title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The efforts of military commanders to channel the divine will were on occasion less successful. In the early days of Rome's war against Carthage, the commander Publius Claudius Pulcher (consul 249 BC) launched a sea campaign "though the sacred chickens would not eat when he took the auspices". In defiance of the omen, he threw them into the sea, "saying that they might drink, since they would not eat. He was defeated, and on being bidden by the Senate to appoint a dictator, he appointed his messenger Glycias, as if again making a jest of his country's peril." His impiety not only lost the battle but ruined his career.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Roman women were present at most festivals and cult observances. Some rituals specifically required the presence of women, but their active participation was limited. As a rule women did not perform animal sacrifice, the central rite of most major public ceremonies. In addition to the public priesthood of the Vestals, some cult practices were reserved for women only. The rites of the Bona Dea excluded men entirely. Because women enter the public record less frequently than men, their religious practices are less known, and even family cults were headed by the "paterfamilias". A host of deities, however, are associated with motherhood. Juno, Diana, Lucina, and specialized divine attendants presided over the life-threatening act of giving birth and the perils of caring for a baby at a time when the infant mortality rate was as high as 40 percent.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Literary sources vary in their depiction of women's religiosity: some represent women as paragons of Roman virtue and devotion, but also inclined by temperament to self-indulgent religious enthusiasms, novelties and the seductions of "superstitio".


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Excessive devotion and enthusiasm in religious observance were "superstitio", in the sense of "doing or believing more than was necessary", to which women and foreigners were considered particularly prone. The boundary between "religio" and "superstitio" is not clearly defined. The famous tirade of Lucretius, the Epicurean rationalist, against what is usually translated as "superstition" was in fact aimed at excessive "religio". Roman religion was based on knowledge rather than faith, but "superstitio" was viewed as an "inappropriate desire for knowledge"; in effect, an abuse of "religio".


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In the everyday world, many individuals sought to divine the future, influence it through magic, or seek vengeance with help from "private" diviners. The state-sanctioned taking of auspices was a form of public divination with the intent of ascertaining the will of the gods, not foretelling the future. Secretive consultations between private diviners and their clients were thus suspect. So were divinatory techniques such as astrology when used for illicit, subversive or magical purposes. Astrologers and magicians were officially expelled from Rome at various times, notably in 139 BC and 33 BC. In 16 BC Tiberius expelled them under extreme penalty because an astrologer had predicted his death. "Egyptian rites" were particularly suspect: Augustus banned them within the "pomerium" to doubtful effect; Tiberius repeated and extended the ban with extreme force in AD 19. Despite several Imperial bans, magic and astrology persisted among all social classes. In the late 1st century AD, Tacitus observed that astrologers "would always be banned and always retained at Rome".


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In the Graeco-Roman world, practitioners of magic were known as "magi" (singular "magus"), a "foreign" title of Persian priests. Apuleius, defending himself against accusations of casting magic spells, defined the magician as "in popular tradition "(more vulgari)"... someone who, because of his community of speech with the immortal gods, has an incredible power of spells ("vi cantaminum") for everything he wishes to." Pliny the Elder offers a thoroughly skeptical "History of magical arts" from their supposed Persian origins to Nero's vast and futile expenditure on research into magical practices in an attempt to control the gods. Philostratus takes pains to point out that the celebrated Apollonius of Tyana was definitely not a "magus", "despite his special knowledge of the future, his miraculous cures, and his ability to vanish into thin air".


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Lucan depicts Sextus Pompeius, the doomed son of Pompey the Great, as convinced "the gods of heaven knew too little" and awaiting the Battle of Pharsalus by consulting with the Thessalian witch Erichtho, who practices necromancy and inhabits deserted graves, feeding on rotting corpses. Erichtho, it is said, can arrest "the rotation of the heavens and the flow of rivers" and make "austere old men blaze with illicit passions". She and her clients are portrayed as undermining the natural order of gods, mankind and destiny. A female foreigner from Thessaly, notorious for witchcraft, Erichtho is the stereotypical witch of Latin literature, along with Horace's Canidia.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The Twelve Tables forbade any harmful incantation ("malum carmen", or 'noisome metrical charm'); this included the "charming of crops from one field to another" ("excantatio frugum") and any rite that sought harm or death to others. Chthonic deities functioned at the margins of Rome's divine and human communities; although sometimes the recipients of public rites, these were conducted outside the sacred boundary of the "pomerium". Individuals seeking their aid did so away from the public gaze, during the hours of darkness. Burial grounds and isolated crossroads were among the likely portals. The barrier between private religious practices and "magic" is permeable, and Ovid gives a vivid account of rites at the fringes of the public Feralia festival that are indistinguishable from magic: an old woman squats among a circle of younger women, sews up a fish-head, smears it with pitch, then pierces and roasts it to "bind hostile tongues to silence". By this she invokes Tacita, the "Silent One" of the underworld.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Archaeology confirms the widespread use of binding spells ("defixiones"), magical papyri and so-called "voodoo dolls" from a very early era. Around 250 "defixiones" have been recovered just from Roman Britain, in both urban and rural settings. Some seek straightforward, usually gruesome revenge, often for a lover's offense or rejection. Others appeal for divine redress of wrongs, in terms familiar to any Roman magistrate, and promise a portion of the value (usually small) of lost or stolen property in return for its restoration. None of these "defixiones" seem produced by, or on behalf of the elite, who had more immediate recourse to human law and justice. Similar traditions existed throughout the empire, persisting until around the 7th century AD, well into the Christian era.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Rome's government, politics and religion were dominated by an educated, male, landowning military aristocracy. Approximately half of Rome's population were slave or free non-citizens. Most others were plebeians, the lowest class of Roman citizens. Less than a quarter of adult males had voting rights; far fewer could actually exercise them. Women had no vote. However, all official business was conducted under the divine gaze and auspices, in the name of the Senate and people of Rome. "In a very real sense the senate was the caretaker of the Romans’ relationship with the divine, just as it was the caretaker of their relationship with other humans".


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The links between religious and political life were vital to Rome's internal governance, diplomacy and development from kingdom, to Republic and to Empire. Post-regal politics dispersed the civil and religious authority of the kings more or less equitably among the patrician elite: kingship was replaced by two annually elected consular offices. In the early Republic, as presumably in the regal era, plebeians were excluded from high religious and civil office, and could be punished for offenses against laws of which they had no knowledge. They resorted to strikes and violence to break the oppressive patrician monopolies of high office, public priesthood, and knowledge of civil and religious law. The Senate appointed Camillus as dictator to handle the emergency; he negotiated a settlement, and sanctified it by the dedication of a temple to Concordia. The religious calendars and laws were eventually made public. Plebeian tribunes were appointed, with sacrosanct status and the right of veto in legislative debate. In principle, the augural and pontifical colleges were now open to plebeians. In reality, the patrician and to a lesser extent, plebeian nobility dominated religious and civil office throughout the Republican era and beyond.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: While the new plebeian nobility made social, political and religious inroads on traditionally patrician preserves, their electorate maintained their distinctive political traditions and religious cults. During the Punic crisis, popular cult to Dionysus emerged from southern Italy; Dionysus was equated with Father Liber, the inventor of plebeian augury and personification of plebeian freedoms, and with Roman Bacchus. Official consternation at these enthusiastic, unofficial Bacchanalia cults was expressed as moral outrage at their supposed subversion, and was followed by ferocious suppression. Much later, a statue of Marsyas, the "silen" of Dionysus flayed by Apollo, became a focus of brief symbolic resistance to Augustus' censorship. Augustus himself claimed the patronage of Venus and Apollo; but his settlement appealed to all classes. Where loyalty was implicit, no divine hierarchy need be politically enforced; Liber's festival continued.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The Augustan settlement built upon a cultural shift in Roman society. In the middle Republican era, even Scipio's tentative hints that he might be Jupiter's special protege sat ill with his colleagues. Politicians of the later Republic were less equivocal; both Sulla and Pompey claimed special relationships with Venus. Julius Caesar went further; he claimed her as his ancestress, and thus an intimate source of divine inspiration for his personal character and policies. In 63 BC, his appointment as "pontifex maximus" "signaled his emergence as a major player in Roman politics". Likewise, political candidates could sponsor temples, priesthoods and the immensely popular, spectacular public "ludi" and "munera" whose provision became increasingly indispensable to the factional politics of the Late Republic. Under the principate, such opportunities were limited by law; priestly and political power were consolidated in the person of the princeps ("first citizen").


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Because of you we are living, because of you we can travel the seas, because of you we enjoy liberty and wealth. —A thanksgiving prayer offered in Naples' harbour to the princeps Augustus, on his return from Alexandria in 14 AD, shortly before his death.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: By the end of the regal period Rome had developed into a city-state, with a large plebeian, artisan class excluded from the old patrician "gentes" and from the state priesthoods. The city had commercial and political treaties with its neighbours; according to tradition, Rome's Etruscan connections established a temple to Minerva on the predominantly plebeian Aventine; she became part of a new Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, installed in a Capitoline temple, built in an Etruscan style and dedicated in a new September festival, "Epulum Jovis". These are supposedly the first Roman deities whose images were adorned, as if noble guests, at their own inaugural banquet.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Rome's diplomatic agreement with its neighbours of Latium confirmed the Latin league and brought the cult of Diana from Aricia to the Aventine. and established on the Aventine in the "commune Latinorum Dianae templum": At about the same time, the temple of Jupiter Latiaris was built on the Alban mount, its stylistic resemblance to the new Capitoline temple pointing to Rome's inclusive hegemony. Rome's affinity to the Latins allowed two Latin cults within the "pomoerium". The cult to Hercules at the "ara maxima" in the Forum Boarium was established through commercial connections with Tibur. The Tusculan cult of Castor as the patron of cavalry found a home close to the Forum Romanum: Juno Sospita and Juno Regina were brought from Italy, and Fortuna Primigenia from Praeneste. In 217, the Venus of Eryx was brought from Sicily and installed in a temple on the Capitoline hill.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The introduction of new or equivalent deities coincided with Rome's most significant aggressive and defensive military forays. Livy attributed the disasters of the early part of Rome's second Punic War to a growth of superstitious cults, errors in augury and the neglect of Rome's traditional gods, whose anger was expressed directly through Rome's defeat at Cannae (216 BC). The Sibylline books were consulted. They recommended a general vowing of the "ver sacrum" and in the following year, the living burial of two Greeks and two Gauls; not the first nor the last sacrifice of its kind, according to Livy.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In 206 BC, during the Punic crisis, the Sibylline books recommended the introduction of a cult to the Magna Mater (Great Mother) from Pessinus, supposedly an ancestral goddess of Romans and Trojans. She was installed on the Palatine in 191 BC.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Deities with troublesome followers were taken over, not banned. An unofficial, popular mystery cult to Bacchus was officially taken over, restricted and supervised as potentially subversive in 186 BC.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The priesthoods of most Roman deities with clearly Greek origins used an invented version of Greek costume and ritual, which Romans called "Greek rites." The spread of Greek literature, mythology and philosophy offered Roman poets and antiquarians a model for the interpretation of Rome's festivals and rituals, and the embellishment of its mythology. Ennius translated the work of Graeco-Sicilian Euhemerus, who explained the genesis of the gods as deified mortals. In the last century of the Republic, Epicurean and particularly Stoic interpretations were a preoccupation of the literate elite, most of whom held – or had held – high office and traditional Roman priesthoods; notably, Scaevola and the polymath Varro. For Varro – well versed in Euhemerus' theory – popular religious observance was based on a necessary fiction; what the people believed was not itself the truth, but their observance led them to as much higher truth as their limited capacity could deal with. Whereas in popular belief deities held power over mortal lives, the skeptic might say that mortal devotion had made gods of mortals, and these same gods were only sustained by devotion and cult.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Just as Rome itself claimed the favour of the gods, so did some individual Romans. In the mid-to-late Republican era, and probably much earlier, many of Rome's leading clans acknowledged a divine or semi-divine ancestor and laid personal claim to their favour and cult, along with a share of their divinity. Most notably in the very late Republic, the Julii claimed Venus Genetrix as an ancestor; this would be one of many foundations for the Imperial cult. The claim was further elaborated and justified in Vergil's poetic, Imperial vision of the past.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In the late Republic, the Marian reforms lowered an existing property bar on conscription and increased the efficiency of Rome's armies but made them available as instruments of political ambition and factional conflict. The consequent civil wars led to changes at every level of Roman society. Augustus' principate established peace and subtly transformed Rome's religious life – or, in the new ideology of Empire, restored it (see below).


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Sissel Undheim has argued that, with their "Religions of Rome" volumes, Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price dismantled the well-established narrative of the decline of religious in the late Republic, opening the way for more innovative and dynamic perspectives. Towards the end of the Republic, religious and political offices became more closely intertwined; the office of "pontifex maximus" became a "de facto" consular prerogative. Augustus was personally vested with an extraordinary breadth of political, military and priestly powers; at first temporarily, then for his lifetime. He acquired or was granted an unprecedented number of Rome's major priesthoods, including that of "pontifex maximus"; as he invented none, he could claim them as traditional honours. His reforms were represented as adaptive, restorative and regulatory, rather than innovative; most notably his elevation (and membership) of the ancient Arvales, his timely promotion of the plebeian Compitalia shortly before his election and his patronage of the Vestals as a visible restoration of Roman morality. Augustus obtained the "pax deorum", maintained it for the rest of his reign and adopted a successor to ensure its continuation. This remained a primary religious and social duty of emperors.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Under the rule of Augustus, there existed a deliberate campaign to reinstate previously held belief systems amongst the Roman population. These once held ideals had been eroded and met with cynicism by this time. The imperial order emphasized commemoration of great men and events which led to the concept and practice of divine kingship. Emperors postceding Augustus subsequently held the office of Chief Priest (pontifex maximus) combining both political and religious supremacy under one title.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The Roman Empire expanded to include different peoples and cultures; in principle, Rome followed the same inclusionist policies that had recognised Latin, Etruscan and other Italian peoples, cults and deities as Roman. Those who acknowledged Rome's hegemony retained their own cult and religious calendars, independent of Roman religious law. Newly municipal Sabratha built a Capitolium near its existing temple to Liber Pater and Serapis. Autonomy and concord were official policy, but new foundations by Roman citizens or their Romanised allies were likely to follow Roman cultic models. Romanisation offered distinct political and practical advantages, especially to local elites. All the known effigies from the 2nd century AD forum at Cuicul are of emperors or Concordia. By the middle of the 1st century AD, Gaulish Vertault seems to have abandoned its native cultic sacrifice of horses and dogs in favour of a newly established, Romanised cult nearby: by the end of that century, Sabratha's so-called tophet was no longer in use. Colonial and later Imperial provincial dedications to Rome's Capitoline Triad were a logical choice, not a centralised legal requirement. Major cult centres to "non-Roman" deities continued to prosper: notable examples include the magnificent Alexandrian Serapium, the temple of Aesculapeus at Pergamum and Apollo's sacred wood at Antioch.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The overall scarcity of evidence for smaller or local cults does not always imply their neglect; votive inscriptions are inconsistently scattered throughout Rome's geography and history. Inscribed dedications were an expensive public declaration, one to be expected within the Graeco-Roman cultural ambit but by no means universal. Innumerable smaller, personal or more secretive cults would have persisted and left no trace.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Military settlement within the empire and at its borders broadened the context of "Romanitas". Rome's citizen-soldiers set up altars to multiple deities, including their traditional gods, the Imperial genius and local deities – sometimes with the usefully open-ended dedication to the "diis deabusque omnibus" (all the gods and goddesses). They also brought Roman "domestic" deities and cult practices with them. By the same token, the later granting of citizenship to provincials and their conscription into the legions brought their new cults into the Roman military.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Traders, legions and other travellers brought home cults originating from Egypt, Greece, Iberia, India and Persia. The cults of Cybele, Isis, Mithras, and Sol Invictus were particularly important. Some of those were initiatory religions of intense personal significance, similar to Christianity in those respects.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In the early Imperial era, the princeps (lit. "first" or "foremost" among citizens) was offered "genius"-cult as the symbolic "paterfamilias" of Rome. His cult had further precedents: popular, unofficial cult offered to powerful benefactors in Rome: the kingly, god-like honours granted a Roman general on the day of his triumph; and in the divine honours paid to Roman magnates in the Greek East from at least 195 BC.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The deification of deceased emperors had precedent in Roman domestic cult to the "dii parentes" (deified ancestors) and the mythic apotheosis of Rome's founders. A deceased emperor granted apotheosis by his successor and the Senate became an official State "divus" (divinity). Members of the Imperial family could be granted similar honours and cult; an Emperor's deceased wife, sister or daughter could be promoted to "diva" (female divinity).


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The first and last Roman known as a living "divus" was Julius Caesar, who seems to have aspired to divine monarchy; he was murdered soon after. Greek allies had their own traditional cults to rulers as divine benefactors, and offered similar cult to Caesar's successor, Augustus, who accepted with the cautious proviso that expatriate Roman citizens refrain from such worship; it might prove fatal. By the end of his reign, Augustus had appropriated Rome's political apparatus – and most of its religious cults – within his "reformed" and thoroughly integrated system of government. Towards the end of his life, he cautiously allowed cult to his "numen". By then the Imperial cult apparatus was fully developed, first in the Eastern Provinces, then in the West. Provincial Cult centres offered the amenities and opportunities of a major Roman town within a local context; bathhouses, shrines and temples to Roman and local deities, amphitheatres and festivals. In the early Imperial period, the promotion of local elites to Imperial priesthood gave them Roman citizenship.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In an empire of great religious and cultural diversity, the Imperial cult offered a common Roman identity and dynastic stability. In Rome, the framework of government was recognisably Republican. In the Provinces, this would not have mattered; in Greece, the emperor was "not only endowed with special, super-human abilities, but... he was indeed a visible god" and the little Greek town of Akraiphia could offer official cult to "liberating Zeus Nero for all eternity".


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In Rome, state cult to a living emperor acknowledged his rule as divinely approved and constitutional. As princeps (first citizen) he must respect traditional Republican mores; given virtually monarchic powers, he must restrain them. He was not a living "divus" but father of his country ("pater patriae"), its pontifex maximus (greatest priest) and at least notionally, its leading Republican. When he died, his ascent to heaven, or his descent to join the "dii manes" was decided by a vote in the Senate. As a "divus", he could receive much the same honours as any other state deity – libations of wine, garlands, incense, hymns and sacrificial oxen at games and festivals. What he did in return for these favours is unknown, but literary hints and the later adoption of "divus" as a title for Christian Saints suggest him as a heavenly intercessor. In Rome, official cult to a living emperor was directed to his "genius"; a small number refused this honour and there is no evidence of any emperor receiving more than that. In the crises leading up to the Dominate, Imperial titles and honours multiplied, reaching a peak under Diocletian. Emperors before him had attempted to guarantee traditional cults as the core of Roman identity and well-being; refusal of cult undermined the state and was treasonous.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: For at least a century before the establishment of the Augustan principate, Jews and Judaism were tolerated in Rome by diplomatic treaty with Judaea's Hellenised elite. Diaspora Jews had much in common with the overwhelmingly Hellenic or Hellenised communities that surrounded them. Early Italian synagogues have left few traces; but one was dedicated in Ostia around the mid-1st century BC and several more are attested during the Imperial period. Judaea's enrollment as a client kingdom in 63 BC increased the Jewish diaspora; in Rome, this led to closer official scrutiny of their religion. Their synagogues were recognised as legitimate "collegia" by Julius Caesar. By the Augustan era, the city of Rome was home to several thousand Jews. In some periods under Roman rule, Jews were legally exempt from official sacrifice, under certain conditions. Judaism was a "superstitio" to Cicero, but the Church Father Tertullian described it as "religio licita" (an officially permitted religion) in contrast to Christianity.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Roman investigations into early Christianity found it an irreligious, novel, disobedient, even atheistic sub-sect of Judaism: it appeared to deny all forms of religion and was therefore "superstitio". By the end of the Imperial era, Nicene Christianity was the one permitted Roman "religio"; all other cults were heretical or pagan "superstitiones".


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: After the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, Emperor Nero accused the Christians as convenient scapegoats, who were later persecuted and killed. From that point on, Roman official policy towards Christianity tended towards persecution. During the various Imperial crises of the 3rd century, "contemporaries were predisposed to decode any crisis in religious terms", regardless of their allegiance to particular practices or belief systems. Christianity drew its traditional base of support from the powerless, who seemed to have no religious stake in the well-being of the Roman State, and therefore threatened its existence. The majority of Rome's elite continued to observe various forms of inclusive Hellenistic monism; Neoplatonism in particular accommodated the miraculous and the ascetic within a traditional Graeco-Roman cultic framework. Christians saw these practices as ungodly, and a primary cause of economic and political crisis.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In the wake of religious riots in Egypt, the emperor Decius decreed that all subjects of the Empire must actively seek to benefit the state through witnessed and certified sacrifice to "ancestral gods" or suffer a penalty: only Jews were exempt. Decius' edict appealed to whatever common "mos maiores" might reunite a politically and socially fractured Empire and its multitude of cults; no ancestral gods were specified by name. The fulfillment of sacrificial obligation by loyal subjects would define them and their gods as Roman. Apostasy was sought, rather than capital punishment. A year after its due deadline, the edict expired.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Valerian singled out Christianity as a particularly self-interested and subversive foreign cult, outlawed its assemblies and urged Christians to sacrifice to Rome's traditional gods. In another edict, he described Christianity as a threat to Empire – not yet at its heart but close to it, among Rome's equites and Senators. Christian apologists interpreted his eventual fate – a disgraceful capture and death – as divine judgement. The next forty years were peaceful; the Christian church grew stronger and its literature and theology gained a higher social and intellectual profile, due in part to its own search for political toleration and theological coherence. Origen discussed theological issues with traditionalist elites in a common Neoplatonist frame of reference – he had written to Decius' predecessor Philip the Arab in similar vein – and Hippolytus recognised a "pagan" basis in Christian heresies. The Christian churches were disunited; Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch was deposed by a synod of 268 both for his doctrines, and for his unworthy, indulgent, elite lifestyle. Meanwhile, Aurelian (270-75) appealed for harmony among his soldiers ("concordia militum"), stabilised the Empire and its borders and successfully established an official, Hellenic form of unitary cult to the Palmyrene "Sol Invictus" in Rome's Campus Martius.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In 295, Maximilian of Tebessa refused military service; in 298 Marcellus renounced his military oath. Both were executed for treason; both were Christians. At some time around 302, a report of ominous haruspicy in Diocletian's "domus" and a subsequent (but undated) dictat of placatory sacrifice by the entire military triggered a series of edicts against Christianity. The first (303 AD) "ordered the destruction of church buildings and Christian texts, forbade services to be held, degraded officials who were Christians, re-enslaved imperial freedmen who were Christians, and reduced the legal rights of all Christians... [Physical] or capital punishments were not imposed on them" but soon after, several Christians suspected of attempted arson in the palace were executed. The second edict threatened Christian priests with imprisonment and the third offered them freedom if they performed sacrifice. An edict of 304 enjoined universal sacrifice to traditional gods, in terms that recall the Decian edict.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In some cases and in some places the edicts were strictly enforced: some Christians resisted and were imprisoned or martyred. Others complied. Some local communities were not only pre-dominantly Christian, but powerful and influential; and some provincial authorities were lenient, notably the Caesar in Gaul, Constantius Chlorus, the father of Constantine I. Diocletian's successor Galerius maintained anti-Christian policy until his deathbed revocation in 311, when he asked Christians to pray for him. "This meant an official recognition of their importance in the religious world of the Roman empire, although one of the tetrarchs, Maximinus Daia, still oppressed Christians in his part of the empire up to 313."


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The conversion of Constantine I ended the Christian persecutions. Constantine successfully balanced his own role as an instrument of the "pax deorum" with the power of the Christian priesthoods in determining what was (in traditional Roman terms) auspicious – or in Christian terms, what was orthodox. The edict of Milan (313) redefined Imperial ideology as one of mutual toleration. Constantine had triumphed under the "signum" (sign) of the Christ: Christianity was therefore officially embraced along with traditional religions and from his new Eastern capital, Constantine could be seen to embody both Christian and Hellenic religious interests. He passed laws to protect Christians from persecution; he also funded the building of churches, including Saint Peter's basilica. He may have officially ended – or attempted to end – blood sacrifices to the "genius" of living emperors, though his Imperial iconography and court ceremonial outstripped Diocletian's in their elevation of the emperor as somehow more than human.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Constantine promoted orthodoxy in Christian doctrine, so that Christianity might become a unitary force, rather than divisive. He summoned Christian bishops to a meeting, later known as the First Council of Nicaea, at which some 318 bishops (mostly easterners) debated and decided what was orthodox, and what was heresy. The meeting reached consensus on the Nicene Creed. At Constantine's death, he was honored as a Christian and as an Imperial "divus". Later, Philostorgius would criticize those Christians who offered sacrifice at statues of the "divus" Constantine.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Christianity and traditional Roman religion proved incompatible. From the 2nd century onward, the Church Fathers had condemned the diverse non-Christian religions practiced throughout the Empire as "pagan". Constantine's actions have been regarded by some scholars as causing the rapid growth of Christianity, though many modern scholars disagree. Constantine's unique form of Imperial orthodoxy did not outlast him. After his death in 337, two of his sons, Constantius II and Constans, took over the leadership of the empire and re-divided their Imperial inheritance. Constantius was an Arian and his brothers were Nicene Christians.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: Constantine's nephew Julian rejected the "Galilean madness" of his upbringing for an idiosyncratic synthesis of neo-Platonism, Stoic asceticism and universal solar cult. Julian became Augustus in 361 and actively but fostered a religious and cultural pluralism, attempting a restitution of non-Christian practices and rights. He proposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem's temple as an Imperial project and argued against the "irrational impieties" of Christian doctrine. His attempt to restore an Augustan form of principate, with himself as "primus inter pares" ended with his death in 363 in Persia, after which his reforms were reversed or abandoned. The empire once again fell under Christian control, this time permanently.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: In 380, under Theodosius I, Nicene Christianity became the official state religion of the Roman Empire. Christian heretics as well as non-Christians were subject to exclusion from public life or persecution, though Rome's original religious hierarchy and many aspects of its ritual influenced Christian forms, and many pre-Christian beliefs and practices survived in Christian festivals and local traditions.


title: Religion in ancient Rome

text: The Western emperor Gratian refused the office of "pontifex maximus", and against the protests of the Senate, removed the altar of Victory from the Senate house and began the disestablishment of the Vestals. Theodosius I briefly re-united the Empire: in 391 he officially adopted Nicene Christianity as the Imperial religion and ended official support for all other creeds and cults. He not only refused to restore Victory to the senate-house, but extinguished the Sacred fire of the Vestals and vacated their temple: the senatorial protest was expressed in a letter by Quintus Aurelius Symmachus to the Western and Eastern emperors. Ambrose, the influential Bishop of Milan and future saint, wrote urging the rejection of Symmachus's request for tolerance. Yet Theodosius accepted comparison with Hercules and Jupiter as a living divinity in the panegyric of Pacatus, and despite his active dismantling of Rome's traditional cults and priesthoods could commend his heirs to its overwhelmingly Hellenic Senate in traditional Hellenic terms. He was the last emperor of both East and West.


title: Glencore

text: Glencore plc is a Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas head office is in London and its registered office is in Saint Helier, Jersey. The current company was created through a merger of Glencore with Xstrata on 2 May 2013. , it ranked tenth in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Glencore International was ranked as the 484th-largest public company in the world. As of July 2022, it is the world's largest commodity trader.


title: Glencore

text: As Glencore International, the company was already one of the world's largest integrated producers and marketers of commodities. It was the largest company in Switzerland as well as the world's largest commodities trading company, with a 2010 global market share of 60% in internationally tradable zinc, 50% in internationally tradable copper, 9% in the internationally tradable grain market and 3% in the internationally tradable oil market.


title: Glencore

text: Glencore had a number of production facilities all around the world and supplied metals, minerals, crude oil, oil products, coal, natural gas and agricultural products to international customers in the automotive, power generation, steel production and food processing industries. The company was formed in 1994 by a management buyout of Marc Rich + Co AG (itself founded in 1974). It was listed on the London Stock Exchange in May 2011 and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It had a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, but it has withdrawn from January 2018. Glencore's shares started trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in November 2013. The Qatar Investment Authority is its biggest shareholder as of 2016. In March 2022, Qatar's Sovereign Wealth Fund announced it would sell a stake worth £812 million (US$1.1 billion) in Glencore Plc.


title: Glencore

text: The company was founded in 1974 as Marc Rich & Co. AG by commodity traders Marc Rich and Pincus Green. In 1993, a number of Marc Rich employees, led by Claude Dauphin, left to set up another trading company, Trafigura. In 1994, after failing to take control of the zinc market and losing $172 million, Rich was forced to sell his majority share in the company to Glencore International, the commodities trading and industrial company. Glencore's name is an abbreviation of "Global Energy Commodity Resources".


title: Glencore

text: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National reported in 2005 that Glencore "has been accused of illegal dealings with rogue states: apartheid South Africa, USSR, Iran, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein", and has a "history of busting UN embargoes to profit from corrupt or despotic regimes". Specifically, the CIA found that Glencore had paid $3,222,780 in illegal kickbacks to obtain oil in the course of the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq. The company denied these charges, according to the CIA report quoted by ABC.


title: Glencore

text: In 2005, proceeds from an oil sale to Glencore were seized as fraudulent gains as part of an investigation into corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo.


title: Glencore

text: In May 2011, the company launched an IPO which valued the business at US$61 billion and created five new billionaires. Trading was limited to institutional investors for the first week and private investors were not allowed to buy shares until 24 May 2011.


title: Glencore

text: In 2011, five non-government organisations filed a complaint to the OECD against a subsidiary of Glencore over allegations that a mine it owns in Zambia may not be paying enough tax on its profits. This complaint was due to alleged financial and accounting manipulations that had been supposedly performed by the two companies' subsidiary, Mopani Copper Mines Plc (MCM), to evade taxation in Zambia. A draft Grant Thornton report alleged that tax avoidance by Glencore in Zambia cost the Zambian Government hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. The avoidance was allegedly facilitated through transfer pricing and inflated costs at Glencore's Mopani Copper Mine, which is controlled through the British Virgin Islands, a recognised tax haven. Glencore and its own auditor, Deloitte, rejected these allegations. As of 2013, Glencore’s payments to Zambia’s government had increased.


title: Glencore

text: Due to weak global prices for the assets Glencore owned, particularly coal and copper producers, and for the commodities in which Glencore traded, the company showed a net operating loss of $676 million for the first half of 2015, and the company’s stocks fell, as a result. Concerns cited by financial analysts to explain the falling stock price included a weak global commodity market and Glencore's high level of debt, $30 billion. The company reduced its debt by selling off stock and assets.


title: Glencore

text: Along with several other major coal producers, Glencore is also a large shareholder in globalCOAL, the online physical coal trading platform. The board of globalCOAL contains a number of power utility shareholders. Relationships also exist with Century Aluminum Co. (CENX; 44% economic ownership interest)) in the US; Glencore partial subsidiary Minara Resources Ltd (AU:MRE), a 70.5% stake in one of Australia's top three nickel producers); and 8.8% in United Company Rusal (HK:486), the Russian aluminium giant that went public in 2010.


title: Glencore

text: In mid-2011, Century was called "one of the most harrowing stocks of the past few years" but identified as a risky but potentially profitable investment for the future.


title: Glencore

text: Glencore was the subject of an initial public offering (IPO) in May 2011 in a dual listing in London and Hong Kong valued at about $US60 billion. The 1,637-page document revealed invaluable information about this private company that has remained discreet for thirty-seven years. Ivan Glasenberg's shareholding was diluted from 18.1% before the IPO percent to 15.8% afterwards. Daniel Mate and Telis Mistakidis, zinc, copper, and lead co-directors were diluted from 6.9% to 6%. Glencore went public to raise gross proceeds of around $10 billion. According to Reuters, Glencore is known for its "opportunistic but lucrative acquisition strategy."


title: Glencore

text: In May 2011, United Arab Emirates state-owned Aabar Investments confirmed an investment of $850 million in Glencore International plc as a cornerstone investor with an intention to invest an additional $150 million in the Global Offer. The investment made Aabar the largest cornerstone investor in the initial public offering (IPO) and the largest new shareholder of Glencore after its IPO, giving Aabar a 1.4% stake. The two firms intend to explore areas of co-operation.


title: Glencore

text: In November 2012, Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments, a unit of Abu Dhabi's state-owned United Arab Emirates International Petroleum Investment Company, wrote off more than $392-million of its $1-billion investment into Glencore's IPO less than two years after investing it. Aabar Investments was the largest new shareholder in Glencore.


title: Glencore

text: Prior to its merger with Xstrata, Glencore is reported to have served as a marketing partner for the company. As of 2006, Glencore leaders and Ivan Glasenberg were on the board of Xstrata, which Strothotte chaired. According to "The Sunday Times", by 2006, Glencore controlled 40% of Xstrata stock and appointed Xstrata CEO, Mick Davis. In February 2012, Glencore International Plc, agreed to buy Xstrata Plc for 39.1 billion (US$62 billion) in shares. Glencore offered 2.8 new shares for each Xstrata share in agreed all-share "merger of equal". It is the biggest mining takeover ever, and after approval would create an entity with 2012 sales of US$209 billion. In June 2012, Glencore and Xstrata began to reconsider the proposed retention package for their merger, following shareholder opposition to a huge payout for executives. In total, 73 key executives stood to receive over GBP 170 million under the initial retention package.


title: Glencore

text: In October 2012, BBC News reported that Glencore had more ships than the British Royal Navy. Glencore's operations in 40 countries handled 3% of the world's oil consumption. Xstrata's operations in more than 20 countries employed 70,000 people. According to mining analyst John Meyer, if the two companies merged into Glencore Xstrata, they would be the 4th largest commodities trader in the world.


title: Glencore

text: Just before completing its forced April 2013 takeover of mining rival Xstrata as it awaited Chinese regulatory approval for its long-planned merger, the world's largest diversified commodities trader, the annual income of Glencore fell 25% percent, as its trading division offset the impact of weak commodity prices. Including the impact of an impairment related to a reclassification of its holding in Russian aluminium producer RUSAL, net income fell 75%. On 2 May 2013, it completed the merger with Xstrata. On 20 May 2014, Glencore Xstrata changed its name to Glencore plc. After the merger with Glencore, Xstrata CFO Trevor Reid announced that he would no longer work as employee but would become a consultant. After 11 years of involvement, this marked a massive shift in the company's strategy and Xstrata was entering a post-Reid era.


title: Glencore

text: GlencoreXstrata operates a mine in Nunavut. In October 2020, Glencore provided $10 million in bridge financing to Falco Resources, a gold and copper miner operating in Quebec.


title: Glencore

text: In 2006, Swiss public television (TSR) reported that allegations of corruption and severe human rights violations were being raised against Glencore due to the alleged conduct of its Colombian Cerrejón mining subsidiary. Local union president Francisco Ramirez accused Cerrejón of forced expropriations and evacuations of entire villages to enable mine expansion, in complicity with Colombian authorities. A representative of the local Wayuu Indians also accused Colombian paramilitary and military units, including those charged with Cerrejón mining security, of forcibly driving the Wayuu off their land in what she described as a "massacre".


title: Glencore

text: In 2012, a BBC investigation uncovered sale documents showing the company had paid the associates of paramilitary killers in Colombia. In 2011, a Colombian court was told by former paramilitaries that they stole the land so they could sell it to Glencore's subsidiary Prodeco, to start an open-cast coal mine; the court accepted their evidence and concluded that coal was the motive for the massacre. Glencore disputed the court's ruling.


title: Glencore

text: In 2009, Glencore/Xstrata's "huge coal operation in Colombia, Prodeco, was fined a total of nearly $700,000 for several environmental violations [running in earlier years], including waste disposal without a permit and producing coal without an environmental management plan".


title: Glencore

text: Glencore/Xstrata's activities in Colombia under their subsidiary, Prodeco, was investigated by the Netherlands-based NGO, Pax for Peace. They found that "From 1996 to 2006, residents of the Cesar mining region of Colombia, from which European power utilities source most of their coal, have suffered greatly from paramilitary violence ... Prodeco mining companies have supported the paramilitary forces with finance, equipment, and information. The mining companies deny any involvement, but those victims of human rights violations who stand up for their rights, are still being threatened." The coal mined by Prodeco is termed "Blood Coal." Pax released a report and included the testimony of victims and the paramilitary that attacked the indigenous population.


title: Glencore

text: "In Ecuador, the current government has tried to reduce the role played by middlemen such as Glencore with state oil company Petroecuador" due to questions about transparency and follow-through, according to Fernando Villavicencio, a Quito-based oil sector analyst.


title: Glencore

text: According to a Reuters article in 2011 "[O]fficials in Zambia believe pollution from Glencore's Mopani mine is causing acid rain and health problems in an area where 5 million people live." The upgrade of the Mopani Mines asset plant was completed in March 2014 eliminating the emissions of 97 per cent of sulphur dioxide emissions in line with the recommended international standards by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The emissions were reported to exceed the WHO-recommendations by a factor of 70 up to 2013. The emissions now exceed the recommendations by 3% of 70 = 210%.


title: Glencore

text: In January 2019, a delegation from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs under the leadership of Ignazio Cassis made a controversial visit to the Mopani Copper Mines that also produce cobalt ores. The Swiss government had previously issued human rights guidelines for firms operating in the commodity sector, which is of strategic importance to both countries. The visit was heavily criticised by Amnesty International and Swiss watchdog groups while the federal councilor defended his stance, pointing out the modernisation of production facilities, improved health care and better training for young workers.


title: Glencore

text: In June 2018 Glencore purchased a 78% stake in Ale Combustíveis S.A., a Brazilian fuel distribution company. Through Ale Glencore aimed to expand its fuel distribution network by forging agreements with unbranded gas stations.


title: Glencore

text: The company's Luilu copper refinery uses acid to extract the copper. For three years after taking over the mine, it continued to allow the waste acid to flow into a river. The chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg, was interviewed for Panorama by John Sweeney and said 'It was impossible to remedy any way faster' Glencore said the pollution started long before the company took over the refinery and that it has now ended. A reporter for "The Guardian" found children as young as ten years underground at the Tilwezembe mine, which the company had said in a 2008 prospectus that it had closed due to falling copper prices. Prices rebounded later. CEO Glasenberg said the company does not profit from child labor, and the child miners went with artisanal mining by nearby residents that Glencore was trying to prevent. But "Panorama" tracked a shipment of copper from the mine to Groupe Bazano plant and from that plant to a Glencore smelter in Zambia.


title: Glencore

text: Glencore was also accused of acquiring illicit "conflict minerals" In a detailed letter sent to Global Witness, the company denied any wrongdoing.


title: Glencore

text: Glencore acquired stakes in the Kansuki mine in Congo's southern Katanga Province in 2012. According to Global Witness, Congo's government transferred a 75% stake in Kansuki mine in secret and at vastly undervalued prices in July 2010 to a company in which Dan Gertler, who is a close friend of President Joseph Kabila, has an interest. Just a month later, in August 2010, Glencore took half the shares of the company that acquired that 75% stake, becoming the operator of the mine. Glencore is financing the entire development of the Kansuki mine, thereby carrying the costs for the other partner companies, which are associated with Mr. Gertler. Glencore said at the time "During the period when these transactions took place, Glencore had decided in general not to increase its shareholdings in DRC projects."


title: Glencore

text: Glencore acquired a 50% share in SAMREF Congo SPRL in 2007, a Congolese-registered company holding 80% of the Mutanda Mine. According to Global Witness, SAMREF recommended on 1 March 2011 that Congo's state-run company Gécamines, holding the other 20% of the Mutanda Mine, sell this share to an entity also associated with Dan Gertler and went on to question the links between Glencore and Dan Gertler. Glencore has been designated operator of the Mutanda Mine. Glencore has responded a number of times to Global Witness regarding these allegations.


title: Glencore

text: In March 2018, it was reported that Glencore would sell one third (13,800 tonnes) of its cobalt output to China's battery recycler GEM. 18,000 tonnes are to be sold in 2019, and 21,000 in 2020. In December 2020, the company extended the agreement with GEM to at least 2029. During the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, CEO Glasenberg stated "if cobalt falls into the hands of the Chinese, yeah you won’t see EVs being produced in Europe etc." Yet, Glasenberg then said that he was prepared to sell DRC cobalt mines to China if the price was good. Concurrently, a Chinese take-over of some of the mines became a real possibility due to a legal dispute about royalty payments to Gertler and Gécamines. The DRC supplies 60% of the world's cobalt ore, while China produces more than 80% of the world’s refined cobalt. In December 2018, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese battery firm GEM withdrew from its purchase contract with the commodities trader due to a price crash and oversupply of cobalt ore and recycled sources. In November 2018, export stopped due to oversupply and uranium contamination at the Kamoto Project; the company planned to fix this with a US$25 million ion-exchange refining plant.


title: Glencore

text: In a June 2018 "debt-for-equity swap", Glencore's Katanga Mining Ltd. agreed to a recapitalization plan involving a US$5.6 billion debt write-off and a $150 million payment to the Congolese state mining company Gécamines. According to company sources, Gertler will receive a royalty of about 25 million euros in 2018.


title: Glencore

text: Later in June 2018, Glencore also announced that it had resumed paying royalties to Gertler's Ventora Development in unpaid and future royalties from the subsidiaries Mutanda Mining ($695 million) and Kamoto Copper Co ($2.28 billion). Gertler had sued Glencore in a Congolese court after payments stopped when he was sanctioned by the U.S. government in December 2017. The mines produce copper and cobalt, needed for lithium-ion batteries in mobile devices and electric vehicles. Glencore and Gertler were in a legal dispute, threatening the strategic supply of the metals and ownership of the mining entities. Glencore paid the royalties in a currency other than dollars to skirt sanctions and discussed the deal with Swiss and U.S. authorities. Glencore also settled a dispute involving the Kamoto copper and cobalt mine, but differences remain about tax and royalty payment.


title: Glencore

text: In July 2018, the DRC enforced a new mining code, which forced Glencore to pay higher taxes. In response, the company began talks with the Congolese government. In August, CEO Glasberg announced that Glencore was considering legal action.


title: Glencore

text: On 22 June 2021, the company reported the Mutanda mine would be reopened towards the end of 2021 and return to production in 2022. Earlier, Glencore officials discussed the re-opening of the mine with Congo's mining ministry in Kinshasa. Cobalt prospects for the company increased significantly since the inception of a long-term battery supply contract with Tesla Motors in mid-2020.


title: Glencore

text: From 2007 to 2018, Glencore paid $27.5 million to third parties to bribe government officials in Congo. In December 2022, the company agreed to pay $180 million to Congo to settle the case.


title: Glencore

text: In 2013 and 2014, a subsidiary of Glencore Xstrata was awarded two offshore drilling licences off the coast of occupied Western Sahara. The licences were awarded in clear violation of international law, as described by the UN in 2002.


title: Glencore

text: On 5 November 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that Glencore loaned $45 million to Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler in exchange for his help with officials of the Democratic Republic of Congo in negotiations over a joint venture with state-owned Gécamines at the Katanga copper mine, in which one of the board members was Glencore major shareholder Telis Mistakidis. Glencore, which had effectively taken over Katanga, agreed to vote for the joint venture. The loan document specifically provided that repayment would be owed if agreement was not reached within three months. Gertler and Glencore have denied wrongdoing. Appleby had worked for Glencore and its founder Marc Rich on major projects in the past, even after his indictment in 1983. Rich was indicted in the United States on federal charges of tax evasion and making controversial oil deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis. He received a controversial presidential pardon from U.S. President Bill Clinton on 20 January 2001, Clinton's last day in office.


title: Glencore

text: The Australian branch of Glencore has been demonstrated to have carried out some $25 billion in cross-currency interest rate swaps, complex financial instruments the Australian Taxation Office suspects of being used to avoid paying taxes in Australia. Glencore is also a co-owner of large coal freighters fleet SwissMarine.


title: Glencore

text: In April 2018, the company started to limit its exposure to Oleg Deripaska by canceling the plan to swap an 8.75 percent stake in aluminum producer United Co. Rusal for shares in another one of Deripaska’s companies, London-listed En+ Group Plc. The commodities trader also announced that Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg had resigned from Rusal’s board.


title: Glencore

text: In March 2022, the company leadership strongly condemned the 2022 Russian invasion of the Ukraine; it would "review business activities in the country including our equity stakes in En+ and Rosneft.” Glencore owns a 10.55% stake in En+ Group International PJSC, the controlling shareholder of aluminum giant United Co. Rusal International, and less than 1% in Rosneft. The company also stated it had "no operational footprint in Russia." British news outlets, however, noted that Swiss-based Glencore, among other commodity companies, loaded cargoes of oil products onto tankers at Russian ports in mid-March 2022. While some oil companies such as BP Plc and Shell Plc were pressured to halt Russian oil purchases, Glencore remained in the lucrative business for trading Russian crude.


title: Glencore

text: On 3 July 2018, the company announced that it received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice "to produce documents and other records with respect to compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the United States money laundering statutes". The requested documents relate to the Glencore Group’s business in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Venezuela from 2007 to present. In May 2018, Bloomberg reported that Britain's Serious Fraud Office may also open a bribery investigation into Glencore's dealing with Dan Gertler and DRC President Joseph Kabila.


title: Glencore

text: On 24 May 2022, Glencore pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bribery and agreed to pay penalties of about $1.5 billion.


title: Glencore

text: The International Rights Advocates groups filed a lawsuit, "International Rights Advocates v. Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla", on 15 December 2019 against Apple, Microsoft, Dell, and Tesla that names Glencore. The lawsuit claims that the named companies benefited from and aided and abetted child labor in mining companies' cobalt operations. It is argued that Glencore-owned mines sold cobalt to Umicore, which then sold the cobalt to be used in lithium batteries in Apple, Microsoft, Dell, and Tesla products. Glencore released a statement through a spokesperson noting the allegations and stating that "[Glencore] does not tolerate any form of child, forced, or compulsory labour."


title: Glencore

text: In April 2019 the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission notified the company of an investigation into whether the company violated parts of the Commodity Exchange Act, or regulations concerning corrupt practices related to commodities. In May 2022, Glencore pled guilty to charges of corrupt dealings with foreign governments, and agreed to pay a $1.8 billion fine. The corrupt practices occurred from 2007 to 2018, and included actions to "make and conceal corrupt payments and bribes through intermediaries for the benefit of foreign officials across multiple countries".


title: Glencore

text: In August 2020, Glencore suspended its dividend payments to investors, saying it will instead prioritise paying down its debt in the immediate term. It was the first major mining company to shelve its dividend owing to the business impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Glencore

text: In June 2020, it was reported that Tesla Motors partnered with Glencore for the future supply of cobalt in their lithium-ion batteries. Just a year earlier, BMW did the same with Glencore and the Bou Azzer mine in Morocco. Initially Tesla wanted to eliminate the controversial metal from its battery formula, but then the company decided for its continued use, boosting cobalt prospects significantly, according to industry experts.


title: Glencore

text: In 2022, Glencore's UK subsidiary twice pleaded guilty to corruption charges levelled by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). These charges accused Glencore of paying over of bribes between 2011 and 2016 to officials in Africa to "secure access to oil and make illicit profit".


title: Glencore

text: On May 24, Glencore Energy UK Limited indicated in court that it would plead guilty to five counts of bribery and two counts of failure to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act 2010. The SFO found that over in bribes were paid in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Sudan between 2011 and 2016 for preferential access to oil, and accused Glencore of "profit-driven bribery and corruption". Glencore executives acknowledged the "unacceptable practices" and "misconduct identified in these investigations", but argued that the company had been making efforts to improve its ethics and compliance program since before it knew of the US DOJ investigation. The company predicted that fines for the seven corruption charges would not exceed the it set aside in 2021 for resolving the investigations undertaken by various national authorities.


title: Glencore

text: On June 21, a British subsidiary of Glencore again pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery. These charges pertained to oil operations in Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast and South Sudan between 2012 and 2016. The SFO found that over in bribes were paid for officials to "perform their functions improperly". Glencore again predicted that fines would not exceed the it had previously set aside.


title: Glencore

text: Glencore faces continued investigations from the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service.


title: Glencore

text: In May 2014 the company announced it would close its underground Newlands coal mine in Queensland, Australia in late 2015. The mine, begun in 1983, produced 2.8 million tonnes of thermal coal in 2013. The company had earlier suspended operations at its Ravensworth underground mine following falling coal prices, escalating production costs, and a higher Australian dollar.


title: Glencore

text: In February 2019, Glencore announced it would reduce production at one of its biggest copper and cobalt mines operations in Congo. The country's Mutanda mine produced 199,000 tons of copper and 27,000 tons of cobalt in 2018, accounting for roughly one-fifth of global cobalt production. The production curbs are likely temporary, as the company is exploring new mining techniques for the site.


title: Glencore

text: In October 2020, Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg argued that there was no environmental benefit in divesting from coal assets since the spun-off coal mines would likely be taken over by other players without any regard for the Paris climate goals. He instead argued for capping coal mine production, thereby running them down, and using the thus generated cash to increase the production of other raw materials in high demand due to the global energy transformation, such as nickel, copper and cobalt. Two months later, in December 2020, Glasenberg announced that he will be retiring in 2021 thus stepping out of the CEO position after nearly 20 years. He will be succeeded by South African Gary Nagle, who is currently running the firm's coal business.


title: Glencore

text: Glencore said it planned to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 aiming at a 40% reduction in carbon footprint by 2035 compared to its 2019 levels, making them on track with the Paris agreement on climate change.


title: Glencore

text: In August 2022, the market predicted that Glencore would deliver a record profit due to its ability to thrive in volatile markets, and particularly because of its coal business that is growing rapidly during the 2022 global energy crisis. The use of coal, even in Europe, is increasing by double digit percentages as it replaces expensive natural gas from Russia. While traditional mining companies such as BHP Group and Rio Tinto Group have experienced a slowdown due to a lower demand for iron and copper ores by China, Glencore was able to increase its business mostly with coal, despite the dirty image this form of energy has. Business analysts forecast that Glencore's dividends could exceed $10 billion in total in 2022.


title: Glencore

text: On 6 March 2019, "The Guardian Australia" accused Glencore, aided by consulting firm CT Group, of engaging in a large-scale, globally coordinated lobbying campaign to promote coal use "by undermining environmental activists, influencing politicians and spreading sophisticated pro-coal messaging on social media." The campaign was started in 2017 and ran until 2019, when it was shut down in February, according to Glencore.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 American neo-noir mystery black comedy action thriller film written and directed by Shane Black (in his directorial debut), and starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, and Corbin Bernsen. The script is partially based on the Brett Halliday novel "Bodies Are Where You Find Them" (1941), and interprets the classic hardboiled literary genre in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. The film was produced by Joel Silver, with Susan Levin and Steve Richards as executive producers.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Shot in Los Angeles between February 24 and May 3, 2004, the film debuted at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2005, and was released in the United States on October 21, 2005. It received positive reviews from critics, and grossed $15 million worldwide.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Harry Lockhart unintentionally wins a screen test in New York City by showing remorse in an audition for a botched burglary he committed, which casting director Dabney Shaw mistakes for method acting. He is sent to Los Angeles for a screen test.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: At a party there, Harry meets his childhood crush Harmony Lane and "Gay" Perry van Shrike, a private investigator hired to give him on-the-job tutelage for his screen test. Party host Harlan Dexter, a retired actor, has recently resolved a feud over his wife's inheritance with his estranged daughter, Veronica.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: During a stakeout at a Big Bear Lake cabin, Perry and Harry see a car being dumped in the lake. Noticing a female body in the trunk, Perry shoots the lock in a rescue attempt, but accidentally hits the corpse. They decide against reporting it as it will appear he killed her. Believing Harry is a private investigator, Harmony tells him of her sister, Jenna, who supposedly killed herself; he finds the lake corpse, identified as Veronica, in his bathroom and dumps it with Perry, but soon discovers Jenna used Harmony's credit card to hire Perry. Harry goes to see Harmony, who accidentally cuts off his finger when she slams the door, after finding out he lied about being a private investigator.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: At a party where Harmony is working, Mr. Frying Pan and Mr. Fire, the two men from the lake, beat Harry to cease his investigation. Harmony and Harry follow them to Perry's latest stakeout: she goes to warn Perry, leaving Harry sleeping in the car, ending in Mr. Frying Pan being killed by an armed food-cart operator. A pink-haired girl, affiliated with Mr. Frying Pan and Mr. Fire, steals Harmony's car and unwittingly drives an unconscious Harry to her home. Mr. Fire arrives and kills her, then Harry kills him.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Harry meets Harmony at his hotel where she reveals she told Jenna that Harlan was her real father, to diminish the pain of their sexually abusive father. She also reveals she slept with Harry's best friend in high school, so he throws her out.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Hearing of Harmony's supposed disappearance, Harry and Perry investigate a mental hospital owned by Harlan. They discover Veronica was locked in there by him, to be replaced by Pink Hair Girl, to end the inheritance feud. Harry unintentionally kills a murderous orderly, and then they are captured by Harlan. Harry contacts Harmony, who steals the van with Veronica's corpse. The men escape, and are shot by the same bullet; Harry then manages to kill Harlan.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: In hospital, the trio learn Jenna committed suicide after witnessing Harlan having sex with Veronica's replacement, believing her "new father" was also incestuous. Perry slaps Jenna's father, who is bed-ridden, as Harry secures a job working for Perry.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Following the bad critical reception of "The Long Kiss Goodnight" and a rejection letter from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Shane Black decided he would attempt something out of the action genre. Following the example of James L. Brooks, Black attempted to make a romantic comedy, "a quirky story of two kids in L.A." Brooks liked Black's first draft, but felt his later attempts were losing focus. Trying to salvage what he had liked, Brooks suggested Black imagine Jack Nicholson from "As Good as It Gets" playing Nicholson's role from "Chinatown". This led Black to add action elements - "I said, you know, 'Fuck it. I have to put a murder in it.'" - and re-work the screenplay, adding the character of detective "Gay" Perry, who Black said was an attempt to break stereotypes, as he had never seen "the gay guy who kicks down the door, shoots everyone, and bails your ass out before". Old detective novels were a major influence, with Black saying he tried to re-invent the genre "using realistic characters, in a modern setting, but with the spirit of the 1950s and 1960s". The crime plot drew from Brett Halliday's "Bodies Are Where You Find Them", and Black homaged Raymond Chandler by splitting the film into chapters named after Chandler's books.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: The script, then titled "You'll Never Die in This Town Again", was rejected by various studios before Joel Silver, who gave Black his first break producing "Lethal Weapon" and "The Last Boy Scout", decided to help him. The leading role of the now retitled "L.A.P.I." had been considered for Benicio del Toro, Hugh Grant and Johnny Knoxville. Robert Downey Jr. learned about the film from his then-girlfriend Susan Levin, who worked as Silver's assistant, and as he finished working with Silver in "Gothika", the producer and Black brought him in to audition. Downey was eventually cast as they liked his readings and knew he could fit into the small $15 million budget, as his career had been in a downfall following his time in prison. Levin also suggested bringing in Val Kilmer, who coincidentally had been long interested in making a comedy.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Before principal photography began, the title became "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" because Black felt it was a "blunt and austere title" that described how the plot was "half romantic comedy and half murder mystery". To achieve a neo-noir look, Black screened 1960s films of the genre, such as "Harper" and "Point Blank," to cinematographer Michael Barrett and production designer Aaron Osborne. Osborne in particular drew inspiration from the detective book covers by illustrator Robert McGinnis, who was also brought in to draw the covers for the fictional Johnny Gossamer novels that appear in the film. The Hollywood party that opens the film was filmed in Black's own Los Angeles mansion.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" was screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. The film's premiere happened at the Chinese Theatre on October 17, as the opener of the Hollywood Film Festival. "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" was released on DVD June 13, 2006.


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: The film opened on October 21 in the United States, with a limited release. From its release until mid-November, the film's distribution increased every weekend due to its favorable critical reviews. It stayed in release in the United States until early January. The film earned a total of $4,243,756 in the United States. "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" grossed far more outside the United States, accounting for just over 70% of the film's worldwide gross, accumulating $11,541,392. The film ended up earning $15,785,148 worldwide, earning back its budget. Downey was disappointed at the low box office intake, but said "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" "ended up being my calling card to "Iron Man"", as his performance attracted director Jon Favreau. That film marked Downey's career resurrection, and Black would even be brought in to co-write and direct the sequel "Iron Man 3".


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86%, based on 180 reviews, and an average rating of 7.46/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Tongue-in-cheek satire blends well with entertaining action and spot-on performances in this dark, eclectic neo-noir homage." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score 72 out of 100, based on 37 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Mike Russell of "The Oregonian" observed that "This is one of Downey's most enjoyable performances, and one of Kilmer's funniest. It's a relationship comedy wrapped in sharp talk and gunplay, a triumphant comeback for Black, and one of the year's best movies". Jeff Otto, an IGN critic, wrote that, "It takes a bunch of genres and twists them into a blender, a pop relic that still feels current ... one of the best times I've had at the movies this year."


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised the lead performances "Downey and Monaghan are wonderful at playing characters that compensate for the harshness of their past with flippant swaggers."


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Todd McCarthy of Variety magazine wrote: "Once again making a diverting but insubstantial movie look better than it is, Downey, with haggard charm to burn, is winning all the way. Kilmer is riotous at times as an impeccably groomed, businesslike guy keen to assert his orientation at every opportunity."


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and a half out of 4 stars. Ebert wrote that the film "contains a lot of comedy and invention, but doesn't much benefit from its clever style. The characters and plot are so promising that maybe Black should have backed off and told the story deadpan, instead of mugging so shamelessly for laughs."


title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

text: In a 2020 interview with Joe Rogan, Robert Downey Jr. described "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" as "in some ways the best film I've ever done." It was named "Overlooked Film of the Year" by the 2005 Phoenix Film Critics Society.


title: Brandi Cyrus

text: Brandi Cyrus is an American actress and DJ. She used to co-host "" on Bravo and is a co-host of the "Your Favorite Thing" podcast.


title: Brandi Cyrus

text: Her mother is Leticia "Tish" Cyrus, and her father is country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, who adopted her and her younger brother Trace as toddlers after he married Tish. Her siblings include brother Braison and sisters Miley and Noah Cyrus.


title: Binary search tree

text: In computer science, a binary search tree (BST), also called an ordered or sorted binary tree, is a rooted binary tree data structure with the key of each internal node being greater than all the keys in the respective node's left subtree and less than the ones in its right subtree. The time complexity of operations on the binary search tree is directly proportional to the height of the tree.


title: Binary search tree

text: Binary search trees allow binary search for fast lookup, addition, and removal of data items. Since the nodes in a BST are laid out so that each comparison skips about half of the remaining tree, the lookup performance is proportional to that of binary logarithm. BSTs were devised in the 1960s for the problem of efficient storage of labeled data and are attributed to Conway Berners-Lee and David Wheeler.


title: Binary search tree

text: The performance of a binary search tree is dependent on the order of insertion of the nodes into the tree since arbitrary insertions may lead to degeneracy; several variations of the binary search tree can be built with guaranteed worst-case performance. The basic operations include: search, traversal, insert and delete. BSTs with guaranteed worst-case complexities perform better than an unsorted array, which would require linear search time.


title: Binary search tree

text: The complexity analysis of BST shows that, on average, the insert, delete and search takes formula_1 for formula_2 nodes. In the worst case, they degrade to that of a singly linked list: formula_3. To address the boundless increase of the tree height with arbitrary insertions and deletions, self-balancing variants of BSTs are introduced to bound the worst lookup complexity to that of the binary logarithm. AVL trees were the first self-balancing binary search trees, invented in 1962 by Georgy Adelson-Velsky and Evgenii Landis.


title: Binary search tree

text: Binary search trees can be used to implement abstract data types such as dynamic sets, lookup tables and priority queues, and used in sorting algorithms such as tree sort.


title: Binary search tree

text: The binary search tree algorithm was discovered independently by several researchers, including P.F. Windley, Andrew Donald Booth, Andrew Colin, Thomas N. Hibbard. The algorithm is attributed to Conway Berners-Lee and David Wheeler, who used it for storing labeled data in magnetic tapes in 1960. One of the earliest and popular binary search tree algorithm is that of Hibbard.


title: Binary search tree

text: The time complexities of a binary search tree increases boundlessly with the tree height if the nodes are inserted in an arbitrary order, therefore self-balancing binary search trees were introduced to bound the height of the tree to formula_4. Various height-balanced binary search trees were introduced to confine the tree height, such as AVL trees, Treaps, and red–black trees.


title: Binary search tree

text: The AVL tree was invented by Georgy Adelson-Velsky and Evgenii Landis in 1962 for the efficient organization of information. It was the first self-balancing binary search tree to be invented.


title: Binary search tree

text: A binary search tree is a rooted binary tree in which the nodes are arranged in total order in which the nodes with keys greater than any particular node is stored on the right sub-trees and the ones with equal to or less than are stored on the left sub-tree satisfying the binary search property.


title: Binary search tree

text: Binary search trees are also efficacious in sortings and search algorithms. However, the search complexity of a BST depends upon the order in which the nodes are inserted and deleted; since in worst case, successive operations in the binary search tree may lead to degeneracy and form a singly linked list (or "unbalanced tree") like structure, thus has the same worst-case complexity as a linked list.


title: Binary search tree

text: Binary search trees are also a fundamental data structure used in construction of abstract data structures such as sets, multisets, and associative arrays.


title: Binary search tree

text: Searching begins by examining the root node. If the tree is formula_5, the key being searched for does not exist in the tree. Otherwise, if the key equals that of the root, the search is successful and the node is returned. If the key is less than that of the root, the search proceeds by examining the left subtree. Similarly, if the key is greater than that of the root, the search proceeds by examining the right subtree. This process is repeated until the key is found or the remaining subtree is formula_5. If the searched key is not found after a formula_5 subtree is reached, then the key is not present in the tree.


title: Binary search tree

text: The recursive procedure continues until a formula_5 or the formula_9 being searched for are encountered.


title: Binary search tree

text: The recursive version of the search can be "unrolled" into a while loop. On most machines, the iterative version is found to be more efficient.


title: Binary search tree

text: Since the search may proceed till some leaf node, the running time complexity of BST search is formula_10 where formula_11 is the height of the tree. However, the worst case for BST search is formula_3 where formula_2 is the total number of nodes in the BST, because an unbalanced BST may degenerate to a linked list. However, if the BST is height-balanced the height is formula_1.


title: Binary search tree

text: For certain operations, given a node formula_15, finding the successor or predecessor of formula_15 is crucial. Assuming all the keys of the BST are distinct, the successor of a node formula_15 in BST is the node with the smallest key greater than formula_15's key. On the other hand, the predecessor of a node formula_15 in BST is the node with the largest key smaller than formula_15's key. Following is pseudocode for finding the successor and predecessor of a node formula_15 in BST.


title: Binary search tree

text: Operations such as finding a node in a BST whose key is the maximum or minimum are critical in certain operations, such as determining the successor and predecessor of nodes. Following is the pseudocode for the operations.


title: Binary search tree

text: Operations such as insertion and deletion cause the BST representation to change dynamically. The data structure must be modified in such a way that the properties of BST continue to hold. New nodes are inserted as leaf nodes in the BST. Following is an iterative implementation of the insertion operation.


title: Binary search tree

text: The procedure maintains a "trailing pointer" formula_22 as a parent of formula_15. After initialization on line 2, the while loop along lines 4-11 causes the pointers to be updated. If formula_22 is formula_5, the BST is empty, thus formula_26 is inserted as the root node of the binary search tree formula_27, if it is not formula_5, insertion proceeds by comparing the keys to that of formula_22 on the lines 15-19 and the node is inserted accordingly.


title: Binary search tree

text: The formula_55 procedure deals with the 3 special cases mentioned above. Lines 2-3 deal with case 1; lines 4-5 deal with case 2 and lines 6-16 for case 3. The helper function formula_56 is used within the deletion algorithm for the purpose of replacing the node formula_57 with formula_58 in the binary search tree formula_27. This procedure handles the deletion (and substitution) of formula_57 from the BST.


title: Binary search tree

text: Without rebalancing, insertions or deletions in a binary search tree may lead to degeneration, resulting in a height formula_2 of the tree (where formula_2 is number of items in a tree), so that the lookup performance is deteriorated to that of a linear search. Keeping the search tree balanced and height bounded by formula_1 is a key to the usefulness of the binary search tree. This can be achieved by "self-balancing" mechanisms during the updation operations to the tree designed to maintain the tree height to the binary logarithmic complexity.


title: Binary search tree

text: A tree is height-balanced if the heights of the left sub-tree and right sub-tree are guaranteed to be related by a constant factor. This property was introduced by the AVL tree and continued by the Red-Black tree. The heights of all the nodes on the path from the root to the modified leaf node have to be observed and possibly corrected on every insert and delete operation to the tree.


title: Binary search tree

text: In a weight-balanced tree, the criterion of a balanced tree is the number of leaves of the subtrees. The weights of the left and right subtrees differ at most by formula_64. However, the difference is bound by a ratio formula_65 of the weights, since a strong balance condition of formula_64 cannot be maintained with formula_1 rebalancing work during insert and delete operations. The formula_65-weight-balanced trees gives an entire family of balance conditions, where each left and right subtrees have each at least a fraction of formula_65 of the total weight of the subtree.


title: Binary search tree

text: There are several self-balanced binary search trees, including T-tree, treap, red-black tree, B-tree, 2–3 tree, and Splay tree.


title: Binary search tree

text: Binary search trees are used in sorting algorithms such as tree sort, where all the elements are inserted at once and the tree is traversed at an in-order fashion. BSTs are also used in quicksort.


title: Binary search tree

text: Binary search trees are used in implementing priority queues, using the node's key as priorities. Adding new elements to the queue follows the regular BST insertion operation but the removal operation depends on the type of priority queue:


title: Karaoke

text: Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese "kara" "empty" and "ōkesutora" "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is an instrumental version of a well-known popular song. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol, changing colour, or music video images, to guide the singer. In Chinese-speaking countries and regions such as mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, a karaoke box is called a KTV. The global karaoke market has been estimated to be worth nearly $10 billion.


title: Karaoke

text: From 1961 to 1966, the American TV network NBC carried a karaoke-like series, "Sing Along with Mitch", featuring host Mitch Miller and a chorus, which superimposed the lyrics to their songs near the bottom of the TV screen for home audience participation. The primary difference between Karaoke and sing-along songs is the absence of the lead vocalist.


title: Karaoke

text: Sing-alongs (present since the beginning of singing) fundamentally changed with the introduction of new technology. In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, stored audible materials began to dominate the music recording industry and revolutionized the portability and ease of use of band and instrumental music by musicians and entertainers as the demand for entertainers increased globally. This may have been attributable to the introduction of music cassette tapes, technology that arose from the need to customize music recordings and the desire for a "handy" format that would allow fast and convenient duplication of music and thereby meet the requirements of the entertainers' lifestyles and the 'footloose' character of the entertainment industry.


title: Karaoke

text: The karaoke-styled machine was developed in various places in Japan. Even before the Invention of the first machines, the word “karaoke” had long been used in Japan’s entertainment industry to refer to the use of instrumental recordings as backing tracks in situations when a live band could not be arranged for a singer. Japanese engineer Shigeichi Negishi, who ran a consumer electronics assembly business in Tokyo, made the first prototype in 1967. He subsequently began mass producing coin-operated versions under the brand name "Sparko Box," making it the first commercially available karaoke machine. For media, it used 8-track cassette tapes of commercially available instrumental recordings. Lyrics were provided in a paper booklet. However, he ran into distribution troubles and ceased production of the Sparko Box shortly thereafter. Another early pioneer was Toshiharu Yamashita, who worked as a singing coach, and in 1970 sold an 8-track playback deck with microphone for sing-alongs.


title: Karaoke

text: In 1971, nightclub musician Daisuke Inoue independently invented his own karaoke machine in the city of Kobe. His biggest contribution was understanding the difficulty amateurs had in singing pop songs, recording his own versions of popular songs in keys that made them easier for casual singers. As such he also included a rudimentary reverb function to help mask singers' deficiencies. For these reasons, he is often considered to be the inventor of the modern business model for karaoke, even though he was not the first to create a machine and did not, like Negishi or Yamashita, file a patent. Music has long been part of Japan’s nightlife, and particularly so in the postwar era, when a variety of establishments such as cabarets and hostess clubs emerged to serve the needs of salarymen unwinding and entertaining clients. Music, whether performed for listening or singing along, played a key role. Inoue, a bandleader, drummer, and Electone keyboardist, specialized in leading sing-alongs at nightclubs in Sannomiya, the entertainment district of the city of Kobe. He grew so popular that he became overbooked, and began recording instrumentals for clients when he could not personally perform for them. Realizing the potential for the market, he commissioned a coin-operated machine that metered out several minutes of singing time. Like Negishi’s, it was based on an 8-Track cassette deck, and Inoue called it the “8 Juke.” Inoue loaned the machines to establishments for free in exchange for a portion of the monthly earnings from the machines. He placed the first 8 Jukes in Sannomiya’s “snack bars,” but they initially failed to take off. Inoue then hired hostesses to ostentatiously sing on them, which successfully sparked interest. This also caused a great deal of friction with Inoue’s fellow musicians, who saw it as drawing customers away from them. Nevertheless karaoke spread throughout Kobe, then, over the course of the Seventies, all of Japan as major manufacturers such as JVC began producing their own versions of the singing machine. Karaoke was long performed mainly in bars and hostess clubs in front of other patrons, but in the Eighties, a new style with private rooms emerged, called karaoke boxes. This became the dominant form of karaoke performance in Japan. In 2004, Daisuke Inoue was awarded the tongue-in-cheek Ig Nobel Peace Prize for inventing karaoke, "thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other."


title: Karaoke

text: The patent holder of the karaoke machine is Roberto del Rosario, who is from the Philippines. He developed the karaoke's sing-along system in 1975 and is recognized as the sole holder of a patent for a karaoke system in the world.


title: Karaoke

text: Shortly after the development of the LaserDisc, Pioneer started to offer Video Karaoke machines in the 1980s. These are capable of displaying lyrics over a video that accompanies the music.


title: Karaoke

text: Karaoke soon spread to the rest of Asia and other countries all over the world. In-home karaoke machines soon followed but lacked success in the American and Canadian markets. When creators became aware of this problem, karaoke machines were no longer being sold strictly for the purpose of karaoke but as home theater systems to enhance television watching to "movie theater like quality". Home theater systems took off, and karaoke went from being the main purpose of the stereo system to a side feature.


title: Karaoke

text: As more music became available for karaoke machines, more people within the industry saw karaoke as a profitable form of lounge and nightclub entertainment. It is not uncommon for some bars to have karaoke performances seven nights a week. commonly with high-end sound equipment superior to the small, stand-alone consumer versions. Dance floors and lighting effects are also becoming common sights in karaoke bars. Lyrics are often displayed on multiple television screens around the bar.


title: Karaoke

text: A basic karaoke machine consists of a music player, microphone inputs, a means of altering the pitch of the played music, and an audio output. Some low-end machines attempt to provide vocal suppression so that one can feed regular songs into the machine and remove the voice of the original singer; however this was, historically, rarely effective. Most common machines are CD+G, Laser Disc, VCD or DVD players with microphone inputs and an audio mixer built in. CD+G players use a special track called subcode to encode the lyrics and pictures displayed on the screen while other formats natively display both audio and video.


title: Karaoke

text: Most karaoke machines have technology that electronically changes the pitch of the music so that amateur singers can choose a key that is appropriate for their vocal range, while maintaining the original tempo of the song. (Old systems which used cassettes changed the pitch by altering playback speed, but none are still on the market, and their commercial use is virtually nonexistent.)


title: Karaoke

text: A popular game using karaoke is to type in a random number and call up a song, which participants attempt to sing. In some machines, this game is pre-programmed and may be limited to a genre so that they cannot call up an obscure national anthem that none of the participants can sing. This game has come to be called "Kamikaze Karaoke" or "Karaoke Roulette" in some parts of the United States and Canada.


title: Karaoke

text: Many low-end entertainment systems have a karaoke mode that attempts to remove the vocal track from regular audio CDs, using an Out Of Phase Stereo (OOPS) technique. This is done by center channel extraction, which exploits the fact that in most stereo recordings the vocals are in the center. This means that the voice, as part of the music, has equal volume on both stereo channels and no phase difference. To get the quasi-karaoke (mono) track, the left channel of the original audio is subtracted from the right channel. The Sega Saturn also has a "mute vocals" feature that is based on the same principle and is also able to adjust the pitch of the song to match the singer's vocal range.


title: Karaoke

text: This crude approach results in the often-poor performance of voice removal. Common effects are hearing the reverb effects on the voice track (due to stereo reverb on the vocals not being in the center); also, other instruments (snare/bass drum, bass guitar and solo instruments) that happen to be mixed into the center get removed, degrading this approach to hardly more than a gimmick in those devices. Recent years have seen the development of new techniques based on the fast Fourier transform. Although still not perfect, the results are usually much better than the old technique, because the stereo left-right comparison can be done on individual frequencies.


title: Karaoke

text: Early karaoke machines used 8-track cartridges (The Singing Machine) and cassette tapes, with printed lyric sheets, but technological advances replaced this with CDs, VCDs, laserdiscs and, currently, DVDs. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Pioneer Electronics dominated the international karaoke music video market, producing high quality karaoke music videos (inspired by the music videos such as those on MTV).


title: Karaoke

text: In 1992, Taito introduced the X2000, which fetched music via a dial-up telephone network. Its repertoire of music and graphics was limited, but its smaller size and the advantage of continuous updates saw it gradually replace traditional machines. Karaoke machines which are connected via fiber-optic links enabling them to provide instant high-quality music and video are becoming increasingly popular.


title: Karaoke

text: "Karaoke direct" is an Internet division established in 1997 been serving the public online since 1998. They released the first karaoke player that supports MP3+G and now the KDX2000 model supporting karaoke in DIVX, Format.


title: Karaoke

text: One of long-running karaoke device is the DVD, HDD karaoke system, that comes with thousands of songs which popular in business such as karaoke machine rentals and KTV bars, and became popular in asia, especially the Philippines. This device also provides MIDI format with on-screen lyrics on a background video and scoring after you sing, the score will appear from 60 (lowest) to 100 (highest) based on timing and pitch.


title: Karaoke

text: The earliest karaoke-based music video game, called "Karaoke Studio", was released for the Nintendo Famicom in 1985, but its limited computing ability made for a short catalog of songs and therefore reduced replay value. As a result, karaoke games were considered little more than collector's items until they saw release in higher-capacity DVD formats.


title: Karaoke

text: "Karaoke Revolution", created for the PlayStation 2 by Harmonix and released by Konami in North America in 2003, is a console game in which a single player sings along with on-screen guidance and receives a score based on pitch, timing, and rhythm. The game soon spawned several follow-ups including "Karaoke Revolution Vol. 2", "Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3", "Karaoke Revolution Party Edition", "CMT Presents Karaoke Revolution: Country" and "Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol". While the original "Karaoke Revolution" was also eventually released for the Microsoft Xbox console in late 2004, the new online-enabled version included the ability to download additional song packs through the console's exclusive Xbox Live service.


title: Karaoke

text: A similar series, "SingStar", published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, is particularly popular in the European and Australasian markets. Other music video game titles that involve singing by the player include "Boogie" and its sequel "Boogie Superstar", "Disney Sing It", "Get On Da Mic", the "Guitar Hero" series starting with "World Tour", "", "Lips", the "Rock Band" series, "SingSong", "UltraStar", and "Xbox Music Mixer".


title: Karaoke

text: An Xbox Live App with the same name created by iNiS and powered by The Karaoke Channel/Stingray Karaoke was released on 12 December 2012. The app uses Unreal Engine 3.