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Global population and conservation status of the Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus
- Samuel Langlois Lopez, Alexander L. Bond, Nina J. O’Hanlon, Jared M. Wilson, Andrew Vitz, Carolyn S. Mostello, Frederick Hamilton, Jean-François Rail, Linda Welch, Ruth Boettcher, Sabina I. Wilhelm, Tycho Anker-Nilssen, Francis Daunt, Elizabeth Masden
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- Journal:
- Bird Conservation International / Volume 33 / 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 05 August 2022, e23
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The Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus is a generalist species that inhabits temperate and arctic coasts of the north Atlantic Ocean. In recent years, there has been growing concern about population declines at local and regional scales; however, there has been no attempt to robustly assess Great Black-backed Gull population trends across its global range. We obtained the most recent population counts across the species’ range and analysed population trends at a global, continental, and national scale over the most recent three-generation period (1985–2021) following IUCN Red List criteria. We found that, globally, the species has declined by 43%–48% over this period (1.2–1.3% per annum, respectively), from an estimated 291,000 breeding pairs to 152,000–165,000 breeding pairs under two different scenarios. North American populations declined more steeply than European ones (68% and 28%, respectively). We recommend that Great Black-backed Gull should be uplisted from ‘Least Concern’ to ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species under criterion A2 (an estimated reduction in population size >30% over three generations).
ALMOST NONNEGATIVE CURVATURE ON SOME FAKE 6- AND 14-DIMENSIONAL PROJECTIVE SPACES
- Part of
- PRIYANKA RAJAN, FREDERICK WILHELM
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- Journal:
- Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Society / Volume 94 / Issue 2 / October 2016
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 27 July 2016, pp. 304-315
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- October 2016
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We apply the lifting theorem of Searle and the second author to put metrics of almost nonnegative curvature on the fake $\mathbb{R}P^{6}$s of Hirsch and Milnor and on the analogous fake $\mathbb{R}P^{14}$s.
Contributors
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- By Mitchell Aboulafia, Frederick Adams, Marilyn McCord Adams, Robert M. Adams, Laird Addis, James W. Allard, David Allison, William P. Alston, Karl Ameriks, C. Anthony Anderson, David Leech Anderson, Lanier Anderson, Roger Ariew, David Armstrong, Denis G. Arnold, E. J. Ashworth, Margaret Atherton, Robin Attfield, Bruce Aune, Edward Wilson Averill, Jody Azzouni, Kent Bach, Andrew Bailey, Lynne Rudder Baker, Thomas R. Baldwin, Jon Barwise, George Bealer, William Bechtel, Lawrence C. Becker, Mark A. Bedau, Ernst Behler, José A. Benardete, Ermanno Bencivenga, Jan Berg, Michael Bergmann, Robert L. Bernasconi, Sven Bernecker, Bernard Berofsky, Rod Bertolet, Charles J. Beyer, Christian Beyer, Joseph Bien, Joseph Bien, Peg Birmingham, Ivan Boh, James Bohman, Daniel Bonevac, Laurence BonJour, William J. Bouwsma, Raymond D. Bradley, Myles Brand, Richard B. Brandt, Michael E. Bratman, Stephen E. Braude, Daniel Breazeale, Angela Breitenbach, Jason Bridges, David O. Brink, Gordon G. Brittan, Justin Broackes, Dan W. Brock, Aaron Bronfman, Jeffrey E. Brower, Bartosz Brozek, Anthony Brueckner, Jeffrey Bub, Lara Buchak, Otavio Bueno, Ann E. Bumpus, Robert W. Burch, John Burgess, Arthur W. Burks, Panayot Butchvarov, Robert E. Butts, Marina Bykova, Patrick Byrne, David Carr, Noël Carroll, Edward S. Casey, Victor Caston, Victor Caston, Albert Casullo, Robert L. Causey, Alan K. L. Chan, Ruth Chang, Deen K. Chatterjee, Andrew Chignell, Roderick M. Chisholm, Kelly J. Clark, E. J. Coffman, Robin Collins, Brian P. Copenhaver, John Corcoran, John Cottingham, Roger Crisp, Frederick J. Crosson, Antonio S. Cua, Phillip D. Cummins, Martin Curd, Adam Cureton, Andrew Cutrofello, Stephen Darwall, Paul Sheldon Davies, Wayne A. Davis, Timothy Joseph Day, Claudio de Almeida, Mario De Caro, Mario De Caro, John Deigh, C. F. Delaney, Daniel C. Dennett, Michael R. DePaul, Michael Detlefsen, Daniel Trent Devereux, Philip E. Devine, John M. Dillon, Martin C. Dillon, Robert DiSalle, Mary Domski, Alan Donagan, Paul Draper, Fred Dretske, Mircea Dumitru, Wilhelm Dupré, Gerald Dworkin, John Earman, Ellery Eells, Catherine Z. Elgin, Berent Enç, Ronald P. Endicott, Edward Erwin, John Etchemendy, C. Stephen Evans, Susan L. Feagin, Solomon Feferman, Richard Feldman, Arthur Fine, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, William FitzPatrick, Richard E. Flathman, Gvozden Flego, Richard Foley, Graeme Forbes, Rainer Forst, Malcolm R. Forster, Daniel Fouke, Patrick Francken, Samuel Freeman, Elizabeth Fricker, Miranda Fricker, Michael Friedman, Michael Fuerstein, Richard A. Fumerton, Alan Gabbey, Pieranna Garavaso, Daniel Garber, Jorge L. A. Garcia, Robert K. Garcia, Don Garrett, Philip Gasper, Gerald Gaus, Berys Gaut, Bernard Gert, Roger F. Gibson, Cody Gilmore, Carl Ginet, Alan H. Goldman, Alvin I. Goldman, Alfonso Gömez-Lobo, Lenn E. Goodman, Robert M. Gordon, Stefan Gosepath, Jorge J. E. Gracia, Daniel W. Graham, George A. Graham, Peter J. Graham, Richard E. Grandy, I. Grattan-Guinness, John Greco, Philip T. Grier, Nicholas Griffin, Nicholas Griffin, David A. Griffiths, Paul J. Griffiths, Stephen R. Grimm, Charles L. Griswold, Charles B. Guignon, Pete A. Y. Gunter, Dimitri Gutas, Gary Gutting, Paul Guyer, Kwame Gyekye, Oscar A. Haac, Raul Hakli, Raul Hakli, Michael Hallett, Edward C. Halper, Jean Hampton, R. James Hankinson, K. R. Hanley, Russell Hardin, Robert M. Harnish, William Harper, David Harrah, Kevin Hart, Ali Hasan, William Hasker, John Haugeland, Roger Hausheer, William Heald, Peter Heath, Richard Heck, John F. Heil, Vincent F. Hendricks, Stephen Hetherington, Francis Heylighen, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Risto Hilpinen, Harold T. Hodes, Joshua Hoffman, Alan Holland, Robert L. Holmes, Richard Holton, Brad W. Hooker, Terence E. Horgan, Tamara Horowitz, Paul Horwich, Vittorio Hösle, Paul Hoβfeld, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Frances Howard-Snyder, Anne Hudson, Deal W. Hudson, Carl A. Huffman, David L. Hull, Patricia Huntington, Thomas Hurka, Paul Hurley, Rosalind Hursthouse, Guillermo Hurtado, Ronald E. Hustwit, Sarah Hutton, Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa, Harry A. Ide, David Ingram, Philip J. Ivanhoe, Alfred L. Ivry, Frank Jackson, Dale Jacquette, Joseph Jedwab, Richard Jeffrey, David Alan Johnson, Edward Johnson, Mark D. Jordan, Richard Joyce, Hwa Yol Jung, Robert Hillary Kane, Tomis Kapitan, Jacquelyn Ann K. Kegley, James A. Keller, Ralph Kennedy, Sergei Khoruzhii, Jaegwon Kim, Yersu Kim, Nathan L. King, Patricia Kitcher, Peter D. Klein, E. D. Klemke, Virginia Klenk, George L. Kline, Christian Klotz, Simo Knuuttila, Joseph J. Kockelmans, Konstantin Kolenda, Sebastian Tomasz Kołodziejczyk, Isaac Kramnick, Richard Kraut, Fred Kroon, Manfred Kuehn, Steven T. Kuhn, Henry E. Kyburg, John Lachs, Jennifer Lackey, Stephen E. Lahey, Andrea Lavazza, Thomas H. Leahey, Joo Heung Lee, Keith Lehrer, Dorothy Leland, Noah M. Lemos, Ernest LePore, Sarah-Jane Leslie, Isaac Levi, Andrew Levine, Alan E. Lewis, Daniel E. Little, Shu-hsien Liu, Shu-hsien Liu, Alan K. L. Chan, Brian Loar, Lawrence B. Lombard, John Longeway, Dominic McIver Lopes, Michael J. Loux, E. J. Lowe, Steven Luper, Eugene C. Luschei, William G. Lycan, David Lyons, David Macarthur, Danielle Macbeth, Scott MacDonald, Jacob L. Mackey, Louis H. Mackey, Penelope Mackie, Edward H. Madden, Penelope Maddy, G. B. Madison, Bernd Magnus, Pekka Mäkelä, Rudolf A. Makkreel, David Manley, William E. Mann (W.E.M.), Vladimir Marchenkov, Peter Markie, Jean-Pierre Marquis, Ausonio Marras, Mike W. Martin, A. P. Martinich, William L. McBride, David McCabe, Storrs McCall, Hugh J. McCann, Robert N. McCauley, John J. McDermott, Sarah McGrath, Ralph McInerny, Daniel J. McKaughan, Thomas McKay, Michael McKinsey, Brian P. McLaughlin, Ernan McMullin, Anthonie Meijers, Jack W. Meiland, William Jason Melanson, Alfred R. Mele, Joseph R. Mendola, Christopher Menzel, Michael J. Meyer, Christian B. Miller, David W. Miller, Peter Millican, Robert N. Minor, Phillip Mitsis, James A. Montmarquet, Michael S. Moore, Tim Moore, Benjamin Morison, Donald R. Morrison, Stephen J. Morse, Paul K. Moser, Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, Ian Mueller, James Bernard Murphy, Mark C. Murphy, Steven Nadler, Jan Narveson, Alan Nelson, Jerome Neu, Samuel Newlands, Kai Nielsen, Ilkka Niiniluoto, Carlos G. Noreña, Calvin G. Normore, David Fate Norton, Nikolaj Nottelmann, Donald Nute, David S. Oderberg, Steve Odin, Michael O’Rourke, Willard G. Oxtoby, Heinz Paetzold, George S. Pappas, Anthony J. Parel, Lydia Patton, R. P. Peerenboom, Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Adriaan T. Peperzak, Derk Pereboom, Jaroslav Peregrin, Glen Pettigrove, Philip Pettit, Edmund L. Pincoffs, Andrew Pinsent, Robert B. Pippin, Alvin Plantinga, Louis P. Pojman, Richard H. Popkin, John F. Post, Carl J. Posy, William J. Prior, Richard Purtill, Michael Quante, Philip L. Quinn, Philip L. Quinn, Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, Diana Raffman, Gerard Raulet, Stephen L. Read, Andrews Reath, Andrew Reisner, Nicholas Rescher, Henry S. Richardson, Robert C. Richardson, Thomas Ricketts, Wayne D. Riggs, Mark Roberts, Robert C. Roberts, Luke Robinson, Alexander Rosenberg, Gary Rosenkranz, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, Adina L. Roskies, William L. Rowe, T. M. Rudavsky, Michael Ruse, Bruce Russell, Lilly-Marlene Russow, Dan Ryder, R. M. Sainsbury, Joseph Salerno, Nathan Salmon, Wesley C. Salmon, Constantine Sandis, David H. Sanford, Marco Santambrogio, David Sapire, Ruth A. Saunders, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, Charles Sayward, James P. Scanlan, Richard Schacht, Tamar Schapiro, Frederick F. Schmitt, Jerome B. Schneewind, Calvin O. Schrag, Alan D. Schrift, George F. Schumm, Jean-Loup Seban, David N. Sedley, Kenneth Seeskin, Krister Segerberg, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Dennis M. Senchuk, James F. Sennett, William Lad Sessions, Stewart Shapiro, Tommie Shelby, Donald W. Sherburne, Christopher Shields, Roger A. Shiner, Sydney Shoemaker, Robert K. Shope, Kwong-loi Shun, Wilfried Sieg, A. John Simmons, Robert L. Simon, Marcus G. Singer, Georgette Sinkler, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Matti T. Sintonen, Lawrence Sklar, Brian Skyrms, Robert C. Sleigh, Michael Anthony Slote, Hans Sluga, Barry Smith, Michael Smith, Robin Smith, Robert Sokolowski, Robert C. Solomon, Marta Soniewicka, Philip Soper, Ernest Sosa, Nicholas Southwood, Paul Vincent Spade, T. L. S. Sprigge, Eric O. Springsted, George J. Stack, Rebecca Stangl, Jason Stanley, Florian Steinberger, Sören Stenlund, Christopher Stephens, James P. Sterba, Josef Stern, Matthias Steup, M. A. Stewart, Leopold Stubenberg, Edith Dudley Sulla, Frederick Suppe, Jere Paul Surber, David George Sussman, Sigrún Svavarsdóttir, Zeno G. Swijtink, Richard Swinburne, Charles C. Taliaferro, Robert B. Talisse, John Tasioulas, Paul Teller, Larry S. Temkin, Mark Textor, H. S. Thayer, Peter Thielke, Alan Thomas, Amie L. Thomasson, Katherine Thomson-Jones, Joshua C. Thurow, Vzalerie Tiberius, Terrence N. Tice, Paul Tidman, Mark C. Timmons, William Tolhurst, James E. Tomberlin, Rosemarie Tong, Lawrence Torcello, Kelly Trogdon, J. D. Trout, Robert E. Tully, Raimo Tuomela, John Turri, Martin M. Tweedale, Thomas Uebel, Jennifer Uleman, James Van Cleve, Harry van der Linden, Peter van Inwagen, Bryan W. Van Norden, René van Woudenberg, Donald Phillip Verene, Samantha Vice, Thomas Vinci, Donald Wayne Viney, Barbara Von Eckardt, Peter B. M. Vranas, Steven J. Wagner, William J. Wainwright, Paul E. Walker, Robert E. Wall, Craig Walton, Douglas Walton, Eric Watkins, Richard A. Watson, Michael V. Wedin, Rudolph H. Weingartner, Paul Weirich, Paul J. Weithman, Carl Wellman, Howard Wettstein, Samuel C. Wheeler, Stephen A. White, Jennifer Whiting, Edward R. Wierenga, Michael Williams, Fred Wilson, W. Kent Wilson, Kenneth P. Winkler, John F. Wippel, Jan Woleński, Allan B. Wolter, Nicholas P. Wolterstorff, Rega Wood, W. Jay Wood, Paul Woodruff, Alison Wylie, Gideon Yaffe, Takashi Yagisawa, Yutaka Yamamoto, Keith E. Yandell, Xiaomei Yang, Dean Zimmerman, Günter Zoller, Catherine Zuckert, Michael Zuckert, Jack A. Zupko (J.A.Z.)
- Edited by Robert Audi, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
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- The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
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- 05 August 2015
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- 27 April 2015, pp ix-xxx
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On Frankel’s Theorem
- Peter Petersen, Frederick Wilhelm
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- Canadian Mathematical Bulletin / Volume 46 / Issue 1 / 01 March 2003
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- 20 November 2018, pp. 130-139
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- 01 March 2003
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In this paper we show that two minimal hypersurfaces in a manifold with positive Ricci curvature must intersect. This is then generalized to show that in manifolds with positive Ricci curvature in the integral sense two minimal hypersurfaces must be close to each other. We also show what happens if a manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature admits two nonintersecting minimal hypersurfaces.
SCENE THE FIFTH - THE VILLA
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 66-79
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Summary
IT was in the most charming situation of the Falernian land, so highly favoured by nature, that Gallus had some years before purchased an extensive estate, which both yielded an abundant agricultural produce, and offered at all seasons the enjoyments of country life in superfluity. The road, which beyond the Campanian bridge, leaving the Appian way to the right, turned towards the stream of the Savo, led for miles through pleasant woodland and forests, which, now contracting the breadth of the road to that of a narrow path, shaded the traveller with lofty poplars and elms, and then retreating further off, drew a dark circlet round the luxuriant green meadows, or at another time became interrupted for a while, and then opened a prospect towards the Auruncan hills on the left; whilst to the right were discovered the small towns lying at short intervals from each other on the Appian way.
The broad champaign belonging to the villa was intersected by the Savo, and reached on the one side nearly to the Via Appia, and on the other to the vine-clad hills, along which wound the road from Sinuessa to Teanum. The whole property was formed from the conjunction of two estates, and might still be considered as such, as they were remote from each other; and at almost opposite extremities lay the buildings designed for agricultural purposes, and the villa built in the city fashion.
Excursus: The Male Attire
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 333-354
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Summary
AS the costume of the Roman ladies remained till a late period essentially the same, so the men wore one distinguishing dress, which first began to grow obsolete after the downfal of the Republic, when the indifference respecting the cultivation of national habits, equalled that about the public affairs of the country. It is true that other articles of dress were worn as well as the simple robe of early days, and even this was folded with greater nicety and amplitude than before; but we must look on those habits as genuine Roman which were in vogue at the most blooming period of the Republic.
Among the writings on this subject, the laborious compilation of Ferrarius (De re vestiaria, ii. vii.) will always stand chief. Differing from him, are Rubeni, De re vest. prœcipue de lato clavo, and on the other side, Ferrarii, Analecta de re vest.; Dandré Bardon, du costume, etc. des anciens peuples; Martini, Das Kostüm der meisten Völker des Alterth.; Malliot and Martin, Recherches sur le costume, etc. des anc. peuples, t. i.—iii.; Seckendorf, Die Grundform der Toga; Thom. Baxter, Description of the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman Costumes; Bartholini, de pœnula. Compare also Ottfr. Müller, Etrusker. i. 260. The chief sources of information are Quinctil. Inst. xi. 3; the grammarians, especially Nonius, De genere vestim.; Gellius, vii. 12; Tertull. De pallio, v.; and the numerous statues in Roman costume.
Excursus I - The Library
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 234-237
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THAT an extensive library should be found in the house of a learned and celebrated Roman poet, appears quite natural, and we should miss it, if it were not there; but it would be incorrect to argue from the presence of a costly library, the literary tastes of its owner. What in the earlier periods of Roman history was the want merely of a few individuals, who cultivated, or patronized literature, became by degrees an article of luxury and fashion. The more ignorant a man really was, the more learned he wished to appear, and it was considered ton to possess a rich library, even though its owner never took up a Greek poet or philosopher, perhaps never advanced even to read over the titles on the rolls, contenting himself, at the utmost, with enjoying the neatness of their exterior. Seneca de Tranq. An. 9, earnestly rebukes this rage of heaping together a quantity of books in a library: quarum dominus vix tota vita sua indices perlegit. He ridicules those quibus voluminum suorum frontes maxime placent titulique; and concludes: jam enim inter balnearia et thermas bibliotheca quoque ut necessarium domus ornamentum expolitur. Ignoscerem plane, si e studiorum nimia cupidine oriretur; nunc ista exquisita et cum imaginibus suis descripta sacrorum opera ingeniorum in speciem et cultum parietum comparantur.
Excursus IV - The Drinks
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 374-382
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ALTHOUGH Roman authors name several drinks, prepared both from grain, as zythum; from wheat and barley, camum and cerevisia (ceria, celia); from fruits, as the quince, cydoneum; and from honey and water, as hydromeli, consequently a sort of mead; yet the Romans knew (besides the ἄριστονὕδωρ), wine only as a drink; and those potations resembling beer, cider, and mead, belonged only to different provinces, governed by Roman laws, and are therefore taken cognizance of among other things, under the head de vino legato. Ulp. Dig. xxxiii. 6, 9; Pliny, xxii. 25.
Wine was, however, no doubt, mixed with other things, to produce certain drinks, the way of preparing and taking which was, in general, quite different from ours.
The following are the most important of the numerous works on this subject, Pliny, xiv. 8, seqq.; Colum. xii., with Schneider's remarks, ii. 2; Virg. Georg. ii., with Voss' notes; Athen. i.; Poll. vi. 4; Galen, De Antidotis, i. 9; Dig. xxx. 6: and of modern authors, Bacci, de nat. vinorum hist.; Beckmann, Beitr., &c. i. 183; Boettiger, Ueber die Pflege d. Weins. b. d. alt. Röm.
Pliny's remark, Ac si quis diligenter cogitet, in nulla parte operosior vita est, ceu non saluberrimum potum aquœ liquorem natura dederit, can be applied to our own times, but the process among the ancients was much more tedious.
SCENE THE SIXTH - LYCORIS
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 80-94
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POMPONIUS had hurried away from Gallus with the haste of a man, on whose steps success or ruin depended. Lost in thought, he had neither regarded the salutations of the friends who met him, nor heard the declamations of the ill-humoured Calpurnius, and had scarcely remarked that his tardy companion had separated from him at the forum transitorium, and taken the direction of the forum Romanum. Halting suddenly, he changed his rapid run into a slow and contemplative walk, then stopped still, contracting his forehead in profound reflection, and striking his hand on his breast, as if to summon forth the thoughts within. He drew himself slowly up to his full height, resting the left hand, against the hip, and with the right vehemently slapping his thigh: still no light seemed to penetrate the chaos of his ideas. He snapped his fingers fretfully, shook his head, as if he had renounced the intended errand, but presently his movements became more tranquil; and placing his hand under his chin, he appeared to hold firmly to one idea. A malicious and triumphant smile played about his mouth, as he turned suddenly and called the slave who stood at a little distance, surveying him with astonishment.
‘Hasten home immediately,’ said he, ‘bid Dromo repair without delay to the taberna of the tonsor Licinus, and await me there. But be quick.’
Index
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 415-421
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- 1844
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Excursus IV - The Letter
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 249-250
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THE Roman of quality, who even at his studies used to avail himself of the hands of another to write extracts for him, still more generally employed a slave in his correspondence, which, notwithstanding all the impediments thrown in its way, by the want of public conveyances, appears to have been tolerably rapid. They had slaves or freedmen for the purpose, ab epistolis, who belonged to the class of the librarii, and were also called, ad manum, a manu, amanuenses. Orell. Inscr. 2874. Jucundus Domitiœ Bibuli librarius ad manum. Orelli, it is true, makes the distinction; librarius, idemque ad manum: but the amanuensis is called also librarius. Cic. Attic. iv. 16: Epistolœ nostrœ tantum habent mysteriorum, ut eas ne librariis committamus. Plin. vii. 25: (Cæsarem) epistolas tantarum rerum quaternas pariter librariis dictare aut, si nihil aliud ageret, septenas (accepimus). As correspondence was frequently carried on in Greek, they had also libr. ab epistolis Grœcis, (Orell. 2437), as well as ab epistolis Latinis. Id. 2997.
Before a letter was ready to be dispatched, five things were required, which we find mentioned all together in Plaut. Bacch. iv. 4, 64:
Chr. Nunc tu abi intro, Pistoclere, ad Bacchidem, atque effer cito—
Pi. Quid? Chr. Stilum, ceram, et tabellas et linum.
Excursus: The Manner of Closing the Doors
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 397-399
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- 1844
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AMONG the least intelligible passages in ancient authors, are those which relate to some mechanism unknown to the moderns. If express descriptions, such as those of Vitruvius and Hero, and of the hydraulic machines of Ctesibius, are difficult to be understood, we are still more at a loss to give a satisfactory explanation, when casual mention merely is made of something well known at the time, let its mechanism have been ever so simple. This is especially the case when the locks or fastenings of the door are mentioned. Boettiger (Kunstmyth. i. p. 271) says with some truth, that ‘the art of the locksmith is one which still requires much elucidation; and a perfect system of the ancient technology, chiefly after the Onomasticon of Pollux, remains to be written,’ yet the system of nomenclature in Pollux will least contribute to clear up our difficulties.
Our examination must not only begin with the most ancient Greek period, concerning which Homer gives very important hints, but must also comprehend the East, as the origin of keys is probably to be sought for in Phœnicia. This point has partly been discussed in the more important writings on this subject, especially Salmas. Exercitt. p. 649; Sagittarius, De jan. vett. 9—15; Molin, De clacibus veterum, in Sallengre, Thes. antt. Rom. iii. 795: Montfauc. Antiq. expl. iii. I. t. 54, 55. The oldest method of fastening cannot be referred to that in use at Rome; and we shall here chiefly explain such terms as obex, sera, repagula, pessuli, claustra.
Excursus: The Interment of the Dead
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 400-414
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- 1844
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AMONG the most ceremonious observances of the Romans were the solemnities in honour of the dead. Instead of simply consigning the corpse to the earth, such pomp and ceremonial had gradually got into vogue, that, though full of deep import in its promptings, yet in outward appearance, at least, it looked mere vain show; nay more, nonsensical and ridiculous.
The custom has been already illustrated very satisfactorily by Alex. ab Alex. Gen. dd. iii. 7; more largely by Kirchmann, De funeribus Romanorum; also by Nieupoort, Ant. Rom. de ritu funerum. See also Baehr's chapter on the subject, in Kreuzer's Abriss., which is more useful still.
The topic has been so often discussed, that the chief points only will be mentioned here.
The following passages from ancient authors are important. Virg. Æn. vi. 212, sqq. Tib. iii. 2. Prop. i. 17; ii. 3; iv. 7. Ovid. Trist. iii. 3. Petr. 71. Appul. Flor. iv. 19. Also particularly, Cic. de Legg. ii. 21. Polyb. vi. 53, 54; and Herodian, iv. 2.
The scrupulous conscientiousness observed in discharging the funeral rites, was intimately connected with the religious notion concerning the future state; but it is very probable that this belief was originated and fostered by prudential motives, to counteract, in less civilised times, the evil effects which would have resulted from the neglect of sepulture.
Frontmatter
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp i-iv
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- 1844
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Excursus: The Dress of the Women
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 291-298
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- 1844
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Summary
AN antiquarian would be sadly at fault, had he to write a history of the fashions in female dress at Rome, or even to explain the terms which occur in connection with the subject. The meaning of such names generally vanishes with the fashion that gave rise to them, and less than a century afterwards, there is no tradition that can give any satisfactory intelligence about the peculiarity of a stuff or a particular form of dress. Commentators must fail, for the most part, in their attempts to explain the various articles of fashion mentioned in Plaut. Aul. iii. 5, and Epid. ii. 2; and the old grammarians, who are much too ready to explain the nature of such things by the first suitable etymology they can meet with, can be but little trusted, since the fashions of earlier times were probably quite as incomprehensible to them as they are to us.
Whoever therefore intends to treat concerning the dress of the Roman ladies, will do well to confine himself to generalities, and this is the more satisfactory, as the several articles of dress always remained the same in the main, and the fashions appear to have extended mostly only to the stuff or quality, or to the other accessories, which are of no importance.
SCENE THE TWELFTH - THE GRAVE
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Book:
- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 161-168
- First published in:
- 1844
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Summary
THE intelligence of the melancholy end of Gallus soon reached Augustus, and made the stronger impression on him, from several influential voices having been already raised in disapproval of the senate's premature and severe decree, and expressing doubts as to the sincerity of his accusers. Now that Gallus himself had decided matters in such a way as allowed of no recal or mitigation of his sentence, and that the emperor had no longer any anxiety for his own safety, the consciousness of great injustice having been committed, took its place. When a true version of what had passed at the house of Lentulus got abroad, and it became by degrees established that Gallus was much less guilty than had been supposed, and that he had fallen a victim to an intrigue, which the hostilely-disposed senate had embraced as a welcome opportunity for his destruction, Augustus loudly lamented the fate, which robbed him alone, among all men, of the liberty of being angry with his friends, according to his own measure and will. He firmly renounced the decree which made him master over the property of Gallus, and ordained that whatever disposition might have been previously made, should have full effect. The senate, with the same alacrity that they had entertained the accusation, now proceeded to declare that all guilt had been effaced by his death, and that nothing should stand in the way of an honourable funeral.
Excursus I - The Lectica and the Carriages
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Book:
- Gallus
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- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 257-266
- First published in:
- 1844
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WITH the great love of comfort that distinguished the upper ranks of the Roman world in later times, we may easily imagine that sufficient provision was made for the means of locomotion, unaccompanied by any exertion on their own part. We should form a very erroneous conception if we fancied that the Romans did not possess, as well as the moderns, their travelling, state, and hackney equipages: on the contrary, the means of conveyance in their times, though not so regularly organized as our stage-coaches and omnibuses, nor so generally used by all classes, were even more numerous, and, to a certain extent, better calculated for the purpose they were intended to answer, although this was intimately connected with the (to us unknown) system of slaves, and also depended on conditions of climate.
These subjects have been often and circumstantially treated of, and but little of importance remains to be added, so that we shall rather seek to select and properly apply the most essential points of what has already been made known. The most important writings are: Schefferi, De re vehiculari veterum, lib. ii., in Poleni thes. t. v., to which is appended, De vehiculis antiquis diatribe; Beckmann, Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Erfind. i. 390; and Ginzrot, Die Wägen und Fahrwerke der Griechen und Römer und and. alt. Völk. 2 vols. 4; a work which has the advantage of being written by a connoisseur in these matters, though as a philologist he is by no means all we could wish.
SCENE THE TENTH - THE DRINKERS
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Book:
- Gallus
- Published online:
- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp 142-151
- First published in:
- 1844
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THE lamps had been long shining on the marble panels of the walls in the triclinium, where Earinos, with assistants, was making preparations, under the direction of the tricliniarch, for the nocturnal comissatio. Upon the polished table between the tapestried couches stood an elegant bronze candelabrum, in the form of a stem of a tree, from the winterly and almost leafless branches of which four two-flamed lamps, emulating each other in beauty of shape, were suspended. Other lamps hung by chains from the ceiling, which was richly gilt and ingeniously inlaid with ivory, in order to expel the darkness of night from all parts of the saloon. A number of costly goblets and larger vessels were arranged on two silver sideboards, and on one of them a slave was just placing another vessel filled with snow, together with its colum, and on the other was the steaming caldarium, containing water kept constantly boiling by the coals in its inner cylinder, in case any of the guests should prefer the calda, the drink of winter, to the snow-drink, for which he might think the season was not sufficiently advanced.
By degrees the guests assembled from the bath and the peristylum, and took their places in the same order as before on the triclinium. Gallus and Calpurnius were still wanting. They had been seen walking to and fro along the cryptoporticus in earnest discourse.
Translator's Preface
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Book:
- Gallus
- Published online:
- 10 November 2010
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- 17 June 2010, pp v-viii
- First published in:
- 1844
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Gallus oder Römische Scenen aus der Zeit Augusts—such is the German title of Professor Becker's work—was published at Leipsic in 1838. The novelty of its conception; the comparatively fresh ground it broke in the field of Roman Antiquities, and the exceeding erudition brought to bear on the subject, at once arrested the attention of German scholars, and it has ever since been considered, what its author ventured to hope it would be, ‘a desirable repertory of whatever is most worth knowing about the private life of the Romans.’ Soon after its publication, a very lengthened and eulogistic critique appeared in the Times London newspaper; and as it seldom happens that that Journal can find space in its columns for notices of this description, no little weight was attached to the circumstance, and a proportionate interest created in the work. Proposals were immediately made for publishing it in an English dress, and the book was advertised accordingly; but unforeseen difficulties intervened, arising from the peculiar nature of the work, and the plan was ultimately abandoned.
In fact, in order to render the book successful in England, it was absolutely necessary that it should be somehow divested of its very German appearance, which, how palatable soever it might be to the author's own countrymen, would have been caviare to the generality of English readers.
Excursus V - The Clocks and Divisions of Time
- Wilhelm Adolf Becker
- Translated by Frederick Metcalfe
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- Book:
- Gallus
- Published online:
- 10 November 2010
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2010, pp 251-256
- First published in:
- 1844
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Summary
NOTWITHSTANDING the magnificence of the domestic arrangements of the ancients, and the refined care bestowed on every thing that could make life agreeable, they still were without many ordinary conveniences. For instance, a clock, to regulate the business of the day, according to a fixed measure of time, to us an indispensable piece of furniture, which the man of moderate means can command with facility, and even the poorest does not like to be without,—was, for nearly five hundred years, a thing quite unknown in Rome, and even in later times only in a very imperfect state.
Besides this, the division of the day was inconvenient. It is true, they reckoned twenty-four hours from midnight to midnight, but they divided the regular duration of the day, between the rising and setting of the sun, into twelve hours, and allotted the remainder of the time to the night, which was partitioned into four watches. On this account a faulty state of things naturally arose, for the hours of night and day being of variable length throughout the year, and only equal at the equinoxes, their eleventh hours, for instance, began at fifty-eight minutes past two, according to our mode of reckoning, in the winter solstice, and at two minutes past five in the summer solstice. Thus any comparison of the Roman hours with ours, is attended with this difficulty, that we must always know the natural length of the day for the latitude of Rome, in order that our calculation may be correct.