text:
KG
Battle of Saint-Mathieu
Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Surrey
Elizabeth Tilney
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Sir Edward Poynings
Sluys
Ayton Castle
signing of a treaty
James IV of Scotland
Margaret Tudor
James IV
Henry VII
Henry VIII
standard-bearer
Holinshed
Andrew Barton
Lion
Letter of Marque
Brest
Thames
Brittany
Marquess of Dorset
Guyenne
Le Conquet
Crozon
Channel
Battle of Saint-Mathieu
Lord High Admiral
Earl of Oxford
French King
Prégent de Bidoux
Plymouth
Claude
Anne
Plymouth
Thomas
Picardy
Order of the Garter
Alice
William Lovel, Lord Morley
Eleanor, Baroness Morley
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk
reversion
Henry Parker

categories: 1513 deaths,Howard family (English aristocracy),1470s births,Knights of the Garter,Lord High Admirals of England,Deaths by drowning,Military leaders of the Italian Wars,15th-century English people,Younger sons of dukes,English military personnel killed in action,People of the Tudor period

paragraph: Edward Howard (admiral)

paragraph: Sir Edward Howard, KG (1476/1477 – 25 April 1513) was an English naval officer. He was the first of the Howards to win fame as an admiral, participating in his first naval battle while in his teens. He was in command during the Battle of Saint-Mathieu, which may have been the first sea battle fought by ships with cannons deployed through ports. He was killed shortly afterwards, leading an assault on galleys in the French fleet near Brest.

paragraph: Section::::Early life.

paragraph: The son of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Surrey (later 2nd Duke of Norfolk) and his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney, and a younger brother of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Howard's date of birth can be determined only approximately, and nothing is known of his early upbringing or education. He began his military career in August 1492 at the age of fifteen under Sir Edward Poynings at the siege of Sluys. In 1497 his father, then Earl of Surrey, was given a command in Scotland and took his sons Thomas and Edward with him. Surrey knighted both Thomas and Edward on 30 September 1497 at Ayton Castle after the signing of a treaty concluding an invasion by James IV of Scotland. In 1503 Howard was among those who escorted Margaret Tudor to Scotland for her marriage to King James IV.

paragraph: King Henry VII died on 21 April 1509. Howard played a prominent role in the tournament held to celebrate the coronation of the new King, Henry VIII, and was appointed the King's standard-bearer on 20 May 1509.

paragraph: Section::::Naval career.

paragraph: Between June and August 1511 Howard was paid over £600 to fit out ships for the conveying of 'merchant aventurers', and both Holinshed and the "Ballad of Andrew Barton" record that in the course of these seafaring operations he and his brother Thomas captured the ships of the Scottish adventurer Andrew Barton. Barton was sailing in his warship "Lion" and the small "Jennet of Purwyn", (which was a captured Danish ship) with a royal Letter of Marque, which was a license to plunder Portuguese ships as a privateer. Both ships were captured and taken to Blackwall. Andrew Barton was killed during their capture.

paragraph: When war with France broke out in April 1512, Howard was appointed Admiral of a fleet of 18 ships sent by the King to keep the seas between Brest and the Thames estuary. Howard seized vessels of various nationalities on the pretext that they were carrying French cargoes. At the beginning of June, he escorted to Brittany the army which Henry was sending to France under the Marquess of Dorset with the hope of recovering Guyenne. Howard then raided Le Conquet and Crozon on the Breton coast. During June and July 1512 Howard effectively controlled the Channel and is said to have captured more than 60 vessels. By August, a French fleet had assembled at Brest. Howard attacked, and in the ensuing Battle of Saint-Mathieu the two largest ships on either side, the Regent and the Marie de la Cordelière, were destroyed when the latter's magazine exploded. Although undefeated, the French retreated. On 10 October the King showed his appreciation by awarding Howard an annuity of 100 marks and the reversion of the office of Lord High Admiral held by the Earl of Oxford.

paragraph: The French King had Prégent de Bidoux bring 6 galleys from the Mediterranean in the late autumn of 1512, and by the end of March 1513 a sizeable French fleet had been mobilized. On 10 March 1513 the Earl of Oxford died, and Howard became Lord Admiral. On 19 March he sailed from the Thames, reaching Plymouth on 5 April. Without waiting for his supply ships, he set out from Plymouth and found the French fleet, which retreated into Brest. Howard lost one ship on a hidden rock, and on 22 April was attacked by Bidoux's galleys, whose heavy guns sank another ship. On 25 April Howard decided to attack the galleys with his smaller boats known as row-barges. Howard led the attack on Bidoux's flagship in person. During the fighting he was forced over the side of the galley and drowned by the weight of his armour. Both his body and his silver whistle, the Lord Admiral's badge of office, were found three days later, and delivered to Bidoux at Le Conquet, who sent the armour as a trophy to Princess Claude, the French King's daughter, and the whistle to Queen Anne.

paragraph: Demoralised by Howard's death and short of supplies, the English fleet retreated to Plymouth, where Howard's brother Thomas took command. The French were unable to exploit Howard's death, and after successful English campaigns in Picardy and Scotland, a truce was agreed on in March 1514.

paragraph: Howard had been elected to the Order of the Garter in 1513, but died before being installed.

paragraph: Section::::Marriages and issue.

paragraph: Howard's first wife was Elizabeth Stapleton, widow of Sir William Calthorpe and Sir John Fortescue. She died on 18 February 1505. Before January 1506 he married Alice (d. 1518), the daughter and heir of William Lovel, Lord Morley, and Eleanor, Baroness Morley, and widow of Sir William Parker. She was 10 or 12 years Howard's senior, and held the barony of Morley in her own right. There were no children of the marriage. When Howard wrote his will in January 1513 he left bequests to two unnamed bastard sons, commending one to the care of the King, and the other to the care of his friend Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. As a younger son, he held only the manor of Morley in Norfolk, which he willed in reversion to his stepson, Henry Parker, after the termination of his widow's life interest.

description: English admiral

wikidata_label: Edward Howard

wikipedia_title: Edward Howard (admiral)


text: polymath

text: Johannes Hevelius

text: Königsberg

text: Duchy of Prussia

text: Kingdom of Poland

text: German

text: Krüger

text: Königsberg

text: Leipzig

text: Wittenberg

text: Tycho Brahe

text: Johannes Kepler

text: Danzig

text: Kingdom of Poland

text: poetry

text: mathematics

text: Danziger Akademikum

text: Johannes Plavius

text: Thirty Years' War

text: Silesia

text: Andreas Gryphius

text: Martin Opitz

text: Johannes Hevelius

text: Danzig

text: Crüger

text: Moon

text: Johannes Hevelius

text: Gelegenheitsdichtung in Danzig

text: Biography of "Peter Krüger (1580-1639)"

categories: German mathematicians,People from Königsberg,Scientific instrument makers,Leipzig University alumni,German male poets,University of Wittenberg alumni,People from the Duchy of Prussia,People from Prussia,1639 deaths,University of Königsberg alumni,German poets,17th-century astronomers,1580 births

paragraph: Peter Crüger

paragraph: Peter Crüger or Peter Krüger (20 October 1580 – 6 June 1639) was a mathematician, astronomer, polymath, and teacher of Johannes Hevelius.

paragraph: Section::::Life.

paragraph: Crüger was born in Königsberg, Duchy of Prussia, a fief of the Kingdom of Poland.

paragraph: In scientific documents published in Latin, his common name "Krüger" (German for "potter" or "innkeeper") was Latinized and spelled "Crüger". (Compared to the frequency of the family name "Krüger", the name "" is relatively uncommon.)

paragraph: Crüger studied at the universities in Königsberg, Leipzig and Wittenberg, graduating from Wittenberg in 1606. Among his teachers were Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. He then moved to the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in the Kingdom of Poland, where he worked for the rest of his life as a professor of poetry and mathematics at the "Danziger Akademikum" (Danzig Academy).

paragraph: As a philosopher and poet, Crüger was associated with the poet Johannes Plavius, who in his "Institutio Poetica" mentions Crüger in the opening letter. Crüger dedicated an extremely laudatory poem to Plavius, which appears in the preface to Plavius' "Praecepta logicalia".

paragraph: At the time of the Thirty Years' War a number of Silesians took refuge in Danzig from the ravages of war in their towns, among them Andreas Gryphius, who, when he studied at the Danzig academy from 1634 to 1636, had Crüger as a teacher and was very much influenced by the famous mathematician and astronomer. Professors Crüger and Mochingert made Gryphius aware of the new style of German-language poetry. Gryphius wrote memorial verses, when in 1638 Crüger's child died. Years earlier Crüger had already developed a great friendship with Martin Opitz, "father of German poetry", who also lived in Danzig.

paragraph: Crüger published treatises on many scientific subjects and contributed to the progress of trigonometry, geography and astronomy, and to the development of astronomical instruments. In the years 1627 to 1630, Crüger was the teacher of a teenager of the Hewelke family who would become known later as Johannes Hevelius, the astronomer. After Hevelius had returned to Danzig in 1634, the dying Crüger appealed to him to pursue astronomy. Hevelius gratefully mentions Crüger in his "Machina coelestis".

paragraph: He died in Danzig.

paragraph: The crater Crüger on the Moon is named after him.

paragraph: Section::::See also.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Johannes Hevelius

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Peter Krüger, a pioneer of trigonometry"

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Peter Krüger, a pioneer of science from old Gdansk"

paragraph: BULLET::::- Gelegenheitsdichtung in Danzig

paragraph: BULLET::::- Biography of "Peter Krüger (1580-1639)"

description: German astronomer and mathematician

wikidata_label: Peter Crüger

wikipedia_title: Peter Crüger


text:
Theban
Siege of Mantinea
Arcadia
Plutarch
Parallel Lives
Marcellus
citadel
Sparta
Athens
oligarchic
boeotarch
battle of Tegyra
Orchomenus
the Sacred Band
battle of Leuctra
Epaminondas
oblique order
Theban hegemony
Thessalians
Alexander of Pherae
Macedon
Philip II
Ptolemy of Aloros
Cynoscephalae

categories: Ancient Theban generals,Military history of ancient Thessaly,Ancient Greek generals,Theban hegemony,364 BC deaths,4th-century BC Greek people,Ancient Greeks killed in battle

paragraph: Pelopidas

paragraph: Pelopidas (; ; died 364 BC) was an important Theban statesman and general in Greece.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.:Athlete and warrior.

paragraph: He was a member of a distinguished family, and possessed great wealth which he expended on his friends, while content to lead the life of an athlete. In 384 BC he served in a Theban contingent sent to the support of the Spartans in the Siege of Mantinea, where he was saved, when dangerously wounded, by the Arcadians.

paragraph: According to Plutarch's Life of Pelopidas (from Plutarch’s Parallel Lives in which Pelopidas‘s life was paired with the life of Marcellus), he ruined his inherited estate by showing constant care for the deserving poor of Thebes, taking pleasure in simple clothing, a sparse diet, and the constant hardships of military life. People said that he was ashamed to spend more on himself than the lowest of the Thebans spent on himself. Once, when friends argued that he needed to care for his finances since he had a wife and children, and that money was a necessary thing, Pelopidas pointed to a blind, crippled pauper named Nicodemus and said, "Yes, necessary for Nicodemus."

paragraph: Upon the seizure of the Theban citadel by the Spartans (383 or 382 BC), he fled to Athens and took the lead in a conspiracy to liberate Thebes. Spartans had kingship in their home and were supportive of oligarchic governments in other cities, and vice versa, cities with oligarchic and not democratic political system supported Sparta. In 379 BC his party (the democratic) surprised and killed their chief political opponents in Thebes (members of the aristocratic party that supported the Spartans), and roused the people against the Spartan garrison, which surrendered to an army gathered by Pelopidas.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.:Boeotarch.

paragraph: In this and subsequent years he was elected "boeotarch", and about 375 BC he routed a much larger Spartan force at the battle of Tegyra (near Orchomenus). This victory he owed mainly to the valour of the Sacred Band, an elite corps of 300 seasoned soldiers. At the battle of Leuctra (371 BC) he contributed greatly to the success of Epaminondas's new tactics by the rapidity with which he made the Sacred Band close with the Spartans. Epaminondas, an intuitive and genius general, used at Leuctra for the first time the oblique order, in which a local superiority of numbers can be used to defeat a superior force; then, by winning in detail, one can hope to win in the whole. After the battle at Leuctra Thebes became the strongest city of Greece and Sparta withdrew as a leading city.

paragraph: In 370 BC he accompanied his close friend Epaminondas as "boeotarch" into the Peloponnesus in order to humiliate Sparta even more. On their return, both generals were accused, unsuccessfully, of having retained their command beyond the legal term. In fact, the democrats and some aristocrats of Thebes acknowledged that Pelopidas and Epaminondas were the two most capable and important personalities of their city. Both were trying to establish a state that would unite Greece under the Theban hegemony.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.:Thessalian campaign and death.

paragraph: In 369 BC, in response to a petition of the Thessalians, Pelopidas was sent with an army against Alexander of Pherae. After driving Alexander out, he passed into Macedon and arbitrated between two claimants to the throne. In order to secure the influence of Thebes, he brought home hostages, including the king's brother, afterwards Philip II. Philip learned there many tactics of the southern Greeks, both in politics and in war.

paragraph: Next year Pelopidas was again called upon to interfere in Macedonia, but, being deserted by his mercenaries, was compelled to make an agreement with Ptolemy of Aloros. On his return through Thessaly he was seized by Alexander of Pherae, and two expeditions from Thebes were needed to secure his release.

paragraph: In 367 BC Pelopidas went on an embassy to the Persian king and induced him to prescribe a settlement of Greece according to the wishes of the Thebans. In 364 BC he received another appeal from the Thessalian towns against Alexander of Pherae. Though an eclipse of the sun prevented his bringing with him more than a handful of troops, he overthrew the tyrant's far superior force on the ridge of Cynoscephalae. However, wishing to slay Alexander with his own hand, he rushed forward too eagerly and was cut down by the tyrant’s guards.

description: Ancient Theban general

wikidata_label: Pelopidas

wikipedia_title: Pelopidas


text:
ancient Greek
Aglaophon
Thasos
Cimon
Troy
Stoa Poikile
Leucippus
Anacaeum
Plutarch
Melanthius
Acropolis
Lesche of the Knidians
Delphi
Cnidus
Hades
Odysseus
Pausanias
Pheidias
Pausanias
Loeb Classical Library

categories: Ancient Greek painters,Metics in Classical Athens,Artists of ancient Thasos,5th-century BC Greek people

paragraph: Polygnotus

paragraph: Polygnotus ( "Polygnotos") was an ancient Greek painter from the middle of the 5th century BC.

paragraph: Section::::Life.

paragraph: He was the son and pupil of Aglaophon. He was a native of Thasos, but was adopted by the Athenians, and admitted to their citizenship.

paragraph: During the time of Cimon, Polygnotus painted for the Athenians a picture of the taking of Troy on the walls of the Stoa Poikile, and another of the marriage of the daughters of Leucippus in the Anacaeum. Plutarch mentions that historians and the poet Melanthius attest that Polygnotus did not paint for the money but rather out of a charitable feeling towards the Athenian people. In the hall at the entrance to the Acropolis other works of his were preserved. The most important of his paintings were his frescoes in the Lesche of the Knidians, a building erected at Delphi by the people of Cnidus. The subjects of these were the visit to Hades by Odysseus and the taking of Troy.

paragraph: The traveller Pausanias recorded a careful description of these paintings, figure by figure. The foundations of the building have been recovered in the course of the French excavations at Delphi. From this evidence, some archaeologists have tried to reconstruct the paintings, other than their colours. The figures were detached and seldom overlapping, ranged in two or three rows one above another; and the farther were not smaller nor dimmer than the nearer. Therefore, it seems that the paintings of this time were executed on almost precisely the same plan as contemporary sculptural reliefs.

paragraph: Polygnotus employed only a few simple colours. Technically his art was primitive. His excellence lay in the beauty of his drawing of individual figures, especially in the "ethical" and ideal character of his art. A contemporary and perhaps teacher of Pheidias, Polygnotus had the same grand manner. Simplicity, which was almost childlike, sentiment at once noble and gentle, extreme grace and charm of execution, marked his works, in contrast to the more animated, complicated and technically superior paintings of later ages.

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: Section::::References.:Bibliography.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Pausanias, "Description of Greece". W. H. S. Jones (translator). Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. (1918).

description: ancient Greek painter

wikidata_label: Polygnotus of Thasos

wikipedia_title: Polygnotus


text: Theban

text: general

text: Ancient Greek

text: city-state

text: Thebes

text: Sparta

text: Leuctra

text: Messenia

text: helots

text: Peloponnesia

text: Cicero

text: Montaigne

text: Alexander the Great

text: city-state

text: Macedon

text: Philip II of Macedon

text: Pelopidas

text: loss

text: Plutarch

text: Parallel Lives

text: Scipio Africanus

text: Agesilaus II

text: Cornelius Nepos

text: Xenophon

text: Thucydides

text: History of the Peloponnesian War

text: Xenophon

text: Battle of Leuctra

text: Diodorus Siculus

text: Bibliotheca historica

text: Lysis of Tarentum

text: Pythagorean

text: Mantinea

text: First Battle of Mantinea

text: Pelopidas

text: Agesipolis

text: Sacred Band

text: Peloponnesian War

text: unilateral

text: Boeotia

text: Athens

text: Corinth

text: Argos

text: Corinthian War

text: Phoebidas

text: Cadmeia

text: acropolis

text: Gorgidas

text: hoplite

text: Cleombrotus I

text: Agesilaus II

text: Boeotarch

text: Laconia

text: Phocis

text: trireme

text: Leuctra

text: Thespiae

text: hoplite

text: Spartiate

text: Sacred Band

text: phalanx formation

text: Spartiate

text: Pagondas

text: Battle of Delium

text: Spartan dominance

text: Spartiates

text: Jason of Pherae

text: Orchomenus

text: one of their own

text: Delian League

text: Elis

text: Mantinea

text: Tegea

text: Arcadia

text: Megalopolis

text: Laconia

text: Evrotas River

text: Gythium

text: perioeci

text: Messenia

text: Messene

text: Ithome

text: helot

text: Corinth

text: Megara

text: Pellenians

text: Troezen

text: Epidaurus

text: Dionysius of Syracuse

text: Alexander of Pherae

text: Achaea

text: Artaxerxes II

text: Epidaurus

text: Phlius

text: Rhodes

text: Chios

text: Byzantium

text: Alexander of Pherae

text: Tegea

text: Archidamus

text: Anticrates

text: Gryllus, son of Xenophon

text: said

text: last words

text: Persia

text: bribe

text: young male lovers

text: eromenoi

text: Pelopidas

text: Timotheus

text: Conon

text: Chabrias

text: Iphicrates

text: Agesilaus

text: Solon

text: Themistocles

text: Miltiades

text: Cimon

text: Myronides

text: Pericles

text: Gelo

text: Philip II

text: Alexander the Great

text: Philip of Macedon

text: Spartan hegemony

text: Chaeronea

text: Alexander the Great

text: Cicero

text: Megalopolis

text: Victor Davis Hanson

text: Simon Hornblower

text: Atheneus

text: Deipnosophistae

text: Cornelius Nepos

text: Epaminondas

text: Diodorus Siculus

text: Bibliotheca Historica

text: Pausanias

text: Description of Greece

text: Plutarch

text: Parallel Lives

text: "Man against History: Epaminondas and Thebes"

categories: 362 BC deaths,Ancient Theban generals,LGBT people from Greece,Ancient LGBT people,Ancient Greek statesmen,Ancient Greek generals,4th-century BC Greek people,Ancient Greeks killed in battle

paragraph: Epaminondas

paragraph: Epaminondas (; , "Epameinondas"; d. 362 BC) was a Theban general and statesman of the 4th century BC who transformed the Ancient Greek city-state of Thebes, leading it out of Spartan subjugation into a pre-eminent position in Greek politics. In the process he broke Spartan military power with his victory at Leuctra and liberated the Messenian helots, a group of Peloponnesian Greeks who had been enslaved under Spartan rule for some 230 years after being defeated in the Messenian War ending in 600 BC. Epaminondas reshaped the political map of Greece, fragmented old alliances, created new ones, and supervised the construction of entire cities. He was also militarily influential and invented and implemented several major battlefield tactics.

paragraph: Cicero called him "the first man of Greece", and Montaigne judged him one of the three "worthiest and most excellent men" that had ever lived, but Epaminondas has fallen into relative obscurity in modern times. The changes Epaminondas wrought on the Greek political order did not long outlive him, as the cycle of shifting hegemonies and alliances continued unabated. A mere twenty-seven years after his death, a recalcitrant Thebes was obliterated by Alexander the Great. Thus Epaminondas—who had been praised in his time as an idealist and liberator—is today largely remembered for a decade (371 BC to 362 BC) of campaigning that sapped the strength of the great city-states and paved the way for the Macedonian conquest.

paragraph: Section::::Historical sources.

paragraph: The life of Epaminondas is very poorly attested in the ancient sources, especially compared to some of his near contemporaries (e.g. Philip II of Macedon, Pelopidas). One principal reason for this is the loss of Plutarch's biography of him. Epaminondas was one of approximately 50 ancient figures given an extensive biography by Plutarch in his "Parallel Lives", in which he is paired with the Roman statesman Scipio Africanus; however, both these ""Lives"" are now lost. Plutarch was writing over 400 years after Epaminondas's death and is therefore very much a secondary source, but he often explicitly names his sources, which allows some degree of verification of his statements.

paragraph: Some episodes of Epaminondas's life can be found in Plutarch's ""Lives"" of Pelopidas and Agesilaus II, who were contemporaries. There is also a surviving (and possibly abridged) biography of Epaminondas by the Roman author Cornelius Nepos from the first century BC which, in the absence of Plutarch's, becomes a major source for Epaminondas's life.

paragraph: The period of Greek history from 411–362 BC is primarily attested by the historian Xenophon, who evidently saw his work as continuation of Thucydides's "History of the Peloponnesian War". Xenophon, who idolized Sparta and its king, Agesilaus, avoids mentioning Epaminondas wherever possible and does not even note his presence at the Battle of Leuctra. Epaminondas's role in the conflicts of the 4th century is also described by Diodorus Siculus, in his "Bibliotheca historica". Diodorus was writing in the 1st century BC, and is also very much a secondary source, though useful for corroborating details found elsewhere.

paragraph: Section::::Early life.

paragraph: Epaminondas was born into the Theban aristocracy in the late 5th century BC; estimates for the year of his birth vary widely. Cornelius Nepos claims that his father, Polymnis, had been left impoverished by his ancestors. He was educated in his childhood by Lysis of Tarentum, one of the last major Pythagorean philosophers. Epaminondas excelled as a student, and was devoted to Lysis. Nepos also tells us that the young Epaminondas worked hard to increase his physical prowess, and specifically his agility, since "he thought that strength suited the purposes of wrestlers, but that agility conduced to excellence in war." He also trained in running and wrestling, but most of all, he undertook "martial exercises" (presumably training with weapons).

paragraph: Epaminondas began serving as a soldier after adolescence; Plutarch refers to an incident involving Epaminondas that occurred during a battle at Mantinea. Though not explicitly stated, this was probably the Spartan attack on Mantinea in 385 BC, as described by Xenophon; Plutarch tells us that Epaminondas was there as part of a Theban force aiding the Spartans, so this battle fits the description. Epaminondas was certainly not old enough to have served at the First Battle of Mantinea which was in 418 BC.

paragraph: It was at this battle, regardless of exactly when and where this occurred, that a defining moment of Epaminondas's early life would happen. Epaminondas saved the life of his fellow Theban Pelopidas; Pelopidas, after receiving seven wounds in front, sank down upon a great heap of friends and enemies who lay dead together; but Epaminondas, although he thought him lifeless, stood forth to defend his body and his arms, and fought desperately, single-handed against many, determined to die rather than leave Pelopidas lying there. And now he too was in a sorry plight, having been wounded in the breast with a spear and in the arm with a sword, when Agesipolis the Spartan king came to his aid from the other wing, and when all hope was lost, saved them both. Plutarch says that this incident firmly cemented their friendship, and Pelopidas would be Epaminondas's partner in politics for the next twenty years.

paragraph: Epaminondas was considered the greatest warrior-statesmen of ancient Thebes by many, including the Roman historian Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus does not have anything to say about the sexual orientation of Epaminondas or the Sacred Band, nor does he say anything about the following account, again from Plutarch (Amatorius 17). According to Plutarch's dramatic dialogue, Epaminondas had two male lovers: Asopichus and Caphisodorus; the latter died with him at Mantineia in battle. They were buried together, something usually reserved for a husband and wife in Greek society.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Background.

paragraph: Epaminondas lived at a particularly turbulent point in Greek history. Following the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC, Sparta had embarked upon an aggressively unilateralist policy towards the rest of Greece and quickly alienated many of its former allies. Thebes, meanwhile, had greatly increased its own power during the war and sought to gain control of the other cities of Boeotia (the region of ancient Greece northwest of Attica). This policy, along with other disputes, brought Thebes into conflict with Sparta. By 395 BC, Thebes, alongside Athens, Corinth, and Argos, found itself arrayed against Sparta (a former ally) in the Corinthian War. That war, which dragged on inconclusively for eight years, saw several bloody Theban defeats at Spartan hands. By the time of its conclusion, Thebes had been forced to check its expansionist ambitions and return to its old alliance with Sparta.

paragraph: In 382 BC, however, the Spartan commander Phoebidas committed an act that would ultimately turn Thebes against Sparta for good and pave the way for Epaminondas's rise to power. Passing through Boeotia on campaign, Phoebidas took advantage of civil strife within Thebes to secure entrance to the city for his troops. Once inside, he seized the Cadmeia (the Theban acropolis), and forced the anti-Spartan party to flee the city. Epaminondas, although associated with that faction, was allowed to remain; since "his philosophy made him to be looked down upon as a recluse, and his poverty as impotent". The Spartans installed a puppet government in Thebes, and garrisoned the Cadmeia to ensure the behaviour of the Thebans.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Early career.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Early career.:378 BC – Theban coup.

paragraph: In the years following the Spartan takeover, the exiled Thebans regrouped in Athens and, at the instigation of Pelopidas, prepared to liberate their city. Meanwhile, in Thebes, Epaminondas began preparing the young men of the city to fight the Spartans. In the winter of 379 BC, a small group of the exiles, led by Pelopidas, infiltrated the city. They then assassinated the leaders of the pro-Spartan government, and supported by Epaminondas and Gorgidas, who led a group of young men, and a force of Athenian hoplites, they surrounded the Spartans on the Cadmeia. The following day, Epaminondas and Gorgidas brought Pelopidas and his men before the Theban assembly and exhorted the Thebans to fight for their freedom; the assembly responded by acclaiming Pelopidas and his men as liberators. The Cadmeia was surrounded, and the Spartans attacked; Pelopidas realised that they must be expelled before an army came from Sparta to relieve them. The Spartan garrison eventually surrendered on the condition that they were allowed to march away unharmed. The narrow margin of the conspirators' success is demonstrated by the fact that the Spartan garrison met a Spartan force on the way to rescue them as they marched back to Sparta. Plutarch portrays the Theban coup as an immensely significant event: ...the subsequent change in the political situation made this exploit the more glorious. For the war which broke down the pretensions of Sparta and put an end to her supremacy by land and sea, began from that night, in which people, not by surprising any fort or castle or citadel, but by coming into a private house with eleven others, loosed and broke in pieces, if the truth may be expressed in a metaphor, the fetters of the Lacedaemonian supremacy, which were thought indissoluble and not to be broken.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Early career.:378–371 BC – Aftermath.

paragraph: When news of the uprising at Thebes reached Sparta, an army under Cleombrotus I had been dispatched to subdue the city, but turned back without engaging the Thebans. Another army under Agesilaus II was then dispatched to attack the Thebans. However, the Thebans refused to meet the Spartan army in battle, instead building a trench and stockade outside Thebes, which they occupied, preventing the Spartans advancing on the city. The Spartans ravaged the countryside but eventually departed, leaving Thebes independent. This victory so heartened the Thebans that they undertook operations against other neighboring cities as well. In short order the Thebans were able to reconstitute their old Boeotian confederacy in a new, democratic form. The cities of Boeotia united as a federation with an executive body composed of seven generals, or Boeotarchs, elected from seven districts throughout Boeotia. This political fusion was so successful that henceforth the names "Theban" and "Boeotian" were used interchangeably in a nod to the newfound solidarity of the region.

paragraph: Seeking to crush the Thebans, the Spartans would invade Boeotia three times over the next few years (378, 377, ? possibly Leuctra). At first the Thebans feared facing the Spartans head on, but the conflict gave them much practice and training, and they "had their spirits roused and their bodies thoroughly inured to hardships, and gained experience and courage from their constant struggles". Although Sparta remained the dominant land power in Greece, the Boeotians had demonstrated that they, too, were a martial threat and a politically cohesive power. At the same time, Pelopidas, an advocate of an aggressive policy against Sparta, had established himself as a major political leader in Thebes.

paragraph: Epaminondas's role in the years to 371 BC is difficult to piece together. Certainly, he served with the Theban armies in the defence of Boeotia in the 370s, and, by 371 BC, he had become a Boeotarch. It seems safe to assume, given their close friendship, and their close collaboration after 371 BC, that Epaminondas and Pelopidas also collaborated closely on Theban policy in the period 378–371 BC.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Early career.:Peace conference of 371 BC.

paragraph: The years following the Theban coup had seen desultory fighting between Sparta and Thebes, with Athens also drawn into the conflict. A feeble attempt at a common peace had been made in 375 BC, but desultory fighting between Athens and Sparta had resumed by 373 BC (at the latest). By 371 BC, Athens and Sparta were again war-weary, and in 371 BC a conference was held at Sparta to discuss another attempt at a common peace.

paragraph: Epaminondas was serving as a Boeotarch for 371 BC, and led the Boeotian delegation to the peace conference. Peace terms were agreed at the outset of the conference, and the Thebans presumably signed the treaty in their own name alone. However, on the following day, Epaminondas caused a drastic break with Sparta when he insisted on signing not for the Thebans alone, but for all the Boeotians. Agesilaus refused to allow the change of the Theban envoys' signature, insisting that the cities of Boeotia should be independent; Epaminondas countered that if this were to be the case, the cities of Laconia should be as well. Irate, Agesilaus struck the Thebans from the document. The delegation returned to Thebes, and both sides mobilized for war.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Early career.:Battle of Leuctra (371 BC).

paragraph: Immediately following the failure of the peace talks, orders were sent out from Sparta to the Spartan king Cleombrotus, who was at the head of an army in Phocis, commanding him to march directly to Boeotia. Skirting north to avoid mountain passes where the Boeotians were prepared to ambush him, Cleombrotus entered Boeotian territory from an unexpected direction and quickly seized a fort and captured 10 or 12 triremes. Then marching towards Thebes, he camped at Leuctra, in the territory of Thespiae. Here, the Boeotian army came to meet him. The Spartan army contained some 10,000 hoplites, 700 of whom were the elite warriors known as Spartiates. The Boeotians opposite them numbered about 6,000, but were bolstered by a cavalry superior to that of the Peloponnesians.

paragraph: Epaminondas was given charge of the Boeotian army, with the other six Boeotarchs in an advisory capacity. Pelopidas, meanwhile, was captain of the Sacred Band, the elite Theban troops. Before the battle, there was evidently much debate amongst the Boeotarchs about whether to fight or not. As a consistent advocate of an aggressive policy, Epaminondas wished to fight, and supported by Pelopidas, he managed to swing the vote in favour of battle. During the course of the battle, Epaminondas was to display a grasp of tactics hitherto unseen in Greek warfare.

paragraph: The phalanx formation used by Greek armies had a distinct tendency to veer to the right during battle, "because fear makes each man do his best to shelter his unarmed side with the shield of the man next him on the right". Traditionally, a phalanx therefore lined up for battle with the elite troops on the right flank to counter this tendency. Thus, in the Spartan phalanx at Leuctra, Cleombrotus and the elite 'Spartiates' were on the right, while the less experienced Peloponnesian allies were on the left. However, needing to counter the Spartans' numerical advantage, Epaminondas implemented two tactical innovations. Firstly, he took the best troops in the army, and arranged them 50 ranks deep (as opposed to the normal 8–12 ranks) on the "left" wing, opposite Cleombrotus and the Spartans, with Pelopidas and the Sacred Band on the extreme left flank. Secondly, recognizing, that he could not have matched the width of the Peloponnesian phalanx (even before the deepening the left flank), he abandoned all attempts to do so. Instead, placing the weaker troops on the right flank, he "instructed them to avoid battle and withdraw gradually during the enemy's attack". The tactic of the deep phalanx had been anticipated by Pagondas, another Theban general, who used a 25 man deep formation at the Battle of Delium. However, the reversing of the position of the elite troops, and an oblique line of attack were innovations; it seems that Epaminondas was therefore responsible for the military tactic of refusing one's flank.

paragraph: The fighting at Leuctra opened with a clash between the cavalry, in which the Thebans were victorious over the inferior Spartan cavalry, driving them back into the ranks of the infantry, and thereby disrupting the phalanx. The battle then became general, with the strengthened Theban left flank marching to attack at double speed, while the right flank retreated. After intense fighting, the Spartan right flank began to give way under the impetus of the mass of Thebans, and Cleombrotus was killed. Although the Spartans held on for long enough to rescue the body of the king, their line was soon broken by the sheer force of the Theban assault. The Peloponnesian allies on the left wing, seeing the Spartans put to flight, also broke and ran, and the entire army retreated in disarray. One thousand Peloponnesians were killed, while the Boeotians lost only 300 men. Most importantly, since it constituted a significant proportion of the entire Spartan manpower, 400 of the 700 Spartiates present were killed, a loss that posed a serious threat to Sparta's future war-making abilities. When, after the battle, the Spartans asked if they and the Peloponnesians could collect the dead, Epaminondas suspected that the Spartans would try to cover-up the scale of their losses. He therefore allowed the Peloponnesians to remove their dead first, so that those remaining would be shown to be Spartiates, and emphasise the scale of the Theban victory.

paragraph: The victory at Leuctra shook the foundations of the Spartan dominance of Greece to the core. Since the number of Spartiates was always relatively small, Sparta had relied on her allies in order to field substantial armies. However, with the defeat at Leuctra, the Peloponnesian allies were less inclined to bow to Spartan demands. Furthermore, with the loss of men at Leuctra and other battles, the Spartans were not in a strong position to reassert their dominance over their erstwhile allies.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Theban hegemony.

paragraph: In the immediate aftermath of Leuctra, the Thebans considered following up their victory by taking their vengeance on Sparta; they also invited Athens to join them in doing so. However, their Thessalian allies under Jason of Pherae dissuaded them from shattering what remained of the Spartan army. Instead, Epaminondas occupied himself with consolidating the Boeotian confederacy, compelling the previously Spartan-aligned polis of Orchomenus to join the league.

paragraph: The following year the Thebans invaded the Peloponnesus, aiming to break Spartan power for good. It is not clear exactly when the Thebans started to think not just of ending the Spartan hegemony, but of replacing it with one of their own, but it is clear that eventually this became their aim. Hans Beck asserts that, unlike Sparta in the Peloponnesian League and Athens in the Delian League, Thebes made no effort either to create an empire or to bind its allies in any sort of permanent and stable organization. Indeed, after Leuctra Thebes devoted its attention to diplomatic efforts in Central Greece rather than schemes of domination further afield. By late 370 Thebes' network of alliances in central Greece made her secure in the area—as she had not been before Leuctra—and offered scope for further expansion of Theban influence.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Theban hegemony.:First Invasion of the Peloponnese (370 BC).

paragraph: When, in the immediate aftermath of Leuctra, the Thebans had sent a herald to Athens with news of their victory, the messenger was met with stony silence. The Athenians then decided to take advantage of the Spartan discomfiture, holding a conference in Athens, in which the peace terms proposed earlier in 371 BC were ratified by all cities (except Elis); and this time, the treaty explicitly made the Peloponnesian cities, formerly under Spartan dominance, independent. Taking advantage of this, the Mantineans decided to unify their settlements into a single city, and to fortify it; a decision which greatly angered Agesilaus. Furthermore, Tegea, supported by Mantinea, instigated the formation of an Arcadian alliance. This led to the Spartans declaring war on Mantinea, whereupon the majority of Arcadian cities grouped together to oppose the Spartans (thus forming the confederation that the Spartans were trying to prevent), and requested assistance from the Thebans. The Theban force arrived late in 370 BC, and it was led by Epaminondas and Pelopidas, both at this time Boeotarchs. As they journeyed into Arcadia, the Thebans were joined by armed contingents from many of Sparta's former allies, swelling their forces to some 50–70,000 men. In Arcadia Epaminondas encouraged the Arcadians to form their proposed league, and to build the new city of Megalopolis (as a center of power opposed to Sparta).

paragraph: Epaminondas, supported by Pelopidas and the Arcadians, then persuaded the other Boeotarchs to invade Laconia itself. Moving south, they crossed the Evrotas River, the frontier of Sparta, which no hostile army had breached in memory. The Spartans, unwilling to engage the massive army in battle, simply defended their city, which the Thebans did not attempt to capture. The Thebans and their allies ravaged Laconia, down to the port of Gythium, freeing some of the Lacedaemonian perioeci from their allegiance to Sparta. Epaminondas briefly returned to Arcadia, before marching south again, this time to Messenia, a region which the Spartans had conquered some 200 years before. Epaminondas freed the helots of Messenia, and rebuilt the ancient city of Messene on Mount Ithome, with fortifications that were among the strongest in Greece. He then issued a call to Messenian exiles all over Greece to return and rebuild their homeland. The loss of Messenia was particularly damaging to the Spartans, since the territory comprised one-third of Sparta's territory and contained half of their helot population. The helots' labor allowed the Spartans to become a "full-time" army.

paragraph: Epaminondas' campaign of 370/369 has been described as an example of "the grand strategy of indirect approach", which was aimed at severing "the economic roots of her [Sparta's] military supremacy." In mere months, Epaminondas had created two new enemy states that opposed Sparta, shaken the foundations of Sparta's economy, and all but devastated Sparta's prestige. This accomplished, he led his army back home, victorious.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Theban hegemony.:Trial.

paragraph: In order to accomplish all that he wished in the Peloponnesus, Epaminondas had persuaded his fellow Boeotarchs to remain in the field for several months after their term of office had expired. Upon his return home, Epaminondas was therefore greeted not with a hero's welcome but with a trial arranged by his political enemies. According to Cornelius Nepos, in his defense Epaminondas merely requested that, if he be executed, the inscription regarding the verdict read: Epaminondas was punished by the Thebans with death, because he obliged them to overthrow the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, whom, before he was general, none of the Boeotians durst look upon in the field, and because he not only, by one battle, rescued Thebes from destruction, but also secured liberty for all Greece, and brought the power of both people to such a condition, that the Thebans attacked Sparta, and the Lacedaemonians were content if they could save their lives; nor did he cease to prosecute the war, till, after settling Messene, he shut up Sparta with a close siege. The jury broke into laughter, the charges were dropped, and Epaminondas was re-elected as Boeotarch for the next year.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Theban hegemony.:Second invasion of the Peloponnesus (369 BC).

paragraph: In 369 BC the Argives, Eleans and the Arcadians, eager to continue their war against Sparta, recalled the Thebans to their support. Epaminondas, at the height of his prestige, again commanded an allied invasion force. Arriving at the Isthmus of Corinth, the Thebans found it heavily guarded by the Spartans and Athenians (along with the Corinthians, Megarans and Pellenians). Epaminondas decided to attack the weakest spot, guarded by the Lacedaemonians; in a dawn attack he forced his way through the Spartan position, and joined his Peloponnesian allies. The Thebans thus won an easy victory and crossed the Isthmus. Diodorus stresses that this was "a feat no whit inferior to his former mighty deeds".

paragraph: However, the rest of the expedition achieved little: Sicyon and Pellene became allied to Thebes, and the countryside of Troezen and Epidaurus was ravaged, but the cities could not be taken. After an abortive attack on Corinth and the arrival of a task force sent by Dionysius of Syracuse to aid Sparta, the Thebans decided to march home.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Theban hegemony.:Thessaly (368 BC).

paragraph: When Epaminondas returned to Thebes, he continued to be dogged by his political enemies who prosecuted him for the second time. They actually succeeded in excluding him from the office of Boeotarch for the year 368 BC. This was the only time from the Battle of Leuctra until his death that he did not serve as Boeotarch. In 368, the Theban army marched into Thessaly to rescue Pelopidas and Ismenias, who had been imprisoned by Alexander of Pherae while serving as ambassadors. The Theban force not only failed to overcome Alexander and his allies, but got into serious difficulties, when it tried to withdraw; Epaminondas, serving as a private soldier, succeeded in extricating it. In early 367, Epaminondas led a second Theban expedition to free Pelopidas, and Ismenias. He finally outmanoeuvred the Thessalians, and secured the release of the two Theban ambassadors without a fight.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Theban hegemony.:Third invasion of the Peloponnesus (367 BC).

paragraph: In the spring of 367 BC, Epaminondas again invaded the Peloponnesus. This time an Argive army captured part of the Isthmus on Epaminondas's request, allowing the Theban army to enter the Peloponnesus unhindered. On this occasion, Epaminondas marched to Achaea, seeking to secure their allegiance to Thebes. No army dared to challenge him in the field, and the Achaean oligarchies therefore acquiesced to the request that they be allied to Thebes. Epaminondas' acceptance of the Achaean oligarchies roused protests by both the Arcadians and his political rivals, and his settlement was thus shortly reversed: democracies were set up, and the oligarchs exiled. These democratic governments were short-lived, since the pro-Spartan aristocrats from all the cities banded together and attacked each city in turn, re-establishing the oligarchies. According to G.L. Cawkwell, "the sequel perhaps showed the good sense of Epaminondas. When these exiles recovered the cities, they 'no longer took a middle course'." In the light of their treatment by Thebes, they abandoned their previously neutral stance, and thereafter "fought zealously in support of the Lacedaemonians".

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Theban hegemony.:Resistance to Thebes.

paragraph: In 366/365 BC an attempt was made to make a common peace, with the Persian King Artaxerxes II as arbiter and guarantor. Thebes organized a conference to have the terms of the peace accepted, but their diplomatic initiative failed: the negotiations could not resolve the hostility between Thebes and other states that resented its influence (such as the Arcadian leader Lycomedes who challenged the right of the Thebans to hold the congress in Thebes); the peace was never fully accepted, and fighting soon resumed.

paragraph: Throughout the decade after the Battle of Leuctra, numerous former allies of Thebes defected to the Spartan alliance or even to alliances with other hostile states. By the middle of the next decade, even some Arcadians (whose league Epaminondas had helped establish in 369 BC) had turned against them. At the same time, however, Epaminondas managed through a series of diplomatic efforts to dismantle the Peloponnesian league: the remaining members of the league finally abandoned Sparta (in 365 Corinth, Epidaurus, and Phlius made peace with Thebes and Argos), and Messenia remained independent and firmly loyal to Thebes.

paragraph: Boeotian armies campaigned across Greece as opponents rose up on all sides; Epaminondas even led his state in a challenge to Athens at sea. The Theban demos voted him a fleet of a hundred triremes to win over Rhodes, Chios, and Byzantium. The fleet finally sailed in 364, but modern scholars believe that Epaminondas achieved no lasting gains for Thebes on this voyage. In that same year, Pelopidas was killed while campaigning against Alexander of Pherae in Thessaly. His loss deprived Epaminondas of his greatest Theban political ally.

paragraph: Section::::Political and military career.:Theban hegemony.:Fourth invasion of the Peloponnesus (362 BC).

paragraph: In the face of this increasing opposition to Theban dominance, Epaminondas launched his final expedition into the Peloponnese in 362 BC. The immediate goal of the expedition was to subdue Mantinea, which had been opposing Theban influence in the region. Epaminondas brought an army drawn from Boeotia, Thessaly and Euboea. He was joined by Tegea, which was the center of local opposition to Mantinea, Argos, Messenia, and some of the Arcadians. Mantinea, on the other hand, had requested assistance from Sparta, Athens, Achaea and the rest of Arcadia, so that almost all of Greece was represented on one side or the other.

paragraph: This time the mere presence of the Theban army was not enough to cow the opposition. Since time was passing and the Mantinean alliance showed no signs of capsizing, Epaminondas decided that he would have to break the stalemate. Hearing that a large Lacedaemonian force was marching to Mantinea, and that Sparta was practically undefended, he planned an audacious night-time march on Sparta itself. However, the Spartan king Archidamus was alerted to this move by an informant, probably a Cretan runner, and Epaminondas arrived to find the city well-defended. Although he did attack the city, he seems to have drawn off relatively quickly on discovering that he had not, after all, surprised the Spartans. Furthermore, the Lacedaemonian and Mantinean troops which had been stationed at Mantinea had marched to Sparta during the course of the day, and dissuaded Epaminondas from attacking again. Now hoping that his adversaries had left Mantinea defenseless in their haste to protect Sparta, Epaminondas counter marched his troops back to his base at Tegea, and then dispatched his cavalry to Mantinea. However, a clash outside the walls of Mantinea with Athenian cavalry foiled this strategy as well. Realising that the time allotted for the campaign was drawing to a close, and reasoning that if he departed without defeating the enemies of Tegea, Theban influence in the Peloponnesus would be destroyed, he decided to stake everything on a pitched battle.

paragraph: What followed on the plain in front of Mantinea was the largest hoplite battle in Greek history. Epaminondas had the larger army, 30,000 strong infantry and 3,000 cavalry, whilst his opponents numbered 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry. Xenophon says that, having decided to fight, Epaminondas arranged the army into battle order, and then marched it in a column "parallel" to the Mantinean lines, so that it appeared that the army was marching elsewhere, and would not fight that day. Having reached a certain point in the march, he then had the army down arms, so it appeared they getting ready to camp. Xenophon suggests that "by so doing he caused among most of the enemy a relaxation of their mental readiness for fighting, and likewise a relaxation of their readiness as regards their array for battle". The whole column, which had been marching right-to-left past the front of the Mantinean army then 'right-faced', so that they were now in a battle line, facing the Mantineans. Epaminondas, who had been at the head of the column (now the left wing), brought some companies of infantry from the extreme right wing, behind the battle line, to reinforce the left wing. By this, he recreated the strengthened left-wing that Thebes had fielded at Leuctra (this time probably made up by all the Boeotians, and not just the Thebans as at Leuctra). On the wings he placed strong forces of cavalry strengthened by light-infantry.

paragraph: Epaminondas then gave the order to advance, catching the enemy off guard, and causing a furious scramble in the Mantinean camp to prepare for battle. The battle unfolded as Epaminondas had planned. The cavalry forces on the wings drove back the Athenian and Mantinean cavalry opposite them. Diodorus says that the Athenian cavalry on the Mantinean right wing, although not inferior in quality, could not withstand the missiles from the light-troops that Epaminondas had placed among the Theban cavalry. Meanwhile, the Theban infantry advanced. Xenophon evocatively describes Epaminondas's thinking: "[he] led forward his army prow on, like a trireme, believing that if he could strike and cut through anywhere, he would destroy the entire army of his adversaries." As at Leuctra, the weakened right wing was ordered to hold back and avoid fighting. In the clash of infantry, the issue briefly hung in the balance, but then the Theban left-wing broke through the Spartan line, and the entire enemy phalanx was put to flight. However, at the height of the battle, Epaminondas was mortally wounded by a Spartan, and died shortly thereafter. Following his death, the Thebes and allies made no effort to pursue the fleeing enemy; a testament to Epaminondas's centrality to the war effort.

paragraph: Xenophon, who ends his history with the battle of Mantinea, says of the battle's results: When these things had taken place, the opposite of what all men believed would happen was brought to pass. For since well-nigh all the people of Greece had come together and formed themselves in opposing lines, there was no one who did not suppose that if a battle were fought, those who proved victorious would be the rulers and those who were defeated would be their subjects; but the deity so ordered it that both parties set up a trophy as though victorious and neither tried to hinder those who set them up, that both gave back the dead under a truce as though victorious, and both received back their dead under a truce as though defeated, and that while each party claimed to be victorious, neither was found to be any better off, as regards either additional territory, or city, or sway, than before the battle took place; but there was even more confusion and disorder in Greece after the battle than before.

paragraph: Section::::Death.

paragraph: While pressing forward with the troops at Mantinea, Epaminondas was hit in the chest by a spear (or, in some accounts, a sword or large knife). Cornelius Nepos suggests the Spartans were deliberately aiming at Epaminondas in the hope of killing him, and thereby demoralizing the Thebans. The enemy who struck the killing blow was variously identified as Anticrates, Machaerion, or Gryllus, son of Xenophon.

paragraph: The spear broke, leaving the iron point in his body, and Epaminondas collapsed. The Thebans around him fought desperately to stop the Spartans taking possession of his body. When he was carried back to camp still living, he asked which side was victorious. When he was told that the Boeotians had won, he said "It is time to die." Diodorus suggests that one of his friends exclaimed "You die childless, Epaminondas" and then burst into tears. To this Epaminondas is supposed to have replied "No, by Zeus, on the contrary I leave behind two daughters, Leuctra and Mantinea, my victories." Cornelius Nepos, whose story is otherwise similar has the last words of Epaminondas as "I have lived long enough; for I die unconquered." When the spear point was withdrawn, Epaminondas quickly expired. In accordance with Greek custom, he was buried on the battlefield.

paragraph: Section::::Assessments.

paragraph: Section::::Assessments.:Character.

paragraph: In matters of character, Epaminondas was above reproach in the eyes of the ancient historians who recorded his deeds. Contemporaries praised him for disdaining material wealth, sharing what he had with his friends, and refusing bribes. One of the last heirs of the Pythagorean tradition, he appears to have lived a simple and ascetic lifestyle even when his leadership had raised him to a position at the head of all Greece. Cornelius Nepos notes his incorruptibility, describing his rejection of a Persian ambassador who came to him with a bribe. These aspects of his character contributed greatly to his renown after his death.

paragraph: Epaminondas never married and as such was subject to criticism from countrymen who believed he was duty-bound to provide the country with the benefit of sons as great as himself. In response, Epaminondas said that his victory at Leuctra was a daughter destined to live forever. He is known, however, to have had several young male lovers, a standard pedagogic practice in ancient Greece, and one that Thebes in particular was famous for; Plutarch records that the Theban lawgivers instituted the practice "to temper the manners and characters of the youth." An anecdote told by Cornelius Nepos indicates that Epaminondas was intimate with a young man by the name of Micythus. Plutarch also mentions two of his beloveds ("eromenoi"): Asopichus, who fought together with him at the battle of Leuctra, where he greatly distinguished himself; and Caphisodorus, who fell with Epaminondas at Mantineia and was buried by his side.

paragraph: Section::::Assessments.:Military record.

paragraph: Extant biographies of Epaminondas universally describe him as one of the most talented generals ever produced by the Greek city-states. Even Xenophon, who fails to note his presence at Leuctra, says of his Mantinean campaign: "Now I for my part could not say that his campaign proved fortunate; yet of all possible deeds of forethought and daring the man seems to me to have left not one undone." Diodorus is effusive in his praise for Epaminondas's military record: "For it seems to me that he surpassed his contemporaries...in skill and experience in the art of war. For among the generation of Epaminondas were famous men: Pelopidas the Theban, Timotheus and Conon, also Chabrias and Iphicrates...Agesilaus the Spartan, who belonged to a slightly older generation. Still earlier than these, in the times of the Medes and Persians, there were Solon, Themistocles, Miltiades, and Cimon, Myronides, and Pericles and certain others in Athens, and in Sicily Gelon, son of Deinomenes, and still others. All the same, if you should compare the qualities of these with the generalship and reputation of Epaminondas, you would find the qualities possessed by Epaminondas far superior".

paragraph: As a tactician, Epaminondas stands above every other general in Greek history, except kings Philip II and Alexander the Great, although modern historians have questioned his larger strategic vision. According to Richard A. Gabriel, his tactics "marked the beginning of the end of traditional Greek methods of war". His innovative strategy at Leuctra allowed him to defeat the vaunted Spartan phalanx with a smaller force, and his decision to refuse his right flank was the first recorded instance of such a tactic. Many of the tactical innovations that Epaminondas implemented would also be used by Philip of Macedon, who in his youth spent time as a hostage in Thebes and may have learned directly from Epaminondas himself.

paragraph: Section::::Assessments.:Legacy.

paragraph: In some ways Epaminondas dramatically altered the face of Greece during the 10 years in which he was the central figure of Greek politics. By the time of his death, Sparta had been humbled, Messenia freed, and the Peloponnese completely reorganized. In another respect, however, he left behind a Greece no different than that which he had found; the bitter divides and animosities that had poisoned international relations in Greece for over a century remained as deep as or deeper than they had been before Leuctra. The brutal internecine warfare that had characterized the years from 432 BC onwards continued unabated until all the states involved were subjugated by Macedon.

paragraph: At Mantinea, Thebes had faced down the combined forces of the greatest states of Greece, but the victory brought it no spoils. With Epaminondas removed from the scene, the Thebans returned to their more traditional defensive policy, and within a few years, Athens had replaced them at the pinnacle of the Greek political system. No Greek state ever again reduced Boeotia to the subjection it had known during the Spartan hegemony, but Theban influence faded quickly in the rest of Greece. Finally, at Chaeronea in 338 BC, the combined forces of Thebes and Athens, driven into each other's arms for a desperate last stand against Philip of Macedon, were crushingly defeated, and Theban independence was put to an end. Three years later, heartened by a false rumor that Alexander the Great had been assassinated, the Thebans revolted; Alexander squashed the revolt, then destroyed the city, slaughtering or enslaving all its citizens. A mere 27 years after the death of the man who had made it preeminent throughout Greece, Thebes was wiped from the face of the Earth, its 1,000-year history ended in the space of a few days.

paragraph: Epaminondas, therefore, is remembered both as a liberator and a destroyer. He was celebrated throughout the ancient Greek and Roman worlds as one of the greatest men of history. Cicero eulogized him as "the first man, in my judgement, of Greece," and Pausanias records an honorary poem from his tomb:

paragraph: By my counsels was Sparta shorn of her glory,

paragraph: And holy Messene received at last her children.

paragraph: By the arms of Thebes was Megalopolis encircled with walls,

paragraph: And all Greece won independence and freedom.

paragraph: Epaminondas's actions were certainly welcomed by the Messenians and others whom he assisted in his campaigns against the Spartans. Those same Spartans, however, had been at the center of resistance to the Persian invasions of the 5th century BC, and their absence was sorely felt at Chaeronea; the endless warfare in which Epaminondas played a central role weakened the cities of Greece until they could no longer hold their own against their neighbors to the north. As Epaminondas campaigned to secure freedom for the Boeotians and others throughout Greece, he brought closer the day when all of Greece would be subjugated by an invader. Victor Davis Hanson has suggested that Epaminondas may have planned for a united Greece composed of regional democratic federations, but even if this assertion is correct, no such plan was ever implemented. Simon Hornblower asserts that Thebes' great legacy to fourth century and Hellenistic Greece was federalism, "a kind of alternative to imperialism, a way of achieving unity without force", which "embodies a representative principle".

paragraph: For all his noble qualities, Epaminondas was unable to transcend the Greek city-state system, with its endemic rivalry and warfare, and thus left Greece more war-ravaged but no less divided than he found it. Hornblower asserts that "it is a sign of Epaminondas' political failure, even before the battle of Mantinea, that his Peloponnesian allies fought to reject Sparta rather than because of the positive attractions of Thebes". On the other hand, Cawkwell concludes that "Epaminondas must be judged not in relation to these inevitable limitations of Boeotian power. To have established the power of Boeotia and ended the Spartan domination of the Peloponnese was the most and the best that a Boeotian could have done."

paragraph: Section::::Bibliography.

paragraph: Section::::Bibliography.:Ancient sources.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Atheneus, "Deipnosophistae"

paragraph: BULLET::::- Cornelius Nepos, "Epaminondas"

paragraph: BULLET::::- Diodorus Siculus, "Bibliotheca Historica"

paragraph: BULLET::::- Pausanias, "Description of Greece"

paragraph: BULLET::::- Plutarch, "Parallel Lives"

paragraph: BULLET::::- Plutarch, "Moralia"

paragraph: Section::::Bibliography.:Modern sources.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Vottero, Guy (1999). "Grandeur et déchéance d'un héros : Épaminondas le Thébain". Dion J. ed., "Le Paradoxe du héros ou d'Homère à Malraux", pp. 43–86. ADRA (Nancy-Paris). .

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Man against History: Epaminondas and Thebes" by Alexander G. Rubio, BitsofNews.com, 30 January 2006.

description: Theban general and statesman

wikidata_label: Epaminondas

wikipedia_title: Epaminondas


text:
falsetto
Mercyful Fate
King Diamond
hard rock
Black Rose
punk
metal
Brats
Hank Shermann
Michael Denner
Timi Hansen
Mercyful Fate
Don't Break the Oath
Metal Blade Records
Usurper
Dave Grohl
Probot
Roadrunner United
Cradle of Filth
Mikkey Dee
Motörhead
Gothenburg, Sweden
Give Me Your Soul... Please
Grammy
Ozzfest
Metallica
Mercyful Fate
Garage Inc.
Pantera
Vinnie Paul
Scott Ian
Max Cavalera
rhythm game
triple-bypass surgery
Sweden Rock Festival
Mark Tremonti
That Metal Show
Volbeat
Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies
Slayer
HELLYEAH
The Devil Wears Prada
Thy Art Is Murder
Jungle Rot
Sister Sin
Sworn In
Shattered Sun
Code Orange
Warner Bros.
Metalocalypse
Adult Swim
femur bone
tibia bone
Arthur Brown
David Byron
Alice Cooper
Ronnie James Dio
Ian Gillan
Ozzy Osbourne
Robert Plant
Deep Purple
Fireball
Black Sabbath
Master of Reality
LaVeyan Satanism
Anton LaVey
The Satanic Bible
Michael Moynihan
poseur
Livia Zita
The Puppet Master
Give Me Your Soul...Please
King Diamond
Mercyful Fate
The Spider's Lullabye
The Graveyard
Voodoo
House of God
Garage Inc.
Metallica
Lars Ulrich
Cradle of Filth
Cage
Andy DiGelsomina
Lyraka
Cage
Hell Destroyer
King Diamond discography
Mercyful Fate discography
Grammy nomination
Best Metal Performance
King Diamond Coven
Mikki Dee
Pete Blakk
Andy LaRocque

categories: Danish rock singers,Danish tenors,Danish atheists,Singers with a four-octave vocal range,Danish heavy metal singers,Heavy metal keyboardists,Mercyful Fate members,English-language singers from Denmark,1956 births,Danish horror writers,Danish Satanists,Danish male singers,21st-century Danish singers,20th-century Danish singers,Musicians from Copenhagen,Living people,Metal Blade Records artists

paragraph: King Diamond

paragraph: Kim Bendix Petersen (born 14 June 1956), better known by his stage name King Diamond, is a Danish musician. As a vocalist, he is known for his extensive vocal range, in particular his usage of falsetto. He is the lead vocalist for both Mercyful Fate and the eponymous King Diamond.

paragraph: Section::::Career.

paragraph: Section::::Career.:Early days.

paragraph: King Diamond's first heavy rock band was called Brainstorm (1974–76), with Jeanette Blum (Jean Blue) vocal and bass, Michael Frohn (Mike West) guitar and Jes Jacobsen (Jesse James) drums. King Diamond left Brainstorm and began singing with local Danish hard rock band Black Rose. It was during this time in Black Rose that King Diamond began experimenting with horror-themed theatrics as well as shaping a malevolent quasi-Satanic stage persona. He left Black Rose and joined the punk-metal band Brats where he met Hank Shermann. Soon after, the two of them were asked to help Michael Denner (also formerly a member of Brats) with his own project Danger Zone. This band included Timi Hansen and the mentioned musicians would join with King Diamond in 1980 to become Mercyful Fate.

paragraph: Section::::Career.:Mercyful Fate.

paragraph: Following Mercyful Fate's 1984 release of "Don't Break the Oath" and the subsequent tour (which saw them play in the U.S. for the first time), King Diamond split ways with Mercyful Fate. With him, he took two of his bandmates (Hansen and Denner) to pursue a solo career under his own name.

paragraph: Mercyful Fate reunited in 1992 (while King Diamond simultaneously continued his solo career) and recorded five more studio albums. In 2000, King decided to put Mercyful Fate on hold and continue on with his solo career. Though Mercyful Fate remains dormant, the band is still under contract with Metal Blade Records. Also in 1999, King Diamond and Hank Shermann performed the song "Evil" live with Metallica. This performance also featured King Diamond without his famous makeup. In recent interviews, King Diamond has stated that Mercyful Fate will record and tour again when the timing is right, saying "It's definitely not finished."

paragraph: On 08/01/2019 Mercyful Fate announced a reunion, and an accompanying European tour.

paragraph: Section::::Career.:King Diamond.

paragraph: In 2001, King Diamond worked out a deal with the band Usurper to sing backup vocals on the song "Necronemesis" in exchange for them shifting their recording schedule around to accommodate the recording of "". In 2004, King Diamond contributed vocals to "Sweet Dreams", which was the final track on the album of Dave Grohl's heavy metal side project Probot. In late 2005, King Diamond appeared on the "Roadrunner United – The All-Star Sessions" album, contributing vocals for his song "In the Fire", which featured multiple Roadrunner Records musicians (past and present) working together to create individual songs. King Diamond also guested on the Cradle of Filth song "Devil Woman" in late 2005.

paragraph: In April 2006, King reunited with Mikkey Dee (Motörhead drummer) at a sold-out gig at Kåren in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2001 King referred to Dee as "one of the best drummers of all time and that's something that has bothered us since he left."

paragraph: King Diamond released his album "Give Me Your Soul... Please", on 26 June 2007. Following the release the band received a Grammy nomination in the "Best Metal Performance" category for the track "Never Ending Hill." He was forced to cancel a United States tour due to a herniated disk, causing severe back pain, which puts him in intense pain almost all of the time. He attributes the problem to the long stressful hours spent working on the album.

paragraph: King made an appearance at Ozzfest on 9 August 2008 at Frisco, TX alongside Metallica, performing a medley of Mercyful Fate songs previously released on Metallica's "Garage Inc." album. Earlier in the day, he also performed a cover of the Pantera song "A New Level" with Vinnie Paul, Scott Ian, Max Cavalera, and Nick Bowcott.

paragraph: In 2009, King Diamond was revealed to be a playable character for the rhythm game "", appearing with Mercyful Fate's song "Evil." Complete the song on any instrument and any difficulty to unlock him.

paragraph: On 29 November 2010, King was taken to the hospital, where they discovered several blockages in his arteries due to his heavy smoking habit. They determined that he had several heart attacks and that he needed triple-bypass surgery. The surgery was performed successfully, and on 11 December 2010 it was announced that he was at home recovering. All his musical projects at that time were then placed on hold.

paragraph: On 7 December 2011, King appeared on stage with Metallica at The Fillmore in San Francisco to celebrate Metallica's 30th anniversary.

paragraph: In June 2012, King performed his comeback concert, on Sweden Rock Festival.

paragraph: On Saturday 8 September 2012, King appeared along with Mark Tremonti on VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show" discussing his surgery and various details about upcoming events.

paragraph: King then appeared on Volbeat's 2013 album, "Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies", for guest vocals on the track "Room 24."

paragraph: In August 2013 King Diamond performed at Open Air Bloodstock Festival UK.

paragraph: Slayer was chosen to headline the 2015 Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival. The bands HELLYEAH, King Diamond, The Devil Wears Prada, Thy Art Is Murder, Jungle Rot, Sister Sin, Sworn In, Shattered Sun, Feed Her To The Sharks, Code Orange & Kissing Candice also participated in the Rockstar Tour.

paragraph: Section::::Career.:King Diamond.:Other media.

paragraph: King Diamond was a special celebrity guest star in four episodes of the Warner Bros. adult-oriented cartoon "Metalocalypse" as The Blues Devil, Ronald von Moldenberg, a fast food manager, and one of the Klokateers in 2006 on Adult Swim.

paragraph: Section::::Stage presence.

paragraph: On stage, King Diamond uses a microphone handle consisting of a femur bone and a tibia bone in the shape of a cross. King Diamond had previously used a human skull, called Melissa, on stage. In the mid-1980s Melissa was stolen after a performance in the Netherlands.

paragraph: King Diamond has changed the design of his make-up often over the years. With "Conspiracy", he wore a mesh of black and white line war paint, with some red "blood" made to look like a wound coming out of his forehead. With his album "The Puppet Master", he used very little white and mainly had black crosses and inverted crosses going up and down his face.

paragraph: Section::::Influences.

paragraph: King Diamond cites Arthur Brown, David Byron, Alice Cooper, Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Ozzy Osbourne and Robert Plant as his primary influences.

paragraph: According to King Diamond's biography on his official website, the first two albums he bought were Deep Purple's "Fireball" and Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality".

paragraph: Section::::Religion.

paragraph: King Diamond follows LaVeyan Satanism, which he does not see as a religion, but a philosophy by which he lived even before reading Anton LaVey's "The Satanic Bible". Michael Moynihan calls him "one of the only performers of the '80s Satanic Metal who was more than just a poseur using a devilish image for shock value". King has expressed concern that religion has led so many people to kill and destroy each other. He stated that he cannot comprehend why religion has caused so much death and destruction when it is logically impossible to prove the presence or absence of any deity. He states that he has reached a point in his life where he has completely given up believing in anything religious.

paragraph: Section::::Personal life.

paragraph: King Diamond is married to Livia Zita, a Hungarian-born singer who has made appearances as a backup vocalist on the albums "The Puppet Master" and "Give Me Your Soul...Please", as well as during live performances. She is also his business partner, and is currently working with him to compile old footage for two planned DVD releases of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate live performances. She also helped him make remastered editions of the King Diamond albums "The Spider's Lullabye", "The Graveyard", "Voodoo" and "House of God".

paragraph: In 2017, they became parents for the first time as they had a son.

paragraph: Section::::Legacy.

paragraph: Metallica has performed an 11-minute tribute to Mercyful Fate and released it on their "Garage Inc." album. It features five of their songs. When James Hetfield sings it, he does not sing in a falsetto like King Diamond, but in 2008 (and again in 2011, with Hank Shermann, Michael Denner and Timi Hansen) King Diamond performed "Mercyful Fate" with Metallica, and put the screams in where necessary.

paragraph: King has been on the covers of many rock and metal magazines and influenced many artists including Metallica's Lars Ulrich, Cradle of Filth, Cage, and Andy DiGelsomina of the Wagnerian opera metal project Lyraka.

paragraph: American heavy metal band Cage devoted him the song "King Diamond" on the album "Hell Destroyer" in 2007.

paragraph: Section::::Discography.

paragraph: BULLET::::- King Diamond discography

paragraph: BULLET::::- Mercyful Fate discography

paragraph: Section::::Awards.

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2008 – Grammy nomination in the "Best Metal Performance" category for the track "Never Ending Hill".

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- King Diamond Coven – Official website

paragraph: BULLET::::- Interviews with King Diamond band members Mikki Dee, Pete Blakk, and Andy LaRocque

description: Danish heavy metal musician

wikidata_label: King Diamond

wikipedia_title: King Diamond


text:
multimedia artist
installations
teen pregnancy
helium
condom
CNN
film
installation art
performance art
screen printing
video art
solo exhibition
Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
Biggest Loser
Ali Vincent
curating
avant-garde
Juxtapoz
Fox
The Buzz Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Pepperdine University

categories: American multimedia artists,1991 births,Living people

paragraph: M. A. Alford

paragraph: Mark Allen Alford Jr. (born August 17, 1991) is an American multimedia artist known for his installations and symbolic imagery. His most noted work is an installation commenting on teen pregnancy entitled, "Sex-ed", which featured 50 helium-filled condoms and a baby-doll and was featured on various news media including CNN. His mediums have included painting, film photography, installation art, performance art, screen printing, and video art.

paragraph: He is also noted for his extensive exhibition history despite his young age. He had 3 solo exhibitions and 12 group exhibitions before the age of 20. His works are in prominent public collections such as the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation and private collections such as Biggest Loser Winner Ali Vincent.

paragraph: Alford has also been involved in directing and curating as well. He received many reviews and press from his avant-garde art show, "Under 21" featuring only artists under the age of 21. His role in this was as director and participating artist. His most acclaimed series of fashion body bags were debuted at this event. The show featured 7 artists, a curator, and director.

paragraph: He has also been featured in the Taiwanese magazine, "The Big Issue," and in Juxtapoz for his underwater series called "Ethereal Waters" as well as Fox and The Buzz Kansas City As of 2010 he was working in Kansas City, Missouri.

paragraph: Currently, Alford is an art student at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.

description: artist

wikidata_label: M. A. Alford

wikipedia_title: M. A. Alford


text:
École des Beaux-Arts
David d'Angers
Prix de Rome
Salon
École des Beaux Arts
Notre Dame de Paris
French Revolution
Legion of Honor
Charles Gumery
Persephone
Indianapolis

categories: Artists from Paris,1806 births,19th-century French sculptors,Burials at Montmartre Cemetery,French male sculptors,1862 deaths,Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur

paragraph: Armand Toussaint

paragraph: The French sculptor François Christophe Armand Toussaint was born in Paris on April 7, 1806, and died there on May 24, 1862.

paragraph: The son of a locksmith, Armand Toussaint entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1827 and studied under David d'Angers. In 1832, he won the second Grand Prix de Rome for his "Capanée foudroyé sous les murs de Thèbes". He exhibited at the Salon between 1836 and 1850, winning a third-class medal in 1839 for his "Jésus Christ environné de petits enfants" and a second class in 1847 for his "Une esclave indienne portant une torche".

paragraph: As well as working on his own projects, Toussaint was professor of sculpture at the École des Beaux Arts and carried out several official and church commissions. Around 1850 he was included among those working in Notre Dame de Paris to restore sculptures destroyed during the French Revolution. In 1852, he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor.

paragraph: He is buried in the cemetery of Montmartre. On his tomb is a bronze medallion by his former student Charles Gumery.

paragraph: A well known work of his in the United States is the statue of Persephone located in Indianapolis, created around 1840.

description: French sculptor

wikidata_label: Armand Toussaint

wikipedia_title: Armand Toussaint


text:
Raith
Whig
Fifeshire
Haddingtonshire
Kirkcaldy Burghs
Lord Lieutenant
county of Fife
Fergusonite
Restalrig
Margaret
countess of Dumfries
Fife
Ronald Craufurd Ferguson
High School in Edinburgh
John Playfair
University of Edinburgh
Reform Bill
Kirkcaldy
Lord Ramsay
mineralogy
Royal Society of London
Royal Society of Edinburgh
London
Mary Nisbet
Dirleton
Haddington
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin
Sir Henry Raeburn
Fife
Haddington
Robert Forrest

categories: UK MPs 1832–1835,UK MPs 1831–1832,UK MPs 1835–1837,Lord-Lieutenants of Fife,Whig (British political party) MPs for Scottish constituencies,Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,Fellows of the Royal Society,UK MPs 1837–1841,1840 deaths,UK MPs 1806–1807,Paintings by Henry Raeburn,1769 births,19th-century Scottish politicians,Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Fife constituencies,Alumni of the University of Edinburgh,Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies

paragraph: Robert Ferguson of Raith

paragraph: Robert Ferguson (8 September 17693 December 1840) of Raith, was at various times a Whig Member of Parliament for Fifeshire, Haddingtonshire and Kirkcaldy Burghs, and at the time of his death he was Lord Lieutenant of the county of Fife.

paragraph: As an amateur geologist and mineralogist the mineral Fergusonite was named after him.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.

paragraph: Robert Ferguson was the eldest son of Jane Crauford, daughter of Ronald Craufurd of Restalrig, (sister to Margaret, countess of Dumfries) and William Ferguson of Raith, Fife. General Sir Ronald Craufurd Ferguson was his brother. He was educated at the High School in Edinburgh, 1777-1780. He was also privately tutored by John Playfair. He then studied law at the University of Edinburgh. He qualified as an advocate in 1791.

paragraph: Robert Ferguson was elected to the Whig parliament of 1806 for Fifeshire, but was not afterwards elected until the time of the Reform Bill, upon which he represented the Kirkcaldy district of Burghs from 1831 to 1835, and in the latter year was returned for Haddingtonshire, defeating Mr Hope, the Tory candidate, by 268 to 231 votes. At the general election of 1837 he was in turn defeated by Lord Ramsay, who polled 299 votes to 205. He then returned to the representation of the Kirkcaldy division of Burghs. He was a cordial supporter of the measures of the Whig government, and opposed to the ballot.

paragraph: Due to his amateur interests in mineralogy, in 1805 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 1806 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was Lord Lieutenant of Fife from 1837.

paragraph: He died at a house in Portman Square in London on 3 December 1840. A memorial exists to him in Abbotshall Church in Fife.

paragraph: Section::::Family.

paragraph: Ferguson infamously had an affair with Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin, only daughter of William Hamilton Nisbet, esq. of Dirleton, near Haddington. She was the wife of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, with whom she had one son, later Lord Bruce (1800–1840) and three daughters. The Earl sued Ferguson in both England and Scotland and won £10,000 (the current, 2016, equivalent of around £5 million). Following the Countess's inevitable divorce, Ferguson then married her on 20 April 1808.

paragraph: The couple had no children together. His nephew Robert Munro Ferguson (1802-1868) inherited his estates on his death.

paragraph: Section::::Recognition.

paragraph: Sir Henry Raeburn painted Ferguson in his youth (with his brother Ronald behind) in the picture "The Archers".

paragraph: There are two Raith Monuments erected in his memory, one in Fife and the other in Haddington. They were both designed by Robert Forrest.

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Attribution

description: Scottish landowner, politician and mineral collector

wikidata_label: Robert Ferguson of Raith

wikipedia_title: Robert Ferguson of Raith


text:
fiddle
Harry Martinson
Artur Lundkvist
Erik Asklund
Josef Kjellgren
Fem unga
croft
Hölö
Södermanland

wikipedia_title:
Fiddle
Harry Martinson
Artur Lundkvist
Erik Asklund
Josef Kjellgren
Fem unga
Croft (land)
Hölö
Södermanland

categories: Writers from Östergötland,1983 deaths,1904 births,People from Motala Municipality

paragraph: Gustav Sandgren

paragraph: Gustav Sandgren (20 August 1904 – 11 August 1983) was a Swedish author.

paragraph: Section::::Early life and writing.

paragraph: Sandgren's parents were O.J. Sandgren and Karolina Adolfsson, who gave their son a poor but happy childhood. The father was, in addition to his work, a fiddler. Their son Gustav had since childhood, both heard and played on the fiddle—a musical instrument which he handled with skill throughout life. He was fascinated by folklore, mystery and dreams.

paragraph: After school Sandgren became a labourer and worked for five years at Cloetta chocolate in Ljungsbro. He eventually became a full-time writer, and was to have 47 books behind him when he died in 1983. He also wrote poetry collections (a few written with his wife Ria Wägner). Together with Harry Martinson, Artur Lundkvist, Erik Asklund and Josef Kjellgren, he formed the literary group "Fem unga" ("Five young ones"). Other accomplishments include fairy tales, and children's books. Sometimes he wrote under the pseudonym Gabriel Linde. The last name Linde referred to the croft where he stayed in the summer of 1933, located about a kilometre southeast of Norrvrå station in Hölö, Södermanland.

paragraph: Section::::Personal life.

paragraph: He married Titti Lindstedt in 1935. They lived in Björknäs at Hållsviken west of Trosa in Södermanland. He subsequently married Ria Wägner and then spent forty years living in Lidingö, Stockholm.

description: Swedish writer

wikidata_label: Gustav Sandgren

wikipedia_title: Gustav Sandgren


text:
librettist
Orange
Émile Perrin
Paris Opéra
Opéra-Comique
Adolphe de Leuven
Opéra-Comique
Bizet
Carmen
Ernest Reyer
Sigurd
Don Carlos
Aida
Villa Certosella
Djamileh
Père Lachaise
Capri
data.bnf.fr

wikipedia_title:
Libretto
Orange, Vaucluse
Émile Perrin
Paris Opera
Opéra-Comique
Adolphe de Leuven
Opéra-Comique
Georges Bizet
Carmen
Ernest Reyer
Sigurd
Don Carlos
Aida
Villa Certosella
Djamileh
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Capri
Bibliothèque nationale de France

categories: French opera librettists,19th-century French dramatists and playwrights,French theatre managers and producers,French male dramatists and playwrights,People from Orange, Vaucluse,1832 births,1903 deaths,French expatriates in Italy,19th-century French male writers

paragraph: Camille du Locle

paragraph: Camille du Locle (16 July 18329 October 1903) was a French theatre manager and a librettist. He was born in Orange, France. From 1862 he served as assistant to his father-in-law, Émile Perrin at the Paris Opéra, moving in 1870 to the Opéra-Comique (he was co-director (with Adolphe de Leuven) in the Opéra-Comique).

paragraph: He is best remembered for mounting the original production of Bizet's "Carmen" in 1875. His friendship with Ernest Reyer led to him providing libretti for "Sigurd" and "Salammbô". Du Locle was responsible for completing the libretto of "Don Carlos" after the death of Joseph Méry. He also played a key role in the genesis of "Aida" in 1869-70. In 1876, a financial dispute arose with Verdi, and Du Locle moved to Capri. He lived in what is called today “Villa Certosella”.

paragraph: According to Charles Pigot, Du Locle inspired the subject, words and music of Bizet's "Djamileh". He was a pall-bearer at Bizet's funeral and made a speech at his interment at Père Lachaise.

paragraph: Du Locle died in Capri.

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Camille Du Locle on data.bnf.fr

description: French theatre  director

wikidata_label: Camille du Locle

wikipedia_title: Camille du Locle


text:
German
landscape painter
Norway
Göttingen
Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Oesterley
Hannover
Düsseldorf
Ernst Deger
Eduard Bendemann
Lübeck
Hans Memling
architectural
landscape painting
Carl Rodeck
Hamburg
Altona
Blankenese
Lofoten
Nordfjord
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon

wikipedia_title:
Germans
Landscape painting
Norway
Göttingen
Carl Oesterley
Hanover
Düsseldorf
Ernst Deger
Eduard Bendemann
Lübeck
Hans Memling
Architectural painting
Landscape painting
Carl Rodeck
Hamburg
Altona, Hamburg
Blankenese
Lofoten
Nordfjord
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon

categories: German male painters,German landscape painters,German Impressionist painters,1839 births,20th-century German painters,19th-century German painters,1930 deaths,People from Göttingen

paragraph: Carl August Heinrich Ferdinand Oesterley (January 23, 1839 – December 16, 1930) was a German landscape painter who eventually specialized in scenes from Norway.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.

paragraph: He was a native of Göttingen, the son of painter Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Oesterley. He attended classes at the "Polytechnikum" in Hannover, where he studied under his father. Beginning 1857, he attended the "Kunstakademie" (Art Academy) in Düsseldorf, where he studied painting under Ernst Deger and Eduard Bendemann.

paragraph: During a visit to Lübeck in 1865, where he copied Hans Memling's "Passion", he made some attempts at architectural and landscape painting. These turned out so well that from then on he dedicated himself to landscape painting. Beginning in 1870 he focused his artistic efforts mainly on Norwegian landscapes, for which he devoted several study trips. Together with his friend Carl Rodeck he also visited the Netherlands, Belgium and England. He lived in Hamburg and received a first-class medal from the "Münchener Ausstellung" (Munich Exhibition). He died in Altona-Blankenese, now Hamburg.

paragraph: Section::::Selected paintings.

paragraph: His best works, characterized by their grand conception and skillful use of color and light, are:

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Mitternachtstimmung bei den Lofoten" (Midnight mood in the Lofoten)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Norwegische Gebirgsschlucht" (Mountain gorge in Norway)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Romsdalsfjord, norwegischer Fjord" (Romsdalshorn Fjord, Norway, 1891, Leipzig Museum)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Raftsund im nördlichen Norwegen" (Raft Sound in northern Norway, 1879, Breslau Museum)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Fischer an der norwegischen Küste" (Fishing on the Norwegian coast)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Nordische Sommernacht" (Nordic summer night)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Oldenvand im Nordfjord" (Oldenvand in Nordfjord, 1885, National Gallery, Berlin)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Am Saltenfjord" (View on Salten Fiord, 1882, Hamburg Gallery)

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Thieme-Becker", 1931, v. 25, p. 574.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Meyers Konversations-Lexikon", 4th ed., 1888–1890.

alias: Karl August Heinrich Ferdinand Oesterley

description: German painter


text:
Eric X of Sweden
Eric XI of Sweden
Birger Jarl
Valdemar
Magnus III of Sweden
Eric X of Sweden
Richeza of Denmark
Denmark
Canute II of Sweden
House of Bjelbo
Birger Jarl
Richeza
Henry I, Prince of Werle
Valdemar
Magnus
Catherine
Eric
Ingeborg
John I of Saxony, Duke of Lauenburg
Benedict
Bishop of Linköping

wikipedia_title:
Eric X of Sweden
Eric XI of Sweden
Birger Jarl
Valdemar, King of Sweden
Magnus III of Sweden
Eric X of Sweden
Richeza of Denmark
Denmark
Canute II of Sweden
House of Bjelbo
Birger Jarl
Rikissa Birgersdotter
Henry I of Werle
Valdemar, King of Sweden
Magnus III of Sweden
Catherine Birgersdotter of Bjelbo
Eric Birgersson
Ingeborg Birgersdotter of Bjelbo
John I, Duke of Saxony
Benedict, Duke of Finland
Bishop of Linköping

categories: 1254 deaths,1212 births,Swedish princesses,13th-century Swedish people,Christians of the Second Swedish Crusade,13th-century women,House of Eric,House of Bjelbo,Deaths in childbirth

paragraph: Ingeborg Eriksdotter of Sweden

paragraph: Ingeborg Eriksdotter ( – 17 June 1254) was a Swedish princess and duchess, daughter of King Eric X of Sweden, eldest sibling of King Eric XI of Sweden, wife of Birger Jarl, and mother of Kings Valdemar and Magnus III of Sweden.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.

paragraph: Ingeborg was born the eldest daughter of King Eric X of Sweden and his wife Richeza of Denmark. She lived duting her youth in exile in Denmark after her brother had been deposed by his guardian and regent in 1229.

paragraph: Ingeborg's marital engagement took place about 1234, in connection with her brother Eric XI reaquiring the Swedish throne from the usurper Canute II of Sweden, so that she and Eric could have the mighty House of Bjelbo as their ally.

paragraph: Princess Ingeborg bore a vast number of children to her husband Duke Birger Jarl. In 1250, her brother died without heirs and her eldest son Valdemar was chosen to succeed Eric on the throne. Valdemar was chosen because he was her son, and her husband was made regent during his minority. Ingeborg thus became King Mother and first lady of the royal court.

paragraph: Ingeborg is recorded to have inherited her brother Eric's private property upon his death, as his only living sibling. Even in her forties, she continued to give birth to children, and her death is believed to have occurred because of childbirth complications, possibly giving birth to twins.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.:Children.

paragraph: The following children survived to adulthood:

paragraph: BULLET::::- Richeza, born 1238, married first in 1251 Haakon Haakonsson the Young, co-king of Norway, and second Henry I, Prince of Werle

paragraph: BULLET::::- Valdemar, born c 1238, King of Sweden 1250–1275, lord of parts of Gothenland until 1278

paragraph: BULLET::::- Christina, married presumably several times, one of her husbands was Lord Sigge Guttormsson

paragraph: BULLET::::- Magnus, born 1240, Duke of Södermanland, then King of Sweden 1275-90

paragraph: BULLET::::- probably: Catherine, born 1245, married Siegfried, Count of Anhalt

paragraph: BULLET::::- Eric, born 1250, Duke of Sweden and the Smallands

paragraph: BULLET::::- probably: Ingeborg, born circa 1254, died 30 June 1302, married John I of Saxony, Duke of Lauenburg in 1270

paragraph: BULLET::::- Benedict, born 1254, Duke of Finland and Bishop of Linköping

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Cronica Principum Saxonie", MGH SS XXV, p. 476

description: Mother of King Valdemar I of Sweden

wikidata_label: Ingeborg Eriksdotter of Sweden

wikipedia_title: Ingeborg Eriksdotter of Sweden