book critical of the United States Department of State. Robertson said that Americans could change American diplomacy by ridding America of a large part of the State Department.

 * Shout It from the Housetops, an autobiography with Jamie Buckingham (1972, repr 1995) ISBN 978-0912106304
 * My Prayer for You (1977) ISBN 978-0800752644
 * The Secret Kingdom (1982) ISBN 978-0840752727
 * Answers to 200 of Life's Most Probing Questions (1984) ISBN 0-8407-5465-5
 * Beyond Reason: How Miracles can Change your Life (1985) ISBN 0-688-02214-6
 * America's Dates with Destiny (1986) ISBN 0-8407-7756-6
 * The Plan (1989) ISBN 0-8407-7227-0
 * The New Millennium (1990) ISBN 978-0849908378
 * The New World Order (1991) ISBN 0-8499-0915-5
 * Turning Tide: The Fall of Liberalism and the Rise of Common Sense (1993) ISBN 978-0-8499-0972-6
 * The End of the Age (1995, fiction) ISBN 0-8499-1290-3
 * Six Steps to Spiritual Revival: God's Awesome Power in Your Life (2002) ISBN 978-1-59052-055-0
 * Bring It on: Tough Questions, Candid Answers, Nashville, Tenn: W Pub. Group, 2003. ISBN 978-0-8499-1801-8
 * The Ten Offenses (2004) ISBN 978-0849918018
 * Courting Disaster (2004) ISBN 1-59145-142-6
 * Miracles Can Be Yours Today (2006) ISBN 1-59145-423-9
 * On Humility (2009) ISBN 978-0312376383
 * Right on the Money: Financial Advice for Tough Times (2009) ISBN 978-0446549585
 * I Have Walked With the Living God (2020) ISBN 978-1-6299-9873-2
 * The Power of the Holy Spirit in You: Understanding the Miraculous Power of God (2022) ISBN 978-1-6845-1251-5
 * The Shepherd King: The Life of David (2023) ISBN 978-0998615707

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

title: Pat Robertson


text:
Talk:Norman Granz

Untitled
Gianfranco, you might want to tone it down a little, and if you can find other (important) people like those that he worked with to attribute the claims of his significance to. See the section in neutral point of view on artistic works. In this person's case, the roster of the people he worked with should be able to speak for themselves.

 * You are right, Robert, but what I found on the net is only an amount of enthusiast celebrating quotes, perhaps even more emphatic than my text (this is the average tone I read), and effectively there isn't any opposing view (or I wasn't able to find it), so I couldn't balance it. I thought that it wasn't appropriated to add only celebrative quotes (the ones available - I have some jazz magazines here that really worship this man, I concluded it was better not to consider these).
 * Music, and its special genres in particular, are always described alternatively with (sometimes religious) passion or with derogatory definitions, it is difficult to find an equilibre. And I admit that, having been a musician myself, I can easily fell into the same manicheim.
 * However, I think it is true and not discussed that most of the jazz we are able to listen today depends on Granz's work. I actually am convinced that he really was a deeply important figure and this might be a not neutral start, but with extreme honesty, how else could we describe his role in music? :-)

 * Vicky, sincere regrets for Usa / USA ! --Gianfranco

212.242.173.165 (talk) 05:16, 5 August 2010 (UTC)== Response to comments by SarekOfVulcan on my articles on Jazz at the Philharmonic and Norman Granz.==

Hello. I have mentioned Michel Ruppli's and Bob Porter's very fine book on Norman Granz' labels and JATP, plus my own articles and Radio Broadcasts!! Is Ruppli's and Porter's book (and broadcasts on Radio Denmark) not a reliable source?? Are you an expert on JATP, and Norman Granz?? I am an internationally recognized expert on Jazz at the Philharmonic, and Norman Granz. I have studied JATP and Norman Granz for 40 years!! If there is an error in my article, then please amend (not delete!!) my article. Best, Niels Ervill. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.242.173.165 (talk) 21:41, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Response to comments by SarekOfVulcan.
Hello. 212.242.173.165 (talk) 12:44, 5 August 2010 (UTC) My series of 68 Radio Broadcasts on Radio Denmark, about Jazz, Jazz at the Philharmonic and Norman Granz were entitled: "Jam Session"!! Under Ref., I have mentioned the name of the particular Radio Broadcast: "Jam Session", and the number, month and year!! Plus, of course, the famous book by Michel Ruppli and Bob Porter! Everything should be OK now. By the way, are you the director of Wikipedia?? Best, Niels Ervill.

Response to comments by Jeff G.
Hello Jeff. Thank you for the message! As I have done in the past, I'll continue to do my best to present just the facts. Best, Niels Ervill. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.242.173.165 (talk) 06:27, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Loretta's daughter name
(I know this is a really minor detail, but still...) "Loretta was previously married and had a child, Sydney Sullivan Hamed, whom Granz adopted." - I can't figure out where the name "Sydney" comes from. Both linked sources give her name as "Sheridan Sullivan", and "Hamed" appears to be her husband's last name. The name "Sydney" doesn't appear anywhere as far as I can see. But I'm hesitant to edit the article myself because maybe I've missed something. Could somebody please double-check? Drecro (talk) 08:35, 20 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Norman Granz


text:
Talk:Personal area network

Computer Area Network??
A Personal Area Network is not specifically designed for just computer use, it for any device to use around one's person (such as a walkman communicating to headphones). I recommend changing the term computer devices to electronic devices. -MrLaister 24/04/07 its the top network out there that a person can use personally — Preceding unsigned comment added by 197.89.209.79 (talk) 08:15, 8 September 2016 (UTC)

✅ ~Kvng (talk) 16:16, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Protocols or Standards for PAN (not Wireless)
I am seeing no references to the standards or protocols that "PAN" relies on. The article is too heavily weighted in describing WPAN and radio technologies that can be used to carry PAN. "PAN" should probably operate over most any connection, even persons banging rocks together. The wireless carrier is a distractor and has moved the focus away from what PAN is. Stephen Charles Thompson (talk) 18:15, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

 * There is brief discussion of wired technology in Personal_area_network. ~Kvng (talk) 16:22, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Skinplex
The Skinplex section under WPAN does not describe how it incorporates PAN or WPAN. From viewing the posted external link, it appears to be a near-field sensor and not an actual 802.15 data bus. It also appears to be a commercial plug or advertisement. This may be related to Body area network IEEE 802.15.6 but it is unclear. If so, the section should be retitled as "Body Area Network" and possibly with Skinplex added as an example. Stephen Charles Thompson (talk) 19:18, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

pan
is a network between an individual to communicate between an — Preceding unsigned comment added by 45.214.15.174 (talk) 13:35, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Personal area network


text:
Alba (disambiguation)

Alba is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland.

Alba or ALBA may also refer to:

Fictional characters

 * Alba (Darkstalkers), a character in the Japanese video game
 * Alba (The Time Traveler's Wife), a character in the novel by Audrey Niffenegger
 * Alba Meira, a character in the Japanese video game series King of Fighters
 * Alba Trueba, a character in the novel The House of the Spirits by Chilean author Isabel Allende
 * Quercus Alba, a character in the video game Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Video games

 * Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, a 2020 game developed by Ustwo Games

Films and television

 * Alba (film), a 2016 Ecuadorian film
 * BBC Alba, a Scottish Gaelic language digital television channel from the BBC
 * Alba (TV series), a Spanish drama television series

Literature

 * Alba (novel), a 1985 novel Daniel Odier
 * Alba (poetry), a genre of Occitan poetry

Music

 * Alba (Danish music ensemble)
 * Alba Musica Kyo, a music group founded by Toyohiko Satoh
 * "Alba", a song by Runrig from their 1987 album The Cutter and the Clan
 * Alba (Allbina Bolatqyzy Nazarbayeva), a Kazakh singer signed under Juz Entertainment

Brands and enterprises

 * Alba (brand), a British consumer electronics brand and manufacturing company owned by Sainsbury's
 * Alba (watch), a sub-brand of Seiko Watch Corporation
 * ALBA, an American milk products company owned by the Hain Celestial Group
 * Alba Engineering, an Italian motor racing company co-founded by Giorgio Stirano
 * Alba Vineyard, a winery in New Jersey
 * Aluminium Bahrain, or AlBa, an aluminum producer in Bahrain

Schools and universities

 * ALBA Graduate Business School, a Greek academic institution
 * Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, (French: Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA));

Other organisations

 * Alba Party, a Scottish political party
 * ALBA, formerly Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, an intergovernmental organization
 * Autogestión Liberadora Buenos Aires, an Argentinian political party
 * Operation Alba, a multinational peacekeeping force sent to Albania in 1997

People

 * Alba (given name)
 * Alba (surname)

Italy

 * Alba, Piedmont, a comune in the province of Cuneo
 * Alba Adriatica, a comune in the province of Teramo, Abruzzo
 * Alba Fucens, an ancient town in the province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo
 * Alba Longa, an ancient city in the province of Rome, Lazio
 * Baldissero d'Alba, a comune in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont
 * Diano d'Alba, a comune in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont
 * Morro d'Alba, comune in the province of Ancona, Marche
 * Republic of Alba, a French revolutionary municipality in Piedmont, 1798
 * Republic of Alba (1944), a short-lived state in Piedmont
 * Serralunga d'Alba, a comune in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont
 * Vezza d'Alba, a comune in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont

Romania

 * Alba County, a county in Transylvania
 * Alba Iulia, a city in Alba County, Transylvania
 * Alba, a village in Hudeşti Commune, Botoşani County
 * Alba, a village in Izvoarele Commune, Tulcea County
 * Alba (Șușița), a tributary of the Șușița in Vrancea County

Spain

 * Alba, Aragon, a municipio in the province of Teruel
 * Alba de Cerrato, a municipio in the province of Palencia
 * Alba de Tormes, a municipio in the province of Salamanca, Castile and León
 * Alba de Yeltes, a municipio in the province of Salamanca, Castile and León
 * Alba (Nalón), a tributary of the Nalón in the Redes Natural Park in Asturias

Ukraine

 * Cetatea Alba, a former Romanian name of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, a city and port
 * Fântâna Albă, now Bila Krynytsia, a village in Stary Vovchynets commune
 * Snake Island (Black Sea), known as Alba to the Romans

United States

 * Alba, Michigan, an unincorporated community in Antrim County
 * Alba, Missouri, a city in Jasper County
 * Alba, Pennsylvania, a borough in Bradford County
 * Alba, Texas, a town divided between Wood County and Rains County
 * Alba Township, Henry County, Illinois
 * Alba Township, Jackson County, Minnesota

Biology

 * A. alba (disambiguation), various species
 * Alba (rabbit), a genetically modified glowing rabbit
 * Alba, a cultivar of Bergenia stracheyi
 * Alba, a cultivar of sage, Salvia officinalis
 * Alba, a grade of Sri Lankan cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum
 * Barn owl, Tyto alba, the common barn owl
 * Cattleya elongata f. alba, a Brazilian orchid variety
 * Honduran white bat, Ectophylla alba, a species of bat in Central America
 * Isotheca alba, a species of flowering plants belonging to the family Acanthaceae
 * Linea alba (abdomen), Latin for white line, a fibrous structure that runs down the midline of the abdomen in humans and other vertebrates
 * Linea alba (cheek), Latin for white line, in dentistry refers to a horizontal streak on the buccal mucosa (inner surface of the cheek)
 * Quercus alba, the white oak, a species of tree
 * S. alba (disambiguation), various species
 * Ulmus × hollandica 'Alba', a hybrid elm tree

Other uses in science

 * ALBA (synchrotron), a Spanish synchrotron radiation facility
 * Alba Mons, a volcano on Mars
 * ALBA-1, a submarine communications cable between Cuba and Venezuela

Sport

 * Alba (shinty team), a Scottish composite rules shinty–hurling team
 * Alba Berlin, a German basketball club
 * S.C. Alba, a Portuguese football club

Motor vehicles

 * Alba (1907 automobile), an Austrian vintage car
 * Alba (1913 automobile), a French vintage car
 * Alba (1952 automobile), a Portuguese car
 * Alba (motorcycle), a 1920s German motorcycle

Ships

 * SS Alba, a Panamanian ship wrecked off Cornwall, England, in 1938 and painted by Alfred Wallis
 * SS Alba, a Chilean ship wrecked in 1928

title: Alba (disambiguation)


text:
The Last Man

The Last Man is an apocalyptic, dystopian science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, first published in 1826. The narrative concerns Europe in the late 21st century, ravaged by the rise of a bubonic plague pandemic that rapidly sweeps across the entire globe, ultimately resulting in the near-extinction of humanity. It also includes discussion of the British state as a republic, for which Shelley sat in meetings of the House of Commons to gain insight to the governmental system of the Romantic era. The novel includes many fictive allusions to her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, who drowned in a shipwreck four years before the book's publication, as well as their close friend Lord Byron, who had died two years previously.

The Last Man is one of the first pieces of dystopian fiction published. It was critically savaged and remained largely obscure at the time of its publication. It was not until the 1960s that the novel resurfaced for the public.

Characters
Lionel Verney: The Last Man. The orphan son of an impoverished nobleman, Lionel is originally lawless, self-willed, and resentful of the nobility for casting aside his father. When he is befriended by Adrian, however, he embraces civilization and particularly scholarship. Verney is largely an autobiographical figure for Mary Shelley.

Adrian, Earl of Windsor: Son of the last King of England, Adrian embraces republican principles. He is motivated by philosophy and philanthropy, rather than ambition. He is based on Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Lord Raymond: An ambitious young nobleman, Raymond becomes famous for his military efforts on behalf of Greece against the Turks, but eventually chooses love over his ambition to become King of England. He instead becomes Lord Protector of England before returning to Greece. Raymond is motivated by passion and ambition rather than principle. He is based on Lord Byron.

Perdita: Lionel's sister, and Raymond's wife. Growing up an orphan, Perdita was independent, distrustful, and proud, but she is softened by love for Raymond, to whom she is fiercely loyal.

Idris: Adrian's sister, and Lionel's wife. She is loving, maternal, and self-sacrificing.

Countess of Windsor: Mother of Adrian and Idris, an Austrian princess and former Queen of the United Kingdom. She is haughty and ambitious, scheming to restore the monarchy through her children.

Evadne Zaimi: A Greek princess with whom Adrian falls in love, but who loves Raymond. She is devoted and proud, even when she becomes impoverished.

Clara: Daughter of Raymond and Perdita.

Alfred and Evelyn: Sons of Lionel and Idris.

Ryland: Leader of the popular democratic party, Ryland has grand plans for the abolition of nobility before the plague, but is unwilling to govern England during the plague.

Merrival: An astronomer who is oblivious to the plague, instead speculating about the condition of earth in six thousand years, until his family dies. Broken by his tragedy, he dies not long afterwards.

Lucy Martin: A young woman who chose to marry a repulsive suitor rather than wait for her true love, to provide for her ageing mother. Her devotion to her mother almost leads to her being left behind in England after the exile.

The Imposter: Unnamed – a false prophet (from ambition, rather than fanaticism) who creates a radical religious sect in opposition to Adrian while in France.

Juliet: A young noblewoman who joins the Imposter's party to support her baby, but is later killed revealing his imposture.

Introduction
Mary Shelley states that in 1818 she discovered, in a cave near Naples, prophetic writings painted on leaves by the Cumaean Sibyl. She says she has edited these writings into the narrative of a man living at the end of the 21st century, commencing in 2073 and concluding in 2100.

Volume 1
Lionel's father was a friend of the king before he was cast away because of his gambling. Lionel's father left to take his life, but before he did so he left a letter for the king to take care of his family after his death. After Lionel's father died the letter was never delivered. Lionel and his sister grow up with no parental influence and become uncivilised. Lionel develops a hatred of the royal family, and Perdita grows to enjoy her isolation from society. When the king leaves the throne, the monarchy comes to an end and a republic is created. When the king dies, the Countess attempts to raise their son, Adrian, to reclaim the throne. However, Adrian opposes his mother and refuses to take the throne. He moves to Cumberland where Lionel, who bears a grudge against Adrian and his family for the neglect of the Verney family, intends to confront Adrian. He is mollified by Adrian's good nature and his explanation that he only recently discovered the letter. The two become close friends, and Lionel becomes civilised under Adrian's influence. Adrian assists Lionel in pursuing political endeavours in Vienna which Lionel accepts and leaves for 2 years but chooses to return to England because he has not heard from either Adrian or his sister.

Lionel returns to England to face the personal turmoil amongst his acquaintances. Lord Raymond, who came to be renowned for his exploits in a war between Greece and Turkey, has returned to England searching for a political position. Perdita and Evadne soon fall in love with him. On discovering that his beloved, Evadne, is in love with Raymond, Adrian goes into exile, presumably mad. Raymond intends to marry Idris (with whom Lionel is in love) as a first step towards becoming king, with the help of the Countess. However, he ultimately chooses his love for Perdita over his ambition, and the two marry. Under Lionel's care, Adrian recovers but remains physically weak. On learning of the love between Idris and Lionel, the Countess schemes to drug Idris, bring her to Austria, and force her to make a politically motivated marriage. Idris discovers the plot and flees to Lionel, who marries her soon after. The Countess leaves for Austria, resentful of her children and of Lionel.

Adrian and the others live happily together until Raymond runs for Lord Protector and wins. Perdita adjusts to her newfound social position, while Raymond becomes well-beloved as an administrator. He discovers, however, that Evadne, after the political and financial ruin of her husband (on account of her own political schemes) lives in poverty in London, unwilling to plead for assistance. Raymond attempts to support Evadne by employing her artistic skills in secrecy, and later nursing her in illness, but Perdita learns of the relationship and suspects infidelity. Her suspicions arouse Raymond's proud nature, and the two separate. Raymond resigns his position and leaves to rejoin the war in Greece, accompanied by Adrian. Shortly after a wounded Adrian returns to England, rumours arise that Raymond has been killed. Perdita, loyal nonetheless, convinces Lionel to bring her and Clara to Greece to find him.

Volume 2
Arriving in Athens, Lionel learns that Raymond had been captured by the Ottomans, and negotiates his return to Greece. Shortly after this, Lionel and Raymond return to the Greek army and fight their way to Constantinople. After a decisive battle near Constantinople's gates, Lionel discovers Evadne, who was wounded while fighting in the war. Before dying, Evadne prophesies Raymond's death, a prophecy which confirms his own suspicions. Raymond's intention to enter Constantinople causes dissension and desertion amongst the army because of reports of the plague. Raymond goes alone to find that Constantinople has been seemingly deserted and soon dies in an explosion, the result of a trap laid by the Turks. He is taken to a site near Athens for burial. Perdita refuses to leave Greece, but Lionel drugs her and brings her aboard a steamship, believing it to be in the best interests of Clara. Perdita awakens and, distraught at Raymond's death, throws herself overboard and drowns.

In 2092, while Lionel and Adrian attempt to return their lives to normality, the plague continues to spread across Europe and the Americas. The appearance of a black sun causes panic throughout the world, and storm surges flood coastal towns across Europe. At first, England is thought to be safe, but soon the plague reaches it. Ryland, recently elected Lord Protector, is unprepared for the plague, and flees northward, later dying alone amidst a stockpile of provisions. Adrian takes command and is largely effective at maintaining order, although the plague rages on summer after summer. Ships arrive in Ireland carrying survivors from America, who lawlessly plunder Ireland and Scotland before invading England. Adrian raises a military force against them and ultimately manages to resolve the situation peacefully.

Volume 3
The few remaining survivors decide to abandon England, looking for an easier climate. On the eve of their departure to Dover, Lionel receives a letter from Lucy Martin, who could not join the exiles because of her mother's illness. Lionel and Idris travel through a snowstorm to assist Lucy. Idris, weak from years of stress and maternal fears, dies along the way during the fierce weather. Lionel brings her body to Windsor Castle, interring her in St George's Chapel, and is met by the Countess, who reconciles with Lionel at Idris' tomb. Lionel recovers Lucy (whose mother has died), and the party reaches Dover en route to France.

In France, Adrian learns the earlier emigrants have divided into factions, amongst them a fanatical religious sect led by a false messiah who claims his followers will be saved from disease. Adrian unites most of the factions, but the fanatics declare their opposition to Adrian. Lionel sneaks into Paris, where the cult has settled, to try to rescue Juliet. She refuses to leave because the impostor has her baby but helps Lionel escape after the impostor's followers imprison him. Later, when her baby sickens, Juliet discovers the impostor has been hiding the effects of the plague from his followers. She is killed warning the other followers. The impostor commits suicide, and his followers return to the main body of exiles at Versailles.

The exiles travel towards Switzerland, hoping to spend the summer in a colder climate less favourable to the plague. By the time they reach Switzerland, however, all but four (Lionel, Adrian, Clara, and Evelyn) have died. They spend a few relatively happy seasons at Switzerland, Milan, and Como before Evelyn dies of typhus. The survivors attempt to sail across the Adriatic Sea from Venice to Greece, but a storm destroys the boat and drowns Clara and Adrian. Lionel swims to shore at Ravenna. Fearing to be the last human left on Earth, Lionel follows the Apennine Mountains to Rome, befriending a sheepdog along the way. A year passes without anyone else entering Rome, and Lionel resolves to leave with his dog and live the rest of his life as a wanderer of the depopulated continents of Africa and Asia looking for other survivors. The story ends in the year 2100.

Biographical elements
Many of the central characters are wholly or partially based upon Shelley's acquaintances. Shelley had been forbidden by her father-in-law, Sir Timothy Shelley, from publishing a biography of her husband, so she memorialised him, amongst others, in The Last Man. The utopian Adrian, Earl of Windsor, who leads his followers in search of a natural paradise and dies when his boat sinks in a storm, is a fictional portrait of Percy Bysshe Shelley, although other minor characters such as Merrival bear traces of Percy as well. Lord Raymond, who leaves England to fight for the Greeks and dies in Constantinople, is based on Lord Byron. The novel expresses Mary Shelley's pain at the loss of her community of the "Elect", as she called them, and Lionel Verney has been seen as an outlet for her feelings of loss and boredom following their deaths and the deaths of her children.

It appears that Shelley found inspiration for the title of her novel in Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville's Le Dernier Homme (1805), translated into English in 1806 as Omegarus and Syderia.

Failure of romantic political ideals
The Last Man not only laments the loss of Shelley's friends, but also questions the Romantic political ideals for which they stood. In a sense, the plague is metaphorical, since the revolutionary idyll of the élite group is corroded from within by flaws of human nature. As literary scholar Kari Lokke writes, "in its refusal to place humanity at the center of the universe, its questioning of our privileged position in relation to nature, then, The Last Man constitutes a profound and prophetic challenge to Western humanism." Specifically, Mary Shelley, in making references to the failure of the French Revolution and the Godwinian, Wollstonecraftian, and Burkean responses to it, "attacks Enlightenment faith in the inevitability of progress through collective efforts".

Isolation
Hugh Luke argues, "By ending her story with the picture of the Earth's solitary inhabitant, she has brought nearly the whole weight of the novel to bear upon the idea that the condition of the individual being is essentially isolated and therefore ultimately tragic" (xvii). Shelley shares this theme of tragic isolation with the poetry of Lord Byron and William Wordsworth.

Science and medicine
Just as her earlier and better-known novel Frankenstein (1818) engaged with scientific questions of electromagnetism, chemistry, and materialism, The Last Man finds Shelley again attempting to understand the scope of scientific inquiry. Unlike the earlier novel's warnings about Faustian over-reaching, this novel's devastating apocalypse strongly suggests that medicine had become too timid and ultimately come too late. The ineffectual astronomer Merrival, for example, stands in stark contrast to the frighteningly productive Victor Frankenstein. Shelley's construction of Lionel Verney's immunity remains a subject of significant critical debate, but the novel certainly demonstrates a deep understanding of the history of medicine, specifically the development of the smallpox vaccine and the various nineteenth-century theories about the nature of contagion.

Politics
Eileen Hunt Botting of the University of Notre Dame has stated that the novel "saw that the disaster of a pandemic would be driven by politics," and that the "spiraling health crisis would be caused by what people and their leaders had done and failed to do on the international stage—in trade, war and the interpersonal bargains, pacts and conflicts that precede them." Botting has further described the novel as identifying "three patterns of modern democratic corruption, which would be exposed and exacerbated by a pandemic:

1. slow yet steady institutional erosion of norms and practices of trust and equality; 2. authoritarian forms of populism that betray the people who bring an executive leader to power; and 3. patriarchal and religious forms of populism that manipulate the people's beliefs through fear and disinformation.

The novel also comments on the racism expressed by imperial European nations towards the rest of the world. According to Olivia Murphy of the University of Sydney, the novel shows that "this sense of racial superiority and immunity is unfounded: all people are united in their susceptibility to the fatal disease."

Publication history
The Last Man followed several other last-man themed works including a French narrative (Le Dernier Homme) [1805)]), Byron's poem "Darkness" (1816), and Thomas Campbell's poem "The Last Man" (1824). (Campbell claimed Byron had taken his own poem from Campbell's idea.)

Two editions of The Last Man were published by Henry Colburn in London on 23 January 1826, and one edition in Paris in 1826 by Galignani. A pirated edition was printed in the United States of America in 1833.

The novel was not reprinted until 1965.

Contemporary reception
The Last Man received the worst reviews of all of Mary Shelley's novels: most reviewers derided the very theme of lastness, which had become a common one in the previous two decades. Individual reviewers labelled the book "sickening", criticised its "stupid cruelties", and called the author's imagination "diseased". The reaction startled Mary Shelley, who promised her publisher a more popular book next time. Nonetheless, she later spoke of The Last Man as one of her favourite works.

Later reception
In the 20th century it received new critical attention, perhaps because the notion of lastness had become more relevant.

The novel received a further surge in attention in the 2020s. Rebecca Barr of the University of Cambridge wrote that the novel was "an astonishing work" that "resonates with contemporary feelings of climate grief as well as the sense of helplessness as we confront COVID-19." Eileen Hunt Botting of the University of Notre Dame described the book as Shelley's "second great work of science fiction," saying that it provided "an existential mind-set for collectively dealing with the threat of a global man-made disaster."

title: The Last Man


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User:Hoevekam~enwiki

Describe the new page here.

title: User:Hoevekam~enwiki


text:
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is a 1982 novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. As his final work, the book was published shortly after his death in March 1982, although it was written the previous year.

The novel draws on autobiographical details of Dick's friendship with the controversial Episcopal bishop James Pike, on whom the title character is loosely based. It continues Dick's investigation into the religious and philosophical themes of VALIS.

The novel was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1982.

Plot
Set in the late 1960s and 1970s, the story describes the efforts of Episcopal bishop Timothy Archer, who must cope with the theological and philosophical implications of the newly discovered Gnostic Zadokite scroll fragments. The character of Bishop Archer is loosely based on the controversial, iconoclastic Episcopal bishop James Pike, who in 1969 died of exposure while exploring the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea in the West Bank.

As the novel opens, it is 1980. On the day that John Lennon is shot and killed, Angel Archer visits the houseboat of Edgar Barefoot, (a guru based on Alan Watts), and reflects on the lives of her deceased relatives. During the sixties, she was married to Jeff Archer, son of the Episcopal Bishop of California Timothy Archer. She introduced Kirsten Lundborg, a friend, to her father-in law, and the two began an affair. Kirsten has a son, Bill, from a previous relationship, who has schizophrenia, although he is knowledgeable as an automobile mechanic. Tim is already being investigated for his allegedly heretical views about the Holy Ghost.

Jeff commits suicide due to his romantic obsession with Kirsten. However, after poltergeist activity, he manifests to Tim and Kirsten at a seance, also attended by Angel. Angel is skeptical about the efficacy of astrology, and believes that the unfolding existential situation of Tim and Kirsten is akin to Friedrich Schiller's German Romanticism era masterpiece, the Wallenstein trilogy (insofar as their credulity reflects the loss of rational belief in contemporary consensual reality).

The three are told that Kirsten and Tim will die. As predicted, Kirsten loses her remission from cancer, and also commits suicide after a barbiturate overdose. Tim travels to Israel to investigate whether or not a psychotropic mushroom was associated with the resurrection, but his car stalls, he becomes disoriented, falls from a cliff, and dies in the desert.

On the houseboat, Angel is reunited with Bill, Kirsten's son who has schizophrenia. He claims to have Tim's reincarnated spirit within him, but is soon institutionalized. Angel agrees to care for Bill, in return for a rare record (Koto Music by Kimio Eto) that Edgar offers her.

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is one of Dick's most overtly philosophical and intellectual works. While Dick's novels usually employ multiple narrators or an omniscient perspective, this story is told in the first person by a single narrator: Angel Archer, Bishop Archer's daughter-in-law.

Characters

 * Angel Archer: Narrator, manager of a Berkeley record store, widow of Jeff Archer.
 * Timothy Archer: Bishop of California; father of the late Jeff Archer and father-in-law of Angel. Dies in Israel, searching for psychotropic mushroom connected with Zadokite sect. Based on James Albert Pike, Dick's personal friend, who was an American Episcopalian bishop.
 * Kirsten Lundborg: Timothy Archer's secretary and lover. Dies from barbiturate overdose after loss of remission from cancer.
 * Bill Lundborg: Kirsten's son who has schizophrenia, and who is obsessed with cars.
 * Edgar Barefoot: Houseboat guru, radio personality, lecturer. Based on Alan Watts.
 * Jeff Archer: Son of Timothy Archer, and deceased husband of Angel. A professional student who was romantically obsessed with Kirsten.

Other works
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is thematically related to Dick's unfinished VALIS trilogy of novels:

 * VALIS (1981)
 * The Divine Invasion (1981)

The novel has been included in several omnibus editions of the trilogy as a stand-in for the unwritten final volume. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer was not intended by Dick to be part of the trilogy; however, the book fits with the two finished volumes and Dick himself called the three novels a trilogy, saying "the three do form a trilogy constellating around a basic theme."

The book was originally titled Bishop Timothy Archer.

Criticism

 * Frasca, Gabriele, “Come rimanere rimasti: La trasmigrazione di Timothy Archer”, Trasmigrazioni: I mondi di Philip K. Dick, eds. De Angelis and Rossi, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2006, pp. 237–60.

title: The Transmigration of Timothy Archer


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Ukonline

Ukonline was a "portal" website of the Government of the United Kingdom linking to public sector information, and was originally called me.gov. The site was launched in 2001 and maintained by the Office of the e-Envoy (later the e-Government Unit, part of the Cabinet Office). It replaced the earlier single online government website, the Government Information Service (GIS) hosted at open.gov.uk, which had been established in November 1994. The need for an updated single government website had been identified in a 1999 Portal Feasibility Study prepared by PA Consulting for the Central IT Unit (CITU) in the Cabinet Office.

The site featured news, links, and search facilities connecting together much of the government's web presence, though later this pan-government search facility was removed. Visitors to the site were able to search for information on a variety of topics (for example, agriculture, finance and health) and retrieve a list of government departments that were able to provide them with more information. It was also possible to do such things as apply for a passport, buy a television licence, register to vote or complete and send a Tax Self Assessment form, but only if users left the website, as they could not actually perform the transaction on UKonline.

The site was replaced in 2004 by the service Directgov, which was then replaced in 2012 by the service Gov.uk.

title: Ukonline


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Elizabeth Jennings (poet)

Elizabeth Joan Jennings (18 July 1926 – 26 October 2001) was an English poet.

Life and career
Elizabeth Jennings was born at The Bungalow, Tower Road, Skirbeck, Boston, Lincolnshire, younger daughter of physician Henry Cecil Jennings (1893–1967), MA, BSc (Oxon.), MB BS (Lond.), DPH, medical officer of health for Oxfordshire, and (Helen) Mary, née Turner. When she was seven, her family moved to Oxford, where she remained for the rest of her life. There she later attended St Anne's College. After graduation, she became a writer.

Jennings' early poetry was published in journals such as Oxford Poetry, New English Weekly, The Spectator, Outposts and Poetry Review, but her first book of poems was not published until she was 27. The lyrical poets she cited as having influenced her were Hopkins, Auden, Graves and Muir. Her second book, A Way of Looking (155), won the Somerset Maugham Award and marked a turning point, as the prize money allowed her to spend nearly three months in Rome, which was a revelation. It brought a new dimension to her religious belief and inspired her imagination.

Regarded as traditionalist rather than an innovator, Jennings is known for her lyric poetry and mastery of form. Her work displays a simplicity of metre and rhyme shared with Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis and Thom Gunn, all members of the 1950s group of English poets known as The Movement. She always made it clear that, while her life, which included a spell of severe mental illness, contributed to the themes contained within her work, she did not write explicitly autobiographical poetry. Her deeply held Roman Catholicism coloured much of her work.

She had difficulty managing the practical aspects of her career and life. She became impoverished and struggled with mental health, and her personal difficulties tarnished her critical reputation. When she was honoured by the queen in 1992, she wore a "knitted hat, duffle coat, and canvas shoes". The tabloid newspapers mocked her as "the bag-lady of the sonnets", and the unfortunate description stayed with her. She spent the later years of her life in various short-term lodgings and in Unity House (8 St Andrew's Lane) in Old Headington. She died in a care home in Bampton, Oxfordshire, at the age of 75. She is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford.

Her life and career were reviewed in 2018 by Dana Gioia, who said: "Despite her worldly failures, her artistic career was a steady course of achievement. Jennings ranks among the finest British poets of the second half of the twentieth century. She is also England’s best Catholic poet since Gerard Manley Hopkins."

Selected honours and awards

 * 1953: Arts Council of Great Britain Prize for the best first book of poems for Poems
 * 1955: Somerset Maugham Award for A Way of Looking.
 * 1966: Richard Hillary Memorial Prize for The Mind has Mountains
 * 1987: W.H. Smith Literary Award for Collected Poems 1953–1985
 * 1992: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
 * 2001: Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Durham University

Poetry collections

 * Poems. Oxford: Fantasy Press, 1953
 * A Way of Looking. London: André Deutsch, 1955
 * A Sense of the World. London: André Deutsch, 1958
 * Song For a Birth or a Death. London: André Deutsch, 1961
 * The Sonnets of Michelangelo (translated by Jennings). London: Folio Society, 1961; revised edition, Allison & Busby, 1969
 * Recoveries. London: André Deutsch, 1964
 * The Mind has Mountains. London: Macmillan, 1966
 * The Secret Brother and Other Poems for Children. London: Macmillan, 1966
 * Collected Poems 1967. London: Macmillan, 1967
 * The Animals' Arrival. London: Macmillan, 1969
 * Lucidities. London: Macmillan, 1970
 * Relationships. London: Macmillan, 1972
 * Growing Points. Cheadle: Carcanet, 1975
 * Consequently I Rejoice. Cheadle: Carcanet, 1977
 * After the Ark. Oxford University Press, 1978
 * Selected Poems. Cheadle: Carcanet, 1979
 * Winter Wind. Sidcot: Gruffyground Press, 1979
 * Moments of Grace. Manchester: Carcanet, 1980
 * Celebrations and Elegies. Manchester: Carcanet, 1982
 * Extending the Territory. Manchester: Carcanet, 1985
 * In Shakespeare's Company. The Celandine Press, 1985 [limited edition 250 copies]
 * Collected Poems 1953-1985. Manchester: Carcanet, 1986
 * An Oxford Cycle: Poems. Oxford:Thornton's, 1987
 * Tributes. Manchester: Carcanet, 1989
 * Times and Seasons. Manchester: Carcanet, 1992
 * Familiar Spirits. Manchester: Carcanet, 1994
 * In the Meantime. Manchester: Carcanet, 1996
 * A Spell of Words: Selected Poems for Children. London: Macmillan, 1997
 * Praises. Manchester: Carcanet, 1998
 * Timely Issues. Manchester: Carcanet, 2001
 * New Collected Poems. Manchester: Carcanet, 2001
 * Elizabeth Jennings: The Collected Poems. Manchester: Carcanet, 2012
 * Father to Son: Poem

Selections and anthologies edited by Jennings

 * The Batsford Book of Children's Verse (illustrated). London: Batsford, 1958
 * An Anthology of Modern Verse: 1940-1960. London: Methuen, 1961
 * Wuthering Heights and Selected Poems by Emily Brontë. London: Pan Books, 1967
 * A Choice of Christina Rossetti's Verse. London: Faber and Faber, 1970
 * The Batsford Book of Religious Verse. London: Batsford, 1981
 * A Poet's Choice. Manchester: Carcanet, 1996

Criticism

 * "The Difficult Balance". London Magazine 6.9 (1959): 27–30
 * "The Restoration of Symbols: The Poetry of David Gascoyne". Twentieth Century 165 (June 1959): 567–577
 * Let's Have Some Poetry! (for children). London: Museum Press, 1960
 * "Poetry and Mysticism: on re-reading Bremond". Dublin Review 234 (1960): 84–91
 * "The Unity of Incarnation: a study of Gerard Manley Hopkins". Dublin Review 234 (1960): 170–184
 * Every Changing Shape: Mystical Experience and the Making of Poems. London: André Deutsch, 1961; Manchester: Carcanet, 1996, ISBN 978-1-85754-247-9
 * Poetry Today (British Council and National British League). London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1961
 * "Emily Dickinson and the Poetry of the Inner Life". Review of English Literature 3.2 (April 1962): 78–87
 * Frost (Robert Frost). Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1964
 * Christianity and Poetry. London: Burns & Oates, 1965
 * Reaching into Silence: a study of eight twentieth-century visionaries. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1974
 * Seven Men of Vision: an appreciation. London: Visa Press, 1976
 * "The State of Poetry". Agenda 27.3 (Autumn 1989): 40–41

title: Elizabeth Jennings (poet)


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User talk:Friedger~enwiki

Have a look at www.friedger.de.

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User:Furious~enwiki

Also known as The_Trinity in the Matrix realms.

Send e-mail to trinity@SPAM-SUCKS.matrixcommunity.NO-IT-REALLY-DOES.org

My Matrix fan site: http://www.zionmainframe.net The Matrix Community: http://www.matrixcommunity.org Zion Mainframe Labs Dev: http://www.zionmainframe.ca

title: User:Furious~enwiki