title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: The Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament describes a conflict among the first Christians as to the necessity of following all the laws of the Torah to the letter, see also Council of Jerusalem and Incident at Antioch.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: Some have interpreted the NRSV's parenthetical statement: "(Thus he declared all foods clean.)" to mean that Jesus taught that the pentateuchal food laws were no longer applicable to his followers, see also Antinomianism in the New Testament. The parenthetical statement is not found in the NRSV's Matthean parallel Matthew 15:15–20 and is a disputed translation, for example, the "Scholars Version" has: "This is how everything we eat is purified"; Gaus' "Unvarnished New Testament" has: "purging all that is eaten." See also Strong's G2511.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: The disputed word is καθαρός meaning "purity". Gerhard Kittel writes "It is of the essence of NT religion that the older, ritual concept of purity is not merely transcended, but rejected as non-obligatory. Religious and moral purity replaced ritual and cultic." Jesus develops his doctrine of purity in his struggle against Pharisaism and in he rejects observance of ritual purity regulations because this kind of purity is merely external. What defiles a person comes from within, from the human heart


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: Others note that Peter had never eaten anything that was not kosher many years after Acts 2 (Pentecost). To the heavenly vision he announced: "Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean." Therefore, Peter was unaware that Jesus had changed the Mosaic food laws, implying that Jesus did not change these rules. Later in Acts, Peter realizes the vision is in reference to the gentiles now cleaned through Christ. In Mark 7, Jesus may have been just referring to a tradition of the Pharisees about eating with unwashed hands. The expression "purging all meats" may have meant the digestion and elimination of food from the body rather than the declaration that all foods were kosher. The confusion primarily centers around the participle used in the original Greek for "purging". Some scholars believe it agrees with the word for Jesus, which is nearly 40 words away from the participle. If this is the case, then it would mean that Jesus himself is the one doing the purifying. In New Testament Greek, however, the participle is rarely that far away from the noun it modifies, and many scholars agree that it is far more likely that the participle is modifying the digestive process (literally: the latrine), which is only two words away.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: Still others believe a partial list of the commandments was merely an abbreviation that stood for all the commandments because Jesus prefaced his statement to the rich young ruler with the statement: "If you want to enter life, obey the commandments". Some people claim that since Jesus did not qualify his pronouncement, that he meant all the commandments. The rich young ruler asked "which" commandments. Jesus gave him a partial list. The first set of commandments deal with a relationship to God ("Hebrew: בין האדם למקום bein ha'adam lamakom"). The second set of commandments deal with a relationship to men ("Hebrew: בין האדם לאדם bein ha'adam la'adam"). No doubt Jesus considered the relationship to God important, but Jesus may have considered that the young man was perhaps lacking in this second set, which made him obligated to men. (This is implied by his statement that to be perfect he should sell his goods, give them to the poor and come and follow Jesus — thereby opening to him a place in the coming Kingdom.)


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: Several times Paul mentioned adhering to "the Law" and preached about Ten Commandment topics such as "idolatry". See also Law of Christ. Many Christians believe that the Sermon on the Mount is a form of commentary on the Ten Commandments. In the Expounding of the Law, Jesus said that he did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (e.g. Mathew 5:17–18 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled); while in Marcion's version of Luke 23:2 we find the extension: "We found this fellow perverting the nation "and destroying the law and the prophets"". See also Adherence to the Law and Antithesis of the Law.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: The conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC spread Greek culture and colonization over non-Greek lands, including Judea and Galilee, and gave rise to the Hellenistic age, which sought to create a common or universal culture in the Alexandrian or Macedonian Empire based on that of 5th and 4th century BC Athens (see also Age of Pericles), along with a fusion of Near Eastern cultures.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: This synthesised Hellenistic culture had a profound impact on the customs and practices of Jews, both in the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora. There was a cultural standoff between the Jewish and Greek cultures. The inroads into Judaism gave rise to Hellenistic Judaism in the Jewish diaspora which attempted to establish the Hebraic-Jewish religious tradition within the culture and language of Hellenism. The major literary product of the movement was the Septuagint and major authors were Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. Some scholars consider Paul of Tarsus a "Hellenist" as well, see also Paul of Tarsus and Judaism.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: There was a general deterioration in relations between hellenized Jews and religious Jews, leading the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes to ban certain Jewish religious rites and traditions, his aim being to turn Jerusalem into a Greek polis, to be named "Antiochia". Specifically, he decreed the death penalty for anyone who observed the sabbath or practiced circumcision, rededicated the Jewish Temple to Zeus, and forced Jews to eat pork. Consequently, the orthodox Jews revolted against the Greek ruler leading to the formation of an independent Jewish kingdom, known as the Hasmonaean Dynasty, which lasted from 165 BCE to 63 BCE. The Hasmonean Dynasty eventually disintegrated in a civil war. The people, who did not want to continue to be governed by a corrupt and hellenized dynasty, appealed to Rome for intervention, leading to a total Roman conquest and annexation of the country, see Iudaea province.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: Nevertheless, the cultural issues remained unresolved. The main issue separating the Hellenistic and orthodox Jews was the application of biblical laws in a Hellenistic (melting pot) culture. One issue was circumcision, which was repulsive to a Greek mind. Some theorize that the early Christians came largely from the group of hellenized Jews who were less attached to Jewish rituals, philosophies and practices. See also Anti-Judaism.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: Some scholars see Paul the Apostle (or Saul) as completely in line with 1st-century Judaism (a "Pharisee" and student of Gamaliel), others see him as opposed to 1st-century Judaism (see Pauline passages supporting antinomianism and Marcionism), while still others see him as somewhere in between these two extremes, opposed to "Ritual Laws" such as circumcision but in full agreement on "Divine Law".


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: The "Council of Jerusalem" of about 50 AD was the first meeting in early Christianity called upon to consider the application of Mosaic Law to the new community. Specifically, it had to consider whether new Gentile converts to Christianity were obligated to undergo circumcision for full membership in the Christian community, but it was conscious that the issue had wider implications, since circumcision is the "everlasting" sign of the Abrahamic Covenant.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: Modern differences over the interpretation of this come from the understanding of the use of the word "Law" in Paul's writings (example: Gal 3:10) as referring only to Mosaic Law (Torah) but in 1st century Hebrew understanding had multiple meanings which also included Jewish and Roman civil laws.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: At the time, the Christian community would have considered itself a part of the wider Jewish community, with most of the leaders of the Church being Jewish or Jewish proselytes.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: The decision of the Council came to be called the "Apostolic Decree" and was that most "Mosaic law", including the requirement for circumcision of males, was not obligatory for Gentile converts, possibly in order to make it easier for them to join the movement. However, the Council did retain the prohibitions against eating meat containing "blood", or meat of animals not properly slain, and against "fornication" and "idol worship". Beginning with Augustine of Hippo, many have seen a connection to Noahide Law, while some modern scholars reject the connection to "Noahide Law" and instead see Lev 17-18 as the basis. See also Old Testament Law applicable to converts and Leviticus 18.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: Noted in Acts 15:19-21, James tells the Jewish believers to understand his reasoning for writing letters to Gentile believers when he says, "For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath." Knowing the new converts would have to attend a synagogue in order to learn the history of Israel and the Church, James set the Gentile believers up with a beginning attitude of precaution towards those who would preach Moses' Law as a requirement for Gentile believers.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: The Apostolic decree may be a major act of differentiation of the Church from its Jewish roots, the first being the Rejection of Jesus. Although the outcome is not inconsistent with the Jewish view on the applicability of Mosaic Law to non-Jews, the Decree created a category of persons who were members of the Christian community (which still considered itself to be part of the Jewish community) who were not considered to be full converts by the wider Jewish community. In the wider Jewish community these partial converts were welcomed (a common term for them being God fearers, similar to the modern movement of B'nei Noah, see dual covenant theology), but they as Gentiles were excluded from the Temple proper and certain rituals. This created problems especially when the Christian community had become dominated by former Gentiles with less understanding of the reasons for the dispute.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: In the middle of the second century, bishop Marcion proposed rejecting the entire Jewish Bible, indeed he considered the God portrayed there to be a lesser deity, a demiurge. His position however was strongly rejected by Proto-orthodox Christianity, notably Tertullian and Irenaeus. The terms "Old Testament" and "New Testament" are traditionally ascribed to Tertullian, but some scholars instead propose Marcion as the source while other scholars propose that Melito of Sardis coined the phrase "Old Testament".


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: In 1525, Johannes Agricola advanced the doctrine that the Law was no longer needed by regenerate Christians. This position however was strongly rejected by Luther and in the Formula of Concord as antinomianism.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: In 1894, Leo Tolstoy published "The Kingdom of God Is Within You", in which he advanced the doctrine that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, including its Antithesis of the Law, was the true message of Jesus. Although Tolstoy never actually used the term "Christian anarchism", reviews of his book appear to have coined the term.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: Recent scholars influential in the debate regarding the law include F. F. Bruce, Rudolf Bultmann, Heikki Räisänen, Klyne Snodgrass, C. E. B. Cranfield, and others, as well as some of those involved with the New Perspectives movement.


title: Christian views on the Old Covenant

text: In 1993 Zondervan published "The Law, the Gospel, and the Modern Christian: Five Views" (and apparently republished it as "Five Views on Law and Gospel") in which its authors presented and debated five modern Protestant views on the topic. Willem A. VanGemeren presented a non-theonomic Reformed view, Greg L. Bahnsen presented the theonomic Reformed view, Walter C. Kaiser Jr. presented his own view, Wayne G. Strickland presented his own Dispensational view, and Douglas J. Moo presented what he calls a modified Lutheran view but is in all but name a New Covenant Theology approach.


title: Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

text: "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" is a song composed by Warren Zevon and David Lindell and performed by Zevon. It was first released on Zevon's 1978 album "Excitable Boy". It was the last song he performed in front of an audience, on "The Late Show with David Letterman", before his death in 2003.


title: Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

text: Zevon met co-writer Lindell in 1973 in Sitges, Spain, where the latter was running a bar, the Dubliner, after a stint working as a mercenary in Africa. Always interested in the darker side of life, Zevon decided to collaborate with Lindell on a song about a mercenary.


title: Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

text: The fictional character Roland is a Norwegian who becomes embroiled in the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War and Congo Crisis of the 1960s. The lyrics mention a "Congo war" and the years 1966 and 1967, which correspond to the mercenary-led Kisangani Mutinies after the Congo Crisis. He earns a reputation as the greatest Thompson gunner, a reputation that attracts the attention of the CIA. Roland is betrayed and murdered by a fellow mercenary, Van Owen, who blows off his head. Roland becomes the phantom "headless Thompson gunner" and eventually has his revenge, when he catches Van Owen in a Mombasa bar and guns him down. Afterward, he continues "wandering through the night". Other violent conflicts of the succeeding decade are said to be haunted by Roland, including Ireland; Lebanon; Palestine; and , and the song concludes with the suggestion that the Patty Hearst controversy was inspired by Roland as well.


title: Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

text: The song is a favorite of screenwriter David Koepp. He named the big-game hunter in "" "Roland Tembo" as a reference to the song, and then "thought it would be fun to make his nemesis' last name Van Owen, like in the song."


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon,' Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , also , meaning "Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: "ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sennacherib in 681 BC to his own death in 669. The third king of the Sargonid dynasty, Esarhaddon is most famous for his conquest of Egypt in 671 BC,' which made his empire the largest the world had ever seen, and for his reconstruction of Babylon, which had been destroyed by his father.


title: Esarhaddon

text: After Sennacherib's eldest son and heir Ashur-nadin-shumi had been captured and presumably executed in 694, the new heir had originally been the second eldest son, Arda-Mulissu, but in 684, Esarhaddon, a younger son, was appointed instead. Angered by this decision, Arda-Mulissu and another brother, Nabu-shar-usur, murdered their father in 681 and planned to seize the Assyrian throne. The murder, and Arda-Mulissu's aspirations of becoming king himself, made Esarhaddon's rise to the throne difficult and he first had to defeat his brothers in a six-week long civil war.


title: Esarhaddon

text: His brothers' attempted coup had been unexpected and troublesome for Esarhaddon and he would be plagued by paranoia and mistrust for his officials, governors and male family members until the end of his reign. As a result of this paranoia, most of the palaces used by Esarhaddon were high-security fortifications located outside of the major population centers of the cities. Also perhaps resulting from his mistrust for his male relatives, Esarhaddon's female relatives, such as his mother Naqiʾa and his daughter Serua-eterat, were allowed to wield considerably more influence and political power during his reign than women had been allowed in any previous period of Assyrian history.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Despite a relatively short and difficult reign, and being plagued by paranoia, depression and constant illness, Esarhaddon remains recognized as one of the greatest and most successful Assyrian kings. He quickly defeated his brothers in 681, completed ambitious and large-scale building projects in both Assyria and Babylonia, successfully campaigned in Media, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, and the Levant, defeated and conquered Lower Egypt, and ensured a peaceful transition of power to his two heirs Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin after his death.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Although Esarhaddon had been the crown prince of Assyria for three years and the designated heir of King Sennacherib, with the entire empire having taken oaths to support him, it was only with great difficulty that he successfully ascended the Assyrian throne.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Sennacherib's first choice as successor had been his eldest son, Ashur-nadin-shumi, who he had appointed as the ruler of Babylon in about 700 BC.' Shortly thereafter, Sennacherib attacked the land of Elam (modern day southern Iran) in order to defeat some Chaldean rebels which had fled there. In response to this attack, the Elamites invaded the south of Sennacherib's empire and in 694 successfully captured Ashur-nadin-shumi at the city of Sippar. The prince was taken back to Elam and probably executed.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: After Ashur-nadin-shumi's presumed death, Sennacherib elevated his second eldest surviving son, Arda-Mulissu, as crown prince. After several years as crown prince, Arda-Mulissu was replaced as heir by Esarhaddon in 684. The reason for Arda-Mulissu's sudden dismissal from the prominent position is unknown, but it is clear that he was very disappointed. Esarhaddon described the reaction of his brothers to his appointment as heir in a later inscription:


title: Esarhaddon

text: Arda-Mulissu was forced to swear loyalty to Esarhaddon by his father, but repeatedly appealed to Sennacherib to again accept him as heir instead. These appeals were not successful, and Sennacherib came to realize that the situation was tense, so he sent Esarhaddon into exile in the western provinces for his own protection. Esarhaddon was unhappy with his exile and blamed his brothers for it, describing it with the following words:


title: Esarhaddon

text: Though Sennacherib had foreseen the danger of keeping Esarhaddon near his ambitious brothers, he had not foreseen the dangers to his own life. On 20 October 681, Arda-Mulissu and another of Sennacherib's sons, Nabu-shar-usur, attacked and killed their father in one of Nineveh's temples. However, Arda-Mulissu's dreams of claiming the throne would be crushed. The murder of Sennacherib had caused some friction between Arda-Mulissu and his supporters which delayed a potential coronation and in the meantime, Esarhaddon had raised an army.' With this army at his back he met an army raised by his brothers at Hanigalbat, a region in the western parts of the empire, where most of the soldiers deserted his brothers to join him and the enemy generals fled. He then marched on Nineveh without opposition.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: Six weeks after his father's death he was accepted and recognized as the new Assyrian king at Nineveh. Shortly after taking the throne, Esarhaddon made sure to execute all conspirators and political enemies he could get his hands on, including the families of his brothers. All servants involved with the security of the royal palace at Nineveh were "dismissed" (i.e. executed). Arda-Mulissu and Nabu-shar-usur survived this purge as they had escaped as exiles to the northern kingdom of Urartu.' The frequent mentions of Arda-Mulissu and Esarhaddon's other brothers in his inscriptions indicates that he was surprised and bothered by their actions.' Esarhaddon's own inscription chronicling his entry into Nineveh and his purge of those in support of the conspiracy reads as follows:


title: Esarhaddon

text: As a result of his tumultuous rise to the throne, Esarhaddon was distrustful of his servants, vassals and family members. He frequently sought the advice of oracles and priests on whether any of his relatives or officials wished to harm him.' Although highly distrustful of his male relatives, Esarhaddon seems to not have been paranoid in regards to his female relatives. During his reign his wife Esharra-hammat, his mother Naqiʾa and his daughter Serua-eterat all wielded considerably more influence and political power than women during earlier parts of Assyrian history.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon's paranoia was also reflected by where he chose to live. One of his main residences was a palace in the city of Nimrud originally constructed as an armory by his predecessor Shalmaneser III (r. 859–824 BC) almost two hundred years earlier. Rather than occupying a central and visible spot within the cultic and administrative center of the city, this palace was located in its outskirts on a separate mound which made it well-protected. Between 676 and 672, the palace was strengthened with its gateways being modified into impregnable fortifications which could seal the entire building off completely from the city. If these entrances were sealed, the only way into the palace would be through a steep and narrow path protected by several strong doors. A similar palace, also located on a separate mound far from the city center, was built at Nineveh.


title: Esarhaddon

text: All Assyrian kings are known to have sought the guidance of the sun-god Shamash (which was obtained through interpreting what was perceived as signs from the gods) for advice in political and military matters, such as whom to appoint to a certain position or if a planned military campaign would be successful. Queries concerning the possibility of betrayal are known only from Esarhaddon's reign.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Most scholars have classified Esarhaddon as paranoid, some going as far as suggesting that he developed paranoid personality disorder after the murder of his father. Other scholars have refrained from using this label, instead simply characterizing him as "mistrustful" and noting that paranoia is "by definition delusional and irrational" while Esarhaddon is likely to have had many real opponents and enemies.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon wished to ensure the support of the inhabitants of Babylonia, the southern part of his empire. To this end, the king sponsored building and restoration projects throughout the south to a far greater extent than any of his predecessors had. Babylonia had only become part of the Assyrian empire relatively recently, having been ruled by native kings as vassals of the Assyrians until its conquest and annexation by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III in the previous century. Through his building program, Esarhaddon likely hoped to show the benefits of continuing Assyrian rule over the region and that he meant to rule Babylon with the same care and generosity as a native Babylonian king.


title: Esarhaddon

text: The city of Babylon, which gave its name to Babylonia, had been the political center of southern Mesopotamia for more than a thousand years. In an effort to quell Babylonian aspirations of independence, the city had been razed by Esarhaddon's father in 689 BC, and the statue of Bel (also known as Marduk), the patron deity of the city, had been carried off deep into Assyrian territory. The restoration of the city, announced by Esarhaddon in 680, became one of his most important projects.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Throughout Esarhaddon's reign, reports from the officials the king appointed to oversee the reconstruction speak of the great scope of the building project. The ambitious restoration of the city involved removing the large amount of debris left since Sennacherib's destruction of the city, resettlement of the many Babylonians who by this point were either enslaved or scattered across the empire, the reconstruction of most of the buildings, the restoration of the great temple complex dedicated to Bel, known as the Esagila, and the enormous ziggurat complex called Etemenanki as well as the restoration of the two inner walls of the city. The project was not only important because it illustrated goodwill towards the Babylonian people, but also because it allowed Esarhaddon to assume one of the essential characteristics the Babylonians invested in kingship. While the king of Assyria was generally supposed to be a military figure, the king of Babylon was ideally a builder and restorer, particularly of temples. Careful to not associate himself with the city's destruction, he only refers to himself as a king "ordained by the gods" in his inscriptions in Babylon, only mentioning Sennacherib in his inscriptions in the north and blaming the city's destruction not on his father but on Babylon "offending its gods". Writing of his reconstruction of Babylon, Esarhaddon states the following:


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon successfully rebuilt the city gates, battlements, drains, courtyards, shrines and various other buildings and structures. Great care was taken during rebuilding of the Esagila, depositing precious stones, scented oils and perfumes into its foundations. Precious metals were chosen to cover the doors of the temple and the pedestal that was to house the statue of Bel was constructed in gold. A report from the governor Esarhaddon installed in Babylon confirms that the reconstruction was very well received by the Babylonians:


title: Esarhaddon

text: The rebuilding of the city was not completed during Esarhaddon's lifetime and much work was also done during the reign of his successors. Exactly how much of the reconstruction was done during the reign of Esarhaddon is uncertain, but stones with his inscriptions are found in the ruins of the city's temples, suggesting that a substantial amount of work had been completed. It is likely that Esarhaddon fulfilled most of his restoration goals, including the near complete restoration of Esagila and Etemenanki, with the possible exception of the city walls, which were likely fully restored by his successor.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon also sponsored restoration programs in other southern cities. In his first regnal year, Esarhaddon returned the statues of various southern gods that had been captured in wars and held in Assyria. During the time since Sennacherib's destruction of the city, the statue of Bel had, along with statues of several other traditional Babylonian deities, been kept at the town of Issete in the northeastern parts of Assyria.' Although the statue of Bel remained in Assyria, statues of other gods were returned to the cities of Der, Humhumia and Sippar-aruru.' In the years to follow, statues were also returned to the cities of Larsa and Uruk. As he had in Babylon, Esarhaddon also cleared away debris in Uruk and repaired the city's Eanna temple, dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. Similar small-scale restoration projects were undertaken in the cities of Nippur, Borsippa and Akkad.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Because of Esarhaddon's extensive building projects in the south and his efforts to link himself to the Babylonian royal tradition, some scholars have described him as the "Babylonian king of Assyria", but such a view might misrepresent the actual efforts of the king. Esarhaddon was king of both Assyria and Babylonia and his military and political base remained in the north, much like his predecessors. While his southern building projects were impressive, ambitious and unprecedented, he completed projects in the Assyrian heartland as well, although they were not as civically oriented as those in Babylonia. In Assyria, Esarhaddon constructed and restored temples but also worked on palaces and military fortifications.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Possibly in order to reassure the Assyrian people that his projects in the south would be matched with projects of equal proportion in the north, Esarhaddon ensured that repairs were made to the temple of Ešarra in Assur, one of the chief temples of northern Mesopotamia.' Similar projects were conducted for temples in the Assyrian capital, Nineveh and in the city of Arbela.' Though the temple-building projects conducted in the south were matched with temple-building projects in the north, Esarhaddon's prioritizing of Assyria over Babylonia is apparent from the various administrative and military building projects undertaken in the north and the complete lack of such projects in the south.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Vassals who had hoped to use the unstable political climate in Assyria to free themselves, perhaps believing that the new king hadn't yet consolidated his position well enough to stop them, and foreign powers eager to expand their territory soon realized that (despite Esarhaddon's distrust) the governors and soldiers of Assyria fully supported the new king.' Two of the principal threats to Assyria were the kingdom of Urartu under King Rusa II in the north, a sworn enemy of Assyria which still sheltered his brothers, and the Cimmerians, a nomadic tribe which was harassing his western borders.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon allied with the nomadic Scythians, famous for their cavalry, in order to dissuade the Cimmerians from attacking but it doesn't appear to have helped. In 679 BC, the Cimmerians invaded the westernmost provinces of the empire and by 676 they had penetrated further into Esarhaddon's empire, destroying temples and cities on the way. To stop this invasion, Esarhaddon personally led his soldiers in battle in Cilicia and successfully repelled the Cimmerians. In his inscriptions, Esarhaddon claims to personally have killed the Cimmerian king Teušpa.


title: Esarhaddon

text: While the Cimmerian invasion was underway, one of Esarhaddon's vassals in the Levant, the city of Sidon, rebelled against his rule.' Sidon had only recently been conquered by Assyria, having been made a vassal by Esarhaddon's father in 701.' Esarhaddon marched his army down along the Mediterranean coast and captured the rebellious city in 677 but its king, Abdi-Milkutti, escaped by boat.' He was captured and executed a year later, the same year that Esarhaddon decisively defeated the Cimmerians. Another rebellious vassal king, Sanduarri of "Kundu and Sissu" (likely locations in Cilicia), was also defeated and executed. In order to celebrate his victory, Esarhaddon had the heads of the two vassal kings hung around the necks of their nobles, who were paraded around Nineveh.' Sidon was reduced to an Assyrian province and two cities which had been under the Sidonian king's control were gifted to another vassal king, Baal of Tyre. Esarhaddon discusses his victory over Sidon in a contemporary inscription:


title: Esarhaddon

text: After dealing with the problems in Sidon and Cilicia, Esarhaddon turned his attention to Urartu. At first, he struck at the Mannaeans, a people allied with Urartu, but by 673 he was openly at war with the kingdom of Urartu itself.' As part of this war, Esarhaddon attacked and conquered the kingdom of Shupria, a vassal kingdom to Urartu whose capital Ubumu was located on the shores of Lake Van.' The king's "casus belli" for this invasion was the king of Shupria's refusal to hand over political refugees from Assyria (possibly some of the conspirators behind Sennacherib's death) and though the Shuprian king had agreed to give up the refugees after a long series of letters, Esarhaddon considered it took him too long to relent. The Assyrians seized and plundered the city after the defenders had attempted to burn down the Assyrian siege weapons and the fires had instead spread into Ubumu. The political refugees were captured and executed. Some criminals from Urartu, who the Shuprian king had similarly refused to give up to the king of Urartu, were seized and sent to Urartu, perhaps in order to improve relations. Ubumu was repaired, renamed and annexed, with two eunuchs being appointed as its governors.


title: Esarhaddon

text: In 675, the Elamites invaded Babylonia and captured the city of Sippar. The Assyrian army had been away at the time, campaigning in Anatolia, and was forced to abandon this campaign in order to defend the southern provinces. Little is recorded of this conflict and as the fall of Sippar was an embarrassment it is not mentioned by Esarhaddon in any of his inscriptions. Shortly after seizing Sippar, the Elamite king Khumban-khaltash II died, which left the new Elamite king, Urtak, in a bad position. To repair relations with Assyria and avoid further conflict, Urtak abandoned the invasion and returned some statues of gods which the Elamites had stolen. The two monarchs entered into an alliance and exchanged children to be raised at each other's courts.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Near the end of Esarhaddon's seventh year on the throne, in the winter of 673, the king invaded Egypt. This invasion, which only a few Assyrian sources discuss, ended in what some scholars have assumed was possibly one of Assyria's worst defeats.' The Egyptians had for years sponsored rebels and dissenters in Assyria and Esarhaddon had hoped to storm Egypt and take this rival out in one fell swoop. Because Esarhaddon had marched his army at great speed, the Assyrians were exhausted once they arrived outside the Egyptian-controlled city of Ashkelon, where they were defeated by the Kushite Pharaoh Taharqa. Following this defeat, Esarhaddon abandoned his plan to conquer Egypt for the moment and withdrew back to Nineveh.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: By the time of Esarhaddon's first failed invasion of Egypt in 673 BC, it had become apparent that the king's health was deteriorating.' This presented a problem since one of the chief requirements of being the Assyrian king was that one had perfect mental and physical health.' The king was constantly suffering from some illness and would often spend days in his sleeping quarters without food, drink and human contact. The death of Esharra-hammat, his beloved wife, in February 672 BC is unlikely to have improved his condition. Surviving court documents overwhelmingly point to Esarhaddon often being sad. The deaths of his wife and their recently born infant child made Esarhaddon depressed. This can clearly be seen in letters written by the king's chief exorcist Adad-shumu-usur, the man who was chiefly responsible for Esarhaddon's well-being. One such letter reads:


title: Esarhaddon

text: Notes and letters preserved from those at the royal court, including Esarhaddon's physicians, describe his condition in some detail, discussing violent vomiting, constant fever, nosebleeds, dizziness, painful earaches, diarrhea and depression. The king often feared that his death was near, and his condition would have been apparent to anyone who saw him as he was affected by a permanent skin rash which covered most of his body, including his face. The physicians, likely the best in Assyria, were perplexed and eventually had to confess that they were powerless to aid him. This is clearly expressed in their letters, such as the following:


title: Esarhaddon

text: Because the Assyrians saw illness as divine punishment, a king who was ill would have been seen as an indication that the gods were not supportive of him. Because of this, Esarhaddon's poor health had to be hidden from his subjects at all costs.' That his subjects remained unaware was ensured through the ancient royal Assyrian tradition that anyone who approached the king had to be both on their knees and veiled.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: Seeing as he himself had only acquired the Assyrian throne with great difficulty, Esarhaddon took several steps in order to ensure that the transition of power following his own death would be a smooth and peaceful one. A treaty concluded between Esarhaddon and his vassal Ramataia, the ruler of a Median kingdom in the east called Urakazabarna in 672 BC makes it clear that all of Esarhaddon's sons were still minors at the time, which was problematic. The same treaty also shows that Esarhaddon was worried that there might be several factions who might oppose his successor's rise to the throne after his death, listing potential opposing forces as his successor's brothers, uncles and cousins and even "descendants of former royalty" and "one of the chiefs or governors of Assyria".


title: Esarhaddon

text: This indicates that at least some of Esarhaddon's brothers were still alive at this point and that they or their children could possibly represent threats to his own children. The mention of "descendants of former royalty" might allude to the fact that Esarhaddon's grandfather Sargon II had acquired the Assyrian throne through usurpation and may not have been related to any earlier Assyrian king. It is possible that descendants of earlier kings may still have been alive and in a position to press their claims on the Assyrian throne.


title: Esarhaddon

text: In order to avoid a civil war upon his death, Esarhaddon appointed his eldest son Sin-nadin-apli as crown prince in 674, but he died just two years later, again threatening a succession crisis. This time, Esarhaddon appointed two crown princes; his eldest living son Shamash-shum-ukin was selected as the heir to Babylon whilst a younger son, Ashurbanipal, was selected as the heir to Assyria. The two princes arrived at the capital of Nineveh together and partook in a celebration with foreign representatives and Assyrian nobles and soldiers. Promoting one of his sons as the heir to Assyria and another as the heir to Babylon was a new idea, for in the past decades the Assyrian king had simultaneously been the King of Babylon.


title: Esarhaddon

text: The choice to name a younger son as crown prince of Assyria, which was clearly Esarhaddon's primary title, and an older son as crown prince of Babylon might be explained by the mothers of the two sons. While Ashurbanipal's mother was likely Assyrian in origin, Shamash-shum-ukin was the son of a woman from Babylon (though this is uncertain, Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin may have shared the same mother which would probably have had problematic consequences if Shamash-shum-ukin was to ascend to the Assyrian throne. Since Ashurbanipal was the next oldest son, he then was the superior candidate to the throne. Esarhaddon probably surmised that the Babylonians would be content with someone of Babylonian heritage as their king and as such set Shamash-shum-ukin to inherit Babylon and the southern parts of his empire instead. Treaties drawn up by Esarhaddon are somewhat unclear as to the relationship he intended his two sons to have. It is clear that Ashurbanipal was the primary heir to the empire and that Shamash-shum-ukin was to swear him an oath of allegiance, but other parts also specify that Ashurbanipal was not to interfere in Shamash-shum-ukin's affairs which indicates a more equal standing. The two crown princes soon became heavily involved with Assyrian politics, which lifted some of the burden from the shoulders of their sickly father.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon's mother Naqiʾa ensured that any potential enemies and claimants took an oath to support Ashurbanipal's rise to the Assyrian throne, another step to avoid the bloodshed which had begun Esarhaddon's own reign.' In order to ensure the succession of Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin, Esarhaddon himself also concluded succession treaties with at least six independent rulers in the east and with several of his own governors outside the Assyrian heartland in 672.' Perhaps the main motivating factor to create these treaties was the possibility that his brothers, particularly Arda-Mulissu, were still alive and sought to claim the Assyrian throne. Some inscriptions suggest that they were alive and free as late as 673.


title: Esarhaddon

text: In the early months of 671 BC, Esarhaddon again marched against Egypt.' The army assembled for this second Egytian campaign was considerably larger than the one Esarhaddon had used in 673 and he marched at a much slower speed in order to avoid the problems that had plagued his previous attempt.' On his way he passed through Harran, one of the major cities in the western parts of his empire. Here, a prophecy was revealed to the king, which predicted that Esarhaddon's conquest of Egypt would be a successful one. According to a letter sent to Ashurbanipal after Esarhaddon's death, the prophecy was the following:


title: Esarhaddon

text: Three months after having received this prophecy, Esarhaddon's forces were victorious in their first battle with the Egyptians. Despite the prophecy and initial success, Esarhaddon was not convinced of his own safety. Just eleven days after he had defeated the Egyptians, he performed the "substitute king" ritual, an ancient Assyrian method intended to protect and shield the king from imminent danger announced by some sort of omen. Esarhaddon had performed the ritual earlier in his reign, but this time it left him unable to command his invasion of Egypt.


title: Esarhaddon

text: The "substitute king" ritual involved the Assyrian monarch going into hiding for a hundred days, during which a substitute (preferably one with mental deficiencies) took the king's place by sleeping in the royal bed, wearing the crown and the royal garbs and eating the king's food. During these hundred days, the actual king remained hidden and was known only under the alias "the farmer". The goal of the ritual was that any evil intended for the king would instead be focused on the substitute king, who was killed regardless of if anything had happened at the end of the hundred days, keeping the real monarch safe.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Whatever omen Esarhaddon was fearing, he survived 671 and would perform the ritual twice during the two years that followed, which left him unable to fulfill his duties as the Assyrian king for a total of almost a year. During this time, most of the civil administration of his empire was overseen by his crown princes and the army in Egypt was likely commanded by his chief eunuch, Ashur-nasir. The Assyrian army defeated the Egyptians in two additional battles and successfully seized and plundered the Egyptian capital of Memphis.' The Assyrian army was also forced to fight some of their vassals in the Levant, such as Baal of Tyre, who had allied with the Egyptians against Esarhaddon.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: Although the Pharaoh Taharqa had escaped, Esarhaddon captured the Pharaoh's family, including his son and wife, and most of the royal court, which were sent back to Assyria as hostages. Governors loyal to the Assyrian king were placed in charge of the conquered territories. In his victory stele, erected to commemorate the defeat of Egypt, Esarhaddon is depicted in a majestic pose with a war mace in his hand and a vassal king kneeling before him. Also present is the son of the defeated pharaoh, kneeling and with a rope around his neck.' The conquest resulted in the relocation of a large number of Egyptians to the Assyrian heartland.' In an excerpt from the text inscribed on his victory stele, Esarhaddon describes the conquest with the following words:


title: Esarhaddon

text: Shortly following Esarhaddon's victory in Egypt, news spread throughout his empire of a new prophecy at Harran. Since Esarhaddon had conquered Egypt and proven the previous prophecy from the city right, the oracles of Harran were seen as trustworthy. The prophecy, spoken by an ecstatic woman (the oracle of Nusku), was the following:


title: Esarhaddon

text: The meaning of the prophecy was clear: it provided a possible religious foundation for a revolt against Esarhaddon's rule by declaring all of Sennacherib's descendants as usurpers.' It is possible that Esarhaddon's skin condition would have become apparent during his visit to Harran, which might be the reason for declaring him illegitimate. The identity of the Sasî who was proclaimed as the rightful king is unknown but he must have been connected to previous Assyrian royalty in some manner as he would otherwise not have been eligible for the throne. It is possible that he was a descendant of Esarhaddon's grandfather Sargon II. Sasî managed to rally a large amount of support throughout the empire quickly, even rallying Esarhaddon's chief eunuch Ashur-nasir to his side.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: It did not take long for Esarhaddon to learn of the conspiracy. Because of his paranoia, Esarhaddon had a vast information network of servants throughout the empire, sworn to report to him once they heard of any planned actions against him. Through these reports, Esarhaddon was made aware that supporters of Sasî were active not only in Harran, but also in Babylon and in the Assyrian heartland. For a while, Esarhaddon simply gathered information on the activities of the conspirators and fearing for his life, performed the "substitute king" ritual for a second time in 671 BC, just three months after he had previously completed it.


title: Esarhaddon

text: As soon as the ritual was complete, Esarhaddon emerged from hiding and brutally massacred the conspirators, the second such purge during his reign. The fate of Sasî and the woman who had proclaimed him king is unknown, but it is likely that they were captured and executed. Because of the extent of the officials killed, the administrative structure of Assyria suffered more than it had in many years. For the first few months of 670, no official was chosen to select the name of the year, something which was extremely rare in Assyrian history. Remains of several buildings in various cities, believed to have been the homes of supporters of Sasî, have been dated as having been destroyed in 670. The aftermath of the conspiracy saw Esarhaddon tighten security considerably. He introduced two new ranks into the court hierarchy so as to make it more difficult to meet him, which also limited the number of officials who controlled the access to his palaces.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Although he had successfully survived the conspiracy, Esarhaddon remained diseased and paranoid. Just a year later, in 669 BC, he once more performed the "substitute king" ritual. Around this time, the defeated Pharaoh Taharqa appeared from the south and, perhaps combined with the chaotic political situation within Assyria, inspired Egypt to attempt to free itself from Esarhaddon's control.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon received word of this rebellion and learnt that even some of his own governors who he had appointed in Egypt had ceased to pay tribute to him and joined the rebels.' After emerging from his hundred days of hiding, apparently relatively healthy by his standards, Esarhaddon left to campaign against Egypt for the third time. The king died at Harran' on 1 November 669,' before reaching the Egyptian border. The absence of evidence to the contrary suggests that his death was natural and unexpected.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: After Esarhaddon's death, his sons Ashurbanipal and Shamsh-shum-ukin successfully ascended the thrones of Assyria and Babylon without political turmoil and bloodshed, meaning that Esarhaddon's succession plans were a success, at least initially.


title: Esarhaddon

text: The support of the Arabic tribes of the Sinai Peninsula had been crucial in Esarhaddon's 671 BC Egyptian campaign. Esarhaddon was also determined to retain the loyalty of the Arabic tribes who had been subjugated by his father in the Arabian Peninsula, particularly around the city of Adummatu. The king of Adummatu, Hazael, paid tribute to Esarhaddon and sent him several presents, which were reciprocated by Esarhaddon through returning the statues of Hazael's gods which had been seized by Sennacherib years earlier. When Hazael died and was succeeded by his son Yauta, Yauta's position as king was recognized by Esarhaddon, who also aided the new king in defeating a rebellion against his rule. Shortly thereafter, Yautu rebelled against Esarhaddon and though he was defeated by the Assyrian army, he successfully retained his independence until the reign of Ashurbanipal.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon also successfully appointed a woman who had been raised at the Assyrian royal palace, Tabua, as "queen of the Arabs" and allowed her to return to and govern her people. In another episode, Esarhaddon invaded the country of "Bazza" in 676 (assumed to be located in the east of the Arabian Peninsula) after being petitioned for aid by a local king of a city called Yadi. The campaign apparently saw the Assyrians defeating eight kings of this region and granting their conquests to the king of Yadi.


title: Esarhaddon

text: The reign of Esarhaddon saw many of the Medes becoming Assyrian vassals. Esarhaddon's armies had proven to the Medes that Assyria was a great power to be feared when the Assyrians defeated the Median kings Eparna and Shidirparna near Mount Bikni (the location of which is unknown beyond being located somewhere in central Media) at some point before 676 BC. As a result of this victory, many of the Medes willingly swore allegiance to Assyria and brought gifts to Nineveh and allowed Esarhaddon to appoint Assyrian governors to their lands.


title: Esarhaddon

text: When Esarhaddon made his subjects swear to uphold his wishes in regards to the succession of Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin, some of the vassals made to swear allegiance to his successors were rulers and princes from Media. Esarhaddon's relations with the Medes weren't always peaceful as there are records of Median raids against Assyria as late as 672 and the Medes are constantly mentioned in Esarhaddon's requests to his oracle as potential enemies of Assyria. Among the chief rivals of Esarhaddon in Media was a figure the Assyrians called Kashtariti, who raided Assyrian territory. This king is perhaps identical with Phraortes, the second king of the Median Empire.


title: Esarhaddon

text: From inscriptions it can be ascertained that Esarhaddon had multiple wives as his succession treaties differentiate between "sons born by Ashurbanipal's mother" and "the rest of the sons engendered by Esarhaddon". Only the name of one of these wives, Esarhaddon's queen Esharra-hammat ("Ešarra-ḫammat") is known. Esharra-hammat is chiefly known from sources after her death, especially in regards to a mausoleum Esarhaddon constructed for her. It is uncertain which of Esarhaddon's many children were hers.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon had at least 18 children. Some of these children suffered from constant illness, similar to Esarhaddon, and required permanent and constant medical attention by the court physicians.' Contemporary letters by Esarhaddon's subjects discussing the king's "numerous children" confirm that his family was viewed as large by ancient Assyrian standards.' Those of Esarhaddon's children known by name are the following:


title: Esarhaddon

text: After Esarhaddon's death, his son Ashurbanipal became the king of Assyria. After attending his brother's coronation, Shamash-shum-ukin returned the stolen statue of Bel to Babylon and became the king of Babylon.' At Babylon, Ashurbanipal sponsored a lavish coronation festival for his brother.' Despite his royal title, Shamash-shum-ukin was a vassal to Ashurbanipal; Ashurbanipal continued to offer the royal sacrifices in Babylon (traditionally offered by the Babylonian monarch) and the governors in the south were Assyrian. The army and guards present in the south were also Assyrians. Most of Shamash-shum-ukin's early reign in Babylon was spent peacefully, restoring fortications and temples.


title: Esarhaddon

text: After he and his brother had been properly inaugurated as monarchs, Ashurbanipal left in 667 BC to complete Esarhaddon's unfinished final campaign against Egypt. In his 667 campaign, Ashurbanipal marched as far south as Thebes, plundering on his way, and upon his victory he left the joint Pharaohs Psamtik I (who had been educated at Esarhaddon's court) and Necho I as vassal rulers. In 666–665, Ashurbanipal defeated an attempt by Tantamani, nephew of Pharaoh Taharqa, to retake Egypt.


title: Esarhaddon

text: As Shamash-shum-ukin grew stronger, he became increasingly interested in becoming independent of his brother. In 652' Shamash-shum-ukin allied with a coalition of Assyria's enemies, including Elam, Kush and the Chaldeans, and forbade Ashurbanipal from any further sacrifices in any southern city. This led to a civil war that dragged on for four years. By 650 Shamash-shum-ukin's situation looked grim, with Ashubanipal's forces having besieged Sippar, Borsippa, Kutha and Babylon itself. Babylon finally fell in 648 and was plundered by Ashurbanipal. Shamash-shum-ukin died, possibly committing suicide.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: Throughout his long reign, Ashurbanipal would campaign against all of Assyria's enemies and rivals.' After Ashurbanipal's death, his sons Ashur-etil-ilani and Sinsharishkun retained control of his empire for a time,' but during their reigns many of Assyria's vassals seized the opportunity to declare themselves independent. From 627 to 612, the Assyrian empire effectively disintegrated and a coalition of Assyrian enemies, chiefly led by the Median Empire and the newly independent Neo-Babylonian Empire pushed into the Assyrian heartland. In 612, Nineveh itself was plundered and razed.' Assyria fell with the defeat of its final king, Ashur-uballit II, at Harran in 609.'


title: Esarhaddon

text: Esarhaddon, his predecessor Sennacherib and his successor Ashurbanipal are recognized as three of the greatest Assyrian kings.' He is typically characterized as gentler and milder than his predecessor, taking greater efforts to pacify and integrate the peoples he conquered.' The king has been described as one of the most successful of the Neo-Assyrian rulers on account of his many achievements, including the subjugation of Egypt, the successful and peaceful control of the notoriously rebellious Babylonia and his ambitious construction projects.' According to Assyriologist Karen Radner, Esarhaddon emerges more clearly as an individual from available sources than all other Assyrian kings.' Most Assyrian kings are known only from their royal inscriptions, but the decade of Esarhaddon's rule is exceptionally well documented because many other documents dating to his reign, such as court correspondence, have survived as well.


title: Esarhaddon

text: Ashurbanipal, who would famously gather ancient Mesopotamian literary works for his famous library, had already begun collecting such works during the reign of Esarhaddon. It is possible that Esarhaddon is to be credited with encouraging Ashurbanipal's collection and education.


title: Esarhaddon

text: In an inscription describing his appointment as crown prince and his rise to power, Esarhaddon uses the following royal titles:


title: Esarhaddon

text: A longer version of Esarhaddon's royal titles, and an accompanying boast of his gifts from the gods, preserved in another of his inscriptions, reads:


title: Love Destiny (TV series)

text: Love Destiny (; ; ) is a 2018 Thai historical television series that originally aired on Channel 3 from February 21 to April 11, 2018. The 15-episode series contains elements of romance, comedy, and time travel. Starring Ranee Campen and Thanawat Wattanaputi, "Love Destiny" was a major hit in Thailand and gained popularity across Asia and contributed to a rise of tourists in the filming locations. Its success has been attributed to its elaborate screenplay, costumes, and locations.


title: Love Destiny (TV series)

text: The "lakorn", set in Ayutthaya Kingdom, during the reign of King Narai, is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Rompaeng, the penname of Chanyawi Somprida. The novel got the Seven book award in 2010 and was adapted into a television drama for the first time in this series. The television adaptation was done by Broadcast Thai Television, the scriptwrier was Sanlaya, and the director was Pawat Panangsiri.


title: Love Destiny (TV series)

text: While traveling back home from a school excavation trip in Ayutthaya, Ketsurang (Ranee Campen), a history student and her friend, Rueang (Prama Imanothai), got into a car accident. Ketsurang woke up in the body of Karaket (การะเกด), the daughter of the ruler of Phitsanulok who was living in Ayutthaya, the capital of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, during the reign of King Narai (1656–1688). She lived in the residence of King Narai's chief astrologer, Phraya Horathibodi (พระยาโหราธิบดี), who is the father of her fiancé, Det (Thanawat Wattanaputi), a foreign ministry official holding the noble title of Muen Sunthon Thewa. The eccentric and goofy behavior of a modern-day woman like Ketsurang shocks everyone, but her kindness changes their attitudes towards her, eventually winning their hearts and minds. She amazes the people with her knowledge of the historical events of the era and questions the veracity of the knowledge she had learned in the future.


title: Love Destiny (TV series)

text: The drama also includes the Ayutthayan embassy accredited to the court of King Louis XIV of France, with Pan as the ambassador. And the successful enterprise of Phra Phet Racha, King Narai's xenophobic regent, to seize power and get rid of the Christians in the kingdom. The coup is supported by the Buddhist clergy and Narai's own daughter, Princess Sudawadi, and leads to the execution of Phaulkon, who holds the position of Prime Counsellor of Ayutthaya and assumes the Thai noble title of Chao Phraya Wichayen.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: The Black Cat is a 1934 American pre-Code horror film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi. It was Universal Pictures' biggest box office hit of the year, and was the first of eight films (six of which were produced by Universal) to feature both Karloff and Lugosi. In 1941, Lugosi appeared in a comedy horror mystery film with the same title, which was also named after and ostensibly "suggested by" Edgar Allan Poe's short story.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: The film was among the earlier movies with an almost continuous music score, and it helped to create and popularize the psychological horror subgenre by emphasizing atmosphere, eerie sounds, the darker side of the human psyche, and emotions like fear and guilt to deliver its scares.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: On their honeymoon in Hungary, American mystery novelist Peter Alison and his new wife Joan are told that, due to a mix-up, they must share a train compartment with Dr. Vitus Werdegast, a Hungarian psychiatrist, who says he is traveling to see an old friend. As the night wears on, the couple learn that Werdegast left home 18 years earlier to fight in World War I and has not seen his wife since, as he spent the last 15 years in an infamous prison camp in Siberia.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: In the dark and rain, Peter, Joan, Werdegast, and Thamal, Werdegast's servant, transfer to a small bus. When they are near Werdegast's destination, the remote home that Austrian architect Hjalmar Poelzig built upon the ruins of Fort Marmorus, the driver of the bus loses control and drives off the road. He is killed in the crash and Joan is injured, but Peter, Werdegast, and Thamal are well enough to take her to Poelzig's house.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: After treating Joan's injury, Werdegast and Poelzig go to speak privately. Werdegast says he has come for revenge, as he knows Poelzig betrayed Fort Marmorus, which Poelzig commanded, to the Russians, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Austro-Hungarian soldiers and Werdegast's imprisonment, and stole his wife and daughter, both named Karen, after telling them he was dead. Peter interrupts, and then Poelzig's black cat walks by and Werdegast, who suffers from severe ailurophobia, kills it with a thrown knife. Just then, Joan enters, behaving erratically because of an injection of the tranquilizing drug hyoscine that Werdegast had given her.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: The guests go to their rooms, and Poelzig, carrying a black cat, surveys a "collection" of preserved dead women on display in glass cases in his basement. He brings Werdegast to see one of the women, who Werdegast recognizes as his wife, and says she died of pneumonia two years after the war and the younger Karen is also dead. Heartbroken, Werdegast is going to shoot Poelzig, but he is spooked by the cat, and Poelzig says they should wait to have their confrontation until after the Alisons leave. The men part, and Poelzig joins Werdegast's daughter Karen, who is alive and is his wife, in bed. Instructing her to not leave the room the next day, he opens a book titled "The Rites of Lucifer".


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: In the morning, Joan awakens feeling well, and she and Peter hope to leave that day. Werdegast confronts Poelzig about how he is looking at Joan, and Poelzig mentions a ceremony scheduled for that night and admits he intends for her to stay. He and Werdegast play a game of chess to decide the fate of the Alisons, and, after losing, Werdegast has Thamal help place Peter in a cell in the basement and lock Joan in her room. Karen later stumbles upon Joan, who tells Karen that Werdegast is still alive, but the women are caught by Poelzig. He and Karen exit and Joan hears Karen scream.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: That night, Poelzig's satanic cult gathers at his house. Joan is brought in and, as Poelzig approaches her, a female acolyte sees something which causes her to scream and faint. Taking advantage of the distraction, Werdegast and Thamal grab Joan and carry her away. Thamal is shot by Poelzig's servant before dispatching him, and Werdegast urges Joan to forget about Peter and escape. She tells him that his daughter is alive and married to Poelzig, and he rushes off, finding Karen dead on a slab. Poelzig enters and the adversaries fight. A dying Thamal helps Werdegast overpower Poelzig and shackle him to his embalming rack, and Werdegast begins to skin Poelzig alive.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: Peter escapes from his cell and looks for Joan. He finds Werdegast crouching next to her to help tear a key from Thamal's dead hand, but thinks Werdegast is attacking her, so he shoots the psychiatrist. Fatally wounded, Werdegast tells the couple to leave and ignites demolition charges left over from when the house was a military installation, destroying the building and eradicating Poelzig's cult.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: Having just experienced an unbelievable adventure, on the trip home, Peter and Joan read a review of his latest novel, which complains that the plot is too far-fetched.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: Although Edgar Allan Poe is given a "suggested by" credit, the film has little to do with his 1843 short story "The Black Cat". Instead, director Edgar G. Ulmer and writer Peter Ruric (better known as pulp writer "Paul Cain") came up with the story, which exploits what was a sudden public interest in psychiatry, and Ruric wrote the screenplay. The 1941 film of the same name starring Basil Rathbone, which purports to be "suggested by" the same Poe story, bears little relation to this film, other than the presence of Lugosi.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: The character of Hjalmar Poelzig drew inspiration from the life of occultist Aleister Crowley, while the name "Poelzig" was borrowed from architect Hans Poelzig, whom Ulmer claimed to have worked with on the sets for Paul Wegener's silent film "" (1920).


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: A score consisting of excerpts from classical pieces composed by Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and others runs through nearly 80% of the film. The soundtrack was compiled by Heinz Roemheld.


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: As part of the boom in horror sound films following the release of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" in 1931, "The Black Cat" was the biggest box-office hit of 1934 for Universal Pictures, and it was the first of eight films (six of which were produced by Universal) to feature both Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff. The film was released in UK cinemas under the title "House of Doom".


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: In 2005, the film was released on DVD as part of the "Bela Lugosi Collection", along with "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1932), "The Raven" (1935), "The Invisible Ray" (1936), and "Black Friday" (1940). Eureka Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray in July 2020 as part of their Masters of Cinema collection in the "Three Edgar Allan Poe Adaptations Starring Bela Lugosi" set, which also included "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Raven".


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: Upon the film's original release, "The New York Times" reviewer wrote: ""The Black Cat" is more foolish than horrible. The story and dialogue pile the agony on too thick to give the audience a reasonable scare".


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: The film's critical reputation has grown over time, however, and on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 88% approval rating based on 34 reviews, with an average score of 7.7/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Making the most of its Karloff-Lugosi star pairing and loads of creepy atmosphere, "The Black Cat" is an early classic in the Universal monster movie library". In 2007, the British critic Philip French called the film "the first (and best) of seven Karloff/Lugosi joint appearances. The movie unfolds like a nightmare that involves necrophilia, ailurophobia, drugs, a deadly game of chess, torture, flaying, and a black mass with a human sacrifice. This bizarre, utterly irrational masterpiece, lasting little more than an hour, has images that bury themselves in the mind".


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: In the 2010s, "Time Out" polled a group of authors, directors, actors, and critics who had worked in the horror genre, and "The Black Cat" was voted the 89th best horror film of all time. The film was also ranked #68 on Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments" for the "skinning" scene. Cramps-guitarist and noted horror aficionado Poison Ivy has said of this scene: "Karloff gets skinned alive at the end, but they show the shadow of it and somehow that's more gruesome".


title: The Black Cat (1934 film)

text: An excerpt from the scene in which Werdegast utters the line: "Supernatural, perhaps. Baloney, perhaps not." appears in the Monkees' 1968 feature film "Head" and on that film's subsequent soundtrack album. The line also appears in comedian Sinbad's 1990 comedy special "Brain Damaged", as well as Deee-Lite's song "E.S.P." from their 1990 album "World Clique".


title: Spelling

text: Spelling is a set of conventions that regulate the way of using graphemes (writing system) to represent a language in its written form. In other words, spelling is the rendering of speech sound (phoneme) into writing (grapheme). Spelling is one of the elements of orthography, and highly standardized spelling is a prescriptive element.


title: Spelling

text: Spellings originated as transcriptions of the sounds of spoken language according to the alphabetic principle. They remain largely reflective of the sounds, although fully phonemic spelling is an ideal that most languages' orthographies only approximate, some more closely than others. This is true for various reasons, including that pronunciation changes over time in all languages, yet spellings as visual norms may resist change. In addition, words from other languages may be adopted without being adapted to the spelling system, and different meanings of a word or homophones may be deliberately spelled in different ways to differentiate them visually.


title: Spelling

text: Standardization of spelling is connected with the development of writing and the establishment of modern standard dialects. Languages with established orthography are those languages that enjoy an official status and a degree of institutional support in a country. Therefore, normative spelling is a relatively recent development linked to the compiling of dictionaries (in many languages, special spelling dictionaries, also called orthographic dictionaries, are compiled, showing prescribed spelling of words but not their meanings), the founding of national academies and other institutions of language maintenance, including widespread education and literacy, and often does not apply to minority and regional languages.


title: Spelling

text: In countries or regions where there is an authoritative language academy, such as France, the Netherlands, and the German-speaking areas, reforms are regularly made so that spelling better matches the changing pronunciation.


title: Spelling

text: English-language spelling reform proposals have been regularly made since the 16th century, but have made little impact apart from a few spellings preferred by Noah Webster having contributed to American and British English spelling differences.


title: Spelling

text: Learning proper spelling by rote is a traditional element of elementary education and divergence from standard spelling is often perceived as an indicator of low intelligence, illiteracy, or lower class standing.


title: Spelling

text: Spelling tests are commonly used to assess a student's mastery over the words in the spelling lessons the student has received so far. They can also be an effective practice method. Spelling bees are competitions to determine the best speller of a group. Prominent spelling bees are even televised, such as the National Spelling Bee in the United States.


title: Spelling

text: Divergent spelling is a popular advertising technique, used to attract attention or to render a trademark "suggestive" rather than "merely descriptive". The pastry chains Dunkin' Donuts and Krispy Kreme, for example, employ non-standard spellings.


title: Spelling

text: While some words admit multiple spellings, some spellings are not considered standard. These are commonly called "misspellings". A misspelled word can be a series of letters that represents no correctly spelled word of the same language at all (such as "leik" for "like") or a correct spelling of another word (such as writing "here" when one means "hear", or "no" when one means "know"). Misspellings of the latter type is called "atomic typo" and it can easily make their way into printed material because they are not caught by simple computerized spell checkers.


title: Spelling

text: Misspellings may be due to typing errors (e.g. the transposition error "teh" for "the"), lack of knowledge of the normative spelling, or lack of concern over spelling rules at all. Whether or not a word is misspelled may depend on context and the orthographic conventions adopted, as is the case with American / British English distinctions. Misspelling can also be a matter of opinion when variant spellings are accepted by some and not by others. For example, "miniscule" (for "minuscule") is a misspelling to many, and yet it is listed as an acceptable variant in some dictionaries.


title: Spelling

text: A well-known Internet scam involves the registration of domain names that are deliberate misspellings of well-known corporate names to mislead or defraud. The practice is commonly known as "typosquatting".


title: Spelling

text: English orthography has a broad degree of standardization. However, there are several ways to spell almost every sound and most letters have several variants of pronunciation depending on their position in the word and context. Therefore, some spelling mistakes are common even among native speakers. This is mainly due to large number of words that were borrowed from other languages with no successful attempts of complete spelling reform. Most spelling rules usually do not reflect phonetic changes that have taken place since the end of the 15th century (for example, Great Vowel Shift).


title: Spelling

text: Portuguese spelling is not strictly phonematic. It is associated with an extension of the Portuguese language and the emergence of numerous regional and dialect variants. In 2009 the global reform of the Portuguese language was initiated to eliminate 98% of inconsistencies in spelling between various countries.


title: Spelling

text: Orthography of the Icelandic language is based on etymological principle, thus the Icelanders themselves experience difficulties in writing. Modern Icelandic alphabet is based on the standard introduced by the Danish philologist Rasmus Rask.


title: Spelling

text: The fundamental principles of the Spanish orthography are phonological and etymological, that is why there are several letters with identical phonemes. Beginning from the 17th century, various options for orthographic reforms were suggested that would create a one-to-one correspondence between grapheme and phoneme, but all of them were rejected. Most modern proposals to reform spelling are limited to the removal of homophone letters that are preserved for etymological reasons.


title: Dzungaria

text: Dzungaria (; from the Mongolian words , meaning 'left hand') is a geographical subregion in Northwest China that corresponds to the northern half of Xinjiang. It is thus also known as Beijiang, which means "Northern Xinjiang". Bounded by the Altai Mountains to the north and the Tian Shan mountain range to the south, Dzungaria covers approximately , and borders Kazakhstan to the west and Mongolia to the east. In contexts prior to the mid-18th century Dzungar genocide, the term "Dzungaria" could cover a wider area, conterminous with the Oirat-led Dzungar Khanate.


title: Dzungaria

text: Although Dzungaria is geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct from the Tarim Basin (or Nanjiang, ), the Manchu-led Qing dynasty integrated both areas into one province, Xinjiang. Dzungaria is Xinjiang's center of heavy industry, generates most of the region's GDP, and houses its political capital Ürümqi (Oirat for 'beautiful pasture'). As such, Dzungaria continues to attract intraprovincial and interprovincial migration to its cities. In contrast to the Tarim Basin, Dzungaria is relatively well integrated with the rest of China by rail and trade links.


title: Dzungaria

text: Xinjiang has traditionally been divided into two geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct regions: Dzungaria, located north of the Tian Shan mountains; and the Tarim Basin, located south of the mountains. At the time of the Qing conquest of Xinjiang in 1759, Dzungaria was inhabited by steppe-dwelling, nomadic Tibetan-Buddhist Dzungars, while the Tarim Basin was inhabited by oasis-dwelling, sedentary, Turkic Muslim farmers, now known as the Uyghurs. The Qing government was well aware of the differences between the inhabitants of the two regions, and initially ruled them as separate administrative units. However, after the Qing army's final pacification of the Tarim Basin in 1760, the Qing government began to describe Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin as one region called "Xinjiang" ().


title: Dzungaria

text: The Qing government officially unified Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin into one political entity called Xinjiang Province in 1884, despite protests by some officials who believed that the two regions were better off left separated. The geographic concept of Xinjiang was ultimately a construct of the Qing government; by the end of Qing rule in 1912, Xinjiang's native inhabitants had still not developed a distinct regional identity. However, the foundations for a regional identity were laid by the Qing government's 150-year-long policies of politically isolating Xinjiang from the rest of Central Asia and introducing Han and Hui settlers into the region. These policies pushed forward a cultural identity which sharply contrasted with both the rest of China and the rest of Central Asia.


title: Dzungaria

text: Before the 21st century, all or part of the region has been ruled or controlled by the Xiongnu Empire, Han dynasty, Xianbei state, Rouran Khaganate, Turkic Khaganate, Tang dynasty, Uyghur Khaganate, Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate, Liao dynasty, Kara-Khitan Khanate, Mongol Empire, Yuan dynasty, Chagatai Khanate, Moghulistan, Qara Del, Northern Yuan, Four Oirat, Dzungar Khanate, Qing dynasty, and the Republic of China; since 1950, it has been under the control of the People's Republic of China.


title: Dzungaria

text: Dzungaria is named after the Dzungar Khanate that existed in Central Asia during the 17th and 18th centuries.


title: Dzungaria

text: "Dzungaria", or "Zungharia", derives from the name of the Dzungar people, which comes from the Mongolian term "Zűn Gar", or "Jüün Gar" (depending on the Mongolian dialect used). "Zűn" (or "Jüün") means 'left' and "Gar" means 'hand'. The name originates from the notion that the Western Mongols (Oirats) were on the left-hand side when the Mongol Empire began its division into East and West Mongols. After this fragmentation, the western Mongolian nation was called "Zuun Gar".


title: Dzungaria

text: The first people to inhabit the region were Indo-European-speaking peoples such as the Tocharians in prehistory and the Jushi Kingdom in the first millennium BC.


title: Dzungaria

text: One of the earliest mentions of the Dzungaria region occurs when the Han dynasty dispatched an explorer to investigate lands to the west, using the northernmost Silk Road trackway of about in length, which connected the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an to the west over the Wushao Ling Pass to Wuwei and emerged in Kashgar.


title: Dzungaria

text: Istämi of the Göktürks received the lands of Dzungaria as an inheritance after the death of his father in the latter half of the sixth century AD.


title: Dzungaria

text: Dzungar power reached its height in the second half of the 17th century, when Galdan Boshugtu Khan repeatedly intervened in the affairs of the Kazakhs to the west, but it was completely destroyed by the Qing Empire about 1757–1759. It has played an important part in the history of Mongolia and the great migrations of Mongolian stems westward. Its widest limit included Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, the whole region of the Tian Shan, and the greater proportion of that part of Central Asia which extends from 35° to 50° N and from 72° to 97° E.


title: Dzungaria

text: After 1761, its territory fell mostly to the Qing dynasty during the campaign against the Dzungars (Xinjiang and north-western Mongolia) and partly to Russian Turkestan (the earlier Kazakh state provinces of Zhetysu and Irtysh river).


title: Dzungaria

text: A traveler going west from China must go either north of the Tian Shan mountains through Dzungaria or south of the mountains through the Tarim Basin. Trade usually took the south side and migrations the north. This is most likely because the Tarim leads to the Ferghana Valley and Iran, while Dzungaria leads only to the open steppe. The difficulty with the south side was the high mountains between the Tarim and Ferghana. Furthermore, the Taklamakan is too dry to support much grass, and therefore nomads when they are not robbing caravans. Its inhabitants live mostly in oases formed where rivers run out of the mountains into the desert. These are inhabited by peasants who are unwarlike and merchants who have an interest in keeping trade running smoothly. Dzungaria has a fair amount of grass, few towns to base soldiers in and no significant mountain barriers to the west. Therefore, trade went south and migrations north. Today most trade is north of the mountains (Dzungarian Gate and Khorgas in the Ili valley) to avoid the mountains west of the Tarim and because Russia is currently more developed.


title: Dzungaria

text: After the Dzungar genocide, the Qing subsequently began to repopulate the area with Han and Hui people from China Proper.


title: Dzungaria

text: The population in the 21st century consists of Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Mongols, Uyghurs and Han Chinese. Since 1953, northern Xinjiang has attracted skilled workers from all over China—who have mostly been Han Chinese—to work on water conservation and industrial projects, especially the Karamay oil fields. Intraprovincial migration has mostly been directed towards Dzungaria also, with immigrants from the poor Uyghur areas of southern Xinjiang flooding to the provincial capital of Ürümqi to find work.


title: Dzungaria

text: As a political or geographical term, "Dzungaria" has practically disappeared from the map; but the range of mountains stretching north-east along the southern frontier of the Zhetysu, as the district to the southeast of Lake Balkhash preserves the name of Dzungarian Alatau. It also gave name to Djungarian hamsters.


title: Dzungaria

text: Wheat, barley, oats, and sugar beets are grown, and cattle, sheep, and horses are raised in Dzungaria. The fields are irrigated with melted snow from the permanently white-capped mountains. Dzungaria has deposits of coal, gold, and iron, as well as large oil fields.


title: Dzungaria

text: The core of Dzungaria is the triangular Dzungarian Basin, also known as Junggar Basin (), with its central Gurbantünggüt Desert. It is bounded by the Tarbagatai Mountains to the northwest, the Altai Mountains to the northeast, and the Tian Shan mountains to the south. The three corners are relatively open. The northern corner is the valley of the upper Irtysh River. The western corner is the Dzungarian Gate, a historically important gateway between Dzungaria and the Kazakh Steppe; presently, a highway and a railway (opened in 1990) run through it, connecting China with Kazakhstan. The eastern corner of the basin leads to Gansu and the rest of China. In the south, an easy pass leads from Ürümqi to the Turfan Depression. In the southwest, the tall Borohoro Mountains branch of the Tian Shan separates the basin from the upper Ili River.


title: Dzungaria

text: The basin is similar to the larger Tarim Basin on the southern side of the Tian Shan Range. Only a gap in the mountains to the north allows moist air masses to provide the basin lands with enough moisture to remain semi-desert rather than becoming a true desert like most of the Tarim Basin and allows a thin layer of vegetation to grow. This is enough to sustain populations of wild camels, jerboas, and other wild species.


title: Dzungaria

text: The Dzungarian Basin is a structural basin with thick sequences of Paleozoic-Pleistocene rocks with large estimated oil reserves. The Gurbantunggut Desert, China's second largest, is in the center of the basin.


title: Dzungaria

text: The Dzungarian basin does not have a single catchment center. The northernmost section of Dzungaria is part of the basin of the Irtysh River, which ultimately drains into the Arctic Ocean. The rest of the region is split into a number of endorheic basins. In particular, south of the Irtysh, the Ulungur River ends up in the (presently) endorheic Lake Ulungur. The Southwestern part of the Dzungarian basin drains into the


title: Dzungaria

text: Aibi Lake. In the west-central part of the region, streams flow into (or toward) a group of endorheic lakes that include Lake Manas and Lake Ailik. During the region's geological past, a much larger lake (the "Old Manas Lake") was located in the area of today's Manas Lake; it was fed not only by the streams that presently flow toward it but also by the Irtysh and Ulungur, which too were flowing toward the Old Manas Lake at the time.


title: Dzungaria

text: The cold climate of nearby Siberia influences the climate of the Dzungarian Basin, making the temperature colder—as low as —and providing more precipitation, ranging from , compared to the warmer, drier basins to the south. Runoff from the surrounding mountains into the basin supplies several lakes. The ecologically rich habitats traditionally included meadows, marshlands, and rivers. However, most of the land is now used for agriculture.


title: Dzungaria

text: It is a largely steppe and semi-desert basin surrounded by high mountains: the Tian Shan (ancient Mount Imeon) in the south and the Altai in the north. Geologically it is an extension of the Paleozoic Kazakhstan Block and was once part of an independent continent before the Altai mountains formed in the late Paleozoic. It does not contain the abundant minerals of Kazakhstan and may have been a pre-existing continental block before the Kazakhstan Block was formed.


title: Dzungaria

text: Dzungaria is home to a semi-desert steppe ecoregion known as the Dzungarian Basin semi-desert. The vegetation consists mostly of low scrub of "Anabasis brevifolia". Taller shrublands of saxaul bush "(Haloxylon ammodendron)" and "Ephedra przewalskii" can be found near the margins of the basin. Streams descending from the Tian Shan and Altai ranges support stands of poplar "(Populus diversifolia)" together with "Nitraria roborovsky, N. sibirica, Achnatherum splendens," tamarisk "(Tamarix sibirimosissima)", and willow "(Salix ledebouriana)".


title: Dzungaria

text: The northeastern portion of the Dzungarian Basin semi-desert lies within Great Gobi National Park, and is home to herds of Onagers "(Equus hemionus)", goitered gazelles "(Gazella subgutturosa)" and Wild Bactrian camels "(Camelus ferus)".


title: Dzungaria

text: The basin was one of the last habitats of Przewalski's horse "(Equus przewalskii)", also known as Dzungarian horse, which was once extinct in the wild, though it has since been reintroduced in areas of Mongolia and China.


title: Dzungaria

text: Dzungaria and its derivatives are used to name a number of pre-historic animals, hailing from the rocky outcrops located in the Dzungar Basin:


title: Dzungaria

text: A notable find, in February 2006, is the oldest tyrannosaur fossil unearthed by a team of scientists from George Washington University who were conducting a study in the Dzungarian Basin. The species, named "Guanlong", lived 160 million years ago, more than 90 million years before the famed "Tyrannosaurus rex".


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: César Cuauhtémoc González Barrón (9 January 1968 – 11 May 2019) was a Mexican "luchador enmascarado" (masked wrestler) and actor. He was known best as Silver King, but also had an extensive stint as the third wrestler to portray the Black Tiger character. He was the son of luchador Dr. Wagner and the brother of Dr. Wagner Jr. González worked for many years with El Texano as the tag team "Los Cowboys," winning tag team championships in both Mexico and Japan.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: González worked for the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA), Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and various smaller federations all over the world. González also starred as the villain "Ramses" in the movie "Nacho Libre", starring Jack Black. In June 2010, González began using the ring name Silver Cain/Silver Kain when wrestling in Mexico City as a way to be able to officially be allowed to wear his mask again.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: César Cuauhtémoc González Barrón was born on 9 January 1968, son of Magdalena Barrón and her husband Manuel González Rivera, better known by his luchador name, Dr. Wagner. César had two older brothers, Óscar and Juan Manuel, and a younger sister, Mayra. Sometime during late 1980s or early 1990s, César González married Xóchitl Guadalupe Hamada Villarreal, who is also a professional wrestler under the name Xóchitl Hamada.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: In 2012, César González introduced a wrestler under the name "Silver King Jr.", a masked wrestler who was advertised as the son of González, but would later reveal that the first person to use the name Silver King Jr. was not his son, disassociating himself from the "fake" son. A second wrestler used the name Silver King Jr. in 2014 and 2015 until he was unmasked in a match on 11 October 2015, where he gave the name Felipe Garcia González. César González later introduced "El Hijo de Silver King" ("The Son of Silver King"), believed to be his real son, not a storyline. César González was the uncle of El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. and El Galeno del Mal, sons of his older brother Juan Manuel, as well as the former brother-in-law of Rossy Moreno and the Moreno wrestling family until Juan Manuel and Moreno divorced.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: Both César González and his brother Juan Manuel began wrestling at an early age. César made his debut in November 1985 and initially used the name El Invasor (Spanish for "the Invader"). Within a year of his debut, he changed his name and started working as the Luchador Emmascadero (masked wrestler) Silver King. Silver King started working for the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) in the lower matches on the cards. On 12 November 1987, Silver King wrestled in a Lucha de Apuestas (a "Bet" Match) where he put his mask on the line against El Hijo del Santo's mask. When Silver King lost he was forced to unmask and in lucha tradition reveal his true name, it was here that it was first revealed that Silver King was one of Dr. Wagner's sons.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: Shortly after being unmasked Silver King formed a team with El Texano that would become known as "The Cowboys"/"Los Cowboys". In 1991 the team won their first tag team championship winning a tournament to become the first ever World Wrestling Association World Tag Team Champions. On 19 January 1992, they added the UWA World Tag Team Championship to their collection when they defeated Gran Hamada and Kendo for the title in Japan and brought the titles back to Mexico. Their run with the UWA World Tag Team titles saw them work a storyline with the Can-Am Express (initially masked and just designated "I" and "II" but later revealed to be Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat). The storyline saw Los Cowboys lose the UWA World Tag Team title on 28 June 1992, but gain a measure of revenge less than a month later when Los Cowboys beat the Can-Am Express in a "Lucha de Apuestas" match and forced Furnas and Kroffat to unmask and reveal their true identities. During their time as double champions, Los Cowboys were invited to participante in a tournament to crown new National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Tag Team Champions hosted by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The team competed at Clash of the Champions XIX and lost in a first-round match to The Fabulous Freebirds.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: On 7 July 1993, Los Cowboys lost the WWA World Tag team titles to El Dandy and Corazon de Leon but regained them two months later. Their second run with the WWA World Tag Team title only lasted a month as Villano IV and Villano V took the title from them on 10 October 1993. On 31 October, only 21 days after losing the tag team titles Silver King won his first singles title when he defeated his partner El Texano for the UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. Despite having defeated his own partner Los Cowboys did not turn on each other but kept on working together. In early 1994 Los Cowboys ended their relationship with the UWA and began working for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). Silver King defeated Black Magic for the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship on 28 July 1994. Not content to work in the singles' division Los Cowboys won the CMLL World Tag Team Championship (while Silver King still held the singles world title) on 16 December 1994, by unseating long time champions El Canek and Silver King's brother Dr. Wagner Jr. As if being a double champion was not enough Silver King teamed up with Shocker to win the 1995 Gran Alternativa tournament.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: During 1995 Los Cowboys began working for the Japanese-based International Wrestling Association of Japan where they won the IWA World Tag Team Championship from Los Headhunters on 3 March 1995, in Hiroshima, Japan. The duo lost the tag team title on 20 August the same year on the undercard of the IWA's "King of Deathmatches" show. Silver King would also lose the CMLL World title and the tag team title in 1995 being defeated by Apolo Dantés and the team of Los Headhunters respectively. In February 1996 he teamed up with his brother and defeated Dos Caras and Último Dragón to win the vacant CMLL World Tag Team Championship. When WCW started signing Luchadors in 1997, Silver King joined the North American promotion and vacated the title that he and his brother still held at the time.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: Silver King joined World Championship Wrestling as a full-time wrestler in 1997 as one of the many luchadors that worked for the company in that time period. He made his WCW debut on the June 9 episode of "Monday Nitro" by teaming with Psychosis and La Parka against Juventud Guerrera, Super Calo and Ultimo Dragon in a six-man tag team match, which King's team lost. This marked his first appearance in the promotion since 1992. On the June 14 episode of "Saturday Night", King received his first win in WCW as he teamed with Damian and Psychosis to defeat Guerrera, Calo and Dragon in a six-man tag team match. At Clash of the Champions XXXV, King teamed with Psychosis, Villano IV and Villano V to defeat the team of Hector Garza, Guerrera, Calo and Lizmark Jr. in an eight-man tag team match. He mostly found himself usually working multiple tag team, six-man and eight-man tag team matches by teaming with fellow luchadors such as Psychosis, La Parka, Villano IV and Villano V and competed against various luchadors. King's first singles match in WCW took place on the August 25 episode of "Monday Nitro" against Ultimo Dragon, which he lost. He made his first appearance at a pay-per-view event for WCW at World War 3, where he participated in the namesake battle royal for a future WCW World Heavyweight Championship title shot but failed to win.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: King won his first match in singles competition on the January 24, 1998 episode of "Worldwide" by defeating Lizmark, Jr. At Souled Out, King teamed with El Dandy, La Parka and Psychosis against Chavo Guerrero Jr., Juventud Guerrera, Lizmark Jr. and Super Calo in a losing effort in an eight-man tag team match. At Slamboree, King participated in a battle royal for an immediate Cruiserweight Championship title opportunity but failed to win. On the June 4 episode of "Thunder", King received his first title shot in WCW against Dean Malenko for the Cruiserweight Championship but the match ended in a no contest due to interference by Chris Jericho. King received another title shot for the Cruiserweight Championship against Juventud Guerrera on the September 10 episode of "Thunder", which he lost via disqualification after using a chair. This led to a rematch between the two for the title at Fall Brawl, which King lost. At World War 3, King participated in the namesake battle royal for a future World Heavyweight Championship opportunity but failed to win.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: At a live event on December 5, King turned on his tag team partner Lizmark, Jr. during a tag team match against Latino World Order members Ciclope and Damien. After the match, King was offered a spot in LWO and he accepted, thus joining Eddie Guerrero's group which was made up of the luchadors who had always been held back in WCW. However, the group disbanded the following month as Guerrero was injured in a car accident and all the members quit the group to accept Ric Flair's offer of fighting for WCW and being promised of a better treatment than Eric Bischoff. Following the dissolution of LWO, King resumed teaming with and competing against various luchadors in the lower mid-card whilst also serving as an enhancement talent to upper mid-card wrestlers. He made his only pay-per-view appearance in 1999 at Bash at the Beach by participated in a Junkyard Invitational but did not receive any success.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: On the November 13 episode of "Saturday Night", King teamed with El Dandy as they unsuccessfully challenged Billy Kidman and Konnan for the World Tag Team Championship. King frequently began teaming with Dandy as the two received another tag team title shot on the March 11, 2000 episode of "Worldwide" against The Mamalukes (Big Vito and Johnny the Bull). On the March 15 episode of "Thunder", King and Dandy began receiving a new push when they forced the ring announcer David Penzer to call their team "Los Fabulosos" before their match against Chavo Guerrero, Jr. and La Parka. Los Fabulosos lost the match but they received a new manager in Miss Hancock, who provided them with a new outfit and some guidance. Los Fabulosos won a few tag team matches including their last televised match in WCW on the April 1 episode of "Saturday Night" where they defeated Jeremy Lopez and Tommy Rogers. Their last match in WCW was a loss to Harlem Heat 2000 (Big T and Stevie Ray) at a live event on April 1. King was released by his WCW contract on May 5.


title: Silver King (wrestler)

text: After leaving WCW, he returned to CMLL and began wrestling for CMLL's Japanese affiliate, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). In 2001, he adopted the Black Tiger character, previously used by Mark Rocco and Eddie Guerrero, making him the third person to appear under the mask, which is why he's unofficially referred to as Black Tiger III in printed sources. As Black Tiger, he wrestled several tours with New Japan starting out working a series of matches with the storyline opponent of the Black Tiger, Tiger Mask – in this case, Tiger Mask IV. Together with his brother Dr. Wagner Jr., he had an unsuccessful IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship challenge against the team of Jushin Thunder Liger and El Samurai in 2001.