title: Montesquieu

text: Montesquieu was born at the Château de la Brède in southwest France, south of Bordeaux. His father, Jacques de Secondat (1654–1713), was a soldier with a long noble ancestry, including descent from Richard de la Pole, Yorkist claimant to the English crown. His mother, Marie Françoise de Pesnel (1665–1696), who died when Charles was seven, was an heiress who brought the title of Barony of La Brède to the Secondat family. His family was of Huguenot origin. After the death of his mother he was sent to the Catholic College of Juilly, a prominent school for the children of French nobility, where he remained from 1700 to 1711. His father died in 1713 and he became a ward of his uncle, the Baron de Montesquieu. He became a counselor of the Bordeaux Parlement in 1714. He showed preference for Protestantism and in 1715 he married the Protestant Jeanne de Lartigue, who eventually bore him three children. The Baron died in 1716, leaving him his fortune as well as his title, and the office of président à mortier in the Bordeaux Parlement, a post that he would hold for twelve years.


title: Montesquieu

text: Montesquieu's early life was a time of significant governmental change. England had declared itself a constitutional monarchy in the wake of its Glorious Revolution (1688–1689), and joined with Scotland in the Union of 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. In France, the long-reigning Louis XIV died in 1715 and was succeeded by the five-year-old Louis XV. These national transformations had a great impact on Montesquieu; he would refer to them repeatedly in his work.


title: Montesquieu

text: Montesquieu withdrew from the practice of law to devote himself to study and writing. He achieved literary success with the publication of his 1721 "Persian Letters" (), a satire representing society as seen through the eyes of two Persian visitors to Paris, cleverly criticizing absurdities of contemporary French society. The work was an instant classic and accordingly was immediately pirated. In 1722, he went to Paris and entered court circles with the help of Duke of Berwick whom he had known when Berwick was military governor at Bordeaux. He also acquainted himself with the English politician Viscount Bolingbroke, whose political views were later incorporated into Montesquieu's analysis of English constitution. However, he was passed over for membership in the "Académie Française" on the technicality of his not living in Paris, and in 1726 he sold his office due to his resentment that his intellectual inferiors rose higher than him in court and received a fortune, thus reestablishing his dwindled asset. Eventually he made some concessions, including a residence in Paris, and was accepted into the "Académie" in January 1728.


title: Montesquieu

text: In April 1728, with Berwick's nephew Lord Waldegrave as his traveling companion, Montesquieu embarked on a grand tour of Europe, during which he kept a journal. His travels included Austria and Hungary and a year in Italy. He went to England at the end of October 1729, in the company of Lord Chesterfield, where he became a freemason, admitted to the "Horn Tavern" Lodge in Westminster. He remained in England until the spring of 1731, when he returned to La Brède. Outwardly he seemed to be settling down as a squire: he altered his park in the English fashion, made inquiries into his own genealogy, and asserted his seignorial rights. But he was continuously at work in his study, and his reflections on geography, laws and customs during his travels became the primary sources for his major works on political philosophy at this time. He next published "Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline" (1734), among his three best known books. It is considered by some scholars as a transition from "Persian Letters" to his master work "The Spirit of Law", which was originally published anonymously in 1748 and translated into English in 1750. It quickly rose to influence political thought profoundly in Europe and America. In France, the book met with an unfriendly reception from both supporters and opponents of the regime. The Catholic Church banned "The Spirit"—along with many of Montesquieu's other works—in 1751 and included it on the Index of Prohibited Books. It received the highest praise from the rest of Europe, especially Britain.


title: Montesquieu

text: Montesquieu was also highly regarded in the British colonies in North America as a champion of liberty. According to a survey of late eighteenth-century works by political scientist Donald Lutz, Montesquieu was the most frequently quoted authority on government and politics in colonial pre-revolutionary British America, cited more by the American founders than any source except for the Bible. Following the American Revolution, his work remained a powerful influence on many of the American founders, most notably James Madison of Virginia, the "Father of the Constitution". Montesquieu's philosophy that "government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another" reminded Madison and others that a free and stable foundation for their new national government required a clearly defined and balanced separation of powers.


title: Montesquieu

text: Montesquieu was troubled by a cataract and feared going blind. At the end of 1754 he visited Paris, with the intention of getting rid of the lease of his house there and finally retiring to La Brède. He was however soon taken ill, and died from a high fever on 10 February 1755. He was buried in the Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris, and the Revolution obliterated all trace of his remains.


title: Montesquieu

text: Montesquieu's philosophy of history minimized the role of individual persons and events. He expounded the view in "Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline", that each historical event was driven by a principal movement:


title: Montesquieu

text: In discussing the transition from the Republic to the Empire, he suggested that if Caesar and Pompey had not worked to usurp the government of the Republic, other men would have risen in their place. The cause was not the ambition of Caesar or Pompey, but the ambition of man.


title: Montesquieu

text: Montesquieu is credited as being among the progenitors, who include Herodotus and Tacitus, of anthropology—as being among the first to extend comparative methods of classification to the political forms in human societies. Indeed, the French political anthropologist Georges Balandier considered Montesquieu to be "the initiator of a scientific enterprise that for a time performed the role of cultural and social anthropology". According to social anthropologist D. F. Pocock, Montesquieu's "The Spirit of Law" was "the first consistent attempt to survey the varieties of human society, to classify and compare them and, within society, to study the inter-functioning of institutions." Montesquieu's political anthropology gave rise to his theories on government. When Catherine the Great wrote her "Nakaz" (Instruction) for the Legislative Assembly she had created to clarify the existing Russian law code, she avowed borrowing heavily from Montesquieu's "Spirit of Law", although she discarded or altered portions that did not support Russia's absolutist bureaucratic monarchy.


title: Montesquieu

text: Montesquieu's most influential work divided French society into three classes (or "trias politica", a term he coined): the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the commons. Montesquieu saw two types of governmental power existing: the sovereign and the administrative. The administrative powers were the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. These should be separate from and dependent upon each other so that the influence of any one power would not be able to exceed that of the other two, either singly or in combination. This was a radical idea because it does not follow the three Estates structure of the French Monarchy: the clergy, the aristocracy, and the people at large represented by the Estates-General, thereby erasing the last vestige of a feudalistic structure.


title: Montesquieu

text: Montesquieu argues that each Power should only exercise its own functions; it was quite explicit here:


title: Montesquieu

text: If the legislative branch appoints the executive and judicial powers, as Montesquieu indicated, there will be no separation or division of its powers, since the power to appoint carries with it the power to revoke.


title: Montesquieu

text: Likewise, there were three main forms of government, each supported by a social "principle": monarchies (free governments headed by a hereditary figure, e.g. king, queen, emperor), which rely on the principle of honor; republics (free governments headed by popularly elected leaders), which rely on the principle of virtue; and despotisms (enslaved governments headed by dictators), which rely on fear. The free governments are dependent on fragile constitutional arrangements. Montesquieu devotes four chapters of "The Spirit of Law" to a discussion of England, a contemporary free government, where liberty was sustained by a balance of powers. Montesquieu worried that in France the intermediate powers (i.e., the nobility) which moderated the power of the prince were being eroded. These ideas of the control of power were often used in the thinking of Maximilien Robespierre.


title: Montesquieu

text: Montesquieu advocated reform of slavery in "The Spirit of Law", specifically arguing that slavery was inherently wrong because all humans are born equal, but that it could perhaps be justified within the context of climates with intense heat, wherein laborers would feel less inclined to work voluntarily. As part of his advocacy he presented a satirical hypothetical list of arguments for slavery. In the hypothetical list, he'd ironically list pro-slavery arguments without further comment, including an argument stating that sugar would become too expensive without the free labor of slaves.


title: Montesquieu

text: While addressing French readers of his "General Theory", John Maynard Keynes described Montesquieu as "the real French equivalent of Adam Smith, the greatest of your economists, head and shoulders above the physiocrats in penetration, clear-headedness and good sense (which are the qualities an economist should have)."


title: Montesquieu

text: Another example of Montesquieu's anthropological thinking, outlined in "The Spirit of Law" and hinted at in "Persian Letters", is his meteorological climate theory, which holds that climate may substantially influence the nature of man and his society, a theory also promoted by the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. By placing an emphasis on environmental influences as a material condition of life, Montesquieu prefigured modern anthropology's concern with the impact of material conditions, such as available energy sources, organized production systems, and technologies, on the growth of complex socio-cultural systems.


title: Montesquieu

text: He goes so far as to assert that certain climates are more favorable than others, the temperate climate of France being ideal. His view is that people living in very warm countries are "too hot-tempered", while those in northern countries are "icy" or "stiff". The climate of middle Europe is therefore optimal. On this point, Montesquieu may well have been influenced by a similar pronouncement in "The Histories" of Herodotus, where he makes a distinction between the "ideal" temperate climate of Greece as opposed to the overly cold climate of Scythia and the overly warm climate of Egypt. This was a common belief at the time, and can also be found within the medical writings of Herodotus' times, including the "On Airs, Waters, Places" of the Hippocratic corpus. One can find a similar statement in "Germania" by Tacitus, one of Montesquieu's favorite authors.


title: Montesquieu

text: Philip M. Parker, in his book "Physioeconomics" (MIT Press, 2000), endorses Montesquieu's theory and argues that much of the economic variation between countries is explained by the physiological effect of different climates.


title: Montesquieu

text: From a sociological perspective, Louis Althusser, in his analysis of Montesquieu's revolution in method, alluded to the seminal character of anthropology's inclusion of material factors, such as climate, in the explanation of social dynamics and political forms. Examples of certain climatic and geographical factors giving rise to increasingly complex social systems include those that were conducive to the rise of agriculture and the domestication of wild plants and animals.


title: Montesquieu

text: A critical edition of Montesquieu's works is being published by the Société Montesquieu. It is planned to total 22 volumes, of which (as of February 2022) all but five have appeared.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon of Athens (; ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies of the Achaemenid Empire, the Ten Thousand, that marched on and came close to capturing Babylon in 401 BC. As the military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge wrote, "the centuries since have devised nothing to surpass the genius of this warrior". Xenophon established precedents for many logistical operations, and was among the first to describe strategic flanking maneuvers and feints in combat.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon's "Anabasis" recounts his adventures with the Ten Thousand while in the service of Cyrus the Younger, Cyrus's failed campaign to claim the Persian throne from Artaxerxes II of Persia, and the return of Greek mercenaries after Cyrus's death in the Battle of Cunaxa. "Anabasis" is a unique first-hand, humble, and self-reflective account of a military leader's experience in antiquity. On the topic of campaigns in Asia Minor and in Babylon, Xenophon wrote "Cyropaedia" outlining both military and political methods used by Cyrus the Great to conquer the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC. "Anabasis" and "Cyropaedia" inspired Alexander the Great and other Greeks to conquer Babylon and the Achaemenid Empire in 331 BC.


title: Xenophon

text: A student and a friend of Socrates, Xenophon recounted several Socratic dialogues"Symposium", "Oeconomicus", "Hiero", a tribute to Socrates"Memorabilia", and a chronicle of the philosopher's trial in 399 BC"Apology of Socrates to the Jury". Reading Xenophon's "Memorabilia" inspired Zeno of Citium to change his life and start the Stoic school of philosophy.


title: Xenophon

text: For at least two millennia, Xenophon's many talents fueled the debate of whether to place Xenophon with generals, historians or philosophers. For the majority of time in the past two millennia, Xenophon was recognized as a philosopher. Quintilian in The Orator's Education discusses the most prominent historians, orators and philosophers as examples of eloquence and recognizes Xenophon's historical work, but ultimately places Xenophon next to Plato as a philosopher. Today, Xenophon is best known for his historical works. The "Hellenica" continues directly from the final sentence of Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" covering the last seven years of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) and the subsequent forty-two years (404 BC–362 BC) ending with the Second Battle of Mantinea.


title: Xenophon

text: Despite being born an Athenian citizen, Xenophon came to be associated with Sparta, the traditional opponent of Athens. Experience as a mercenary and a military leader, service under Spartan commanders in Ionia, Asia Minor, Persia and elsewhere, exile from Athens, and friendship with King Agesilaus II endeared Xenophon to the Spartans. Much of what is known today about the Spartan society comes from Xenophon's worksthe royal biography of the Spartan king "Agesilaus" and the "Constitution of the Lacedaemonians".


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon is recognized as one of the greatest writers of antiquity. Xenophon's works span multiple genres and are written in plain Attic Greek, which is why they have often been used in translation exercises for contemporary students of the Ancient Greek language. In the "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers", Diogenes Laërtius observed that Xenophon was known as the "Attic Muse" because of the sweetness of his diction. Several centuries later, Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero described Xenophon's mastery of Greek composition in Orator with the following words: "the muses were said to speak with the voice of Xenophon". Roman orator, attorney and teacher of rhetoric Quintilian echoes Cicero in "The Orator's Education" saying "the Graces themselves seem to have molded his style and the goddess of persuasion sat upon his lips".


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon was born around 430 BC, in the deme Erchia of Athens. Xenophon's father, Gryllus, was a member of a wealthy equestrian family. Detailed accounts of events in "Hellenica" suggest that Xenophon personally witnessed the Return of Alcibiades in 407 BC, the Trial of the Generals in 406 BC, and the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants in 403 BC. Detailed account of Xenophon's life starts 401 BC. Personally invited by Proxenus of Beotia ("Anabasis" 3.1.9), one of the captains in Cyrus's mercenary army, Xenophon sailed to Ephesus to meet Cyrus the Younger and participate in Cyrus's military campaign against Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap of Ionia. Xenophon describes his life in 401 BC and 400 BC in the memoir "Anabasis".


title: Xenophon

text: The "Anabasis" is a narrative of how "Xenophon rouses the despairing Greeks into action and leads them on their long march home; and the narrative of his successes has won him noteworthy if uneven admiration for over two millennia."


title: Xenophon

text: Written years after the events it recounts, Xenophon's book "Anabasis" (Greek: ἀνάβασις, literally "going up") is his record of the expedition of Cyrus and the Greek mercenaries’ journey home. Xenophon writes that he asked Socrates for advice on whether to go with Cyrus, and that Socrates referred him to the divinely inspired Pythia. 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 which gods to pray and sacrifice to. When Xenophon returned to Athens and told Socrates of the oracle's advice, Socrates chastised him for asking so disingenuous a question ("Anabasis" 3.1.5–7).


title: Xenophon

text: Under the pretext of fighting Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap of Ionia, Cyrus assembled a massive army composed of native Persian soldiers, but also a large number of Greeks. Prior to waging war against Artaxerxes, Cyrus proposed that the enemy was the Pisidians, and so the Greeks were unaware that they were to battle against the larger army of King Artaxerxes II ("Anabasis" 1.1.8–11). At Tarsus the soldiers became aware of Cyrus's plans to depose the king, and as a result, refused to continue ("Anabasis" 1.3.1). However, Clearchus, a Spartan general, convinced the Greeks to continue with the expedition. The army of Cyrus met the army of Artaxerxes II in the Battle of Cunaxa. Despite effective fighting by the Greeks, Cyrus was killed in the battle ("Anabasis" 1.8.27–1.9.1). Shortly thereafter, Clearchus was treacherously invited by Tissaphernes to a feast, where, alongside four other generals and many captains, including Xenophon's friend Proxenus, he was captured and executed ("Anabasis" 2.5.31–32).


title: Xenophon

text: The mercenaries, known as the Ten Thousand, found themselves without leadership far from the sea, deep in hostile territory near the heart of Mesopotamia, with a hostile population and armies to deal with. They elected new leaders, including Xenophon himself.


title: Xenophon

text: Dodge says of Xenophon's generalship, "Xenophon is the father of the system of retreat, the originator of all that appertains to the science of rear-guard fighting. He reduced its management to a perfect method. More originality in tactics has come from the Anabasis than from any dozen other books. Every system of war looks to this as to the fountain-head when it comes to rearward movements, as it looks to Alexander for a pattern of resistless and intelligent advance. Necessity to Xenophon was truly the mother of invention, but the centuries since have devised nothing to surpass the genius of this warrior. No general ever possessed a grander moral ascendant over his men. None ever worked for the safety of his soldiers with greater ardor or to better effect."


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon and his men initially had to deal with volleys by a minor force of harassing Persian missile cavalry. Every day, these cavalry, finding no opposition from the Ten Thousand, moved cautiously closer and closer. One night, Xenophon formed a body of archers and light cavalry. When the Persian cavalry arrived the next day, now firing within several yards, Xenophon suddenly unleashed his new cavalry in a shock charge, smashing into the stunned and confused enemy, killing many and routing the rest. Tissaphernes pursued Xenophon with a vast force, and when the Greeks reached the wide and deep Great Zab River, it seemed they were surrounded.


title: Xenophon

text: However, Xenophon quickly devised a plan: all goats, cows, sheep and donkeys were slaughtered and their bodies stuffed with hay, laid across the river and sewn up and covered with dirt so as not to be slippery. This created a bridge across which Xenophon led his men before the Persians could get to them.


title: Xenophon

text: That Xenophon was able to acquire the means of feeding his force in the heart of a vast empire with a hostile population was astonishing. Dodge notes, "On this retreat also was first shown the necessary, if cruel, means of arresting a pursuing enemy by the systematic devastation of the country traversed and the destruction of its villages to deprive him of food and shelter. And Xenophon is moreover the first who established in rear of the phalanx a reserve from which he could at will feed weak parts of his line. This was a superb first conception."


title: Xenophon

text: The Ten Thousand eventually made their way into the land of the Carduchians, a wild tribe inhabiting the mountains of modern southeastern Turkey. The Carduchians were "a fierce, war-loving race, who had never been conquered. Once the Great King had sent into their country an army of 120,000 men, to subdue them, but of all that great host not one had ever seen his home again." The Ten Thousand made their way in and were shot at with stones and arrows for several days before they reached a defile where the main Carduchian host sat.


title: Xenophon

text: In the Battle of the Carduchian Defile, Xenophon had 8,000 men feint at this host and marched the other 2,000 to a pass revealed by a prisoner under the cover of a rainstorm, and "having made their way to the rear of the main pass, at daylight, under cover of the morning mist, they boldly pushed in upon the astonished Carducians. The blare of their many trumpets gave notice of their successful detour to Xenophon, as well as added to the confusion of the enemy. The main army at once joined in the attack from the valley side, and the Carducians were driven from their stronghold."


title: Xenophon

text: After heavy mountain fighting in which Xenophon showed the calm and patience needed for the situation, the Greeks made their way to the northern foothills of the mountains at the Centrites River, only to find a major Persian force blocking the route north. With the Carduchians surging toward the Greek rear, Xenophon again faced the threat of total destruction in battle.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon's scouts quickly found another ford, but the Persians moved and blocked this as well. Xenophon sent a small force back toward the other ford, causing the anxious Persians to detach a major part of their force parallel. Xenophon stormed and completely overwhelmed the force at his ford, while the Greek detachment made a forced march to this bridgehead. This was among the first attacks in depth ever made, 23 years after Delium and 30 years before Epaminondas’ more famous use of it at Leuctra.


title: Xenophon

text: Winter by now arrived as the Greeks marched through Armenia "absolutely unprovided with clothing suitable for such weather", inflicting more casualties than they suffered during a skillful ambush of a local satrap's force and the flanking of another force in this period. At a period when the Greeks were in desperate need of food, they decided upon attacking a wooden castle known to have had storage. The castle, however, was stationed on a hill surrounded by forest.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon ordered small parties of his men to appear on the hill road, and when the defenders fired, one soldier would leap into the trees, and he "did this so often that at last there was quite a heap of stones lying in front of him, but he himself was untouched." Then, "the other men followed his example, and made it a sort of game, enjoying the sensation, pleasant alike to old and young, of courting danger for a moment, and then quickly escaping it. When the stones were almost exhausted, the soldiers raced one another over the exposed part of the road", storming the fortress, which, with most of the garrison now neutralized, barely put up a fight.


title: Xenophon

text: Soon after, Xenophon's men reached Trapezus on the coast of the Black Sea ("Anabasis" 4.8.22). Before their departure, the Greeks made an alliance with the locals and fought one last battle against the Colchians, vassals of the Persians, in mountainous country. Xenophon ordered his men to deploy the line extremely thin so as to overlap the enemy, keeping a strong reserve. The Colchians, seeing they were being outflanked, divided their army to check the Greek deployment, opening a gap in their line through which Xenophon rushed in his reserves, scoring a brilliant Greek victory.


title: Xenophon

text: They then made their way westward back to Greek territory via Chrysopolis ("Anabasis" 6.3.16). Once there, they helped Seuthes II make himself king of Thrace, before being recruited into the army of the Spartan general Thimbron (whom Xenophon refers to as Thibron). The Spartans were at war with Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus II, Persian satraps in Anatolia.


title: Xenophon

text: Filled with a plethora of originality and tactical genius, Xenophon's conduct of the retreat caused Dodge to name the Athenian knight the greatest general that preceded Alexander the Great.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon's Anabasis ends in 399 BC in the city of Pergamon with the arrival of the Spartan commander Thimbron. Thimbron's campaign is described in Hellenica. The level of detail with which Xenophon describes Thimbron's campaign in Hellenica suggests first hand knowledge. After capturing Teuthrania and Halisarna, the Greeks led by Thimbron lay siege to Larissa. Failing to capture Larissa, the Greeks fall back to Caria. As a result of the failed siege of Larissa, the ephors of Sparta recall Thimbron and send Dercylidas to lead the Greek army. After facing the court at Sparta, Thimbron is banished. Xenophon describes Dercylidas as a significantly more experienced commander than Thimbron.


title: Xenophon

text: Led by Dercylidas, Xenophon and the Greek army march to Aeolis and capture nine cities in 8 days including Larissa, Hamaxitus, and Kolonai. The Persians negotiated a temporary truce and the Greek army retired for a winter camp at Byzantium.


title: Xenophon

text: In 398 BC, Xenophon was likely a part of the Greek force capturing the city of Lampsacus. Also in 398, the Spartan ephors officially cleared the Ten Thousand of any previous wrongdoing (the Ten Thousand were likely a part of the investigation of Thimbron's failure at Larissa) and fully integrated the Ten Thousand into Dercylidas' army. Hellenica mentions the response of the commander of the Ten Thousand (likely Xenophon) "But men of Lacedaemon, we are the same men now as we were last year; but the commander now is one man (Dercylidas), and in the past was another (Thimbron). Therefore you are at once able to judge for yourselves the reason why we are not at fault now, although we were then."


title: Xenophon

text: The truce between the Greeks and the Persians was fragile and in 397 BC Dercylidas' force mirrored the movement of Tissaphernes' and Pharnabazus' force near Ephesus, but did not engage in battle. The Persian army retreated to Tralles and the Greeks to Leucophrys. Dercylidas proposed the new terms of truce to Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus and the three parties submitted the truce proposal to Sparta and the Persian king for ratification. Under Dercylidas' proposal, the Persians abandoned claims to independent Greek cities in Ionia and the Spartans withdrew the army, leaving Spartan governors in the Greek cities.


title: Xenophon

text: In 396 BC, the newly appointed Spartan king, Agesilaus arrived at Ephesus and assumed the command of the army from Dercylidas. Xenophon and Agesilaus likely met for the first time and Xenophon joined Agesilaus' campaign for Ionian Greece independence of 396–394. In 394 BC, Agesilaus' army returned to Greece taking the route of the Persian invasion eighty years earlier and fought in the Battle of Coronea. Athens banished Xenophon for fighting on the Spartan side.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon likely followed Agesilaus' march to Sparta in 394 BC and finished his military journey after seven years. Xenophon received an estate in Scillus where he spent the next twenty three years. In 371 BC, after the Battle of Leuctra, Elians confiscated Xenophon's estate and, according to Diogenes Laërtius, Xenophon moved to Corinth. Diogenes writes that Xenophon lived in Corinth until his death in 354 BC. Pausanias mentions Xenophon's tomb in Scillus.


title: Xenophon

text: Like Socrates and other students of Socrates (Plato, Alcibiades, Critias), Xenophon took a keen interest in political philosophy. Almost all Xenophon's writings touch on the topics of political philosophy making it impossible to discuss Xenophon without discussing political philosophy. What is a good leader and how to be a good leader are the two topics Xenophon examines very often.


title: Xenophon

text: Political philosophy was a dangerous interest at the time of Xenophon. Xenophon's teacher Socrates was convicted and condemned to death for his teachings. Lives of Alcibiades, Critias, and Cyrus the Younger found a violent end. Thucydides, Xenophon's co-author of the history of the Peloponnesian Wars, was exiled – a sentence commonly used as an alternative to a death sentence. Xenophon's dear friend, King Agesilaus II was smeared after his death. Xenophon himself was exiled from Athens (the details of his sentence are unknown). Although less dangerous today than at the time of Xenophon, political philosophy remains a contentious and difficult subject.


title: Xenophon

text: The conflict between Athens and Sparta seemingly ended in 404 BC with the defeat of Athens. Athens and Sparta signed a symbolic peace on March 12, 1996. In some respects, the conflict between Athens and Sparta still rages on. People still side with either Athens or Sparta and still try to damage and discredit the other side. Taking the side of Athens and democrats, some people accuse Sparta and people associated with Sparta of being arrogant oligarch oppressors of helots. Others accuse Athens and people associated with Athens of being disingenuous imperialists, colonialists and tyrants.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon, an Athenian who ostensibly sided with Sparta (we don't know whether Xenophon had a choice) and finished Thucydides' incredibly important work about the wars between Athens and Sparta, still remains a target of the conflict. Many read Xenophon's works through a prism of Athenian or Spartan view and either attack or defend Xenophon practicing ad hominem.


title: Xenophon

text: Given Xenophon's significant role as a participant and a historian in the Athens-Sparta conflict, finding unbiased writings about Xenophon's political philosophy can be challenging. The best advice to people interested in Xenophon is to read Xenophon's original writings and approach Xenophon's ideas with an open mind. After all, the "Attic muse" has no need for retellers.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon has long been associated with the opposition to the Athenian democracy of his time, of which he saw the shortcomings and the ultimate defeat to the Spartan oligarchic power. Although Xenophon seems to prefer oligarchy, or at least the aristocracy, especially in light of his associations with Sparta, none of his works puts a major focus on attacking democracy. But there are definitely some mockeries or criticisms here and there, for instance in the Anabasis, when deliberations are intimidated by cries of "pelt" if a speaker says something others disagree with. Or in a dialog between the Spartan commander and Xenophon himself (Book IV, Chap.6, l.16) when the Spartan says "I too hear that you Athenians are clever at stealing public funds, and this even though the danger is quite extreme for the thief; and indeed the best do it the most, if indeed the best among you are those considered worthy of ruling."


title: Xenophon

text: Some scholars go so far as to say his views aligned with those of the democracy in his time. However, certain works of Xenophon, in particular the "Cyropaedia", seem to show his oligarchic politics. This historical-fiction serves as a forum for Xenophon to subtly display his political inclinations.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon wrote the "Cyropaedia" to outline his political and moral philosophy. He did this by endowing a fictional version of the boyhood of Cyrus the Great, founder of the first Persian Empire, with the qualities of what Xenophon considered the ideal ruler. Historians have asked whether Xenophon's portrait of Cyrus was accurate or if Xenophon imbued Cyrus with events from Xenophon's own life. The consensus is that Cyrus’s career is best outlined in the "Histories" of Herodotus. But Steven Hirsch writes, "Yet there are occasions when it can be confirmed from Oriental evidence that Xenophon is correct where Herodotus is wrong or lacks information. A case in point involves the ancestry of Cyrus." Herodotus contradicts Xenophon at several other points, most notably in the matter of Cyrus’s relationship with the Median Kingdom. Herodotus says that Cyrus led a rebellion against his maternal grandfather, Astyages king of Media, and defeated him, thereafter (improbably) keeping Astyages in his court for the remainder of his life ("Histories" 1.130). The Medes were thus "reduced to subjection" (1.130) and became "slaves" (1.129) to the Persians 20 years before the capture of Babylon in 539 BC.


title: Xenophon

text: The "Cyropaedia" relates instead that Astyages died and was succeeded by his son Cyaxares II, the maternal uncle of Cyrus (1.5.2). In the initial campaign against the Lydians, Babylonians and their allies, the Medians were led by Cyaxares and the Persians by Cyrus, who was crown prince of the Persians, since his father was still alive (4.5.17). Xenophon relates that at this time the Medes were the strongest of the kingdoms that opposed the Babylonians (1.5.2). There is an echo of this statement, verifying Xenophon and contradicting Herodotus, in the Harran Stele, a document from the court of Nabonidus. In the entry for year 14 or 15 of his reign (542–540 BC), Nabonidus speaks of his enemies as the kings of Egypt, the Medes, and the Arabs. There is no mention of the Persians,


title: Xenophon

text: although according to Herodotus and the current consensus the Medians had been made "slaves" of the Persians several years previously. It does not seem that Nabonidus would be completely misled about who his enemies were, or who was really in control over the Medes and Persians just one to three years before his kingdom fell to their armies.


title: Xenophon

text: Other archaeological evidence supporting Xenophon’s picture of a confederation of Medes and Persians, rather than a subjugation of the Medes by the Persians, comes from the bas-reliefs in the stairway at Persepolis. These show no distinction in official rank or status between the Persian and Median nobility. Although Olmstead followed the consensus view that Cyrus subjugated the Medes, he nevertheless wrote, "Medes were honored equally with Persians; they were employed in high office and were chosen to lead Persian armies." A more extensive list of considerations related to the credibility of the "Cyropaedia’s" picture of the relationship between the Medes and Persians is found on the "Cyropaedia" page.


title: Xenophon

text: Both Herodotus (1.123,214) and Xenophon (1.5.1,2,4, 8.5.20) present Cyrus as about 40 years old when his forces captured Babylon. In the Nabonidus Chronicle, there is mention of the death of the wife of the king (name not given) within a month after the capture of Babylon. It has been conjectured that this was Cyrus’s first wife, which lends credibility to the "Cyropaedia"’s statement (8.5.19) that Cyaxares II gave his daughter in marriage to Cyrus soon (but not immediately) after the fall of the city, with the kingdom of Media as her dowry. When Cyaxares died about two years later the Median kingdom passed peaceably to Cyrus, so that this would be the true beginning of the Medo-Persian Empire under just one monarch.


title: Xenophon

text: The "Cyropaedia" as a whole lavishes a great deal of praise on the first Persian emperor, Cyrus the Great, on account of his virtue and leadership quality, and it was through his greatness that the Persian Empire held together. Thus this book is normally read as a positive treatise about Cyrus. However, following the lead of Leo Strauss, David Johnson suggests that there is a subtle but strong layer to the book in which Xenophon conveys criticism of not only the Persians but the Spartans and Athenians as well.


title: Xenophon

text: In section 4.3 of the "Cyropaedia" Cyrus makes clear his desire to institute cavalry. He even goes so far to say that he desires that no Persian "kalokagathos" ("noble and good man" literally, or simply "noble") ever be seen on foot but always on a horse, so much so that the Persians may actually seem to be centaurs (4.3.22–23). Centaurs were often thought of as creatures of ill repute, which makes even Cyrus’ own advisors wary of the label. His minister Chrysantas admires the centaurs for their dual nature, but also warns that the dual nature does not allow centaurs to fully enjoy or act as either one of their aspects in full (4.3.19–20).


title: Xenophon

text: In labelling Persians as centaurs through the mouth of Cyrus, Xenophon plays upon the popular post-Persian-war propagandistic paradigm of using mythological imagery to represent the Greco-Persian conflict. Examples of this include the wedding of the Lapiths, Gigantomachy, Trojan War, and Amazonomachy on the Parthenon frieze. Johnson reads even more deeply into the centaur label. He believes that the unstable dichotomy of man and horse found in a centaur is indicative of the unstable and unnatural alliance of Persian and Mede formulated by Cyrus. The Persian hardiness and austerity is combined with the luxuriousness of the Medes, two qualities that cannot coexist. He cites the regression of the Persians directly after the death of Cyrus as a result of this instability, a union made possible only through the impeccable character of Cyrus. In a further analysis of the centaur model, Cyrus is likened to a centaur such as Chiron, a noble example from an ignoble race. Thus this entire paradigm seems to be a jab at the Persians and an indication of Xenophon’s general distaste for the Persians.


title: Xenophon

text: The strength of Cyrus in holding the empire together is praiseworthy according to Xenophon. However, the empire began to decline upon the death of Cyrus. By this example Xenophon sought to show that empires lacked stability and could only be maintained by a person of remarkable prowess, such as Cyrus. Cyrus is idealized greatly in the narrative. Xenophon displays Cyrus as a lofty, temperate man. This is not to say that he was not a good ruler, but he is depicted as surreal and not subject to the foibles of other men. By showing that only someone who is almost beyond human could conduct such an enterprise as empire, Xenophon indirectly censures imperial design. Thus he also reflects on the state of his own reality in an even more indirect fashion, using the example of the Persians to decry the attempts at empire made by Athens and Sparta. Although partially graced with hindsight, having written the "Cyropaedia" after the downfall of Athens in the Peloponnesian War, this work criticizes the Greek attempts at empire and "monarchy", dooming them to failure.


title: Xenophon

text: Another passage that Johnson cites as criticism of monarchy and empire concerns the devaluation of the "homotīmoi". The manner in which this occurs seems also to be a subtle jab at democracy. "Homotīmoi" were highly and thoroughly educated and thus became the core of the soldiery as heavy infantry. As the name "homotīmoi" ("equal", or "same honours" i.e. "peers") suggests, their small band (1000 when Cyrus fought the Assyrians) shared equally in the spoils of war. However, in the face of overwhelming numbers in a campaign against the Assyrians, Cyrus armed the commoners with similar arms instead of their normal light ranged armament ("Cyropaedia" 2.1.9).


title: Xenophon

text: Argument ensued as to how the spoils would now be split, and Cyrus enforced a meritocracy. Many "homotīmoi" found this unfair because their military training was no better than the commoners, only their education, and hand-to-hand combat was less a matter of skill than strength and bravery. As Johnson asserts, this passage decries imperial meritocracy and corruption, for the "homotīmoi" now had to ingratiate themselves to the emperor for positions and honours; from this point they were referred to as "entīmoi", no longer of the "same honours" but having to be "in" to get the honour. On the other hand, the passage seems to be critical of democracy, or at least sympathetic to aristocrats within democracy, for the "homotīmoi" (aristocracy/oligarchs) are devalued upon the empowerment of the commoners ("demos"). Although empire emerges in this case, this is also a sequence of events associated with democracy. Through his dual critique of empire and democracy, Xenophon subtly relates his support of oligarchy.


title: Xenophon

text: The Spartans wrote nothing about themselves, or if they did it is lost. Therefore, what we know about them comes exclusively from outsiders such as Xenophon. Xenophon’s affinity for the Spartans is clear in the Constitution of the Spartans, as well as his penchant for oligarchy. The opening line reads:


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon goes on to describe in detail the main aspects of Laconia, handing to us the most comprehensive extant analysis of the institutions of Sparta.


title: Xenophon

text: A short treatise on the "Constitution of the Athenians" exists that was once thought to be by Xenophon, but which was probably written when Xenophon was about five years old. The author, often called in English the "Old Oligarch" or Pseudo-Xenophon, detests the democracy of Athens and the poorer classes, but he argues that the Periclean institutions are well designed for their deplorable purposes. Although the real Xenophon seems to prefer oligarchy over democracy, none of his works so ardently decry democracy as does the Constitution of the Athenians. However, this treatise makes evident that anti-democratic sentiments were extant in Athens in the late 5th century BC and were only increased after its shortcomings were exploited and made apparent during the Peloponnesian War.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon's works include a selection of Socratic dialogues; these writings are completely preserved. Except for the dialogues of Plato, they are the only surviving representatives of the genre of Socratic dialogue. These works include Xenophon's "Apology", "Memorabilia", "Symposium" and "Oeconomicus". The "Symposium" outlines the character of Socrates as he and his companions discuss what attribute they take pride in. One of the main plots of the Symposium is about the type of loving relationship (noble or base) a rich aristocrat will be able to establish with a young boy (present at the banquet alongside his own father). In "Oeconomicus", Socrates explains how to manage a household. Both the "Apology" and the "Memorabilia" defend Socrates' character and teachings. The former is set during the trial of Socrates, essentially defending Socrates' loss and death, while the latter explains his moral principles and that he was not a corrupter of the youth.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon was a student of Socrates, and their personal relationship is evident through a conversation between the two in Xenophon’s "Anabasis". In his "Lives of Eminent Philosophers", the Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius (who writes many centuries later) reports how Xenophon met Socrates. "They say that Socrates met [Xenophon] in a narrow lane, and put his stick across it and prevented him from passing by, asking him where all kinds of necessary things were sold. And when he had answered him, he asked him again where men were made good and virtuous. And as he did not know, he said, 'Follow me, then, and learn.' And from this time forth, Xenophon became a follower of Socrates." Diogenes Laërtius also relates an incident "when in the battle of Delium Xenophon had fallen from his horse" and Socrates reputedly "stepped in and saved his life."


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon's admiration for his teacher is clear in writings such as "Symposium", "Apology", and "Memorabilia". Xenophon was away on his Persian campaign during the trial and death of Socrates. Nevertheless, much of Xenophon's Socratic writing, especially "Apology", concerns that very trial and the defence Socrates put forward.


title: Xenophon

text: Both Plato and Xenophon wrote an "Apology" concerning the death of Socrates. The two writers seem more concerned about answering questions that arose after the trial than about the actual charges. In particular, Xenophon and Plato are concerned with the failures of Socrates to defend himself. The Socrates that Xenophon portrayed was different from Plato’s in multiple respects. Xenophon asserts that Socrates dealt with his prosecution in an exceedingly arrogant manner, or at least was perceived to have spoken arrogantly. Conversely, while not omitting it completely, Plato worked to temper that arrogance in his own "Apology". Xenophon framed Socrates’ defense, which both men admit was not prepared at all, not as a failure to effectively argue his side, but as striving for death even in the light of unconvincing charges. As Danzig interprets it, convincing the jury to condemn him even on unconvincing charges would be a rhetorical challenge worthy of the great persuader. Xenophon uses this interpretation as justification for Socrates’ arrogant stance and conventional failure. By contrast, Plato does not go so far as to claim that Socrates actually desired death but seems to argue that Socrates was attempting to demonstrate a higher moral standard and teach a lesson. This places Socrates in a higher moral position than his prosecutors, a typical Platonic example of absolving "Socrates from blame in every conceivable way."


title: Xenophon

text: Although Xenophon claims to have been present at the "Symposium", this is impossible as he was only a young boy at the date which he proposes it occurred. And again, Xenophon was not present at the trial of Socrates, having been on campaign in Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Thus he puts into the latter’s mouth what he would have thought him to say. It seems that Xenophon wrote his "Apology" and "Memorabilia" as defences of his former teacher, and to further the philosophic project, not to present a literal transcript of Socrates' response to the historical charges incurred.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon's standing as a political philosopher has been defended in recent times by Leo Strauss, who devoted a considerable part of his philosophic analysis to the works of Xenophon, returning to the high judgment of Xenophon as a thinker expressed by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Michel de Montaigne, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Niccolò Machiavelli, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon’s lessons on leadership have been reconsidered for their modern-day value. Jennifer O’Flannery holds that "discussions of leadership and civic virtue should include the work of Xenophon ... on public education for public service." The "Cyropaedia", in outlining Cyrus as an ideal leader having mastered the qualities of "education, equality, consensus, justice and service to state," is the work that she suggests be used as a guide or example for those striving to be leaders (see mirrors for princes). The linking of moral code and education is an especially pertinent quality subscribed to Cyrus that O’Flannery believes is in line with modern perceptions of leadership.


title: Xenophon

text: Xenophon’s entire classical corpus is extant. The following list of his works exhibits the extensive breadth of genres in which Xenophon wrote.


title: Xenophon

text: These works were probably written by Xenophon when he was living in Scillus. His days were likely spent in relative leisure here, and he wrote these treatises about the sorts of activities he spent time on.


title: Michel Lotito

text: Michel Lotito (; June 15, 1950 June 25, 2007) was a French entertainer, born in Grenoble, famous for deliberately consuming indigestible objects. He came to be known as Monsieur "Mouth" Mangetout ("Mr. Eat-All"). He started eating this unusual diet at age 9.


title: Michel Lotito

text: Michel Lotito began eating unusual material at 9 years of age, and he performed publicly beginning in 1966. He had an eating disorder known as pica, which is a psychological disorder characterized by an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive. Doctors determined that Lotito also had a thick lining in his stomach and intestines which allowed his consumption of sharp metal without suffering injury. Lotito also had digestive juices that were unusually powerful, meaning that he could digest the unusual materials. However, it also meant that soft foods, such as bananas and hard-boiled eggs, made him sick.


title: Michel Lotito

text: Lotito's performances involved the consumption of metal, glass, rubber and other materials. He disassembled, cut up, and consumed items such as bicycles, shopping carts, televisions, and a Cessna 150, among other items. The Cessna 150 took roughly two years to be "eaten", from 1978 to 1980.


title: Michel Lotito

text: Lotito claimed not to suffer ill effects from his consumption of substances typically considered poisonous. When performing, he ingested approximately of material daily, preceding it with mineral oil and drinking considerable quantities of water during the meal. It is estimated that between 1959 and 1997, Lotito "had eaten nearly nine tons of metal."


title: Michel Lotito

text: Lotito's method for eating all of this metal was to break it into small pieces before attempting to eat it. He then drank mineral oil and continued to drink water while swallowing the metal bits. This acted as a lubricant to help the metal slide down his throat. Lotito had no problem "passing" his unusual diet.


title: Michel Lotito

text: Lotito holds the record for the 'strangest diet' in the Guinness Book of Records. He was awarded a brass plaque by the publishers to commemorate his abilities, which he consumed as well.


title: Michel Lotito

text: Lotito died of natural causes on June 25, 2007, ten days after his 57th birthday. He is buried at Saint Roch Cemetery in Grenoble, his hometown.


title: IPadOS

text: iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its iPad line of tablet computers. It is a rebranded variant of iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones, renamed to reflect the diverging features of the two product lines, particularly the iPad's multitasking capabilities. It was introduced as iPadOS 13 in 2019, reflecting its status as the successor to iOS 12 for the iPad, at the company's 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference. iPadOS was released to the public on September 24, 2019. The current public release is iPadOS 16.2, released on December 13, 2022.


title: IPadOS

text: The first iPad was released on January 10th, 2010 and ran iPhone OS 3.2, which added support for the larger device to the operating system, previously only used on the iPhone and its smaller counterpart, the iPod Touch. This shared operating system was rebranded as "iOS" with the release of iOS 4.


title: IPadOS

text: The operating system initially had rough feature parity running on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, with variations in user interface depending on screen size, and minor differences in the selection of apps included. However, over time, the variant of iOS for the iPad incorporated a growing set of differentiating features, such as picture-in-picture, the ability to display multiple running apps simultaneously (both introduced with iOS 9 in 2015), drag and drop, and a dock that more closely resembled the dock from macOS than the one on the iPhone (added in 2017 with iOS 11). Standard iPad apps were increasingly designed to support the optional use of a physical keyboard.


title: IPadOS

text: To emphasize the different feature set available on the iPad, and to signal their intention to develop the platforms in divergent directions, at WWDC 2019, Apple announced that the variant of iOS that runs on the iPad would be rebranded as “iPadOS.” The new naming strategy began with iPadOS 13.1, in 2019.


title: IPadOS

text: On June 22, 2020, at WWDC 2020, Apple announced iPadOS 14, with compact designs for search, Siri, and calls, improved app designs, handwriting recognition, better AR features, enhanced privacy protections, and app widgets. iPadOS 14 was released to the public on September 16, 2020.


title: IPadOS

text: On June 7, 2021, at WWDC 2021, iPadOS 15 was announced with widgets on the Home Screen and App Library, the same features that came to iPhone with iOS 14 in 2020. The update also brought stricter privacy measurements with Safari such as IP Address blocking so other websites cannot see it. iPadOS 15 was released to the public on September 20, 2021.


title: IPadOS

text: On June 6, 2022, at WWDC 2022, iPadOS 16 was announced with a Weather app and Stage Manager, along with most of the features included in iOS 16, excluding a customizable lock screen.


title: IPadOS

text: Many features of iPadOS are also available on iOS; however, iPadOS contains some features that are not available in iOS and lacks some features that are available in iOS.


title: IPadOS

text: Unlike previous versions of iOS, the icon grid displays up to five rows and six columns of apps, regardless of whether the device is in portrait or landscape orientation. The first page of the home screen can be configured to show a column of widgets from applications for easy access. Spotlight Search is no longer part of the widgets but can still be accessed by swiping down from the center of the home screen or pressing Command + Space on a connected keyboard.


title: IPadOS

text: iPadOS features a multitasking system developed with more capabilities compared to iOS, with features like Slide Over and Split View that make it possible to use multiple different applications simultaneously. Double-clicking the Home Button or swiping up from the bottom of the screen and pausing will display all currently active spaces. Each space can feature a single app, or a Split View featuring two apps. The user can also swipe left or right on the Home Indicator to go between spaces at any time, or swipe left/right with four fingers.


title: IPadOS

text: While using an app, swiping up slightly from the bottom edge of the screen will summon the Dock, where apps stored within can be dragged to different areas of the current space to be opened in either Split View or Slide Over. Dragging an app to the left or right edge of the screen will create a Split View, which will allow both apps to be used side by side. The size of the two apps in Split View can be adjusted by dragging a pill-shaped icon in the center of the vertical divider and dragging the divider all the way to one side of the screen closes the respective app. If the user drags an app from the dock over the current app, it will create a floating window called Slide Over which can be dragged to either the left or right side of the screen. A Slide Over window can be hidden by swiping it off the right side of the screen, and swiping left from the right edge of the screen will restore it. Slide Over apps can also be cycled between by swiping left or right on the Home Indicator in the Slide Over window and pulling up on it will open an app switcher for Slide Over windows. A pill-shaped icon at the top of apps in Split View or Slide Over allows them to be switched in an out of Split View and Slide Over.


title: IPadOS

text: The user can now have several instances of a single app open at once. A new App Exposé mode has been added which allows the user to see all of the instances of an app.


title: IPadOS

text: In many applications, videos can be shrunk down into a picture-in-picture window so the user can continue watching it while using other apps. This window containing the video can be resized by pinching and spreading and can be docked to any of the four corners of the screen. It can also be hidden by swiping it off the side of the screen and is denoted by an arrow at the edge where the video is hidden and swiping it will bring it back onscreen.


title: IPadOS

text: Safari now shows desktop versions of websites by default, includes a download manager, and has 30 new keyboard shortcuts if an external keyboard is connected.


title: IPadOS

text: Sidecar allows for an iPad to function as a second monitor for macOS, named in reference to articulated motorcycles. When using Sidecar, the Apple Pencil can be used to emulate a graphics tablet for applications like Photoshop. This feature is only supported on iPads that support the Apple Pencil. However, earlier versions of iPadOS 13 allowed all iPads compatible with iPadOS 13 to work with Sidecar.


title: IPadOS

text: iPadOS allows external storage, such as USB flash drives, portable hard drives, and solid state drives to be connected to an iPad via the Files app. iPad Pros from the 3rd generation above connects over USB-C, but the Lightning camera connection kit also works to connect external drives with previous iPads.


title: IPadOS

text: Introduced in iPadOS 14, Scribble converts text handwritten by an Apple Pencil into typed text in most text fields.


title: IPadOS

text: Beginning with iPadOS 15, Translate is available. The feature was announced on June 7, 2021 at WWDC 2021. Translation works with 11 languages.


title: IPadOS

text: Beginning with iPadOS 16, the Weather app was added to iPad. The application had previously only been available on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The feature was announced on June 6, 2022, at WWDC 2022.


title: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021 film)

text: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a 2021 American live-action stop-motion animated mockumentary comedy-drama film directed by Dean Fleischer Camp (in his feature directorial debut), with a screenplay by Fleisher Camp, Jenny Slate and Nick Paley from a story by Fleisher Camp, Slate, Paley and Elisabeth Holm. It is based on a series of shorts of the same name written by Slate and Fleischer Camp. Slate reprises her voice role as Marcel, an anthropomorphic shell living with his grandmother Connie. Fleischer Camp, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann, Lesley Stahl, and Isabella Rossellini also star.


text: The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2021, and began a limited release in the United States on June 24, 2022, before its wide release on July 15, by A24. It was acclaimed by critics. It received many awards and nominations, such as the 80th Golden Globe Awards, for Best Animated Feature Film.


text: Following the end of his marriage, documentary filmmaker Dean moves into an Airbnb and discovers Marcel, a one-inch-tall talking shell living in the home with his grandmother, Nanna Connie, and Alan, his pet ball of lint. Inspired by Marcel's whimsicality, resourcefulness, and fascination with the world, Dean begins filming Marcel's daily activities, most of which consist of gathering resources from the backyard in order to support himself and Nana Connie. Connie is wise but she has some dementia. She tends to her garden assisted by insects she has befriended. Marcel and Connie share their mutual love of "60 Minutes" and Lesley Stahl. Dean uploads his first video about Marcel to YouTube, where it quickly becomes a cultural phenomenon. Marcel is both flattered and overwhelmed with his newfound popularity, lamenting that his family is not around to celebrate it with him.


text: Marcel explains to Dean that there used to be an entire community of shells on the property, including Marcel's mother, father, brother, and aunt. The shells would take shelter in a sock drawer when the house's previous owners, Mark and Larissa, started knocking objects over while fighting. After one fight, Mark accidentally packs the shells into his suitcase while moving out, leaving Marcel and Connie as the only ones left on the property. Dean helps Marcel produce a livestream on the internet asking for help in locating his family. The livestream gains a substantial amount of viewers, but after Marcel shares his location with viewers, the house becomes a popular area for influencers. Marcel becomes dismayed after realizing most of the people who saw his videos are fans, desperate to be associated with him but largely uninterested in helping him.


text: The constant attention to the house quickly begins to bother Marcel, who is worried about Connie's deteriorating health. Marcel convinces Dean to drive him around Los Angeles in search of Mark's car, but is overwhelmed to discover how large and vast the world outside his house really is. Realizing that the world is too big to likely discover the car on his own, a discouraged Marcel returns home to find Connie has fallen off the top of a washing machine and cracked her shell. Marcel tends to her wounds and grows more protective of Connie.


text: "60 Minutes" reaches out to Marcel in the hopes of doing a cover story. Despite Dean's encouragement, Marcel is reluctant to accept the offer, concerned with what the large production crew and more attention to the house would do to Connie's health. Marcel tells Dean he will not accept the interview until Connie is fully recovered. Dean confides this information to a fast-deteriorating Connie. Wanting Marcel to live a meaningful life of his own, Connie pretends to show signs of improvement around Marcel while encouraging him to accept the interview. Despite strong reservations, Marcel eventually agrees to the interview, believing it may help him find his family.


text: Connie's health continues to worsen as the day of the interview approaches. Connie and Marcel watch as the "60 Minutes" crew sets up in the living room and are starstruck upon seeing Lesley Stahl in person. Marcel and Dean both participate in the interview. Upon its completion, Marcel and Dean struggle to find Connie before realizing she died while their segment was being filmed. Marcel buries Connie in her garden and grieves her. Dean signs a lease for a new apartment.


text: "60 Minutes" calls Dean requesting additional filming after making new discoveries regarding the whereabouts of Larissa. The segment airs, showing that they were able to locate Larissa in Guatemala. Larissa then brings the "60 Minutes" crew to Mark's house, where she and Mark get into an argument. Marcel urges Dean and the crew to check in Mark's sock drawer, where the entire shell community is discovered. They reunite in the Airbnb with Marcel, who is able to give Connie a proper funeral. Dean moves into his new apartment and begins dating again. Reunited with his family, Marcel confides to Dean that he often finds himself going to the Laundry Room window alone, and feeling the wind blow through his shell. Marcel shows Dean the sound it produces, remarking on its beauty as he stares out the window.


text: Chiodo Bros. Production led animation, with Edward Chiodo as animation producer and Kirsten Lepore as animation director. Stephen Chiodo was the film's supervising animation director. Bianca Cline led live action cinematography, while Eric Adkins ("Mars Attacks!", "The PJs") led stop-motion cinematography.


text: The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2021. It was also shown at SXSW in March 2022.


text: In November 2021, A24 acquired the distribution rights. The film was released in select theaters in the United States on June 24, 2022, before releasing nationwide on July 15. The film was released on shop.a24films.com on Blu-Ray & 4k Ultra HD and in Canada on standard dvd+digital and Blu-Ray and everywhere digitally on September 5, 2022.


text: In the United States and Canada, the film made $169,606 from six theaters in its opening weekend. It then made $262,022 from 22 theaters in its second and $322,167 from 48 theaters in its third. Playing in 153 theaters the following weekend, the film added another $567,918, bringing its four-week running total to $1.7 million. The film expanded to 590 theatres in the second wide weekend, grossing $874,302 with the average revenue on $1,481, finishing eleventh at the box office. It continued to gross $671,361 from 821 theaters in its third wide weekend and $345,484 from 498 theaters in its fourth wide weekend, both times finishing fourteenth at the box office.


text: On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 141 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The critical consensus reads, "Poignant, profound, and utterly heartwarming, "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" is animated entertainment with real heart." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


text: On July 20, 2022, Dean Fleischer Camp revealed that even with the film having animated characters living and interacting with a live-action world, it will be eligible for consideration to be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 95th Academy Awards in 2023. He went on to say that in order for it to be considered, he and A24 will have to submit documentation to prove that it has met the requirements in which "animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time. In addition, a narrative animated film must have a significant number of characters animated." On November 9, 2022, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially deemed the film eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature category.


title: Brooke Mueller

text: Mueller was born and raised in upstate New York. Her father, Allen Mueller, worked as a Miami and Key West police officer, a high school teacher, and a real-estate broker. He died in a motorcycle accident when Brooke was twelve. Her father was Lutheran and her mother, Moira Fiore, was Jewish. When she was 14, her mother married Florida-based millionaire Kenneth Wolofsky and moved to Florida. Mueller was a cheerleader at the Benjamin School in Palm Beach. Mueller has a brother, Scott Allen Mueller, and a half-sister, Sydney Wolofsky. Mueller's mother Moira Fiore is currently married to international singer/songwriter/actor Jon Fiore.


title: Brooke Mueller

text: Mueller has acted in film and worked as special correspondent on "Extra". Her best known role was as Janet in the 1999 direct-to-video film "Witchouse", credited as Brooke Allen. She also played Cassandra in the 2008 comedy film "Strictly Sexual" (also credited as Brooke Allen). In 2011, Mueller co-starred in "The World According to Paris", a reality show alongside her friend Paris Hilton. She has also worked as real estate investor, including purchasing a home from Mel B in 2012, refurbishing it and reselling it nine months later for a $500,000 profit. She had also bought and flipped homes in the Los Angeles area neighborhoods Nichols Canyon (2005) and Los Feliz (2009).


title: Brooke Mueller

text: On May 30, 2008, Mueller married actor Charlie Sheen, having been engaged since 2007. The couple were introduced in 2006 by mutual friend Rebecca Gayheart. Mueller gave birth to their twin sons, Bob and Max, on March 14, 2009. On December 25, 2009, Sheen was arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse. The couple filed for divorce in November 2010. In March 2011, police removed the children from Sheen's home after Mueller obtained a restraining order against Sheen. The divorce settlementwith Sheen paying her $750,000 per their prenuptial agreement, plus $55,000 per month in child support for their two sonswas approved by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge and became effective on May 2, 2011. Mueller and Sheen maintained a friendship afterwards.


title: Brooke Mueller

text: In 1996, Mueller was arrested on DUI charges in Palm Beach County, Florida. In March 2001, she was arrested in Miami-Dade County, Florida for cocaine possession. In July 2011, Mueller completed an outpatient rehab program. In May 2013, officials from Department of Children and Family Services removed Mueller's then 4-year-old children from her care, when her suspected ongoing drug use made the house unsafe for them. Mueller entered a rehab program soon after, while her sons were initially placed in the care of Denise Richards, Sheen's second ex-wife, and later transferred to the care of Mueller's brother Scott. In December 2014, full custody of her then 5-year-old sons was returned to Mueller by the court. "Page Six" reported that in November 2016, the police launched a search for Mueller and her two sons in Salt Lake City. She walked barefoot into a bar with her sons and a nanny on the morning of November 16, 2016. Mueller was taken to a hospital for evaluation.


title: Brooke Mueller

text: On August 8, 2019, a video of Mueller smoking crystal meth surfaced online. In August 2019, Mueller voluntarily entered an inpatient trauma rehabilitation center, in a renewed effort to deal with her substance abuse problems, with her then 10-year-old sons going into the care of Mueller's parents.


title: Eternal sin

text: In Christian hamartiology, eternal sin, the unforgivable sin, unpardonable sin, or ultimate sin is the sin which will not be forgiven by God. One eternal or unforgivable sin (blasphemy against the Holy Spirit), also known as the sin unto death, is specified in several passages of the Synoptic Gospels, including Mark 3:28–29, Matthew 12:31–32, and Luke 12:10, as well as other New Testament passages including Hebrews 6:4–6, Hebrews 10:26–31, and 1 John 5:16.


title: Eternal sin

text: The unforgivable sin is interpreted by Christian theologians in various ways, although they generally agree that one who has committed the sin is no longer able to repent, and so one who is fearful that they have committed it has not done so.


title: Eternal sin

text: Several passages in the New Testament are frequently interpreted as referring to the unforgivable sin:


title: Eternal sin

text: The importance of prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17: "pray without ceasing") and humility (Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner") in Christianity is reflected by an Orthodox catechism as follows:


title: Eternal sin

text: The Church Fathers considered additional interpretations other than it being to attribute the Holy Spirit's works to Satan with Augustine of Hippo calling it one of the more difficult passages of Scripture. Thomas Aquinas summarized the Church Fathers' treatments and proposed three possible explanations:


title: Eternal sin

text: Some have claimed that In the context of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, blasphemy against the Spirit is the sin of attributing to Satan what is the work of the Spirit of God, such as when the Pharisees earlier accused Jesus of driving out demons only by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons. The Catholic Encyclopedia cites Matthew 12:22–32; Mark 3:22–30; Luke 12:10 (cf. 11:14–23) and gives one definition of "the unforgivable sin"—or sin against the Holy Ghost—as follows: ″... to sin against the Holy Ghost is to confound Him with the spirit of evil, it is to deny, from pure malice, the Divine character of works manifestly Divine.″ The article further states that "sin against the Son of Man" may be forgiven because it is committed against the human person of Christ, which veils the Divine with a "humble and lowly appearance," and therefore such sin is excusable because it is committed through "man's ignorance and misunderstanding."


title: Eternal sin

text: According to the Council of Trent, referencing St Ambrose's Concerning Repentance, the Church believes there is no offence, however serious, that cannot be taken away by Baptism, or absolved from in the Confessional—that no one, however wicked and guilty, may not confidently hope for forgiveness.


title: Eternal sin

text: Thomas Aquinas explains that the unforgivability of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit means that it removes the entrance to these means of salvation; however, it cannot hinder God in taking away this obstacle by way of a miracle.


title: Eternal sin

text: The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, while no sin is absolutely "unforgivable", some sins represent a deliberate refusal to repent and accept the infinite mercy of God; a person committing such a sin refuses God's forgiveness, which can lead to self-condemnation to Hell. In other words, one damns oneself by final impenitence (refusal to repent), as taught by John Paul II:


title: Eternal sin

text: The images of hell that Sacred Scripture presents to us must be correctly interpreted...hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God..."To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called 'hell'"..."Eternal damnation", therefore, is not attributed to God's initiative because in his merciful love he can only desire the salvation of the beings he created. In reality, it is the creature who closes himself to his love. Damnation consists precisely in definitive separation from God, freely chosen by the human person and confirmed with death that seals his choice for ever. God's judgement ratifies this state.


title: Eternal sin

text: The Catechism says that Christ desires "the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin." As did St Augustine, the Catholic Church today teaches that only dying unrepentant for one's sins is the only unforgivable sin. Indeed, in "Dominum et vivificantem" Pope John Paul II writes "According to such an exegesis, 'blasphemy' does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross", and "If Jesus says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven either in this life or in the next, it is because this "non-forgiveness" is linked, as to its cause, to "non-repentance," in other words to the radical refusal to be converted. This means the refusal to come to the sources of Redemption, which nevertheless remain "always" open in the economy of salvation in which the mission of the Holy Spirit is accomplished."


title: Eternal sin

text: John Calvin, the founder of the Reformed tradition of Christianity (which includes the Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Reformed Anglican denominations) wrote:


title: Eternal sin

text: Jacob Arminius defined the unforgivable sin as "the rejection and refusing of Jesus Christ through determined malice and hatred against Christ". However, Arminius differed with Calvin in believing that the sin could be committed by believers, a conclusion he reached through his interpretation of .


title: Eternal sin

text: John Wesley, the father of the Methodist (Wesleyan-Arminian) tradition, discussed the unforgivable sin in a sermon titled "A Call to Backsliders", in which he wrote that "that this blasphemy is absolutely unpardonable; and that, consequently, for those who have been guilty of this, God 'will be no more entreated'." A prominent Methodist catechism, "A Catechism on the Christian Religion: The Doctrines of Christianity with Special Emphasis on Wesleyan Concepts" states:


title: Eternal sin

text: This Wesleyan-Arminian interpretation of the unforgivable sin includes the deliberate labeling of good as evil, as rejecting the conviction of the Holy Spirit, of publicly attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan, and attributing the work of Jesus to Satan. The United Methodist Church, a Methodist connexion, thus teaches:


title: Eternal sin

text: Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also nicknamed Mormons, have a similar understanding of eternal sin. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, said in the King Follett discourse:


title: Eternal sin

text: Church apostle and later President of the Church, Spencer W. Kimball, stated that "the sin against the Holy Ghost requires such knowledge that it is manifestly impossible for the rank and file [of the church] to commit such a sin".


title: Eternal sin

text: A very similar, although not identical, parallel to Matthew 12:31–32 can be found in the Avot of Rabbi Natan:


title: Eternal sin

text: However, Talmudic sources in several places qualify the above and similar statements and explain it to mean only that repentance is made more difficult because of the severity of such a sin. The Talmud's golden rule is that the gates of repentance are never, ever closed and, to quote Maimonides, '...even if one is a heretic his whole life and repents on his dying day, his penitence is accepted.'


title: Eternal sin

text: God does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives anything less than that to whomever He wills. Whoever associates anything with God has devised a monstrous sin... God will not forgive that partners be associated with Him; but will forgive anything less than that, to whomever He wills. Anyone who ascribes partners to God has strayed into far error. (Quran 4:48, 116)


title: Eternal sin

text: One who persists in shirk without repenting at death is doomed to eternal damnation in Jahannam. Shirk includes polytheism, such as believing Jesus is God or taking rabbis as one's lords in derogation to God.()


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: Mark Everett Sloan, M.D., F.A.C.S. is a fictional character from ABC's medical drama television series "Grey's Anatomy", portrayed by Eric Dane. Created by showrunner Shonda Rhimes, the character was introduced in season two as Derek Shepherd's best friend. Mark caused the end of Derek’s marriage by sleeping with Derek's then-wife, Addison Montgomery. Mark moves to Seattle in season three to make amends with Derek and becomes Seattle Grace Hospital's new plastic surgery attending, after which he is dubbed "McSteamy" by the female interns for his good looks. Mark's focal storyline in the series involved his romantic relationship with Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), one of the interns who was on his service when they started dating. Both he and Lexie sustained fatal injuries during an aviation accident in the eighth-season finale, and Seattle Grace Mercy West is later renamed Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital after their passing.


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: Mark first appears in season two. He is a highly respected plastic surgeon, sub-specialized in otolaryngology and the childhood best friend of neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey). In his first appearance, he flirts with Meredith Grey, and Derek punches him in the face. Derek explains that Mark had an affair with his wife, Addison (Kate Walsh) while they were living in New York, causing Derek to leave New York. Mark travels to Seattle, intent on convincing Addison to return with him to New York, but his offer is rejected and Derek declines to renew their friendship. Mark returns during season three at Addison's drunken behest, but she again rejects him once sober. Undeterred, Mark sells his successful private practice (which he previously shared with Derek) and takes over the plastics service at Seattle Grace Hospital. During Meredith's morphine rampage, Mark finds out about his nickname McSteamy, which was given to him during his first trip to Seattle when he attempted to get Addison back and re-earn Derek's friendship. It is later revealed that Mark has slept with all of Derek's sisters. Mark has a brief fling with Addison's friend, orthopedic surgeon Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez), and develops a friendship with Derek's girlfriend, intern Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo). It is revealed that after Derek left New York, Mark and Addison continued their relationship for two months, during which she conceived and aborted his child. Addison broke their relationship off after she caught him with another woman. Just weeks after moving to Seattle, he quickly observes that Derek's true love is Meredith and tries to convince Addison that her marriage with Derek is over. Mark enters into a sixty-day abstinence pact with Addison, agreeing that if he can remain celibate for that time, Addison will give their relationship another chance. Addison ultimately breaks the pact by having sex with intern Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), and soon thereafter departs from Seattle to work in Los Angeles.


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: Mark supports Derek when Meredith comes close to dying after drowning, and the two are able to rekindle their friendship. It is eventually revealed that he and Derek grew up together and that he, having lost his mother as a child and his father emotionally neglecting him, considered Derek's mother as his maternal figure. As he was an only child and Derek was the only son, they became close friends and he was Derek's best man at the latter's wedding to Addison. He also forms a friendship with Callie, and develops an attraction to cardiothoracic surgeon Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith). Erica does not reciprocate his feelings, and he is supportive of Callie when she and Erica have a brief relationship. When Addison shows up at Seattle Grace for a case, Mark attempts to sleep with Addison again but she refuses. The nurses later start a club against him called Nurses United Against Mark Sloan. After a string of unresolved sexual tension on his part, Mark then finds himself seduced by Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), despite Derek's request that he keep their relationship platonic even before their relationship had begun. They begin a sexual relationship, which Lexie halts until he is willing to publicly admit to being her partner. Mark eventually agrees and tells Derek, who attacks him. Animosity exists between them for several episodes, before they once more repair their friendship. Mark and Lexie's relationship becomes increasingly serious. He meets her father, Thatcher (Jeff Perry), and at the end of season five, asks Lexie to move in with him. Though Lexie initially declines, he remains committed to their relationship, and she agrees early in season six.


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: Mark discovers that he has an 18-year-old daughter, Sloan Riley (Leven Rambin), who arrives seeking his support after becoming pregnant and being evicted by her mother. Mark allows her to move in with him, which upsets Lexie. When Lexie makes it clear that she knew that Mark would choose his own daughter over her, she puts an end to their relationship. Sloan experiences difficulties in her pregnancy, so Mark takes her to LA to be treated. He and Addison once again sleep together, but when he comes back he tells Lexie because he doesn't want to lie to her and wants them to get back together, but when she tells him she slept with Alex it puts an end to their relationship. When Sloan decides to give her baby up for adoption, Mark and Callie offer to raise it together. Sloan unwillingly agrees, but then quietly leaves Seattle, leaving Mark distraught. He enters into a relationship with cardiothoracic surgeon Teddy Altman (Kim Raver), despite the fact she is in love with their trauma colleague, Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd). Sloan returns unexpectedly and gives birth to a son in Mark’s apartment. She reconsiders the adoption, but when Mark reassures her that he will support her no matter what, she gives the baby to an adoptive couple from Washington.


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: In the sixth-season finale, a gunman commits mass murder at the hospital. Mark helps Lexie save Alex, her new boyfriend. In the aftermath of the shooting, Lexie has a nervous breakdown and Mark has her committed to the psychiatric unit. Their friendship is strained, however Lexie softens towards him when she learns that he is still in love with her. As Lexie goes to talk to Mark about him still being in love with her, she sees Mark entering his apartment with Derek's sister Amelia, kissing her and ultimately sleeping with her. When Callie's girlfriend, pediatric surgeon Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw), breaks up with her, she and Mark have a drunken one-night stand. Shortly thereafter, he reconciles with Lexie, but is delighted when Callie discovers she is pregnant with his child. Lexie, however, is dismayed and angered by the news and leaves Mark once again. Mark takes quickly to fatherhood when his daughter, Sofia, is born.


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: Mark asks Dr. Jackson Avery to find out how Lexie's doing, but Jackson lies to Mark that he wasn't able to find anything out, and he (Jackson) starts dating Lexie shortly after that. In the meanwhile, Callie and Mark's daughter is born. Mark later gives Jackson and Lexie his blessing, and tells Lexie he will let her go; Lexie replies that she is still in love with him, but right now she needs Jackson to be happy. After giving Jackson a hard time, Mark finally acknowledges his surgery skills and decides to teach him, although he still evidences feelings towards Lexie. After a long time without dating, Mark finally embarks on a relationship with Julia. This makes Lexie jealous, which leads to her and Jackson breaking up. Lexie struggles to tell Mark how she feels but finally admits it, leaving him torn between her and Julia. In the season 8 finale, Mark, Lexie, Derek, Meredith, Cristina, and Arizona are involved in an aviation accident while on the way to Boise, Idaho to perform surgery on conjoined twins, crushing Lexie under debris. After trying and failing to save her, Mark holds dying Lexie by the hand, telling her that he has always and will always love her. He and the remaining surviving crash victims are left stranded in the woods, mourning Lexie and fighting to stay alive.


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: In the ninth-season premiere, it is discovered that Mark is on life support due to the extensive injuries he sustained in the plane crash and, as determined by his will, the machines would be turned off if he showed no signs of waking within 30 days. Flashbacks of some moments in Mark's life showcased him being videotaped as he was extending his congratulations to newlyweds Callie and Arizona. At the end of the speech, he declares that Lexie was the one he wanted to grow old and dance with at their granddaughter's wedding. At 5:00 that day, with Derek and Callie keeping vigil at his bedside, the machines were turned off. Mark died shortly thereafter. The following episode reveals that he had a surge of good health upon his return to Seattle Grace before ultimately succumbing to his injuries. His 'surge' allowed him enough energy to advise his protégé Jackson, 'when you love someone, tell them', which is believed to be a reflection on the major obstacle of his failed relationship with Lexie. During this momentary energy, Mark also took the opportunity to make a clean break with his girlfriend, Julia, stating that the situation was not fair to her as he had always loved only Lexie. Following his death, Shonda Rhimes muses regarding Mark and Lexie's relationship: '...he and Lexie get to be together in a way. Their love remains true." Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital is later renamed Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in tribute to Lexie and Mark.


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: Dane auditioned for the role during the casting of the pilot and ultimately received the role, which was only later introduced in the show. He initially appeared as a guest-star in the episode "Yesterday" of the second season, becoming a series regular from the third season episode "Sometimes a Fantasy", first broadcast in October 2006. Casting director Linda Lowy gave the insight: "You can't forget about McSteamy. We cast (Dane) for one episode, and I think the women across the nation went kind of crazy. Everyone was talking about him, so we decided to make him a regular." In July 2012, TVLine announced Dane would leave the show after the first two episodes of the ninth season. Rhimes said she and Dane decided to end Mark's storyline after much discussion. She added: "It was a thing that Eric had been thinking about for a while, but it felt like the right time to him." However, E! Online reported that Rhimes had been forced by the network to reduce the cast for budget reasons and that Dane had not asked to leave the series.


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) characterized Sloan as "charming", "confident", "smug", "smarmy", and "great with his hands". Shonda Rhimes said of the character: "Mark, the original bad boy, is struggling with his own demons. He brings a healthy serving of mystery and potential conflict to Seattle Grace." Actress Kate Walsh said: "He's the guy you shouldn't go out with but you can't help yourself." Carolina Paiz, one of the writers of the series, wrote: "he can be impertinent and evil and demeaning."


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: Mark Sloan's relationship with Chyler Leigh's Lexie Grey has been well received by critics and fans alike, with Chris Monfette of "IGN" writing: "Sloan's honest relationship with Lexie helped to make both characters infinitely more interesting and mature."


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: His role in the episode "In the Midnight Hour" from the fifth season was well received by Debbie Chang of BuddyTV who wrote, "Mark (Eric Dane) is pretty freaking awesome in this episode. He's lascivious as all heck, but he's showing some compassion." His scenes with Shepherd were described as "fun." Victor Balta of Today listed their friendship in its "TV's best bromances". He called them "the most exciting couple on "Grey’s"", explaining "they’ve demonstrated an easy chemistry that makes for some of the great comic relief around Seattle Grace Hospital with their banter, sage wisdom on each other’s lives, and locker room-style teasing". Their bromance was furthermore included in lists by About.com, BuddyTV, "Cosmopolitan", Wetpaint. However, following the announcement of Dane's upcoming departure from the show, Mark Perigard of the "Boston Herald" felt he and Derek "never clicked like you’d expect friends would. Any scene they had together ranged from uncomfortable to forced."


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: His bromance with Jackson Avery was also well received. Janalen Samson of BuddyTV wrote: "Eric Dane has always shown a facility for sly, deft comedy and these scenes with Jesse Williams are proving to be gems. I do love a good Bromance and these two actors are bringing the love and the funny in spades." Writing for TV Fanatic, Courtney Morrison commented: "Sloan has brought the "GA" comedy scale up a bit with his bromances and mentoring Jackson." The pairing was listed in Zap2it's 25 Top Bromances of 2012. "Los Angeles Times" TV columnist, Carina Mackenzie, described his scenes with Torres as "always perfectly sharp".


title: Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy)

text: At the 13th Screen Actors Guild Awards, Dane was part of the "Grey's Anatomy" cast awarded the "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series" accolade, for which they were also nominated the following year.


title: Cynthia Addai-Robinson

text: Cynthia Addai-Robinson (born January 12, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Naevia in the Starz television series "Spartacus", DC Comics character Amanda Waller in The CW TV series "Arrow", and Nadine Memphis on the USA Network series "Shooter". She currently plays the role of Tar-Míriel on the Amazon Prime "The Lord of the Rings" series "".


title: Cynthia Addai-Robinson

text: Addai-Robinson was born in London; her mother is from Ghana and her father is a U.S. citizen. She moved to the U.S. when she was 4 and was raised by her mother in a suburb of Washington, D.C. She graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland and Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater. In addition, she trained at Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and in dance forms ballet, jazz and tap.


title: Cynthia Addai-Robinson

text: After participating in several various Off-Broadway plays, Addai-Robinson got her first role on television in 2002 in an episode of "The Education of Max Bickford". In following years, she made small appearances on television shows like" ", "", "", "Numb3rs" and "Justice". In 2006, she was originally cast to play Melanie Barnett in the American sitcom "The Game", but was replaced by Tia Mowry for unspecified reasons prior to the show's production. In 2009, she got her first recurring role on the ABC drama "FlashForward" as the character Debbie, a nurse. The same year she appeared in Tina Mabry's independent film "Mississippi Damned" as Milena.


title: Cynthia Addai-Robinson

text: In 2011, Addai-Robinson made her big screen debut as the mother of Zoe Saldana's character (played by Amandla Stenberg) in "Colombiana".


title: Cynthia Addai-Robinson

text: Her biggest role came from 2012 to 2013 when she was cast as Naevia in the third season "" and the fourth season "" after Lesley-Ann Brandt decided to leave the series.


title: Cynthia Addai-Robinson

text: In early 2013, Addai-Robinson played Aja, a powerful witch who came to help Bonnie on "The Vampire Diaries" for two episodes. She made a brief appearance as an on looker in the crowd in the film "Star Trek Into Darkness". She played Leslie in "", a television movie about the murder of Travis Alexander. In September 2013, she was cast as the recurring character Amanda Waller in the hit The CW show "Arrow".


title: Cynthia Addai-Robinson

text: In March 2014, she was cast as Emily D. West in the History Channel 2015 miniseries "Texas Rising". Her performance was nominated for a Women's Image Network Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series.


title: Cynthia Addai-Robinson

text: In January 2015, Addai-Robinson was cast in Gavin O'Connor's "The Accountant", alongside Ben Affleck and J. K. Simmons, playing a U.S. Treasury Department analyst. The film was released in October 2016.


title: Cynthia Addai-Robinson

text: In March 2016, it was announced that she would be taking over Emily Rios's role from the television series "Shooter" as the female lead.


title: Stand-up comedy

text: Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up.


title: Stand-up comedy

text: Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, observations or a shtick that may incorporate props, music, magic tricks or ventriloquism. It can be performed almost anywhere, including comedy clubs, comedy festivals, bars, nightclubs, colleges or theatres.


title: Stand-up comedy

text: Stand-up as a Western art form has its roots in the stump speech of American minstrel shows, which featured an actor in blackface delivering nonsensical monologue to the audience. While the intention of stump speeches was to mock African-Americans, they also occasionally contained political and social satire. The minstrel show would later influence theatrical traditions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as vaudeville and burlesque.


title: Stand-up comedy

text: The first documented use of "stand-up" as a term was in "The Stage" in 1911, detailing a woman named Nellie Perrier delivering 'stand up comic ditties in a chic and charming manner', though this was used to describe a performance of comedy songs rather than stand-up comedy in its true modern form.


title: Stand-up comedy

text: In "The Yorkshire Evening Post" on the 10th of November 1917, the "Stage Gossip" column described the career of a comedian named Finlay Dunn. The article stated that Dunn was "what he calls 'a stand-up comedian'" during the latter part of the 19th century, although the term may have been used retrospectively.


title: Stand-up comedy

text: The host, compere or emcee "warms up" the audience and introduces the other performers. This is followed by the opener, the feature, then the headliner. The host may also double as an opener for smaller shows. Proven comics can get regular bookings for club chains and comedy venues. Jobbing stand-ups may perform sets at two or more venues on the same day.


title: Stand-up comedy

text: Club and small venues often run open mic events; these slots may be booked in advance or left for walk-ins. Comedians use open mics to work on material or to show off their skills to get an opener slot. "Bringer shows" are open mics that require amateur performers to bring a specified number of paying guests with them in order to receive stage time.


title: Stand-up comedy

text: As well as being a mainstay of the comedy circuit, festivals often also showcase up and coming acts, with promoters and agents using the festivals to seek out new talent.