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crypto cult
US to extradite embattled FTX ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried from Bahamas
The founder of crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, is expected to be extradited from the Bahamas back to the U.S. as $2 billion of clients' money remains unaccounted for. This is according to a report from Bloomberg, which says that authorities in the U.S. and the Bahamas have been discussing extraditing him for questioning. Bankman-Fried […]
Crypto.com withdrawals SURGE after CEO admits "mishandling" $400M transaction
Thousands of clients of the cryptocurrency exchange platform Crypto.com pulled out their funds from the site over the weekend after the company's chief executive admitted to "mishandling" a transaction involving roughly $400 million worth of crypto assets. Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said on Twitter that the $400 million transfer was mistakenly sent to the wrong type […]
11/16/2022 / By Roy Green
Crypto lender BlockFi blocks withdrawals as FTX declares bankruptcy
The crumbling crypto industry has claimed another likely victim in BlockFi, a digital-asset lender worth $10 billion once, but is now barely functioning. With FTX announcing its plans to file for bankruptcy on Friday, Nov. 11, BlockFi announced via Twitter on the same day that it is "stopping client withdrawals" because of a "lack of clarity" […]
Former multibillion-dollar crypto firm FTX files for bankruptcy
FTX Trading Limited on Friday, Nov. 11, announced that it is going to file for bankruptcy and that Samuel Bankman-Fried is resigning as CEO. This was after the company failed to source enough capital to stay afloat. Bankman-Fried has been succeeded by John J. Ray III, though the outgoing chief will stay on to assist with the […]
Report: Crypto exchange Binance still serving Iranian clients, allowing them to trade despite sanctions
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been aiding Iranian firms to circumvent American sanctions intended to cut Iran off from the global economy by processing nearly $8 billion worth of transactions since 2018. With over 120 million users, Binance is the world's largest platform for exchanging cryptocurrency assets with fiat money or even with physical assets like gold and […]
Binance backs out of bailout plan to rescue FTX, causing further turmoil across crypto markets
Cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance has backed out of a deal to acquire FTX, a similar crypto company, leaving the latter on the verge of total collapse. Just months ago, FTX and its sister trading firm Alameda Research were two of the largest cryptocurrency firms in the world. Their 30-year-old founder and CEO, crypto trader and […]
Desperate crypto investors scramble, beg to withdraw their money
Regular Americans who invested and stored their assets in crypto banks are now reeling and fighting tooth and nail just to get all of their assets back. Big-name cryptocurrency lending companies like Celsius Network and Voyager Digital also offered bank-like accounts that pay interest rates far higher than traditional lenders. These companies even marketed themselves […]
Founder of fraudulent crypto CONVICTED for stealing over $6 million from investors
Randall Crater, the creator of purported cryptocurrency My Big Coin, has been convicted for stealing over $6 million from investors by falsely claiming that this new crypto asset was backed by commodities. The Department of Justice said Crater, 51, offered virtual payment services through his fraudulent digital currency. (Related: "Cryptoqueen" becomes first crypto criminal on FBI's top 10 most […]
Cryptocurrency lending company Vauld suspending withdrawals, transactions and deposits as crypto market crash takes its toll
Cryptocurrency lender Vauld announced on Monday, July 4, that it is pausing withdrawals, trading and deposits on its platform as it explores potential restructuring options following the massive collapse in the value of cryptocurrency assets. Vauld CEO Darshan Bathija said in a blog post on Monday, July 5, that the Singapore-based company is facing "financial […]
"Cryptoqueen" becomes first crypto criminal on FBI's top 10 most wanted
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has just added Ruja Ignatova, also known as the "Cryptoqueen," to its 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. Ignatova is known for her involvement in the Ponzi scheme known as OneCoin, which is estimated to have defrauded investors out of over $4 billion. The scam, which was active from late 2014 to March […]


Sadly(?), it's that time again.
It's too darn cold out for most bugs, and I suspect that my recent run of finding critters IN the house has dried up for the most part, so real-time photos will be quite scarce until the spring (*cry*). While I do plan on practicing (and sharing) my studio-style photography during the winter months whenever I can find a subject, I think it's time to bring back the Forgotten Photo Friday series for another year.
Amblycorypha oblongifolia - Oblong-winged Katydid - nibbling her toesies.
It seemed like there were a LOT of katydids around this year, more than I can remember in past summers. They were frequent visitors to my back porch light, and the chorus of their combined songs at night was marvelously loud.
I somehow spotted this chunky-pretty and incredibly cryptic female on a low, still-green shrub alongside a trail in the woods in mid-September. I plucked a red leaf off the ground and offered it to her, to offset her vibrant green colour bef0re snapping her portrait. She kindly obliged.
Apparently entirely unbothered by me, she spent most of her photoshoot grooming her toesies tarsi.
Fun fact: this species comes in two other color morphs – tan/orange and PINK. PINK!!! I'm pretty sure I would lose my bananas if I came across a pink katydid.
I'm home from BugShot, bleary-eyed and sleepy from a long night of travel and three prior days of sleep deprivation. No, Alex Wild, John Abbott and Thomas Shahan weren't working us THAT hard, but I was so darn fired up and excited about everything we were doing that I found it hard to tear myself away from my camera, even at 2 a.m.! The Shaw Nature Reserve in Missouri provided a beautiful setting for this jam-packed and very hands-on workshop, and the new (to me) ecosystem meant encounters with a lot of new critters!
I had the most amazing weekend: I learned everything I hoped to, and more. Even better than the fact that I'm feeling considerably less camera-stupid (I'm not shooting in Auto Mode as a default! I can manipulate my exposure all by myself! I'm using FLASHES!!!), I am coming away from this weekend feeling incredibly inspired. I've got some new ideas about composition, lighting, equipment and technique that I can't wait to try in the field, and in a studio setting. I think I will get off my very disorganized arse (*badly-labelled desktop folders*) and start applying what I've learned about digital asset management (*metadata! LightRoom! external hard drives!*) in a serious way.
The three instructors were friendly and incredibly generous with their time, expertise and advice. Each had a unique artistic eye and set of ideas about how to get the most out of your equipment; I've taken away some great tips and ideas from all of them. I have to thank Alex especially for giving me the opportunity to experiment with some of his flash units and studio setups – it was so great to actually work with these things rather than simply observe.
Trying out Alex's Canon 430EX off-camera flash with remote trigger (WANT!) in the field. I never could have captured this image of two very cryptic grasshoppers tucked under a shady bark nook in the dark forest understory without it!
An antlion larva, fished out from its funnel-shaped chamber under a porch (my first antlions!!!) and posed in Alex's white box setup for a studio shot. What a super-fun tool! I have a lot of respect for the work Alex must do to chase down fast-moving ants in there...this little guy seriously didn't stop moving (backward!!!) for more than a nanosecond!!!
So, basically, the entire thing was awesome and if I could do it again next weekend I would in a heartbeat. I think I'm going to start saving up now so I can go again next year (after I've finished saving up for some new equipment, mind you)!
I have a lot more pictures to share, but I'm not going to do it now…this workshop gave me enough blog fodder to get me through the busy fall term!
Thanks again, Alex, Thomas and John!!!


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Current Page Parent News
International / News February 17, 2015 Alan Wood
A Project in collaboration with
A joint reporting project by ProPublica and PBS Frontline, "Firestone and the Warlord" reached hundreds of thousands of viewers when it first aired Nov. 18. "Chilling," Salon wrote. "Gripping," said Fortune. "An example of the reason we bother to scrutinize history," said the New York Times. The project provoked conversation and upset among American and Liberian officials, as well as everyday citizens in the African nation whose trail of tears has most recently included the deadly Ebola outbreak. Accompanying its Feb. 3 rebroadcast, we are offering another chance to read the story here.
This is only the introduction. The entire book is available for free and all the chapters are linked at the bottom of this article. You can also check to see next airing on your local PBS station.
HARBEL, Liberia — The killers launched from the plantation under a waning moon one night in October 1992. They surged past tin-roofed villages and jungle hideouts, down macadam roads and red-clay bush trails. More and more joined their ranks until thousands of men in long, ragged columns moved toward the distant capital.
Men in camouflage mounted rusted artillery cannon in battered pickup trucks. Thin teenagers lugged rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Children carried AK-47s. Some held long machetes.
Watch Firestone and the Warlord on FRONTLINE. Check local PBS listings.
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The killers wore ripped jeans and T-shirts, women's wigs and cheap rubber sandals. Grotesque masks made them look like demons. They were electric with drugs. They clutched talismans of feather and bone to protect them from bullets. In the pre-dawn darkness, they surrounded Monrovia, the capital of Liberia.
They loosed their attack on the sleeping city. Artillery slammed into stores and homes. Mortars arced through thick, humid air that smelled of rot. Boy soldiers canoed across mangrove swamps. As they pressed in, the killers forced men, women and children from their homes. They murdered civilians and soldiers. Falling shells just missed the U.S. Embassy, hunkered on a high spot overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
A new phase of Liberia's civil war had begun. It would whip savagely out of control over the next decade. More than 200,000 people would die or suffer terrible injuries, most of them civilians — limbs hacked off, eyes gouged out. Half the country's population would become refugees. Five American nuns would be slaughtered, becoming international symbols of the conflict's depravity.
Orchestrating the anarchy was Charles Taylor, a suave egomaniac obsessed with taking over Liberia, America's most faithful ally in Africa. For the attack that October morning, he had built his army of butchers and believers in part with the resources of one of America's most iconic businesses: Firestone.
Firestone has operated a rubber plantation in Liberia since 1926. (Ashley Gilbertson for ProPublica)
Firestone ran the plantation that Taylor used to direct the October 1992 assault on Monrovia. In operation since 1926, the rubber plantation was considered to be the largest of its kind in the world, a contiguous swath of trees, mud-brown rivers, low hills and verdant bush that at the time splayed across 220 square miles – roughly the size of Chicago.
Firestone wanted Liberia for its rubber. Taylor wanted Firestone to help his rise to power. At a pivotal meeting in Liberia's jungles in July 1991, the company agreed to do business with the warlord.
In the first detailed examination of the relationship between Firestone and Taylor, an investigation by ProPublica and Frontline lays bare the role of a global corporation in a brutal African conflict.
Firestone served as a source of food, fuel, trucks and cash used by Taylor's ragtag rebel army, according to interviews, internal corporate documents and declassified diplomatic cables.
The company signed a deal in 1992 to pay taxes to Taylor's rebel government. Over the next year, the company doled out more than $2.3 million in cash, checks and food to Taylor, according to an accounting in court files. Between 1990 and 1993, the company invested $35.3 million in the plantation.
In return, Taylor's forces provided security to the plantation that allowed Firestone to produce rubber and safeguard its assets. Taylor's rebel government offered lower export taxes that gave the company a financial break on rubber shipments.
We needed Firestone to give us international legitimacy. We needed them for credibility.
John Toussaint Richardson, one of Taylor's top advisers
For Taylor, the relationship with Firestone was about more than money. It helped provide him with the political capital and recognition he needed as he sought to establish his credentials as Liberia's future leader.
"We needed Firestone to give us international legitimacy," said John Toussaint "J.T." Richardson, a U.S.-trained architect who became one of Taylor's top advisers. "We needed them for credibility."
While Firestone used the plantation for the business of rubber, Taylor used it for the business of war. Taylor turned storage centers and factories on Firestone's sprawling rubber farm into depots for weapons and ammunition. He housed himself and his top ministers in Firestone homes. He also used communications equipment on the plantation to broadcast messages to his supporters, propaganda to the masses and instructions to his troops.
Secret U.S. diplomatic cables from the time captured Taylor's gratitude to Firestone. Firestone's plantation "had been the lifeblood" of the territory in Liberia that he controlled, Taylor told one Firestone executive, according to a State Department cable. Taylor later said in sworn testimony that Firestone's resources had been the "most significant" source of foreign exchange in the early years of his revolt.
In written responses to questions, Firestone acknowledged the agreement with Taylor, but said it had never willingly assisted Taylor's insurrection.
Charles Taylor's rebels cobbled together weapons for indiscriminate assaults on Monrovia. (Patrick Robert/Sygma/Corbis)
The company said Taylor rebels had used Firestone's trucks, food, medical supplies, fuel and tools under the "obvious threat of violence to anyone who considered stopping them."
"Firestone had no role in the rise of Charles Taylor. It had no role in his ability to hold power in Liberia," the company said.
"At no time did Firestone have a collaborative relationship with Charles Taylor," the statement said. "The company's activities were focused on protecting its employees and property. The company had no ability to stop Taylor's forces from using the plantation for any purposes."
At the moment of the October 1992 attack that came to be known as Operation Octopus, Taylor controlled the vast majority of Liberia. He faced a weak interim government in Monrovia, backed by 7,000 largely untested soldiers from allied West African nations.
Operation Octopus effectively plunged the country into five more turbulent, terrible years of intermittent warfare. Taylor turned a civil war between his forces and the Liberian government into a bloodbath as more rebel factions joined in the fight for spoils: diamonds, timber, power. It spilled into neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone, where rebel forces allied with Taylor hacked the limbs off civilians in a terror campaign of unchecked brutality.
In July 1997, Taylor won his war, and not on the battlefield. He was elected president, dominating with 75 percent of the vote. For many Liberians, a vote for Taylor was a vote of resignation. Many believed it was the only way to stop the killing. After Taylor became president, more factions arose, more bloodletting, more revenge. Liberia and its people suffered yet again.
In 2003, Taylor was indicted by an international tribunal for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone. He resigned the presidency. He was eventually sentenced to 50 years in prison — the first head of state to be convicted of crimes against humanity since the Nazi era.
The path to cooperation was neither direct nor easy for Firestone and its executives, according to interviews and documents. Some company officials actively resisted working with Taylor and his fighters, even in the face of real and implied threats of physical violence.
Do I think they have blood on their hands? Yes. I believe they facilitated a warlord in his insurrection and in the atrocities that he created.
Gerald Rose, former deputy chief of mission for the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia
Other senior officers felt the company had no choice but to give in to Taylor's demands. They believed that working with Taylor was the only way to protect the thousands of impoverished Liberians who lived and labored on the plantation.
Firestone also received conflicting direction from the United States government. One ambassador urged the company to work with Taylor. In Washington, diplomats warned Firestone executives about the dangers of doing business with him.
But in the end, Firestone as a corporation, and as a collection of men, made a deliberate decision to cooperate with a man whose forces were publicly denounced as violent, vicious and rapacious by the U.S. government and human rights groups.
The U.S. State Department had issued a report blaming Taylor's forces for killing civilians, raping women and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to become refugees. Human Rights Watch said that Taylor's forces had engaged in a killing campaign that put a targeted ethnic group at "risk of genocide."
Today, Firestone maintains that at the time it struck its deal with Taylor, the guerrilla leader had "no well-established record" of human right violations. It said that many other companies and world leaders had treated Taylor as a legitimate political figure. Other companies operating in Liberia at the time chose to leave. But some stayed on through the violence.
"Does Firestone believe it did the right thing? Yes," Firestone said of its decisions in Liberia. "Do we, along with former U.S. presidents, the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and many leaders around the world who worked with Charles Taylor regret the war criminal he became? Yes."
The decision that Firestone faced confronts American companies operating to this day in war-torn, volatile regions in an increasingly globalized economy. All aim to make money. All must weigh, to one degree or another, their hierarchy of obligations – to their shareholders, to their foreign workers, to their host countries, and to their own sense of right and wrong.
Charles Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison for "aiding and abetting … some of the most heinous and brutal crimes recorded in human history." (Jerry Lampen/AFP/Getty Images)
Donald Ensminger served as the managing director of the Firestone plantation when Taylor invaded Liberia. He witnessed the violence first hand. Taylor rebels killed and imprisoned his workers. They threatened Ensminger with death at the point of a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Ensminger was let go from the company in October 1991. For the next 23 years, he kept silent about Firestone's choice to do a deal with a warlord. Now, he told Frontline and ProPublica, he wanted to explain.
He said that he warned Firestone that Taylor was a killer. He told the company that working with him might be a crime. He urged them to avoid deals that might legitimize the guerilla leader as the ruler of Liberia.
For him, the decision was clear. And Firestone got it wrong.
"Certainly on behalf of our employees, the ones that were killed and suffered, it was immoral that we should now recognize the guy that caused all this," he said in an interview.
Gerald Rose, who served as the deputy chief of mission in Liberia at the time, holds an equally unsparing view of Firestone's choice.
"Do I think they have blood on their hands? Yes," Rose said. "I would not have made the decisions they made. I believe they facilitated a warlord in his insurrection and in the atrocities that he created."
Through the years, Liberia has been hesitant to examine its past. Taylor, for instance, was tried only for harm he caused in Sierra Leone, not Liberia. In 2009, the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended sanctions for scores of perpetrators. It cited Firestone for having aided Taylor in carrying out his rebellion and called for more investigation. The Liberian government never acted on those recommendations.
The stunning truth is that nobody has ever been punished in Liberia for the civil war that destroyed the nation. In fact, some of the people who helped to wreck the country are now the same people responsible for rebuilding it.
Charles Taylor's civil war included the use of child soldiers and scenes of gruesome violence. (Patrick Robert/Sygma/Corbis)
Top officials of formerly warring factions are now politicians passing laws in the legislature. They are pastors preaching from the country's pulpits. They are executives running some of the country's largest businesses.
The damage they inflicted on Liberia haunts the country even today. Liberia's shattered infrastructure and weakened health system have struggled to cope with the spread of the Ebola virus, which has killed thousands of Liberians.
In an interview with Frontline and ProPublica, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf acknowledged that Liberia had not yet succeeded in shaking the Taylor regime or the devils of its history.
"The effect of that regime and regimes of the past are still with us today," she said. "Today we have a traumatized nation."
Efforts over many months to reach Taylor through his lawyers and family were not successful.
Johnson Sirleaf looked thoughtful when asked to describe Liberia's relationship with Firestone. A Nobel Peace Prize winner, Johnson Sirleaf said the company had benefitted Liberia with jobs and revenue.
In fact, during its decades of operation, Firestone had built a nation within a nation. The company provided housing, schools, food and health care to workers and their families. Some 80,000 Liberians lived within its borders. Firestone introduced currency, built roads and opened up the rural interior.
At the same time, Johnson Sirleaf said, Firestone has sometimes failed to live up to its obligations to the country whose people have provided it with so much over so many years. Over the decades, the company has faced accusations that it exploited its laborers, received unfair concession deals, despoiled the environment and exacerbated corruption.
Said Johnson Sirleaf: "It is a mixed story."
Entire book below.
Warlord on the Rise Chapter 1A Century of Blood, Sweat and Profits Chapter 2Tough Talk in the Jungle Chapter 3Deal with the Devil Chapter 4Money and Menace Chapter 5Raising Hell Chapter 6A Traumatized Nation Chapter 7
Tags: AfricaBrutalityCharles TaylorChristian MillerFirestoneFirestone and the WarlordJonathon JonesLiberiaMassacrePBSProPublicaRubberTiresViolence
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


1: Yes, I am a podiatrist (foot & ankle doctor/surgeon)... 2: USCF rating 2050 3: Before you ask why my Standard rating is so good and my Bullett rating so bad...I'm getting old...slow brain! 4: I won the First Latvian Gambit World Championship (see page 20 in 2/99 Chess Life for details). 5: Remember: Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box... 6: My goal at the ICC is to develop courteous chess friendships...I grow tired of those who desire the opposite. 7: What is your handle Howard Stern? 8: "I'd rather have a pawn than a finger." - Reuben Fine 9: "I'd rather have a pawn than a toe." - FootDoc 10: Cheers and Good Chess!


🥂 🍳☕ 6 euros continental breakfast in the "Christmas" restaurant in 50m!
The apartment location allows to get deeper into the life of the Old and New Town in the same time with a specific unforgettable atmosphere, old streets with small medieval squares and numerous cafes and restaurants. It all promises an unforgettable experience of your visit to Prague.
The apartment's area is full of awesome local restaurants and coffee shops. It's one of the most favourite neighboorhoods among the locals for living, don't miss an opportunity to become a part true Prague!


A Postdoctoral Scientist or Research Engineer position of 12 months is proposed at TIMC laboratory located at Grenoble. This position is in the research team SyNaBi, that is part of the laboratory TIMC-IMAG (UMR 5525). SyNaBi has an active fundamental and applied research activity (funded by several agencies including ANR, SATT/Linksium, Ligue Contre Cancer ) in the domains of: biomimetic membranes and biocompatible polymers, biophysics and modelling, molecular and cellular biology, bioelectrochemistry, electrophysiology.
Le laboratoire TIMC et l'institut d'ingénierie, Grenoble INP, recrutent un(e) enseignant(e)-chercheur(se) pour la rentrée 2019 en Intelligence Artificielle, sections 26/27.
The Grenoble Alpes University and Arts et Metiers ParisTech School offer a thesis position on "Biomechanics of the buttocks tissues" as part of the European project STINTS, "SkinTissue Integrity under Shear", from the EU research framework program Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions : "Mixed experimental and numerical approach for the personalized simulation of the poro-elastic response of pelvic soft tissues during the interaction with support surfaces."
The Grenoble Alpes University offers a thesis position on "Biomechanics of the foot" as part of the European project STINTS, "SkinTissue Integrity under Shear" : "Coupling of custom-mechanical biomechanical multi-scale multi-physics Finite Element foot modelling for simulation-driven support surface optimization"
Our group is looking for a post-doctoral fellow to be funded for up to two years. The group mainly focuses on understanding the fundamental bases of chromatin and gene regulation using physical modeling and computational approaches. This entails understanding chromosome organization and dynamics, and epigenomic regulation in normal and cancer cells. Our innovative research is conducted in close interaction with top-leader experimental and clinical partners.
"Caractérisation de mutations inédites identifiées chez Candida spp. : implication dans la résistance aux antifongiques."


HummingBad, an Android malware that appeared in early 2016, has evidently resurfaced with a few tweaks under the name HummingWhale and has even managed to find its way into the Play Store. The malware was found by Check Point, the same security group that outed the original HummingBad. By zeroing in on the code contained in the malware itself and searching the Google Play Store for that string, Check Point managed to find 20 different apps containing the malware and reported them to Google. Since then, the apps known to contain HummingWhale have been removed by Google, but caution is still advised.
The apps containing HummingWhale included the likes of Whale Camera, Elephant Album, and Deep Cleaner. The identified apps generated millions of downloads before getting pulled from the Google Play Store. In order to check if your device has been infected and purge the infection if it has, a security and anti-malware app like Lookout or Avast should be your first choice. If these apps are unable to purge the malware from your system, a factory reset may be in order. Custom ROM users should probably wipe everything except their internal and external storage in their recovery of choice and reflash their ROM, GAPPS, kernel, and any mods to be on the safe side.
In its original form, HummingBad used a privilege escalation bug of sorts by packaging an APK as an app asset. When called, that asset would generate a virtual device and load a copy of a fraudulent app onto it, generating a unique referral ID and a bit of ad revenue. This happened each time a user closed an ad generated by the app, and as the virtual machine would disappear, users were left clueless about what happened. These virtual machines could also be used to leave fake Play Store ratings and use popularity fraud to silence hundreds of users outing the fake apps in their review sections. The exploit was only used to generate fraudulent ad revenue, but could easily have gained control of infected devices. HummingWhale is much the same, except it hides its malicious code from the Google Play Store and Google's on-device malware filters with a bit of clever code manipulation to do all the things that HummingBad's rootkit did.


If you're wondering if the belief in religion is essential to your meditation journey, the simple answer is no. Many people are deterred from exploring meditation due to its religious origins. They are afraid of having to tie it in with a particular religion that may not be their own. Some people believe in energy or a higher power but not a particular God. This should not be a concern. Don't miss out on the self-actualization and sense of calm that it brings. Today, there is a huge variety of meditation styles and different meditative techniques. You can definitely find a style that you can practice sans religion. Many of the fundamental meditation teachings are based in ancient Buddhist and Hindu traditions. Some come from other religious practices. You will find that some of these styles are still practiced in their original form. Most have also been adapted for use in religiously unaffiliated meditation styles.
It is quite easy to fall into the trap of associating meditation with religion. Many meditative roots have been practiced in religions for centuries. They were believed to encourage enlightenment, divine connection, and belief. Hinduism with yoga uses meditation to reach a space of self- actualization and awareness. Buddhist meditation helps practitioners reach a state of calmness, awareness, and insights. There is even documentation of meditation being practiced in the bible. Christians use meditations as a way to foster and build their relationship with God. It enhances their ability to pray and connect. Jews have been using the gift of meditation to reach a higher understanding of divinity and the oneness of God. It also helps in self-improvement and the refinement of one's character traits. As you can see, meditation has played an integral part in many world religions. But you don't need to be religious or be a believer to meditate.
The beauty of meditation is that everyone and anyone can do it. If you want to do it and commit to meditative practice, then you'll have nothing left to hold you back. Meditation today is extremely popular and all the "cool kids" are doing it. From your kid's school teacher, to pop stars, your neighbor downstairs, to the models on the fashion runways! Believers and the atheists are setting aside time in their busy schedules to meditate. The goal is to lead a more fulfilling, calm and mindful existence.
So if you don't fit into one of the religious categories don't be concerned. You don't have to be sure if a higher being exists, or what you really think about the greater meaning of life. You are still welcome to meditate. Some people use meditation to help them answer these incomplete questions. Others simply focus on other questions and beliefs that they have surrounding themselves. They focus on and their abilities, skills, relationships and motivations.
If you aren't connected to religion, what kinds of meditation are most suitable for you? Which ones will allow you to have the full experience, without spiritual discomfort? There are still many styles of meditation that will work well for you. To find the best fit, you should experiment with a handful of different styles. Keep an open mind, until you find the one that sings to you both mentally and physically. Although the main focus of meditation is mental, our body also plays a significant role. Moving meditations like tai chi, focus on the centering of the chi (qi). It involves focusing on our movements, power, and energy.
Breathing meditations are very popular. That is because they are convenient. You can practice it anywhere and anytime since you need to be breathing anyway. This type of meditation stems from original Buddhist meditation techniques. Today there are many non-religious breathing meditation styles that we can all relate to. From a religious point of view, you can focus on a breathing meditation and contemplate your own life force. "Where does my breath come from, or what is the basis of life?" Breathing meditations that are disconnected from religion are quite different. A seated breathing meditation can be practiced in a few ways. You can ponder the physicality of breathing. "How are all the mechanisms of the body working to create a simple inhale or exhale?" Or, you can focus on the abstract concept of breathing while visualizing the effects it has on the body.
With these examples, you can see how meditative styles are different. It is quite clear that meditation without religion is completely possible. You just need to approach it from a different angle. Some people aren't into meditating on specific questions. Meditation helps calm the mind and body. It reduces stress and anxiety and improves concentration. There are many health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and managing diabetes. Sit on the floor in the lotus position.
Make sure you are comfortable and that your body is well aligned. Select an undistracted environment and focus on your breathing. As you inhale be aware of the rise of your chest and the expansion of your abdomen. Allow all the oxygen rich air to fill your lungs and evaporate into every cell of your body. When you exhale release anger, frustration, and stress. Visualize your body and its spaces returning to a resting position.
You'll notice, that this kind of meditation is a universal practice. We all breath, it is a fact of life. You can achieve insights, serenity, and self-actualization without believing in a higher power. You don't need to be or being or affiliated with a specific sect or religion. There is a meditative style out there for you. Only you can discover which is best for you. Start exploring, and don't let religion or the lack of it hold you back!


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An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors
DIR Atlas
Julius Valerius Maiorianus (18 February/28 December 457 - 2/7 August 461)
Ralph W. Mathisen University of South Carolina
The emperor Julius Valerius Majorianus, or Majorian, is known primarily from fragments of evidence found either in jejune chronicles, such as those of the Spaniard Hydatius and Count Marcellinus (an easterner who wrote in Latin), or in extracts from writers whose complete works do not survive, such as the Byzantine writers Priscus, John of Antioch, and Malalas. The most insightful source is Sidonius Apollinaris, a Gallic aristocrat who was the son-in-law of the emperor Eparchius Avitus. Sidonius met Majorian during the emperor's campaign in Gaul in 458-459, and had dinner with him at least once in early 461. Sidonius not only provides a revealing personal vignette of the emperor, but he also composed an extant verse panegyric that provides our only connected account of Majorian's personal history and is the best source for his activities before becoming emperor
In addition, Majorian's domestic policies are much better known than those of the other "shadow" emperors of the last years of the western Roman Empire because of the survival of several of his legislative enactments, known as "Novels", which were preserved in the Breviarium, a compilation of Roman law published by Gallo-Roman jurists in 506 under the authority of the Visigothic king Alaric II (484-507). These laws may have made their way into Gallic archives during the course of Majorian's stays in Gaul during the years 458-461. They demonstrate the increasingly pervasive problems that the emperors had with maintaining the functioning of the imperial bureaucracy as self-interest and corruption became more and more rampant among government officials.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
Majorian's mother was the daughter of the Master of Soldiers Majorianus who was present at Sirmium in 379 when Theodosius I was made emperor. Majorian's father, whose name is unknown, held a financial office, possibly that of numerarius ("senior accountant"), on the staff of the western Master of Soldiers Aëtius (PLRE II, pp.1235-1236). Majorian's birthdate is unknown, but because Sidonius refers to him as a iuvenis ("young man") in 458, he perhaps was not born before ca.420.
As a young man, Majorian embarked on a military career, and likewise served with Aëtius, probably in Gaul (Sidonius Apollinaris, Carm. 5. 198-200). In this capacity, he fought in one battle to defend Tours, and in another against the Franks at Vicus Helena, perhaps ca.448. According to Sidonius, "There was a narrow passage at the junction of two ways, and a road crossed both the village of Helena... and the river. [Aëtius] was posted at the cross-roads while Majorian warred as a mounted man close to the bridge itself..." (ibid. 5.207-227: Anderson trans., 1.76-81) At this time, Majorian served with the half-Sueve, half-Visigoth Ricimer and the Gaul Aegidius, both of whom later became powerful generals in their own right.
By 454, Majorian had left active service and retired to a country estate. Sidonius attributes this to the jealousy of Aëtius' wife, who supposedly feared that Majorian would outshine Aëtius ("livida coniunx ... suffusaque bili / coxerat internum per barbara corda venenum": Carm.5.126-128). After the murder of Aëtius in 454, Majorian was recalled by the emperor Valentinian III to assist in conciliating Aëtius' troops, and it may have been at this time that he was made comes domesticorum ("Count of the Domestics"). Sidonius noted, "So that he might with more safety win over the great hosts of his victim to join the Palatine bands, Valentinian prayerfully called on Majorian to come to him" (Carm. 5.305-308).
After Valentinian's own murder in 455, there was no obvious successor to the throne. Several candidates surfaced, as noted by John of Antioch:
"Rome was in a state of confusion and disturbance, and the military forces were divided among themselves, some wishing Maximus to assume the royal power and some eager to give the throne to Maximianus, the son of Domninus, an Egyptian merchant who had made his fortune in Italy; Maximianus had held the position of domesticus [bodyguard] of Aëtius. In addition, Eudoxia, the wife of Valentinian, strongly favored Majorian. But Maximus gained control of the palace by distributing money and forced Eudoxia to marry him by threatening her with death, thinking that his position would be more secure. So Maximus came to the leadership of the Roman Empire "(fr.201.6: Gordon trans., pp.113-114)
So, in spite of having the support of Eudoxia (see also Sid.Apoll. Carm. 5.312-314), Majorian was unsuccessful in his bid for the throne and the choice fell upon the powerful senator Petronius Maximus, who made Majorian comes domesticorum if Valentinian had not already done so.
Maximus soon perished, during the Vandal sack of Rome in May 455, but any hopes that Majorian might have had of forwarding his own pretensions to the throne were preempted by the Gaul Eparchius Avitus, who was named Augustus in Gaul with the support of the Visigoths. Majorian, still Count of the Domestics, initially supported Avitus, as did Ricimer, now a military comes ("Count"), who defeated Vandal raiders in Sicily and off Corsica. But by mid-456 Avitus' popularity in Italy had waned, and Majorian and Ricimer revolted against him. In October, according to John of Antioch (fr.202),
"Majorian and Ricimer openly rebelled against Avitus, for they no longer feared the Goths... Attacking him on the road, Majorian and Ricimer compelled [Avitus] to flee to a holy precinct, renounce his office, and remove his royal raiment. Majorian did not withdraw until Avitus died of starvation."
Avitus' forces were defeated at Piacenza and Ravenna, and he died in early 457.
After Avitus' deposition Majorian initially bided his time, perhaps because he was hoping for recognition from the eastern emperor Marcian. But Marcian died on 27 January 457, presumably before he did anything regarding the west, and he was succeeded on 7 February by the general Leo, who likewise seems not to have been inclined to name a western emperor. Rather, on 28 February 457, Ricimer was officially designated patricius et magister militum ("Patrician and Master of Soldiers") and Majorian magister militum ("Master of Soldiers") ("his cons. Ricimer mag. mil. patricius factus est pridie kl. Martias et factus est Maiorianus mag. mil. ipso die": Fast.vind.prior.583). Such appointments could only have been made legally by Leo, so it would appear that Leo initially declined any request for imperial status for Majorian and responded instead by granting lesser honors to the two western generals. This would mean that, at least for the time being, Leo intended to rule as sole emperor.
In his magisterial capacity, Majorian sent a force under Count Burco against Alamanni invading from Raetia who eventually penetrated as far as Lake Maggiore. In his panegyric, Sidonius recounted to Majorian,
"The savage Alaman had scaled the Alps and had emerged, plundering the Roman land; he had sent 900 foemen to scour for booty... By this time you were Master [of Soldiers], and you sent forth Burco with a band of followers... Fortune brought about a triumph not through numbers but through their love of you... You fought with the authority of a Master but the destiny of an Emperor" (Carm. 5.373-385: Anderson trans., 1.94-95).
It may have been that this victory led to the acclamation of Majorian as Augustus on 1 April, probably by the army, six miles outside Ravenna at a place called "At the Little Columns" ("...et levatus est imp. d.n. Maiorianus kald. April. in miliario VI in campo ad Columellas": Fast.vind.prior.583).
Subsequent events, however, indicate that Leo did not immediately recognize Majorian's imperial status. Other sources state that Majorian did not become emperor until 28 December: "levatur Leo et Ravennae Maiorianus V kal.Ian." (Auct. Prosp. a.458). One might speculate that the latter months of the year 458 saw some delicate negotiations between Rome and Constantinople, and that Leo's concurrence was not received until the very end of the year. And agree he clearly did. The chronicler Marcellinus reported, "By the will of Leo Majorian was installed as emperor at Ravenna (s.a.457: "cuius voluntate Majorianus apud Ravennam Caesar est ordinatus"), and in 459 both Majorian and Leo were consuls, as was customary for emperors in their first full calendar year of rule. Both consulates were recognized in both the east and the west from the very beginning of the year, demonstrating that agreement on joint recognition had been reached in advance. Still, the gap between Majorian's initial and formal acclamations was an embarrassment; Sidonius dissimulated by asserting that Majorian initially had been reluctant to accept the thone: "The world trembled with alarm while you were loath to permit your victories to benefit you, and because, overly modest, you grieved because you deserved the throne and because you would not undertake to rule what you had deemed worth defending" (Carm. 5.9-12; for translation, cf. Anderson, 1.61).
Ensuing relations between Majorian and the eastern court likewise seem to have had their ups and downs. In 459, for example, Ricimer was named consul in the west, but was not recognized in the east; nor was the eastern consul Patricius acknowledged in the west. Nor would the eastern non-recognition of Ricimer have been a result of his barbarian heritage, for Patricius was the son of the barbarian Master of Soldiers Aspar. Subsequently, however, any differences must have been patched up, for in 460 and 461 east and west returned to recognizing each other's consuls. Otherwise, however, there seems to have been little interaction between the two courts, and any initiatives, military or civil, that Majorian undertook he shouldered on his own authority and using western resources.
On 11 January 458, two weeks after his formal installation, Majorian issued his first piece of legislation, which was entitled "On the Inception of the Rule of the Lord Emperor Majorian" ("De ortu imperii domini Majoriani Augusti", Novella Maioriani 1: trans. Pharr, p.551). In this maiden speech, delivered to but not at the Senate of Rome, Majorian laid forth the policies he planned to use in his governance of the empire:
"Emperor Majorian Augustus to the Senate: Know, O Conscript Fathers, that I have been made emperor by the decision of your election and by the ordination of our very gallant army... Also, on the Kalends consecrated to Janus We raised aloft the fasces of the consulship... Grant now your favor to the Emperor whom you have made, and share with Us the responsibility for matters that must be considered. No person shall fear the practices of informers... No one shall fear calumnies except those that he himself had originated. The watchful care of military affairs will be Our concern, as well as the concern of Our Father, the Patrician Ricimer..."
From the beginning of Majorian's reign, the pre-eminent position of the barbarian general Ricimer as a virtual "co-regent" was clear.
CONSOLIDATION OF AUTHORITY
Initially, Majorian controlled only Italy. In Gaul, Majorian's authority was openly disregarded, no surprise given his role in the deposition of the Gaul Avitus, and Spain was far beyond his reach. Africa and Britain were, it seemed, completely lost. Majorian spent nearly his entire reign attempting to consolidate his authority in areas of the empire that he did control, and to recover regions he did not. He spent all his time in northern Italy and the provinces; he is not known to have visited Rome. Even his initial address to the senate (Novella Maioriani 1) and his law forbidding the destruction of public buildings in Rome (Novella Maioriani 4: 11 July 458) were issued at Ravenna.
Early in Majorian's reign, even Italy was threatened. In a brief encounter in the summer of 458, a Vandal party raiding Campania was defeated and King Gaiseric's brother-in-law was killed. It may be in the context of these Vandal onslaughts that Majorian issued a directive, the text of which has been lost, entitled "On the Return of the Right to Bear Arms" ("De reddito iure armorum", Novella Maioriani 8). The emperor Valentinian III had issued a law with the same title in 440 (Novella Valentiniani 9) in response to earlier Vandal raids. And another law for which the text is lacking, entitled "Concerning Charioteers and Seditious Persons" ("De aurigis et seditiosis", Novella Maioriani 12), also may have been issued at this time of public unrest.
Majorian then turned his attentions to the recovery of the western provinces. Recognizing the importance of sea power, especially in the face of the Vandal threat, he apparently attempted to revitalize the western Roman fleet, which seems to have fallen into desuetude. Sidonius reported, "Meanwhile you built on the two shores fleets for the upper and lower sea. Down into the water falls every forest of the Apennines..." (Carm. 5.441-442: Anderson trans., 1.99). The two fleets perhaps were those stationed traditionally at Misenum and Ravenna on the Tuscan and Adriatic Seas. He also assembled an army largely comprised, as will be seen, of barbarian mercenaries.
There are several indications of the initial Gallic disregard of Majorian's rule. In 458, for example, an inscription of 458 from Lyons was dated by the eastern consul alone, and pointedly ignored Majorian's consulate (CIL 13.2363, cf. 2359). And an archdeacon of Lyons was said to have traveled to the eastern court and requested the emperor Leo to remit the taxes on the city (Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Confessors 62), an incident which shows a blatant disregard of the jurisdiction of the western emperor. Indeed, a context for an embassy at this time is found in the year 458, when, according to the chronicler Marcellinus, "The emperor Leo sent individual letters speaking out on behalf of the Tome of Chalcedon to individual orthodox bishops throughout the entire world, so that all might demonstrate in their own responses what they felt. He received the unanimous letters of all these bishops..." One of these bishops would have been Eucherius of Lyons, and his response could have been delivered by the aforementioned archdeacon.
More seriously, there seems to have been another attempt in Gaul to endorse an imperial candidate. Sidonius makes a cryptic reference to a "Marcellan conspiracy for seizing the diadem" ("de capessendo diademate coniuratio Marcellana": Epist. 1.11.6; the manuscript reading "Marcellana" is correct, not "Marcelliniana" or "Marcellini", to which it generally has been emended) that occurred after the fall of Avitus and before the end of 458. The conspiracy somehow involved a person named Marcellus, of whom there are several attested in Gaul at this time, and may have been an attempt to put Avitus back on the throne after his deposition by Majorian and Ricimer. The only other individual known to have been involved was Paeonius, a rival of Sidonius (see below) who used the interregnum as an opportunity to usurp the office of Praetorian Prefect of Gaul. Whatever its details, the conspiracy apparently came to nought, perhaps because of Avitus' death.
In late 458, meanwhile, Majorian singled out Gaul for special attention when he decreed, "No [tax] collector is to refuse a solidus of full weight, except for the Gallic solidus, whose gold is appraised at a lesser value" ("nullus solidum integri ponderis recuset exactor, excepto eo gallico, cuius aurum minore aestimatione taxatur") (Novella Maioriani 7.14: 6 November 458). This probably is a reference to solidi, in Roman types, issued by the Visigoths.
Soon thereafter, with winter coming on, Majorian marched into Gaul. Sidonius rhetorically catalogued, in verse, the barbarian peoples who served in Majorian's army, whose names need no translation:
hoc totum tua signa pavet; Bastarna, Suebus,/Pannonius, Neurus, Chunus, Geta, Dacus, Halanus,/Bellonotus, Rugus, Burgundio, Vesus, Alites,/Bisalta, Ostrogothus, Procrustes, Sarmata, Moschus...
(Carm. 5.474-477).
The Visigoths, under king Theodoric II (453-464), were driven away from Arles and induced to return to their federate status. The Spanish chronicler Hydatius reported: "Legates sent by Nepotianus, the Master of Soldiers, and by Count Sunericus came to Gallaecia announcing that, after the Goths had been overcome in some sort of battle, the Emperor Majorian and King Theodoric had ratified the securest bonds of peace among themselves" (Chron. no.197, s.a.459 [the date of the arrival of the legates]). At about this time, Majorian also made the Gaul Aegidius, his old comrade-in-arms, Master of Soldiers in Gaul ("cui [Avito] Maiorianus successit. In Galliis autem Aegidius ex Romanis magister militum datus est": Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum 2.11; cf. Priscus fr.30).
Then, with Visigothic support, Majorian expanded the territory under his control. The contemporary Byzantine historian Priscus reported, "Majorian, the emperor of the western Romans, when the Goths in Gaul were his allies, overcame the peoples living in his dominion, some by arms and some by diplomacy" (Priscus, fr.27: Gordon trans., pp.116-117). Majorian advanced up the Rhone valley. The Burgundians were defeated and, after being besieged and captured, Lyons had a ruinous indemnity imposed upon it.
Soon, however, Majorian's attitude changed from being punitive to being conciliatory. In early January, 459, with the mediation of Majorian's magister epistularum ("Chief of Correspondence") Petrus, Avitus' son-in-law Sidonius Apollinaris was permitted to deliver a panegyric praising the emperor's sterling qualities (Carm.5) Majorian then proposed a much more magnanimous Gallic settlement; indeed, it could hardly have been otherwise if he hoped to conciliate the Gauls. For example, the tax remission that the inhabitants of Lyons had requested from Leo was granted (Sid.Apoll. Carm.5.574-585). And it may have been on this occasion that Sidonius himself was accorded the title of comesspectabilis ("Respectable")which allowed Sidonius to outrank the great majority of his senatorial cousins. As for Paeonius, his irregular prefecture was legitimized, but he also was immediately replaced.
Spain and Africa
Following the recovery of Gaul, Majorian turned his attentions to Spain, where the Visigoths had been expanding enthusiastically since 455. Hydatius notes that Majorian entered Spain in May, 459. Majorian' goals were twofold: he not only wished to restore Roman authority in Spain, but he also wanted to use it as a base for an invasion of Africa, the richest region of the western empire, which was held by Gaiseric's Vandals. Majorian began to assemble an invasion fleet, and Procopius provides a rather fanciful account of his preparations:
"Majorian, who had gained the power of the west, also deserves mention... This Majorian,who surpassed in every virtue all who have ever been emperors of the Romans, did not bear lightly the loss of Libya, but collected a very considerable army against the Vandals and came to Liguria, intending himself to lead the army against the enemy. For Majorian never showed the least hesitation before any task and least of all before the dangers of war. But thinking it not inexpedient for him to investigate first the strength of the Vandals and the character of Gaiseric and to discover how the Moors and Libyans stood with regard to friendship or hostility toward the Romans, he decided to trust no eyes other than his own in such a matter. Accordingly, he set out as if he was an envoy from the emperor to Gaiseric, assuming some fictitious name... And when he came before Gaiseric, the barbarian attempted in many ways to terrify him, and... he brought him into the place where all the weapons were stored... Thereupon they say that the weapons shook of their own accord and gave forth a sound of no ordinary or casual sort, and then it seemed to Gaiseric that there had been an earthquake... He was not able to comprehend the meaning of what had happened... So Majorian, having accomplished the very things he wished, returned to Liguria and leading his army on foot, [Majorian] came to the Pillars of Hercules, intending to cross over the strait at that point, and then to march by land from there against Carthage. And when Gaiseric became aware of this, and perceived that he had been tricked by Majorian in the matter of the embassy, he became alarmed and made his preparations for war. And the Romans, basing their confidence on the valor of Majorian, already began to have good hopes of recovering Libya for the empire (Procopius, Bellum Vandalicum 7.4-13: Dewing trans., pp.65-69)
Even if one doubts that Majorian undertook a secret mission to Africa himself (and Procopius, ibid. 4.1-11, tells a similar story about a meeting between Gaiseric and the future emperor Marcian), the tale may very well reflect intelligence gathering that went on prior to the planned invasion.
The early course of the preparations against the Vandals is discussed by Priscus:
"Majorian even attempted to cross over to Libya with a great force, after he had collected about three hundred ships. The ruler of the Vandals first sent envoys to him to resolve the disagreements by diplomacy. When the emperor was not persuaded, he laid waste all the land of the Moors to which Majorian and his troops had to cross from Spain and harassed the surrounding waters (Priscus, fr.27: Gordon trans., pp.116-117)
Gaiseric, therefore, was quite concerned about the possibility of an invasion -- no surprise, perhaps, given the defeats he had suffered in the past at the hands of Ricimer and Majorian -- and suggested a diplomatic solution. When that failed, he adopted a scorched-earth policy in the territory where he anticipated that Majorian would land.
Majorian, meanwhile, continued to extend his influence in Spain, and while he was thus distracted, disaster struck. The Gallic Chronicle of 511 noted, "As he was planning to cross to Africa, his ships were captured by the Vandals near Cartagena in Spain" ("qui volens Africam proficisci naves eius in Hispaniis a Wandalis captae sunt iuxta Carthaginem Spartariam": no.634), and Marius of Avenches was a bit more specific, stating, wrongly under the year 460, "...the emperor Majorian set out for Spain. In this year his ships were captured by the Vandals at Elche near Cartagena" ("Maiorianus imperator profectus est ad Hispanias. Eo anno captae sunt naves a Vandalis ad Elecem iuxta Cartaginem Spartariam"). Some would identify "Elica" as Alicanta, nearly eighty miles to the north of Cartagena, but the ancient town of Elche, only forty miles north, seems more likely.
Hydatius provides some additional background: "While Majorian was campaigning in the province of Carthaginiensis the Vandals destroyed, through traitors, several ships that he was preparing for himself for a crossing against the Vandals from the shore of Carthaginiensis. Majorian, frustrated in this manner from his intention, returned to Italy" (Chron. 200, s.a. 460). Gaiseric again sought a settlement, but this time from a position of power: "King Gaiseric, through ambassadors, demanded peace from the emperor Majorian" (Hydatius, Chron. 209, s.a.460). Majorian, far from his home base and perhaps threatened, in light of the Vandal debacle, with the collapse of the shaky coalition that he had pasted together, was compelled to accede. According to John of Antioch, "Majorian broke off the war on disgraceful terms and departed" (fr.203: Gordon trans., p.117). The settlement perhaps gave imperial recognition to the Vandal possession of the western African provinces of Mauretania, which had been allocated to the Romans in the previous treaty of 442 but were soon occupied by the Vandals. Majorian then began his return to Italy, stopping for a time in Arles.
DOMESTIC POLICIES
Majorian realized it took more to stabilize the state than force of arms. He implemented a number of domestic policies designed to deal with existing problems and abuses, and to ensure the long-term viability of the state.
Relations with the Senatorial Aristocracy
During the first two centuries of the Principate, most emperors had realized how critical it was to maintain a good working relation with the Senate and the senatorial order. Third-century emperors, however, generally had reduced the authority and the role of the senate, with the result that many senators focused increasingly on aggrandizing their personal, and in particular their local, authority. Conflicts of interest resulted. Powerful senators often avoided paying taxes. The old social system was breaking down as senators consolidated their local authority and used their influence to the detriment of the state, of smaller landowners, and of the decurions, the members of local town councils who, oppressed by debt, sometimes simply abandoned their status. Majorian, therefore, was faced with the need to deal with a powerful western senatorial aristocracy that was accustomed to looking out for its own interests, and saw little benefit in having a vigorous emperor and a strong central government.
Western senators saw public office not only as their right, but also as a means for expanding their own personal influence. Majorian could not change this. But he did have some latitude in his choice of officials. He appears to have favored individuals with ties to northern Italy, or even to Gaul. As Praetorian Prefect of Italy, for example, he appointed Fl. Caeina Decius Basilius, who in 467 was identified as a potential patron of Sidonius Apollinaris (Sid.Apoll. Epist. 1.9.3-4). His Count of the Privy Purse was Ennodius, whose name suggests a connection with the family of Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, which had strong connections to Arles. And the Master of Correspondence Petrus, who served as Sidonius' intermediary in 458, was said to have had interests in Liguria, which bordered on Gaul (Sid.Apoll. Epist. 9.13.5 carm.110-13: "civitatum ... amor Ligusticarum"). All of this could suggest that, given the constraints within which he operated, Majorian attempted to cobble together a central administration that would be less Italo-centric than those in the past and would have assisted in his conciliation of the Gallo-Roman aristocracy.
After 458, moreover, Majorian spent nearly all of his reign outside Italy. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that his appointments had a provincial, non-Italian flavor. He made Ricimer the consul for 459, a designation that, as has been seen, was rejected in the east. The western consul for 460 was the influential Gallo-Roman aristocrat Magnus, whom Majorian had named Praetorian Prefect of Gaul in late 458, probably after his occupation of Arles, in place of the usurper Paeonius. This choice underlined Majorian's desire to conciliate the Gallic aristocracy. Majorian's final consular nomineee, for 461, was Fl. Severinus, apparently an Italian (CIL 6.32206), who was present with Majorian in Gaul. He was praised by Sidonius as "a man always of equal authority during manifold changes in rulers and the uneven condition of the Republic" (Epist. 1.11.10). This comment would suggest that Severinus had had an influential position during the reign of Avitus, and this consideration, coupled with his presence in Gaul, again indicates that Majorian chose his officials with an eye toward satisfying both his Italian and Gallic constituencies.
Sidonius Apollinaris provides a revealing vignette of how Majorian interacted with the senatorial aristocracy. It already has been seen that in his "declaration of intention" to the Senate on 11 January 458, Majorian had promised, "No person shall fear the practices of informers... No one shall fear calumnies except those that he himself had originated." This was an issue of great concern to senators, for throughout Roman history senators had had cause to fear delatores ("informers"), who were always ready to betray their fellows in the hope of gain or advancement.
A specific case occurred in early 461, when Majorian was in Arles after returning from Spain. It seems that an anonymous satire that "named names" was circulating, and Sidonius was accused of being the author by his rival, the aforementioned Paeonius. In a letter to his friend Montius, Sidonius described the denouement of this affair:
"In the reign of Majorian, an anonymous but very biting satire in verse was circulated at court; gross in its invective, it took advantage of unprotected names... its attack was above all personal... I came to Arles suspecting nothing... The next day I paid my duty to the emperor... The emperor commanded my presence at the banquet he was giving on the occasion of the games... When the dinner was well advanced... the emperor turned round to me and said, "It is news to me, Count Sidonius, that you are a writer of satires." "Sire," I replied, "It is news to me too." "Anyhow," he replied with a laugh, "I beg you to be merciful to me." "I shall spare myself also," I rejoined, "by refraining from illegality." Thereupon the emperor said, "What shall we do, then, to the people who have accused you?" "This, Sire," I answered, "Whoever my accuser be, let him come out into the open. If I am proven guilty, let me suffer the penalty. But if, as is likely, I rebut the charge, I ask of Your Clemency permission to write anything I choose about my assailant, provided I observe the law." The emperor ... replied, "I agree to your conditions, if you can put them in verse on the spot." ... I replied,
Who says I write satires? Dread soverign, I cry,
Let him prove his indictment, or pay for his lie.
Then the emperor proclaimed, "I call God and the common welfare to witness that in future I give you license to write what you please; the charge brought against you was not susceptible of proof. It would be most unjust if the imperial decision allowed such latitude to private quarrels that evident malice might imperil by obscure charges nobles whom conscious innocence puts wholly off their guard..." (Epist.1.11.2-15: Dalton trans., 1.26-33. and Hodgkin trans., 2.425).
In this case, at least, Majorian lived up to his promise to pay no heed to informers and false accusations.
Social and Economic Policies
Before leaving for Gaul, Majorian issued a spate of legislation attempting to deal with several pressing social and, in particular, economic issues, many of which concerned, in one way or another, imperial income. As noted above, provincial potentates were increasingly dissociating their own interests from those of the imperial government. In March of 458 Majorian complained about one manifestation of this tendency: "This is the method of powerful persons, whose agents in the provinces disregard the payment of taxes, while ... they arrogantly keep to their estates" ("ratio est potentium personarum, quarum actores per provincias solutionem fiscalium neglegunt, sum ... se in praediis retinent contumaces," (Novella Maioriani 2.4: 11 March 458).
One problem was that, for many, the tax arrears had accumulated to such an extent that it was unrealistic to expect that they ever would be paid. And if the arrears could not be paid, the taxes that were currently due would not be paid either. Majorian responded by issuing to the Praetorian Prefect of Italy Basilius, on 11 March 458, the law just cited, entitled "On the Remission of Past-Due Accounts" cancelling all past-due taxes:
"The afflicted fortunes of the provincials have been exhausted by a varied and multiple exaction of tribute and by extraordinary burdens of fiscal payments, and thus they have lost the substance for the payment of the customary tax, and they have experienced a collapse also in the case of those taxes that they should justly have been paid... the landowner... is overwhelmed by the burden of an obligation that has been heaped into one mass... Therefore, by a law that shall remain eternally, We sanction that delinquent taxes of all fiscal tax accounts ... up to the beginning of the present year shall not be required of the landholders. These delinquent taxes We remit, under the benefit of a general indulgence, to those taxpayers who are obligated... "("De indulgentiis reliquorum", Novella Maioriani 2: Pharr trans., pp.551-553).
In doing this, Majorian would have been following the example set by the eastern emperor Marcian in 450.
In the same law, Majorian also attempted to deal with a problem created by the illegal collection of taxes by imperial officials who were not authorized to do so:
"The apparitors of the prefects and the palatine office and those of other offices have undertaken the collection of the statutory tax accounts; contrary to the custom of the ancients they scurry about the provinces and by enormous exactions they ruin the landholder and the decurion, they extort all things in accordance with their desire for their own looting to such an extent that when some definite or very small portion of the tax is delivered to the public accounts, such greedy and very powerful enforcement officers receive double the amount, or more, as fees... In order that the venal wickedness of the collectors of the regular tax may not further bring ruin to public and private fortunes, the ancient custom shall be restored and the entire administration of the tax collection shall be the responsibility of the governors of the provinces, through whose offices we order the annual tax collections to be exacted." (ibid.).
A related problem involved the decurions, mentioned in the law just cited, who were members of town councils and were responsible for making good on taxes that were not collected. As a result of abuses by the rich and powerful, the decurion class was being ruined. For some, the only recourse was to attempt to escape their status altogether. In a lengthy ruling issued, again to the prefect Basilius, on 6 November 458, and entitled "On Decurions and Regarding Relationship and the Alienation of Property and Other Matters", Majorian attempted not only to relieve some of the pressure on the decurions but also to regulate them even further:
"But the iniquity of the judges and the punishable venality of the tax collectors have brought it about that many decurions are deserting their municipalities... and choosing secret hiding places and residences on the rustic estates of others. They also bring upon themselves the added disgrace that, since they wish to enjoy the patronage of powerful persons, they pollute themselves by unions with colonae (tenant farmers) and slave women... We remit the punishment for past presumption... A decurion shall never alienate his landed estates... "("De curialibus et de agnatione vel distractione praediorum et de ceteris negotiis", Novella Maioriani 7: Pharr trans., pp.557-560).
For decurions who did not have the means or desire to escape their status, often the only recourse was to squeeze the plebeians, the mass of the population who ranked beneath them. Realizing this, and in an attempt to make municipal government more viable, Majorian proposed in a law issued two months later to revive the position of defensor civitatis ("City Defender"), whose duty was to protect the plebeians of a municipality from oppression, especially with regard to tax collection ("De defensoribus civitatum", Novella Maioriani 3: 8 May 458). The problem with this approach was that those eligible for the position often were those guilty of the oppression.
Another law, issued on 4 September 458, attempted to increase imperial income by recovering resources due to the fisc that, like tax income, were being diverted by imperial officials. In response to a report of the Count of the Privy Purse Ennodius, Majorian issued a ruling entitled "On Abandoned Property and That of Proscribed Persons": "We approve the report of Your Sublimity, whereby you call to Our attention that the profits of the fisc are being suppressed throughout the provinces in many cases by the venality of the judges" ("De bonis caducis sive proscriptorum", Novella Maioriani 5: Pharr trans., p.554). Ennodius was ordered to "admonish the judges of the provinces... that they shall refrain from such frauds..." One can only wonder how effective that this pronouncement was.
Another law apparently also was intended to restrict illegal seizures of property by government officials. Only the heading survives, reading "Neither a senator of the city of Rome nor a church should be compelled to render to the fisc anything bequeathed by certain persons..." ("Neque senatorem urbis Romae neque ecclesiam ex testamento sibi a certis personis aliquid relictum fisco inferre cogendum et de populis urbicis", Novella Maioriani 10). And a lengthy ruling of 26 October 458, entitled "On Women Religious and Widows and Concerning their Inheritances" ("De sanctimonialibus vel viduis et de successionibus earum," Novella Maioriani 6), sought to safeguard the interests of children and to protect women from inheritance hunters.
Finally, two laws published after Majorian's departure from Italy concerned personal activities and status. One, issued 17 April 459 in Gaul and addressed to Rogatianus, governor of Etruria, reprimanded the governor for punishing an adulterer merely with "temporary exile by relegation" rather than death, and specified that adulterers were to be sentenced to deportation and confiscation of property ("De Adulteriis", Novella Maioriani 9). And Novella Maioriani 11, entitled "On Episcopal Judgment and Lest a Cleric be Ordained Unwillingly and Regarding Other Matters" ("De episcopali iudicio et ne quis invitus clericus ordinetur vel de ceteris negotiis") and issued 28 March 460 at Arles to "the Illustrious Ricimer, Count and Master of both Services and Patrician", forbade forcible ordinations, such as when persons were made clerics in order to exclude them from inheritance. This issuance of this law, dealing with a civil matter, to Ricimer, a military official, attests to the Patrician's great influence in the state.
Majorian's coinage (see Kent, RIC) also gives some insight into his policies. Consular solidi issued at Ravenna were probably among his earliest coins. The reverse depicts Majorian and Leo as consuls, and suggests, as noted above, that the two emperors had agreed upon mutual recognition. Majorian also issued tremisses at Ravenna, but is not known to have issued any semisses at all; the latter denomination was customarily issued at Rome, and no known gold coinage for Majorian was issued there, probably because Majorian never went there. Milan also struck solidi and tremisses analogous to those of Ravenna from the very beginning of Majorian's reign. Bronze coins, ca. 2.0 gm., also were issued at Milan and Ravenna. A few contorniates also were issued; most were associated with Rome, although a consular variety, perhaps from early 458, may have been from Ravenna.
Beginning in late 458, solidi also were struck at Arles, indicating Majorian's presence in Gaul. One obverse die was brought from Ravenna to get the coinage underway, but others were made locally. Later solidi were issued at Arles after Majorian's return from Spain in late 460. These Arlesian coins served as prototypes for Visigothic copies, which may have been issued in connection with the treaty with the Goths in 459. No tremisses were issued at Arles, with the curious result that Visigothic tremisses copied the designs of the solidus because there were no tremisses to use as patterns. Surviving silver siliquae and half-siliquae issued in the name of Majorian probably were not struck by him at all. They are found in Gaul, and may have been issued after his death by his ally Aegidius, who was in revolt against the Italian government. They provided a precedent for similar, later, silver coins in the names of Anthemius and Nepos which may have been issued in northern Gaul either by Roman hold-outs or by the Franks.
DEPOSITION AND DEATH
In late July of 461 Majorian returned from Gaul to Italy. John of Antioch reported what then happened: "While he was still on the way to Italy, Ricimer plotted his death. When Majorian had dismissed the allies after their return and was going home to Rome with his attendants, Ricimer and his party arrested him, stripped him of his purple robe and diadem, beat him, and beheaded him. Thus ended Majorian's life" (fr.203; Gordon trans, p.117). The Gallic Chronicle of 511 confirms that it was from Arles that Majorian set out: "Moreover, having set out from Arles for Italy, he was killed by the patrician Ricimer at Tortona."
Hydatius provides some additional insight into the circumstances of Majorian's fall: "Ricimer, aroused by envy and supported by the counsel of jealous persons, surrounded and treacherously killed Majorian while he was returning from Gaul to Rome and was in the process of arranging things that were necessary for the Roman name and empire" ("Maiorianum de Galliis Romam redeuntem et Romano imperio vel nomini res necessarias ordinantem, Rechimer, livore percitus et invidorum consilio fultus, fraude interficit circumventum": Chron. 210). The Fasti vindobonenses priores (no.588) report succinctly, "During this consulate the Emperor Majorian was deposed by the patrician Ricimer at Tortona on 3 August and killed at the Ira River on 7 August ("his cons depositus est Maiorianus imp. a patricio Ricimere Dertona III non. Aug. et occisus est ad Fluvium Ira VII idus Aug."). The chronicler Marcellinus reported, "The Emperor Majorian was killed at Tortona, near the river that is called Ilyra" ("Majorianus Caesar apud Dertona, iuxta fluvium qui Ilyra dicitur, interemptus est": Chron. s.a.461). Victor of Tonnena, however, mistakenly reported that Majorian was killed at Rome, and in 463 at that ("Maiorianus Romae occiditur": Chron. s.a.463). And Procopius, who seems not to have known the result of Majorian's Vandal campaign, erroneously assumed that Majorian remained in Spain, reporting, "But meantime Majorian was attacked by the disease of dysentery and died, a man who had shown himself moderate toward his subjects, and an object of fear to his enemies" (Bellum Vandalicum 7.14-15: Dewing trans., p.69).
Ricimer struck when Majorian was most vulnerable: after he had dismissed his allies, who owed their loyalty to Majorian and not Ricimer, and before Majorian was able to re-establish himself in Italy. Majorian might have known better, for it was in just this way that he and Ricimer had subdued Avitus, after the latter had dismissed his Gothic allies. Nor did Ricimer act alone; he was in fact the standard-bearer of a conspiracy of "jealous" individuals. The cause of their jealousy might be sought in the "necessary things" that Majorian was undertaking. Majorian had demonstrated in the past a willingness to attack the root causes of some of the social and economic problems facing the empire. These "problems," however, were the very means being used by many senators to expand their own power and influence. Majorian posed a threat to the continued aggrandizement of powerful Italian senators, and in this instance their interests were the same as those of Majorian's erstwhile supporter but now rival Ricimer, who, after Majorian's execution, was able to install an emperor more to his liking, as reported by the Consularia constantinopolitana: "During this consulate Majorian was killed and Severus was made emperor" ("His conss Maiorianus occiditur et Severus efficitur imperator": s.a. 461).
After the fall of Majorian, the Gallic generalissimo Aegidius rebelled against Ricimer and the Italian government, and even went so far as to enter into negotiations with the Vandals (Priscus, fr.30). Majorian had offered the last and best hope of the post-Valentinian, post-Aëtius period to revitalize the western empire. After his death, the authority of western emperors was limited almost exclusively to Italy, where there was rampant squabbling among barbarian generals (Ricimer, Gundobad, Orestes), figure-head emperors (Severus, Olybrius, Glycerius, Romulus), eastern intruders (Anthemius, Julius Nepos), and powerful, self-centered senators.
Allard, Paul, "Sidoine Apollinaire sous les règnes d'Avitus et de Majorien," Revue des questions historiques 83 (1908) pp.426-452.
Anderson, W.B., Sidonius. Poems and Letters, 2 vols. (Loeb, 1936-1965).
Bagnall, R.S., Al. Cameron, S.R. Schwartz, K.A. Worp, Consuls of the Later Roman Empire (Atlanta, 1987) pp.448-457.
Caes, Lucien, Le statut juridique de la sponsalicia largitas echué a la mere veuve sui iuris selon la nov. 6 de Majorien et la nov. 1 de Severe; contribution a l'étude du regime juridique de la donation pour cause de mariage, echué a la mere veuve sui iuris, depuis la loi Feminae (a. 382) de Theodose I jusqu'a la novelle I (a. 463) de Severe (Courtrai, 1949).
Cantarelli, L., Annali d'Italia. Dalla morte di Valentiniano III alla deposizione di Romolo Augustolo (anni 455-476) (Rome, 1896).
Cantarelli, L., "L'imperatore Maioriano. Saggio critico," Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria 6(1883) pp.259-301.
Cessi, Roberto, "Marcellino e l'opposizione imperiale romana sotto il governo di Maioriano," Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 75.2 (1915-16) pp.1475-1490.
Dalton, O.M., trans., The Letters of Sidonius (2 vols.) (Oxford, 1915)
Dewing, H.B., trans., Procopius, History of the Wars, vol.2 (Cambridge, Mass., 1916).
Gordon, C.D., The Age of Attila. Fifth-Century Byzantium and the Barbarians (Ann Arbor, 1960).
Gunther, Rigobert, "Apollinaris Sidonius. Eine Untersuchung seiner drei Kaiserpanegyriken," in G. Wirth ed., Romanitas-christianitas (Berlin, 1982) pp.654-660.
Hodgkin, Thomas, Italy and Her Invaders, vol.2 (New York, 1880).
Kent, J.P.C., The Roman Imperial Coinage. Volume X (London, 1994) pp.184-188, 398-405.
Loyen, André, Recherches historiques sur les panégyriques de Sidoine Apollinaire (Paris, 1942).
Mathisen, Ralph W., "Resistance and Reconciliation: Majorian and the Gallic Aristocracy after the Fall of Avitus," Francia 7 (1979) pp.597-627.
________., "The Third Regnal Year of Eparchius Avitus," Classical Philology 80 (1985) pp.326-335.
Max, Gerald E., "Political Intrigue during the Reigns of the Western Roman Emperors Avitus and Majorian," Historia 28 (1979) pp.225-237.
Meyer, Helmut, "Der Regierungsantritt Kaiser Majorians," Byzantinische Zeitschrift 62 (1969) pp.5-12.
Oost, Stewart I., "Aëtius and Majorian," Classical Philology 59 (1964) pp.23-29.
Martindale, John R., ed., The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Volume II. A.D. 395-527 (Cambridge, 1980) = PLRE II pp.702-703.
Pharr, Clyde, trans., The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondinian Constitutions (Princeton, 1952).
Vassili, Lucio, "La figura di Nepoziano e l'opposizione ricimeriana al governo imperiale di Maggioriano," Athenaeum 14 (1936) pp.56-66.
________., "Nota cronologica intorno all'elezione di Maggioriano," Rivista di Filologia e d'Istruzione Classica 64 (1936) pp.163-169.
Copyright (C) 1998, Ralph W. Mathisen. This file may be copied on the condition that the entire contents,including the header and this copyright notice, remain intact.
Comments to: Ralph W. Mathisen.
Updated: 7 February 1998
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Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions Cling Stamp Collections 8.5"X7" - Survivor. Red rubber stamp mounted on cling foam to easily attach to any acrylic block (sold separately). Use individually or mix and match. Available in a variety of designs. Perfect for use with Dylusions Ink Sprays and Dylusions Paints.


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text:
(1) Aspectul politic. Doctrinele lui Arminius câștigă multă influență între păstori și aproape că au divizat bisericile reformate din regiunea Amsterdam. Unor păstori reformați chiar li se interzicea să predice iar congregațiile au devenit nemulțumite de predicarea arminienilor.

	Modelul erastian de relație a bisericii cu statul a fost susținut în 1610 de Johannes Uytenbogaert, liderul eclesial al minorității arminieni din biserica reformată olandeză, și Hugo Grotius - umanistul erastian.

	În partea politică și Iohan van Oldenbarnevelt care se afla într-o poziție unică devenind cel mai puternic lider politic în Provinciile Unite. El publică în 1910 un tratat prin care arată puterea statului asupra bisericii și luptă pentru a împiedica întâlnirea unui Sinod Național care ar fi condamnat arminianismul.

	(2) Protestul remonstranților. 46 de slujitori și susținători ai lui Arminius din școala de predicare de la Leyden, împreună cu cei doi lideri ai lor (Uytenbogaert și Episcopius), s-au întâlnit la Gouda în 16 ianuarie 1610 și au stabilit și publicat 5 doctrine calviniste cu care nu erau de acord.

	Întâlnirea are loc la 1 an de la moartea lui Aarminius și la 46 ani de la moartea lui Calvin. Au publicat în același an aceste 5 articole.

	Johannes Uytenbogaert, care a și redacatat documentul i-l dă lui Oldenbarnevelt pentru a fi prezentat conducerii generale. Aceștia refuză să dea curs remostranților și amâna câteva luni discuția chemând la toleranță reciprocă. Orice sinod era scos din calcul pentru ei.

	(3) Conferințele. Conducerea provinciilor organizează o conferință limitată în 10 martie 1611 la The Hague unde câte șase reprezentanți și-au prezentat pozițiile. Conferința a ținut doua luni. Fiecare parte scrie documente cu argumente si contra-argumente. A doua încercare de împăcare din partea conducerii are loc la Delft în același an. Dar este fara succes.

	În doi ani consecutivi, 1611 și 1612 la Den Hague și Delft, Simon Episcopius susține vehement doctrinele arminienilor la două conferințe. În 1612 ajunge și el profesor la Leyden în locul lui Gomarus care se retrage fiind supărat fiindcă în locul lui Arminius a fost ales profesor în 1609 Conrad Vorstius un simpatizant al lui Arminius și socinian în doctrină.

	(4) Cilmaxul conflictului. În anul 1616 societatea olandeză s-a polarizat și a ajuns la un punct critic. Arminienii și calviniștii erau aproape gata să pornească un război. În anul 1617 remostranții au stârnit niște răscoale. Prințul Maurice refuză să-și folosească trupele pentru a menține ordinea.

	În vara acestui an simpatia lui Maurice pentru calviniști este arătată când refuză să se închine la The Hague unde Uytenbogaert era predicator. Se închină într-o congregație calvinistă.

	În același an patru provincii cer States General să convoace un sinod național. Provincia Olandei refuză acest apel.  În urma mai multor evenimente sub cârmuirea lui Maurice în Noiembrie 1617 conducerea provinciilor a votat pentru a chema un sinod național. Inevitabilul are loc.

	(5) În August 1618 Oldenbarnevelt, Grotius și alți lideri pro-remonstranți proeminenți au fost arestați. Uytenbogaert a fugit din țară

	Episcopius este ales purtător de cuvânt din cei 13 reprezentanți ai remostranților pentru Sinodul național de la Dort care are loc în 1618, însă ei refuză participarea și audierea.

	(6) După sinod, în 1619, își pierde slujba și este trimis afară din țară împreună cu ceilalți 12 protestatari. Oldenbarnevelt este decapitat pentru înaltă trădare împotriva prințului Maurice.

Termeni creștini
Calvinism

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Surprise move on MUSD board
By Bill Coate The Madera Tribune Observers of school board politics got a surprise last week when Madera Unified School District trustees voted to give the president's gavel to Ray Seibert, the board's most senior member in terms of years of service. The new president has held a seat on the MUSD board for 26 years. He has also been president several times during his tenure.
Seibert replaces trustee Ed McIntyre who moved into the president's chair six months ago to take over from Al Galvez, who resigned from the board due to his decision to help with serious family health problems.
It was with a broad smile that McIntyre handed the gavel over to Seibert and then took another seat on the dais. Speculation is that McIntyre declined the president's chair for 2018, preferring to join the rank and file trustees, which allows him more freedom to take part in the board's discussions.
Unidentified sources have indicated that board meetings will likely run a bit longer if McIntyre runs true to form and takes on the role of grand inquisitor. The outgoing president is known for his firm grasp of the issues and an insatiable appetite for delving into the complexities of school business.
At the same time, Seibert's election as board president, with his years of experience, brings the prospect of continuity of collaboration that has characterized the board for the past two years.
Joining the board at its December organizational meeting was Joetta Flores Fleak who defeated incumbent Philip Huerta for the Area 4 seat. She, along with McIntyre and trustee Brent Fernandes, who both ran opposed for reelection, took the oath of office administered by Superintendent Todd Lile.
All the while, Steve Duncan and Lucy Salazar, candidates vying to replace Galvez in representing MUSD's Area 5, looked on from the audience. Their contest has not been decided due to an unresolved problem in the Nov. 6 election for Area 5.
Trustee Ruben Mendoza was elected as clerk of the Board.


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Insurance coverage within the HOA: Insurance on the structure of the property, the common walls. This is usually included within the HOA monthly fees.
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text:
Q: Need help to get the Selenium cssSelector for the following td attribute to extract the title text Need help to get the Selenium cssSelector for the following td attribute to extract the title text that is "Nothing here"

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I have tried the following with no luck

driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("#myTable tr:nth-child(1)
  td[data-bind^='attr: { title']")).getAttribute("title");

A: EDIT:  Assuming you just want to get the first td in your table, this will work:
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("#myTable td")).getAttribute("title");

A: Thanks for all the help. This is the final working code to get the title.
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("#myTable td:nth-child(1)")).getAttribute("title"));

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Ophion (), auch Ophioneus (), ist eine Gottheit der griechischen Mythologie.

Der Mythos um Ophion geht wahrscheinlich auf den Vorsokratiker Pherekydes von Syros zurück. Ihm zufolge herrschte Ophion gemeinsam mit seiner Frau Eurynome als erster über die Welt. Laut Pherekydes hatte Ophion mehrere Kinder, die gemeinsam Ophioniden () genannt werden, deren individuelle Namen aber nicht überliefert sind.

Im Streit um die Weltherrschaft bezwang Kronos Ophion in einem Zweikampf. Gleichzeitig besiegte seine Frau Rhea Ophions Frau Eurynome. Sie stürzten die beiden in den Tartaros (nach Lykophron, Alexandra) oder Okeanos (nach Apollonios Rhodios, der Okeanos hier offenbar nicht als Person, sondern als Ort auffasst). Das Titanenpaar Kronos und Rhea übernahm so die Herrschaft, bis sie ihrerseits von Zeus abgesetzt wurden.

Der Mythos um Ophion war in der Antike wenig verbreitet und widerspricht anderen, gängigeren Mythenversionen. In den Epen Homers und in Hesiods Theogonie kommt Ophion nicht vor. Eurynome wird zwar von beiden Autoren erwähnt, hat dort aber nicht die Funktion einer Weltherrscherin. In der auf Pherekydes von Syros basierenden Version des Mythos nimmt Ophion die Rolle von Uranos ein. Deshalb wurde Ophion bereits in der Antike gelegentlich mit Uranos gleichgesetzt, später auch mit Okeanos. Wegen seiner Zugehörigkeit zur Generation vor den Göttern und aufgrund eines Scholions zu Lykophron wird Ophion auch zu den Titanen gezählt.

Der Ursprung dieses Mythos ist unbekannt. Der spätantike Autor Eusebius von Caesarea nahm an, Pherekydes habe ihn der phönizischen Kultur entlehnt. Apollonios Rhodios überlieferte den Mythos als Teil eines Liedes des Orpheus. Ob sich darin tatsächliche Elemente einer Tradition der Orphiker widerspiegeln oder ob Apollonios Rhodios das Lied in Anlehnung an Pherekydes selbst erfunden hat, ist ungeklärt.

Obwohl dies in den ursprünglichen Quellen nicht erwähnt wird, stellten sich spätere Autoren Ophion seinem Namen gemäß in Gestalt einer Schlange () vor.

Literatur

Weblinks
 Ophion im Theoi Project (englisch)
 Ophion im Greek Myth Index (englisch)

Einzelnachweise

Griechische Gottheit
Männliche Gottheit
Schlangengottheit


A 41 year old suspect identified as Fidelis Nelson (aka Mp), and leader of dare-devil robbery gang operating within Lagos and Ogun state has revealed that he went into armed robbery to raise money to build his church.
"I have a pastoral calling; unfortunately I don't have money to start my church. I have had the calling for a while years but to finance to make it a reality".
The gang met their waterloo on the 16 of June, after the police received credible information indicating that some group of dare-devil armed robbers specialised in snatching cars in Ogun state and thereafter bringing their loots to Lagos to sale were planning an operation.
Armed with this intelligence, ambush was laid for them by FSARS operatives and conventional policemen from the command leading to the arrest of six suspects.
The suspects identified as Emmanuel Ogaba aka tablet, (45), Matthew Ogaba (30), Fidelis Nelson aka MP (41), Augustine Stanley, (31), Abayomi Adebisi, (42), and Emmanuel Olusegun (37) were arrested in Lagos.
Also recovered from the suspects are the following Items: One Toyota Camry car, one toy gun and various sim cards.