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Substantia nigra

The substantia nigra (SN) is a basal ganglia structure located in the midbrain that plays an important role in reward and movement. Substantia nigra is Latin for "black substance", reflecting the fact that parts of the substantia nigra appear darker than neighboring areas due to high levels of neuromelanin in dopaminergic neurons. Parkinson's disease is characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta.

Although the substantia nigra appears as a continuous band in brain sections, anatomical studies have found that it actually consists of two parts with very different connections and functions: the pars compacta (SNpc) and the pars reticulata (SNpr). The pars compacta serves mainly as a projection to the basal ganglia circuit, supplying the striatum with dopamine. The pars reticulata conveys signals from the basal ganglia to numerous other brain structures.

Structure

The substantia nigra, along with four other nuclei, is part of the basal ganglia. It is the largest nucleus in the midbrain, lying dorsal to the cerebral peduncles. Humans have two substantiae nigrae, one on each side of the midline.

The SN is divided into two parts: the pars reticulata (SNpr) and the pars compacta (SNpc), which lies medial to the pars reticulata. Sometimes, a third region, the pars lateralis, is mentioned, though it is usually classified as part of the pars reticulata. The (SNpr) and the internal globus pallidus (GPi) are separated by the internal capsule.

Pars reticulata
The pars reticulata bears a strong structural and functional resemblance to the internal part of the globus pallidus. The two are sometimes considered parts of the same structure, separated by the white matter of the internal capsule. Like those of the globus pallidus, the neurons in pars reticulata are mainly GABAergic.

Afferent connections
The main input to the SNpr derives from the striatum. It comes by two routes, known as the direct and indirect pathways. The direct pathway consists of axons from medium spiny cells in the striatum that project directly to pars reticulata. The indirect pathway consists of three links: a projection from striatal medium spiny cells to the external part of the globus pallidus; a GABAergic projection from the globus pallidus to the subthalamic nucleus, and a glutamatergic projection from the subthalamic nucleus to the pars reticulata. Thus, striatal activity via the direct pathway exerts an inhibitory effect on neurons in the (SNpr) but an excitatory effect via the indirect pathway. The direct and indirect pathways originate from different subsets of striatal medium spiny cells: They are tightly intermingled, but express different types of dopamine receptors, as well as showing other neurochemical differences.

Efferent connections
Significant projections occur to the thalamus (ventral lateral and ventral anterior nuclei), superior colliculus, and other caudal nuclei from the pars reticulata (the nigrothalamic pathway), which use GABA as their neurotransmitter. In addition, these neurons form up to five collaterals that branch within both the pars compacta and pars reticulata, likely modulating dopaminergic activity in the pars compacta.

Function
The substantia nigra is an important player in brain function, in particular, in eye movement, motor planning, reward-seeking, learning, and addiction. Many of the substantia nigra's effects are mediated through the striatum. The nigral dopaminergic input to the striatum via the nigrostriatal pathway is intimately linked with the striatum's function. The co-dependence between the striatum and substantia nigra can be seen in this way: when the substantia nigra is electrically stimulated, no movement occurs; however, the symptoms of nigral degeneration due to Parkinson's is a poignant example of the substantia nigra's influence on movement. In addition to striatum-mediated functions, the substantia nigra also serves as a major source of GABAergic inhibition to various brain targets.

Pars reticulata
The pars reticulata of the substantia nigra is an important processing center in the basal ganglia. The GABAergic neurons in the pars reticulata convey the final processed signals of the basal ganglia to the thalamus and superior colliculus. In addition, the pars reticulata also inhibits dopaminergic activity in the pars compacta via axon collaterals, although the functional organization of these connections remains unclear.

The GABAergic neurons of the pars reticulata spontaneously fire action potentials. In rats, the frequency of action potentials is roughly 25 Hz. The purpose of these spontaneous action potentials is to inhibit targets of the basal ganglia, and decreases in inhibition are associated with movement. The subthalamic nucleus gives excitatory input that modulates the rate of firing of these spontaneous action potentials. However, lesion of the subthalamic nucleus leads to only a 20% decrease in pars reticulata firing rate, suggesting that the generation of action potentials in the pars reticulata is largely autonomous, as exemplified by the pars reticulata's role in saccadic eye movement. A group of GABAergic neurons from the pars reticulata projects to the superior colliculus, exhibiting a high level of sustained inhibitory activity. Projections from the caudate nucleus to the superior colliculus also modulate saccadic eye movement. Altered patterns of pars reticulata firing such as single-spike or burst firing are found in Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.

Pars compacta
The most prominent function of the pars compacta is motor control, though the substantia nigra's role in motor control is indirect; electrical stimulation of the substantia nigra does not result in movement, due to mediation of the striatum in the nigral influence of movement. The pars compacta sends excitatory input to the striatum via D1 pathway that excites and activates the striatum, resulting in the release of GABA onto the globus pallidus to inhibit its inhibitory effects on the thalamic nucleus. This causes the thalamocortical pathways to become excited and transmits motor neuron signals to the cerebral cortex to allow the initiation of movement, which is absent in Parkinson's disease. However, lack of pars compacta neurons has a large influence on movement, as evidenced by the symptoms of Parkinson's. The motor role of the pars compacta may involve fine motor control, as has been confirmed in animal models with lesions in that region.

The pars compacta is heavily involved in learned responses to stimuli. In primates, dopaminergic neuron activity increases in the nigrostriatal pathway when a new stimulus is presented. Dopaminergic activity decreases with repeated stimulus presentation. However, behaviorally significant stimulus presentation (i.e. rewards) continues to activate dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Dopaminergic projections from the ventral tegmental area (bottom part of the "midbrain" or mesencephalon) to the prefrontal cortex (mesocortical pathway) and to the nucleus accumbens (mesolimbic pathway – "meso" referring to "from the mesencephalon"... specifically the ventral tegmental area) are implicated in reward, pleasure, and addictive behavior. The pars compacta is also important in spatial learning, the observations about one's environment and location in space. Lesions in the pars compacta lead to learning deficits in repeating identical movements, and some studies point to its involvement in a dorsal striatal-dependent, response-based memory system that functions relatively independent of the hippocampus, which is traditionally believed to subserve spatial or episodic-like memory functions.

The pars compacta also plays a role in temporal processing and is activated during time reproduction. Lesions in the pars compacta leads to temporal deficits. As of late, the pars compacta has been suspected of regulating the sleep-wake cycle, which is consistent with symptoms such as insomnia and REM sleep disturbances that are reported by patients with Parkinson's disease. Even so, partial dopamine deficits that do not affect motor control can lead to disturbances in the sleep-wake cycle, especially REM-like patterns of neural activity while awake, especially in the hippocampus.

Clinical significance
The substantia nigra is critical in the development of many diseases and syndromes, including parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease. There exist a study showing that high-frequency stimulation delivery to the left substantia nigra can induce transient acute depression symptoms.

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized, in part, by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the SNpc. The major symptoms of Parkinson's disease include tremor, akinesia, bradykinesia, and stiffness. Other symptoms include disturbances to posture, fatigue, sleep abnormalities, and depressed mood.

The cause of death of dopaminergic neurons in the SNpc is unknown. However, some contributions to the unique susceptibility of dopaminergic neurons in the pars compacta have been identified. For one, dopaminergic neurons show abnormalities in mitochondrial complex 1, causing aggregation of alpha-synuclein; this can result in abnormal protein handling and neuron death. Secondly, dopaminergic neurons in the pars compacta contain less calbindin than other dopaminergic neurons. Calbindin is a protein involved in calcium ion transport within cells, and excess calcium in cells is toxic. The calbindin theory would explain the high cytotoxicity of Parkinson's in the substantia nigra compared to the ventral tegmental area. Regardless of the cause of neuronal death, the plasticity of the pars compacta is very robust; Parkinsonian symptoms do not generally appear until at least 30% of pars compacta dopaminergic neurons have died. Most of this plasticity occurs at the neurochemical level; dopamine transport systems are slowed, allowing dopamine to linger for longer periods of time in the chemical synapses in the striatum.

Menke, Jbabdi, Miller, Matthews and Zari (2010) used diffusion tensor imaging, as well as T1 mapping to assess volumetric differences in the SNpc and SNpr, in participants with Parkinson's compared to healthy individuals. These researchers found that participants with Parkinson's consistently had a smaller substantia nigra, specifically in the SNpr. Because the SNpr is connected to the posterior thalamus, ventral thalamus and specifically, the motor cortex, and because participants with Parkinson's disease report having a smaller SNprs (Menke, Jbabdi, Miller, Matthews and Zari, 2010), the small volume of this region may be responsible for motor impairments found in Parkinson's disease patients. This small volume may be responsible for weaker and/or less controlled motor movements, which may result in the tremors often experienced by those with Parkinson's.

Oxidative stress and oxidative damage in the SNpc are likely key drivers in the etiology of Parkinson's disease as individuals age. DNA damages caused by oxidative stress can be repaired by processes modulated by alpha-synuclein. Alpha synuclein is expressed in the substantia nigra, but its DNA repair function appears to be compromised in Lewy body inclusion bearing neurons. This loss may trigger cell death.

Schizophrenia
Increased levels of dopamine have long been implicated in the development of schizophrenia. However, much debate continues to this day surrounding this dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia. Despite the controversy, dopamine antagonists remain a standard and successful treatment for schizophrenia. These antagonists include first generation (typical) antipsychotics such as butyrophenones, phenothiazines, and thioxanthenes. These drugs have largely been replaced by second-generation (atypical) antipsychotics such as clozapine and paliperidone. In general, these drugs do not act on dopamine-producing neurons themselves, but on the receptors on the post-synaptic neuron.

Other, non-pharmacological evidence in support of the dopamine hypothesis relating to the substantia nigra include structural changes in the pars compacta, such as reduction in synaptic terminal size. Other changes in the substantia nigra include increased expression of NMDA receptors in the substantia nigra, and reduced dysbindin expression. Increased NMDA receptors may point to the involvement of glutamate-dopamine interactions in schizophrenia. Dysbindin, which has been (controversially) linked to schizophrenia, may regulate dopamine release, and low expression of dysbindin in the substantia nigra may be important in schizophrenia etiology. Due to the changes to the substantia nigra in the schizophrenic brain, it may eventually be possible to use specific imaging techniques (such as neuromelanin-specific imaging) to detect physiological signs of schizophrenia in the substantia nigra.

Wooden Chest Syndrome
Wooden chest, also called fentanyl chest wall rigidity syndrome, is a rare side effect of synthetic opioids such as Fentanyl, Sulfentanil, Alfentanil, Remifentanil. It results in a generalised increase in skeletal muscle tone. The mechanism is thought to be via increased dopamine release and decreased GABA release in the nerves of the substantia nigra/striatum. The effect is most pronounced on the chest wall muscles and can lead to impaired ventilation. The condition is most commonly observed in anaesthesia where rapid and high doses of these drugs are given intravenously.

Multiple system atrophy
Multiple system atrophy characterized by neuronal degeneration in the striatum and substantia nigra was previously called striatonigral degeneration.

Chemical modification of the substantia nigra
Chemical manipulation and modification of the substantia nigra is important in the fields of neuropharmacology and toxicology. Various compounds such as levodopa and MPTP are used in the treatment and study of Parkinson's disease, and many other drugs have effects on the substantia nigra.

Amphetamine and trace amines
Studies have shown that, in certain brain regions, amphetamine and trace amines increase the concentrations of dopamine in the synaptic cleft, thereby heightening the response of the post-synaptic neuron. The various mechanisms by which amphetamine and trace amines affect dopamine concentrations have been studied extensively, and are known to involve both DAT and VMAT2. Amphetamine is similar in structure to dopamine and trace amines; as a consequence, it can enter the presynaptic neuron via DAT as well as by diffusing through the neural membrane directly. Upon entering the presynaptic neuron, amphetamine and trace amines activate TAAR1, which, through protein kinase signaling, induces dopamine efflux, phosphorylation-dependent DAT internalization, and non-competitive reuptake inhibition. Because of the similarity between amphetamine and trace amines, it is also a substrate for monoamine transporters; as a consequence, it (competitively) inhibits the reuptake of dopamine and other monoamines by competing with them for uptake, as well.

In addition, amphetamine and trace amines are substrates for the neuronal vesicular monoamine transporter, vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2). When amphetamine is taken up by VMAT2, the vesicle releases (effluxes) dopamine molecules into the cytosol in exchange.

Cocaine
Cocaine's mechanism of action in the human brain includes the inhibition of dopamine reuptake, which accounts for cocaine's addictive properties, as dopamine is the critical neurotransmitter for reward. However, cocaine is more active in the dopaminergic neurons of the ventral tegmental area than the substantia nigra. Cocaine administration increases metabolism in the substantia nigra, which can explain the altered motor function seen in cocaine-using subjects. The inhibition of dopamine reuptake by cocaine also inhibits the firing of spontaneous action potentials by the pars compacta. The mechanism by which cocaine inhibits dopamine reuptake involves its binding to the dopamine transporter protein. However, studies show that cocaine can also cause a decrease in DAT mRNA levels, most likely due to cocaine blocking dopamine receptors rather than direct interference with transcriptional or translational pathways.

Inactivation of the substantia nigra could prove to be a possible treatment for cocaine addiction. In a study of cocaine-dependent rats, inactivation of the substantia nigra via implanted cannulae greatly reduced cocaine addiction relapse.

Levodopa
The substantia nigra is the target of chemical therapeutics for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Levodopa (commonly referred to as L-DOPA), the dopamine precursor, is the most commonly prescribed medication for Parkinson's disease, despite controversy concerning the neurotoxicity of dopamine and L-DOPA. The drug is especially effective in treating patients in the early stages of Parkinson's, although it does lose its efficacy over time. Levodopa can cross the blood–brain barrier and increases dopamine levels in the substantia nigra, thus alleviating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The drawback of levodopa treatment is that it treats the symptoms of Parkinson's (low dopamine levels), rather than the cause (the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra).

MPTP
MPTP, is a neurotoxin specific to dopaminergic cells in the brain, specifically in the substantia nigra. MPTP was brought to the spotlight in 1982 when heroin users in California displayed Parkinson's-like symptoms after using MPPP contaminated with MPTP. The patients, who were rigid and almost completely immobile, responded to levodopa treatment. No remission of the Parkinson's-like symptoms was reported, suggesting irreversible death of the dopaminergic neurons. The proposed mechanism of MPTP involves disruption of mitochondrial function, including disruption of metabolism and creation of free radicals.

Soon after, MPTP was tested in animal models for its efficacy in inducing Parkinson's disease (with success). MPTP induced akinesia, rigidity, and tremor in primates, and its neurotoxicity was found to be very specific to the substantia nigra pars compacta. In other animals, such as rodents, the induction of Parkinson's by MPTP is incomplete or requires much higher and frequent doses than in primates. Today, MPTP remains the most favored method to induce Parkinson's disease in animal models.

History
The substantia nigra was discovered in 1784 by Félix Vicq-d'Azyr, and Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring alluded to this structure in 1791. The differentiation between the substantia nigra pars reticulata and compacta was first proposed by Sano in 1910. In 1963, Oleh Hornykiewicz concluded from his observation that "cell loss in the substantia nigra (of Parkinson's disease patients) could well be the cause of the dopamine deficit in the striatum."

title: Substantia nigra


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Basil II

Basil II Porphyrogenitus ( Basileios Porphyrogennetos; 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (, ho Boulgaroktónos), was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but they were too young to rule. The throne thus went to two generals, Nikephoros Phokas ((r. undefined – undefined)963–969) and John Tzimiskes (r. 969–976) before Basil became senior emperor, though his influential great-uncle Basil Lekapenos remained as the de facto ruler until 985. His reign of 49 years and 11 months was the longest of any Roman emperor.

The early years of Basil's reign were dominated by civil wars against two powerful generals from the Byzantine Anatolian aristocracy: first Bardas Skleros and later Bardas Phokas, which ended shortly after Phokas' death and Skleros' submission in 989. Basil then oversaw the stabilization and expansion of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire and the complete subjugation of the First Bulgarian Empire, its foremost European foe, after a long struggle. Although the Byzantines had made a truce with the Fatimid Caliphate in 987–988, Basil led a campaign against the Caliphate that ended with another truce in 1000. He also conducted a campaign against the Khazar Khaganate that gained the Byzantine Empire part of Crimea and a series of successful campaigns against the Kingdom of Georgia.

Despite near-constant warfare, Basil distinguished himself as an administrator, reducing the power of the great land-owning families who dominated the Empire's administration and military, filling its treasury, and leaving it with its greatest expanse in four centuries. Although his successors were largely incapable rulers, the Empire flourished for decades after Basil's death. One of the most important decisions taken during his reign was to offer the hand of his sister Anna Porphyrogenita to Vladimir I of Kiev in exchange for military support, thus forming the Byzantine military unit known as the Varangian Guard. The marriage of Anna and Vladimir led to the Christianization of the Kievan Rus' and the incorporation of later successor states of Kievan Rus' within the Byzantine cultural and religious tradition. Basil is seen as a Greek national hero but is a despised figure among Bulgarians.

Physical appearance and personality
The courtier and historian Michael Psellos, who was born towards the end of Basil's reign, gives a description of Basil in his Chronographia. Psellos describes him as a stocky man of shorter-than-average stature who nevertheless was an impressive figure on horseback. He had light-blue eyes, strongly arched eyebrows, luxuriant side whiskers—which he had a habit of rolling between his fingers when deep in thought or angry—and in later life a scant beard. Psellos also states that Basil was not an articulate speaker and had a loud laugh that convulsed his whole frame. Basil is described as having ascetic tastes and caring little for the pomp and ceremony of the Imperial court, typically wearing a sombre, dark-purple robe furnished with few of the gems that usually decorated imperial costumes. He is also described as a capable administrator who left a well-stocked treasury upon his death. Basil supposedly despised literary culture and affected scorn for the learned classes of Byzantium.

According to the 19th century historian George Finlay, Basil saw himself as "prudent, just, and devout; others considered him severe, rapacious, cruel, and bigoted. For Greek learning he cared little, and he was a type of the higher Byzantine moral character, which retained far more of its Roman than its Greek origin". The modern historian John Julius Norwich wrote of Basil: "No lonelier man ever occupied the Byzantine throne. And it is hardly surprising: Basil was ugly, dirty, coarse, boorish, philistine and almost pathologically mean. He was in short deeply un-Byzantine. He cared only for the greatness of his Empire. No wonder that in his hands it reached its apogee".

Early life and rule (960-976)
Basil II was born in 958. He was a porphyrogennetos ("born into the purple"), as were his father Romanos II and his grandfather Constantine VII; this was the appellation used for children who were born to a reigning emperor. Basil was the eldest son of Romanos and his Laconian Greek second wife Theophano, who was the daughter of a poor tavern-keeper named Krateros and may have originated from the city of Sparta. He may have had an elder sister named Helena (born c. 955). Romanos succeeded Constantine VII as sole emperor upon the latter's death in 959. Basil's father crowned him as co-emperor on 22 April 960, and his brother Constantine (born 960 or 961, eventually to rule as sole emperor Constantine VIII in 1025–1028) in 962 or 963. Only two days after the birth of his youngest child Anna, Romanos II died on 15 March 963 at 24 years of age. His unexpected death was commonly thought at the time to be the result of poisoning with hemlock; the chroniclers Leo the Deacon and John Skylitzes imply that Theophano was responsible, and according to Skylitzes, she had been complicit in an earlier attempt by Romanos II to poison Constantine VII.

Basil and Constantine were too young to rule in their own right when Romanos died in 963. Therefore, although the Byzantine Senate confirmed them as emperors with their mother as the nominal regent, de facto power passed for the time into the hands of the parakoimomenos Joseph Bringas. Theophano did not trust Bringas, however, and another enemy of the powerful parakoimomenos was Basil Lekapenos, an illegitimate, eunuch son of Emperor Romanos I–Basil's great-grandfather. Lekapenos himself had been parakoimomenos to Constantine VII and megas baioulos to Romanos II. Yet another enemy of Bringas was the successful and widely popular general Nikephoros Phokas, who had just returned from his conquest of the Emirate of Crete and a highly successful raid into Cilicia and Syria, which culminated in the sack of Aleppo. Phokas was proclaimed emperor by his men in July and marched on Constantinople. Bringas tried to bring in troops to stop his rival's advance, but the capital's populace supported Nikephoros. Bringas fled, leaving his post to Lekapenos, and on 16 August 963 Nikephoros Phokas was crowned emperor.

On 20 September, Phokas married Theophano, but problems resulted; it was a second marriage for each spouse and Nikephoros was thought to be the godfather of Basil or his brother, perhaps both. Although Polyeuctus, the patriarch of Constantinople, disapproved of the marriage, the Church declared it to be valid. With it, Nikephoros secured his legitimacy and became the guardian of Romanos' sons. He was murdered in December 969 by Theophano and his nephew John Tzimiskes, who then became emperor John I and exiled Theophano. John married Theodora, a sister of Romanos II. Basil II acceded to the throne as effective ruler and senior emperor when John died on 10 January 976. He immediately had his mother brought back from her convent.

Rebellions in Anatolia and alliance with Rus'
Basil was a very successful soldier on horseback and through his achievement he proved himself to be an able general and a strong ruler. In the early years of his reign, administration remained in the hands of Basil Lekapenos. As president of the Byzantine Senate, Lekapenos was a wily, gifted politician who hoped the young emperors would be his puppets. The younger Basil waited and watched without interfering, devoting himself to learning the details of administrative business and military science. Nikephoros II and John I were brilliant military commanders but proved to be poor administrators. Towards the end of his reign, John I had belatedly planned to curb the power of the great landowners; his death, which occurred soon after he spoke out against them, led to rumors that he had been poisoned by Lekapenos, who had illegally acquired vast estates and feared an investigation and punishment. At the start of his reign, the failures of his immediate predecessors left Basil II with a serious problem: Bardas Skleros and Bardas Phokas, members of the wealthy military elite of Anatolia, had sufficient means to undertake open rebellion against his authority.

Skleros and Phokas, both of whom were experienced generals, wanted to assume the Imperial position that Nikephoros II and John I had held, and thus return Basil to the role of impotent cypher. Basil, showing a penchant for ruthlessness, took to the field himself and suppressed the rebellions of both Skleros (979) and Phokas (989) with the help of 12,000 Georgians of Tornikios and David III Kuropalates of Tao. The fall of Lekapenos occurred between the rebellions in 985; he was accused of plotting with the rebels and was punished with exile and the confiscation of his property. The relationship between the two generals was complicated; Phokas was instrumental in defeating the rebellion of Skleros but when Phokas later rebelled, Skleros returned from exile to support him. When Phokas died in battle, Skleros, whom Phokas had imprisoned, assumed the leadership of the rebellion. Basil's brother Constantine—who had no interest in politics, statecraft, or the military–led troops alongside Basil; this was the only military command Constantine would hold. The campaign ended without combat when Skleros was forced to surrender to Basil in 989. Skleros was allowed to live but he died blind, either through disease or from being blinded as punishment for his insurrection.

These rebellions had a profound effect on Basil's outlook and methods of governance. Psellos describes the defeated Skleros giving Basil the following advice, which he took to heart: "Cut down the governors who become over-proud. Let no generals on campaign have too many resources. Exhaust them with unjust exactions, to keep them busied with their own affairs. Admit no woman to the imperial councils. Be accessible to no-one. Share with few your most intimate plans."

To defeat these dangerous revolts, Basil formed an alliance with Prince Vladimir I of Kiev, who in 988 had captured Chersonesos, the Empire's main base in the Crimean Peninsula. Vladimir offered to evacuate Chersonesos and to supply 6,000 of his soldiers as reinforcements to Basil. In exchange, he demanded to be married to Basil's younger sister Anna. At first, Basil hesitated. The Byzantines viewed all of the peoples of Northern Europe—namely Franks and Slavs—as barbarians. Anna objected to marrying a barbarian ruler because such a marriage would have no precedent in Imperial annals.

Vladimir had researched various religions, having sent delegates to various countries. Marriage was not his main reason for choosing Christianity. When Vladimir promised to baptize himself and to convert his people to Christianity, Basil finally agreed. Vladimir and Anna were married in Crimea in 989. The Rus' warriors taken into Basil's army were instrumental in ending the rebellion; they were later organized into the Varangian Guard. This marriage had important long-term implications, marking the beginning of the process by which the Grand Duchy of Moscow many centuries later would proclaim itself "The Third Rome", and claim the political and cultural heritage of the Byzantine Empire.

Campaigns against the Fatimid Caliphate
Once the internal strife was quelled, Basil turned his attention to the Empire's other enemies. The Byzantine civil wars had weakened the Empire's position in the east, and the gains of Nikephoros II and John I had nearly been lost to the Fatimid Caliphate. In 987–988, a seven-year truce with the Fatimids was signed; it stipulated an exchange of prisoners, the recognition of the Byzantine emperor as protector of Christians under Fatimid rule and of the Fatimid Caliph as protector of Muslims under Byzantine control, and the replacement of the name of the Abbasid caliph with that of the Fatimid caliph in the Friday prayer in the mosque at Constantinople. This lasted until the long-time vizier Yaqub ibn Killis died in 991. Fatimid caliph Al-Aziz Billah chose to pursue a more aggressive stance in Syria and appointed Manjutakin as governor of Damascus.

Manjutakin's attacks, and Basil's first expedition to Syria
Encouraged by the defectors after the death of emir Sa'd al-Dawla, Al-Aziz decided to renew his attacks on the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo, a Byzantine protectorate, perhaps expecting Basil would not interfere. Manjutakin invaded the emirate, defeated a Byzantine force under the doux of Antioch Michael Bourtzes in June 992, and laid siege to Aleppo. The city easily resisted. In early 993, after thirteen months of campaigning, a lack of supplies forced Manjutakin to return to Damascus.

In 994, Manjutakin resumed his offensive and in September scored a major victory at the Battle of the Orontes against Bourtzes. Bourtzes' defeat forced Basil to intervene personally in the East; with his army, he rode through Asia Minor to Aleppo in sixteen days, arriving in April 995. Basil's sudden arrival and the exaggeration of his army's strength circulating in the Fatimid camp caused panic in the Fatimid army, especially because Manjutakin, expecting no threat, had ordered his cavalry horses to be dispersed around the city for pasture. Despite having a considerably larger and well-rested army, Manjutakin was at a disadvantage. He burned his camp and retreated to Damascus without battle. The Byzantines besieged Tripoli unsuccessfully and occupied Tartus, which they refortified and garrisoned with Armenian troops. Al-Aziz now prepared to take to the field in person against the Byzantines and initiated large-scale preparations but they were abandoned upon his death.

Second expedition to Syria, and peace
Warfare between the two powers continued as the Byzantines supported an anti-Fatimid uprising in Tyre. In 998, the Byzantines under Damian Dalassenos, the successor of Bourtzes, launched an attack on Apamea but the Fatimid general Jaysh ibn al-Samsama defeated them in battle on 19 July 998. This defeat drew Basil back into the conflict; he arrived in Syria in October 999 and remained there for three months. Basil's troops raided as far as Heliopolis, placed a garrison at Larissa, and burnt three minor forts in the vicinity of Abu Qubais, Masyath and Arca. The siege of Tripoli in December failed while Emesa was not threatened. Basil's attention was diverted to developments in Georgia following the murder of David III Kuropalates; he departed for Cilicia in January and dispatched another embassy to Cairo.

In 1000, a ten-year truce was concluded between the two states. For the remainder of the reign of Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ((r. undefined – undefined) 996–1021), relations remained peaceful as al-Hakim was more interested in internal affairs. Even the acknowledgement of Fatimid suzerainty by Abu Muhammad Lu'lu' al-Kabir of Aleppo in 1004 and the Fatimid-sponsored installment of Aziz al-Dawla as the city's emir in 1017 did not lead to a resumption of hostilities, especially because al-Kabir continued to pay tribute to the Byzantines and al-Dawla quickly began acting as an independent ruler. Al-Hakim's persecution of Christians in his realm and especially the 1009 destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at his orders strained relations and, along with Fatimid interference in Aleppo, provided the main focus of Fatimid–Byzantine diplomatic relations until the late 1030s.

Conquest of Bulgaria
Basil sought to restore former territories of the Byzantine Empire. At the start of the second millennium, he fought Samuel of Bulgaria, his greatest adversary. Bulgaria had been partly subjugated by John I after the invasion of Svyatoslav I of Kiev but parts of the country had remained outside Byzantine control under the leadership of Samuel and his brothers.

Because the Bulgars had been raiding Byzantine lands since 976, the Byzantine government sought to cause dissension among them by allowing the escape of their captive emperor Boris II of Bulgaria. This ploy failed so Basil used a respite from his conflict with the nobility to lead a 30,000-strong army into Bulgaria and besiege Sredets (Sofia) in 986. Taking losses and worried about the loyalty of some of his governors, Basil lifted the siege and returned for Thrace but he fell into an ambush and suffered a serious defeat at the Battle of the Gates of Trajan. Basil escaped with the help of his Varangian Guard and attempted to recover his losses by turning Samuel's brother Aron against him. Aron was tempted by Basil's offer of his sister Anna in marriage, but the negotiations failed when Aron discovered the bride he was sent was an imposter. By 987, Samuel had eliminated Aron. Another brother of Samuel, called David, was killed in 976 by the Vlachs, the guards of caravans, between Prespa and Kastoria. Although the titular emperor Roman of Bulgaria was captured in 991, Basil lost Moesia to the Bulgarians. While Basil was distracted with internal rebellions and recovering the military situation on his eastern frontier, Samuel had extended his rule from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea, recovering most of the territory that was controlled by Bulgaria before the invasion of Svyatoslav. He also conducted damaging raids into Byzantine territory as far as central Greece. In 996, the Byzantine general Nikephoros Ouranos defeated a Bulgarian army raid at the Battle of Spercheios in Thessaly. Samuel and his son Gabriel narrowly escaped capture.

Beginning in 1000, Basil was free to focus on a war of conquest against Bulgaria, which he fought with grinding persistence and strategic insight. In 1000, the Byzantine generals Nikephoros Xiphias and Theodorokanos took the former Bulgarian capital Great Preslav, and the towns Lesser Preslav and Pliskova. In 1001, Basil, operating from Thessalonica, regained control of Vodena, Verrhoia and Servia. The following year, he based his army in Philippopolis and occupied the length of the military road from the western Haemus Mountains to the Danube, cutting off communications between Samuel's Macedonian heartland and Paristrion (the lands south of the lower Danube). Following this success, Basil laid siege to Vidin, which fell after a prolonged resistance. Samuel reacted to the Byzantine campaign by launching a large-scale raid into the heart of Byzantine Thrace and took the major city of Adrianople by surprise.

After turning homeward with his extensive plunder, Samuel was intercepted near Skopje by a Byzantine army commanded by Basil, whose forces stormed the Bulgarian camp, defeating the Bulgarians and recovering the plunder from Adrianople. Skopje surrendered shortly after the battle, and Basil treated its governor Romanos with overt kindness. In 1005, the governor of Dyrrhachium Ashot Taronites surrendered his city to the Byzantines. The defection of Dyrrhachium completed the isolation of Samuel's core territories in the highlands of western Macedonia. Samuel was forced into an almost entirely defensive stance; he extensively fortified the passes and routes from the coastlines and valleys held by the Byzantines to the territory remaining in his possession. During the next few years, the Byzantine offensive slowed and no significant gains were made, although an attempt by the Bulgarians to counter-attack in 1009 was defeated at the Battle of Kreta, to the east of Thessalonica. In 1014, Basil was ready to launch a campaign aimed at destroying Bulgarian resistance. On 29 July 1014, in the Battle of Kleidion, he and his general Nikephoros Xiphias outmaneuvered the Bulgarian army, which was defending one of the fortified passes. Samuel avoided capture through the valor of his son Gabriel. Having crushed the Bulgarians, Basil exacted his vengeance cruelly—he was said to have captured 15,000 prisoners and fully blinded 99 of every 100 men, leaving one one-eyed man in each cohort to lead the rest back to their ruler. A possible reason for this vengeance was that, in Byzantine eyes, the Bulgarians were rebels against their authority, and blinding was the usual punishment meted out to rebels. Samuel was struck down by the sight of his blinded army and died two days later on 6 October 1014 after suffering a stroke.

Bulgaria fought on for four more years, its resistance fired by Basil's cruelty, but it submitted in 1018. This submission was the result of continued military pressure and a successful diplomatic campaign aimed at dividing and suborning the Bulgarian leadership. This victory over the Bulgarians and the later submission of the Serbs fulfilled one of Basil's goals; the Empire regained its ancient Danubian frontier for the first time in 400 years. The rulers of neighbouring Croatia, Krešimir III and Gojslav, who were previously allies of Bulgaria, accepted Basil's supremacy to avoid the same fate as Bulgaria; Basil warmly received their offers of vassalage and awarded them the honorary title of patrikios. Croatia remained a tributary state to Basil until his death in 1025. Before returning to Constantinople, Basil celebrated his triumph in Athens. He showed considerable statesmanship in his treatment of the defeated Bulgarians, giving many former Bulgarian leaders court titles, positions in provincial administration, and high commands in the army. In this way, he sought to absorb the Bulgarian elite into Byzantine society. Because Bulgaria did not have a monetary economy to the same extent as Byzantium, Basil decided to accept Bulgarian taxes in kind. Basil's successors reversed this policy, a decision that led to considerable Bulgarian discontent and rebellion later in the 11th century.

Khazar campaign

Although the Kievan Rus' had broken the power of the Khazar Khaganate in the 960s, the Byzantines had not been able to fully exploit the power vacuum and restore their dominion over Crimea and other areas around the Black Sea. In 1016, Byzantine armies in conjunction with Mstislav of Chernigov attacked the Crimea, much of which had fallen under the control of the Khazar successor kingdom of George Tzoul based at Kerch. Kedrenos reports that Tzoul was captured and the Khazar successor kingdom was destroyed. Subsequently, the Byzantines occupied southern Crimea.

Campaigns against Georgia
The integrity of the Byzantine Empire was threatened after a full-scale rebellion led by Bardas Skleros broke out in 976. After winning a series of battles, the rebels conquered Asia Minor. In the urgency of the situation, Georgian prince David III of Tao aided Basil; after a decisive loyalist victory at the Battle of Pankaleia, he was rewarded by lifetime rule of key imperial territories in eastern Asia Minor. David's rebuff of Basil in Bardas Phokas' revolt of 987, however, evoked Constantinople's distrust of the Georgian rulers. After the revolt's failure, David was forced to make Basil the legatee of his extensive possessions. In 1001, after the death of David of Tao, Basil inherited Tao, Phasiane and Speri. These provinces were then organized into the theme of Iberia with the capital at Theodosiopolis. This forced the successor Georgian Bagratid ruler Bagrat III to recognize the new rearrangement. Bagrat's son George I, however, inherited a longstanding claim to David's succession. George, who was young and ambitious, launched a campaign to restore the Kuropalates's succession to Georgia and occupied Tao in 1015–1016. He entered in an alliance with the Fatimid caliph of Egypt, al-Hakim, forcing Basil to refrain from an acute response to George's offensive. The Byzantines were also involved in a relentless war with the Bulgarians, limiting their actions to the west. As soon as Bulgaria was conquered in 1018 and al-Hakim was dead, Basil led his army against Georgia. Preparations for a larger-scale campaign against the Kingdom of Georgia were set, beginning with the re-fortification of Theodosiopolis.

In late 1021, Basil, at the head of a large Byzantine army reinforced by the Varangian Guard, attacked the Georgians and their Armenian allies, recovering Phasiane and continuing beyond the frontiers of Tao into inner Georgia. King George burned the city of Oltisi to prevent it falling to the enemy and retreated to Kola. A bloody battle was fought near the village Shirimni at Lake Palakazio on 11 September; the emperor won a costly victory, forcing George I to retreat northwards into his kingdom. Basil plundered the country and withdrew for winter to Trebizond.

Several attempts to negotiate the conflict failed. George received reinforcements from the Kakhetians and allied himself with the Byzantine commanders Nikephoros Phokas Barytrachelos and Nikephoros Xiphias in their abortive insurrection in the emperor's rear. In December, George's ally the Armenian king Senekerim of Vaspurakan, who was being harassed by the Seljuk Turks, surrendered his kingdom to the emperor. During early 1022, Basil launched a final offensive, defeating the Georgians at the Battle of Svindax. Menaced both by land and sea, George agreed to a treaty that handed over Tao, Phasiane, Kola, Artaan and Javakheti, and left his infant son Bagrat as Basil's hostage.

Fiscal policies
In 992, Basil concluded a treaty with the Doge of Venice Pietro II Orseolo under terms reducing Venice's custom duties in Constantinople from 30 nomismata to 17 nomismata. In return, the Venetians agreed to transport Byzantine troops to southern Italy in times of war. According to one estimate, a Byzantine landowning farmer might expect a profit of 10.2 nomismata after paying dues for half of his best-quality land. Basil was popular with the country farmers, the class that produced most of his army's supplies and soldiers. To assure this continued, Basil's laws protected small agrarian property owners and lowered their taxes. Despite the almost constant wars, Basil's reign was considered an era of relative prosperity for the class.

Seeking to protect the lower and middle classes, Basil made ruthless war upon the system of immense estates in Asia Minor—which his predecessor Romanos I had endeavored to check—by executing a legal decree in January 996 that limited rights to property ownership. If the owner of an estate could prove that he claimed his estate prior to the Novels of Romanos, he would be allowed to keep it. If a person had illegally seized an estate following the Novels of Romanos, he would have his rights to the estate declared null and the legal owners could reclaim it. In 1002, Basil also introduced the allelengyon tax as a specific law obliging the dynatoi (wealthy landholders) to cover for the arrears of poorer tax-payers. Though it proved unpopular with the wealthier sections of Byzantine society, Basil did not abolish the tax; the emperor Romanos III abolished the allelengyon in 1028. By 1025, Basil—with an annual revenue of 7 million nomismata—was able to amass 14.4 million nomismata (or 200,000 pounds/90 tonnes of gold) for the Imperial treasury due to his prudent management. Despite his attempts to control the power of the aristocracy, they again took control of the government following his death.

Military policies
Basil II was praised by his army because he spent most of his reign campaigning with it rather than sending orders from Constantinople, as had most of his predecessors. This allowed his army to be largely supportive of him, often making his stance in political and church matters unquestionable. He lived the life of a soldier to the point of eating the same daily rations as the rest of the army. He also took the children of dead army officers under his protection and offered them shelter, food and education. Many of these children became his soldiers and officers, taking the places of their fathers. One of them, Isaac Komnenos, later became emperor himself.

Basil did not innovate in terms of military organization: in the conquered territories he introduced both the small themes or strategiai, centred around a fortress town, that were such a common feature of the 10th-century reconquests of the East under Phokas and Tzimiskes, as well as the extensive regional commands under a doux or katepano (Iberia in 1000, Asprakania or Upper Media in 1019/22, Paristrion in 1000/20, Bulgaria in 1018, and Sirmium in 1019). The exact size of the army under Basil II is unknown, but estimates put it as high as 110,000 men, excluding the imperial tagmata in Constantinople; a considerable force, compared with the nominal establishment force of c. 120,000 in the 9th–10th centuries, or the 150,000–160,000 of the field armies under Justinian I. At the same time, however, under Basil the practice began of relying on allied states—most notably Venice—for naval power, beginning the slow decline of the Byzantine navy during the 11th century.

Later life, death and burial
Basil II later secured the annexation of the sub-kingdoms of Armenia and a promise that its capital and surrounding regions would be willed to Byzantium following the death of its king Hovhannes-Smbat. In 1021, he also secured the cession of the Kingdom of Vaspurakan by its king Seneqerim-John, in exchange for estates in Sebasteia. Basil created a strongly fortified frontier in those highlands. Other Byzantine forces restored much of Southern Italy, which had been lost during the previous 150 years.

Basil was preparing a military expedition to recover the island of Sicily when he died on 15 December 1025, having had the longest reign among any Byzantine or Roman emperor. At the time of his death, the Empire stretched from southern Italy to the Caucasus and from the Danube to the Levant, which was its greatest territorial extent since the Muslim conquests four centuries earlier. Basil was to be buried in the last sarcophagus available in the rotunda of Constantine I in the Church of the Holy Apostles but he later asked his brother and successor Constantine VIII to be buried in the Church of St. John the Theologian (i.e., the Evangelist) at the Hebdomon Palace complex outside the walls of Constantinople. The epitaph on Basil's tomb celebrated his campaigns and victories. His final resting place carried the following inscription: "From the day that the King of Heaven called upon me to become the Emperor, the great overlord of the world, no one saw my spear lie idle. I stayed alert throughout my life and protected the children of the New Rome, valiantly campaigning both in the West and at the outposts of the East ... O, man, seeing now my tomb here, reward me for my campaigns with your prayers." In 1260, during the unsuccessful Nicean Byzantine siege of Constantinople, then held by the Latin Empire, a corpse was found, upright in a corner of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, with a shepherd's flute placed in its mouth. An inscription allowed the Nicaean soldiers to identify the corpse as the remains of Basil II. The body of Basil II was transferred to the Monastery of the Saviour at Selymbria. The following year Constantinople was recovered by the Byzantines.

Assessment
An assessment of the reign in the eyes of the subsequent generations is given by Psellos:"He crushed rebellions, subdued the feudal landowners, conquered the enemies of the Empire, notably in the Danubian provinces and the East. Everywhere the might of Roman arms was respected and feared. The treasury was overflowing with the accumulated plunder of Basil's campaigns. Even the lamp of learning, despite the emperor's known indifference, was burning still, if somewhat dimly. The lot of ordinary folk in Constantinople must have been pleasant enough. For most of them life was gay and colourful, and if the city's defensive fortifications were at some points in disrepair they had no cause to dread attacks."

Basil II's reign is one of the most significant in Byzantine history. His constant military campaigns led to the zenith of Byzantine power in the Middle Ages. The restoration of the Danubian frontier helped establish a more stable and secure border for the empire in Europe, maintaining a stronger barrier against Hungarian and Pecheneg raiders. The conquest of Bulgaria and the submission of the South Slavs created relative peace for the empire's Balkan lands, keeping larger cities—including Constantinople—safe from the previously frequent sieges and looting. Basil's military experience that allowed him to eventually turn the war against Bulgaria in the Byzantine Empire's favor were gained through the revolts of Phokas and Skleros in Anatolia that challenged his throne and sometimes got close to deposing him. Basil's creation of the Varangian Guard provided him and his successors with an elite mercenary force capable of changing battle outcomes and boosting morale that became feared by the emperor's enemies.

At this time, the Macedonian Renaissance was taking effect, seeing the rise of classical Greek scholarship being assimilated into Christian art and the study of ancient Greek philosophy being widespread. The studies of these subjects, and the enlargement projects of the emperors, greatly expanded the library of the University of Constantinople, which again established itself as the main source of learning for its day. Though he was not a man of literature, Basil was a relatively pious ruler who involved himself in the construction of churches, monasteries and, to some extent, cities.

Literary works, eulogies and poems were made by the great cities of the Byzantine Empire that mostly tried to juxtapose the classic past of kingdoms and empires with the new expansion of Basil II in which he was compared with many important figures of the east such as Cyrus the Great and Artaxerxes. He was also particularly compared with Alexander the Great who was believed to be Basil's ancestor. Classical works such as "The Persians" by the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus were among the most recited in the empire during the expansion given the different confrontations against the caliphates that the Byzantines indiscriminately and classically called "Medes". Despite the great expansion during his reign, his military and non-scholastic character led him to be criticized and related to the ancient Spartan monarchs or tyrants who at that time were remembered for being men of action, cruelty and decision who, like Basil, paid little attention to promoting the arts or literary culture and preferred a military environment.

Basil II lacked heirs due to the "dearth of cousins found within the Macedonian dynasty", so he was succeeded by his brother Constantine and his family, who proved to be ineffective rulers. Nevertheless, fifty years of prosperity and intellectual growth followed because the funds of state were full, the borders were safe from intruders, and the Empire remained the most powerful political entity of the age. At the end of Basil II's reign, the Byzantine Empire had a population of approximately 12 million people.

Although they were beneficial, Basil's achievements were reversed very quickly. Many of the Georgian, Armenian and Fatimid campaigns were undone after the succession crisis and eventual civil war after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Because many of the empire's governors went to the capital with their soldiers to seize power after the capture of emperor Romanos IV, the Anatolian frontier was largely left undefended against the Seljuk Empire. The Normans permanently pushed the Byzantines from Southern Italy in April 1071.

Modern views and depictions in literature

 * Bulgarian commentator Alexander Kiossev wrote in Understanding the Balkans: "The hero [of] a nation might be the villain of its neighbour ... The Byzantine emperor Basil the Murderer [sic] of Bulgarians, a crucial Greek pantheon figure, is no less important as [a] subject of hatred for our national mythology". During the 20th century in Greece, interest in Basil II led to a number of biographies and historical novels about him. One of these is Basil Bulgaroktonos (1964) by historical fiction writer Kostas Kyriazis. Written as a sequel to his previous work Theophano (1963) which focuses on Basil's mother, it examines Basil's life through three fictional narrators and has been continuously reprinted since 1964. Rosemary Sutcliff's 1976 historical fiction novel Blood Feud depicts Basil II from the point of view of a member of his recently created Varangian Guard.
 * Penelope Delta's second novel Ton Kairo tou Voulgaroktonou (In the Years of the Bulgar-Slayer) is also set during the reign of Basil II. It was inspired by correspondence with the historian Gustave Schlumberger, a renowned specialist on the Byzantine Empire, and published in the early years of the 20th century, a time when the Struggle for Macedonia again set Greeks and Bulgarians in bitter enmity with each other.
 * Ion Dragoumis, who was Delta's lover and was deeply involved in that struggle, in 1907 published the book Martyron kai Iroon Aima (Martyrs' and Heroes' Blood), which is resentful towards anything remotely Bulgarian. He urges Greeks to follow the example of Basil II: "Instead of blinding so many people, Basil should have better killed them instead. On one hand these people would not suffer as eyeless survivors, on the other the sheer number of Bulgarians would have diminished by 15 000, which is something very useful." Later in the book, Dragoumis foresees the appearance of "new Basils" who would "cross the entire country and will look for Bulgarians in mountains, caves, villages and forests and will make them flee in refuge or kill them".
 * Basil Basileus is a comic book series by Theocharis Spyros and Chrysa Sakel. The plot and illustration is based on academic bibliography. The story is set in the early years of Basil II, from the time of John I Tzimiskes and the formation of the Varangian Guard until the final years of Basil II.

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

title: Basil II


text:
Inspector Clouseau

Inspector Jacques Clouseau, later granted the rank of Chief Inspector, is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' farcical The Pink Panther series. He is portrayed by Peter Sellers in the original series, and also by Alan Arkin in the 1968 film Inspector Clouseau and, in a cameo, by Roger Moore (credited as Turk Thrust II) in the 1983 film Curse of the Pink Panther. In the 2006 reboot and its 2009 sequel, Clouseau is portrayed by Steve Martin. Clouseau's likeness also appears in the Pink Panther animated cartoon shorts and segments, where he is known as simply "the Inspector".

Overview
Clouseau is an inept and incompetent police detective in the French Sûreté, whose investigations quickly turn to chaos. His absent-mindedness and extreme clumsiness almost always leads to destruction of property: while interviewing witnesses in The Pink Panther Strikes Again, he falls down a set of stairs, gets his hand caught in a medieval knight's gauntlet, then in a vase; knocks a witness senseless and voiceless, destroys a priceless piano, and accidentally causes a Scotland Yard superintendent to be shot in the buttocks, all within nearly five minutes. Despite his lack of judgment and skill, Clouseau always manages to solve his cases and finds the correct culprits almost entirely by accident. He is promoted to Chief Inspector over the course of the series, and is regarded in other countries as France's greatest detective, until they encounter him directly. His incompetence, combined with his luck and his occasionally correct interpretations of the situation, frustrate his direct superior, former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus so intensely, Dreyfus is eventually driven to insanity. While Clouseau is generally oblivious to his own ineptitude and genuinely believes he possesses superior expertise and intelligence, he occasionally appears to recognize his limitations. As a police detective, Clouseau also insists upon wearing ridiculously elaborate disguises and aliases that range from the mundane (a telephone company repairman) to the ludicrously preposterous (a buck-toothed hunchback with an oversized nose); but even in these absurd disguises he cannot hide his characteristic inanity.

Clouseau is a patriotic Frenchman; later films reveal he had fought in the French Resistance during the Second World War. He is repeatedly perplexed by transvestites, to the extent that he addresses them as "Sir or Madam". He has been prone to infatuation (often reciprocated) ever since the first film, in which his antagonist cuckolds him. Sellers maintained that Clouseau's ego made the character's klutziness funnier, in the attempt to remain elegant and refined while causing chaos. Clouseau's faux French accent became much more exaggerated in the later films (for example, pronouncing "room" as "reum"; "Pope" as "Peup"; "bomb" as "beumb"; and "bumps" as "beumps"), and a frequent running gag in the movies was that even French characters had difficulty understanding what he was saying. Clouseau's immense ego, eccentricity, exaggerated French accent, and prominent mustache were derived from Hercule Poirot, the fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. In his earliest appearances, Clouseau appears slightly less inept than in the later films; but even in his first appearance he believes himself a skilled violinist, but plays out of tune, and often appears clumsy at his moments of highest dignity.

The Pink Panther (1963)
Jacques Clouseau makes his first appearance as the Inspector in the 1963 film The Pink Panther, which was released in the United States in March 1964. The movie is centered on David Niven's role as Sir Charles Lytton, the infamous jewel thief nicknamed "the Phantom", and his plan to steal the Pink Panther diamond from a vacationing princess. The Clouseau character was a supporting, comedic role as Lytton's incompetent and oblivious antagonist. Clouseau's wife Simone (Capucine), is secretly Sir Charles's lover and accomplice, and departs with him at the end of the film after they have framed Clouseau for the theft of the Pink Panther.

A Shot in the Dark (1964)
A Shot in the Dark (1964) was based upon a stage play that originally did not include the Clouseau character. In this film, Sellers began to develop the exaggerated French accent that later became a hallmark of the character. The film also introduces two of the series' regular characters: his superior, Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), who is driven mad by Clouseau's blundering in the investigation; and his long-suffering Chinese manservant, Cato (Burt Kwouk), who is expected to improve Clouseau's martial arts skills by attacking him at random.

Inspector Clouseau (1968)
In Inspector Clouseau,  the character was portrayed by American actor Alan Arkin; Blake Edwards was not involved in this production. The film's opening credits, animated by TVC London for DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, feature their Inspector character from the series of cartoon shorts under that title. Sellers declined to appear as Clouseau in Inspector Clouseau (1968) but he returned for The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) and its sequels.

The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
The 1968 film does appear to have influenced the Clouseau character when Sellers returned to the role in The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), particularly in the character's mode of dress. According to DVD liner notes for The Return of the Pink Panther, Sellers and Edwards originally planned to produce a British television series centered on Clouseau, but this film was made instead. The opening credits were animated by Richard Williams. The plot centers on Clouseau once again seeking to retrieve the stolen Pink Panther diamond. David Niven was unavailable to reprise the role of Sir Charles Lytton, so Christopher Plummer was cast. Catherine Schell appears as Lady Lytton. The film was a financial success and led to Edwards quickly developing a sequel.

The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
The Pink Panther Strikes Again continues the story from the end of The Return of the Pink Panther, featuring the now-insane Dreyfus creating a crime syndicate and constructing a doomsday weapon with the intention of using it to blackmail world leaders to assassinate Clouseau. Like the previous film, it was a box office success. Unused footage from this film was used to include Sellers in Trail of the Pink Panther. The opening credits were again animated by Richard Williams.

Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)
After the success of The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Edwards and Sellers reunited for their final film, Revenge of the Pink Panther which has Clouseau investigating a plot to kill him by a prominent businessman who is head of the French Connection. The movie was another box office success and led to several more sequels after Sellers death in July, 1980. Biographies of Sellers such as Peter Sellers—A Celebration reveal that he was involved in the pre-production of another Clouseau film, Romance of the Pink Panther, at the time of his death.

Trail of The Pink Panther (1982)
Blake Edwards attempted to continue telling Clouseau's story despite the death of his lead actor. The 1982 film Trail of the Pink Panther utilized outtakes and alternative footage of Sellers as Clouseau in a new storyline in which a reporter (played by Joanna Lumley) investigates Clouseau's disappearance. In the process, she interviews characters from past Clouseau films (including the Lyttons, played by the returning David Niven and Capucine), and also meets Clouseau's equally inept father (played by Richard Mulligan).

Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
The immediate sequel to Trail, Curse of the Pink Panther, reveals that Clouseau underwent plastic surgery to change his appearance; the character appears on screen briefly in the form of a joke cameo appearance by Roger Moore, billed as "Turk Thrust II". David Niven and Capucine again reprise their original Pink Panther roles as the Lyttons, now also joined by the returning Robert Wagner as nephew George Lytton. Neither Trail nor Curse were box office moneymakers, and the series was retired for about a decade due to a lengthy period of litigation between Edwards and MGM over the film's release date.

Son of the Pink Panther (1993)
Despite the failure of Curse, Edwards attempted to revive the series a decade later with Son of the Pink Panther, in which it is revealed that Clouseau, who had died ten years prior, had illegitimate children by Maria Gambrelli (played by Elke Sommer in A Shot in the Dark, although recast in this film as Claudia Cardinale, who played the Princess in The Pink Panther). Clouseau's son, Jacques Jr., was portrayed by Roberto Benigni, and has a twin sister, Jacqueline, played by Nicoletta Braschi. Jacques Jr. attempts to follow in his father's police footsteps, but is revealed to have inherited his ineptitude. Herbert Lom and Burt Kwouk made their final appearances as Dreyfus and Cato in this film.

The Pink Panther (2006)
Steve Martin's portrayal of Clouseau in the reboot 2006 film has Clouseau as a bumbling Gendarme hired by Chief Inspector Dreyfus to serve as the visible face of a high-profile murder investigation, so that Dreyfus can carry out his own investigation without risking repercussions of failure; but Martin's Clouseau is considerably older than Sellers's, and although the 2006 film was placed prior to the events of the first Pink Panther film, the time frame has been advanced to the present day. Although foolish, Martin's Clouseau is generally more intelligent and competent than Seller's version as he is able to locate the Pink Panther diamond and solve the case by knowledge, and observation, of obscure data. A running gag in this and the following film has Clouseau randomly attacking his partner, Gilbert Ponton, only to be countered each time. This is a mirror image of the running gag in the original films wherein Clouseau's original sidekick, Cato Fong, attacked Clouseau in order to keep Clouseau's skills sharp.

The Pink Panther 2 (2009)
When a series of rare and historical artifacts are stolen by the mysterious jewel thief The Tornado, Clouseau is assigned to a "dream team" of international investigators to recover the artifacts and the Pink Panther. Despite appearing to be bumbling and clumsy as usual, Clouseau once again displays surprising cleverness through his unorthodox methods. For example, he replaces the Pink Panther with a near perfect fake, reasoning that if The Tornado were the culprit, he would have been able to tell that the Pink Panther was a fake. He also causes several problems for Dreyfus, as usual. The film culminates in his marriage to Nicole Durant, Dreyfus's secretary.

Peter Sellers

 * The Pink Panther (1963)
 * A Shot in the Dark (1964)
 * The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) – the fourth film chronologically
 * The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
 * Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)
 * Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) – released posthumously; utilized unused footage from previous films
 * Son of the Pink Panther (1993) – in photographs; the ninth film chronologically; centered on Clouseau's son

Alan Arkin

 * Inspector Clouseau (1968) – the third film chronologically

Roger Moore

 * Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) – cameo appearance; the eighth film chronologically

Steve Martin

 * The Pink Panther (2006) – reboot; the tenth film chronologically
 * The Pink Panther 2 (2009)

Other films

 * Romance of the Pink Panther – only two script drafts; scrapped after Sellers's death; likely would have been the seventh film chronologically

title: Inspector Clouseau


text:
Assassination market

An assassination market is a prediction market where any party can place a bet (using anonymous electronic money and pseudonymous remailers) on the date of death of a given individual. This incentivises assassination, as parties with foreknowledge of an assassination can profit by placing bets on the time of the death. Because the payoff is for accurately picking the date rather than performing the assassination, it is substantially more difficult to assign criminal liability.

History
Early uses of the terms "assassination market" and "market for assassinations" can be found (in both positive and negative lights) in 1994's "The Cyphernomicon" by Timothy C. May, a cypherpunk. The concept and its potential effects are also referred to as assassination politics, a term popularized by Jim Bell in his 1995–96 essay of the same name.

Early in part 1, Jim Bell describes the idea as:

"The organization set up to manage such a system could, presumably, make up a list of people who had seriously violated the NAP (Non-aggression Principle), but who would not see justice in our courts due to the fact that their actions were done at the behest of the government. Associated with each name would be a dollar figure, the total amount of money the organization has received as a contribution, which is the amount they would give for correctly 'predicting' the person's death, presumably naming the exact date. 'Guessers' would formulate their 'guess' into a file, encrypt it with the organization's public key, then transmit it to the organization, possibly using methods as untraceable as putting a floppy disk in an envelope and tossing it into a mailbox, but more likely either a cascade of encrypted anonymous remailers, or possibly public-access Internet locations, such as terminals at a local library, etc.

In order to prevent such a system from becoming simply a random unpaid lottery, in which people can randomly guess a name and date (hoping that lightning would strike, as it occasionally does), it would be necessary to deter such random guessing by requiring the 'guessers' to include with their 'guess' encrypted and untraceable 'digital cash,' in an amount sufficiently high to make random guessing impractical."

Bell then goes on to further specify the protocol of the assassination market in more detail. In the final part of his essay, Bell posits a market that is largely non-anonymous. He contrasts this version with the one previously described. Carl Johnson's attempt to popularise the concept of assassination politics appeared to rely on the earlier version. There followed an attempt to popularise the second in 2001 that is ongoing today.

Technologies like Tor and Bitcoin have enabled online assassination markets as described in parts one to nine of Assassination Politics.

Assassination Market website
The first prediction market entitled 'Assassination Market' was created by a self-described crypto-anarchist in 2013. Utilising Tor to hide the site's location and Bitcoin based bounties and prediction technology, the site lists bounties on US President Barack Obama, economist Ben Bernanke and former justice minister of Sweden Beatrice Ask. In 2015 the site was suspected to be defunct, but the deposited Bitcoins were cashed out in 2018.

title: Assassination market


text:
Talk:Assassination

Definition
How can assassination be described as "people calling it an extra-judicial killing that lacks due process". Assassination is by any definition illegal, it isn't exactly an extreme interpretation to describe it as "extra-judiacial", in fact that is a euphemism. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.197.15.138 (talk) 07:01, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

"or military motives"
"or military motives": This should be removed, because it is not correct as it is against international law (perfidy):

“”

IHL by ICRC [ Rule 65. Killing, injuring or capturing an adversary by resort to perfidy is prohibited] "Treacherous attempt upon the life of an enemy

The Lieber Code provides that “the common law of war allows even capital punishment for clandestine or treacherous attempts to injure an enemy, because they are so dangerous, and it is difficult to guard against them”. The Brussels Declaration prohibits “murder by treachery of individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army” and the Oxford Manual prohibits the making of “treacherous attempts upon the life of an enemy; as for example by keeping assassins in pay”. Under the Hague Regulations, it is prohibited “to kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army”. The use of the term “individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army” clearly covers civilians as well as combatants."

The examples such as given in the section "As military and foreign policy doctrine" are either not military but political: assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, and Vietnam on both sides). In the case of Isoroku Yamamoto and Rommel killing enemy military commanders who is in arms, by members of the armed forces, and not paid assassins, is not assassination: Richard III was not assassinated at the Battle of Bosworth.

I suggest that "or military motives" is removed. -- PBS (talk) 18:32, 28 October 2018 (UTC)

I suggest that military motives is a right way of dealing with the situation,if military does not take any actions trators will continue ruining the mission of uplifting the country because of “fame" Ts he po phakama (talk) 07:46, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

Laws
Shouldn't there be info on the legality, laws or treaties regarding assassinations by governments? Hammerfrog (talk) 12:52, 6 March 2020 (UTC)

Hitler
Is there a reason for not mentioning the assassination attempts on Hitler? He was quite high profile then. --JonValkenberg (talk) 16:40, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Assassination


text:
Talk:Assassination market

Melodramatic opinion
The final sentence of the article, "If the concept is taken up as civil disobedience as suggested by Jim Bell then this could easily lead to the end of all open and above ground government anywhere on earth," seems a bit too apocalyptic for a serious encyclopedia.

this is kind of intense, but given the sophistication of Al Qaeda etc., I am quite sure we are not telling them anything here they don't already know...

Missing sources?
Interestingly, much of the material describing this stuff is no longer on the open web...
 * This isn't true really. Large proportions of the very early cypherpunks archives are on the web. This topic was discussed there heavily 1993 onwards. The ideas are all covered at a broad level in Cyphernomicon and Bell's Assassination politics articles.
 * Among other archive sites of CP materials, and of course archive.org. — SMcCandlish  Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 08:06, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Issues
The "Jim Bell" link to zolatimes redirects to another location which yields 404 "File not found".

The final sentence of the third paragrpah is incomplete. It ends "it is substantially more difficult to assign criminal liability for the action(s)." Substantially more difficult than what?

Dominus 14:50 Mar 12, 2003 (UTC)

The discussion is not quite historically correct
Tim May had already discussed the idea of cryptographic protocols enabling the existence of abhorrent markets (such as assassination markets) before Jim Bell's "Assassination Politics" post (which was intially to the cypherpunks mailing list, iirc.

I personally recall seeing such discussion in the extropians mailing list ~1993-1994 and on cypherpunks in 1994.

Tim May is easily discovered on Usenet, so finding his email address is simple. I recommend contacting him for his version of events.

This discussion is peurile imo because Jim Bell is misrepresented and unable to defend himself.Jim was the first to bring out the great libertory and freeing effects that assassination politics would bring to the world. Quite the opposite tack to the neo-nazi Tim Mays ' abhorrent' markets. Jims conception was less of a market and more of a mass movement of civil disobedience and he is quite explicit about that toward the end of his ten page essay. Jim was investigated, charged and is serving hard time today whereas no one knows where the neo-nazi Tim May is and no one cares. Jim Bell was arrested and charged while at the same time the pentagon was stealing the concept and renaming it ' Policy analysis markets.' Shades of the infamous theft of PROMIS software from the INSLAW company.From my reading of the cypherpunks list it peaked with the genius, Jim Bells contributions circa 1996-7 and then declined rapidly under the flaming racist meglomania of the neo-nazi Tim May. Stuff about Jim is stored at Cryptome inc trial testimony and he should be released in 2010, a prophet without honor in his own land and in his own time, Jim Bell is a latter day Martin Luther King and assassination politics is the death warrant for all governments.

 * Last time I checked, Martin Luther King didn't tell people to kill people.

Jim Bell did not write his Assassination Politics essay in 1997. It was begun in early 1995, and various chapters were written over the next year+. (One chapter was not written by Jim Bell: It was written by a journalist, writing for Asahi Evening News, in reaction to Bell's essay:  Bell chose to include it in the AP essay because it was well-written and entertaining.) Finally, Jim Bell is no longer in prison, having been released March 12, 2012. If he hadn't been released, this paragraph would not have appeared. Jamesdbell8 (talk) 04:03, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Needs Revision
The article says:

 * the assassination of major figures such as Saddam Hussein would have an immediate impact--very profitable for anyone anticipating it.

With the capture and imprisonment of Saddam Hussein, this remark appears to be obsolete.

-- Dominus 16:19, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I changed Hussein to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia - that seems to solve the problem raised above, and also probably constitutes a better example than Hussein, because even before his capture Iraq's participation in world oil markets was highly restricted, whereas Saudi Arabia is a massive force in oil, and so the assassination of King Fahd would likely have even greater effect.

Sloppy thinking
There are two concepts of assassination markets that are used in this entry, and they are quite different. They are horribly mixed up in this article.

The first is that of a futures exchange where you can (anonymously or not) speculate on the assassination of a certain individual on a certain date. This is similar to the Policy Analysis Market that were suggested and that are highly discredited by now.

The second is that of assassins, who themselves (or their peers) profit financially from the assassinations they carry out through bets in financial markets. This is not an 'assassination market'. It is just insider trading in well-established markets.

My suggestion is to just merge this into Prediction market - and keep it there as a footnote - DocendoDiscimus 18:54, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Vote

 * Against! I dont agree with you. This article should be kept as a separate part. It concerns the theory about assasination markets as proposed by Jim Bell (or whatever his name is) both as a conspiracy theory and as he (Tim) thought about it. Also, and this is equally important as the first argument, it considers what impact cryptography mixed with capitalism/crypto-anarchism (onion routing esp.) has on society. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 193.11.232.248 (talk • contribs).

 * Oppose You seem to misunderstand the concept; the prediction market is what provides the incentive for the assassins to operate, thereby instead of being a mere futures exchange, the prediction market in effect becomes somewhere to commission assassinations on a given date. Skomorokh  incite 11:49, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

 * Against! Historically it has been called assassination markets. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.254.32.81 (talk) 18:10, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Trillion dollar hit
The article seems to imply that Al Qaeda traders made a trillion dollars on shorting airline stocks after the 11 September attacks. As the NYSE total market cap is about $19.7 trillion I find it very hard to believe that any group could make 5% of this on one series of trades. I'm going to tone down this claim unless someone can come up with a reputable cite. Lisiate 01:40, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I read at the time that there was Al Qaeda was suspected of manking about $200 million ”going a bear” on airline stocks; this money was probably more about raising fianances than an alternative justification for the act. Scott197827 22:48, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't see how it could be read to even remotely imply that al-Qaeda made a trillion-dollar profit on 9/11...rather, it's simply referring to the severe decline that occurred on the stock markets that day (which may indeed have decreased the NYSE's total market cap by a trillion dollars) Kurt Weber 15:30, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Unclear Writing
"Certainly the expensive investigations, arrests and prosecutions of Jim Bell, Carl Johnson and Matt Taylor were not theoretical. Were enough activists to join them then the entire process of repression would have to be seriously compromised. And this 'denial of service' attack from the net would work with even more synergy if following on from any external and directly physical attack. This threat to the state is verifiable. The threat is real - albeit virtual - because first responders would be distracted."

 * What's going on in this paragraph here? It sounds like it was written by Charlie Brown's teacher. 154.20.115.35 (talk) 06:04, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Al Qaeda
If somebody wants a ref to the Al Qaeda debate, here it is, - dont know why it has been deleted from the original version of the article. Power.corrupts (talk) 17:45, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Er, no. That is a computer-generated book taking its information from... Wikipedia. Bit circular. Fences  &  Windows  21:23, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

Jim Bell mention missing?
I don't have time to look for it right now, but it seems as if this article is missing something. I came here after seeing the discussion on Jim Bell's page, but Bell isn't even mentioned on this page. The only mention is in the final paragraph...

"'He began an initiative called Operation Soft Drill — a term which reporter Declan McCullagh wrote was created by Bell — with the stated intention of intimidating police and corporate polluters into respecting human rights.'"

It looks like an earlier reference to Bell was removed, leaving only this passing mention. I'm not familiar with the article myself, and I'm heading out for a while, but I thought I'd mention it for some of the editors who are more familiar with the article. Thanks in advance. Dayewalker (talk) 23:28, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

 * I put Bell back in, though he did not originate any of the terms in question. The text before my re-adding edits was senseless, since it referred to both "Bell" and "assassination politics" in totally non-sequiturial ways. I just added some Bell stuff from scratch, without reference to earlier versions of the article. Someone or other is POV-warring on this article to remove any mention of Bell, and that cannot stand. But maybe earlier versions were objectionable in some way(s). I'm not friend or fan of Bell (nor his enemy), but he unquestionably played a very major role in this issue. Frankly, he scared the hell out of a lot of people, more so than May (Denning notwithstanding), since May wasn't too detailed, while Bell really wanted to implement this.  NB: The fact that assassination futures (another term that should probably be added) are among the most scary-for-lotsa-people aspects of crypto-anarchism isn't really covered, and people like Dorothy Denning are not mentioend at all.  Some stuff can probably be reworked from the main Crypto-anarchism article. — SMcCandlish   Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 08:06, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

I want to know about assassination-futures!!! Please add whatever you know about it! If you dont have sources, please just dump some hints here, and maybe I can dig it up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.254.32.81 (talk) 18:08, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

"Wikipedia does not allow the URL of this source"
I've just replaced a reference that simply said the above (see this version of the article) with a 'citation needed' tag.

I'm guessing this was a Tor URL - does anybody know? And does Wikipedia really not allow these?

Let me know and I'll raise it elsewhere on Wikipedia if necessary, as being able to cite Tor sites would certainly be useful for articles like this!

Jonathan Deamer (talk) 17:52, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

 * I was linking to the URL of the assassination market-implementation itself. Wikipedia stopped me when I submitted, with the error message that the URL was blacklisted. Maybe its because its an assassination market. I do not like this policy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.254.32.81 (talk) 18:04, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

 * Ah, I see. This article and this Reddit thread led me to Wikipedia's spam blacklist, which seems to include *all* .onion URLs. Jonathan Deamer (talk) 18:14, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

 * Here's a couple of additional discussions on the inclusion of .onion links. Seems that they're not allowed because of WP:ELNO#EL7, which lists "Sites that are inaccessible to a substantial number of users, such as sites that only work with a specific browser or in a specific country" under "Links normally to be avoided". Jonathan Deamer (talk) 18:48, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

 * I am assured that official .onion links for pages will be whitelisted. See  and  (both of those links will eventually have to be redone/archiving)  I am told the main concern is that they might be substituted with bogus links by unscrupulous editors.  To be sure, I didn't get this link to work, but on the other hand, it seems impossible to be certain that it is down for good, even if taking the pot and closing shop sure seems like a smart move.  In any case, I think we will eventually need to keep track of which Assassination Market we were talking about, since any idea this spectacularly bad never goes out of style. Wnt (talk) 16:43, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

Online marketplace has closed
Original research from myself has determined the site closed in June 2014 and that the money never moved since. Alas I am not a reliable source, but I am on the only one AFAIK.

http://pirate.london/2015/11/whatever-happened-to-the-crowd-sourced-assassination-marketplace/ Deku-shrub (talk) 22:33, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

 * It is relatively easy to verify that the monies has not been moved from the accounts. Wikipedia accepts references to public databases for example when referencing genetic sequences, publicly known mathematical constansts and whatnot, so it should be possible to reference the bitcoin blockchain too, right? Here is the transaction history and balance for the account dedicated to Bernanke assassination: blockchain.info page for the account. 2001:2002:51E3:8007:3AD5:47FF:FEB9:111D (talk) 17:08, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

Identical to Agatha Christie Book
The terms of this website appear identical to the plot of an Agatha Christie book, the Pale Horse (1961). I wonder if this is relevant for the main page.

Assassination market cashed out
https://pirate.london/fake-blockchain-assassination-market-remembers-his-wallets-are-now-worth-1-3-773447f94b80 Deku-shrub (talk) 18:11, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

 * I updated it with RS

 * https://harpers.org/archive/2020/01/click-here-to-kill-dark-web-hitman/

 * Zezen (talk) 14:41, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for that partial agreement. See the Pirate London site for more such cases (from the US) or details. Bows. Zezen (talk) 04:34, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

List of murders ordered via markets
This

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47747357

apart from more famous ones. Zezen (talk) 15:58, 24 December 2019 (UTC)
 * That wasn't via a market Deku-shrub (talk) 19:11, 25 December 2019 (UTC)

BBC says it was: The documents seen by BBC Russian suggest the man who allegedly placed the order for the murder [on Hydra market], who goes by the pseudonym Miguel Morales, was being investigated by Lt Col Shishkina while other sources are much more specific.

The first "Internet hitman requests", market-based or otherwise, date to 2004 and earlier: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2004/may/29/crime.uknews

Zezen (talk) 14:29, 28 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Fair, I had not read into that. None the less, that was arranged by a general purpose darknet market, not a murder-specific one Deku-shrub (talk) 15:02, 28 December 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Assassination market


text:
Talk:Vancouver, Washington

Notable People
I have been in an unintentional editing war about adding Gabriel Wilson to the notable people. He is a current resident of Vancouver, and owns and operates a recording studio in downtown vancouver where he records music that ends up hitting millions of fans world wide. I would easily argue that he would qualify as a notable person. In reference to the Grant debate - most cities actually do not require their notable people to be born and raised in the city, more aptly the require them to live and work the majority of the year in that location, or to have spend a substantial portion of time there. I in no means am attempting to start a debate or war here just simply trying to update the page to accurately reflect notable people. Again, I believe firmly that Gabriel qualifies as a notable person in that many of the songs he has co-wrote and produced reach more than 7% of americans daily. Which is 22,323,000 per day. — Preceding unsigned comment added by KingDrewpert (talk • contribs) 17:35, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

 * All you have to do is cite a reliable published source that he does live in Vancouver, as there's nothing to that effect in his bio article. And placing it in alphabetical order would be helpful too. - BilCat (talk) 18:14, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Also note that the citations need to say he lives in Vancouver, not just owns and operates a business there. Employment is not sufficient to add someone to a notable people list. -John from Idegon (talk) 19:44, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Some Source Questions and Nit-Picking
Soldier Joker Phoenix in Astoria seems to be an unreliable source.

"This name is a clear reference to the cannabis-legal city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.[21]" Clear is a value statement and should be removed.

The 5th and 6th paragraphs under "History" have no citations, and neither does the 3rd paragraph onder "Geography and Climate".

Generally, more citations are needed.

Neither Hazel Dell or Lake Shore elementary are in the incorporated city.

Mitchell Kaiser (talk) 02:51, 8 April 2017 (UTC)
 * There is not a single sentence in your posting that ends in a question mark, so where are your questions, ? The simple solution?  WP:SOFIXIT. John from Idegon (talk) 03:33, 8 April 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Suburb of Portland
This is obviously a contentious issue to many people from Vancouver and Portland. Having sources from the 19th Century in the Lead doesn't help. I didn't find much in reliable sources in a quick Google search, except for this NY Times article. I also found this op-ed in a Portland area weekly that gives a local perspective. It's clear that Vancouver is part of the Portland MSA, and as such serves as a suburb of Portland, while being a smaller urban city with its own suburbs and even exurbs. Does anyone know of any books or academic studies that can be cited? If they're substantial enough, we might even be able to add an explanation to the body, perhaps expanding the Etymology section. - BilCat (talk) 00:09, 5 May 2020 (UTC)

Adding Pictures
I'm a resident and I would like to update the pictures. The skyline looks nothing like that, if some would like to help please let me know. Mojijozzumm (talk) 23:34, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I think updated pictures for some of these would be terrific, perhaps dating the older ones of skyline and Old Apple Tree for later context. I would probably wait until construction has mostly been completed on the Vancouver Waterfront developments, but I think a new picture would be an excellent addition. Rorybowman (talk) 19:37, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

Chkalov Monument
The Chkalov monument is not an obelisk, as can be seen in the picture at https://www.nps.gov/fova/learn/news/chkalov2015.htm. Originally dedicated on an anniversary of the flight, 20 June 1975, it was relocated to Pearson Field and rededicated on 30 June 1987. Rorybowman (talk) 01:41, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Reliable Source Materials
A place to capture possible source material on various topics. Please add bullets with links and details as seems helpful.

Rorybowman (talk) 12:22, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
 * History of city name and various changes over time, https://www.columbian.com/news/2024/jan/08/not-canada-d-c-or-nevada-the-name-vancouver-has-historical-hook-but-can-be-confusing-and-were-sticking-with-it/

title: Talk:Vancouver, Washington