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Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (মহাপ্রভু শ্রীচৈতন্য দেব, श्री चैतन्य महाप्रभु), born Vishvambhara Mishra, (1486–1533 CE) was an Indian Hindu saint from Bengal who was the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, which considers him to be an incarnation of Krishna. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mode of worshipping Krishna with bhajan-kirtan and dance had a profound effect on Vaishnavism in Bengal.

He was considered the chief proponent of the Vedantic philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda, although the concept of inconceivable difference in non-difference, known as achintya-bhedabheda, was developed later by Jiva Gosvami in his book Bhagavat Sandharbha.

Mahaprabhu founded Gaudiya Vaishnavism (a.k.a. the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya). He expounded Bhakti yoga and popularised the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra. He composed the Shikshashtakam (eight devotional prayers).

Chaitanya is sometimes called Gauranga or Gaura due to his molten gold–like complexion. His birthday is celebrated as Gaura-purnima. He is also called Nimai because he was born underneath a Neem tree.

Life

Caitanya was born in a Brahmin family as Viśvambhara Mishra aka Nimāi, the second son of Jagannātha Mishra and his wife Śacī Devī, the daughter of Nilambara Chakrabarti, both Brahmins of Sylhet region. Jagannātha Mishra's family were from the village of Dhakadakshin in Srihatta (Sylhet) (now in Bangladesh). The ruins of their ancestral home still survive in present-day Bangladesh.

According to Chaitanya Charitamrita, Caitanya was born in Nabadwip (in present-day West Bengal) on the full moon night of 18 February 1486, at the time of a lunar eclipse.

While still a student, his father died, and he soon married Lakṣmīpriyā. He travelled to east Bengal to become a scholar and support his family but his wife died in his absence. He then married Viṣṇupriyā, daughter of paṇḍit Sanātana Miśra. Viśvambhara, also known as Nimāi Paṇḍit, was a promising Sanskrit scholar, and once defeated Keśava Bhaṭṭa of the Nimbārka school in a debate on Sanskrit prosody.

In 1508-1509 he left Nabadvip to go to Gaya to perform śrāddha, a ritual homage to his dead father. There he met an ascetic named Īśvara Purī and was initiated by him using a mantra for Kṛṣṇa worship. After this meeting Viśvambhara abandoned all scholarly and domestic pursuits and had no interest except hearing and speaking of Kṛṣṇa. Within a year he took a vow of saṃnyāsa (renunciation) and changed his name to Kṛṣṇa Caitanya under his guru Keśava Bhāratī. His mother then asked him to at least live in the city of Puri so that he would not be too far from Bengal.

After becoming a renunciate he spent his time converting and instructing followers in the tenets of Kṛṣṇa bhakti and engaging in communal saṁkīrtana. Notably he is said to have debated and converted followers of Advaita Vedānta or Māyāvāda. He spent two months in Vrindavan in c. 1515 where he instructed Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmi. The last two decades of his life were spent in Puri where he focused on immersing himself in devotional yearning for Kṛṣṇa and his consorts, mainly Rādhā. He died c. 1528-1534.

Biographies
Works on Chaitanya:

 * Krsna-Caitanya-Caritamrta (c. 1513 or 1536–1540; Sanskrit)
 * By Murari Gupta. Known as a kadcha or chronicle. Chaitanya's Navadwipa līla and each panca-tattva presented as a form of the Lord. Caitanya went for the first time to Murari's house at Navadwipa. Murari's standing and reputation for learning gave his biographical materials great weight in the Vaishnava community. This Kadcha (notes) became the guiding lines for other biographers.

 * Kadcha or chronicle (Sanskrit)
 * By Svarupa Damodara. He was the personal secretary of Chaitanya. Details the life of Caitanya.

 * Govindadaser Kadcha (Bengali)
 * By Govinda Dāsa who accompanied Chaitanya on his tour of Deccan. This poem describes their experiences on the journey and some imaginary events in the life of Chaitanya as well as his ideas and philosophy. It is another significant biographical work, but it was regarded as controversial because of the authenticity.

 * Chaitanya Bhagavata (c. 1535 or 1546–1550; Bengali)
 * By Vrindavana Dasa Thakura. Three parts: Adi-Khanda, Mādhya-Khanda, and Antya-Khanda. Chaitanya's earlier life, activities, early movement in Navadwip.

 * Krsna-Caitanya-caritra-mahakavya (c. 1535)
 * By Kavi Karnapura (Paramanand Sen).

 * Krsna-Caitanya-candrodaya-natakam (c. 1535 – 1570s)
 * By Kavi Karnapura. Based on Murari Gupta's Krsna-Caitanya-Caritamrta. When Karnapura was a small child, he interacted with Chaitanya personally.

 * Caitanya-candrodaya-natakam (c. 1538 or 1540 or 1572 or 1579; Sanskrit)
 * By Kavi Karnapura (Paramanand Sen). Dramatic play in ten acts of Chaitanya's life.

 * Caitanya-caritāmṛta-kavya (c. 1542 – late 1500s; Sanskrit)
 * By Kavi Karnapura (Paramanand Sen). A long biographical poem on Chaitanya's life and acts.

 * Caitanya-caritāmṛta (c. 1557 or 1580 or 1615; Bengali)
 * By Krishnadasa Kaviraja. Three parts: Adi-lila, Madhya-lila, and Antya-lila. Massive authoritative composition of Chaitanya's biography and teachings. According to Manring, he draws liberally from previous writers (poets, theologians and biographers) as he deems correct, omitting Kavi Karnapura's works perceived as threatening Rupa's authority.

 * Caitanya-Mangala (c. 1560 or late 1500s; Bengali)
 * By Jayananda. Nine parts: Adikhanda, Nadiyakhanda, Vairagyakhanda, Sannyaskhanda, Utkalkhanda, Prakashkhanda, Tirthakhanda, Vijaykhanda, and Uttarkhanda. Biographical poem in the form of a narrative play focused on Chaitanya's godly image. It is the only work in which his death is mentioned. Introduction mentions several previous biographers, of whom only Vrindavan is known. Written for the common people (not devotees).

 * Chaitanya Mangala (c. 1560–66 or 1575)
 * By Lochana Dasa (a.k.a. Trilocan Dasa). Four parts: Sutrakhanda, Adikhanda, Madhyakhanda, and Antyakhanda. A narrative play depicting Chaitanya's childhood activities and his human side without highlighting any divine matters to make it popular. Influenced by Murari Gupta's Krsna-Caitanya-Caritamrta and Vrindavana Dasa Thakura's Chaitanya Bhagavata as well as the Mahabharata and different Puranas.

 * Chaitanya-chandrodaya-kaumudi (Bengali)
 * By Premadas (Purushottam Mishra). A verse adaptation to Kavi Karnapura's Caitanya-candrodaya-natakam drama.

 * Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika (c. 1576)
 * By Kavi Karnapura (Paramanand Sen).

 * Chaitanya-samhita (Bengali)
 * By Bhagirath Bandhu. Work follows the tradition of agama or tantric texts in its presentation as a story told by Shiva to his spouse.

 * Chaitanya-vilasa (c. 1500s; Odia)
 * By Madhava Dasa. A short poetical work in ten sections dealing with the life of Chaitanya. The poet probably came into contact with the saint when the latter came to Puri.

 * Gauranga-vijay (c. 1500s)
 * By Chundamani dasa. Biographical epic, believed to have been written in three volumes, only part of the first volume still exists. It contains some information about Chaitanya, Nityananda and Madhavendra Puri not found elsewhere.

 * Sriman-mahaprabhor-asta-kaliya-lila-smarana-mangala-stotram (c. late 1600s; Sanskrit)
 * By Visvanatha Chakravarti. Eleven sutras (seed verses) describing the eternal eight-fold daily pastimes of the fair-complexioned Lord.

 * Sri Gauranga-Lilamrta (c. late 1600s – 1700s; Bengali)
 * By Krishna Dasa (disciple of Visvanatha Chakravarti). Expounded on his guru's eleven sutras, often quoting verses from Vrindavana Dasa Thakura's Chaitanya Bhagavata, plus songs by Narahari Ghanashyama (author of Bhakti-Ratnakara) and Lochana Dasa (author of Chaitanya-Mangala).

 * Caitanya-upanisad
 * A book that is a part of the Atharvaveda which offers overwhelming evidence of Chaitanya's identity as the Supreme Lord and Yuga Avatara.

 * Sri Caitanya-caranamrta Bhasva (1887)
 * By Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Commentary on an original handwritten manuscript of the Caitanya-upanisad from one pandita, Madhusudana Maharaja, of Sambala-Pura.

 * Amrita-pravaha-bhashya (c. late 1800s – early 1900s; Sanskrit)
 * By Bhaktivinoda Thakur. Commentary on Caitanya-upanisad.

 * Anubhāsya (1915)
 * By Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. Commentary on Krishnadasa Kaviraja's Caitanya-caritāmṛta

 * Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (1974; English)
 * By A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in English with original Bengali and Sanskrit. Commentary on Krishnadasa Kaviraja's Caitanya-caritāmṛta, based on Bhaktivinoda Thakur's Amrita-pravaha-bhashya and Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's Anubhāsya commentaries.

 * Krishna-Caitanya, His Life and His Teachings (2014; English; ISBN 978-91-981318-1-9)
 * By Walther Eidlitz, originally written in German - Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya: sein Leben und seine Lehre, and published by Stockholm University, 1968, as a part of the scientific series "Stockholm studies in comparative religion".

Philosophy and tradition
From the very beginning of Chaitanya's bhakti movement in Bengal, Haridasa Thakur and others, Muslim or Hindu by birth, were participants. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the great sage of Dakshineswar, who lived in the 19th century, emphasised the bhakti marga of Chaitanya, whom he referred to as "Gauranga." (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna). This openness received a boost from Bhaktivinoda Thakura's broad-minded vision in the late 19th century and was institutionalised by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in his Gaudiya Matha in the 20th century.

In the 20th century the teachings of Chaitanya were brought to the West. For the first time, by Baba Premananda Bharati (1858–1914), author of Sree Krishna—the Lord of Love (1904)—the first full-length treatment of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in English, who founded in 1902 the short-lived "Krishna Samaj" society in New York City and built a temple in Los Angeles. He belonged to the circle of guru Prabhu Jagadbandhu with teachings similar to the later ISKCON mission. His followers later formed several organisations, including now defunct the Order of Living Service and the AUM Temple of Universal Truth. Another prominent missionary was A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977), a representative of the Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati branch of Chaitanya's tradition. Prabhupada founded his movement known as The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) to spread Chaitanya's teachings throughout the world. Saraswata gurus and acharyas, members of the Goswami lineages and several other Hindu sects which revere Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, including devotees from the major Vaishnava holy places in Mathura District, West Bengal and Odisha, also established temples dedicated to Krishna and Chaitanya outside India in the closing decades of the 20th century. In the 21st century, Vaishnava bhakti is now also being studied through the academic medium of Krishnology in a number of academic institutions.

Cultural legacy
Chaitanya's influence on the cultural legacy in Bengal, Odisha and Manipur, has been significant, with many residents performing daily worship to him as an avatar of Krishna. Some attribute to him a Renaissance in Bengal, different from the more well-known 19th-century Bengal Renaissance. Salimullah Khan (b. 1958), a noted Bangladeshi linguist, maintains, "Sixteenth-century is the time of Chaitanya Dev, and it is the beginning of Modernism in Bengal. The concept of 'humanity' that came into fruition is contemporaneous with that of Europe".

Noted Bengali biographical film on Chaitanya, Nilachaley Mahaprabhu (1957), was directed by Kartik Chattopadhyay (1912–1989). A Bengali film based on Chaitanya's demise, Lawho Gouranger Naam Re, will be directed by Srijit Mukherji where Parambrata Chatterjee will be seen portraying Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Recognition
In 2024, speaking at the commemorative event for the 150th birth anniversary of a leading proponent of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi called Chaitanya Mahaprabhu “the touchstone of love for Krishna. He made spiritualism and meditation accessible to the masses” and recalled his own personal experience of the transformative power of bhakti through kirtan.

title: Chaitanya Mahaprabhu


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Slogan

A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political, commercial, religious, or other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines a slogan as "a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising". A slogan usually has the attributes of being memorable, very concise and appealing to the audience.

Etymology
The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic and Irish sluagh-ghairm (sluagh 'army', 'host' and gairm 'cry'). George E. Shankel's (1941, as cited in Denton 1980) research states that "English-speaking people began using the term by 1704". The term at that time meant "the distinctive note, phrase or cry of any person or body of persons". Slogans were common throughout the European continent during the Middle Ages; they were used primarily as passwords to ensure proper recognition of individuals at night or in the confusion of battle.

Likability
Crimmins' (2000, as cited in Dass, Kumar, Kohli, & Thomas, 2014) research suggests that brands are an extremely valuable corporate asset, and can constitute much of a business's total value. With this in mind, if we take into consideration Keller's (1993, as cited in Dass, Kumar, Kohli, & Thomas, 2014) research, which suggests that a brand is made up of three different components. These include, name, logo and slogan. Brands names and logos both can be changed by the way the receiver interprets them. Therefore, the slogan has a large job in portraying the brand (Dass, Kumar, Kohli, & Thomas, 2014). Therefore, the slogan should create a sense of likability in order for the brand name to be likable and the slogan message very clear and concise.

Dass, Kumar, Kohli, & Thomas' (2014) research suggests that there are certain factors that make up the likability of a slogan. The clarity of the message the brand is trying to encode within the slogan. The slogan emphasizes the benefit of the product or service it is portraying. The creativity of a slogan is another factor that had a positive effect on the likability of a slogan. Lastly, leaving the brand name out of the slogan will have a positive effect on the likability of the brand itself. Advertisers must keep into consideration these factors when creating a slogan for a brand, as it clearly shows a brand is a very valuable asset to a company, with the slogan being one of the three main components to a brands' image.

Usage
The original usage refers to the usage as a clan motto among Gaelic armies. Marketing slogans are often called taglines in the United States or straplines in the United Kingdom. Europeans use the terms baselines, signatures, claims or pay-offs. "Sloganeering" is a mostly derogatory term for activity which degrades discourse to the level of slogans.

Slogans are used to convey a message about the product, service or cause that it is representing. It can have a musical tone to it or written as a song. Slogans are often used to capture the attention of the audience it is trying to reach. If the slogan is used for commercial purposes, often it is written to be memorable/catchy in order for a consumer to associate the slogan with the product it is representing. A slogan is part of the production aspect that helps create an image for the product, service or cause it is representing. A slogan can be a few simple words used to form a phrase that can be used in a repetitive manner. In commercial advertising, corporations will use a slogan as part of promotional activity. Slogans can become a global way of identifying a good or service, for example Nike's slogan 'Just Do It' helped establish Nike as an identifiable brand worldwide.

Slogans should catch the audience's attention and influence the consumer's thoughts on what to purchase. The slogan is used by companies to affect the way consumers view their product compared to others. Slogans can also provide information about the product, service or cause it is advertising. The language used in the slogans is essential to the message it wants to convey. Current words used can trigger different emotions that consumers will associate that product with. The use of good adjectives makes for an effective slogan; when adjectives are paired with describing nouns, they help bring the meaning of the message out through the words. When a slogan is used for advertising purposes its goal is to sell the product or service to as many consumers through the message and information a slogan provides. A slogan's message can include information about the quality of the product. Examples of words that can be used to direct the consumer preference towards a current product and its qualities are: good, beautiful, real, better, great, perfect, best, and pure. Slogans can influence that way consumers behave when choosing what product to buy.

Slogans offer information to consumers in an appealing and creative way. A slogan can be used for a powerful cause where the impact of the message is essential to the cause. The slogan can be used to raise awareness about a current cause; one way is to do so is by showing the truth that the cause is supporting. A slogan should be clear with a supporting message. Slogans, when combined with action, can provide an influential foundation for a cause to be seen by its intended audience. Slogans, whether used for advertising purpose or social causes, deliver a message to the public that shapes the audiences' opinion towards the subject of the slogan.

"It is well known that the text a human hears or reads constitutes merely 7% of the received information. As a result, any slogan merely possesses a supportive task." (Rumšienė & Rumšas, 2014). Looking at a slogan as a supportive role to a brand's image and portrayal is helpful to understand why advertisers need to be careful in how they construct their slogan, as it needs to mold with the other components of the brand image, being logo and name. For example, if a slogan was pushing towards "environmentally friendly", yet the logo and name seemed to show very little concern for the environment, it would be harder for the brand to integrate these components into a successful brand image, as they would not integrate together towards a common image.

In Protest
Slogans have been used widely in protests dating back hundreds of years, however increased rapidly following the advent of mass media, particularly with the creation the Gutenberg's printing press and later modern mass media in the early 20th century. Examples of slogans being used in the context of protest in antiquity include the Nika revolt, in which the cry "Nika!" (victory in Greek) was used as a rallying tool and nearly brought down the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I. The basis of slogans have been noted by many political figures and dictators have also noted its effectiveness, in Hitler's Mein Kampf he notes to tell and repeat the same talking points without any regard to if they have any philosophical or factual basis in reality, advising to state "big lies" in politics.

The basis of this simple propaganda effect was used by the Nazi and Soviet regimes as noted in their propaganda posters. In contrast, slogans are oftentimes used in liberal democracies as well as grassroot organisation, in a campaign setting. With the increasing speed and quantity of information in the modern age, slogans have become a mainstay of any campaign, often used by Unions while strike is called to make their demands immediately clear.

This has been noted by many scholars, as an example Noam Chomsky notes of the worrying fusion of media and reality in Manufacturing Consent Chomsky discusses this basis as well the potential dangers of this, particularly towards the context of corporations and producing advertisements that either seek to empower or exclude the viewer to encourage an in-group mentality with the goal of getting the viewer to consume. While Manufacturing Consent addresses the use of slogans in the context of national propaganda, Chomsky argues that national and capitalist propaganda are inherently linked and are not clearly exclusive to each other. They are often used in disinformation campaigns, as quick immediate forms of propaganda suited well to modern forms of social media. Earlier writers such George Orwell notes the effective use of quick non-critical slogans to produce a servile population, written primarily in 1984 as a general critique of the manipulation of language.

Politics and racism
Slogans are often used as a way to dehumanize groups of people. In the United States as anti-communist fever took hold in the 1950s, the phrase "Better dead than Red" became popular anti-communist slogan in the United States, especially during the McCarthy era.

Death to America is an anti-American political slogan and chant. It is used in Iran. Death to Arabs is an anti-Arab slogan which is used by some Israelis.

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

title: Slogan


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Colonel Blimp

Colonel Blimp is a British cartoon character by cartoonist David Low, first drawn for Lord Beaverbrook's London Evening Standard in April 1934. Blimp is pompous, irascible, jingoistic, and stereotypically British, identifiable by his walrus moustache and the interjection "Gad, Sir!"

Low claimed that he developed the character after overhearing two military men in a Victorian-style Turkish bath declare that cavalry officers should be entitled to wear their spurs inside tanks. The character was named after the barrage balloon, which was known as a blimp.

Character
Blimp issues proclamations from the bath, wrapped in his towel and brandishing some mundane weapon to emphasize his passion on some issue of current affairs. Red-faced with rage and emotion, he often makes confused pronouncements. Blimp's phrasing often includes direct contradiction, as though upon starting the sentence he did not know how the sentence was to end. His initial words were always a part of an emotional catchphrase. For instance: "Gad, Sir! Mr Lansbury is right. The League of Nations should insist on peace — except of course in the case of war.", or: "Gad, Sir! Lord Bunk is right. The government is marching over the edge of an abyss, and the nation must march solidly behind them." Blimp is usually depicted speaking to a cartoon version of David Low, the cartoon's creator, and Blimp's comments are not infrequently directed at the opinions of Lord Beaverbrook, the owner of the newspaper in which the cartoon appeared.

Blimp was a satire on the reactionary opinions of the British establishment of the 1930s and 1940s. The cartoon was intended to criticise attitudes of isolationism, impatience with the concerns of common people, and a lack of enthusiasm for democracy. These were attitudes which Low, a New Zealander, considered as being common in British politics. Although Low described his character Blimp as "a symbol of stupidity", he lessened the insult to the British upper class by adding that "stupid people are quite nice".

Legacy
The character has earned a legacy as a clichéd phrase – very reactionary opinions are characterised as "Colonel Blimp" statements.

George Orwell and Tom Wintringham made especially extensive use of the term "Blimps" to refer to this type of military officer, Orwell in his articles and Wintringham in his books How to Reform the Army and People's War. In his 1941 essay "The Lion and the Unicorn", Orwell referred to two important sub-sections of the middle class, one of which was the military and imperialistic middle class, nicknamed the Blimps, and characterised by the "half-pay (i.e retired) colonel with his bull neck and diminutive brain". He added that they had been losing their vitality during the past thirty years, "writhing impotently under the changes that were happening".

Herbert Read has also used the term to describe people who were strongly hostile to modern art.

The term "Blimp" continues to be referenced from time to time. In a 1994 article published in The New York Review of Books, John Banville recalled a televised exchange between an elderly lady and Kingsley Amis as "an endearing moment, in which one glimpsed the warm and funny man that Amis used to be before he decided, some time in the 1960s, to turn himself into a literary Colonel Blimp". In a 2006 book, historian Christopher Clark used the term "blimpish" to characterise the Prussian Field Marshal von Mollendorf (1724–1816), who distinguished himself as an officer in the Seven Years' War but whose conservatism and opposition to military reform were considered to have contributed to Prussia's defeat in the Battle of Jena in 1806. In his review of Garner's Modern American Usage, David Foster Wallace referred to the "Colonel Blimp's rage" of prescriptivist journalists like William Safire.

The graphic novel series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which depicts numerous literary characters interacting with each other, includes Horatio Blimp as an overconfident major of the British army who commands the initial strike against the Martians of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds.

Film
In 1943, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger wrote, produced, and directed the motion picture The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). Filmed during wartime, the movie portrayed the life of an admirable British officer named Clive Candy. The story encouraged the audience to accept that although the officer was honorable, with time his opinions had become outdated, and that winning a modern war required irregular means. The British film featured Roger Livesey in the title role, Deborah Kerr, and Anton Walbrook. The "Blimp" character was not actually called "Blimp" other than in the title, nor did he die.

title: Colonel Blimp


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Georg Dehio

Georg Gottfried Julius Dehio (22 November 1850 in Reval (now Tallinn), Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire – 21 March 1932 in Tübingen), was a Baltic German art historian.

In 1900, Dehio started the "Handbuch der deutschen Kunstgeschichte" (Handbook of German Art History), published by Ernst Wasmuth. The project is ongoing and managed by the 'Dehio-Vereinigung', Munich.

He is the namesake of the Georg Dehio Prize (Georg Dehio Book Prize).

He was laureate of the Pour le Mérite order ("Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste"), the Eagle Shield of the German Empire (Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches) and the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art. He held honorary doctor titles in Göttingen, Tübingen, Frankfurt (Main) and Darmstadt. The minor planet 48415 Dehio discovered circa 1987, is named after him.

title: Georg Dehio


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David Low (cartoonist)

Sir David Alexander Cecil Low (7 April 1891 – 19 September 1963) was a New Zealand political cartoonist and caricaturist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom for many years. Low was a self-taught cartoonist. Born in New Zealand, he worked in his native country before migrating to Sydney in 1911, and ultimately to London (1919), where he made his career and earned fame for his Colonel Blimp depictions and his satirising of the personalities and policies of German dictator Adolf Hitler, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and other leaders of his times.

Low was born and educated in New Zealand. His first work was published when he was only 11 years old. His professional career began at The Canterbury Times in 1910. The following year he moved to Australia and worked for The Bulletin. His work attracted the attention of Henry Cadbury, the part owner of The Star, and Low moved to London in 1919, working for that paper until 1927, when he moved to the Evening Standard. There he produced his most famous work, chronicling the rise of fascism in the 1930s, the policy of Appeasement, and the conflict of World War II. His provocative depictions of Hitler and Mussolini led to his work being banned in Italy and Germany, and his being named in The Black Book.

Early life
The son of chemist David Brown Low and Jane Caroline Flanagan, David Low was born in Dunedin on 7 April 1891, and attended primary school there. His family later moved to Christchurch, where Low briefly attended Christchurch Boys' High School. However following the death of his eldest brother, Low was taken out of school, as his parents believed that he had been weakened by over studying. Low's first cartoon was published in 1902, when he was 11 years old, a three-picture strip in the British comic Big Budget.

Early career
Low began his career as a professional cartoonist with the Canterbury Times in 1910. In 1911 he moved to Sydney, Australia to join The Bulletin. A large format collection of some 350 pieces for those papers was published in the album Caricatures by Low 1915. During his employment at The Bulletin, Low became well known for a 1916 cartoon satirising Billy Hughes, then the Prime Minister of Australia, entitled The Imperial Conference. After that success, Low published many cartoons depicting Hughes' forceful and eccentric personality. Hughes was not impressed and apparently called Low a "bastard" to his face. A collection of Low's cartoons of Hughes entitled The Billy Book, which he published in 1918, brought Low to the notice of Henry Cadbury, part-owner of The Star. In 1919 Cadbury offered Low a job with the Star, which Low promptly accepted.

Move to England
From 1919 to 1927 Low worked at the London Star, which sympathised with his moderately left-wing views. In 1927, he accepted an invitation from Max Aitken to join the conservative Evening Standard on the strict understanding that there would be no editorial interference with his output. In 1928 he showed his support for newly enfranchised women with his character, Joan Bull. The character appeared for a few years but fell out of regular use as the public concerns about women getting the vote disappeared. Low produced numerous cartoons about the Austrian Civil War, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the 1936 Summer Olympics, the Spanish Civil War, and other events of the interwar period. He also worked with Horace Thorogood to produce illustrated whimsical articles on the London scene, under the byline "Low & Terry".

John Gunther called Low "the greatest caricaturist in the world". In 1937, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels told British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax that British political cartoons, particularly those of Low's, were damaging Anglo-German relations. In 1937 Low had produced an occasional strip about "Hit and Muss" (Hitler and Mussolini), but after Germany made official complaints he substituted a composite dictator, "Muzzler". After the war, Low is said to have found his name in The Black Book, the list of those the Nazis planned to arrest in the aftermath of an invasion of Great Britain.

Second World War
His works are featured in many British history textbooks. On 1 September, the Germans invaded Poland from the west and, on 17 September, the Soviets invaded from the east. Low depicted these events in one of his most famous cartoons, Rendezvous, first published in the Evening Standard on 20 September 1939. It satirises the cynicism at the heart of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, showing Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin bowing politely across the dead body of Poland and greeting each other respectively as "The scum of the earth, I believe?" and "The bloody assassin of the workers, I presume?". The phrasing is based on that supposedly used by Henry Morton Stanley at his meeting with David Livingstone in 1871, and the dictators are shown raising their hats to one another in greeting similarly to the two explorers in artistic reconstructions of that earlier meeting. The work has been parodied by several other cartoonists.

The Harmony Boys of 2 May 1940 depicts Hitler, Stalin, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and Spanish dictator Francisco Franco "harmonizing" and getting along quite well. When this cartoon was published, the German invasion of the Soviet Union was still more than a year in the future.

His satirical works met much criticism in the British public eye. The British press called him a "war monger," and many citizens felt disdain for his depictions of appeasement.

Remainder of career
Low remained in the United Kingdom for the rest of his career. He left the Evening Standard in 1950. That same year, he moved to the Daily Herald and stayed there until 1953. Finally, Low moved to the Manchester Guardian and was there from 1953.

Low received a knighthood in the 1962 Birthday Honours and died at his home in London on 19 September 1963. His obituary in The Guardian described him as "the dominant cartoonist of the western world".

A blue plaque commemorates Low at 33 Melbury Court, Kensington.

Personal life
Low married Madeline Grieve Kenning of Auckland on 7 June 1920 in St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden; they lived for many years in Golders Green, North London. The couple had two daughters: in 1939, Time described Low's breakfast as "a political meeting, with the cartoonist, his wife, and his two young daughters threshing out the news." His wife and daughters survived him. In 1991 a Blue plaque was erected to commemorate his life at Melbury Court, Kensington High Street, London, W8 6NH in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Collections
United Kingdom
 * British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent
 * Political Cartoon Gallery, 16 Lower Richmond Road, London SW15 1JP – a collection of Low's original cartoons from the Evening Standard and The Manchester Guardian, as well as original caricatures from his New Statesman series.

Australia Low's cartoons continued to appear in Australian papers after his move to England. See List of David Low's Cartoons in Australian Newspapers.
 * National Library of Australia:
 * The Pictures Collection holds 57 original drawings and 22 photo-lithographs individually catalogued with a number digitised (including drawings relating to The Billy Book)
 * The Newspapers Collection holds many thousands of Low's cartoons, although none are digitised at present.

Selected works

 * Low's Annual (1908)
 * Caricatures by Low (1915)
 * The Billy Book (1918)
 * Sketches by Low (1926)
 * Lions and Lambs (1928)
 * The Autocracy of Mr. Parham by H. G. Wells (1930), illustrator; German edition, Der Diktator (P. Zsolnay, 1931)
 * Low's Russian Sketchbook (1932)
 * Low & Terry (1934) with Horace Thorogood
 * The Modern Rake's Progress (1934) with Rebecca West
 * Low Again (1938)
 * A Cartoon History of Our Times (1939)
 * Europe since Versailles (1940)
 * All behind you (1940)
 * Europe at War (1941)
 * The World at War (1942)
 * Years of Wrath: A Cartoon History 1932–45 (1949)
 * Low Visibility: A Cartoon History 1945–53 (1953)
 * Autobiography (M. Joseph, 1956), 387 pp.,
 * The Fearful Fifties: A History of the Decade (1960)
 * The Bedside Guardian 12: A Selection from the Guardian 1962-1963 (foreword/editor, 1963)
 * Low and the Dictators (2009) by Timothy S. Benson
 * David Low Censored (2019) by Timothy S. Benson ISBN 9781999646844 Political Cartoon Society

title: David Low (cartoonist)


text:
Fylfot

The fylfot or fylfot cross and its mirror image, the gammadion, are types of swastika associated with medieval Anglo-Saxon culture. It is a cross with perpendicular extensions, usually at 90° or close angles, radiating in the same direction. However – at least in modern heraldry texts, such as Friar and Woodcock & Robinson (see ) –  the fylfot differs somewhat from the archetypal form of the swastika: always upright and typically with truncated limbs, as shown in the figure at right.

Etymology
The most commonly cited etymology for this is that it comes from the notion common among 19th-century antiquarians, but based on only a single 1500 manuscript, that it was used to fill empty space at the foot of stained-glass windows in medieval churches. This etymology is often cited in modern dictionaries (such as the Collins English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Online ).

History
The fylfot, together with its sister figures, the gammadion and the swastika, has been found in a great variety of contexts over the centuries. It has occurred in both secular and religious contexts in the British Isles, elsewhere in Europe, in Asia Minor and in Africa.

The gammadion is associated more with Byzantium, Rome and Graeco-Roman culture on the one hand, whereas the fylfot is associated more with Celtic and Anglo-Saxon culture on the other. Although the gammadion is very similar to the fylfot in appearance, it is thought to have originated from the conjunction of four capital 'Gammas' (Γ, the third letter of the Greek alphabet) but that the similarity of the symbols is coincidental.

Both of these swastika-like crosses may have been indigenous to the British Isles before the Roman invasion. Certainly they were in evidence a thousand years earlier but these may have been largely imports. They were certainly substantially in evidence during the Romano-British period with widespread examples of the duplicated Greek fret motif appearing on mosaics. After the withdrawal of the Romans in the early 5th century there followed the Anglo-Saxon and Jutish migrations. The fylfot is known to have been very popular amongst these incoming tribes from Northern Europe, as it is found on artefacts such as brooches, sword hilts and funerary urns. Although the findings at Sutton Hoo are most instructive about the style of lordly Anglo-Saxon burials, the fylfot or gammadion on the silver dish unearthed there clearly had an Eastern provenance.

The fylfot was widely adopted in the early Christian centuries. It is found extensively in the Roman catacombs. An example of its usage is to be found in the porch of the parish church of Great Canfield, Essex, England. As the parish guide states, the fylfot or gammadion can be traced back to the Roman catacombs where it appears in both Christian and pagan contexts. More recently it has been found on grave-slabs in Scotland and Ireland. A particularly interesting example was found in Barhobble, Wigtownshire in Scotland.

Gospel books also contain examples of this form of the Christian cross. The most notable examples are probably the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels. An example of this decoration occurs on the Ardagh Chalice.

From the early 14th century on, the fylfot was often used to adorn Eucharistic robes. During that period it appeared on the monumental brasses that preserved the memory of those priests thus attired. They are mostly to be found in East Anglia and the Home Counties.

Probably its most conspicuous usage has been its incorporation in stained glass windows notably in Cambridge and Edinburgh. In Cambridge it is found in the baptismal window of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, together with other allied Christian symbols, originating in the 19th century. In Scotland, it is found in a window in the Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh. The work was undertaken by Douglas Strachan and installed during the 1920s. He was also responsible for a window in the chapel of Westminster College, Cambridge. A similar usage is to be found in the Central Congregational Church in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, installed in 1893. The fylfot is sometimes found on church bells in England. It was adopted by the Heathcote family in Derbyshire as part of their iconographic tradition in the 16th and 17th centuries. This is probably an example where pagan and Christian influence both have a part to play as the fylfot was amongst other things the symbol of Thor, the Norse god of thunder and its use on bells suggests it was linked to the dispelling of thunder in popular mythology.

In heraldry

In modern heraldry texts, the fylfot is typically shown with truncated limbs, rather like a cross potent that's had one arm of each T cut off. It's also known as a cross cramponned, ~nnée, or ~nny, as each arm resembles a crampon or angle-iron (compare Winkelmaßkreuz). Examples of fylfots in heraldry are extremely rare, and the charge is not mentioned in Oswald Barron's article on "Heraldry" in most 20th-century editions of Encyclopædia Britannica. Parker (1894) includes it in his A glossary of terms used in heraldry, noting that only one instance occurs on coats of arms, that of Chamberlayne.

A 20th-century example (with four heraldic roses) can be seen in the Lotta Svärd emblem.

Modern use of the term
From its use in heraldry – or from its use by antiquaries – fylfot has become an established word for this symbol, in at least British English.

However, it was only rarely used. Wilson, writing in 1896, says, "The use of Fylfot is confined to comparatively few persons in Great Britain and, possibly, Scandinavia. Outside of these countries it is scarcely known, used, or understood".

In more recent times, fylfot has gained greater currency within the areas of design history and collecting, where it is used to distinguish the swastika motif as used in designs and jewellery from that used in Nazi paraphernalia. After the appropriation of the swastika by Nazi organisations, the term fylfot has been used to distinguish historical and non-Nazi instances of the symbol from those where the term swastika might carry specific connotations. The word "swastika" itself was appropriated into English from Sanskrit in the late 19th century. However, the word and symbol continue to have major religious significance for Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and other eastern faiths. For this reason, some have campaigned to have all uses of the word in a Nazi context changed to use the Hakenkreuz [hooked cross].

Hansard for 12 June 1996 reports a House of Commons discussion about the badge of No. 273 Fighter Squadron, Royal Air Force. In this, fylfot is used to describe the ancient symbol, and swastika used as if it refers only to the symbol used by the Nazis.

title: Fylfot


text:
W. G. G. Duncan Smith

Group Captain Wilfrid George Gerald Duncan Smith, (28 May 1914 – 11 December 1996) was a Royal Air Force flying ace of the Second World War. He was the father of Iain Duncan Smith, Member of Parliament and Leader of the Conservative Party.

Early life
Duncan Smith was born in Madras, India (now Chennai) on 28 May 1914, the son of a Mysore Post Office Superintendent, Wilfrid Arthur Smith and Anna Cecilia Smith (née Duncan). He was educated at Nairn and Morrison's Academy, Crieff, in Scotland, where he joined his school's Officers' Training Corps. Returning to India in 1933, he became a coffee and tea planter, but in 1936 returned to Britain to work as a mechanical engineer, and then was a salesman for Great Western Motors in Reading. With war looming, he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR).

Second World War
A sergeant at the start of the Second World War, Duncan Smith was commissioned as a pilot officer (on probation) on 29 September 1940. Serving with No. 7 Operational Training Unit at the outbreak of war, Duncan Smith was posted to the Spitfire-equipped No. 611 Squadron RAF at RAF Hornchurch in October 1940. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in June 1941, and went to No. 603 Squadron RAF in August 1941 as a Flight Commander. Duncan Smith was due for a rest but had to remain operational, leading his squadron while bringing their new squadron leader up to speed. He was promoted to flying officer (war-substantive) on 29 September. On 20 November he was taken ill, passing out after returning from a convoy patrol. Duncan Smith spent some time in hospital with double pneumonia, the symptoms of which he had assumed was only the result of exhaustion from a long operational tour.

Upon recovery in January 1942, Duncan Smith rejoined the Hornchurch Wing, now flying the improved Spitfire Mk.IX. In March 1942 he was promoted to acting squadron leader and given command of No. 64 Squadron RAF. He was promoted to flight lieutenant (war-substantive) on 27 June.

During the ill-fated Dieppe Raid on 19 August, Duncan Smith was shot down by an enemy fighter but rescued from the English Channel with injuries and eardrum pain. In August he became an acting wing commander (flying) at RAF North Weald. In November he was rested from operations with a posting to take charge of the Tactics Branch at Fighter Command, his input leading to the formation of the Fighter Command School of Tactics at RAF Charmy Down. He was promoted to squadron leader (war-substantive) on 30 November.

While Duncan Smith's non-operational tour was recognised as very productive, he began to seek a return to operations, and he was sent to Malta to command the 244th Fighter Wing. During this time he flew in support of the Allied landings on Sicily. On 12 July his Mark IX Spitfire was badly damaged in combat, but this episode ended well when he landed at Safi airfield on Malta with his aircraft riddled with cannon shells in fuselage, elevator and rudder: "My Spitfire was in a mess. Cannon shells had blasted a couple of large holes in the side. One had burst against the radio and armour behind my seat. Another, having made a hole the size of a football, had torn the control wires to shreds. The elevator was hanging by one thread of frayed wire and my rigger neatly snapped this with a sharp blow from his fingers. 'You will not be needing that any more,' he grinned at me. 'It all looks very untidy – doesn't it?' Another cannon shell had torn big pieces out of the elevator and rudder surfaces." Potential victors could be Experten Feldwebel Heinrich Steis from 4./JG 27 or Oberfeldwebel Günther "Hupatz" Seeger of 7./JG 53. On 2 September 1943, just before the invasion of Italy, Duncan Smith ran out of fuel when a switch between fuel tanks failed. He was forced to bail out into the sea, injuring his kneecap in the process. He was rescued after more than six hours adrift. He was very lucky for a second time; while he was being dragged to the Air Sea Rescue Services Supermarine Walrus by a rope, the Walrus was severely shot up by an enemy fighter: "The Walrus was badly holed below the water and a cannon shell had pierced the wing tank, but luckily, though petrol spewed all over the place, the old bus did not catch fire. The blow I felt was from a bullet that tore through the collar of my Mae West grazing my neck before smacking into the Walrus. We got down at Milazzon safely, after a brilliant landing by the pilot, and I was whisked off to the American field hospital close by. There they were very kind and after fixing up my leg and dressing the neck wound tried to keep me for the night, but I managed to talk the doctor into letting me return to Lentini. The Walrus Air Sea Rescue aircraft was a total wreck having been damaged in too many vital parts." The sad end to the story, other than Duncan Smith losing his footwear in the sea, was news that his comrade Dick Charrington had been shot down and killed during this rescue mission by an enemy fighter. Charrington may have been shot down by Unteroffizier Alfred Scharl of 2./JG 53 who was credited with a kill at 17:20 2 September 1943, 15 km north of Tropea at low altitude. The identity of the German pilot who severely damaged the Walrus is not known. After all those sunburns, injuries, wounds and the return of his ear pain from 19 August 1942, Duncan Smith was considered unfit for action. As an acting group captain, he then took charge of 324 Wing, finally leaving in March 1945.

Duncan Smith was credited with 17 enemy aircraft shot down, two shared destroyed, six probables, two shared probables and eight damaged in aerial combat. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Bar and the DFC and Bar in recognition of his bravery.

He was the author of Spitfire into Battle (1981), an account of aerial combat in the Supermarine Spitfire.

Post war
On 3 December 1946, Duncan Smith was promoted to the temporary rank of squadron leader in the RAFVR (seniority from 1 November 1946), receiving promotion to the substantive rank of flight lieutenant in the RAFVR on 1 November 1947 (seniority from 1 December 1942). On 22 March 1948, he was appointed to a permanent RAF commission in the rank of squadron leader, with seniority from the same date. He received a second Bar to his DFC for service in the Malayan Emergency in 1952, and was promoted to wing commander on 1 January 1953. He retired on 24 November 1960, retaining the rank of group captain.

Personal life
Duncan Smith was given his mother's maiden name (Duncan) as a middle name—a fairly conventional practice of the Edwardian period—but his father's name was "Smith", not "Duncan Smith" and, in Second World War RAF records, Duncan Smith himself is always listed as W. G. G. D. Smith, not W.G.G. Duncan Smith. It is not known precisely when he started using his mother's maiden name as part of his surname but he decided to pass the name to his children. Whether this makes the current family surname "Duncan Smith" or still "Smith" is a moot point.

His second wife, Pamela Summers (whom he married in 1946) was a ballet dancer who was born in Nanking, China where her father was a commissioner in the Chinese Postal Service. Her maternal grandmother was Ellen Oshey Matsumuro, a Japanese woman whose father was a Japanese artist. Their son Iain Duncan Smith is a politician who was leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to November 2003 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in the Coalition government of 2010. In his office hangs a portrait of Adam Duncan, the admiral who defeated the Dutch Navy at the Battle of Camperdown in 1797. It is, however, very unlikely that W. G. G. D. Smith's mother was a legitimate descendant of Admiral Duncan.

Honours and awards

 * 22 July 1941 – Pilot Officer Wilfrid George Gerald Duncan Smith (85684), No. 611 Squadron is appointed a Distinguished Flying Cross:

 * 26 December 1941 – Acting Flight Lieutenant W.G.G.D. Smith DFC (85684), No. 603 Squadron is awarded Bar to Distinguished Flying Cross:

 * 11 September 1942 – Squadron Leader W.G.G.D. Smith DFC (85684), No. 64 Squadron is awarded the Distinguished Service Order:

 * 20 March 1945 – Acting Group Captain W.G.G.D. Smith DSO, DFC (85684) is awarded a Bar to the Distinguished Service Order:

 * He was awarded the Air Efficiency Award (AE) for 10 years of service in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.

title: W. G. G. Duncan Smith


text:
Marie of France, Countess of Champagne

Marie of France (1145 – 11 March 1198) was a Capetian princess who became Countess of Champagne by her marriage to Henry I of Champagne. She served as regent of the County of Champagne three times: during Henry I's absence from 1179-1181; during the minority of their son Henry II from 1181–1187; and during Henry II's absence from 1190-1197. The daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France, she was the sister of Alice of France and the half-sister of: William IX, Henry the Young King, Richard I, Geoffrey of Brittany, Matilda of England, Eleanor of England, Joan of England, John of England; Margaret of France, Alys of France, Agnes of France, Philip II of France; and the stepdaughter of Henry II of England, and Constance of Castile, and Adela of Champagne.

Early life
Marie's birth was hailed as a "miracle" by Bernard of Clairvaux, an answer to his prayer to bless the marriage between Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII. Marie was just 2 years old when her parents joined the Second Crusade to the Holy Land. With the birth of her sister Alice in 1150 instead of the desperately needed son and heir the couple hoped for, the marriage broke down and was annulled on 21 March 1152; Marie was 7 and Alice was not yet 2. Custody of the girls was awarded to their father as they were at that time the only heirs to the French throne. Eleanor quickly moved on, marrying Henry, Duke of Normandy, on 18 May. Louis married Constance of Castile in 1154. Just 5 weeks after Constance died while giving birth to their second child and daughter, he married Adele of Champagne on 13 November 1160, who gave birth to Philippe in 1165.

Marriage
In 1153, Marie was betrothed to Henry of Champagne by her father Louis. These betrothals were arranged based on the intervention of Bernard of Clairvaux, as reported in the contemporary chronicle of Radulfus Niger. After her betrothal, Marie was sent to live with the Viscountess Elizabeth of Mareuil-sy-Aÿ and then to the abbey of Avenay in Champagne for her Latin-based education. In 1159, Marie married Henry I, Count of Champagne.

Regencies
Marie became regent for Champagne when her husband Henry I went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land from 1179 until 1181. While her husband was away, Marie's father died and her half-brother, Philip Augustus, became king of France. He confiscated his mother's dower lands and married Isabelle of Hainaut, who was previously betrothed to Marie's eldest son. This prompted Marie to join a party of disgruntled nobles—including the queen mother Adela of Champagne and the archbishop of Reims—in plotting unsuccessfully against Philip. Eventually, relations between Marie and her royal brother improved. Marie's husband died soon after his return from the Holy Land in 1181, leaving her again as regent for their young son Henry.

Marie, who had retired to the nunnery of Château de Fontaines-les-Nonnes near Meaux (1187–1190), served again as regent for Champagne as her son Henry II joined the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1197. He remained in the Levant, marrying Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem in 1192. Over the course of her regencies, Champagne was transformed from a patchwork of territories into a significant principality.

Literary patronage
Marie was a patron of literature and her court became a sphere of influence on authors and poets such as Andreas Capellanus, who served in her court and referred to her several times in his writing, Chrétien de Troyes, who credits her with the idea for his Lancelot: The Knight of the Cart, the troubadours Bertran de Born and Bernart de Ventadorn, Gautier d'Arras and Conon de Bétune.

Being literate in both French and Latin, she amassed and maintained her own extensive library. Marie's half-brother King Richard, mentions her in a stanza from his celebrated poem J'a nuns hons pris, lamenting his captivity in Austria, was addressed to her.

Death
Marie died on 11 March 1198, not long after hearing the news of her son's death. She was buried in Meaux Cathedral.

On 25 June 1562, rioting Huguenots devastated many edifices, including the Cathedral of Meaux; it was on this occasion that the tomb of Marie of Champagne, located in the choir, was destroyed.

Issue
Marie and her husband Henri I of Champagne had:
 * Henry II of Champagne (1166–1197), married Isabelle of Jerusalem in 1192
 * Scholastique of Champagne (1172–1219), married William IV of Macon
 * Marie of Champagne (c. 1174 – 1204), married Baldwin I of Constantinople
 * Theobald III of Champagne (1179–1201), married Blanche of Navarre

title: Marie of France, Countess of Champagne


text:
Talk:Polybius

Comments
Is this the same Polybius that developed the Polybius square? The Anome
 * Yes. Securiger 18:16, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * No, not as Wikipedia mentions it. First of all, Polybius wrote in Greek, and secondly, even if he had used Roman letters, U and V were not distinct and W was not even invented yet. I'm removing the section. Chris Weimer 23:47, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

 * It is the same person. He describes it in Hist. X.45.6 ff. The article "Polybius square" simply gives an example with the Latin alphabet because that is the way it is commonly used today. It could be used with any alphabet, and in fact has even been used with Japanese hiragana. But I agree there is no need to have an example table in this article, when there is one in the article on the square itself. -- Securiger 01:44, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

--

"In a classic story of human behavior, Polybius captures it all: Nationalism, Racism..." - racism (as opposed to xenophobia) and certainly nationalism are modern phenomena and do not really apply to the ancient world -- jleybov
 * Are you kidding me? Nationalism and racism have been around since man first saw a difference in himself. --98.233.250.37 (talk) 13:32, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

I haven't the time to do it, but maybe someone ought to edit the "BC"s in here to "BCE"s... Rob — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rtelkin (talk • contribs) 21:05, 24 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Just so you know, the manual of style on year numbering systems states that there is no preference of BC/AD and BCE/CE over the other, but that the page should remain consistent in whatever style it contains. I think the page is fine the way it is. Backtable Speak to meconcerning my deeds. 05:17, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

Arcade Game Hoax
As much as (see the main "Polybius" page's history) the arcade game of the same name is undoubtedly fictitious, I think it merits a disambiguatory mention or a page of its own. What do we make of it?

Matthew Platts 17:30, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Unsourced pro Polybius stuff
It is certainly true that Polybius has in the past had a high reputation and that needs to be said. However it needs to be source. To say without source that his writing shows " clearness, penetration, sound judgment" implies it is an undisputed fact. It is a POV and that's only okay if quoting someone. Dejvid 19:39, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Sounds like it's a quote from the 1911 Britannica. Perhaps it can be changed into a quote? john k 21:53, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Callicrates
The Callicrates link in the 'As a historian' section links to the wrong Callicrates - the 5th century architect rather than the 2nd century politician, who doesn't have a page of his own. Afraid I'm not computer-literate enough to sort this out myself! 131.111.128.119 (talk) 19:03, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Successor to Thucydides?
Not even close! I agree with Green - the style and focus of Polybius is nowhere near as intellectually informed nor detached as is that of Thucydides. Even given the fact that most modern readers - myself included- must rely on translations - Thucydides comes across as the consummate writer and thinker - a man so in tune with his subject matter and his purpose - to write a history for all time that the clear, brillantly balanced prose, combined with often surprising aphoristic humour is as readable today by a modern audience as it was a thousand years ago.

Polybius by contrast is by turns dull and fussy. He wastes a lot of time on personal attacks on the works of contemporary or recent Greek historians and in a very telling omission does not even refer to the greatest of all historians - Thucydides. Polybius demonstrates on many occaisions that he is biased, is very definitely NOT a fan of the Athenians and had a tendency to over interpret events to serve a literary rather than an historical model. Any analysis which compares Polybius to Thucydides is bound to show Polybius as a neophyte when compared to a master.

165.12.252.111 (talk) 05:46, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

well, he did suffer from having lots of practical experience. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.34.61.159 (talk) 21:57, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

Cryptography... Stenography?
In the article it says that Polybius invented the Polybius Square (good for him. I can see that it would be useful) but then goes on to note that the idea "...lends itself to cryptography and stenography" neither of which could Polybius have anticipated. Surely such notes are pointless.In the same way, the concept of a clock, lends itself to time travel and Einstein's theory of relativity... but that does not mean that the inventor of the clock should get credit for those ideas or deserve to bask in their light. I am sure that Polybius was a nice chap, and with an able mind, allied with a good deal of spare time to ponder about things, he was obviously productive. Let's not get carried away and credit him with everything. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.187.233.172 (talk) 11:16, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Polybius at the Battle of Zama?
Third paragraph:
 * Polybius's The Histories provides a detailed account of Rome's ascent to empire and included his eyewitness accounts of the Roman victory over Hannibal and the Sack of Carthage in 146 BC.

Polybius was born in 200 BC. The Roman victory over Hannibal occurred in 202 BC, during the Second Punic War. Polybius was an eyewitness for the sack of Carthage during the Third Punic War. Polybius interviewed people who had witnessed the defeat of Hannibal, but this sentence makes it appear that Polybius himself had winessed the event. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Weibel (talk • contribs) 05:27, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

 * I agree that could be worded better. Flaviusvulso (talk) 07:03, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

polybius and rome
it is surprising to find it claimed that polybius was afraid to voice his criticism of rome. this is not the case, as his assessment of rome's annexation of sardinia makes quite clear. he viewed that as an unjustified land grab and saw that as the proper case of the second punic war. in other instances, polybius does report negative stories about roman officials, again, showing that he was not merely some toady. i do not believe that he was at complete liberty -- for whatever reason -- but the reality is that he was perfectly capable of providing a damning narrative of rome and romans when he decided to. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.179.71.222 (talk) 20:52, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Pronunciation
Source it. Don't do it. Classical Greek, Classical Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin, modern Greek, British English, and American English all read these things differently and we don't want that mess in our lead sentences. Plenty of people are going to pronounce the first syllable /pɒli/ and they're not "wrong" to do so. Start a Wiktionary entry instead, unless it's an entry for something like Ctesiphon that's utterly incomprehensible without some pointers. — Llywelyn II   06:32, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

mixed up constitution
A "state in which monarchical, aristocratic, and popular elements were in a stable equilibrium" is a mixt constitution, not one with separated powers of executive, legislative and judicial. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.241.26.8 (talk) 04:37, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

Section 4.1 Sources; 7th Volume
What is the source for this section? Was the author of this section referring to the 7th book of The Histories? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hurlbut (talk • contribs) 23:50, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

Missing content in reference - "the people"
It's stated in the introductory section that Polybius's introduction of "the people", in addition to separation of powers and checks & balances, influenced Montesquieu et al. The reference (#2) is a footnote 12 to a paper that makes no mention of the supposed introduction to "the people". Polybius writes about what "the people" did in various areas in his The Histories but I haven't yet found any discussion of the *concept* of "the people", i.e. what it means, what it's justification or significance is, etc. If it's not in the ultimate source text nor mentioned in the reference, it should be removed here. 76.149.32.44 (talk) 20:36, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Polybius