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Marcian

Marcian (Marcianus; Μαρκιανός ; c. 392 – 27 January 457) was Roman emperor of the East from 450 to 457. Very little of his life before becoming emperor is known, other than that he was a domesticus (personal assistant) who served under the commanders Ardabur and his son Aspar for fifteen years. After the death of Emperor Theodosius II on 28 July 450, Marcian was made a candidate for the throne by Aspar, who held much influence because of his military power. After a month of negotiations Pulcheria, Theodosius' sister, agreed to marry Marcian. Zeno, a military leader whose influence was similar to Aspar's, may have been involved in these negotiations, as he was given the high-ranking court title of patrician upon Marcian's accession. Marcian was elected and inaugurated on 25 August 450.

Marcian reversed many of the actions of TheodosiusII in the Eastern Roman Empire's relationship with the Huns under Attila and in religious matters. Marcian almost immediately revoked all treaties with Attila, ending all subsidy payments to him. In 452, while Attila was raiding Roman Italy, then a part of the Western Roman Empire, Marcian launched expeditions across the Danube into the Great Hungarian Plain, defeating the Huns in their own heartland. This action, accompanied by the famine and plague that broke out in northern Italy, allowed the Western Roman Empire to bribe Attila into retreating from the Italian peninsula.

After Attila's death in 453, Marcian took advantage of the resulting fragmentation of the Hunnic confederation by settling Germanic tribes within Roman lands as foederati ("federates" providing military service in exchange for benefits). Marcian also convened the Council of Chalcedon, which declared that Jesus had two "natures": divine and human. This led to the alienation of the population of the eastern provinces of Syria and Egypt, as many of them were miaphysites, rejecting the new official Christology. Marcian died on 27 January 457, leaving the Eastern Roman Empire with a treasury surplus of seven million solidi coins, an impressive achievement considering the economic ruin inflicted upon the Eastern Roman Empire by the Huns and Theodosius' tribute payments. After his death, Aspar passed over Marcian's son-in-law, Anthemius, and had a military commander, Leo I, elected as emperor.

Early life
Marcian was born in c. 392, in either Thrace or Illyria. The ancient historian John Malalas describes him as being tall and having some sort of foot impediment. Little of Marcian's early life is known. His father had served in the military and at a young age Marcian enlisted at Philippopolis in Thrace. By the time of the Roman–Sassanian War of 421–422, Marcian had likely reached the military rank of tribune—the historian Theophanes the Confessor mentions him commanding a military unit. He did not see action in the war, having become ill in Lycia. There he was cared for by Tatianus, who would be made praefectus urbi (prefect of Constantinople) by Marcian, and Tatianus' brother Iulius. Marcian eventually rose to become the domesticus (personal assistant) of Aspar, the magister militum (commander-in-chief) of the Eastern Roman Empire. Despite being half-Alanic and half-Gothic, Aspar held much influence in the empire. In the early 430s, Marcian served under Aspar in Roman Africa, where he was captured by Vandals. Evagrius Scholasticus, Procopius and later authors give a likely false account in which Marcian, while in captivity, met the Vandal king Gaiseric, who predicted he would later become emperor. After his capture, Marcian is not mentioned again until the death of the eastern emperor, Theodosius II.

Reign of Theodosius II
The Eastern Roman Empire was plagued by external threats during the reign of Theodosius II. In 429, the Vandals, led by Gaiseric, began to conquer Roman Africa. Theodosius immediately organized a response, sending Aspar and three other commanders to attempt to repel them in the summer of 431. To the north, the Huns, who had customarily attacked the empire whenever its armies were preoccupied, withdrawing as those forces returned, sent ambassadors to Theodosius in 431, demanding tribute. He agreed to their demand to pay 350 lb of gold each year. In 434, the Eastern Roman armies were still campaigning against the Vandals in Africa, having faced initial defeats and the withdrawal of many of the Western Roman soldiers. In the face of Eastern Roman weakness, the Huns doubled their demand, asking for 700 lb of gold per year, which Theodosius agreed to. The threat the Huns posed to his weakly protected empire was enough that Theodosius recalled many of his forces from Africa. With large numbers of the Eastern Roman armies home, and Attila, who had just taken power in the Hunnic Confederation, busy campaigning to the north, Theodosius refused to pay the tribute and continued to refuse to until 439.

On 19 October 439, the Vandals defeated the weakened Eastern Roman armies and captured the major city of Carthage. Both the Western and Eastern Roman Empires began preparing a massive counter-offensive, stripping the Balkan provinces of protection. In the spring of 440, 1,100 ships set sail from Constantinople for Africa; sending away so many of the Eastern Roman forces was a huge gamble on Theodosius' part. He was betting the fortified cities along the Danube could delay the Huns long enough for the invasion force to gain a secure foothold in Africa, allowing troops to be withdrawn back to the northern frontier. This gamble worked until 442 when the bishop of Margus led a raiding party into the Huns' territory and desecrated their royal tombs. In response to this desecration, Attila demanded that the bishop be handed over. To ensure his own safety, the bishop struck a deal with Attila, surrendering the city of Margus to him in exchange for his own life. With control of Margus, Attila had a foothold across the Danube, which he aggressively exploited, capturing and destroying the cities of Viminacium, Singidunum, and Sirmium. Theodosius recalled Aspar to Constantinople and launched a counter-attack. After his force was decisively defeated, Theodosius undertook to pay tribute to the Huns every year, which he did until his death in 450.

Rise to the throne
After Theodosius II died unexpectedly in a riding accident on 28 July 450, the Eastern Roman Empire faced its first succession crisis in 60 years. Theodosius had no sons, nor had he designated a successor. Some later sources state that he willed the throne to Marcian on his deathbed, but this is thought to be propaganda created by Marcian's supporters after his election. Marcian had served Aspar and his father Ardabur loyally for fifteen years. Aspar conspired to have Marcian elected and was able to negotiate with other powerful figures to have him made the emperor, despite his relative obscurity. There was a one-month interregnum where negotiations for the succession took place, one of which was with Pulcheria, Theodosius II's sister, who agreed to marry Marcian; it is thought that Pulcheria agreed to marry Marcian on the condition that he would abandon Theodosius II's religious policies and convoke a Church council. Their marriage helped to legitimize Marcian's rule, as Pulcheria's family, the Theodosian dynasty, had direct ties to the throne. Despite being married to Marcian, Pulcheria kept the vow of virginity she had made in 413, at age 14, during her three years of marriage to him.

Historian Doug Lee proposes that negotiations were also needed between Aspar and Flavius Zeno, who was in a similar position of military power. Zeno was given the prestigious rank of patrician upon Marcian's ascension in 450, suggesting a deal whereby Zeno was rewarded for supporting Marcian instead of claiming the throne for himself; Zeno would ultimately die within a year of Marcian's accession. Aspar son, Ardabur, was promoted to command the army of the Prefecture of the East as the new magister militum per Orientem, soon after Marcian's accession.

Marcian was elevated on 25 August 450, and Pulcheria's agreement to marry him likely boosted Marcian's legitimacy further. Marcian took the regnal name of Imperator Caesar Flavius Marcianus Augustus upon his coronation. The election of Marcian in 450 resulted in large changes to eastern imperial policy. Chrysaphius, the eunuch and spatharios (guard of the imperial chambers), who had exercised much influence over Theodosius, was either murdered or executed. Both Pulcheria and Zeno were opposed to Chrysaphius' influence, which may have motivated Marcian's actions. Marcian took a tougher stance against the Huns and a more direct role in ecclesiastical affairs. Byzantist Constance Head considers Marcian to be "an independent-minded emperor." Lee states that Marcian "can appear as a stronger figure than many other fifth-century incumbents of the imperial office", but notes that "Flavius Zeno and Pulcheria had both been opponents of Chrysaphius, so the changes may be more a reflection of their influence."

Conflict with the Huns
Almost immediately after becoming emperor, Marcian revoked Theodosius' treaties with Attila and proclaimed the end of subsidies. He stated that he might grant gifts if Attila was friendly, but Attila would be repelled if he attempted to raid the Eastern Roman Empire. At this time Attila was preparing to invade the Western Roman Empire, under the guise of helping Emperor Valentinian III against the Visigoths. Attila reacted angrily to Marcian's proposal, demanding tribute, but did not alter his invasion plans. He led his horde from Pannonia in spring 451 into the Western Roman Empire. Flavius Aetius, who was the supreme commander of the Western Roman army as Comes et Magister Utriusque Militiae, organized a defense and called upon the Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, Alans, Saxons, Celtic Armoricans, and other tribal groups numbering about 60,000 to aid him. Attila's forces were made up of Gepids, Alans, Sciri, Heruli, Rugians, along with some Franks, Burgundians, and Ostrogoths.

Attila sacked Metz and attempted a siege of Orléans, before meeting Aetius' forces at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, in northeast Gaul. This battle involved around 100,000 men and resulted in very large losses on both sides. After the battle, Attila retreated to the Great Hungarian Plain, and Aetius dismissed his coalition of tribes, sending them back to their own territories. In spring 452, Attila again launched a raid into Italy, which was almost entirely undefended. He was likely motivated by a desire for revenge, along with a need to raid to stabilize his tribal state, which was dependent upon raiding for loot and resources. Attila captured the city of Aquileia after a long and difficult siege, and sacked it. He then raided across northern Italy, taking Mediolanum (Milan) and other important cities. There was much fear that Attila would attack Rome itself, the walls of which were weaker than those of some cities he had already captured. During this period, other than cutting his lines of communication and harassing his rear forces, Aetius did not launch a direct attack on Attila.

Despite the plunder he now had from capturing Aquileia, Milan, and other cities, Attila was quickly placed in a precarious situation, because of the actions of both Eastern and Western Rome. In Italy, he was seriously lacking in funds, having not received subsidies from either Eastern or Western Rome for two years. Constant warfare had depleted his forces. As well, Attila's homeland was threatened by the Eastern Empire which, despite the punitive raids he ordered, took the offensive against the Great Hungarian Plain in mid-452, attacking across the Danube and inflicting a defeat upon the Huns. The area attacked by the Eastern Romans was home to Ostrogoths and Gepids, two groups bitterly opposed to Hunnic rule, and was the breadbasket of the Hunnic Empire. The loss of food supply from Attila's own land coupled with a famine that Italy was suffering at the time, along with a plague that followed it, placed yet more strain upon Attila, allowing the Western Roman Empire to bribe him into retreating to his homeland. After returning to the Great Hungarian Plain, he threatened to invade the Eastern Empire the following spring and conquer it entirely. Marcian and Aspar ignored his threats. They reasoned, based upon the previous treaties that Attila had broken, that he could not be permanently deterred even by tons of gold. The pair believed the gold would be better spent building up armies, not appeasing threats. Also, the rich Asian and African provinces, which were protected behind Constantinople, were secure enough to allow the Eastern Empire to retake any European provinces it might lose. This campaign never came to fruition, as Attila died unexpectedly in 453, either from hemorrhaging or alcoholic suffocation, after celebrating a marriage to one of his many wives. After his death, his tribal confederation rapidly fell apart, starting first with rebellions of the Ostrogoths.

This fragmentation allowed the Eastern Empire to resume its policy of playing off barbarians against each other, to stop any one tribe from becoming too powerful. It is almost certain that the Gepid king Ardaric came to an agreement with Marcian. Ardaric had formed a coalition of the Rugians, Sciri, Heruli, and his own Gepids, which he led against the remaining Hunnic confederation. Ardaric, alongside the Ostrogoth leaders Theodemir, Valamir and Videmir, decisively defeated Attila's oldest son, Ellac, at the Battle of Nedao in 455, where he was slain. After this battle, the Hunnic confederation could no longer sustain the cohesion of its previous days, although they still remained prominent. In the wake of the reduced power of the Hunnic Empire, Marcian accepted the Ostrogoths, who had established themselves in Pannonia Prima and Valeria—nominally two Western Roman provinces—as foederati. This marked the continuation of the tacit abandonment of a rigid Danube barrier, which had previously been manned by Roman laeti, barbarians settled directly in Roman land in exchange for military service. For some time before Marcian, the laeti had been replaced by foederati, although the distinction between the two was increasingly breaking down. Marcian's successors would grant the status of foederati to multiple peoples and ceding them lands in the recovered European provinces: the Rugians in eastern Thrace, Sciri in Lower Moesia and Scythia, Gepids in Dacia. This network of subject peoples, who were generally reliable and manageable, was beneficial to the Eastern Empire. The tribal peoples generally kept each other's power in check without Roman intervention. They could also be induced to serve the empire against its enemies by way of gifts, subsidies, and treaties. With the Hunnic empire's diminished might after the death of Attila, Marcian enjoyed a relatively peaceful reign, although he won some small campaigns against the Saracens in Syria and against the Blemmyes in Egypt.

Religious policy
During the 5th century, a central religious issue was the debate concerning how the human and divine nature of Jesus Christ were associated, following the Arian controversy. The School of Alexandria, including theologians such as Athanasius, asserted the equality of Christ and God, and therefore focused upon the divinity of Christ. The School of Antioch, including theologians such as Theodore of Mopsuestia, determined not to lose the human aspect of Christ, focused upon his humanity.

Shortly before Marcian became emperor, the Second Council of Ephesus was held in 449. The council stated that Jesus had one divine united nature, a position called miaphysis; this was rejected by the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople because of disputes on the matter of Christology, as the Pope and Patriarch of Constantinople saw the belief in miaphysis as heretical.

To repudiate the Second Council of Ephesus, Marcian convened a new council of the imperial church, deemed to pass universally respected canons, in 451. Pulcheria may have influenced this decision or even made the convention of a council a requirement during her negotiations with Aspar to marry Marcian. The council was to take place near Constantinople so that the government could watch the proceedings closely. Initially, it was to be held at the city of Nicaea, which held enormous religious importance to the early church, as it was the site of its first council, the First Council of Nicaea in 325. However, Marcian successfully requested the transfer of the location to Chalcedon. This was closer to Constantinople and would allow him to respond quickly to any events along the Danube frontier. The Council of Chalcedon met in October 451. About 500 bishops attended it, most of them Eastern Roman, although two African bishops and two Papal legates sent by Pope Leo I attended. This council condemned the Second Council of Ephesus and agreed that Jesus had a divine nature (physis) and a human nature, united in one person (hypostasis), "without confusion, change, division, or separation."

The council also agreed to condemn the Coptic Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria, who had overseen the Second Council of Ephesus, and revoke the condemnations of Ibas of Edessa and Theodoret, which had taken place during this council. The council also repeated the importance of the See of Constantinople, placing it firmly in second place behind the See of Rome, and giving it the right to appoint bishops in the Eastern Roman Empire, over the objection of Pope Leo I; the Patriarchs of Alexandria also objected to the elevation of the See of Constantinople. The council ended in November 451, after which Marcian issued numerous edicts confirming the outcomes of the council; showing that the outcome of the council was not universally accepted. One such edict ordered the repression of Eutychianists, who did not believe in the hypostatic union of the two natures of Jesus, barring them from holding state offices, forbidding them from criticizing the Council of Chalcedon, and ordering their literature, along with that of the Nestorians, to be burned.

The anti-Miaphysite resolutions of the council led to a large increase in civil disruption in the eastern provinces of Syria and Egypt, where the majority of the population was Miaphysitic. Several violent revolts were put down with military force after significant bloodshed, in Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch; as well as sending the military to suppress monks in Palestine and placing troops in Alexandria to ensure the installation of Proterius of Alexandria, who was to replace the deposed Pope Dioscorus I. According to the Byzantist Alexander Vasiliev, even after these revolts were put down, the popular dissatisfaction with the state church among the Miaphysite and Nestorian population remained, as the eastern provinces became increasingly convinced of their need for independence from the Eastern Roman Empire. Vasiliev states that this would lead to long-lasting disloyalty toward the Eastern Roman government among the eastern provinces, ultimately facilitating the loss of these provinces to the Sassanians and later to the Arabs. Another result of the council and the subsequent edicts was that many Christians who disagreed with the council, including many Nestorians, migrated to the Sassanian Empire. The separation of the Miaphysites from the churches accepting Chalcedonian doctrine would be made final after the failed attempts of reconciliation under Emperor Justinian I ((r. 527 – 565)), the Miaphysites splitting the Oriental Orthodox Churches from the main body of Christians.

Marcian also funded Pulcheria's extensive building projects until her death in July 453. All of them focused on the construction of religious buildings, including the Church of St. Mary of Blachernae and the Hodegon Monastery. Marcian was compared to both Paul the Apostle and the Biblical king David, by the legates at the Council of Chalcedon.

Economic and legal policy
At the beginning of Marcian's reign, the Eastern Roman treasury was almost bankrupt, the result of the huge tributes paid to Attila by Theodosius. Marcian reversed this near bankruptcy, not by levying new taxes, but by cutting expenditure. Upon his accession, he declared a remission of all debts owed to the state. Marcian attempted to improve the efficiency of the state in multiple ways. He laid out legal reforms in his novels, or codes of law, containing 20 laws, many of which were targeted at reducing the corruption and abuses of office that had existed during the reign of Theodosius; five of which are preserved in full.

Marcian mandated that the office of praetorship (officer in charge of public games and works) could only be given to senators who resided in Constantinople, attempted to curb the practice of selling administrative offices, and decreed that consuls should be responsible for the maintenance of Constantinople's aqueducts. He repealed the follis, a tax on senators' property that amounted to seven pounds of gold per annum. Marcian removed the financial responsibilities of the consuls and praetors, held since the time of the Roman Republic, to fund public sports and games or give wealth to the citizens of Constantinople, respectively. He further decreed that only a vir illustris (a high-ranking man) could hold either office. He also partially repealed a marriage law enacted by Constantine I, which decreed that a man of senatorial status could not marry a slave, freedwoman, actress, or woman of no social status (humilis), which had been created in an attempt to preserve the purity of the senatorial class. Marcian adjusted this law by declaring that the law should not exclude a woman of good character, regardless of her social status or wealth. By the time of his death, Marcian's shrewd cutting of expenditures and his avoidance of large-scale wars left the Eastern Roman treasury with a surplus of 100,000 lb of gold.

In 451, Marcian decreed that anyone who performed pagan rites would lose their property and be condemned to death and that no pagan temples, which had previously been closed, could be reopened. To ensure this law was implemented, he set a penalty of 50 lb of gold for any judge, governor or official who did not enforce the law.

Politics
When Marcian became emperor, he was influenced by Flavius Zeno, Pulcheria, and Aspar. Flavius Zeno died soon after Marcian ascended the throne, possibly as early as the end of 451, and Pulcheria died in July 453, leaving Aspar as the only major influence in the court of the Eastern Roman Empire. This influence was enhanced by the promotion of his son Ardabur to magister militum per Orientem. It is unknown if Aspar and Ardabur influenced Marcian's policies directly, but if so, they were extremely careful to avoid upsetting the ruling elites of Constantinople. Despite Aspar's great influence, the Eastern Roman elites retained much of their anti-German sentiment. Marcian's principal advisors were Pulcheria, Euphemius the magister officiorum (master of offices), Palladius the praetor, and Anatolius of Constantinople. In 453, Marcian had his daughter from a previous marriage, Marcia Euphemia, marry Anthemius, an aristocrat and talented general.

Marcian patronized the Blues, who were one of the two circus teams, the other being the Greens. The two teams had become more like political parties than sports teams by his time, wielding large influence in the empire; both vied for power. After the Greens responded angrily to his patronage, Marcian censured them, forbidding any of them to hold any public office for three years. Marcian's patronage of the Blues may have had personal motivations, as the once powerful Chrysaphius had been favorable to the Greens.

Foreign relations
The Armenian king Vardan II Mamikonian, who was leading a revolt against the Sassanian Empire, sent an embassy to Theodosius in 450, composed of his brother Hmayeak Mamikonian, along with Atom Gnuni, Vardan Amatuni, and Meruzhan Artsruni, to ask for assistance. Theodosius received it favorably. Any plans were cut short by his death and the accession of Marcian. Marcian was counseled by the diplomat Anatolius and patricius Florentius not to make war with the Sassanians, as it would engulf a large amount of the Eastern Roman military resources, and thus Marcian did not agree to help them.

King Gubazes I of Lazica—a Caucasian state in theory under Eastern Roman suzerainty—was attempting to form an alliance with the Sassanians to break free of Roman control in 456. Marcian's troops invaded Lazica and restored Roman rule. In 455, Marcian banned the export to barbarian tribes of weapons and the tools used to manufacture them.

Relationship with the Western Roman Empire
Marcian was elected without any consultation with the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III, a clear indication of further separation between the Eastern and Western Roman Empires than before his reign. Valentinian would later recognize Marcian as the Eastern Roman Emperor, although the date of this recognition is disputed; Lee states that Valentinian recognized Marcian in March 452, whereas historian Timothy E. Gregory states that Marcian was recognized by Valentinian on 30 March 451. Marcian's appointment marked a further stage of separation between the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. One source, John of Antioch's Excerpta de insidiis, even suggest that Valentinian would have attempted to depose Marcian, but for Aetius' opposition. Valentinian also did not recognize the Eastern Roman consuls for 451 or 452. The Western Roman chronicler Hydatius suggests that Marcian made Eastern Roman troops available to Valentinian to repel the Huns, confusingly led by a man named Aetius, which may simply be a muddling of Aetius' campaign against Attila and Marcian's campaign against the Huns on the Danube.

When Marcian granted part of Pannonia to the Ostrogoths, and the Tisza region to the Gepids, he was accused of encroaching upon the border of Western Roman land. Marcian avoided involving himself with the affairs of the Western Roman Empire when possible. When the Vandals sacked Rome in 455, after Petronius Maximus assassinated Valentinian III and broke an engagement treaty with the Vandals, Marcian did not respond violently, possibly because of the influence of Aspar. He merely sent an envoy demanding that the Vandals return the Dowager Empress, Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters by Valentinian III, Placidia and Eudocia. A likely false account is given that Marcian, while captured by the Vandals in his youth, was shaded by an eagle while the other prisoners suffered the hot sun. According to this account, the Vandal King Gaiseric recognized that Marcian would later be emperor. In exchange for being released, he made Marcian pledge not to attack the Vandals should he become emperor. This account originates from Priscus, who served as an advisor to Marcian's confidant, Euphemius. Because of Euphemius' influence over foreign policy, some historians, such as Edward Arthur Thompson, have suggested that this account was a part of official imperial propaganda, which was generated to excuse Marcian's lack of retribution towards the Vandals, and quell any discontent. Marcian made several diplomatic attempts to have the prisoners returned, before finally beginning to plan an invasion of the Vandal's territory shortly before his death. The historian Frank Clover has suggested that this sudden reversal of policy was caused by the marriage of Eudocia to Huneric, the son of Gaiseric, which led to such pressure from Eastern Roman elites that Marcian was forced to begin preparations for war to ensure the return of the hostages. Around this time, Marcian made peace with Lazica, which would allow him to direct his attention elsewhere. The East Roman historian Theodorus Lector speaks of Marcian's sudden reversal of policy, and Evagrius Scholasticus, a Roman historian writing a century after the event, states that the Vandals released Licinia Eudoxia, Placidia, and Eudocia to Marcian after he threatened them with war, in either late 456 or early 457.

Marcian did not recognize any Western Emperor after Valentinian, denying Petronius Maximus, now Western Emperor, when he sent an embassy requesting it, and similarly refusing to recognize Avitus, who succeeded Maximus. Marcian's exact treatment of Avitus is debated. The Roman historian Hydatius states that in 455 Avitus sent ambassadors to Marcian "for the sake of unanimity of power," and that, "Marcian and Avitus make use of Roman power in concord". The exact usage of concord (concordia in the original Latin) has led to debate among scholars. Some such as Thomas Hodgkin, J. B. Bury, and William Bayless consider it grounds for the belief that Marcian may have recognized Avitus. Most scholars take a more conservative stance on it; Ernst Stein suggests that it is merely a reflection of West Roman propaganda, whereas Norman Baynes believes it indicates that Marcian was cordial to Avitus, neither hostile nor friendly. Classicist Courtenay Edward Stevens interprets the phrase as meaning only that the meeting of the diplomats was amicable, rather than reflecting a relationship between the two states.

The historian Geoffrey Nathan suggests the fact that only two Western delegates attended the Council of Chalcedon points to a new level of Western Roman self-absorption in their own political and religious affairs. He mentions that the canon from this council delegating authority over the whole east to the See of Constantinople marks a religious separation. Authority over the Church in the Eastern Roman Empire would prove a point of contention between Rome and Constantinople, leading up to the East–West Schism.

Death
Marcian's reign ended on 27 January 457, when he died, aged 65, possibly of gangrene. Theodorus Lector and Theophanes the Confessor say that Marcian died after a long religious procession from the Grand Palace to the Hebdomon, where he made the journey on foot, despite the fact that he could barely walk because of severe foot inflammation, possibly gout. He was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles, in Constantinople, next to his wife Pulcheria, in a porphyry sarcophagus that was described in the 10th century by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in the De Ceremoniis. He left the Eastern Empire with seven million solidi in its treasury, an impressive achievement considering the economic ruin inflicted upon Eastern Rome by the Huns, both through warfare and the massive subsidies they received under Theodosius.

Although Marcian had a son-in-law, Anthemius, he did not have any connection to the Theodosians, which Marcian himself had gained through his marriage to Pulcheria, and thus would not be considered a legitimate dynastic heir, so Aspar was once again left to play the role of emperor-maker. He selected Leo I, a fifty-year-old officer commanding a unit in one of the praesental armies—two field armies based near Constantinople. A later source claims that the Eastern Roman Senate offered to elect Aspar himself, but he declined, with the cryptic comment: "I fear that a tradition in ruling might be initiated through me". This comment has often been interpreted to be a reference to the fact that he was an Arian, or else to his Alanic heritage.

Anthemius would later be sent by Leo to become the Western Roman emperor; Leo nominated him to be Western Emperor in the spring of 467, to fill the vacancy left by the death of Emperor Libius Severus since 465. Leo sent Anthemius to Rome with an army, headed by Marcellinus, the magister militum of Dalmatia; upon nearing Rome, Anthemius was installed as emperor on 12 April 467.

Legacy
Marcian was regarded favorably by Eastern Roman and Byzantine sources, often compared to Emperors Constantine I and Theodosius I. Marcian's reign was seen by many later Byzantine writers, such as Theophanes the Confessor, as a golden age: Marcian secured the Eastern Empire both politically and financially, set an orthodox religious line that future emperors would follow, and stabilized the capital city politically. Some later scholars attribute his success not just to his skill, but also to a large degree of luck. Not only had he been fortunate enough to have Pulcheria to legitimize his rule, but for much of it the two greatest external threats to Rome, the Sassanian Empire and the Huns, were absorbed with their own internal problems. Further, no natural disasters or plagues occurred during his reign. He was remembered fondly by the people of Constantinople, who would shout "Reign like Marcian!" at the installation of future emperors.

The Prefect of Constantinople Tatianus built a column dedicated to Marcian, sometime between 450 and 452. It still stands in Istanbul, near the north branch of the Mese, though the statue of Marcian that originally topped it has been lost. Marcian also had a statue in the Forum of Arcadius, which contained the statues of several of the successors of Emperor Arcadius. Marcian may have been the sponsor of the Chrysotriklinos of the Great Palace of Constantinople. The Patria of Constantinople states that Marcian constructed it, whereas the 10th century encyclopedia Suda states that Emperor Justin II built it, a view with which most historians agree. The Byzantine historian Joannes Zonaras states that Justin II actually rebuilt an older construction, which some historians identify as the Heptaconch Hall of Emperor Justinian.

In popular culture
Marcian is played by the Hollywood star Jeff Chandler in the 1954 period adventure Sign of the Pagan. Jack Palance co-stars as Attila and Ludmilla Tchérina plays Pulcheria.

title: Marcian


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Symmetry

Symmetry in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations, such as translation, reflection, rotation, or scaling. Although these two meanings of the word can sometimes be told apart, they are intricately related, and hence are discussed together in this article.

Mathematical symmetry may be observed with respect to the passage of time; as a spatial relationship; through geometric transformations; through other kinds of functional transformations; and as an aspect of abstract objects, including theoretic models, language, and music.

This article describes symmetry from three perspectives: in mathematics, including geometry, the most familiar type of symmetry for many people; in science and nature; and in the arts, covering architecture, art, and music.

The opposite of symmetry is asymmetry, which refers to the absence of symmetry.

In geometry

A geometric shape or object is symmetric if it can be divided into two or more identical pieces that are arranged in an organized fashion. This means that an object is symmetric if there is a transformation that moves individual pieces of the object, but doesn't change the overall shape. The type of symmetry is determined by the way the pieces are organized, or by the type of transformation:

 * An object has reflectional symmetry (line or mirror symmetry) if there is a line (or in 3D a plane) going through it which divides it into two pieces that are mirror images of each other.
 * An object has rotational symmetry if the object can be rotated about a fixed point (or in 3D about a line) without changing the overall shape.
 * An object has translational symmetry if it can be translated (moving every point of the object by the same distance) without changing its overall shape.
 * An object has helical symmetry if it can be simultaneously translated and rotated in three-dimensional space along a line known as a screw axis.
 * An object has scale symmetry if it does not change shape when it is expanded or contracted. Fractals also exhibit a form of scale symmetry, where smaller portions of the fractal are similar in shape to larger portions.
 * Other symmetries include glide reflection symmetry (a reflection followed by a translation) and rotoreflection symmetry (a combination of a rotation and a reflection ).

In logic
A dyadic relation R = S × S is symmetric if for all elements a, b in S, whenever it is true that Rab, it is also true that Rba. Thus, the relation "is the same age as" is symmetric, for if Paul is the same age as Mary, then Mary is the same age as Paul.

In propositional logic, symmetric binary logical connectives include and (∧, or &), or (∨, or |) and if and only if (↔), while the connective if (→) is not symmetric. Other symmetric logical connectives include nand (not-and, or ⊼), xor (not-biconditional, or ⊻), and nor (not-or, or ⊽).

Other areas of mathematics
Generalizing from geometrical symmetry in the previous section, one can say that a mathematical object is symmetric with respect to a given mathematical operation, if, when applied to the object, this operation preserves some property of the object. The set of operations that preserve a given property of the object form a group.

In general, every kind of structure in mathematics will have its own kind of symmetry. Examples include even and odd functions in calculus, symmetric groups in abstract algebra, symmetric matrices in linear algebra, and Galois groups in Galois theory. In statistics, symmetry also manifests as symmetric probability distributions, and as skewness—the asymmetry of distributions.

In physics
Symmetry in physics has been generalized to mean invariance—that is, lack of change—under any kind of transformation, for example arbitrary coordinate transformations. This concept has become one of the most powerful tools of theoretical physics, as it has become evident that practically all laws of nature originate in symmetries. In fact, this role inspired the Nobel laureate PW Anderson to write in his widely read 1972 article More is Different that "it is only slightly overstating the case to say that physics is the study of symmetry." See Noether's theorem (which, in greatly simplified form, states that for every continuous mathematical symmetry, there is a corresponding conserved quantity such as energy or momentum; a conserved current, in Noether's original language); and also, Wigner's classification, which says that the symmetries of the laws of physics determine the properties of the particles found in nature.

Important symmetries in physics include continuous symmetries and discrete symmetries of spacetime; internal symmetries of particles; and supersymmetry of physical theories.

In biology
In biology, the notion of symmetry is mostly used explicitly to describe body shapes. Bilateral animals, including humans, are more or less symmetric with respect to the sagittal plane which divides the body into left and right halves. Animals that move in one direction necessarily have upper and lower sides, head and tail ends, and therefore a left and a right. The head becomes specialized with a mouth and sense organs, and the body becomes bilaterally symmetric for the purpose of movement, with symmetrical pairs of muscles and skeletal elements, though internal organs often remain asymmetric.

Plants and sessile (attached) animals such as sea anemones often have radial or rotational symmetry, which suits them because food or threats may arrive from any direction. Fivefold symmetry is found in the echinoderms, the group that includes starfish, sea urchins, and sea lilies.

In biology, the notion of symmetry is also used as in physics, that is to say to describe the properties of the objects studied, including their interactions. A remarkable property of biological evolution is the changes of symmetry corresponding to the appearance of new parts and dynamics.

In chemistry
Symmetry is important to chemistry because it undergirds essentially all specific interactions between molecules in nature (i.e., via the interaction of natural and human-made chiral molecules with inherently chiral biological systems). The control of the symmetry of molecules produced in modern chemical synthesis contributes to the ability of scientists to offer therapeutic interventions with minimal side effects. A rigorous understanding of symmetry explains fundamental observations in quantum chemistry, and in the applied areas of spectroscopy and crystallography. The theory and application of symmetry to these areas of physical science draws heavily on the mathematical area of group theory.

In psychology and neuroscience
For a human observer, some symmetry types are more salient than others, in particular the most salient is a reflection with a vertical axis, like that present in the human face. Ernst Mach made this observation in his book "The analysis of sensations" (1897), and this implies that perception of symmetry is not a general response to all types of regularities. Both behavioural and neurophysiological studies have confirmed the special sensitivity to reflection symmetry in humans and also in other animals. Early studies within the Gestalt tradition suggested that bilateral symmetry was one of the key factors in perceptual grouping. This is known as the Law of Symmetry. The role of symmetry in grouping and figure/ground organization has been confirmed in many studies. For instance, detection of reflectional symmetry is faster when this is a property of a single object. Studies of human perception and psychophysics have shown that detection of symmetry is fast, efficient and robust to perturbations. For example, symmetry can be detected with presentations between 100 and 150 milliseconds.

More recent neuroimaging studies have documented which brain regions are active during perception of symmetry. Sasaki et al. used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare responses for patterns with symmetrical or random dots. A strong activity was present in extrastriate regions of the occipital cortex but not in the primary visual cortex. The extrastriate regions included V3A, V4, V7, and the lateral occipital complex (LOC). Electrophysiological studies have found a late posterior negativity that originates from the same areas. In general, a large part of the visual system seems to be involved in processing visual symmetry, and these areas involve similar networks to those responsible for detecting and recognising objects.

In social interactions
People observe the symmetrical nature, often including asymmetrical balance, of social interactions in a variety of contexts. These include assessments of reciprocity, empathy, sympathy, apology, dialogue, respect, justice, and revenge. Reflective equilibrium is the balance that may be attained through deliberative mutual adjustment among general principles and specific judgments. Symmetrical interactions send the moral message "we are all the same" while asymmetrical interactions may send the message "I am special; better than you." Peer relationships, such as can be governed by the Golden Rule, are based on symmetry, whereas power relationships are based on asymmetry. Symmetrical relationships can to some degree be maintained by simple (game theory) strategies seen in symmetric games such as tit for tat.

In the arts
There exists a list of journals and newsletters known to deal, at least in part, with symmetry and the arts.

In architecture

Symmetry finds its ways into architecture at every scale, from the overall external views of buildings such as Gothic cathedrals and The White House, through the layout of the individual floor plans, and down to the design of individual building elements such as tile mosaics. Islamic buildings such as the Taj Mahal and the Lotfollah mosque make elaborate use of symmetry both in their structure and in their ornamentation. Moorish buildings like the Alhambra are ornamented with complex patterns made using translational and reflection symmetries as well as rotations.

It has been said that only bad architects rely on a "symmetrical layout of blocks, masses and structures"; Modernist architecture, starting with International style, relies instead on "wings and balance of masses".

In pottery and metal vessels

Since the earliest uses of pottery wheels to help shape clay vessels, pottery has had a strong relationship to symmetry. Pottery created using a wheel acquires full rotational symmetry in its cross-section, while allowing substantial freedom of shape in the vertical direction. Upon this inherently symmetrical starting point, potters from ancient times onwards have added patterns that modify the rotational symmetry to achieve visual objectives.

Cast metal vessels lacked the inherent rotational symmetry of wheel-made pottery, but otherwise provided a similar opportunity to decorate their surfaces with patterns pleasing to those who used them. The ancient Chinese, for example, used symmetrical patterns in their bronze castings as early as the 17th century BC. Bronze vessels exhibited both a bilateral main motif and a repetitive translated border design.

In carpets and rugs

A long tradition of the use of symmetry in carpet and rug patterns spans a variety of cultures. American Navajo Indians used bold diagonals and rectangular motifs. Many Oriental rugs have intricate reflected centers and borders that translate a pattern. Not surprisingly, rectangular rugs have typically the symmetries of a rectangle—that is, motifs that are reflected across both the horizontal and vertical axes (see ).

In quilts

As quilts are made from square blocks (usually 9, 16, or 25 pieces to a block) with each smaller piece usually consisting of fabric triangles, the craft lends itself readily to the application of symmetry.

In other arts and crafts
Symmetries appear in the design of objects of all kinds. Examples include beadwork, furniture, sand paintings, knotwork, masks, and musical instruments. Symmetries are central to the art of M.C. Escher and the many applications of tessellation in art and craft forms such as wallpaper, ceramic tilework such as in Islamic geometric decoration, batik, ikat, carpet-making, and many kinds of textile and embroidery patterns.

Symmetry is also used in designing logos. By creating a logo on a grid and using the theory of symmetry, designers can organize their work, create a symmetric or asymmetrical design, determine the space between letters, determine how much negative space is required in the design, and how to accentuate parts of the logo to make it stand out.

In music

Symmetry is not restricted to the visual arts. Its role in the history of music touches many aspects of the creation and perception of music.

Musical form
Symmetry has been used as a formal constraint by many composers, such as the arch (swell) form (ABCBA) used by Steve Reich, Béla Bartók, and James Tenney. In classical music, Bach used the symmetry concepts of permutation and invariance.

Pitch structures
Symmetry is also an important consideration in the formation of scales and chords, traditional or tonal music being made up of non-symmetrical groups of pitches, such as the diatonic scale or the major chord. Symmetrical scales or chords, such as the whole tone scale, augmented chord, or diminished seventh chord (diminished-diminished seventh), are said to lack direction or a sense of forward motion, are ambiguous as to the key or tonal center, and have a less specific diatonic functionality. However, composers such as Alban Berg, Béla Bartók, and George Perle have used axes of symmetry and/or interval cycles in an analogous way to keys or non-tonal tonal centers. George Perle explains that "C–E, D–F♯, [and] Eb–G, are different instances of the same interval … the other kind of identity. … has to do with axes of symmetry. C–E belongs to a family of symmetrically related dyads as follows:"

Thus in addition to being part of the interval-4 family, C–E is also a part of the sum-4 family (with C equal to 0).

Interval cycles are symmetrical and thus non-diatonic. However, a seven pitch segment of C5 (the cycle of fifths, which are enharmonic with the cycle of fourths) will produce the diatonic major scale. Cyclic tonal progressions in the works of Romantic composers such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Wagner form a link with the cyclic pitch successions in the atonal music of Modernists such as Bartók, Alexander Scriabin, Edgard Varèse, and the Vienna school. At the same time, these progressions signal the end of tonality.

The first extended composition consistently based on symmetrical pitch relations was probably Alban Berg's Quartet, Op. 3 (1910).

Equivalency
Tone rows or pitch class sets which are invariant under retrograde are horizontally symmetrical, under inversion vertically. See also Asymmetric rhythm.

In aesthetics
The relationship of symmetry to aesthetics is complex. Humans find bilateral symmetry in faces physically attractive; it indicates health and genetic fitness. Opposed to this is the tendency for excessive symmetry to be perceived as boring or uninteresting. Rudolf Arnheim suggested that people prefer shapes that have some symmetry, and enough complexity to make them interesting.

In literature
Symmetry can be found in various forms in literature, a simple example being the palindrome where a brief text reads the same forwards or backwards. Stories may have a symmetrical structure, such as the rise and fall pattern of Beowulf.

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

title: Symmetry


text:
User:SamLey

SamLey is a freeform chaotic informational node in space. He rides motor scooters, listens to headphones, and participates in communication with other informational nodes throughout the universe.

Peace.

 * Hi. Node Tarquin popping in to say welcome to the 'pedia.

Hello Node Tarquin, I'm popping BACK in, to note that Wikipedia does not like normal WikiWord syntax! Fixing links.

title: User:SamLey


text:
Alex Cox

Alexander B. H. Cox (born 15 December 1954) is an English film director, screenwriter, actor, non-fiction author and broadcaster. Cox experienced success early in his career with Repo Man (1984) and Sid and Nancy (1986). Since the release and commercial failure of Walker (1987), his career has moved towards independent films, including Highway Patrolman (1991) and Three Businessmen (1998), and microbudget features such as Searchers 2.0 (2007) and Repo Chick (2009).

Cox has taught screenwriting and film production at the University of Colorado, Boulder and has written numerous educational books on film and television.

Early life
Cox was born in Bebington, Cheshire, England in 1954. He attended Worcester College, Oxford, and later transferred to the University of Bristol where he majored in film studies. Cox secured a Fulbright Scholarship, allowing him to study at the University of California, Los Angeles, United States, where he graduated from the School of Theater, Film and Television with an MFA.

Study and independent
Cox began reading law as an undergraduate at Oxford University, but left to study radio, film and TV at Bristol University, graduating in 1977. Seeing difficulties in the British film scene at the time, he first went to Los Angeles to attend film school at UCLA in 1977. There he produced his first film, Edge City (also known as Sleep Is for Sissies), a 40-minute surreal short about an artist struggling against society. After graduation, Cox formed Edge City Productions with two friends with the intention of producing low-budget feature films. He wrote a screenplay for Repo Man, which he hoped to produce for a budget of $70,000, and began seeking funding.

Hollywood and major studio period (1978–1987)
Michael Nesmith agreed to produce Repo Man, and convinced Universal Studios to back the project with a budget of over a million dollars. During the course of the film's production, the studio's management changed, and the new management had far less faith in the project. The initial cinema release was limited to Chicago, followed by Los Angeles, and was short-lived.

After the success of the soundtrack album (notable for featuring many popular LA punk bands), there was enough interest in the film to earn a re-release in a single cinema in New York City, but only after becoming available on video and cable. Nevertheless, it ran for 18 months, and eventually earned $4,000,000.

Continuing his fascination with punk music, Cox's next film was an independent feature shot in London and Los Angeles, following the career and death of bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, initially titled Love Kills and later renamed Sid and Nancy. It was met warmly by critics and fans, though heavily criticised by some, including Pistols' frontman John Lydon, for its inaccuracies. The production of this film also sparked a relationship with Joe Strummer of the Clash, who would continue to collaborate with the director on his next two films.

Cox had long been interested in Nicaragua and the Sandinistas (both Repo Man and Edge City made references to Nicaragua and/or Latin American revolution), and visited in 1984. The following year, he hoped to shoot a concert film there featuring the Clash, the Pogues and Elvis Costello. When he could not get backing, he decided instead to write a film that they would all act in. The film became Straight to Hell. Collaborating with Dick Rude (who also co-starred beside Strummer, Sy Richardson and Courtney Love), he imagined the film as a spoof of the Spaghetti Western genre, filmed in Almería, Spain, where many classic Italian westerns were shot. Straight to Hell was widely panned critically, but successful in Japan and retains a cult following. On 1 June 2012, Cox wrote an article in The New York Times about his long-standing interest in spaghetti westerns.

Continuing his interest in Nicaragua, Cox took on a more overtly political project, with the intention of filming it there. He asked Rudy Wurlitzer to pen the screenplay, which followed the life of William Walker, set against a backdrop of anachronisms that drew parallels between the story and modern American intervention in the area. The $6,000,000 production was backed by Universal, but the completed film was too political and too violent for the studio's tastes, and the film went without promotion. When Walker failed to perform at the box office, it ended the director's involvement with Hollywood studios, and led to a period of several years in which Cox would not direct a single film. Despite this, Cox and some critics maintain that it is his best film.

Mexican period (1988–1996)
In 1988, The Writers Guild of America West barred Cox from any future membership because he had worked on scripts during the writers’ strike. Effectively blacklisted, Alex Cox struggled to find feature work. He finally got financial backing for a feature from investors in Japan, where his films had been successful on video. Cox had scouted locations in Mexico during the pre-production of Walker and decided he wanted to shoot a film there, with a local cast and crew, in Spanish. Producer Lorenzo O'Brien penned the script. Inspired by the style of Mexican directors including Arturo Ripstein, he shot most of the film in plano secuencia; long, continuous takes shot with a hand-held camera. El Patrullero was completed and released in 1991, but struggled to find its way into cinemas.

Shortly after this, Cox was invited to adapt a Jorge Luis Borges story of his choice for the BBC. He chose Death and the Compass. Despite being a British production and an English language film, he convinced his producers to let him shoot in Mexico City. This film, like his previous Mexican production, made extensive use of long-takes. The completed 55-minute film aired on the BBC in 1992.

Cox had hoped to expand this into a feature-length film, but the BBC was uninterested. Japanese investors gave him $100,000 to expand the film in 1993, but the production ran over-budget, allowing no funds for post-production. To secure funds, Cox directed a "work for hire" project called The Winner. The film was edited extensively without Cox's knowledge, and he tried to have his name removed from the credits as a result but was denied, but the money was enough for Cox to fund the completion of Death and the Compass. The finished, 82-minute feature received a limited cinema release in the US, where the TV version had not aired, in 1996.

Liverpool period (1997–2006)
In 1996, producer Stephen Nemeth employed Alex Cox to write and direct an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. After creative disagreements with the producer and Thompson, he was sacked from the project, and his script rewritten when Terry Gilliam took over the film. (Cox later sued successfully for a writing credit, as it was ruled that there were enough similarities between the drafts to suggest that Gilliam's was derivative of Cox's. Gilliam countered that the screenplays were based on the source book and similarities between them were a consequence of this.)

In 1997, Alex Cox made a deal with Dutch producer Wim Kayzer to produce another dual TV/feature production. Three Businessmen. Initially, Cox had hoped to shoot in Mexico but later decided to set his story in Liverpool, Rotterdam, Tokyo and Almería. The story follows businessmen in Liverpool who leave their hotel in search of food and slowly drift further from their starting point, all the while believing they are still in Liverpool. The film was completed for a small budget of $250,000. Following this, Cox moved back to Liverpool and became interested in creating films there.

Cox had long been interested in the Jacobean play, The Revenger's Tragedy, and upon moving back to Britain, decided to pursue adapting it to a film. Collaborating with fellow Liverpudlian screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, the story was recast in the near future, following an unseen war. This adaptation, titled Revengers Tragedy, consisted primarily of the original play's dialogue, with some additional bits written in a more modern tone. The film is also notable for its soundtrack, composed by Chumbawamba.

Following this, Cox directed a short film set in Liverpool for the BBC titled I'm a Juvenile Delinquent – Jail Me! (2004). The 30-minute film satirised reality television as well as the high volume of petty crime in Liverpool which, according to Cox, is largely recreational.

Microfeature period (2007–present)
In 2006, Alex Cox tried to get funding for a series of eight very low budget features set in Liverpool and produced by locals. The project was not completed, but the director grew interested in pursuing the idea of a film made for less than £100,000. He had originally hoped to shoot Repo Man on a comparable budget, and hoped that the lower overhead would mean greater creative freedom.

Searchers 2.0, named after but based on The Searchers, became Cox's first film for which he has sole writing credit since Repo Man, and marked his return to the comedy genre. A road movie and a revenge story, it tells of two actors, loosely based on and played by Del Zamora and Ed Pansullo, who travel from Los Angeles to a desert film screening in Monument Valley in the hopes of avenging abuse inflicted on them by a cruel screenwriter, Fritz Frobisher (Sy Richardson). It was scored by longtime collaborator Dan Wool aka Pray for Rain (Sid & Nancy, Straight to Hell, Death & the Compass, The Winner, Three Businessmen, Repo Chick among others). Although the film was unable to achieve a cinema release in America or Europe, Cox claimed the experience of making a film with a smaller crew and less restrictions was energising. It is available on DVD in Japan, and was released in October 2010 in North America.

Alex Cox had attempted to get a Repo Man sequel, titled Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday, produced in the mid-'90s, but the project fell apart, with the script adapted into a graphic novel of the same name. For his next micro-feature, he wrote a fresh attempt at a Repo follow-up, although it contained no recurring characters, so as to preserve Universal's rights to the original. Repo Chick was filmed entirely against a green screen, with backgrounds of digital composites, live action shots, and miniatures matted in afterwards, to produce an artificial look. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 9 September 2009.

, Cox was teaching film production and screenwriting at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

In 2013 Cox directed Bill, the Galactic Hero, developed from a science fiction book by Harry Harrison. It was funded by a successful Kickstarter funding campaign, raising $114,957 of the original $100,000 goal. The film was to be made, created and acted by his film students in monochrome with supervision from professional film makers who would be giving their time on the film for free.

Cox's 2013 book The President and the Provocateur examines events in the lives of John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald leading up to Kennedy's assassination, with reference to the various conspiracy theories.

In 2017 Cox directed another crowdfunded film, Tombstone Rashomon, which tells the tale of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral from multiple perspectives in the style of Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon.

In September 2019, Cox started the podcast ‘Conversations with Cox and Kjølseth’ with his friend and colleague Pablo Kjølseth. In October 2022, Cox announced the end of the podcast, citing its small audience and the comparative success of podcasts by Joe Dante, Quentin Tarantino and Cox's one-time collaborator Roger Deakins.

Moviedrome
In May 1988 Cox began presenting the long-running and influential BBC series Moviedrome. The weekly strand was a showcase for cult films. Though most of the films shown were chosen by series creator and producer Nick Jones, each film was introduced by Cox. By the time he left the show in September 1994, Cox had introduced 141 films. Various film directors have cited Moviedrome as an influence, including Ben Wheatley and Edgar Wright. The series was later presented by film director and critic Mark Cousins.

Influences and style
Cox has cited Luis Buñuel and Akira Kurosawa as influences, as well as the Western film directors Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, Sam Peckinpah, John Ford and Giulio Questi. Cox also wrote a book on the history of the genre called 10,000 Ways to Die. While he once directed films for Universal Pictures, such as Repo Man and Walker, since the late 1980s, he has found himself on a self-described blacklist, and turned to producing independent films. Cox is an atheist and is decidedly left-wing in his political views. Many of his films have an explicit anti-capitalist theme or message. He was originally set to direct Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but was replaced by Terry Gilliam due to creative differences with Hunter S. Thompson. By August 2009, Cox had announced completion of Repo Chick, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival the following month, but he remained ambivalent as to whether the film would ever be distributed to cinemas. His previous film, Searchers 2.0, was not released theatrically, and only appears on DVD in Japan and North America after a televised screening in the UK on the BBC.

Cox is a fan of the Japanese Godzilla films and appeared in a 1998 BBC documentary highlighting the series. He also narrated the documentary Bringing Godzilla Down to Size and wrote the Godzilla in Time comics for Dark Horse. He tried to direct an American Godzilla film at one point, but unsuccessfully submitted his outline to TriStar Pictures.

Personal life
As of 2011, Cox resided in Colestin, Oregon, United States, with his wife, writer Todelina Babish Davies.

Documentaries

 * Kurosawa: The Last Emperor (1999)
 * Emmanuelle: A Hard Look (2000)
 * Bringing Godzilla Down to Size (2007) – narrator
 * Scene Missing (2012)

Television

 * Moviedrome (as presenter) (1988 to 1994)
 * Godzilla: King of the Monsters – BBC, contributor
 * In His Life: The John Lennon Story as Bruno Koschmider
 * Mike Hama Must Die! (2002)
 * I'm a Juvenile Delinquent – Jail Me! (2003)

Books

 * 10,000 Ways to Die: A Director's Take on the Spaghetti Western (2008)
 * X Films: True Confessions of a Radical Filmmaker (2008)
 * Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday (2008)
 * Three Dead Princes (Illustrator) (2010)
 * The President and the Provocateur: The Parallel Lives of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald (2013)
 * Alex Cox's Introduction to Film: A Director's Perspective (2016)
 * I Am (Not) A Number: Decoding The Prisoner (2017)

title: Alex Cox


text:
Diesel

Diesel may refer to:

 * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression
 * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines
 * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine

Arts and entertainment

 * Diesel (band), a Dutch pop/rock group
 * Diesel (1942 film), a German film about Rudolf Diesel
 * Diesel (game engine), a computer gaming technology
 * Diesel, a former name of Brazilian rock band Udora

Surname

 * Nathanael Diesel (1692–1745), Danish composer, violinist and lutenist
 * Rudolf Diesel (1858–1913), German inventor and mechanical engineer
 * Vin Diesel (Mark Sinclair, born 1967), American actor, producer and director

Nickname or ring name

 * Diesel (musician) (Mark Lizotte, born 1966), American-Australian rock singer-songwriter
 * Zach Banner (born 1993), once known as The Diesel, American football player
 * Diesel Dahl (born 1959), drummer of TNT
 * Fazal-ur-Rehman (politician) famously known as Diesel or Maulana Diesel
 * Noah Davis (baseball) (nicknamed Diesel; born 1997), American baseball player
 * Kane (wrestler) (Glenn Jacobs, born 1967), American wrestler, former ring name fake "Diesel", imitating Kevin Nash's gimmick
 * David S. LaForce or Diesel, American artist
 * Kevin Nash (born 1959) ring name and gimmick for American professional wrestler Kevin Nash while performing in the WWF/E
 * Shaquille O'Neal (born 1972), American basketball player, now music producer and DJ known as DIESEL
 * John Riggins (born 1949), or The Diesel, American football player
 * Joe Riggs (born 1982), or Diesel, American mixed martial artist
 * Greg Williams (Australian footballer), or Diesel, Australian-rules footballer

Other uses

 * Diesel (brand), an Italian clothing company
 * Diesel (dog), a French police dog killed in 2015
 * Diesel (donkey), a wild donkey in California
 * 10093 Diesel, an asteroid named after Rudolf Diesel
 * Operation Diesel, a 2009 British military operation in Afghanistan
 * Diesel, brand of A. J. Fernandez Cigars
 * Diesel, a variety of Snakebite (drink)

title: Diesel


text:
Talk:Diesel fuel

seems to focused on car use
I know for a fact that diesel engines are used on ships and for electricity generation — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fdsdh1 (talk • contribs) 19:31, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

Add from Portal:Current events/2012 June 12?

 * The World Health Organization (WHO) concludes that diesel exhaust causes cancer. ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18415532 )

108.195.138.38 (talk) 05:03, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Fuel economy/greenhouse gases: no difference anymore between Diesel and Otto
Modern gasoline (Otto) engines are as efficient as Diesel engines. According to volkswagen.de, the current VW Golf with a 118 kW TSI (gasoline/Otto) engine gets 139 g/km CO₂ compared to 138 g/km CO₂ for the 103 kW TDI (Diesel) engine, both with DSG.

The according section of this article urgently needs an update, since it cites outdated sources from 2006–2008. --178.2.188.106 (talk) 21:30, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

 * Guess it depends on your definition of efficiency. The energy per unit volume of diesel is still considerably higher than that of gasoline.1812ahill (talk) 11:56, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

Price
Perhaps an average price of petrodiesel can be given ? In Europe price is about 1,4 euro and in USA about 0,6 euro/liter. The price of vegetable oil for example is about 0,6 euro in both territories. Link to vegetable oil economy.

BTW: reading the intro, this article deals around every fuel that can be used in Diesel engines. Thus, the name should be Diesel engine fuel. "Diesel fuel" however refers to petrodiesel. 91.182.37.177 (talk) 07:10, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

Types
This article doesn't mention the distinction between the two types of diesel that are used in the U.S. (at least), #1 and #2. The Emory citation that's already being used here discusses it. 70.228.68.126 (talk) 10:38, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Distillate
"In Australia Diesel fuel is often known as 'distillate'." I've lived in Australia my entire life and have never heard it called this. Is there anyone here from another part of Australia who does? Otherwise it should be removed.Lenny (talk) 10:44, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Protection
Should this article be protected? It has been protected since 2011, but I could not find any explanation. Could someone please unprotect the page, or locate the reason for the protection and post it here on the talk page? 192.249.47.209 (talk) 21:08, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Added well regarded Harvey reference
I added the well regarded Harvey academic text from the UK as a reference in "Further reading," as it is, from my reading, almost certainly a text on which the original contributing editors drew (without acknowledgment). 71.239.87.100 (talk) 11:58, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

==='Well regarded'?!? Is this you 'Harvey', doing a little self-promotion? If Harvey is 'well regarded', that should be reconsidered. In reference 31, Harvey claims over 100% fuel efficiency is available for cogeneration power plants. Also, his quote in this article is incorrect. Diesels do not admit a set amount of air per unit fuel. Harvey and his quotes should be removed from this article. Does anyone know how to search Wikipedia for other 'Harvey' references, just in case there are some more that might be self-promotion masquerading as legitimate references?

BGriffin (talk) 01:26, 6 May 2017 (UTC)BGRIFFIN

Harvey misquoted?
The article has

quote

As Professor Harvey of the University of Toronto notes, "due to the absence of throttling [constant amount of air admitted, per unit fuel, with no user-determined variation], the high compression ratio and lean fuel mixture, diesel engines are substantially more efficient than spark-ignited engines"

unquote

Is the phrase inside the square brackets in the cited source or added by a WP editor? (I ask because it makes no sense - how is a diesel car controlled? The user determines the position of the accelerator pedal, and thereby varies the amount of fuel per stroke, but the amount of air per stroke is constant!)

86.162.138.178 (talk) 13:16, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Misleading diesel fuel definition
I think it is misleading to define diesel as "any liquid fuel used in diesel engines". Most marine engines are also diesel engines but they are not build to use diesel fuel instead they use Heavy Fuel Oil-s like RMB, IFO or MGO http://www.wartsila.com/products/marine-oil-gas/engines-generating-sets/diesel-engines

All EU countries define diesel by distillation curve.

Please see the difference in gas oil and fuel oil:

"(e) ‘gas oils’ (subheadings 2710 19 31 to 2710 19 48 and 2710 2011 to 2710 2019) mean heavy oils as defined in paragraph (d) above of which 85% or more by volume (including losses) distils at 350 C (ISO 3405 method (equivalent to the ASTM D 86 method);

(f) ‘fuel oils’ (subheadings 2710 19 51 to 2710 19 68 and 2710 2031 to 2710 2039) mean heavy oils as defined in paragraph (d) above (other than gas oils as defined in paragraph (e) above) which, for a corresponding diluted colour C, have a viscosity V:

not exceeding that shown in line I of the following table when the sulphated ashes content is less than 1% by the ISO 3987 method and the saponification index is less than 4 by the ISO 6293-1 or 6293-2 method,

exceeding that shown in line II when the pour point is not less than 10 C by the ISO 3016 method,

exceeding that shown in line I but not exceeding that shown in line II when 25% or more by volume distils at 300 C by the ISO 3405 method (equivalent to the ASTM D 86 method) or, if less than 25% by volume distils at 300 C, when the pour point is higher than 10 C below zero by the ISO 3016 method. These provisions apply only to oils having a diluted colour C of less than 2."

https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff/chapters/27

I suggest to define diesel as any distilled gas oil used in diesel engine. Diesels is similar to light fuel oil, not to the heavy fuel oil used in central heating plants. Light fuel oil is mostly used for domestic heating. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.191.76.230 (talk) 21:42, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

 * This article is a mess. It's going to take a major re-write to fix it. The basic problem I think is that many people think "diesel fuel" is whatever you put in to the tank of a diesel engine, but to an engineer or chemist, diesel fuel is a petroleum distillate with a particular fraction profile, perhaps with some additives. This article can't decide which definition to use. Compounding the problem is that the section on "real" diesel fuel, "Petroleum diesel", is by far the shortest. The Biodiesel section is way longer despite there already being a separate article on biodiesel.

 * Fixing this will take more than just tweaking a few words in the lead. Since the article uses the vernacular definition that includes both petro- and bio- diesel, we can't contradict that in the lead. Kendall-K1 (talk) 22:38, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

 * Some marine big Diesel motors are designed to use LNG, mainly in LNG carriers, and developments are now in progress to use ammonia as fuel, Thence, the word Diesel should be used only for definition of motors, and not for the fuel they use.Dojada (talk) 16:10, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

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Weight of Fuel ?
What is the weight of different kinds of diesel fuel in kg/L ? Tabletop (talk) 04:55, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

 * This talk page is not for discussion of the subject; it's for discussion about the article. See Talk page guidelines. Kendall-K1 (talk) 05:00, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

 * Good question, thanks for raising it. It's covered in the article, but not in detail and not sourced.
 * Unsurprisingly, there are varying standards for different grades, and some leeway within them. Government standards often mandate these, often because there are tax issues involved and whenever a government wants to tax something, the first thing is to define precisely what the thing is. https://www.dieselnet.com/standards/eu/fuel_reference.php
 * Road fuel has a density of 833 to 837 kg/m3, non-road vehicle (usually lower taxed) is denser at 835 to 845kg/m3. Andy Dingley (talk) 10:56, 17 January 2017 (UTC)
 * By comparison, water (in the Metric system) weighs 1kg/L, or 1000kg/m3.
 * A tabulation, in this article, of the various characteristic of different fuels, plus non-fuel water as a benchmark, would be handy. Tabletop (talk) 06:33, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

producers (2017)
Missing Information about producers, market shares and world consumption — Preceding unsigned comment added by 153.202.35.167 (talk) 04:38, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Aviation fuel and Diesel fuel
can diesel fuel be used in stead of aviation fuel without causing any damage to the aircraft or failure in operation?

MSG Rees — Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.95.254.2 (talk) 19:20, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

 * JP-4 (fuel) and diesel fuels are both kerosenes. A gas turbine engine should have no problem with either. Yet for maximum efficiency the burners may have modifications to suit each fuel. Aspro (talk) 23:42, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
 * No, JP-4 is not kerosene. Nor is it usable for diesel engines.
 * "Jet engine fuel" is, broadly speaking, "kerosene"; as is diesel fuel. However both have specialist developments for their particular applications.
 * Diesel fuel must be injected at high pressure. This requires high precision and low wear rates in the fuel injectors and injection pump. Fuel for a diesel engine must have high lubricity. Biodiesel, and simple kerosene, do not, which is why neither can be used in all diesel engines without developing pump components that are extra hard-wearing: why some particular Volkswagen and Mercedes models are so favoured by the biodiesel experimenters.
 * Jet fuel has its specific requirements too. Jet A-1 is the standard civil aviation fuel worldwide, except for the US, whilst military fuels might have even stricter performance requirements for low temperature operation, high temperature operation (supersonic speeds "heat soak" friction heating into wing tanks), flammability and static sensitivity, or low soot combustion to avoid visible smoke trails. Then there are specialist ultra-high-speed fuels like JP-6 and JP-7 for the Valkyrie or Habu.
 * The formula for jet fuel is also closely tailored to what the engines are expecting to burn. Although they can be adjusted, this is a complex process, especially in the early days of hydraulic controls rather than FADEC. Military jet fuel must also be cheap, storable and producable in large quantities in time of war. In the 1950s, the road diesel engine was still relatively rare (smaller trucks were still petrol) and so there was a larger availability in the US of gasoline than of diesel. US Air Force jet aircraft were designed around the first JP-1 fuel (kerosene) or AVTUR but USN or USMC jet aircraft in Korea were using JP-3, a "wide cut" kerosene / gasoline mix. JP-3 also allowed better use of fuel bunker space on carriers that were still predominantly carrying piston-engined aircraft. Bunkers of kerosene and gasoline AVGAS could be mixed on board, as needed, to produce JP-3 for the jets. In fact, some Marine jet aircraft could be adjusted to run on neat AVGAS itself. The Navy hated always hated AVGAS though, because of the fire risks, and wanted a plain kerosene fuel.
 * In 1951, the USAF recognised (slightly) that the USMC were not the enemy and agreed a new unified standard for a single shared jet fuel, JP-4 or AVTAG. This was another wide cut fuel, with a mixture of kerosene and gasoline. This became the standard US jet fuel until 1995.
 * The USN though still wanted a less risky fuel, and weren't sure about this whole "The USAF are not the enemy" thing. So they invented JP-5 or AVCAT, a fuel of their own. This was kerosene based, for the lower fire risk.
 * Diesel engines will not run well on JP-4 or JP-5, they break. See notes above on lubricity. Yes they will run, under wartime conditions, but they break. Soviet diesel engines though, owing to the poor fuel quality of soviet diesel fuel anyway, always had the hardened injection components that are less fussy and they run fine on it. The Soviets always loved to hard chrome plate everything.
 * After the end of the Cold War and the Gulf War, NATO decided to remove the last petrol engines from service and go to entirely diesel land forces, for reduced fire risk. The last Meteor-engined tanks (Centurion AVRE) and the Rolls-Royce B range engines from the Alvis Saracen and Stalwart were withdrawn whilst the CVR(T) were re-engined from the Jaguar car engine to a British Cummins BTA diesel. Light motorcycles and chainsaws remained a problem though. An entirely diesel land fleet also allowed potential fuel sharing with a jet aviation fleet. JP-8 fuel was used for this, a single fuel that the USMC and other sea-carried land forces had been using for some years already, and the Soviets had been doing since the outset of jet engines. This is a pure kerosene fuel (alleged by troops to be blended with either whale oil or the fat of Falkland penguins, according to its extreme oiliness and persistent smell). Again, it isn't perfect for diesel engines and requires their injection systems to be hardened - in practice it works for the heavy military vehicles intended for it, but it breaks civilian cars (except in Germany) purchased as staff cars. It's also smelly enough to make Autolycus a credible detection system again. Andy Dingley (talk) 08:58, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

 * @ Andy Dingley: Where did I say that jet fuel was suitable for diesel engines?  Pointed out that that diesel will fuel a gas turbine engine, just like methane, methanol, ethanol, hydrogen and any other suitable fuel will do. Your diatribe  (although interesting) isn’t about what the OP was asking. Even if you only have one eye  or have to rely on a 'text to speech' machine, please read and comprehend the posts first. Why did you go off on a tangent about oil compression ignition engines  and put words in to my mouth -which I did not say nor suggested? Aspro (talk) 13:47, 11 May 2017 (UTC)
 * You said that JP-4 was kerosene. It isn't.
 * As to "diatribe", then don't flatter yourself - you're not that interesting. Andy Dingley (talk) 17:07, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

 * Said and note: I said and quote “broadly speaking” ! The fact that the cheaper paraffin fractions have cheap low-flash point hydrocarbons added  (which have no use for infernal combustion engines  due to their low octane and cetane number – hence cheap).  does not address the OP's question. However, I think 'your' interesting for  an example as to how people can go off on a tangent and drop the ball. Touché perhaps? Aspro (talk) 21:52, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

 * As ever, WP has an article about it: Kerosene and related jet aircraft fuels. |Major products. Mind you, your approached to this, is  like,  you have some professional experience rather than being just a gas-station attendant.  You often show you posses  a  polysyllabic vocabulary.  What is your professional background? Aspro (talk) 22:24, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

Higher?
Could someone clarify this statement in the article:

 * Diesel engines have found broad use as a result of higher thermodynamic efficiency and thus fuel efficiency.

Higher than what? Julesd 11:51, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Higher than almost any other engine. The Carnot cycle represents a theoretical limitation on engine efficiency. Carnot shows that the higher the compression ratio, the more scope there is for reaching higher and higher efficiency. Diesels have high compression ratios and this alone (thermodynamic efficiency, so affecting their gas expansion and mechanical power extraction, rather than anything involving combustion) makes them potentially more efficient than any lower compression engine. As all engines have now had long efforts expended on improving their efficiencies, these theoretical limits become important.
 * For vehicles, diesel engines have long (1930s to 1950s) replaced petrol engines. This is the case for anything where fuel efficiency outweighs convenience, so trucks, trains, ships, taxis but not private cars. For generating plants, diesel are up against gas turbine plants. Now this is tricky - gas turbines have increased their pressure ratios (their analogue to a compression ratio) in recent decades, so they're also theoretically efficient. The difficulty is that they still can't extract as much waste heat from their exhausts, also they're too expensive for small applications. So gas turbines have replaced diesel for gas-powered electricity generating plants and also fast ships, but not trucks.
 * Another virtue of the diesel is its part-power performance. A large petrol engine, and especially a gas turbine, become far less efficient when used at low power. The diesel remains much more efficient (in fuel burned per horsepower per hour). So for varying loads, like road vehicles, the diesel has an advantage. Also, when idling off-load, the diesel uses far less fuel. Andy Dingley (talk) 12:11, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

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"Diesel fuel/redirs" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Diesel fuel/redirs. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 August 14 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Hog Farm Bacon 04:50, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

Taking content from a pressrelease
Can I use the below content from a press release and cite it. I think this is a valuable content.. Would require other authors inputs.

Cetane improver additives are extensively used in the automobile industry to facilitate better combustion in diesel fuels and to follow stringent government regulations. There are two national diesel fuel standards in China – GB 19147 for on road vehicles and GB 252 (general diesel fuel) –for other applications including non-road engines. China V Emission standards have been set with an objective to decrease sulfur content down to 10 ppm and increase Cetane levels up to the 51 level. The specifications for China V and China VI fuel, GB 19147-2016, were issued in December 2016. The China VI gasoline and diesel standards are generally more stringent than the Euro V fuel standards currently in force in the European Union, although China’s fuel quality standards otherwise mostly follow European precedents. - https://www.industryarc.com/PressRelease/2418/Cetane-Improver-Additives-Market-Research.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bejjamvijayvardhan (talk • contribs) 11:31, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Chemical composition
I'm not sure how much sense it makes to cite an 'average composition' of a substance that is 75% alkanes with chemical formulas that are not alkanes. Alkanes must have formulas of the form CnH2+n*2. Thoughts? --Fish-man (talk) 20:04, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

 * The problem with the term Diesel fuel is that its definition is very vague – therefore, in Europe, the term Diesel fuel is narrowed down to what is standardised in the Euronorm 590 standard. However, ideal fuel for Diesel engines consists of 100 % Alkanes which makes it not EN 590 compliant – thus it is not Diesel fuel. If the section was about "ideal Diesel fuel", then the chemical formula should be changed, obviously. However, that particular section is on the chemical composition of American Diesel fuel, which apparently consists of 25 % aromatic hydrocarbons. In that case, non-Alkane chemical formulas make sense (so there is no need for changing them). Best regards, --Johannes (Talk) (Contribs) (Articles) 10:17, 15 May 2021 (UTC)

Different Types of Diesel Fuel at Gas Stations
Pumps usually offer two type of diesel fuel. PLease would someone knowledgable add information about what the difference is ? Many Thanks ! Darkman101 (talk) 01:34, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

 * That depends upon the petrol station where you're getting the fuel. I suppose you're in the US, and in the US the ASTM D975 standard is used. There are two categories of road-vehicle fuel according to this standard, No. 1-D and No. 2-D. The key difference between these fuels is the volatility; No. 1-D fuel is basically better suited for low temperatures. In Europe on the other hand the Euronorm 590 standard applies. This standard allows a certain range of different fuels, because it only limits the physical properties of the fuel. Most importantly, it specifies the density (0.820...0.845 kg·dm−3). Typically, bog-standard diesel fuel complies with this standard, but has some disadvantages, namely the poor ignition characteristics (>51 CN). An ideal Diesel engine fuel with good ignition characteristics consists only of alkanes that are lighter than what the standard allows (>80 CN). Therefore, an ideal Diesel engine fuel cannot be sold as "diesel fuel" across Europe. However, it is possible to mix bog-standard diesel fuel with alkanes in a way that the resulting fuel blend still complies with the EN 590 standard (>60 CN). This means that "officially" there is only one type of fuel; in practice though, these optimised fuels are often sold as performance fuels (Shell V-Power or Aral Ultimate). Due to their much better ignition characteristics these fuels perform better during winter. Fuel is typically mixed with anti-gel agents during winter, so there is no need to buy "special winter fuel" (=all diesel fuels sold during winter are winter fuels). Best regards, --Johannes (Talk) (Contribs) (Articles) 11:22, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your reply. I am in the UK, where many fuel pumps have "Diesel" and "Premium Diesel".
 * I cannot find any clear reliable source of information that will tell me if the extra price will really give me more miles per gallon. Darkman101 (talk) 13:32, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

Move
Diesel fuel should be moved to diesel because that is the overwhelmingly primary usage. If not, then at least to diesel (fuel) because it is extremely rarely referred to as diesel fuel in modern times. 2A02:C7F:31CF:6400:DCB0:FD34:6E4A:1596 (talk) 12:24, 12 September 2021 (UTC)

 * Do you know of any reliable sources that can be used to verify your claim? I strongly believe that this is a delusion because virtually every WP:RS-and-WP:V-compliant book related to the topic refers to fuel suited for Diesel engines as "diesel fuel". The same is true for the most common diesel fuel standards (EN590 and ASTM D975). Best regards, --Johannes (Talk) (Contribs) (Articles) 12:46, 12 September 2021 (UTC)

Fatty acids
This sentence is misleading:"Biodiesel is obtained from vegetable oil or animal fats (biolipids) which are mainly fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), and transesterified with methanol." Biolipids are esters of propan-tri-ol (glycerine) and fatty acids, not methyl esters. They become FAME through transesterification. 153.100.134.67 (talk) 14:08, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

"Otto" engine
it would be useful to link to Otto engine to clarify. 142.163.195.114 (talk) 14:48, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Diesel fuel