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Kingdom of Italy under Odoacer (480)

Year 480 (CDLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Basilius without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1233 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 480 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events[link]

By place[link]

Byzantine Empire[link]

• Emperor Zeno officially dissolves the east/west co-emperorship, ruling as the first sole emperor of Rome in 95 years. The position of emperor is never again divided.

Balkans[link]

• Julius Nepos, former emperor of the Western Roman Empire, dies in exile in Dalmatia. He is murdered by his own soldiers in his villa, near Solona.
• December 9 – Odoacer occupies Dalmatia and prosecutes Nepos's killers. He later establishes his political power with the co-operation of the Roman Senate.

Europe[link]

• King Chilperic I dies and is succeeded by his nephew Gundobad, whose realm covers much of eastern Gaul and has two capitals, at Lyon and Geneva. He rules the Kingdom of Burgundy with his brothers Chilperic II, Gundomar and Godegisel.
• Syagrius, ruler of Domain of Soissons, manages to maintain the Roman authority in northern Gaul. He defends his "kingdom" against the neighbouring Salian Franks.
• The Visigoths under king Euric extend their rule from the Loire River to Gibraltar (approximate date).
• Ireland: The Diocese of Connor is erected.

Asia[link]

• Budhagupta, ruler of the Gupta Empire, establishes diplomatic relations with the Kannauj kingdom and drives the Huns out of the fertile plains of northern India.
• Prince Seinei succeeds his father Yūryaku and becomes the 22nd emperor of Japan.

By topic[link]

Religion[link]

• Constantius of Lyon begins his research for his book Vita sancta Germani ("on the Life of Germanus"). He also writes a hagiography of Germanus of Auxerre (approximate date).

Births[link]

• Benedict of Nursia, monasticist (approximate date)
• Boethius, Roman philosopher and writer
• Gelimer, king of the Vandals and Alans (d. 553)
• Scholastica, Christian nun (approximate date)
• Xiao Zhaowen, emperor of Southern Qi (d. 494)
• Zu Gengzhi, Chinese mathematician (d. 525)

Deaths[link]

• Chilperic I, king of Burgundy
• Erbin of Dumnonia, Brythonic king (approximate date)
• Julius Nepos, Western Roman Emperor
• Tydfil, female saint (approximate date)

References[link]

Rob Zicari and Janet Romano

Robert D. Zicari a.k.a. Rob Black (born August 8, 1974) is an American pornographer and former professional wrestling promoter. Together with his wife Janet Romano (a.k.a. Lizzy Borden) he owns the porn company Extreme Associates. Zicari was prosecuted for distribution of obscenity by the United States Department of Justice in 2004. The case was dismissed but was reinstated upon appeal in 2005. Zicari entered into a plea agreement with the government in 2009 ending the case. (See United States v. Extreme Associates.)

Career[link]

Zicari, son of an adult bookstore owner, started out as a porn director in the mid 1990s. His former porn company Extreme Video was started in 1993/1994 and eventually developed into the present-day Extreme Associates.

Appeared as himself (Robert Black) in the documentary film Sex: The Annabel Chong Story (1999).

His work often involved scenes considered egregious and extreme even by other members of the pornography industry, such as adult performers acting as young girls, or a simulated rape of a disabled person in a wheelchair in Miscreants (1997).

In 1998, he founded the porn company, Extreme Associates, together with fellow porn directors Tom Byron and Van Damage and porn star Tiffany Mynx (who have since left the company). Janet Romano started to work for him in the same year, first as an actress and then as a director.

Beginning in 2000, Zicari and AVN Magazine engaged in a "propaganda war" against one another, and as a result, Black's products were not reviewed or advertised in that trade magazine for several years.

In 2001 Zicari (as Rob Black) unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Los Angeles, receiving 789 votes.[1]

Rob Zicari is nephew to porn entrepreneur Charles Zicari, a.k.a. Chuck Zane and cousin to fellow pornographers Mark and Matt Zane.

Obscenity prosecution[link]

The filming of Lizzy Borden's movie Forced Entry, which included several simulated rapes, was covered in the PBS Frontline documentary American Porn (2002); the makers of the documentary were repulsed and walked off the set. The filming of the movie was also a part of documentary produced for the BBC 2 hosted by Louis Theroux which follows various figures of the porn industry. Louis Theroux also leaves the set in a similar manner to that of the PBS documentary. After Zicari was interviewed in the documentary and challenged Attorney General John Ashcroft. These scenes possibly led to the subsequent undercover operation by federal authorities.

In April 2003, the premises of Extreme Associates were raided by federal agents. Zicari, his wife and his company were indicted for distributing obscene pornographic materials. The case is United States v. Extreme Associates.

Zicari's company is located in Northridge near Los Angeles, but the trial took place in Pittsburgh, from where under-cover agents had ordered the offending materials.

Zicari remained in business during the trial; he continued to market and sell the five tapes that are at the center of the prosecution as The Federal Five, with a portion of the sales price going to his defense fund. Note that buyers of those materials do not break the law, since mere possession of obscenity (unlike production and distribution) is not illegal.

In April 2004, Zicari engaged in a public dispute with fellow pornographer Larry Flynt, who also had to fight various obscenity trials in the past. Zicari asked the adult industry for financial support to aid in his defense; Flynt declined, saying that he only promotes consensual sex and that Zicari's actions harmed the industry as a whole.

Zicari's lawyer H. Louis Sirkin initially argued that laws against the distribution of obscenity were unconstitutional since people have a right to own obscenity, but this argument was rebuffed on appeal.

After 6 years of legal costs, Black and his wife both plead guilty to the reinstated federal obscenity charges in hopes to avoid more extensive loss and penalties if they lost at actual trial.^[1]

Zicari and his wife were both sentenced to one year and one day in prison on July 1, 2009.^[2] In late September the couple began serving their prison sentences, Zicari at La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution in Texas and his wife at Waseca Federal Correctional Institution in Minnesota.^[3] Instead of reporting to the intended minimum-security satellite facility, Zicari mistakenly reported to the prison's primary facility, where officials placed him in solitary confinement for nearly a month because it "was the only space they had available."^[3]

Xtreme Pro Wrestling[link]

In 1999, Zicari and Romano founded the Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) independent professional wrestling promotion. He appeared on shows as the owner as well as a manager under the name of Rob Black. His heel (bad guy) stable was called the "Black Army" and featured wrestlers such as John Kronus, Terry Funk, Abdullah the Butcher, and Juventud Guerrera.

XPW folded in 2003 because of issues related to the obscenity prosecution, and in 2004 Zicari sold the company's footage to Xtreme Entertainment Group.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rob Black at the Internet Movie Database
• Rob Black at the Adult Film Database
• Zicari's statement on the raid and the continued availability of the tapes (Wayback Machine archive)
• Dispute between Zicari and Flynt
• Report on November 2004 hearing
• Dismissal of U.S. v. Extreme Associates
• Ruling of the Court of Appeals, reinstating the case against Zicari
• Links to several blog comments regarding the affair
• Interview of Rob Zicari by avninsider.com: part 1, part 2
• American Porn documentary by Frontline (first aired in 2002, updated in 2004), watchable online.