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The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and longest lasting empires in history; such that the Ottoman State, its politics, conflicts, and cultural heritage in a vast geography provide one of the longest continuous narratives. D
(You put your weed in it.)
or Kanuni Sultan Süleyman; 6 November 1494 – 5/6/7 September 1566) was the tenth and longest-reigning Emperor, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent[3] and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" (Turkish: Kanuni; Arabic: القانونى, al‐Qānūnī), for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system. Suleiman became a prominent monarch of 16th century Europe, presiding over the apex of the Ottoman Empire's military, political and economic power.
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Main article: Rise of the Ottoman EmpireRise of the Ottoman Empire (1299–1453)
Further information: Ottoman Dynasty and Kayı tribe
With the demise of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum (c. 1300), Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent states, the so-called Ghazi emirates. By 1300, a weakened Byzantine Empire had lost most of its Anatolian provinces to ten Ghazi principalities. One of the Ghazi emirates was led by Osman I (from which the name Ottoman is derived), son of Ertuğrul, aroundEskişehir in western Anatolia. In the foundation myth expressed in the medieval Turkish story known as "Osman's Dream", the young Osman was inspired to conquest by a prescient vision of empire (according to his dream, the empire is a big tree whose roots spread through three continents and whose branches cover the sky).[21] According to his dream the tree, which was Osman's Empire, issued four rivers from its roots, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile and the Danube.[21]Additionally, the tree shaded four mountain ranges, theCaucasus, the Taurus, the Atlas and the Balkanranges.[21] During his reign as Sultan, Osman I extended the frontiers of Turkish settlement toward the edge of the Byzantine Empire.
In this period, a formal Ottoman government was created whose institutions would change drastically over the life of the empire. The government used the legal entity known as the millet system, under which religious and ethnic minorities were allowed to manage their own affairs with substantial independence from central control.
Because of bad relations between the latter Byzantine Empire and the states of western Europe as epitomized by Loukas Notaras's famous remark "Better the Sultan's turban than the Cardinal's Hat", the majority of the Orthodox population accepted Ottoman rule as preferable to Venetian rule.[24]
On the battlefield, the Ottomans gradually fell behind the Europeans in military technology as the innovation that fed the Empire's forceful expansion became stifled by growing religious and intellectual conservatism.
However, the 17th century was not simply an era of stagnation and decline, but also a key period in which the Ottoman state and its structures began to adapt to new pressures and new realities, internal and external. The Sultanate of women (1648–1656) was a period in which the political influence of the Imperial Harem was dominant, as the mothers of young sultans exercised power on behalf of their sons. This was not wholly unprecedented; Hürrem Sultan, who established herself in the early 1530s as the successor of Nurbanu, the first Valide Sultan, was described by the Venetian Baylo Andrea Giritti as "a woman of the utmost goodness, courage and wisdom" even though she "thwarted some while rewarding others".[51] But the inadequacy ofIbrahim I (1640–1648) and the minority accession of Mehmed IV in 1646 created a significant crisis of rule, which the dominant women of the Imperial Harem filled. The most prominent women of this period were Kösem Sultan and her daughter-in-law Turhan Hatice, whose political rivalry culminated in Kösem's murder in 1651.[52]
During the Tulip Era (1718–1730), named for Sultan Ahmed III's love of the tulip flower and its use to symbolize his peaceful reign, the Empire's policy towards Europe underwent a shift. The Empire began to improve the fortifications of its cities in the Balkan peninsula to act as a defence against European expansionism. Cultural works, fine arts and architecture flourished, with more elaborate styles that were influenced by the Baroque and Rococo movements in Europe. A classic example is the Fountain of Ahmed III in front of the Topkapı Palace. The famous Flemish-French painter Jean-Baptiste van Mour visited the Ottoman Empire during the Tulip Era and crafted some of the most renowned works of art depicting scenes from daily life in the Ottoman society and the imperial court
In 1734, when an artillery school was established with French teachers in order to impart Western-style artillery methods, the Islamic clergy successfully objected under the grounds of theodicy.[66] Not until 1754 was the artillery school re-opened on a semi-secret basis.[66]Earlier, the guilds of writers had denounced the printing press as "the Devil's Invention", and were responsible for a 53-year lag between its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in Europe in c. 1440 and its introduction to the Ottoman society with the first Gutenberg press in ...
However, the printing press was used only by the non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire until the 18th century. In 1726, Ibrahim Muteferrika convinced the Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha, the Grand Mufti, and the clergy on the efficiency of the printing press, and later submitted a request to Sultan Ahmed III, who granted Muteferrika the permission to publish non-religious books (despite opposition from some calligraphers and religious leaders.)[
(Capitalists will sell you the rope to hang themselves with. Something like that.)
taxes were lowered, there were attempts to improve the image of the Ottoman state, and the first instances of private investment and entrepreneurship occurred.
During the Tanzimat period (from Arabic تنظيم tanẓīm, meaning "organization") (1839–1876), the government's series of constitutional reforms led to a fairly modern conscripted army, banking system reforms, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the replacement of religious law with secular law[73] and guildswith modern factories. In 1856, the Hatt-ı Hümayun promised equality for all Ottoman citizens regardless of their ethnicity and religious confession; which thus widened the scope of the 1839 Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane.
Overall, the Tanzimat reforms had far-reaching effects. Those educated in the schools established during the Tanzimat period included Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and other progressive leaders and thinkers of the Republic of Turkey and of many other former Ottoman states in the Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa. These reforms included[74] guarantees to ensure the Ottoman subjects perfect security for their lives, honour, and property; the introduction of the first Ottoman paper banknotes(1840) and opening of the first post offices (1840); the reorganization of the finance system according to the French model (1840); the reorganization of the Civil and Criminal Code according to the French model (1840); the establishment of theMeclis-i Maarif-i Umumiye (1841) which was the prototype of theFirst Ottoman Parliament (1876); the reorganization of the army and a regular method of recruiting, levying the army, and fixing the duration of military service (1843–44); the adoption of anOttoman national anthem and Ottoman national flag (1844); the first nationwide Ottoman census in 1844 (only male citizens were counted); the first national identity cards (officially named the Mecidiye identity papers, or informally kafa kağıdı (head paper) documents, 1844); the institution of a Council of Public Instruction (1845) and the Ministry of Education (Mekatib-i Umumiye Nezareti, 1847, which later became the Maarif Nezareti, 1857); the abolition of slavery and slave trade (1847); the establishment of the first modern universities (darülfünun, 1848), academies (1848) and teacher schools (darülmuallimin, 1848); establishment of the Ministry of Healthcare (Tıbbiye Nezareti, 1850); the Commerce and Trade Code (1850); establishment of the Academy of Sciences (Encümen-i Daniş, 1851); establishment of the Şirket-i Hayriye which operated the first steam-powered commuter ferries (1851); the first European style courts (Meclis-i Ahkam-ı Adliye, 1853) and supreme judiciary council (Meclis-i Ali-yi Tanzimat, 1853); establishment of the modern Municipality of Istanbul (Şehremaneti, 1854) and the City Planning Council (İntizam-ı Şehir Komisyonu, 1855); the abolition of the capitation (Jizya) tax on non-Muslims, with a regular method of establishing and collecting taxes (1856); non-Muslims were allowed to become soldiers (1856); various provisions for the better administration of the public service and advancement of commerce; the establishment of the first telegraph networks (1847–1855) and railroads (1856); the replacement of guilds with factories; the establishment of the Ottoman Central Bank (originally established as the Bank-ı Osmanî in 1856, and later reorganized as the Bank-ı Osmanî-i Şahane in 1863)[75] and the Ottoman Stock Exchange (Dersaadet Tahvilat Borsası, established in 1866);[76] the Land Code (Arazi Kanunnamesi, 1857); permission for private sector publishers and printing firms with the Serbesti-i Kürşad Nizamnamesi (1857); establishment of the School of Economical and Political Sciences (Mekteb-i Mülkiye, 1859); the Press and Journalism Regulation Code (Matbuat Nizamnamesi, 1864); among others.[74]
The Ottoman Ministry of Post was established in Istanbul on 23 October 1840.[78][79] The first post office was the Postahane-i Amire near the courtyard of the Yeni Mosque.[78] In 1876 the first international mailing network between Istanbul and the lands beyond the vast Ottoman Empire was established.[78] In 1901 the first money transfers were made through the post offices and the first cargo services became operational.[78]
Perhaps most significantly, he restored the practice of democratic elections.[39] Cassius Diosaid that this act "though delighting the rabble, grieved the sensible, who stopped to reflect, that if the offices should fall once more into the hands of the many ... many disasters would result".[40]In AD 38, Caligula focused his attention on political and public reform. He published the accounts of public funds, which had not been made public during the reign of Tiberius. He aided those who lost property in fires, abolished certain taxes, and gave out prizes to the public at gymnastic events. He allowed new members into the equestrian and senatorial orders.[38]
During the same year, though, Caligula was criticized for executing people without full trials and for forcing his helper Macro to commit suicide.[41]
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(maybe Caligula was victim of a smear job.)
According to Cassius Dio, a financial crisis emerged in AD 39.[41] Suetonius places the beginning of this crisis in 38.[42] Caligula's political payments for support, generosity and extravagance had exhausted the state's treasury. Ancient historians state that Caligula began falsely accusing, fining and even killing individuals for the purpose of seizing their estates.[43]
A number of other desperate measures by Caligula are described by historians. In order to gain funds, Caligula asked the public to lend the state money.[44] Caligula levied taxes on lawsuits, marriage and prostitution.[45] Caligula began auctioning the lives of the gladiators at shows.[43][46] Wills that left items to Tiberius were reinterpreted to leave the items instead to Caligula.[47] Centurions who had acquired property during plundering were forced to turn over spoils to the state.[47]
Despite financial difficulties, Caligula embarked on a number of construction projects during his reign.
Josephus describes as Caligula's greatest contribution to have improved the harbours at Rhegium and Sicily, thereby allowing grain imports from Egypt to increase.[51] These improvements may have been made in response to the famine.
(People get fat on grain, but also sickly.)
He built a large racetrack known as the circus of Gaius and Nero and had an Egyptian obelisk (now known as the Vatican Obelisk) transported by sea and erected in the middle of Rome
Wasting money:
In 39, Caligula performed a spectacular stunt by ordering a temporary floating bridge to be built using ships as pontoons, stretching for over two miles from the resort of Baiae to the neighboring port of Puteoli.[57] It was said that the bridge was to rival that of Persian King Xerxes' crossing of the Hellespont.[57] Caligula, a man who could not swim,[58] then proceeded to ride his favorite horse, Incitatus, across, wearing the breastplate of Alexander the Great.[57] This act was in defiance of a prediction by Tiberius's soothsayer Thrasyllus of Mendes that Caligula had "no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae"
Feud with the Senate
In AD 39, relations between Caligula and the Roman Senate deteriorated.[59] The subject of their disagreement is unknown. A number of factors, though, aggravated this feud. The Senate had become accustomed to ruling without an emperor between the departure of Tiberius for Capri in AD 26 and Caligula's accession.[60] Additionally, Tiberius's treason trials had eliminated a number of pro-Julian senators such as Asinius Gallus.[60]
Caligula reviewed Tiberius's records of treason trials and decided that numerous senators, based on their actions during these trials, were not trustworthy.[59] He ordered a new set of investigations and trials.[59] He replaced the consul and had several senators put to death.[61]Suetonius reports that other senators were degraded by being forced to wait on him and run beside his chariot.[61]
Soon after his break with the Senate, Caligula was met with a number of additional conspiracies against him.[62] A conspiracy involving his brother-in-law was foiled in late 39.[62] Soon afterwards, the governor of Germany, Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus, was executed for connections to a conspiracy.[62]
When several kings came to Rome to pay their respects to him and argued about their nobility of descent, he cried out "Let there be one Lord, one King".[73] In AD 40, Caligula began implementing very controversial policies that introduced religion into his political role. Caligula began appearing in public dressed as various gods and demigods such as Hercules, Mercury, Venus and Apollo.[74] Reportedly, he began referring to himself as a god when meeting with politicians and he was referred to as Jupiter on occasion in public documents.[75][76]
cruelty and insanity.
The contemporary sources, Philo of Alexandria and Seneca the Younger, describe an insane emperor who was self-absorbed, angry, killed on a whim, and who indulged in too much spending and sex.[95] He is accused of sleeping with other men's wives and bragging about it,[96] killing for mere amusement,[97]deliberately wasting money on his bridge, causing starvation,[98]and wanting a statue of himself erected in the Temple of Jerusalem for his worship.[92] Once at some games at which he was presiding, he ordered his guards to throw an entire section of the crowd into the arena during intermission to be eaten by animals because there were no criminals to be prosecuted and he was bored.[99]
While repeating the earlier stories, the later sources ofSuetonius and Cassius Dio provide additional tales of insanity. They accuse Caligula of incest with his sisters, Agrippina the Younger, Drusilla and Livilla, and say he prostituted them to other men.[100] They state he sent troops on illogical military exercises,[67][101] turned the palace into a brothel,[44] and most famously, planned or promised to make his horse, Incitatus, a consul,[102] and actually appointed him a priest.[76]
The validity of these accounts is debatable. In Roman political culture, insanity and sexual perversity were often presented hand-in-hand with poor government.[103]
Caligula's actions as emperor were described as being especially harsh to the Senate, the nobility and the equestrian order.[104] According to Josephus, these actions led to several failedconspiracies against Caligula.[105] Eventually, a successful murder was planned by officers within the Praetorian Guard led by Cassius Chaerea.[106] The plot is described as having been planned by three men, but many in the Senate, army and equestrian order were said to have been informed of it and involved in it.[107]
According to Josephus, Chaerea had political motivations for the assassination.[108] Suetonius sees the motive in Caligula calling Chaerea derogatory names.[109] Caligula considered Chaerea effeminate because of a weak voice and for not being firm with tax collection.[110] Caligula would mock Chaerea with watchwords like "Priapus" and "Venus".[111]
On 24 January 41, Chaerea and other guardsmen accosted Caligula while he was addressing an acting troupe of young men during a series of games and dramatics held for the Divine Augustus.[112] Details on the events vary somewhat from source to source, but they agree that Chaerea was first to stab Caligula, followed by a number of conspirators.[113] Suetonius records that Caligula's death was similar to that of Julius Caesar. He states that both the elder Gaius Julius Caesar (Julius Caesar) and the younger Gaius Julius Caesar (Caligula) were stabbed 30 times by conspirators led by a man named Cassius (Cassius Longinus and Cassius Chaerea).[114]
The cryptoporticus (underground corridor) where this event would have taken place was discovered beneath the imperial palaces on the Palatine Hill.[115] By the time Caligula's loyal Germanic guard responded, the emperor was already dead. The Germanic guard, stricken with grief and rage, responded with a rampaging attack on the assassins, conspirators, innocent senators and bystanders alike.[116]
The Senate attempted to use Caligula's death as an opportunity to restore the Republic.[117]Chaerea attempted to convince the military to support the Senate.[118] The military, though, remained loyal to the office of the emperor.[118] The grieving Roman people assembled and demanded that Caligula's murderers be brought to justice.[119] Uncomfortable with lingering imperial support, the assassins sought out and stabbed Caligula's wife, Caesonia, and killed their young daughter, Julia Drusilla, by smashing her head against a wall.[120] They were unable to reach Caligula's uncle, Claudius, who was spirited out of the city, after being found by a soldier,[121] to a nearby Praetorian camp.[122]
Claudius became emperor after procuring the support of the Praetorian guard and ordered the execution of Chaerea and any other known conspirators involved in the death of Caligula.[123]According to Suetonius, Caligula's body was placed under turf until it was burned and entombed by his sisters. He was buried within the Mausoleum of Augustus; in 410 during the Sack of Rome the tomb's ashes were scattered.
The play The Reckoning of Kit and Little Boots by Nat Cassidy, examines the lives of the Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe and Caligula, with the fictional conceit that Marlowe was working on a play about Caligula around the time of his own murder. It emphasizes the similarities between the two characters—both stabbed to death at 29, both in part as a result to their controversial perspectives on religion. The play focuses on Caligula's love for his sister Drusilla, and his deep-rooted loathing for Tiberius. It received its world premiere in New York City in June 2008.[143][144]
BUSH
- Remarks to reporters (5 August 1990)
- Clearly, no longer can a dictator count on East-West confrontation to stymie concerted United Nations action against aggression. A new partnership of nations has begun. And we stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment. The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective — a new world order — can emerge: a new era, freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An era in which the nations of the world, east and west, north and south, can prosper and live in harmony.
Caligula (Latin: Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus;[1] 31 August AD 12 – 24 January AD 41), also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
...he is described as a noble and moderate ruler during the first two years of his rule. After this, the sources focus upon his cruelty, extravagance, and sexual perversity, presenting him as an insane tyrant.
... He directed much of his attention to ambitious construction projects and notoriously luxurious dwellings for himself.
Caligula's first acts were said to be generous in spirit, though many were political in nature.[26] To gain support, he granted bonuses to those in the military including the Praetorian Guard, city troops and the army outside Italy.[26] He destroyed Tiberius's treason papers, declared that treason trials were a thing of the past and recalled those who had been sent into exile.[33] He helped those who had been harmed by the Imperial tax system, banished certain sexual deviants, and put on lavish spectacles for the public, such as gladiator battles.[34][35] Caligula collected and brought back the bones of his mother and of his brothers and deposited their remains in the tomb of Augustus.[36]
He had his cousin and adopted son Tiberius Gemellus executed – an act that outraged Caligula's and Gemellus's mutual grandmother Antonia Minor. She is said to have committed suicide, although Suetonius hints that Caligula actually poisoned her. He had his father-in-law Marcus Junius Silanus and his brother-in-law Marcus Lepidus executed as well. His uncle Claudius was spared only because Caligula kept him as a laughing stock. His favorite sister Julia Drusilla died in AD 38 of a fever: his other two sisters, Livilla and Agrippina the Younger, were exiled. He hated the fact that he was the grandson of Agrippa, and slandered Augustus by repeating a falsehood that his mother was actually the result of an incestuous relationship between Augustus and his daughter Julia the Elder.[37]
Succession and Abdication
The temporary fits of insanity into which Justin fell warned him to name a colleague. Passing over his own relatives, he raised, on the advice of Sophia, the general Tiberius to be Caesar in December 574, adopting him as his son, [7] and withdrew into retirement. In 574, Sophia paid 45,000 solidi to Chosroes in return for a year's truce. [5]
According to John of Ephesus, as Justin II slipped into the unbridled madness of his final days he was pulled through the palace on a wheeled throne, biting attendants as he passed. He reportedly ordered organ music to be played constantly throughout the palace in an attempt to soothe his frenzied mind, and it was rumoured that his taste for attendants extended as far as "devouring" a number of them during his reign.[8] The tardy knowledge of his own impotence determined him to lay down the weight of the diadem; he showed some symptoms of a discerning and even magnanimous spirit when he addressed his assembly,
You behold the ensigns of supreme power. You are about to receive them, not from my hand, but from the hand of God. Honor them, and from them you will derive honor. Respect the empress your mother: you are now her son; before, you were her servant. Delight not in blood; abstain from revenge; avoid those actions by which I have incurred the public hatred; and consult the experience, rather than the example, of your predecessor. As a man, I have sinned; as a sinner, even in this life, I have been severely punished: but these servants, (and we pointed to his ministers,) who have abused my confidence, and inflamed my passions, will appear with me before the tribunal of Christ. I have been dazzled by the splendor of the diadem: be thou wise and modest; remember what you have been, remember what you are. You see around us your slaves, and your children: with the authority, assume the tenderness, of a parent. Love your people like yourself; cultivate the affections, maintain the discipline, of the army; protect the fortunes of the rich, relieve the necessities of the poor.
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