Croesus

Wednesday, 16 January 2013

Stories of the Prophets - Musa and Croesus

Reinhard Keiser - Aria di Elmira from Croesus (3/4)

Heli-biking on the historic Croesus Track

Minecraft Infernal Sky - 17 - Rich As Croesus

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Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire (/ækəˈmɛnɪˌdi/; Old Persian: Parsā, name of ruling dynasty: Haxāmanišiya) (c. 550–330 BCE), sometimes known as First Persian Empire, was an Iranian empire in Southwest Asia, founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation. It expanded to eventually rule over significant portions of the ancient world which at around 500 BCE stretched from the Indus Valley in the east, to Thrace and Macedon on the northeastern border of Greece making it the biggest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenid Empire would eventually control Egypt as well. It was ruled by a series of monarchs who unified its disparate tribes and nationalities by constructing a complex network of roads.
Calling themselves the Parsa after their original Aryan tribal name Parsua, Persians settled in a land which they named Parsua, bounded on the west by the Tigris River and on the south by the Persian Gulf. This became their heartland for the duration of the Achaemenid Empire. It was from this region that eventually Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II of Persia) would advance to defeat the Median, the Lydian, and the Babylonian Empires, opening the way for subsequent conquests into Egypt and Asia minor.

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Anatolia
Coordinates: 39°N 32°E / 39°N 32°E / 39; 32
Anatolia (from Greek Ἀνατολή Anatolē — "east" or "(sun)rise"; also Asia Minor, from Greek: Μικρὰ Ἀσία Mikrá Asía "small Asia"; in modern Turkish: Anadolu) is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Iskenderun and the Black Sea, approximately corresponding to the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. However, since Anatolia is now often considered to be synonymous with Asian Turkey, its eastern and southeastern borders are widely taken to be the Turkish borders with the neighboring countries, which are Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria, in clockwise direction.

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British Museum
Coordinates: 51°31′10″N 0°07′37″W / 51.519459°N 0.126931°W / 51.519459; -0.126931
The British Museum, in London, is widely considered to be one of the world's greatest museums of human history and culture. Its permanent collection, numbering some eight million works, is amongst the finest, most comprehensive, and largest in existence and originates from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.
The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building. Its expansion over the following two and a half centuries was largely a result of an expanding British colonial footprint and has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the British Museum (Natural History) in South Kensington in 1887. Some objects in the collection, most notably the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon, are the objects of intense controversy and of calls for restitution to their countries of origin.

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Egypt
Egypt ⁱ/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر, Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: [mɑsˤɾ] ; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kīmi ; Sahidic Coptic: ⲕⲏⲙⲉ, Kēme), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة (help·info), is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.

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Pactolus
Pactolus (Turkish: Sart Çayı) is a river near the Aegean coast of Turkey. The river rises from Mount Tmolus, flows through the ruins of the ancient city of Sardis, and empties into the Gediz River, the ancient Hermus. The Pactolus once contained electrum that was the basis of the economy of the ancient state of Lydia. According to legend, King Midas divested himself of the golden touch by washing himself in the river.

Coordinates: 38°31′24″N 28°02′34″E / 38.52327°N 28.042774°E / 38.52327; 28.042774

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Sardis
Sardis or Sardes (Lydian: Sfard; Greek: Σάρδεις, Sardeis; Persian: سارد, Sārd) was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart (Sartmahmut before 19 October 2005) in Turkey's Manisa Province. Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the important cities of the Persian Empire, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman Empire, and the metropolis of the province Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine times. As one of the Seven churches of Asia, it was addressed by the author of the Book of Revelation in terms which seem to imply that its population was notoriously soft and fainthearted. Its importance was due, first to its military strength, secondly to its situation on an important highway leading from the interior to the Aegean coast, and thirdly to its commanding the wide and fertile plain of the Hermus.
Sardis was situated in the middle of Hermus valley, at the foot of Mount Tmolus, a steep and lofty spur which formed the citadel. It was about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south of the Hermus. Today, the site is located by the present day village of Sart, near Salihli in the Manisa province of Turkey, close to the Ankara - İzmir highway (approximately 72 kilometres (45 mi) from İzmir). The part of remains including the bath-gymnasium complex, synagogue and Byzantine shops is open to visitors year-round.

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Sparta
Coordinates: 37°4′55″N 22°25′25″E / 37.08194°N 22.42361°E / 37.08194; 22.42361
Sparta (Doric Σπάρτα; Attic Σπάρτη Spartē), or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c. 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece.
Given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars. Between 431 and 404 BC, Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, from which it emerged victorious, though at great cost. Sparta's defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Sparta's prominent role in Greece. However, it maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC.
Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which completely focused on military training and excellence. Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates (Spartan citizens, who enjoyed full rights), Mothakes (non-Spartan free men raised as Spartans), Perioikoi (freedmen), and Helots (state-owned serfs, enslaved non-Spartan local population). Spartiates underwent the rigorous agoge training and education regimen, and Spartan phalanges were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed considerably more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world.

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Aesop
Aesop (pronounced /ˈiːsɒp/ EE-sop, Greek: Αἴσωπος, Aisōpos, c. 620-564 BC) was a fabulist or story teller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables. Although his existence remains uncertain and (if they ever existed) no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. In many of the tales, animals speak and have human characteristics.
Scattered details of Aesop's life can be found in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. An ancient literary work called The Aesop Romance tells an episodic, probably highly fictional version of his life, including the traditional description of him as a strikingly ugly slave (δοῦλος) who by his cleverness acquires freedom and becomes an adviser to kings and city-states. Older spellings of his name have included Esop(e) and Isope. A later tradition (dating from the Middle Ages) depicts Aesop as a black Ethiopian. Depictions of Aesop in popular culture over the last 2500 years have included several works of art and his appearance as a character in numerous books, films, plays, and television programs.

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Ahiqar
Ahiqar or Ahikar was an Assyrian sage known in the ancient Near East for his outstanding wisdom.
The Story of Ahikar, also known as the Words of Ahikar, has been found in an Aramaic papyrus of 500 B.C. among the ruins of Elephantine. The narrative of the initial part of the story is expanded greatly by the presence of a large number of wise sayings and proverbs that Ahikar is portrayed as speaking to his nephew. It is suspected by most scholars that these sayings and proverbs were originally a separate document, as they do not mention Ahikar. Some of the sayings are similar to parts of the Biblical Book of Proverbs, others to the deuterocanonical Wisdom of Sirach, and others still to Babylonian and Persian proverbs. The collection of sayings is in essence a selection from those common in the Middle East at the time.
Achiacharus is the name occurring in the Book of Tobit as that of a nephew of Tobit (Tobias) and an official at the court of Esarhaddon at Nineveh. There are references in Romanian, Slavonic, Armenian, Arabic and Syriac literature to a legend, of which the hero is Ahikar for Armenian (Խիկար Xikar), Arabic and Syriac. It was pointed out by scholar George Hoffmann in 1880 that this Ahikar and the Achiacharus of Tobit are identical. It has been contended that there are traces of the legend even in the New Testament, and there is a striking similarity between it and the Life of Aesop by Maximus Planudes (ch. xxiii-xxxii). An eastern sage Achaicarus is mentioned by Strabo. It would seem, therefore, that the legend was undoubtedly oriental in origin, though the relationship of the various versions can scarcely be recovered.

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Alyattes of Lydia
Alyattes, king of Lydia (619–560 BC), considered to be the founder of the Lydian empire, was the son of Sadyattes, of the house of the Mermnadae.
For several years he continued the war against Miletus begun by his father, but was obliged to turn his attention towards the Medes and Babylonians. On May 28, 585 BC, during the Battle of Halys fought against Cyaxares, king of Media, a solar eclipse took place (see also Thales); hostilities were suspended, peace concluded, and the Halys fixed as the boundary between the two kingdoms.
Alyattes drove the Cimmerians (see Scythia) from Asia Minor, subdued the Carians, and took several Ionian cities (including Smyrna, Colophon). Smyrna was sacked and destroyed with its inhabitants forced to move into the countryside.
He standardised the weight of coins (1 Stater = 168 grains of wheat). The coins were produced using an anvil die technique and stamped with the Lion's head, the symbol of the Mermnadae.
He was succeeded by his son Croesus. His daughter Aryenis of Lydia was Queen consort of Astyages, King of Media.

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Amasis II
Amasis II (Ancient Greek: Ἄμασις) or Ahmose II was a pharaoh (570 B.C.E. – 526 B.C.E.) of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt, the successor of Apries at Sais. He was the last great ruler of Egypt before the Persian conquest.
Most of our information about him is derived from Herodotus (2.161ff) and can only be imperfectly verified by monumental evidence. According to the Greek historian, he was of common origins. A revolt which broke out among native Egyptian soldiers gave him his opportunity to seize the throne. These troops, returning home from a disastrous military expedition to Cyrene in Libya, suspected that they had been betrayed in order that Apries, the reigning king, might rule more absolutely by means of his Greek mercenaries; many Egyptians fully sympathized with them. General Amasis, sent to meet them and quell the revolt, was proclaimed king by the rebels instead, and Apries, who had now to rely entirely on his mercenaries, was defeated. Apries was either taken prisoner in the ensuing conflict at Memphis before being eventually strangled and buried in his ancestral tomb at Sais, or fled to the Babylonians and was killed mounting an invasion of his native homeland in 567 B.C.E. with the aid of a Babylonian army. An inscription confirms the struggle between the native Egyptian and the foreign soldiery, and proves that Apries was killed and honourably buried in the third year of Amasis (c.567 B.C.E.).^{[citation needed]} Amasis then married Chedebnitjerbone II, one of the daughters of his predecessor Apries, in order to legitimise his kingship.^{[citation needed]}

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Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius (ca. 310–ca. 394) was a Latin poet and teacher of rhetoric at Burdigala (Bordeaux, France). For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the Consulship on him. His best-known poems are Mosella, a description of the river Moselle, and Ephemeris, an account of a typical day in his life. His many other verses show his concern for his family, friends, teachers and circle of well-to-do acquaintances, and his delight in the technical handling of meter.
Decimus Magnus Ausonius was born ca. 310 in Bordeaux, the son of Julius Ausonius, a physician of Greek ancestry, and Aemilia Aeonia, daughter of Caecilius Argicius Arborius, descended on both sides from established, land-owning Gallo-Roman families of southwestern Gaul. Ausonius was given a strict upbringing by his aunt and grandmother, both named Aemilia. He received an excellent education at Bordeaux and at Toulouse, where his maternal uncle, Aemilius Magnus Arborius, was a professor. Ausonius did well in grammar and rhetoric, but professed that his progress in Greek was unsatisfactory. When his uncle was summoned to Constantinople to tutor one of the sons of emperor Constantine I, Ausonius accompanied him to the capital.

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Bacchylides
Bacchylides (^{[pronunciation?]}; Ancient Greek: Βακχυλίδης) (5th century BC) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets which included his uncle Simonides. The elegance and polished style of his lyrics have been a commonplace of Bacchylidean scholarship since at least Longinus (De Sublimitate 33,5). Some scholars however have associated these qualities with superficial charm. He has often been compared unfavourably with his contemporary, Pindar, as "a kind of Boccherini to Pindar's Haydn", yet the differences in their styles doesn't allow for easy comparison and "to blame Bacchylides for not being Pindar is as childish a judgement as to condemn...Marvel for missing the grandeur of Milton." His career coincided with the ascendency of dramatic styles of poetry, as embodied in the works of Aeschylus or Sophocles, and he is in fact one of the last poets of major significance within the more ancient tradition of purely lyric poetry. The most notable features of his lyrics are their clarity in expression and simplicity of thought, making them an ideal introduction to the study of Greek lyric poetry in general and to Pindar's verse in particular.

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Critias
Critias (Greek Κριτίας Kritias, 460 BC – 403 BC) was an ancient Athenian political figure and author. Born in Athens, Critias was the son of Callaeschrus and an uncle of Plato, and became a leading and violent member of the Thirty Tyrants. He was an associate of Socrates, a fact that did not endear Socrates to the Athenian public.
He was noted in his day for his tragedies, elegies and prose works. Some, like Sextus Empiricus, believe that Critias wrote the Sisyphus fragment; others, however, attribute it to Euripides.
After the fall of Athens to the Spartans, Critias, as one of the Thirty Tyrants, blacklisted many of its citizens. Most of his prisoners were executed and their wealth was confiscated.
Critias was killed in a battle near Piraeus, the port of Athens, between a band of pro-democracy Athenian exiles led by Thrasybulus and members and supporters of the Thirty, aided by the Spartan garrison. In the battle, the exiles put the oligarchic forces to flight, ending the rule of the Thirty.

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Croesus
Croesus ( /ˈkriːsəs/ KREE-səs; Ancient Greek: Κροῖσος, Kroisos; 595 BC – c. 547? BC) was the king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians. The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Hellenes, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J.A.S. Evans remarked, "Croesus had become a figure of myth, who stood outside the conventional restraints of chronology." Croesus was renowned for his wealth—Herodotus and Pausanias noted his gifts preserved at Delphi.
In Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man. Croesus' wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity: in English, expressions such as "rich as Croesus" or "richer than Croesus" are used to indicate great wealth to this day. The earliest known such usage in English was John Gower's in Confessio amantis (1390):
That if the tresor of Cresus
And al the gold Octovien,
Forth with the richesse Yndien
Of Perles and of riche stones,
Were al togedre myn at ones...

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Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia (Old Persian: Kuruš (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, parts of Europe and the Caucasus. From the Mediterranean sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen. He also pronounced one of the first historically important declarations of human rights via the Cyrus Cylinder sometime between 539-530 BCE.
The reign of Cyrus the Great lasted between 29 and 31 years. Cyrus built his empire by conquering first the Median Empire, then the Lydian Empire and eventually the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Either before or after Babylon, he led an expedition into central Asia, which resulted in major campaigns that were described as having brought "into subjection every nation without exception". Cyrus did not venture into Egypt, as he himself died in battle, fighting the Massagetae along the Syr Darya in December 530 BC. He was succeeded by his son, Cambyses II, who managed to add to the empire by conquering Egypt, Nubia, and Cyrenaica during his short rule.

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Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes (Greek: Ἕλληνες, [ˈelines]), are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and other regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world.
Greek colonies and communities have been historically established in most corners of the Mediterranean, but Greeks have always been centered around the Aegean Sea, where the Greek language has been spoken since antiquity. Until the early 20th century, Greeks were uniformly distributed between the Greek peninsula, the western coast of Asia Minor, Pontus, Egypt, Cyprus and Constantinople; many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of the ancient Greek colonization.
In the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), a large-scale population exchange between Greece and Turkey transferred and confined Christians from Turkey, except Constantinople (effectively ethnic Greeks) into the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. Other ethnic Greek populations can be found from southern Italy to the Caucasus and in diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, most Greeks are officially registered as members of the Greek Orthodox Church.

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Herodotus
Herodotus ( /hɨˈrɒdətəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἡρόδοτος Hēródotos) was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (circa 484 – 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative.The Histories—his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced—is a record of his "inquiry" (or ἱστορία historía, a word that passed into Latin and acquired its modern meaning of "history"), being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. Although some of his stories were fanciful, he claimed he was reporting only what had been told to him. Little is known of his personal history.
The Histories, otherwise known as The Researches or The Inquiries, were divided by later Alexandrian editors into nine books, named after the nine Muses: the "Muse of History", Clio, representing the first book, then Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania and Calliope for books 2 to 9, respectively. At its simplest and broadest level of meaning, The Histories is structured as a dynastic history of four Persian kings:

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John Gower
John Gower (c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which are united by common moral and political themes.
Few details are known of Gower's early life. He was probably born into a prominent Yorkshire family which held properties in Kent, Yorkshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. It is thought that he practiced law in or around London.
While in London, he became closely associated with the nobility of his day. He was apparently personally acquainted with Richard II: in the prologue of the first edition of the Confessio Amantis, he tells how the king, chancing to meet him on the Thames (probably circa 1385), invited him aboard the royal barge, and that their conversation then resulted in a commission for the work that would become the Confessio Amantis. Later in life his allegiance switched to the future Henry IV, to whom later editions of the Confessio Amantis were dedicated. Much of this is based on circumstantial rather than documentary evidence, and the history of revisions of the Confessio Amantis, including the different dedications, is yet to be fully understood.

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Lydia
Lydia (Assyrian: Luddu; Greek: Λυδία) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian.
At its greatest extent, the Kingdom of Lydia covered all of western Anatolia. Lydia (known as Sparda by the Achaemenids) was a satrapy (province) of the Achaemenid Empire, with Sardis as its capital. Tabalus, appointed by Cyrus the Great, was the first satrap (governor). (See: Lydia (satrapy)).
Lydia was later the name for a Roman province. Coins are thought to have been invented in Lydia around the 7th century BC.
The endonym Śfard (the name the Lydians called themselves) survives in bilingual and trilingual stone-carved notices of the Achaemenid Empire: the satrapy of Sparda (Old Persian), Aramaic Saparda, Babylonian Sapardu, Elamitic Išbarda. These in the Greek tradition are associated with Sardis, the capital city of Gyges, constructed in the 7th century BC.

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Nabonidus
Nabonidus (^{[pronunciation?]}; Akkadian Nabû-naʾid, "Nabu is praised") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, reigning from 556-539 BCE.
Modern perceptions of Nabonidus' reign has been heavily coloured by accounts written well after his reign as king of Babylon, notably by the Persians and the Greeks. As a result, Nabonidus has often been described in very negative terms in both modern and contemporary scholarship. However, an accumulation of evidence and a reassessment of existing material has caused opinions on Nabonidus and the events that happened during his reign to alter significantly in recent decades.
Nabonidus' background is not clear. He said in his inscriptions that he was of unimportant origins. Similarly, his mother Addagoppe, who lived to an old age and may have been connected to the temple of the moon-god Sîn in Harran, does not mention her family background in her inscriptions. There are two arguments for an Assyrian background: repeated references in Nabonidus' royal propaganda and imagery to Ashurbanipal, the last great Neo-Assyrian king; and Nabonidus' originating from, and his special interest in Harran, an Assyrian city and the last stronghold of the Neo-Assyrians after the fall of Nineveh, their main capital. However, it has been pointed out that Nabonidus' royal propaganda was hardly different from his predecessors, while his Persian successor, Cyrus the Great, also referred to Ashurbanipal in the Cyrus cylinder. He certainly did not belong to the previous ruling dynasty, the Chaldeans, of whom Nebuchadnezzar II was the most famous member. He came to the throne in 556 BCE by overthrowing the young king Labashi-Marduk.

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Pheidon
Pheidon (Greek: Φείδων) was a king of Argos, Greece in the 7th century BC. At that time, the monarch was purely a traditional figurehead with almost no genuine power. Pheidon seized the throne from the reigning aristocracy. He is seen in the tradition of other tyrants, like Gyges of Lydia, as an outsider to the ruling caste in some ways even though a fragment of the Parian Chronicle confirms him to have been a noble and places him as eleventh in line from Heracles.
According to tradition he flourished during the first half of the 7th century BC. He was a vigorous and energetic ruler and greatly increased the power of Argos. He gradually regained sway over the various cities of the Argive confederacy, the members of which had become practically independent, and (in the words of Ephorus) reunited the broken fragments of the inheritance of Temenus. His object was to secure predominance for Argos in the north of Peloponnesus. According to Plutarch, he attempted to break the power of Corinth, by requesting the Corinthians to send him 1000 of their picked youths, ostensibly to aid him in war, his real intention being to put them to death; but the plot was revealed. Pheidon assisted the Pisatans to expel the Eleian superintendents of the Olympian Games and presided at the festival himself. The Eleians, however, refused to recognize the Olympiad or to include it in the register, and shortly afterwards, with the aid of the Spartans, who are said to have looked upon Pheidon as having ousted them from the headship of Greece, defeated Pheidon and were reinstated in the possession of Pisatis and their former privileges.

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Solon
Solon (^{[pronunciation?]}; Ancient Greek: Σόλων, c. 638 BC – 558 BC) was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens. His reforms failed in the short term, yet he is often credited with having laid the foundations for Athenian democracy.
Knowledge of Solon is limited by the lack of documentary and archeological evidence covering Athens in the early 6th century BC. He wrote poetry for pleasure, as patriotic propaganda, and in defence of his constitutional reforms. His works only survive in fragments. They appear to feature interpolations by later authors and it is possible that fragments have been wrongly attributed to him (see Solon the reformer and poet). Ancient authors such as Herodotus and Plutarch are the main source of information, yet they wrote about Solon long after his death, at a time when history was by no means an academic discipline. Fourth century orators, such as Aeschines, tended to attribute to Solon all the laws of their own, much later times. Archaeology reveals glimpses of Solon's period in the form of fragmentary inscriptions but little else. For some scholars, our "knowledge" of Solon and his times is largely a fictive construct based on insufficient evidence while others believe a substantial body of real knowledge is still attainable. Solon and his times can appear particularly interesting to students of history as a test of the limits and nature of historical argument.

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Xenophon
Xenophon (Ancient Greek: Ξενοφῶν, Xenophōn; c. 430 – 354 BC), son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates. He is known for his writings on the history of his own times, the 4th century BC, preserving the sayings of Socrates, and descriptions of life in ancient Greece and the Persian Empire.
Xenophon's birth date is uncertain, but most scholars agree that he was born around 431 BC near the city of Athens. Xenophon was born into the ranks of the upper classes, thus granting him access to certain privileges of the aristocracy of ancient Attica. While a young man, Xenophon participated in the expedition led by Cyrus the Younger against his older brother, king Artaxerxes II of Persia, in 401 BC. Xenophon writes that he had asked the veteran Socrates for advice on whether to go with Cyrus, and that Socrates referred him to the divinely inspired Delphic oracle. Xenophon's query to the oracle, however, was not whether or not to accept Cyrus' invitation, but "to which of the gods he must pray and do sacrifice, so that he might best accomplish his intended journey and return in safety, with good fortune". The oracle answered his question and told him to which gods to pray and sacrifice. When Xenophon returned to Athens and told Socrates of the oracle's advice, Socrates chastised him for asking so disingenuous a question.

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Stories of the Prophets - Musa and Croesus

Children stories of the prophets of god according to the quran and the authentic hadith....

published: 16 Jun 2007

author: emortals

World Of Oz - King Croesus

...

published: 12 Dec 2009

author: ronnepon1965

Reinhard Keiser - Aria di Elmira from Croesus (3/4)

Reinhard Keiser (1674 - 1739) Der hochmütige, gestürzte und wieder erhabene Croesus, Sings...

published: 05 Dec 2010

author: bartje11

Heli-biking on the historic Croesus Track

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Listen to part I/II! Translation: The Litany of Satan O you, the wisest and fairest of the...

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photo: AP / Adj Nicolas-Nelson Richard, ECPAD

This Sunday Jan.13, 2013 photo provided by the French Army Monday Jan.14, 2013 shows a French Rafale jetfighter landing after a mission to Mali in N'Djamena, Chad.

France strikes Mali rebels

Independent online (SA)

14 Jan 2013

Bamako/Paris - French fighter jets pounded Islamist rebel strongholds deep in northern Mali on Sunday as Paris poured more troops into the capital, Bamako, awaiting a West African force to dislodge al-Qaeda-linked insurgents from the country’s north ... Defence Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said France’s intervention on Friday prevented the advancing rebels from seizing Bamako and vowed air strikes would continue ... – ... Doubt....(size: 6.6Kb)

photo: Creative Commons / INABA Tomoaki

Emergency landing grounds Boeing 787 jets in Japan

The Guardian

16 Jan 2013

YURI KAGEYAMA. AP Business Writers= TOKYO (AP) — Boeing Co.'s 787 planes were grounded for safety checks Wednesday by two major Japanese airlines after one was forced to make an emergency landing in the latest blow for the new jet ... The 787, known as the Dreamliner, is Boeing's newest and most technologically advanced jet, and the company is counting heavily on its success ... The grounding was done voluntarily by the airlines ... The U.S ... U.S....(size: 11.1Kb)

photo: AP / Kevin Frayer

Indian Hindu holy men, or Naga Sadhus, run naked into the water at Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, during the royal bath on Makar Sankranti at the start of the Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India, Monday, Jan. 14, 2013.

Pilgrims Flock to India's Ganges for World's Biggest Festival

Jakarta Globe

14 Jan 2013

Allahabad. Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims led by naked, ash-covered holy men streamed into the sacred river Ganges on Monday at the start of the world's biggest religious festival. The Kumbh Mela in the Indian town of Allahabad will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over the next 55 days to take a ritual bath in the holy waters, believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings ... "I am ecstatic ... Agence France-Presse ....(size: 4.2Kb)

photo: White House / Pete Souza

File - President Barack Obama talks with Chief of Staff Jack Lew and Rob Nabors, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, in the Oval Office, Nov. 28, 2012.

Obama On Debt Ceiling: 'We Are Not A Deadbeat Nation'

Huffington Post

14 Jan 2013

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama issued a strong warning to Republicans on Monday that he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling or allow Republicans to use it as a bargaining chip. "To even entertain the idea of the United States of America not paying our bills is irresponsible. It's absurd," Obama said in a press conference ... "They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the economy," Obama said ... Also on HuffPost ... ....(size: 10.3Kb)

photo: WN / Jamal Penjweny

US military in side hummer on the Ramadia road and an the duty in Ramadia present

2012 military suicides hit a record high of 349

Ohio

15 Jan 2013

WASHINGTON. Suicides in the U.S. military surged to a record 349 last year, far exceeding American combat deaths in Afghanistan, and some private experts are predicting the dark trend will grow worse this year. The Pentagon has struggled to deal with the suicides, which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and others have called an epidemic ... Last year’s total is the highest since the Pentagon began closely tracking suicides in 2001 ... ....(size: 5.0Kb)

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Finance Montréal announces the contest themes of the FinTech Montréal 2013 Conference

Canada Newswire

10 Jan 2013

Under the honorary presidency of Henri-Paul Rousseau, the Forum FinTech Montréal 2013 Conference is proud to count among its sponsors other major players in the finance and information technology sectors, namely, the Autorité des marchés financiers, Croesus Financial, Desjardins Group, Finlogik, Fondaction, Heenan Blaikie, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, ......(size: 6.1Kb)

Steve Matthews / January 10 at Aqueduct

Newsday

10 Jan 2013

1. 6 Furlongs. 4&up.; Claiming $20,000. Purse. $31,000. Post -- 12.30 p.m. 1 Ultimo Principe(L) 118 Velasquez 2-3-2 Rodriguez 2-1. 2 Free Brave(L) 118 Morales 4-3-6 Cannizzo 15-1. 3 Classic R and B(L) 118 Dominguez 3-1-7 Levine 5-2. 4 Catalan(L) 113 Ortiz 3-4-2 Rice 4-1. 5 Buckeye Heart(L) 118 Hill 3-5-4 Quick 12-1. 6 Writingonthewall(L) 118 Smith 7-9-10 Gullo 6-1. 7 Sensational Slam(L) 118 Ortiz, Jr 7-3-1 Englehart 5-1 ... 2 ... 3yo ... Purse ... 3 ... The CROESUS ... ....(size: 15.2Kb)

Turkish Brooch Finally Returns Home

StreetInsider

04 Jan 2013

Tweet ... The 2,500 year old piece is part of a treasure trove of goods belonging to King Croesus and, following its illegal removal and colourful history, the trinket is at last to be restored to Turkey and placed safely in a new national museum. The marine-themed brooch may have been just one of many possessions of King Croesus, but to the Turkish government its value has been far higher ... Contacts ... Source. Monarch Airlines ... ....(size: 3.0Kb)

Constantine Update on Option and Joint Venture Agreement with Dowa Metals & Mining

Stockhouse

02 Jan 2013

About the Company ... Other major projects include; (1) the 100% owned Timmins area Munro-Croesus Project a past-producing mine property that yielded some of the highest grade gold ever mined in Ontario and includes strategically located claims immediately along trend from the 2.1 million ounce Fenn-Gib gold deposit; (2) the large Golden Mile property in the Timmins gold camp that is optioned to Teck Resources Ltd ... Notes. ... ....(size: 5.4Kb)

Are you an expert on taxation?

The Guardian

27 Dec 2012

Sick of being a chump who pays for schools and hospitals? You won't be after you've finished our quiz. Jimmy Carr … you too can be like him (in some good ways). Photograph. Anthony Upton / Rex Features. Tax is so taxing ... By the end of this quick quiz you should know all that's worth knowing about taxation and find out who you are tax-wise. The stakes are high ... Do you. ... After all, you're richer than Croesus in non-inflation adjusted terms ... ....(size: 10.5Kb)

Leeds v Chelsea is an animosity that still simmers after 50 years

The Guardian

18 Dec 2012

Photograph. PA ... The visitors, kindled by a benefactor who would make Croesus feel like Bob Cratchit, were ascending towards establishing themselves among Europe's elite while Leeds United, wrecked by the profligacy of gambling borrowed money on perennial Champions League qualification, plummeted towards a crisis whose depths were not then fathomable ... At the end of Chelsea's last visit Bates still had two months left at Stamford Bridge ... ....(size: 10.0Kb)

Constantine Announces Partner-Funded Winter Exploration Program-Golden Mile Property, Ontario

Stockhouse

17 Dec 2012

Teck Agreements ... About the Company ... Other major projects include; (1) the 100% owned Timmins area Munro-Croesus Project a past-producing mine property that yielded some of the highest grade gold ever mined in Ontario and includes strategically located claims immediately along trend from the 2.1 million ounce Fenn-Gib gold deposit; (2) the large Golden Mile property in the Timmins gold camp that is optioned to Teck Resources Ltd ... Notes.....(size: 7.4Kb)

Man lit blankets, watched tourist's car burn

NZ Herald

12 Dec 2012

Today, mid-trial, Gutberlet vacated his not guilty pleas and was remanded for sentencing at a later date. The jury heard that on February 3, 2010, German tourist Sven Perschmann left his four-wheel drive at the start of Croesus Track overnight while he went tramping ... Little allegedly suggested going to the Croesus Track carpark near Blackball to see if there were any cars they could break into ... "I wanted to close that part of my life."....(size: 3.3Kb)

The Tipping Point for the Fiscal Cliff is Raising Taxes on the Rich

Forbes

09 Dec 2012

The Croesus Chronicles Scorecard. 22 Days To Go. Majority Leader John Boehner says raising taxes on the 2% wealthiest in the nation will cost us jobs in 2013. IMF leader Christiane Lagarde warns that the downside risk of no deal at all is zero growth in the US economy....(size: 1.2Kb)

American Charities Face A Moment of Truth Over the Fiscal Cliff

Forbes

09 Dec 2012

The Croesus Chronicles; Twenty-three Days To The Fiscal Cliff. The need to raise tens of billions from the nation’s wealthiest citizens may put a limit on the amount of charitable gifts that can be deducted from taxable income. The Philanthropy Roundtable tells me the President wants to reduce by 7%, from 35% to 28%, the amount of each gift you can use to shelter your income from taxes....(size: 1.9Kb)

Constantine Metal Resources Ltd.V.CEM:CDX

Stockhouse

09 Dec 2012

http.//constantinemetals.com/news/index.php?&content_id=90); (2) the 100% owned Timmins area Munro-Croesus Project a past-producing mine property that yielded some of the highest grade gold ever mined in Ontario and includes strategically located claims immediately along trend from the 2.1 million ounce Fenn-Gib gold deposit; (3) the large Golden Mile property in the Timmins gold camp that is optioned to Teck Resources Ltd ... ....(size: 7.7Kb)

Claridges: An opulent hotel where every polished corner tells a story

The Independent

09 Dec 2012

It was the London home for the war-exhausted Winston and Clementine Churchill in 1945, after Labour's landslide election win ... They did ... This is the first time cameras have been allowed down the hallowed corridors, into the suites which can set back a modern Croesus £6,900 a night, and backstage in the kitchens where staff prepare the 1,000 lobsters and chill the 60,000 bottles of champagne required by Claridge's guests every year ... ....(size: 10.3Kb)

CLEAR AS DAYLIGHT stephen hugh-jones thewordcage@yahoo.co.uk You can be bright as a button and sharp ...

The Telegraph India

05 Dec 2012

Rich as Croesus, with investments solid as houses or as the Bank of England, or poor as a church mouse yet merry as a cricket and happy as a ......(size: 0.7Kb)

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For the opera, see Croesus (opera).

Croesus on the pyre, Attic red-figure amphora, Louvre (G 197)

Croesus ( /ˈkriːsəs/ KREE-səs; Ancient Greek: Κροῖσος, Kroisos; 595 BC – c. 547? BC) was the king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians.^[1] The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Hellenes, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J.A.S. Evans remarked, "Croesus had become a figure of myth, who stood outside the conventional restraints of chronology."^[2] Croesus was renowned for his wealth—Herodotus and Pausanias noted his gifts preserved at Delphi.^[3]

1 Wealth and coinage
2 Biography
- 2.1 Apollo's intervention
3 Interview with Solon
4 See also
5 Notes
6 External links

Wealth and coinage [link]

In Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man. Croesus' wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity: in English, expressions such as "rich as Croesus" or "richer than Croesus" are used to indicate great wealth to this day. The earliest known such usage in English was John Gower's in Confessio amantis (1390):

That if the tresor of Cresus
And al the gold Octovien,
Forth with the richesse Yndien
Of Perles and of riche stones,
Were al togedre myn at ones...^[4]

Croesus is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation. However, they were quite crude, and were made of electrum, a naturally occurring pale yellow alloy of gold and silver. The composition of these first coins was similar to alluvial deposits found in the silt of the Pactolus river, which ran through the Lydian capital, Sardis. Later coins, including some in the British Museum, were made from gold purified by heating with common salt to remove the silver.^[5] King Croesus' gold coins follow the first silver coins that had been minted by King Pheidon of Argos around 700 BC. In 546 BC, Croesus was defeated and captured by the Persians, who then adopted gold as the main metal for their coins.^[6]^[7]

Biography [link]

Aside from a poetical account of Croesus on the pyre in Bacchylides, there are three classical accounts of Croesus. Herodotus presents the Lydian accounts^[8] of the conversation with Solon (Histories 1.29-.33), the tragedy of Croesus' son Atys (Histories 1.34-.45) and the fall of Croesus (Histories 1.85-.89); Xenophon instances Croesus in his panegyric fictionalized biography of Cyrus: Cyropaedia, 7.1; and Ctesias, whose account^[9] is also an encomium of Cyrus.

Born about 595 BC, Croesus received tribute from the Ionian Greeks but was friendlier to the Hellenes than his father had been. Croesus traditionally gave refuge at one point to the Phrygian prince Adrastus. Herodotus tells that Adrastus exiled himself to Lydia after accidentally killing his brother. King Croesus welcomed him but then Adrastus accidentally killed Croesus' son, Atys. (Adrastus then committed suicide.)^[10]

Croesus' uneasy relations with the Greeks obscures the larger fact that he was the last bastion of the Ionian cities against the increasing Persian power in Anatolia. He began preparing a campaign against Cyrus the Great of Persia. Before setting out he turned to the Delphic oracle and the oracle of Amphiaraus to inquire whether he should pursue this campaign and whether he should also seek an alliance. The oracles answered, with typical ambiguity, that if Croesus attacked the Persians, he would destroy a great empire – this would become one of the most famous oracular statements from Delphi.

Croesus was also advised to find out which Greek state was most powerful and to ally himself with it.^[11] Croesus, now feeling secure, formed an alliance with Sparta in addition to those he had with Amasis II of Egypt and Nabonidus of Babylonia,^[12] and launched his campaign against the Persian Empire in 547 BC.^[13] He was intercepted near the Halys River in central Anatolia and an inconclusive battle was fought. As was usual in those days, the armies would disband for winter and Croesus did accordingly. Cyrus did not, however, and he attacked Croesus in Sardis, capturing him. It became clear that the powerful empire Croesus was about to destroy was his own.

In Bacchylides' ode,^[14] composed for Hiero of Syracuse, who won the chariot race at Olympia in 468, Croesus with his wife and family mounted the funeral pyre, but before the flames could envelop the king, he was snatched up by Apollo and spirited away to the Hyperboreans. Herodotus' version includes Apollo in more "realistic" mode: Cyrus, repenting of the immolation of Croesus, could not put out the flames until Apollo intervened.^[15]

Apollo's intervention [link]

Herodotus tells us that in the Lydian account, Croesus was placed upon a great pyre by Cyrus' orders, for Cyrus wanted to see if any of the heavenly powers would appear to save him from being burned alive. The pile was set ablaze, and as Cyrus the Great watched he saw Croesus call out "Solon" three times. He asked the interpreters to find out why he said this word with such resignation and agony. The interpreters returned the answer that Solon had warned Croesus of the fickleness of good fortune: see Interview with Solon below. This touched Cyrus, who realized that he and Croesus were much the same man, and he bade the servants to quench the blazing fire as quickly as they could. They tried to do this, but the flames were not to be mastered. According to the story, Croesus called out to Apollo and prayed to him. The sky had been clear and the day without a breath of wind, but soon dark clouds gathered and a storm with rain of such violence that the flames were speedily extinguished. Cyrus, convinced by this that Croesus was a good man, made Croesus an advisor who served Cyrus 'well' and later Cyrus's son by Cassandane, Cambyses. Recently, Stephanie West has argued that the historical Croesus did in fact die on the pyre, and that the stories of him as a 'wise adviser' to the courts of Cyrus and Cambyses are purely legendary, showing similarities to the sayings of Ahiqar.^[16]

It is not known when exactly Croesus died, although it is traditionally dated 547 BC, after Cyrus' conquest. In the Nabonidus Chronicle it is said that Cyrus "marched against the country -- , killed its king,^[17] took his possessions, put there a garrison of his own." Unfortunately, all that remains of the name of the country are traces of the first cuneiform sign. It has long been assumed that this sign should have been LU, so that the country referred to would be Lydia, with Croesus as the king that was killed. However, J. Cargill has shown that this restoration was based upon wishful thinking rather than actual traces of the sign LU.^[18] Instead, J. Oelsner and R. Rollinger have both read the sign as Ú, which might imply a reference to Urartu.^[19] With Herodotus' account also being unreliable chronologically in this case, as J.A.S. Evans has demonstrated,^[20] this means that we have no way of dating the fall of Sardis; theoretically, it may even have taken place after the fall of Babylon. Evans also asks what happened after the episode at the pyre and suggests that "neither the Greeks nor the Babylonians knew what really happened to Croesus."^[21]

Interview with Solon [link]

The episode of Croesus' interview with Solon^[22] reported by Herodotus^[23] is in the nature of a philosophical disquisition on the subject "Which man is happy?" It is legendary rather than historical. Croesus, secure in his own wealth and happiness, poses the question and is disappointed by Solon's response: that three have been happier than Croesus, Tellus, who died fighting for his country, and Kleobis and Biton, brothers who died peacefully in their sleep when their mother prayed for their perfect happiness, after they had demonstrated filial piety by drawing her to a festival in an oxcart themselves. Croesus' hubristic happiness was reversed by the tragic deaths of his accidentally-killed son and, in Critias, his wife's suicide at the fall of Sardis. Thus the "happiness" of Croesus is presented as a moralistic exemplum of the fickleness of Tyche, a theme that gathered strength from the fourth century, revealing its late date.

The story was later retold and elaborated by Ausonius in The Masque of the Seven Sages, in the Suda (entry "Μᾶλλον ὁ Φρύξ," which adds Aesop and the Seven Sages of Greece), and by Tolstoy in his short story Croesus and Fate.

Notes [link]

^ The English name Croesus comes from the Latin transliteration of the Greek Κροῖσος, in Arabic and Persian قارون, Qârun.
^ J.A.S. Evans, "What Happened to Croesus?" The Classical Journal 74.1 (October 1978:34-40) examines the legend and the date 547 BC.
^ Among them a lion of gold, which had tumbled from its perch upon a stack of ingots when the temple at Delphi burned but was preserved and displayed in the Treasury of the Corinthians, where Pausanias saw it (Pausanias 10.5.13). The temple burned in the archonship of Erxicleides, 548-47 BC.
^ Confessio amantis, v. 4730. "Croesus". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 3rd ed. 2001.
^ "A History of the World-Episode 25 - Gold coin of Croesus". BBC British Museum. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/transcripts/episode25/. Retrieved 9-07-2011.
^ "Gold coins - A Brief History". http://www.taxfreegold.co.uk/goldcoinsbriefhistory.html.
^ "Monetary Episodes from History". http://www.galmarley.com/framesets/fs_monetary_history_faqs.htm.
^ Herodotus credits his Lydian sources for the fall of Croesus in Histories 1.87.
^ Lost: what survives is a meager epitome by Photius.
^ Herodotus, Histories, Book I 34-45.
^ Herodotus 1.53.
^ Herodotus 1.69–70, 77.
^ Evans 1978 examines the conflicting dates implied in Herodotus.
^ Bacchylides Ode 3.23-62.
^ Just such an intervention in extinguishing a funeral pyre was adapted by Christian hagiographers as a conventional literary topos in the martyrdom of saints.
^ Stephanie West, "Croesus' Second Reprieve and Other Tales of the Persian Court," Classical Quarterly (n.s.) 53(2003): 416-437, esp. pp. 419-424.
^ The verb is "annihilate"; F. Cornelius, "Kroisos", Gymnasium 54 (1967:346-47) notes that the verb can also mean "destroy [as a military power]" as well as "kill".
^ J. Cargill, "The Nabonidus chronicle and the fall of Lydia: Consensus with feet of clay", American Journal of Ancient History 2 (1977:97-116).
^ J. Oelsner, "Review of R. Rollinger, Herodots babylonischer logos: Eine kritische Untersuchung der Glaubwürdigkeitsdiskussion (Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft 1993)", Archiv für Orientforschung 46/47 (1999/2000:378-80); R. Rollinger, "The Median "empire", the end of Urartu and Cyrus' the Great campaign in 547 B.C. (Nabonidus Chronicle II 16)", Ancient West & East 7 (2008:forthcoming).
^ Evans 1978:35-38.
^ Evans 1978:39.
^ A.E. Raubitschek argued (in Classical Philology 58 (1963:167f) that the story of Croesus' encounter with Solon arose from a tradition of his quoting Solon on his funeral pyre.
^ Herodotus 1.29–33.

External links [link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Croesus

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Croesus

Herodotus' account of Croesus (from the Perseus Project): see 1.6-94; contains links Croesus was the son of Alyattes II and continued the conquest of Ionian cities of Asia Minor that his father had begun to both English and Greek versions
An in-depth account of Croesus' life, by Carlos Parada
Livius, Croesus by Jona Lendering
Croesus on Ancient History Encyclopedia
Gold Coin of Croesus a BBC podcast from the series: "A History of the World in 100 Objects"

Preceded by Alyattes of Lydia	King of Lydia 595?–c.547? BC	Succeeded by Persian conquest

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Reinhard Keiser (9 January 1674 – 12 September 1739) was a popular German opera composer based in Hamburg. He wrote over a hundred operas, and in 1745 Johann Adolph Scheibe considered him an equal to Johann Kuhnau, George Frideric Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann (also related to the Hamburg Opera), but his work was largely forgotten for many decades.

1 Biography
2 Major operas
3 Oratorios
4 References
5 External links

Biography [link]

Keiser was born in Teuchern (in present Saxony-Anhalt), son of the organist and teacher Gottfried Keiser (born about 1650), and educated by other organists in the town and then from 11 at the Thomas School in Leipzig, where his teachers included Johann Schelle and Johann Kuhnau, direct predecessors of Johann Sebastian Bach.

In 1694, he became court-composer to the duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, though he had probably come to the court already as early as 1692 to study its renowned operas, which had been going on since 1691, when the city had built a 1200-seater opera-house. Keiser put on his first opera Procris und Cephalus there and, the same year, his opera Basilius was put on at Hamburg and, as the musicologist Johann Mattheson noted, "received with great success and applause."

This was a fruitful period for him - composing not only operas, but arias, duets, cantatas, sérénades, church music and big oratorios, background music - all for the city's use.

About 1697 he settled permanently in Hamburg, and became the chief composer at the highly renowned Gänsemarktoper (now rebuilt as the Hamburg State Opera) in Hamburg from 1697 to 1717, however was actually first the director in 1702, and wasn't at various times from then to 1717, almost each time due to political instabilites.^[1] From 1703 to 1709, Keiser changed the opera house from being a public institution to a commercial venture with two to three performances a week, in contrast to the opera houses intended for the nobility.

He helped transition opera from the mid-baroque idea of it, to the late-baroque idea of it. He not only did that, but even introduced a more varied type of aria into his operas, with more passive arias, and also faster arias being introduced into his bilinugal and non-bilinugal operas all by the 1703-04 season, with his five-star works, Nebukadnezar, and Salomon. With Keiser's operas is the framework of his younger rival, Händel's works.

Early in 1704, when he was conducting the operas Nebukadnezar and Salomon in Hamburg, the season had to be unexpectedly concluded, for reasons most likely related to government affairs. So he went to Brunswick, and afterward Weissenfels, to reconnect with areas he was previously active in. He ended up coming out with a masterpiece, Almira, at Weissenfells, in July. He stayed there for a while, spending many holidays there, eventually heading back to Hamburg shortly after Easter in 1705, to produce a comeback to Georg Friedrich Händel's Nero, produced in February 1705. Surely Keiser would be able to produce a success to the 20 year old composer's ambitious work.^[2]

Keiser would have to face Händel again, but this time he would be at home, and Händel had switched to the phonetic Italian version of his name, Georgio Friderico Hendel. Hendel would put on what was planned as a double opera, but was in fact two, Florindo, and Daphne; he did that in January 1708, coming back from Italy. Keiser would counter that by eventually coming out with La forza dell'amore oder Die von Paris entführte Helena and Desiderius, König der Langobarden in the 1708-09 season, but not as the theater's manager, but as someone responding to political insecurities causing the opera company to be disorderly. Keiser worked in the background.^[3]

Keiser would continue as the director probably when things got more stable in the city, maybe in 1710, and he advanced in composing, coming with his own passionmusik in 1712, which Hendel would readily challenge in 1716.

In 1718, with the Hamburg Opera defunct, he left Hamburg to seek other employment, going to Thuringia and then Stuttgart. From this period three manuscripts of sonatas in trio for flute, violin and basso continuo survive. During the summer 1721, he returned to Hamburg, but only a few weeks later made a rapid exit to Copenhagen with a Hamburg opera troop, probably because of the growing influence of Georg Philipp Telemann, engaged by the city magistrate in Keiser's absence. Between 1721 and 1727, Keiser traveled back and forth between Hamburg and Copenhagen, receiving the title of Master of the Danish Royal Chapel.

Oper am Gänsemarkt

After the dissolution of the opera troop, Keiser returned once more to Hamburg, but changes in its modus operandi made repeating past success difficult. Three operas from the period between 1722 and 1734 survive. Personal relations with Telemann remained good, with Telemann programming several productions of Keiser's operas.

In 1728 he became the St. Mary's Cathedral precentor of Hamburg, and wrote largely church music there until his death in 1739.

Major operas [link]

(First performances in Hamburg, Theater am Gänsemarkt, unless stated otherwise)

Basilius (Der königliche Schäfer oder Basilius in Arkadien) (probably Braunschweig, 1693)
Cephalus und Procris (Braunschweig, 1694)
Der geliebte Adonis (1697)^[4]
Janus (Der bei dem allgemeinen Welt-Frieden von dem Großen Augustus geschlossene Tempel des Janus) (1698)
Iphigenia (Die wunderbar errettete Iphigenia) (1699)
Herkules und Hebe (Die Verbindung des großen Herkules mit der schönen Hebe) (1699)
La forza della virtù oder Die Macht der Tugend (1700)
Störtebeker und Jödge Michels (2 sections, 1701)
Die sterbende Eurydice oder Orpheus (2 sections, 1702)
Claudius (produced early in 1703)^[5]
Nebukadnezar, König zu Babylon (produced during the 1703-04 opera season)^[6]
Salomon (produced during the 1703-04 opera season)^[7]
Almira (Weissenfels, July 1704)^[8]
Octavia (produced in August 1705)^[9]
Die kleinmütige Selbst-Mörderin Lucretia oder Die Staats-Torheit des Brutus (1705)
Masagniello (1706)
Der angenehme Betrug (1707)
La forza dell'amore oder Die von Paris entführte Helena (1709)
Desiderius, König der Langobarden (1709)
Der durch den Fall des großen Pompejus erhöhete Julius Caesar (1710)
Der hochmütige, gestürzte und wieder erhabene Croesus (1710, revised edition 1730)
L'inganno fedele oder Der getreue Betrug (1714)
Fredegunda (opera) (1715)^[10]
L'Amore verso la patria oder Der sterbende Cato (1715)
Das zerstörte Troja oder Der durch den Tod Helenens versöhnte Achilles (1716)
Die großmütige Tomyris (1717)
Jobates und Bellerophon (1717)
Ulysses (opera)|Ulysses (Copenhagen 1722)
Bretislaus oder Die siegende Beständigkeit (1725)
Der lächerliche Printz Jodelet (opera) (1726)
Lucius Verus oder Die siegende Treue (1728)

Oratorios [link]

Der blutige und sterbende Jesus, Hamburg (1704), on words of Christian Friedrich Hunold (Menantes).
Thränen unter dem Kreutze Jesu, Hamburg (1711).
Brockespassion. Hamburg (1712) MS in Berlin.^[11]^[12]
Lukas-Passion "Wir gingen all in der Irre". Hamburg (1715).
"Seelige / Erlösungs-Gedancken / Aus dem / ORATORIO / Der / Zum Tode verurtheilte und gecreutzigte / JESUS ... von / Reinhard Keisern,... HAMBURG, Auf Unkosten des Autoris, und zu finden bey seel. Benjamin Schillers Wittwe im Thum / Anno 1715". Hamburg (1715) - Revision of "Thränen unter dem Kreutze Jesu".
Der siegende David. Hamburg (1717) MS in Berlin.
"Oratorium Passionale 1729 : Der blutige und sterbende Jesus", Hamburg (1729), on words of Christian Friedrich Hunold (Menantes).

Now attributed to Friedrich Nicolaus Brauns (1637-1718)

Johannes-Passion
Markus-Passion Jesus Christus ist umb unsrer Missetät willen verwundt Hamburg 1705.^[13]

References [link]

^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17,20,449. ISBN 0-19-816649-4.
^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17,19. ISBN 0-19-816649-4.
^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 20. ISBN 0-19-816649-4.
^ recording: Ihlenfeldt CPO
^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17. ISBN 0-19-816649-4.
^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17. ISBN 0-19-816649-4.
^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17. ISBN 0-19-816649-4.
^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17. ISBN 0-19-816649-4.
^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 19. ISBN 0-19-816649-4.
^ recording: Hammer, Naxos
^ Reinhard Keiser. Brockes Passion (Hamburg 1712). cpo 999852-2 1CD 2000. Kenneth Montgomery, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra & Choir. Withdrawn because of licensing problems.
^ Edition from Edition Musica Poetica, edited by Cosimo Stawiarski (June 2007)
^ Recordings 1. Parthenia Barock. Brembeck. Christophorus 1993. 2. Capella Sancti Georgi, Musica Alta Ripa. Chrismon 2010

The Reinhard Keiser Society
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

External links [link]

Free scores by Reinhard Keiser at the International Music Score Library Project
Free scores by Reinhard Keiser in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
Free scores by Reinhard Keiser in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

Persondata
Name	Keiser, Reinhard
Alternative names
Short description	German opera composer
Date of birth	9 January 1674
Place of birth	Teuchern, Saxony-Anhalt
Date of death	12 September 1739
Place of death	Hamburg

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Keiser

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.

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Contents

Wealth and coinage [link]

Biography [link]

Apollo's intervention [link]

Interview with Solon [link]

See also [link]

Notes [link]

External links [link]

http://wn.com/Croesus

Related pages:

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http://cs.wn.com/Kroisos

http://id.wn.com/Kroisos

http://es.wn.com/Creso

http://ru.wn.com/Крёз (царь Лидии)

http://nl.wn.com/Croesus

http://pt.wn.com/Creso

http://pl.wn.com/Krezus

http://fr.wn.com/Crésus

http://de.wn.com/Krösus

Contents

Biography [link]

Major operas [link]

Oratorios [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

http://wn.com/Reinhard_Keiser

Related pages:

http://ru.wn.com/Кайзер, Рейнхард

http://nl.wn.com/Reinhard Keiser

http://de.wn.com/Reinhard Keiser

http://fr.wn.com/Reinhard Keiser

http://pl.wn.com/Reinhard Keiser

http://it.wn.com/Reinhard Keiser

http://es.wn.com/Reinhard Keiser