title: Epigraphy

text: Inscriptions having a direct relation to the object, or representation, on which they are inscribed, vary greatly in their contents. Those relating to picture or relief chronicles of the victories or exploits of kings, as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, serve as a record of the events, and help to interpret the scenes. Such inscriptions are not common in Greek or Roman work; but frequently, especially in early Greek times, and on vases, the names of persons and even of objects are written beside them for the purpose of identification, and sometimes a speech issues from the mouth of the figure. On the carved wooden chest of Cypselus, of about 600 BC hexameter verses were written, curving about among figures, and giving a description of each scene. The bases of statues and reliefs often had inscriptions cut upon them for identification and record. This was particularly the case with honorary statues and tombstones. In other cases, where there is an evident relation between the artistic representation and the inscription, the figures are subordinate and seem merely to illustrate the text, as when a treaty between Athens and Samos has a relief at its head representing the goddess Athena and Hera clasping hands, as representatives of their respective cities. In other cases, the arms or device of a city is carved on an inscription, almost like a seal on a document. In all these cases the figures and the inscription are part of a common design, whether carried out by the same hand or not. But in the case of owners' marks or names cut on vases or other objects, or of the dedication of such objects, the inscription is not necessarily contemporary; it may indeed be misleading, as in the case, mentioned with disapproval by Cicero, of using again old Greek statues and placing new dedicatory inscriptions on them in Roman times, a sort of "recycling": for instance, one of the statues of Athenian knights of the 5th century BC placed at the entrance of the Acropolis, had a later inscription cut on its base to make it serve as an equestrian statue of Germanicus, probably in 18 AD when he visited Athens. In Egypt and Mesopotamia also it is not unusual to find the name of a later king of official cut upon an earlier work.


title: Epigraphy

text: The majority of inscriptions are of independent value and interest, the object on which they are cut being either provided for the purpose or utilised as convenient and suitable. Such inscriptions may be classified as "Religious" and "Political and Social". The distinction between the two is not always easy to draw; for in almost all ancient civilisations religion was a part of the established service of the State, and was under public control, or at least was closely bound up with political administration. It follows that many inscriptions relating to religious matters take the form of political decrees or state documents, and therefore might, especially as far as form is concerned, be included in either category; but it is usually possible to classify them according to their contents and intention.


title: Epigraphy

text: A temple was often a kind of religious corporation under the control of the State; and its accounts and details of administration were made public at frequent intervals, usually annually, by means of inscriptions, exhibited to public view in its precinct. Many such inscriptions have been found, and supply a great deal of information that can be obtained from no other source. Some great temples, such as that of Apollo on the island of Delos, held great amounts of property, both real and portable, the latter taking the form either of more or less precious offerings dedicated in the temple and its surrounding buildings, or of coined money. The inscriptions accordingly record gifts and acquisitions of landed property, leases and assignments, payments of rent and fines for default, loans and interest and many other business transactions suitable to a great landed proprietor or to a bank. They therefore throw much light upon the social and economic conditions of ancient life, such as are nowhere else recorded. Again, the lists of offerings dedicated in the temple and other buildings enable us to realise almost visually the appearance of their contents. These are described as being on the floor, on the walls, on shelves or in cases; they consisted of vases and other objects suitable for use in the temple service; ornaments and jewels; statuettes, mostly in gold and silver; weapons and tools; coined money; and bullion, mostly melted down from old offerings. The detailed care that was taken in this last case, to ensure that the full weight of these objects was preserved, whether made into a new vessel or not, is recorded in other inscriptions. These elaborate inventories were checked and revised by each successive board of administrators, and gave the best possible security against any robbery or peculation. In addition to such general lists, there are also innumerable records of various gifts and acquisitions, whether of land and houses, or of movable property of all sorts. Buildings and repairs are also recorded, sometimes by the State, sometimes by individuals, whose piety and generosity are suitably honoured. In form, these are often hardly to be distinguished from public works of a secular character, which must be mentioned later.


title: Epigraphy

text: The inscriptions on or belonging to special dedications are often of great historical interest – there need only be quoted the inscription on the famous Serpent Column, once at Delphi and now in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, with the list of the Greek States which took part in the Persian War; and that relating to the Roman arms dedicated by Pyrrhus of Epirus at Dodona after his victories. Most of the great temples being of immemorial sanctity, it is hardly to be expected that any records of their foundation should be found in inscriptions. But on the other hand we have many accounts of the dedication of new temples, either by states or communities or by private individuals. In almost all such cases it was necessary to obtain sanction for the foundation from the State; thus the inscription often takes the form of a decree of the people authorising the foundation of the temple and often giving some privileges to the founder or founders.


title: Epigraphy

text: Inscriptions give much information as to priests and other religious officials. There are in the first place lists of priests, some of them covering long periods and even going back to mythical times; there are also lists of treasures and administrators, who were usually lay officials appointed for the purpose, either by election or by lot. The duties and privileges of priests are recorded in many inscriptions, and vary considerably from place to place. It is recorded, for instance, what portions of a victim at any sacrifice were to be received by the priest. In any important temple this must evidently have been far more than the priest or his family could consume, and accordingly it must have been sold, and so constituted a considerable source of income. Consequently, a priesthood was an office well paid and much sought after; and we actually find in later Greek times, especially in Asia Minor, that priesthoods were frequently sold, under proper guarantees and with due sureties as to the duties being carried out. Sometimes a fee to the priest had to be paid in cash; in some cases a priest or priestess was allowed to take up a collection on certain days. On the other hand, the duties of a priest are often recorded; he had to see to the cleaning and care of the temple and its contents, to provide flowers and garlands for decorations and to supply the regular daily service. Sacrifices on great occasions were usually provided by the State, as also were important repairs; but in some cases a priest undertook these on his own account, and was honoured accordingly – for instance, by being allowed to inscribe his name in the restored temple.


title: Epigraphy

text: Besides priests, we find many other officials of various ranks attached to temples and recorded in inscriptions. Some of these, especially those who were concerned with buildings or constructions, or with the inventories of temple treasures and the accounts of administration, were lay officials appointed by the State, as in the case of political officers. But many others had specialised sacerdotal functions; for instance, in many places there were "manteis" or prophets, often of special families with hereditary skills in divination; at Eleusis we find records of the hierophant, the torch-bearer, and others who took part in the celebration of the mysteries. At Olympia, in later Greek times, we find a remarkable list of officials, that is: three priests, three libation pourers, two prophets, three custodians (of keys), a flute-player, an interpreter, a priest for the daily sacrifice, a secretary, a wine-pourer, three dancers at libations, a woodman (to supply wood for the sacrifices), and a steward and cook – the last no sinecure, in view of the numerous sacrificial feasts.


title: Epigraphy

text: There were also many more menial offices in the service of temples which were carried out by slaves. Such slaves were often presented to the temple or acquired in some other way. There is a whole class of inscriptions, found on many sites, in which the sale of slaves to a temple or to the god of a temple is recorded. It is often difficult to know whether such slaves were intended for the service of a temple, or, on the other hand, such service was either purely formal or was not required at all, the sale to the temple being intended as fictitious, so as to enable a slave to acquire his own freedom and at the same time to secure the protection of the god in his free status.


title: Epigraphy

text: The ritual appropriate to different divinities and temples varied greatly from place to place; and it was, therefore, necessary or desirable to set up notices in all public places of worship for the information and guidance of worshippers. The commonest and most essential act of worship was sacrifice; an example of the simplest form of prescription is to be seen in the inscription on the relief from Thasos in the Louvre: "To the Nymphs and to Apollo the leader of the Nymphs, the worshipper may, if he so choose, sacrifice a male and a female victim. It is not permissible to offer a sheep or a pig. No paean is sung. To the Graces it is not permissible to offer a goat or a pig."


title: Epigraphy

text: It is to be noticed that this order of service contains a prohibition as well as a prescription. Such prohibitions are frequent, and often relate to the need of ceremonial purity in all worshippers entering a sacred precinct. They must for a certain time have abstained from certain prescribed means of pollution, varying from place to place. The officials are sometimes ordered to erect notices giving information on this point; for instance, at the precinct of Alectrona at Ialysus, it was prescribed that "no horse, ass, mule, nor any other animal with a bushy tail should enter, and that nobody should bring such animals in or wear shoes or any article produced from pigs. There is also a fine for driving in sheep." Other precincts were protected in a more general manner from any invasion or violation. It was prohibited to cut wood or to remove earth and stones, or to drive any beasts into some precincts; the right of erecting booths was either restricted or denied altogether. Sometimes more detailed prescriptions are given for the whole organisation of a festival; thus, at Andania, in Messenia, the arrangements for the celebration of the local Eleusinia, the dress of the participants, the officials and policing, are very fully described. Similarly, in the Hall of the Iobacchi, at Athens, the order of proceedings, the officers and the characters in the sacred play, and various administrative details are ordered.


title: Epigraphy

text: When there is any doubt about any ritual or procedure, divination is often resorted to, and the results of such divination are recorded in inscriptions as a guidance for the future; it was also a common practice to consult Delphi or some other oracle in doubtful or difficult cases; there the exact method of procedure is sometimes recorded, as well as the response of the oracle. Forms of worship are often prescribed or recorded, especially hymns, which are sometimes inscribed together with their musical notation. The performance of songs or hymns and dances are also matters of constant reference, especially in connection with lyrical or musical contests; the victorious band or performer often dedicated the prize in honour of the god. A special form of contest was that in dramatic performances, of which many records have survived, both from Athens and from many other parts of the Greek world. The regulation of athletic festivals, and the records of victors in their contests, also form a numerous class of inscriptions. As regards mysteries, though there are numerous regulations affecting the arrangement of celebrations and the conduct of those participating, there is, as was to be expected, very little concerning the actual performances.


title: Epigraphy

text: Another interesting phase of Greek religion known to us mainly from inscriptions is offered by the shrines of healing. The most notable of these is the precinct of Asclepius at Epidaurus. Here have been found, on large slabs of inscription, compiled, in all probability, from earlier documents, lists of the cures effected by Apollo and Asclepius. The cures are of the most varied kinds, from painful diseases or surgical cases to a lost boy and a broken cup. The formula is in almost all cases the same: the consultant come to Epidaurus, sleeps in the "abaton", has dreams or sees visions, and comes out whole. In later times, when such faith-healing had probably become less efficacious, elaborate prescriptions of diet and hygiene are recorded.


title: Epigraphy

text: A special form of prayer consists of curses, which were often buried in the ground, probably with the intent to reach the infernal gods. Such curses often give the reason for their being made, usually some injury done to the author of the curse; sometimes they devote the offender to the infernal gods.


title: Epigraphy

text: Another elements in Greek religion which is known to us almost exclusively by means of inscriptions, is to be found in the religious associations that existed in many Greek cities, apart from the organisation of state religion, though sometimes recognised by it. These associations had each its own regulations, which were duly recorded in inscriptions; they varied greatly both in purpose and in character. Many of them had a definitely religious purpose, in the worship of certain gods; sometimes an alien community was given special permission to worship its own god or gods in its own way. Other associations were more social in character and served as clubs, or as burial societies. A remarkable feature about such associations is that the lists of members of many of them include the names of women and of slaves, thus contrasting with the civic basis of established religion in Greece, and anticipating a religion in which "there can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female."


title: Epigraphy

text: Ancient writers state that the earliest laws of Athens were inscribed upon tablets of wood, put together in a pyramidal shape. These, owing to their material, have perished; but we have some very early codes of law preserved on stone, notably at Gortyna in Crete. Here an inscription of great length is incised on the slabs of a theatre-shaped structure in 12 columns of 50 lines each; it is mainly concerned with the law of inheritance, adoption, etc. Doubtless similar inscriptions were set up in many places in Greece. An interesting series of inscriptions deals with the conditions under which colonists were sent out from various cities, and the measures that were taken to secure their rights as citizens. A bronze tablet records in some detail the arrangements of this sort made when Locrians established a colony in Naupactus; another inscription relates to the Athenian colonisation of Salamis, in the 6th century BC.


title: Epigraphy

text: A very large number of inscriptions are in the form of decrees of various cities and peoples, even when their subject matter suggests that they should be classified under other headings. Almost all legislative and many administrative measures take this form; often a decree prescribes how and where the inscription should be set up. The formulae and preambles of such decrees vary considerably from place to place, and from period to period. Those of Athens are by far the most exactly known, owing to the immense number that have been discovered; and they are so strictly stereotyped that can be classified with the precision of algebraic formulae, and often dated to within a few years by this test alone. Very full lists for this purpose have been drawn up by epigraphist Wilhelm Larfeld, in his work on the subject. It is usual to record the year (by the name of the eponymous archon), the day of the month and of the prytany (or presiding commission according to tribes), various secretaries, the presiding officials and the proposer of the decree. It is also stated whether the resolution is passed by the senate (Boule) or the assembly of the people (Ecclesia), or both. The circumstances or the reason of the resolution are then given, and finally the decision itself. Some other cities followed Athens in the form of their decrees, with such local variations as were required; others were more independent in their development, and different magistracies or forms of government had various results. In the Hellenistic Age, and later, the forms of independent government were, to a great extent, kept up, though little real power remained with the people. On the other hand, it is common thing to find letters from kings, and later from Roman emperors, inscribed and set up in public places.


title: Epigraphy

text: It was customary to inscribe on stone all records of the receipt, custody and expenditure of public money or treasure, so that citizens could verify for themselves the safety and due control of the State in all financial matters. As in the case of temple accounts, it was usual for each temporary board of officials to render to their successors an account of their stewardship, and of the resources and treasures which they handed over. In all cases of public works, the expenditure was ordered by the State, and detailed reports were drawn up and inscribed on stone at intervals while the work was being carried out. In many cases there is a detailed specification of building work which makes it possible, not only to realise all the technical details and processes employed, but also the whole plan and structure of a building. A notable instance is the arsenal of Philon at the Peiraeus which has been completely reconstructed on paper by architects from the building specification. In the case of the Erechtheum, we have not only a detailed report on the unfinished state of the building in 409 BC, but also accounts of the expenditure and payments to the workmen employed in finishing it. Similar accounts have been preserved of the building of the Parthenon, spread over 15 years; in the case of both the Parthenon and the Erechtheum, there are included the payments made to those who made the sculptures.


title: Epigraphy

text: Naval and military expenditure is also fully accounted for; among other information there are records of the galley-slips at the different harbours of the Piraeus, and of the ships of the Athenian navy, with their names and condition. In short, there is no department of state economy and financial administration that is not abundantly illustrated by the record of inscriptions. A set of records of high historical value are the ""tribute lists"", recording the quota paid to Athens by her subject allies during the 5th century BC. These throw much light on her relations with them at various periods.(Cf. Delian League).


title: Epigraphy

text: An institution as to which our knowledge is mainly derived from inscriptions is the ephebic system at Athens. There are not only records of lists of ephebi and of their guardians and instructors, but also decrees in honour of their services, especially in taking their due part in religious and other ceremonies, and resolutions of the ephebi themselves in honour of their officials. It is possible to trace in the inscriptions, which range over several centuries, how what was originally a system of physical and military training for Athenian youths from age of 18 to 20, with outpost and police duties, was gradually transformed. In later times there were added to the instructors in military exercises others who gave lectures on what we should now call arts and science subjects; so that in the Hellenistic and Roman times, when youths from all parts of the civilised world flocked to Athens as an intellectual centre, the ephebic system became a kind of cosmopolitan university.


title: Epigraphy

text: In addition to inscriptions which are concerned with the internal affairs of various cities, there are many others recording treaties or other agreements of an international character between various cities and states. These were incised on bronze or stone, and set up in places of public resort in the cities concerned, or in common religious centres such as Olympia and Delphi. The simplest form of treaty is merely an alliance for a certain term of years, usually with some penalty for any breach of the conditions. Often an oath was prescribed, to be taken by representatives on each side; it was also not unusual to appeal to the god in whose temple the treaty was exhibited. In other cases a list of gods by whom the two parties must swear is prescribed. Commercial clauses were sometimes added to treaties of alliance, and commercial treaties are also found, agreeing as to the export and import of merchandise and other things. In later days, especially in the time of the Hellenistic kings, treaties tend to become more complicated and detailed in their provisions.


title: Epigraphy

text: Another series of records of great historical interest is concerned with arbitration between various states on various questions, mainly concerned with frontiers. In cases of dispute it was not uncommon for the two disputants to appoint a third party as arbitrator. Sometimes this third party was another State, sometimes a specified number of individuals. Thus, in a frontier dispute between Corinth and Epidaurus, 151 citizens of Megara were appointed by name to arbitrate, and when the decision was disputed, 31 from among them revised and confirmed it. In all such cases it was the custom for a full record to be preserved on stone and set up in the places concerned. In this case the initiative in referring the matter to arbitration came from the Achaean League.


title: Epigraphy

text: A very large class of inscriptions deals with the institution of "proxenia". According to this a citizen of any State might be appointed "proxenos" of another State; his duties would then be to offer help and hospitality to any citizen of that other State who might be visiting his city, and to assist him in any dispute or in securing his legal rights. The office has been compared to the modern appointment of consuls, with the essential difference that the "proxenos" is always a citizen of the state in which he resides, not of that whose citizens and interests he assists. The decrees upon this matter frequently record the appointment of a "proxenos", and the conferring on him of certain benefits and privileges in return for his services; they also contain resolutions of thanks from the city served by the "proxenos", and record honours consequently conferred upon him.


title: Epigraphy

text: This class of inscription is in form not unlike the last, except that honours recorded are given for all sorts of services, private and public, to the State and to individuals. A frequent addition is an invitation to dine in the Prytaneum at Athens. Some are inscribed on the bases of statues set up to the recipient. In early times these inscriptions are usually brief and simple. The bust of Pericles on the Acropolis held nothing but the names of Pericles himself and of the sculptor Kresilas. Later it became usual to give, in some detail, the reasons for the honours awarded; and in Hellenistic and Roman times, these became more and more detailed and fulsome in laudatory detail.


title: Epigraphy

text: These inscriptions are of special interest as throwing much light upon the history of art. The artist's name was usually, especially in earlier times, carved upon the base of the pedestal of a statue, and consequently was easily separated from it if the statue was carried off or destroyed. A case where both statue and pedestal are preserved is offered by the "Victory", signed on its pedestal by Paeonius at Olympia. Occasionally, and more frequently in later times, the artist's signature was carved upon some portion of the statue itself. But in later copies of well-known works, it has to be considered whether the name is that of the original artist or of the copyist who reproduced his work. (see for example, the statue of Hercules/Heracles below)


title: Epigraphy

text: A special class of artists' signatures is offered by the names signed by Attic and other vase painters upon their vases. These have been made the basis of a minute historical and stylistic study of the work of these painters, and unsigned vases also have been grouped with the signed ones, so as to make an exact and detailed record of this branch of Greek artistic production.


title: Epigraphy

text: The great majority of these fall into one of the classes already referred to. But there are some instances in which an inscription is set up merely as a record. For instance, a victor in athletic or other contests may set up a list of his victories. The most famous historical record is the autobiographical account of the deeds and administration of Augustus, which was reproduced and set up in many places; it is generally known as the Monumentum Ancyranum, because the most complete copy of it was found at Ancyra. The Marmor Parium at Oxford, found in Paros, is a chronological record of Greek history, probably made for educational purposes, and valuable as giving the traditional dates of events from the earliest time down.


title: Epigraphy

text: This is by far the most numerous class of inscriptions, both Greek and Latin. In early times there is often no record beyond the name of the deceased in Athens, often with the name of his father and his deme. Sometimes a word or two of conventional praise is added, such as "a good and wise man". Occasionally the circumstances of death are alluded to, especially if it took place in battle or at sea. Such epitaphs were frequently in metrical form, usually either hexameter or elegiacs. Many of them have been collected, and they form an interesting addition to the Greek anthology. In later times it becomes usual to give more elaborate praise of the deceased; but this is hardly ever so detailed and fulsome as on more modern tombstones. The age and other facts about the deceased are occasionally given, but not nearly so often as on Latin tombstones, which offer valuable statistical information in this respect.


title: Epigraphy

text: Latin inscriptions may be classified on much the same lines as Greek; but certain broad distinctions may be drawn at the outset. They are generally more standardised as to form and as to content, not only in Rome and Italy, but also throughout the provinces of the Roman Empire. One of the chief difficulties in deciphering Latin Inscriptions lies in the very extensive use of initials and abbreviations. These are of great number and variety, and while some of them can be easily interpreted as belonging to well-known formulae, others offer considerable difficulty, especially to the inexperienced student. Often the same initial may have many different meanings according to the context. Some common formulae such as ' (), or ' () offer little difficulty, but there are many which are not so obvious and leave room for conjecture. Often the only way to determine the meaning is to search through a list of initials, such as those given by modern Latin epigraphists, until a formula is found which fits the context.


title: Epigraphy

text: Most of what has been said about Greek inscriptions applies to Roman also. The commonest materials in this case also are stone, marble and bronze; but a more extensive use is made of stamped bricks and tiles, which are often of historical value as identifying and dating a building or other construction. The same applies to leaden water pipes which frequently bear dates and names of officials. Terracotta lamps also frequently have their makers' names and other information stamped upon them. Arms, and especially shields, sometimes bear the name and corps of their owners. Leaden discs were also used to serve the same purpose as modern identification discs. Inscriptions are also found on sling bullets – Roman as well as Greek; there are also numerous classes of "tesserae" or tickets of admission to theatres or other shows.


title: Epigraphy

text: As regards the contents of inscriptions, there must evidently be a considerable difference between records of a number of independent city states and an empire including almost all the civilised world; but municipalities maintained much of their independent traditions in Roman times, and consequently their inscriptions often follow the old formulas.


title: Epigraphy

text: The classification of Roman inscriptions may, therefore, follow the same lines as the Greek, except that certain categories are absent, and that some others, not found in Greek, are of considerable importance.


title: Epigraphy

text: These are very numerous; and the custom of placing the name of the dedicator in a conspicuous place on the building was prevalent, especially in the case of dedications by emperors or officials, or by public bodies. Restoration or repair was often recorded in the same manner. In the case of small objects the dedication is usually simple in form; it usually contains the name of the god or other recipient and of the donor, and a common formula is ' () often with additions such as ' (). Such dedications are often the result of a vow, and () is therefore often added. Bequests made under the wills of rich citizens are frequently recorded by inscriptions; these might either be for religious or for social purposes.


title: Epigraphy

text: A priesthood was frequently a political office and consequently is mentioned along with political honours in the list of a man's distinctions. The priesthoods that a man had held are usually mentioned first in inscriptions before his civil offices and distinctions. Religious offices, as well as civil, were restricted to certain classes, the highest to those of senatorial rank, the next to those of equestrian status; many minor offices, both in Rome and in the provinces, are enumerated in their due order.


title: Epigraphy

text: Among the most interesting of these is the ancient song and accompanying dance performed by the priests known as the Arval Brothers. This is, however, not in the form of a ritual prescription, but a detailed record of the due performance of the rite. An important class of documents is the series of calendars that have been found in Rome and in the various Italian towns. These give notice of religious festivals and anniversaries, and also of the days available for various purposes.


title: Epigraphy

text: The various colleges for religious purposes were very numerous. Many of them, both in Rome and Italy, and in provincial municipalities, were of the nature of priesthoods. Some were regarded as offices of high distinction and were open only to men of senatorial rank; among these were the Augurs, the Fetiales, the Salii; also the in imperial times. The records of these colleges sometimes give no information beyond the names of members, but these are often of considerable interest. Haruspices and Luperci were of equestrian rank.


title: Epigraphy

text: Our information as to these is not mainly drawn from inscriptions and, therefore, they need not here be considered. On the other hand, the word (law) is usually applied to all decrees of the senate or other bodies, whether of legislative or of administrative character. It is therefore, best to consider all together under the heading of public decrees.


title: Epigraphy

text: A certain number of these dating from republican times are of considerable interest. One of the earliest relates to the prohibition of bacchanalian orgies in Italy; it takes the form of a message from the magistrates, stating the authority on which they acted. Laws all follow a fixed formula, according to the body which has passed them. First there is a statement that the legislative body was consulted by the appropriate magistrate in due form; then follows the text of the law; and finally the sanction, the statement that the law was passed. In decrees of the senate the formula differs somewhat. They begin with a preamble giving the names of the consulting magistrates, the place and conditions of the meeting; then comes the subject submitted for decision, ending with the formula ' (); then comes the decision of the senate, opening with ' (). C. is added at the end, to indicate that the decree was passed. In imperial times, the emperor sometimes addressed a speech to the senate, advising them to pass certain resolutions, or else, especially in later times, gave orders or instructions directly, either on his own initiative or in response to questions or references. The number and variety of such orders is such that no classification of them can be given here. One of the most famous is the edict of Diocletian, fixing the prices of all commodities. Copies of this in Greek as well as in Latin have been found in various parts of the Roman Empire.


title: Epigraphy

text: A very large number of inscriptions record the construction or repair of public buildings by private individuals, by magistrates, Roman or provincial, and by emperors. In addition to the dedication of temples, we find inscriptions recording the construction of aqueducts, roads, especially on milestones, baths, basilicas, porticos and many other works of public utility. In inscriptions of early period often nothing is given but the name of the person who built or restored the edifice and a statement that he had done so. But later it was usual to give more detail as to the motive of the building, the name of the emperor or a magistrate giving the date, the authority for the building and the names and distinctions of the builders; then follows a description of the building, the source of the expenditure (e.g., , ) and finally the appropriate verb for the work done, whether building, restoring, enlarging or otherwise improving. Other details are sometimes added, such as the name of the man under whose direction the work was done.


title: Epigraphy

text: These vary greatly in content, and are among the most important documents concerning the administration of the Roman Empire. "They are numerous and of all sorts – tombstones of every degree, lists of soldiers' burial clubs, certificates of discharge from service, schedules of time-expired men, dedications of altars, records of building or of engineering works accomplished. The facts directly commemorated are rarely important." But when the information from hundreds of such inscriptions is collected together, "you can trace the whole policy of the Imperial Government in the matter of recruiting, to what extent and till what date legionaries were raised in Italy; what contingents for various branches of the service were drawn from the provinces, and which provinces provided most; how far provincials garrisoned their own countries, and which of them, like the British recruits, were sent as a measure of precaution to serve elsewhere; or, finally, at what epoch the empire grew weak enough to require the enlistment of barbarians from beyond its frontiers."


title: Epigraphy

text: There were many treaties between Rome and other states in republican times; but we do not, as a rule, owe our knowledge of these to inscriptions, which are very rare in this earlier period. In imperial times, to which most Latin inscriptions belong, international relations were subject to the universal domination of Rome, and consequently the documents relating to them are concerned with reference to the central authority, and often take the form of orders from the emperor.


title: Epigraphy

text: This custom belonged to Greece. What most nearly corresponded to it in Roman times was the adoption of some distinguished Roman as its "patron", by a city or state. The relation was then recorded, usually on a bronze tablet placed in some conspicuous position in the town concerned. The patron probably also kept a copy in his house, or had a portable tablet which would ensure his recognition and reception.


title: Epigraphy

text: Honorary inscriptions are extremely common in all parts of the Roman world. Sometimes they are placed on the bases of statues, sometimes in documents set up to record some particular benefaction or the construction of some public work. The offices held by the person commemorated, and the distinctions conferred upon him are enumerated in a regularly established order (), either beginning with the lower and proceeding step by step to the higher, or in reverse order with the highest first. Religious and priestly offices are usually mentioned before civil and political ones. These might be exercised either in Rome itself, or in the various municipalities of the empire. There was also a distinction drawn between offices that might be held only by persons of senatorial rank, those that were assigned to persons of equestrian rank, and those of a less distinguished kind. It follows that when only a portion of an inscription has been found, it is often possible to restore the whole in accordance with the accepted order.


title: Epigraphy

text: When these are attached to statues, it is sometimes doubtful whether the name is that of the man who actually made the statue, or of the master whose work it reproduces. Thus there are two well-known copies of a statue of Hercules by Lysippus, of which one is said to be the work of Lysippus, and the other states that it was made by Glycon (see images). Another kind of artist's or artificer's signature that is commoner in Roman times is to be found in the signatures of potters upon lamps and various kinds of vessels; they are usually impressed on the mould and stand out in relief on the terracotta or other material. These are of interest as giving much information as to the commercial spread of various kinds of handicrafts, and also as to the conditions under which they were manufactured.


title: Epigraphy

text: Many of these inscriptions might well be assigned to one of the categories already considered. But there are some which were expressly made to commemorate an important event, or to preserve a record. Among the most interesting is the inscription of the in Rome, which records the great naval victory of Gaius Duilius over the Carthaginians; this, however, is not the original, but a later and somewhat modified version. A document of high importance is a summary of the life and achievements of Augustus, already mentioned, and known as the Monumentum Ancyranum. The various sets of Fasti constituted a record of the names of consuls, and other magistrates or high officials, and also of the triumphs accorded to conquering generals.


title: Epigraphy

text: These are probably the most numerous of all classes of inscriptions; and though many of them are of no great individual interest, they convey, when taken collectively, much valuable information as to the distribution and transference of population, as to trades and professions, as to health and longevity, and as to many other conditions of ancient life. The most interesting early series is that on the tombs of the Scipios at Rome, recording, mostly in Saturnian Metre, the exploits and distinctions of the various members of that family.


title: Epigraphy

text: About the end of the republic and the beginning of the empire, it became customary to head a tombstone with the letters ' or ' (), thus consecrating the tomb to the deceased as having become members of the body of ghosts or spirits of the dead. These are followed by the name of the deceased, usually with his father's name and his tribe, by his honours and distinctions, sometimes by a record of his age. The inscription often concludes with ' (), or some similar formula, and also, frequently, with a statement of boundaries and a prohibition of violation or further use – for instance, ' (, this monument is not to pass to the heir). The person who has erected the monument and his relation to the deceased are often stated; or if a man has prepared the tomb in his lifetime, this also may be stated, (). But there is an immense variety in the information that either a man himself or his friend may wish to record.


title: Epigraphy

text: Milestones () have already been referred to, and may be regarded as records of the building of roads. Boundary stones () are frequently found, both of public and private property. A well-known instance is offered by those set up by the commissioners called () in the time of the Gracchi.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: Tatyana Aleksandrovna Navka (; born 13 April 1975) is a Russian former competitive ice dancer and wife of Dmitry Peskov. With her dance partner Roman Kostomarov, she is the 2006 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (2004–05), a three-time Grand Prix Final champion (2003–05), and a three-time European champion (2004–06).


title: Tatiana Navka

text: Tatiana Navka was born on 13 April 1975 in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. She is the daughter of Raisa, an economist, and Aleksandr, an engineer, and has a younger sister, Natalia. In 1988, she moved to Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: Tatiana Navka became interested in skating at the age of five after seeing it on television. Tamara Yarchevskaya and Alexander Rozhin coached her during her early years as a single skater. In 1987, following a 14 cm growth spurt that hampered her jumps, her parents were advised that she should try ice dancing.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: In 1988, at the invitation of Russian coach Natalia Dubova, Navka relocated to Moscow and began training at the Moskvich sports club, partnered with Samvel Gezalian. The two represented the Soviet Union early in their career, winning gold at the 1991 Skate America and 1991 Nations Cup. Following the country's dissolution, Navka/Gezalian chose to skate for Belarus. They placed ninth in their debut at the European and World Championships, in 1993.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: In the 1993–94 season, Navka/Gezalian won silver at the 1993 Skate Canada International and placed fourth at the 1993 NHK Trophy. They competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, placing 11th, before achieving their career-best Worlds result, fifth at the 1994 World Championships in Chiba, Japan. In 1994–95, Navka/Gezalian won silver at the 1994 NHK Trophy and went on to achieve their best European result, fourth, at the 1995 European Championships in Dortmund. Their partnership came to an end following the 1995 World Championships, where they placed seventh.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: Navka teamed up with Nikolai Morozov in 1996, continuing to represent Belarus. At their first practice at the 1997 World Championships, Morozov sustained a torn meniscus in his knee but they finished 14th at the event and he then underwent surgery. They earned an Olympic berth by winning gold at the 1997 Karl Schäfer Memorial. 90 seconds into their free dance at the 1998 Winter Olympics, nearly three-quarters of the floodlights turned off but Navka/Morozov did not interrupt their performance. They finished 16th at the Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and 10th at the 1998 World Championships in Minneapolis. They were coached by Alexander Zhulin and Bob Young at the International Skating Center in Simsbury, Connecticut. Following 1998 Worlds, Navka ended the partnership to compete with another skater.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: Navka then teamed up with Roman Kostomarov and began competing for Russia during the 1998–99 season. They were coached by Natalia Linichuk. They won the bronze medal at the Russian Championships and were sent to the World Championships in their first season together, placing 12th. Linichuk then dissolved the team and paired Kostomarov with Anna Semenovich. Navka became pregnant with her daughter and took a year off from competition.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: In mid-2000, Kostomarov called Navka and asked to skate with her again. They were coached by Alexander Zhulin in Hackensack and Montclair, New Jersey. Navka/Kostomarov won the World title in 2004 and again in 2005. They also won three European titles from 2004–2006. They then won gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. At the age of 30 years and 313 days, she became one of the oldest female figure skating Olympic champions.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: Navka/Kostomarov retired from competition after the Olympics but continue to skate in shows together.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: Navka has partnered with Russian celebrities to compete in Channel One Russia ice shows: Stars On Ice, which she won with actor Marat Basharov, and Ice Age, in which she was runner-up with actor Ville Haapasalo. In the 2008–09 season of Ice Age, she was runner-up for the second time, partnered with actor Vadim Kolganov.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: In September 2008, Navka, together with professional dancer Alexander Litvinenko, took part in the Eurovision Dance Contest 2008. In October 2011, she became a 2014 Winter Olympics (Sochi) ambassador.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: Navka became a citizen of Belarus by 1994 and of Russia no later than 2002. She formerly resided in New Jersey.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: In 2000, Navka married Russian ice dancer Alexander Zhulin. Their daughter, Sasha, was born in May 2000 in the United States. The couple filed for divorce in the summer of 2009 and were officially divorced in July 2010.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: Navka and Russian diplomat Dmitry Peskov, the press spokesman for Vladimir Putin, they have a daughter, Nadezhda (Nadia), born in August 2014 in Russia. They married in a civil ceremony at a registry office in June 2015 before a larger ceremony on 1 August 2015.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: From 2014 to 2015, Navka was the beneficiary of Carina Global Assets Ltd., an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands. In February 2019, questions were raised over Navka and her husband's wealth following reports about their ownership of multiple properties in the Moscow region. An investigation by "The Guardian" suggested that Navka may have underreported income, claimed married status for several years after her divorce from Zhulin, and falsely told the IRS that she had sold a house in the United States.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: In 2016, Navka caused controversy when she and her dancing partner, Andrey Burkovsky, appeared in the Russian version of "Dancing on Ice" dressed as Holocaust concentration camp prisoners. Navka and Burkovsky said that the dance was inspired by the 1997 film "Life Is Beautiful" and was not intended to cause offense.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: In 2021, Navka made and published sexist comments about Spanish rhythmic gymnast Cristofer Benítez. Through her social networks, she said that rhythmic gymnastics was a "feminine sport", and that she is glad that in her country men are not allowed to participate in rhythmic gymnastics "and hopefully never will". After her remarks were called homophobic, she made another post to say that her statement was not about the LGBT community and reaffirmed her sexist comments, also expressing support for the Russian gay propaganda law.


title: Tatiana Navka

text: On 11 March 2022, Navka was included in the list of specially designated nationals sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury as part of the international sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War due to her being the family of Dmitry Peskov, who had been blacklisted earlier in March because of his key role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 3 June, she was sanctioned by the European Union. On 21 November, she was sanctioned by New Zealand.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: Michael Oliver (born 20 February 1985) is an English professional football referee from Ashington, Northumberland. His county FA is the Northumberland Football Association. He belongs to the Select Group of Referees in England and officiates primarily in the Premier League. He received his FIFA badge in 2012, allowing him to officiate in major international matches. Oliver was appointed to take charge of the final of the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Oliver was promoted to the UEFA Elite Group of Referees in 2018.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: Born in Ashington, Northumberland, Oliver was introduced to refereeing by his father, Clive, at the age of 14. He quickly progressed through the ranks and was promoted to the National List of Referees in 2007; he refereed the 2007 Conference National play-off Final, becoming the youngest football referee to officiate at Wembley Stadium. In addition he had already become the youngest Football League assistant referee, youngest Football League referee, and would also become the youngest fourth official in the Premier League.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: The Oliver family enjoyed a unique refereeing double when father Clive took charge of the 2009 League Two play-off final and Michael officiated the next day at the 2009 League One play-off final.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: Oliver was set to become the youngest referee in the Premier League when he was appointed to a match between Fulham and Portsmouth in January 2010. However, adverse weather resulted in him having to postpone the match, and an ankle operation later sidelined him until April. He was promoted to the Select Group in August 2010, his first appointment being Birmingham City versus Blackburn Rovers. Oliver was 25 years and 182 days old, breaking Stuart Attwell's record as the youngest-ever Premier League referee.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: Oliver was appointed fourth official for the 2013 League Cup final at Wembley Stadium. He refereed the FA Cup semi-final between Wigan Athletic and Millwall in April 2013 and in doing so became the youngest referee to take charge of an FA Cup semi-final. Wigan went on to win the FA Cup and played Manchester United in the subsequent FA Community Shield match in which Oliver was assigned as fourth official.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: He was the referee for the 2014 FA Community Shield between Arsenal and Manchester City. The FA Cup holders Arsenal won the match 3–0.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: Oliver refereed three group stage matches in the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League, his first being Sporting CP against Legia Warsaw in September 2016.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: On 11 April 2018, Oliver refereed the second leg of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League quarter-final between Real Madrid and Juventus. Real Madrid won the first leg 3–0 in Turin, which meant Juventus would have to win 3–0 in Madrid to take the match to extra time. Juventus led 3–0 until the 93rd minute, when Oliver awarded an injury time penalty to Real Madrid after Medhi Benatia challenged Lucas Vázquez in the box. Juventus players swarmed Oliver, with veteran goalkeeper and captain Gianluigi Buffon at the centre of the confrontation, receiving a red card for verbal abuse. Oliver also issued nine yellow cards during the match. Second goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny was forced to be substituted in, with the resulting penalty kick converted by Cristiano Ronaldo in the 98th minute, for a final 4–3 aggregate win for Real Madrid to advance to the semi-final.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: Several days later the police investigated threatening text messages sent to Oliver's wife, Lucy, who had her mobile number posted on social media after the game, which led to the abusive texts. They also looked into reports of banging on the front door of their home and shouting abuse through their letterbox. On 11 May, Buffon was charged by UEFA over post-match comments made about Oliver, with the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body giving Buffon a three-match ban for UEFA competition matches "for which he would be otherwise eligible", on 5 June.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: On 26 March 2019, Oliver was appointed to referee in the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland, with Simon Bennett and Stuart Burt serving as his assistant referees. Oliver officiated 3 matches at the tournament, including a group A clash between Senegal and Colombia, a round of 16 clash between Uruguay and Ecuador, and a semi-final between Ecuador and South Korea.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: In a May 2022 FIFA pronouncement, Oliver was listed as one of six English officials to oversee matches at that November and December's World Cup. The list also included referee Anthony Taylor and four compatriot assistant referees—Simon Bennett, Gary Beswick, Stuart Burt, and Adam Nunn.


title: Michael Oliver (referee)

text: On 10 August 2022, he was the referee for the 2022 UEFA Super Cup between Eintracht Frankfurt and Real Madrid.


title: Cefpodoxime

text: Cefpodoxime is an oral, third-generation cephalosporin antibiotic. It is active against most Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms. Notable exceptions include "Pseudomonas aeruginosa", "Enterococcus", and "Bacteroides fragilis". Currently, it is only marketed as generic preparations in the US, according to the FDA Orange Book. It is commonly used to treat acute otitis media, pharyngitis, sinusitis, and gonorrhea. It also finds use as oral continuation therapy when intravenous cephalosporins (such as ceftriaxone) are no longer necessary for continued treatment.


title: Cefpodoxime

text: Cefpodoxime inhibits cell wall synthesis by inhibiting the final transpeptidation step of peptidoglycan synthesis in cell walls. It has well established pharmacokinetic profile with absorption of 50%. It is indicated in community acquired pneumonia, uncomplicated skin and skin structure infections, and uncomplicated urinary tract infections.


title: Cefpodoxime

text: Cefpodoxime has been used to fight pathogenic bacteria responsible for causing gonorrhoea, tonsillitis, pneumonia, and bronchitis. Representative pathogenic genera include "Streptococcus, Haemophilus", and "Neisseria". The following represents MIC susceptibility data for a few medically significant microorganisms.


title: Cefpodoxime

text: Zoetis markets cefpodoxime proxetil under the trade name Simplicef for veterinary use, Finecure, India markets the products under trade name Cefpo.


title: Cefpodoxime

text: MONOTAX O (Cefpodoxime)/ MONOTAX CV (Cefpodoxime and Clavulanic acid combination) (by Zydus Healthcare Ltd.)


title: Data transfer object

text: In the field of programming a data transfer object (DTO) is an object that carries data between processes. The motivation for its use is that communication between processes is usually done resorting to remote interfaces (e.g., web services), where each call is an expensive operation. Because the majority of the cost of each call is related to the round-trip time between the client and the server, one way of reducing the number of calls is to use an object (the DTO) that aggregates the data that would have been transferred by the several calls, but that is served by one call only.


title: Data transfer object

text: The difference between data transfer objects and business objects or data access objects is that a DTO does not have any behavior except for storage, retrieval, serialization and deserialization of its own data (mutators, accessors, parsers and serializers). In other words,


title: Data transfer object

text: DTOs are simple objects that should not contain any business logic but may contain serialization and deserialization mechanisms for transferring data over the wire.


title: Data transfer object

text: This pattern is often incorrectly used outside of remote interfaces. This has triggered a response from its author where he reiterates that the whole purpose of DTOs is to shift data in expensive remote calls.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (; ), commonly known as al-Walid I (), was the sixth Umayyad caliph, ruling from October 705 until his death. He was the eldest son of his predecessor Caliph Abd al-Malik (). As a prince, he led annual raids against the Byzantines from 695 to 698 and built or restored fortifications along the Syrian Desert route to Mecca. He became the heir apparent after the death of Abd al-Malik's brother and designated successor, Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, in 704.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Al-Walid largely continued his father's policies of centralization and expansion, and heavily depended on al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, his father's powerful viceroy over the eastern half of the Caliphate. During his reign, Umayyad armies conquered the Maghreb, Hispania, Sind and Transoxiana, expanding the Caliphate to its greatest territorial extent. War spoils from the conquests allowed al-Walid to finance impressive public works, including the Great Mosque of Damascus, the Jami Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. He was the first caliph to institute programs for social welfare, aiding the poor and handicapped in Syria. Although it is difficult to ascertain al-Walid's direct role in the affairs of his caliphate, his reign was marked by domestic peace and prosperity and likely represented the peak of Umayyad power.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Al-Walid was born in Medina in . His father, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, hailed from the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe. Al-Walid was born during the rule of Mu'awiya I (), the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate. While Mu'awiya belonged to the Sufyanid branch of the clan, resident in Syria, al-Walid's family was part of the larger Abu al-As line in the Hejaz (western Arabia, where Mecca and Medina are located). Al-Walid's mother was Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz, a descendant of Zuhayr ibn Jadhima, the prominent 6th-century chief of the Banu Abs tribe. In 684, after Umayyad rule collapsed amid the Second Muslim Civil War, the Umayyads of the Hejaz were expelled by a rival claimant to the caliphate, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. They relocated to Syria, where al-Walid's grandfather, the elder statesman Marwan I, was recognized as caliph by pro-Umayyad Arab tribes in the province, including the powerful Banu Kalb. With the tribes' support, he gradually restored the dynasty's rule in Syria and Egypt. Abd al-Malik succeeded Marwan and conquered the rest of the Caliphate, namely Iraq, with its eastern dependencies, and Arabia. With the key assistance of his viceroy of Iraq, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, Abd al-Malik instituted several centralization measures, which consolidated Umayyad territorial gains.


title: Al-Walid I

text: The war with the Byzantine Empire, which dated to the Muslim conquest of Syria in the 630s, resumed in 692 after the collapse of the truce that had been reached three years earlier. Annual campaigns were thereafter launched by the Umayyads in the Arab–Byzantine frontier zone and beyond. During his father's caliphate, al-Walid led the campaigns in 695, 696, 697 and 698. In his summer 696 campaign, he raided the area between Malatya (Melitene) and al-Massisa (Mopsuestia), while in the following year, he targeted a place known in Arabic sources as "Atmar", located at some point north of Malatya. He also led the annual Hajj pilgrim caravan to Mecca in 698.


title: Al-Walid I

text: In 700 or 701, al-Walid patronized the construction or expansion of Qasr Burqu', a fortified Syrian Desert outpost connecting Palmyra in the north with the Azraq oasis and Wadi Sirhan basin in the south, ultimately leading to Mecca and Medina. His patronage is attested by an inscription describing him as "the emir al-Walid, son of the commander of the faithful". According to the historian Jere L. Bacharach, al-Walid built the nearby site of Jabal Says, likely as a Bedouin summer encampment between his base of operations in al-Qaryatayn and Qasr Burqu'. Bacharach speculates that al-Walid used the sites, located in the territory of Arab tribes, such as the Banu Kalb, to reaffirm their loyalty, which had been critical to the Umayyads during the civil war.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Toward the end of his reign, Abd al-Malik, supported by al-Hajjaj, attempted to nominate al-Walid as his successor, abrogating the arrangement set by Marwan whereby Abd al-Malik's brother, the governor of Egypt, Abd al-Aziz, was slated to succeed. Though the latter refused to step down from the line of succession, he died in 704 or early 705, removing the principal obstacle to al-Walid's nomination. After the death of Abd al-Malik on 9 October 705, al-Walid acceded. Al-Walid's reign largely served as a continuation of his father's policies of centralization and expansion. Unlike his father, he was heavily dependent on al-Hajjaj and allowed him free rein over the eastern half of the Caliphate. Moreover, al-Hajjaj strongly influenced al-Walid's internal decision-making, with officials often being installed and dismissed upon the viceroy's direction. Al-Hajjaj's prominence was such that he is discussed more frequently in the medieval Muslim sources than al-Walid or Abd al-Malik, and his time in office (694–714) is a hallmark of the continuity between the two reigns.


title: Al-Walid I

text: The 9th-century historian al-Ya'qubi describes al-Walid's physical appearance as "tall and swarthy", "snub-nosed ... with a touch of gray "[sic]" at the tip of his beard" and that he "spoke ungrammatically". To his father's chagrin, al-Walid abandoned speaking the classical Arabic in which the Qur'an was written, yet he insisted that everyone in his company have knowledge of the Qur'an. He was also known to have embraced the formal trappings of monarchy, in a manner unprecedented among earlier caliphs.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Under al-Walid, the armies of the Caliphate "received a fresh impulse" and a "period of great conquests" began, according to the historian Julius Wellhausen. During the second half of his reign, the Umayyads reached their furthest territorial extent.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Expansion from the eastern frontiers was overseen by al-Hajjaj from Iraq. His lieutenant governor of Khurasan, Qutayba ibn Muslim, launched numerous campaigns against Transoxiana (Central Asia), which had been a largely impenetrable region for earlier Muslim armies, between 705 and 715. Qutayba gained the surrender of Bukhara in 706–709, Khwarazm and Samarkand in 711–712, and Farghana in 713. In contrast to most other Muslim conquests, he did not settle Arab Muslims in Transoxiana; instead, he secured Umayyad suzerainty through tributary alliances with local rulers, whose power remained intact. The exceptions to this policy were the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, which were each assigned Arab garrisons and tax administrators, had their Zoroastrian houses of worship razed and in the case of Samarkand, fitted with a mosque. As a long-term result, both cities developed as future centers of Islamic and Arabic learning. From 708 or 709, al-Hajjaj's nephew, Muhammad ibn Qasim, conquered Sind, the northwestern region of South Asia.


title: Al-Walid I

text: In the west, al-Walid's governor in Ifriqiya (central North Africa), Musa ibn Nusayr, a holdover from Abd al-Malik's reign, had subjugated the Berbers of the Hawwara, Zenata and Kutama confederations and proceeded with his advance toward the Maghreb (western North Africa). In 708 or 709, he conquered Tangier and Sus, in the far north and south of modern-day Morocco. Musa's Berber (freedman; pl. ), Tariq ibn Ziyad, invaded the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) in 711, and was reinforced by an army led by Musa in the following year. By 716, a year after al-Walid's death, Hispania had been largely conquered. The massive war spoils netted by the conquests of Transoxiana, Sind and Hispania were comparable to the amounts accrued in the early Muslim conquests during the reign of Caliph Umar ().


title: Al-Walid I

text: Closer to the Umayyad seat of power in Syria, al-Walid appointed his half-brother Maslama governor of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and charged him with raiding the frontier zone with Byzantium. Though Maslama established a strong power base in his province, he achieved few territorial gains. After a lengthy siege, the Byzantine fortress of Tyana was captured in . Al-Walid entrusted most of Syria's military districts to his sons; al-Abbas was assigned to Homs and fought reputably in the campaigns against Byzantium alongside Maslama, while Abd al-Aziz, who also took part in the anti-Byzantine war effort, and Umar were appointed to Damascus and Jordan, respectively. Al-Walid did not participate in the campaigns and is reported to have left Syria only once as caliph, when he led the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 710.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Between 693 and 700, Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj initiated the dual processes of establishing a single Islamic currency in place of the previously used Byzantine and Sasanian coinage and replacing Greek and Persian with Arabic as the language of the bureaucracy in Syria and Iraq, respectively. These administrative reforms continued under al-Walid, during whose reign, in 705 or 706, Arabic replaced Greek and Coptic in the (government departments) of Egypt. The change was implemented by al-Walid's half-brother, Abd Allah, the governor of Egypt and appointee of Abd al-Malik. These policies effected the gradual transition of Arabic as the sole official language of the state, unified the varied tax systems of the Caliphate's provinces and contributed to the establishment of a more ideologically Islamic government.


title: Al-Walid I

text: As a result of the Battle of Marj Rahit, which inaugurated Marwan's reign in 684, a sharp division developed among the Syrian Arab tribes, who formed the core of the Umayyad army. The loyalist tribes that supported Marwan formed the "Yaman" confederation, alluding to ancestral roots in Yemen (South Arabia), while the Qaysi, or northern Arab, tribes largely supported Ibn al-Zubayr. Abd al-Malik reconciled with the Qays in 691, but competition for influence between the two factions intensified as the Syrian army was increasingly empowered and deployed to the provinces, where they replaced or supplemented Iraqi and other garrisons. Al-Walid maintained his father's policy of balancing the power of the two factions in the military and administration. According to the historian Hugh N. Kennedy, it is "possible that the caliph kept it [the rivalry] on the boil so that one faction [would] not acquire a monopoly of power". His mother was genealogically affiliated with the Qays and he apparently accorded Qaysi officials certain advantages. However, Wellhausen doubts that al-Walid preferred one faction over the other, "for he had no need to do so, and it is not reported" by the medieval historians.


title: Al-Walid I

text: In response to the mistreatment of Medina's pious residents by Abd al-Malik's appointed governor to the Hejaz, Hisham ibn Isma'il al-Makhzumi, al-Walid replaced Hisham with his cousin Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz in 706; the latter had friendly ties to the region's religious circles. However, Umar gained al-Hajjaj's enmity for providing safe haven to Iraqis evading his persecution. Upon the advice of al-Hajjaj, al-Walid dismissed Umar in 712 and split the governorship of the Hejaz, appointing al-Hajjaj's allies Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri to Mecca and Uthman ibn Hayyan al-Murri to Medina. In Palestine, al-Walid's brother Sulayman cultivated strong ties to the Yaman and in 708, sheltered the deposed Yamani governor of Khurasan, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, a fugitive from al-Hajjaj's prison. Despite his initial disapproval, al-Walid pardoned Yazid as a result of Sulayman's lobbying and payment of the heavy fine that al-Hajjaj had imposed on Yazid.


title: Al-Walid I

text: In 709, al-Walid recalled his brother Abd Allah from Egypt, either as a result of mounting complaints against his corruption, which was blamed for famine in the province, the first recorded in Islamic history, or a desire to install one of his own loyalists, his (scribe), Qurra ibn Sharik of the Banu Abs. The latter served until his death in 715 and established a more efficient means of tax collection, enlisted more troops into Egypt's army and, on al-Walid's orders, restored the mosque of Fustat.


title: Al-Walid I

text: From the beginning of his rule, al-Walid inaugurated public works and social welfare programs on a scale unprecedented in the Caliphate's history. The efforts were financed by treasure accrued from the conquests and tax revenue. Throughout his reign, al-Walid and his brothers and sons built way-stations and dug wells along the roads in Syria and installed street lighting in the cities. They invested in land reclamation projects, entailing irrigation networks and canals, which boosted agricultural production. Welfare programs included financial relief for the poor and servants to assist the handicapped, though this initiative was limited to Syria.


title: Al-Walid I

text: The great mosque founded by al-Walid in Damascus, later known as the Umayyad Mosque, was the greatest architectural achievement of his rule. Under his predecessors, Muslim residents had worshipped in a small (Muslim prayer room) attached to the 4th-century cathedral of John the Baptist. By al-Walid's reign, the could not cope with the fast-growing Muslim community and no sufficient free spaces were available elsewhere in the urban space of Damascus for a large congregational mosque. In 705, al-Walid had the church converted into a mosque, compensating local Christians with other properties in the city.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Most of the structure was demolished, with the exceptions of the exterior walls and corner towers, which were thenceforth covered by marble inlays and mosaics. Al-Walid's architects replaced the demolished space with a large prayer hall and a courtyard bordered on all sides by a closed portico with double arcades. A large cupola was installed at the center of the prayer hall and a high minaret was erected on the mosque's northern wall. The mosque was completed in 711 and Blankinship notes that the field army of Damascus, numbering some 45,000 soldiers, were taxed a quarter of their salaries for nine years to pay for its construction. The scale and grandeur of the great mosque made it a "symbol of the political supremacy and moral prestige of Islam", according to historian Nikita Elisséeff. Noting al-Walid's awareness of architecture's propaganda value, historian Robert Hillenbrand calls the Damascus mosque a "victory monument" intended as a "visible statement of Muslim supremacy and permanence". The mosque has maintained its original form until the present day.


title: Al-Walid I

text: In Jerusalem, al-Walid continued his father's works on the Temple Mount. A number of medieval Muslim accounts credit the construction of the Jami Al-Aqsa to al-Walid, while others credit his father. It is likely that the unfinished administrative and residential structures that were built opposite the southern and eastern walls of the Temple Mount, next to the mosque, date to the era of al-Walid, who died before they could be completed and were not finished by his successors.


title: Al-Walid I

text: In 706 or 707, al-Walid instructed Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz to significantly enlarge the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. Its redevelopment entailed the demolition of the living quarters of Muhammad's wives and the expansion of the structure to incorporate the graves of Muhammad and the first two caliphs, Abu Bakr () and Umar. The vocal opposition to the demolition of Muhammad's home from local religious circles was dismissed by al-Walid. An ornate enclosure was built around the graves and fitted with a concave (prayer niche), four minarets and a pentagonal-shaped entrance. Al-Walid lavished large sums for the mosque's reconstruction and supplied Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz with mosaics and Greek and Coptic craftsmen. According to Hillenbrand, the building of a large scale mosque in Medina, the original center of the Caliphate, was an "acknowledgement" by al-Walid of "his own roots and those of Islam itself" and possibly an attempt to appease Medinese resentment at the loss of their city's political importance to Syria under the Umayyads. Other mosques that al-Walid is credited for expanding in the Hejaz include the Sanctuary Mosque around the Ka'aba in Mecca and the mosque of Ta'if.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Al-Walid died of an illness in Dayr Murran, an Umayyad winter estate on the outskirts of Damascus, on 23 February 715, about one year after al-Hajjaj's death. He was buried in Damascus at the cemetery of Bab al-Saghir or Bab al-Faradis and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz led the funeral prayers.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Al-Walid unsuccessfully attempted to nominate his son Abd al-Aziz as his successor, voiding the arrangements set by his father, in which Sulayman was to accede after al-Walid. Relations between the two brothers had become strained. Sulayman acceded and dismissed nearly all of al-Walid's governors. Although he maintained the militarist policies of al-Walid and Abd al-Malik, expansion of the caliphate largely ground to a halt under Sulayman (). Two of al-Walid's sons, Yazid III and Ibrahim, successively served as caliphs for less than a year in 744.


title: Al-Walid I

text: By virtue of the conquests of Hispania, Sind and Transoxiana during his reign, his patronage of the great mosques of Damascus and Medina, and his charitable works, al-Walid's Syrian contemporaries viewed him as "the worthiest of their caliphs", according to the 9th-century historian Umar ibn Shabba. Several panegyrics were dedicated to al-Walid and his sons by al-Farazdaq, his official court poet. The latter's contemporary, Jarir, lamented the caliph's death: "O eye, weep copious tears aroused by remembrance; after today there is no point in your tears being stored." The Christian poet al-Akhtal considers al-Walid to be "the caliph of God through whose "sunna" rain is sought".


title: Al-Walid I

text: According to Hawting, the reigns of al-Walid and Abd al-Malik, tied together by al-Hajjaj, represented in "some ways the high point of Umayyad power, witnessing significant territorial advances both in the east and the west and the emergence of a more marked Arabic and Islamic character in the state's public face". Domestically it was generally a period of peace and prosperity. Kennedy asserts that al-Walid's reign was "remarkably successful and represents, perhaps, the zenith of Umayyad power", though his direct role in these successes is unclear and his primary accomplishment may have been maintaining the equilibrium between the rival factions of the Umayyad family and military.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Al-Walid was survived by several sons: al-Ya'qubi names sixteen, while the 10th-century historian al-Tabari names nineteen. From his wife Umm al-Banin, the daughter of his uncle Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, he had his sons Abd al-Aziz, Muhammad, Marwan, and Anbasa, and daughter A'isha. From another Umayyad wife, Umm Abd Allah bint Abd Allah ibn Amr, a great-granddaughter of Caliph Uthman (), he had his son Abd al-Rahman. He was married to another descendant of Uthman, Umm Abd Allah's cousin Izza bint Abd al-Aziz. Al-Walid was also married to a woman of the Banu Fazara tribe, with whom he had his son Abu Ubayda.


title: Al-Walid I

text: Al-Abbas, al-Walid's eldest son, was born to a Greek concubine. Yazid III's mother, Shah-i Afrid or Shahfirand, was a daughter of the last Sasanian king, Peroz III, and a concubine of al-Walid given to him by al-Hajjaj. Ibrahim's mother was a concubine named Su'ar or Budayra. Among his other sons by concubines were Bishr, Masrur, Mansur, Umar, Rawh, Khalid, Jaz, Maslama, Tammam, Mubashshir, Yahya and Sadaqa. Al-Ya'qubi alone names Jurayy,


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: Jimmy Lee Ruffin (May 7, 1936 – November 17, 2014) was an American soul singer, and the older brother of David Ruffin the lead singer of the Temptations. He had several hit records between the 1960s and 1980s, the most successful being the Top 10 hits "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" and "Hold On (To My Love)".


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: Jimmy Ruffin was born in 1936 in Collinsville, Mississippi, to Eli, a sharecropper, and Ophelia Ruffin. He was approaching his fifth birthday when his younger brother David was born. As children, the brothers began singing with a gospel group, the Dixie Nightingales.


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: In 1961, Jimmy became a singer as part of the Motown stable, mostly on sessions but also recording singles for its subsidiary Miracle label, but was then drafted for national service. After leaving the Army in 1964, he returned to Motown, where he was offered the opportunity to join the Temptations to replace Elbridge Bryant. However, after hearing his brother David, they hired him for the job instead so Jimmy decided to resume his solo career. Ruffin recorded for Motown's subsidiary Soul label, but with little success.


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: In 1966, he heard a song about unrequited love written for The Spinners, and persuaded the writers that he should record it himself. His recording of "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" became a major success. The song reached #7 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and #6 on the R&B Chart. It also initially reached #8 in the UK Singles Chart, rising to #4 when it was reissued in the UK in 1974. "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" remains Ruffin's best-known song. It was the lead single from his debut album "Jimmy Ruffin Sings Top Ten" (released as "The Jimmy Ruffin Way" in the UK), which was released on the Motown's Soul subsidiary label in 1967. Follow-up singles in America were successful, with "I've Passed This Way Before" and "Gonna Give Her All The Love I've Got" in late 1966 and early 1967.


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: Ruffin's second album, "Ruff 'n' Ready", was released in 1969. It contained the song "Don't You Miss Me a Little Bit Baby", which made the lower parts of the "Billboard" Hot 100 (#68) and was a Top 30 hit on the R&B Charts, peaking at #27. As a solo artist, it would prove to be Ruffin's last significant chart appearance in America for many years, and his last significant charting record for Motown in the US. The song was also released as the B-side to "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" when it was reissued in 1974.


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: As Ruffin found success in the United States difficult to sustain, he began to concentrate instead on the British market. In 1970, "Farewell Is a Lonely Sound", "I'll Say Forever My Love" and "It's Wonderful (To Be Loved by You)" each made the UK Top Ten, and he was voted the world's top singer in one British poll. He also teamed up with brother David to record the album "I Am My Brother's Keeper", a modestly successful 1970 album for Motown that included the songs "When The Love Hand Comes Down", "Your Love Was Worth Waiting For" and a cover of Ben E. King's "Stand by Me". His third solo album for the label, "The Groove Governor", was released in 1970, and did not fare as well as his previous two albums.


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: Following the success of his initial hits, Ruffin found it hard to maintain an identity, as most of his songs were later covered by other Motown artists, most prominently "Everybody Needs Love", a hit when covered by Gladys Knight & the Pips for their 1967 debut album of the same name, "Maria (You Were The Only One)", a hit for Michael Jackson and "If You Let Me," a minor hit for Eddie Kendricks. In addition, he had recorded the first version of The Temptations hit "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep".


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: He then left Motown, and recorded for the Polydor and Chess labels, where he recorded "Tell Me What You Want." In 1980, Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees produced his album "Sunrise" and the hit single "Hold On To My Love", which reached #10 in the US and #7 in the UK, on the RSO label.


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: In the 1980s, Ruffin moved to live in Great Britain, where he continued to perform successfully. In December 1984 he collaborated with Paul Weller of The Style Council for his benefit single "Soul Deep", produced to raise money for the families of striking miners affected by the UK miners' strike. This went under the name of The Council Collective and Jimmy appeared with Paul on Radio 1 to say he is involved because his father worked down the mines and "he understands the suffering."


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: In 1986 he collaborated with the British pop group Heaven 17, singing "A Foolish Thing to Do" and "My Sensitivity" on a 12" EP record. He took part in recording for Ian Levine's Motown revival label, Motorcity Records, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He recorded duets with both Maxine Nightingale and Brenda Holloway. Later, Ruffin hosted a radio show in the UK for a time, and became an anti-drug advocate following the 1991 drug overdose death of his brother David. Ruffin was portrayed by Lamman Rucker in the 1998 mini-series "The Temptations".


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: Following the 2010 release - on CD for the first time - of his 1970 album "I Am My Brother's Keeper", Ruffin had been writing and recording songs for a new album that he had planned to release during 2013. It was not finished at the time of his death.


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: In 2012, a compilation album titled "There Will Never Be Another You", including his hit songs "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted", and "Hold On To My Love", had been released.


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: Ruffin lived in the area of Las Vegas, Nevada. On October 17, 2014, it was reported that he was gravely ill and had been taken into an intensive care unit at a Las Vegas hospital. He died on November 17, 2014, in Las Vegas, aged 78.


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: Ruffin is buried at Palm Memorial Park Northwest Cemetery, Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada in the Garden of Eternal Life Section.


title: Jimmy Ruffin

text: His siblings were Davis Eli (David), Reada May (Marie), Rosine, and Quincy B (all deceased). His children are Arlet, Philicia, Jimmie Ray (deceased), Jimmy Jr., Ophelia, and Camilla.


title: AdaBoost

text: AdaBoost, short for "Adaptive Boosting", is a statistical classification meta-algorithm formulated by Yoav Freund and Robert Schapire in 1995, who won the 2003 Gödel Prize for their work. It can be used in conjunction with many other types of learning algorithms to improve performance. The output of the other learning algorithms ('weak learners') is combined into a weighted sum that represents the final output of the boosted classifier. Usually, AdaBoost is presented for binary classification, although it can be generalized to multiple classes or bounded intervals on the real line.


title: AdaBoost

text: AdaBoost is adaptive in the sense that subsequent weak learners are tweaked in favor of those instances misclassified by previous classifiers. In some problems it can be less susceptible to the overfitting problem than other learning algorithms. The individual learners can be weak, but as long as the performance of each one is slightly better than random guessing, the final model can be proven to converge to a strong learner.


title: AdaBoost

text: Although AdaBoost is typically used to combine weak base learners (such as decision stumps), it has been shown that it can also effectively combine strong base learners (such as deep decision trees), producing an even more accurate model.


title: AdaBoost

text: Every learning algorithm tends to suit some problem types better than others, and typically has many different parameters and configurations to adjust before it achieves optimal performance on a dataset. AdaBoost (with decision trees as the weak learners) is often referred to as the best out-of-the-box classifier. When used with decision tree learning, information gathered at each stage of the AdaBoost algorithm about the relative 'hardness' of each training sample is fed into the tree growing algorithm such that later trees tend to focus on harder-to-classify examples.


title: AdaBoost

text: AdaBoost refers to a particular method of training a boosted classifier. A boosted classifier is a classifier of the form


title: AdaBoost

text: where each formula_2 is a weak learner that takes an object formula_3 as input and returns a value indicating the class of the object. For example, in the two-class problem, the sign of the weak learner's output identifies the predicted object class and the absolute value gives the confidence in that classification. Similarly, the formula_4-th classifier is positive if the sample is in a positive class and negative otherwise.


title: AdaBoost

text: Each weak learner produces an output hypothesis formula_5 which fixes a prediction formula_6 for each sample in the training set. At each iteration formula_4, a weak learner is selected and assigned a coefficient formula_8 such that the total training error formula_9 of the resulting formula_4-stage boosted classifier is minimized.


title: AdaBoost

text: Here formula_12 is the boosted classifier that has been built up to the previous stage of training, formula_13 is some error function and formula_14 is the weak learner that is being considered for addition to the final classifier.


title: AdaBoost

text: At each iteration of the training process, a weight formula_15 is assigned to each sample in the training set equal to the current error formula_16 on that sample. These weights can be used in the training of the weak learner. For instance, decision trees can be grown which favor the splitting of sets of samples with large weights.


title: AdaBoost

text: Suppose we have a data set formula_17 where each item formula_18 has an associated class formula_19, and a set of weak classifiers formula_20 each of which outputs a classification formula_21 for each item. After the formula_22-th iteration our boosted classifier is a linear combination of the weak classifiers of the form:


title: AdaBoost

text: where the class will be the sign of formula_24. At the formula_25-th iteration we want to extend this to a better boosted classifier by adding another weak classifier formula_26, with another weight formula_27:


title: AdaBoost

text: So it remains to determine which weak classifier is the best choice for formula_26, and what its weight formula_27 should be. We define the total error formula_31 of formula_32 as the sum of its exponential loss on each data point, given as follows:


title: AdaBoost

text: We can split this summation between those data points that are correctly classified by formula_26 (so formula_39) and those that are misclassified (so formula_40):


title: AdaBoost

text: Since the only part of the right-hand side of this equation that depends on formula_26 is formula_44, we see that the formula_26 that minimizes formula_31 is the one that minimizes formula_44 [assuming that formula_48], i.e. the weak classifier with the lowest weighted error (with weights formula_35).


title: AdaBoost

text: To determine the desired weight formula_27 that minimizes formula_31 with the formula_26 that we just determined, we differentiate:


title: AdaBoost

text: which is the negative logit function multiplied by 0.5. Due to the convexity of formula_31 as a function of formula_27, this new expression for formula_27 gives the global minimum of the loss function.


title: AdaBoost

text: Note: This derivation only applies when formula_63, though it can be a good starting guess in other cases, such as when the weak learner is biased (formula_64), has multiple leaves (formula_65) or is some other function formula_66.


title: AdaBoost

text: Thus we have derived the AdaBoost algorithm: At each iteration, choose the classifier formula_26, which minimizes the total weighted error formula_44, use this to calculate the error rate formula_58, use this to calculate the weight formula_59, and finally use this to improve the boosted classifier formula_71 to formula_72.


title: AdaBoost

text: Boosting is a form of linear regression in which the features of each sample formula_18 are the outputs of some weak learner formula_5 applied to formula_18.


title: AdaBoost

text: While regression tries to fit formula_76 to formula_77 as precisely as possible without loss of generalization, typically using least square error formula_78, whereas the AdaBoost error function formula_79 takes into account the fact that only the sign of the final result is used, thus formula_80 can be far larger than 1 without increasing error. However, the exponential increase in the error for sample formula_18 as formula_82 increases. resulting in excessive weights being assigned to outliers.


title: AdaBoost

text: One feature of the choice of exponential error function is that the error of the final additive model is the product of the error of each stage, that is, formula_83. Thus it can be seen that the weight update in the AdaBoost algorithm is equivalent to recalculating the error on formula_84 after each stage.


title: AdaBoost

text: There is a lot of flexibility allowed in the choice of loss function. As long as the loss function is monotonic and continuously differentiable, the classifier is always driven toward purer solutions. Zhang (2004) provides a loss function based on least squares, a modified Huber loss function:


title: AdaBoost

text: This function is more well-behaved than LogitBoost for formula_86 close to 1 or -1, does not penalise ‘overconfident’ predictions (formula_87), unlike unmodified least squares, and only penalises samples misclassified with confidence greater than 1 linearly, as opposed to quadratically or exponentially, and is thus less susceptible to the effects of outliers.


title: AdaBoost

text: Boosting can be seen as minimization of a convex loss function over a convex set of functions. Specifically, the loss being minimized by AdaBoost is the exponential loss


title: AdaBoost

text: In the gradient descent analogy, the output of the classifier for each training point is considered a point formula_90 in n-dimensional space, where each axis corresponds to a training sample, each weak learner formula_91 corresponds to a vector of fixed orientation and length, and the goal is to reach the target point formula_92 (or any region where the value of loss function formula_93 is less than the value at that point), in the fewest steps. Thus AdaBoost algorithms perform either Cauchy (find formula_91 with the steepest gradient, choose formula_95 to minimize test error) or Newton (choose some target point, find formula_96 that brings formula_97 closest to that point) optimization of training error.


title: AdaBoost

text: The output of decision trees is a class probability estimate formula_118, the probability that formula_3 is in the positive class. Friedman, Hastie and Tibshirani derive an analytical minimizer for formula_120 for some fixed formula_121 (typically chosen using weighted least squares error):


title: AdaBoost

text: Thus, rather than multiplying the output of the entire tree by some fixed value, each leaf node is changed to output half the logit transform of its previous value.


title: AdaBoost

text: LogitBoost represents an application of established logistic regression techniques to the AdaBoost method. Rather than minimizing error with respect to y, weak learners are chosen to minimize the (weighted least-squares) error of formula_123 with respect to


title: AdaBoost

text: That is formula_128 is the Newton–Raphson approximation of the minimizer of the log-likelihood error at stage formula_4, and the weak learner formula_2 is chosen as the learner that best approximates formula_128 by weighted least squares.


title: AdaBoost

text: As p approaches either 1 or 0, the value of formula_132 becomes very small and the "z" term, which is large for misclassified samples, can become numerically unstable, due to machine precision rounding errors. This can be overcome by enforcing some limit on the absolute value of "z" and the minimum value of "w"


title: AdaBoost

text: While previous boosting algorithms choose formula_2 greedily, minimizing the overall test error as much as possible at each step, GentleBoost features a bounded step size. formula_2 is chosen to minimize formula_135, and no further coefficient is applied. Thus, in the case where a weak learner exhibits perfect classification performance, GentleBoost chooses formula_136 exactly equal to formula_137, while steepest descent algorithms try to set formula_138. Empirical observations about the good performance of GentleBoost appear to back up Schapire and Singer's remark that allowing excessively large values of formula_95 can lead to poor generalization performance.


title: AdaBoost

text: A technique for speeding up processing of boosted classifiers, early termination refers to only testing each potential object with as many layers of the final classifier necessary to meet some confidence threshold, speeding up computation for cases where the class of the object can easily be determined. One such scheme is the object detection framework introduced by Viola and Jones: in an application with significantly more negative samples than positive, a cascade of separate boost classifiers is trained, the output of each stage biased such that some acceptably small fraction of positive samples is mislabeled as negative, and all samples marked as negative after each stage are discarded. If 50% of negative samples are filtered out by each stage, only a very small number of objects would pass through the entire classifier, reducing computation effort. This method has since been generalized, with a formula provided for choosing optimal thresholds at each stage to achieve some desired false positive and false negative rate.


title: AdaBoost

text: In the field of statistics, where AdaBoost is more commonly applied to problems of moderate dimensionality, early stopping is used as a strategy to reduce overfitting. A validation set of samples is separated from the training set, performance of the classifier on the samples used for training is compared to performance on the validation samples, and training is terminated if performance on the validation sample is seen to decrease even as performance on the training set continues to improve.


title: AdaBoost

text: For steepest descent versions of AdaBoost, where formula_8 is chosen at each layer "t" to minimize test error, the next layer added is said to be "maximally independent" of layer "t": it is unlikely to choose a weak learner "t+1" that is similar to learner "t". However, there remains the possibility that "t+1" produces similar information to some other earlier layer. Totally corrective algorithms, such as LPBoost, optimize the value of every coefficient after each step, such that new layers added are always maximally independent of every previous layer. This can be accomplished by backfitting, linear programming or some other method.


title: AdaBoost

text: Pruning is the process of removing poorly performing weak classifiers to improve memory and execution-time cost of the boosted classifier. The simplest methods, which can be particularly effective in conjunction with totally corrective training, are weight- or margin-trimming: when the coefficient, or the contribution to the total test error, of some weak classifier falls below a certain threshold, that classifier is dropped. Margineantu & Dietterich suggested an alternative criterion for trimming: weak classifiers should be selected such that the diversity of the ensemble is maximized. If two weak learners produce very similar outputs, efficiency can be improved by removing one of them and increasing the coefficient of the remaining weak learner.


title: Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium Gun

text: The Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium Gun or Rheinmetall GDM-008 is a close-in weapon system designed by Rheinmetall Air Defence AG (formerly known as Oerlikon Contraves) for mounting on ships. It is based on the 35/1000 revolver gun land-based air defense system and uses Advanced Hit Efficiency And Destruction (AHEAD) ammunition.


title: Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium Gun

text: A device at the muzzle end of the barrel measures the exact speed of each round as it is fired, and automatically sets the fuse to detonate the round as it approaches a pre-set distance from the target. Each round disperses 152 small tungsten projectiles weighing each to form a lethal cone-shaped cloud to strike the incoming target. Whilst these are too small to do major damage in themselves, the accumulation of damage from multiple strikes is expected to destroy wings and control surfaces, sensors and aerodynamics, causing the target to crash. Other firing modes are designed to be effective against surface targets such as small fast attack boats.


title: Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium Gun

text: The weapon is designed to be controlled by an external fire-control system using either radar or electro-optical trackers. It is fitted with an optional onboard observation TV camera which relays imagery to an operator console from which it can also be aimed and fired in an emergency mode. The computer system uses an open architecture and is claimed to be compatible with many existing fire control systems.


title: Anthony Taylor (referee)

text: Anthony Taylor (born 20 October 1978) is an English professional football referee from Wythenshawe, Manchester. In 2010, he was promoted to the list of Select Group Referees who officiate primarily in the Premier League, and in 2013 became a listed referee for FIFA allowing him to referee European and international matches. In 2015, he officiated the Football League Cup final at Wembley Stadium when Chelsea defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2–0. Taylor returned to Wembley later that year to officiate the Community Shield as Arsenal beat Chelsea 1–0. He refereed the 2017 and 2020 FA Cup finals, both between Chelsea and Arsenal; Arsenal won on both occasions 2–1. Upon the selection, he became the first man to referee a second FA Cup final since Arthur Kingscott in 1901.