title: Definitions of fascism

text: Similarly, "fascism" as an ideology is also hard to define. Originally, it referred to a totalitarian political movement linked with corporatism which existed in Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. Many scholars use the word "fascism" without capitalization in a more general sense, to refer to an ideology (or group of ideologies) which was influential in many countries at many different times. For this purpose, they have sought to identify what Roger Griffin calls a "fascist minimum"—that is, the minimum conditions that a certain political movement must meet in order to be considered "fascist".


title: Definitions of fascism

text: The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" defines fascism as a "political ideology and mass movement that dominated many parts of central, southern, and eastern Europe between 1919 and 1945 and that also had adherents in western Europe, the United States, South Africa, Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East.", adding that "Although fascist parties and movements differed significantly from one another, they had many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a (German: "people's community"), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation."


title: Definitions of fascism

text: The "Holocaust Encyclopedia" defines fascism as "a far-right political philosophy, or theory of government, that emerged in the early twentieth century. Fascism prioritizes the nation over the individual, who exists to serve the nation." and as "an ultranationalist, authoritarian political philosophy. It combines elements of nationalism, militarism, economic self-sufficiency, and totalitarianism. It opposes communism, socialism, pluralism, individual rights and equality, and democratic government."


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Benito Mussolini, who was the first to use the term for his political party in 1915, described fascism in "The Doctrine of Fascism", published in 1932, as follows:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: In an interview with Henri Massis in 1938, Spanish Nationalist leader Francisco Franco described his movement in Spain as part of a wider trend and said about this trend:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: In his 1995 essay "Ur-Fascism", cultural theorist Umberto Eco lists fourteen general properties of fascist ideology. He argues that it is not possible to organise these into a coherent system, but that "it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it". He uses the term "fascism" as a generic description of different historical forms of fascism. The fourteen properties are as follows:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Italian historian of fascism Emilio Gentile described fascism in 1996 as the "sacralization of politics" through totalitarian methods and argued the following ten constituent elements:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: A. James Gregor, co-founder of the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics, a prominent group in the promotion of eugenics and segregation, affirmed that fascism was a "variant of Sorelian syndicalism" which also included components of neo-idealism and elitist socialism. Gregor stated that Stalinism and Fascist totalitarianism would have been impossible without the "transmogrified Marxism, that infilled both". According to Gregor:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Fascism was a variant of classical Marxism, a belief system that pressed some themes argued by both Marx and Engels until they found expression in the form of "national syndicalism" that was to animate the first Fascism.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Furthermore, he believed that post-Maoist China displays many fascist traits. He has denied that fascism is "right-wing extremism".


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Gregor's work has come under increasing criticism in the 21st century. In a review of his 2006 essay on Neofascist movements, Peter H. Merkl, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, accuses Gregor of ignoring modern work in favor of his own views, and attempting to force an out of date definition of fascism. Merkl writes:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: In comparing the movements of 1919 with those of the last 30 years, for example, he [Gregor] ignores the differences between the issues created by the World War I peace settlement and the struggle against non-white immigration.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Historian and political scientist Roger Griffin's definition of fascism focuses on the populist fascist rhetoric that argues for a "re-birth" of a conflated nation and ethnic people. According to Griffin,


title: Definitions of fascism

text: [F]ascism is best defined as a revolutionary form of nationalism, one that sets out to be a political, social and ethical revolution, welding the "people" into a dynamic national community under new elites infused with heroic values. The core myth that inspires this project is that only a populist, trans-class movement of purifying, cathartic national rebirth (palingenesis) can stem the tide of decadence.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Griffin writes that a broad scholarly consensus developed in English-speaking social sciences during the 1990s, around the following definition of fascism:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: [Fascism is] a genuinely revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis, anti-conservative nationalism. As such it is an ideology deeply bound up with modernization and modernity, one which has assumed a considerable variety of external forms to adapt itself to the particular historical and national context in which it appears, and has drawn a wide range of cultural and intellectual currents, both left and right, anti-modern and pro-modern, to articulate itself as a body of ideas, slogans, and doctrine. In the inter-war period it manifested itself primarily in the form of an elite-led "armed party" which attempted, mostly unsuccessfully, to generate a populist mass movement through a liturgical style of politics and a programme of radical policies which promised to overcome a threat posed by international socialism, to end the degeneration affecting the nation under liberalism, and to bring about a radical renewal of its social, political and cultural life as part of what was widely imagined to be the new era being inaugurated in Western civilization. The core mobilizing myth of fascism which conditions its ideology, propaganda, style of politics and actions is the vision of the nation's imminent rebirth from decadence.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Griffin argues that the above definition can be condensed into one sentence: "Fascism is a political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a palingenetic form of populist ultra-nationalism." The word "palingenetic" in this case refers to notions of national rebirth.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: In his history of Europe in the first half of the 20th century, "To Hell and Back", British historian Ian Kershaw, while noting the difficulties in defining fascism, found these common factors in the extreme Right-wing movements of the late 1920s and early 1930s, whether they called themselves "fascist" or not:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Other features Kershaw found to be important, and sometimes central to specific movements, but not present in all:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Kershaw argues that the difference between fascism and other forms of right-wing authoritarianism in the Interwar period is that the latter generally aimed "to conserve the existing social order", whereas fascism was "revolutionary", seeking to change society and obtain "total commitment" from the population.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Kershaw writes about the essential appeal of fascism and the reasons for its success, where it was successful (primarily in Italy and Germany):


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Fascism's message of national renewal, powerfully linking fear and hope, was diverse enough to be capable of crossing social boundaries. Its message enveloped an appeal to the material vested interests of quite disparate social groups in a miasma of emotive rhetoric about the future of the nation. It touched the interests of those who felt threatened by the forces of modernizing social change. It mobilized those who believed they had something to lose status, property, power, cultural tradition through the presumed menace of internal enemies, and especially through the advance of socialism and its revolutionary promise of social revolution. However, it bound up those interests in a vision of a new society that would reward the strong, the fit, the meritorious the deserving (in their own eyes).


title: Definitions of fascism

text: ... Fascism's triumph depended on the complete discrediting of state authority, weak political elite who could no longer ensure that a system would operate in their interests, the fragmentation of party politics, and the freedom to build a movement that promised a radical alternative.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: In their book "Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought", philosophers George Lakoff and Mark Johnson wrote about fascism, in the chapter about morality:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: John Lukacs, Hungarian-American historian and Holocaust survivor, argues in "The Hitler of History" that there is no such thing as generic fascism, claiming that National Socialism and Italian Fascism were more different than similar and that, alongside communism, they were ultimately radical forms of populism.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Classical liberal economist and philosopher Ludwig von Mises, in his 1927 book "Liberalism", argued that fascism was a nationalist and militarist reaction against the rise of the communist Third International, in which the nationalists and militarists came to oppose the principles of liberal democracy because "Liberalism, they thought, stayed their hand when they desired to strike a blow against the revolutionary parties while it was still possible to do so. If liberalism had not hindered them, they would, so they believe, have bloodily nipped the revolutionary movements in the bud. Revolutionary ideas had been able to take root and flourish only because of the tolerance they had been accorded by their opponents, whose will power had been enfeebled by a regard for liberal principles that, as events subsequently proved, was overscrupulous." He continues by defining fascism as follows:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: The fundamental idea of these movements—which, from the name of the most grandiose and tightly disciplined among them, the Italian, may, in general, be designated as Fascist—consists in the proposal to make use of the same unscrupulous methods in the struggle against the Third International as the latter employs against its opponents. The Third International seeks to exterminate its adversaries and their ideas in the same way that the hygienist strives to exterminate a pestilential bacillus; it considers itself in no way bound by the terms of any compact that it may conclude with opponents, and it deems any crime, any lie, and any calumny permissible in carrying on its struggle. The Fascists, at least in principle, profess the same intentions.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Ernst Nolte, a German historian and Hegelian philosopher, defined fascism in 1965 as a reaction against other political movements, especially Marxism: "Fascism is anti-Marxism which seeks to destroy the enemy by the evolvement of a radically opposed and yet related ideology and by the use of almost identical and yet typically modified methods, always, however, within the unyielding framework of national self-assertion and autonomy." Nolte also argued that fascism functioned at three levels: in the world of politics as a form of opposition to Marxism, at the sociological level in opposition to bourgeois values, and in the "metapolitical" world as "resistance to transcendence" ("transcendence" in German can be translated as the "spirit of modernity").


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Kevin Passmore, a history lecturer at Cardiff University, defines fascism in his 2002 book "Fascism: A Very Short Introduction". His definition is directly descended from the view put forth by Ernesto Laclau, and is also informed by a desire to adjust for what he believes are shortcomings in Marxist, Weberian and other analyses of fascism:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Fascism is a set of ideologies and practices that seeks to place the nation, defined in exclusive biological, cultural, and/or historical terms, above all other sources of loyalty, and to create a mobilized national community. Fascist nationalism is reactionary in that it entails implacable hostility to socialism and feminism, for they are seen as prioritizing class or gender rather than nation. This is why fascism is a movement of the "extreme" right. Fascism is also a movement of the "radical" right because the defeat of socialism and feminism and the creation of the mobilized nation are held to depend upon the advent to power of a new elite acting in the name of the people, headed by a charismatic leader, and embodied in a mass, militarized party. Fascists are pushed towards conservatism by common hatred of socialism and feminism, but are prepared to override conservative interests – family, property, religion, the universities, the civil service – where the interests of the nation are considered to require it. Fascist radicalism also derives from a desire to assuage discontent by accepting specific demands of the labour and women's movements, so long as these demands accord with the national priority. Fascists seek to ensure the harmonization of workers' and women's interests with those of the nation by mobilizing them within special sections of the party and/or within a corporate system. Access to these organizations and to the benefits they confer upon members depends on the individual's national, political, and/or racial characteristics. All aspects of fascist policy are suffused with ultranationalism.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Robert Paxton, a professor emeritus at Columbia University, defines fascism in his 2004 book "The Anatomy of Fascism" as:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: In the same book, Paxton also argues that fascism's foundations lie in a set of "mobilizing passions" rather than an elaborated doctrine. He argues these passions can explain much of the behaviour of fascists:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Historian of fascism Stanley G. Payne created a lengthy list of characteristics to identify fascism in 1995: in summary form, there are three main strands. First, Payne's "fascist negations" refers to such typical policies as anti-communism and anti-liberalism. Second, "fascist goals" include a nationalist dictatorship and an expanded empire. Third, "fascist style", is seen in its emphasis on violence and authoritarianism, and its exultation of men above women, and young above old.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: In 2020, National Public Radio interviewed Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale University, regarding his book "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them". Stanley defined fascism as "a cult of the leader who promises national restoration in the face of humiliation brought on by supposed communists, Marxists and minorities and immigrants who are supposedly posing a threat to the character and the history of a nation" and further observed that "The leader proposes that only he can solve it and all of his political opponents are enemies or traitors."


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Zeev Sternhell, a historian and professor of political science, described Fascism as a reaction against modernity and a backlash against the changes it had caused to society, as a "rejection of the prevailing systems: liberalism and Marxism, positivism and democracy". At the same time, Sternhell argued that part of what made Fascism unique was that it wanted to retain the benefits of progress and modernism while rejecting the values and social changes that had come with it; Fascism embraced liberal market-based economics and the violent revolutionary rhetoric of Marxism, but rejected their philosophical principles.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Marxists argue that fascism represents the last attempt of a ruling class (specifically, the capitalist bourgeoisie) to preserve its grip on power in the face of an imminent proletarian revolution. Fascist movements are not necessarily "created" by the ruling class, but they can only gain political power with the help of that class and with funding from big business. Once in power, the fascists serve the interests of their benefactors.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Hungarian philosopher György Lukács in his works "The Destruction of Reason" (Die Zerstörung der Vernunft, 1952) and "Zur Kritik der faschistischen Ideologie" (1989) considers the ideology of fascism as the "demagogic synthesis" of all the irrationalist trends of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as the reaction against the ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, the Romantic critique of capitalism (Carlyle) which after 1848 turned into "indirect apologetics" of capitalism (Nietzsche), anti-democratic or "aristocratic epistemology" (Lukács' term for philosophies that considered knowledge to be the privilege of an elite, first expressed in Schelling's concept of intellectual intuition and culminating in the metaphysical views of Henri Bergson), emphasis on myth and mysticism, the rejection of humanism, a cult of personality around the leader, the subjugation of reason to instinct, the conception of the nation and people in clearly biological terms, the glorification of war, etc.. According to Lukács, the historical significance of Hitler and Mussolini lies not in that they brought anything new to the ideological field, but in that they condensed all existing reactionary and irrationalist ideologies of the past and through their successful national and social demagogy brought them "from the scholar's study and intellectual coteries to the streets."


title: Definitions of fascism

text: German playwright Bertolt Brecht describes fascism as: "a historic phase of capitalism" and "...the nakedest, most shameless, most oppressive, and most treacherous form of capitalism" (1935).


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Georgi Dimitrov, a Bulgarian Communist, was a theorist of capitalism who expanded Lenin's ideas and the work of Clara Zetkin.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Delivering an official report to the 7th World Congress of the Communist Third International in August 1935, Georgi Dimitrov cited the definition of fascism formulated with the help of Clara Zetkin at the Third Plenum as "the open, terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital".


title: Definitions of fascism

text: "Fascism is not a form of state power "standing above both classes – the proletariat and the bourgeoisie," as Otto Bauer, for instance, has asserted. It is not "the revolt of the petty bourgeoisie which has captured the machinery of the state," as the British Socialist Brailsford declares. No, fascism is not a power standing above class, nor government of the petty bourgeoisie or the lumpen-proletariat over finance capital. Fascism is the power of finance capital itself. It is the organization of terrorist vengeance against the working class and the revolutionary section of the peasantry and intelligentsia. In foreign policy, fascism is jingoism in its most brutal form, fomenting bestial hatred of other nations... The development of fascism, and the fascist dictatorship itself, assume different forms in different countries, according to historical, social and economic conditions and to the national peculiarities, and the international position of the given country."


title: Definitions of fascism

text: One of Russian Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky’s earliest attempts at trying to define fascism was in November 1931 when he wrote a letter to a friend titled "What is Fascism". In it, Trotsky wrote, in what is as much description as analysis:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: The Fascist movement in Italy was a spontaneous movement of large masses, with new leaders from the rank and file. It is a plebeian movement in origin, directed and financed by big capitalist powers. It issued forth from the petty bourgeoisie, the slum proletariat and even to a certain extent, from the proletarian masses, Mussolini, a former socialist, is a “self-made” man arising from this movement.The movement in Germany is analogous mostly to the Italian movement. It is a mass movement, with its leaders employing a great deal of socialist demagogy. This is necessary for the creation of the mass movement.The genuine basis is the petty bourgeoisie. In Italy it is a very large base – the petty bourgeoisie of the towns and cities, and the peasantry. In Germany likewise, there is a large base for Fascism. In England there is less of that base because the proletariat is the overwhelming majority of the population: the peasant or farming stratum only an insignificant section.It may be said, and this is true to a certain extent, that the new middle class, the functionaries of the state, the private administrators, etc., etc., can constitute such a base. But this is a new question that must be analyzed. This is a supposition. It is necessary to analyze just what it will be. It is necessary to foresee the Fascist movement growing from this or that element. But this is only a perspective which is controlled by events. I am not affirming that it is impossible for a Fascist movement to develop in England or for a Mosley or someone else to become a dictator. This is a question for the future. It is a far-fetched possibility.To speak of it now as an imminent danger is not a prognosis but a mere prophecy. In order to be capable of foreseeing anything in the direction of Fascism, it is necessary to have a definition of that idea. What is Fascism? What is its base, its form and its characteristics? How will its development take place?


title: Definitions of fascism

text: In Trotsky’s posthumously published 1944 tract, "Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It," he noted: "The historic function of fascism is to smash the working class, destroy its organizations, and stifle political liberties when the capitalists find themselves unable to govern and dominate with the help of democratic machinery."


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Amadeo Bordiga argued that fascism is merely another form of bourgeois rule, on the same level as bourgeois democracy or traditional monarchy, and that it is not particularly reactionary or otherwise exceptional.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: An early study of fascism was written by Clara Zetkin for the Third Enlarged Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International in 1923:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Fascism is the concentrated expression of the general offensive undertaken by the world bourgeoisie against the proletariat... fascism [is] an expression of the decay and disintegration of the capitalist economy and as a symptom of the bourgeois state’s dissolution. We can combat fascism only if we grasp that it rouses and sweeps along broad social masses who have lost the earlier security of their existence and with it, often, their belief in social order... It will be much easier for us to defeat Fascism if we clearly and distinctly study its nature. Hitherto there have been extremely vague ideas upon this subject not only among the large masses of the workers, but even among the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat and the Communists... The Fascist leaders are not a small and exclusive caste; they extend deeply into wide elements of the population.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: In the Spring 2003 issue of the secular humanist magazine "Free Inquiry", Laurence W. Britt, who is described as "a retired international businessperson, writer, and commentator" published "Fascism Anyone?", which included a list of 14 defining characteristics of fascism. The list has since been widely circulated in both modified and unmodified forms. In a newspaper interview in 2004, Britt expanded and clarified the meaning of some of the points in his list, and discussed how they applied to the United States at that time.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Fascism, at any rate the German version, is a form of capitalism that borrows from Socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes... It is a planned system geared to a definite purpose, world-conquest, and not allowing any private interest, either of capitalist or worker, to stand in its way.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: ...It is not easy, for instance, to fit Germany and Japan into the same framework, and it is even harder with some of the small states which are describable as Fascist. It is usually assumed, for instance, that Fascism is inherently warlike, that it thrives in an atmosphere of war hysteria and can only solve its economic problems by means of war preparation or foreign conquests. But clearly this is not true of, say, Portugal or the various South American dictatorships. Or again, antisemitism is supposed to be one of the distinguishing marks of Fascism; but some Fascist movements are not antisemitic. Learned controversies, reverberating for years on end in American magazines, have not even been able to determine whether or not Fascism is a form of capitalism. But still, when we apply the term ‘Fascism’ to Germany or Japan or Mussolini's Italy, we know broadly what we mean.


title: Definitions of fascism

text: American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led the US into war with the fascist Axis powers, wrote about fascism:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: Some have argued that the terms "fascism" and "fascist" have become hopelessly vague since the World War II period, and that today it is little more than a pejorative used by supporters of various political views to insult their opponents. The word "fascist" is sometimes used to denigrate people, institutions, or groups that would not describe themselves as ideologically fascist, and that may not fall within the formal definition of the word. As a political epithet, "fascist" has been used in an anti-authoritarian sense to emphasize the common ideology of governmental suppression of individual freedom. In this sense, the word "fascist" is intended to mean oppressive, intolerant, chauvinist, genocidal, dictatorial, racist, or aggressive. George Orwell wrote in 1944:


title: Definitions of fascism

text: ...the word 'Fascism' is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else ... Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathisers, almost any English person would accept 'bully' as a synonym for 'Fascist'. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the 13th-most populous city in California and the 4th densest large city in the United States (behind only New York City, San Francisco, and Boston). Santa Ana is a major regional economic and cultural hub for the Orange Coast.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana's origins began in 1810, when the Spanish governor of California granted Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana to José Antonio Yorba. Following the Mexican War of Independence, the Yorba family rancho was enlarged, becoming one of the largest and most valuable in the region and home to a diverse Californio community. Following the American Conquest of California, the rancho was sold to the Sepúlveda family, who subsequently lost their land claim. In 1869, William H. Spurgeon then purchased the rancho and formally founded the modern city of Santa Ana.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Approximately four-fifths Latino, Santa Ana has been characterized by "The New York Times" as the "face of a new California, a state where Latinos have more influence in everyday life—electorally, culturally and demographically—than almost anywhere else in the country."


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Members of the Tongva and Juaneño/Luiseño are indigenous to the area. The Tongva called the Santa Ana area "Hotuuk." The village of Pajbenga was located at modern day Santa Ana along the Santa Ana River.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: After the 1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolá out of Mexico City, then capital of New Spain, Friar Junípero Serra named the area Vallejo de Santa Ana (Valley of Saint Anne, or Santa Ana Valley). On November 1, 1776, Mission San Juan Capistrano was established within this valley.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: In 1810, the first year of the Mexican War of Independence, Jose Antonio Yorba, a sergeant of the Spanish army, was granted land that he called Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. Yorba's rancho included the lands where the cities of Olive, Orange, Irvine, Yorba Linda, Villa Park, Santa Ana, Tustin, Costa Mesa and unincorporated El Modena, and Santa Ana Heights, are today. This rancho was the only land grant in Orange County granted under Spanish Rule. Surrounding land grants in Orange County were granted after Mexican Independence by the new government.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: After the Mexican-American war ended in 1848, Alta California became part of the United States and American settlers arrived in this area.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana was listed as a township of Los Angeles County in the 1860 and 1870 census, with an area encompassing most of what is now northern and central Orange County. It had a population of 756 in 1860 and 880 in 1870. The Anaheim district was enumerated separately from Santa Ana in 1870.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Claimed in 1869 by Kentuckian William H. Spurgeon on land obtained from the descendants of Jose Antonio Yorba, Santa Ana was incorporated as a city in 1886 with a population of 2000 and in 1889 became the seat of the newly formed Orange County.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: In 1877, the Southern Pacific Railroad built a branch line from Los Angeles to Santa Ana, which offered free right of way, land for a depot, and $10,000 in cash to the railroad in exchange for terminating the line in Santa Ana and not neighboring Tustin. In 1887, the California Central Railway (which became a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway the following year) broke the Southern Pacific's local monopoly on rail travel, offering service between Los Angeles and San Diego by way of Santa Ana as a major intermediate station.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: In 1890, whites made up 71 percent of the city's population, most of whom migrated to Santa Ana from confederate states following the American Civil War in search of real estate ventures and other economic opportunities.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: By 1905, the Los Angeles Interurban Railway, a predecessor to the Pacific Electric Railway, extended from Los Angeles to Santa Ana, running along Fourth Street downtown. Firestone Boulevard, the first direct automobile route between Los Angeles and Santa Ana, opened in 1935; it was enlarged into the Santa Ana Freeway in 1953. The Pacific Electric Santa Ana Line ran from 1905 to 1958.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana was the home of the original Glenn L. Martin aviation company, founded in 1912 before merging with the Wright Company in 1916. Later, Glenn Luther Martin created a second company of the same name in Cleveland, Ohio which eventually merged with the Lockheed Corporation to form the largest defense contractor in the world, Lockheed Martin.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Although there was a significant wave of Mexican migration to the city following the 1910 Mexican Revolution, the city remained majority white in 1939.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: During World War II, the Santa Ana Army Air Base was built as a training center for the United States Army Air Forces. The base was responsible for continued population growth in Santa Ana and the rest of Orange County as many veterans moved to the area to raise families after the end of the war.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana was at the center of Orange County's economic boom in the 1950s with its agricultural and defense industries. However, most of this prosperity was only experienced by the city's white residents, while Latinos did not similarly benefit. Instead, economic inequality between the two groups rapidly increased during this time.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: In 1958, the Honer Plaza and Bullock's Fashion Square malls opened and would supplant Downtown Santa Ana, with its department stores such as Rankin's, Ward's, Penney's and Buffums. Fashion Square was completely renovated and became MainPlace Mall in 1987.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: By the 1970s, Santa Ana was becoming an increasingly Latino city, with white flight to surrounding suburbs coinciding with the city's downtown becoming increasingly frequented by Latinos. This changed perceptions of the city and its economic value, with property values dropping significantly by 1974, while surrounding cities of Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, and Villa Park increased in value.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana entered the 1980s as a city of equal numbers of whites and Latinos. What had been the white commercial center of the city, Fourth Street, was now a street of Latino businesses and character. Latino immigrant and working-class families could now be found in every neighborhood of the city, rather than in just a few ethnic enclaves, as they were previously. "Santa Ana" became more often referred to as "Santana" and "Fourth Street" as "La Cuatro."


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Having been a charter city since November 11, 1952, the citizens of Santa Ana amended the charter in November 1988 to provide for the direct election of the Mayor who until that point had been appointed from the council membership. Miguel A. Pulido was the first mayor of Latino descent in the city's history and the first Mayor directly elected by the voters.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Since the 1980s, Santa Ana has been characterized by an effort to revitalize the downtown area which had declined in influence, even as it had become a dynamic commercial and entertainment center for working-class Latinos. The Santa Ana Artist's Village was created around Cal State Fullerton's Grand Central Art Center to attract artists and young professionals to live-work lofts and new businesses. The process continued into 2009 with the reopening of the historic Yost Theater.In the 2010s, gentrification became a larger concern of Santa Ana residents, with its roots starting in the 1990s. Despite strong Latino political representation, gentrification efforts have increasingly displaced the Mexican immigrant presence in the downtown area of the city in favor of outsiders. Primarily Spanish-speaking businesses that served immigrant populations have been demolished in favor of arts projects to draw in outside investment, which bring clientele who further question why Spanish-speaking businesses are present, leading to a cycle of displacement.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Residents formed a social movement to address lead concentrations in lower-income areas of the city. A 2020 study found that areas of Santa Ana with a median income below $50,000 had five times higher lead concentrations than higher-income areas of the city, which is particularly a concern for children. Residents continue to advocate for environmental justice in the city.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . of it is land and of it (0.90%) is water. With 12,471.5 people per sq. mile, it is the fourth-most densely populated city in the United States with a population of 300,000 or more.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana is nested on flat, low-lying plains with little land elevation change. Running through the west end of the city is the mostly channelized Santa Ana River, which is also largely seasonal due to the construction of the Prado Dam and Seven Oaks Dam. The river has caused several severe floods in the 20th century, and is a continued threat despite the existence of the dams.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Now fully developed, Santa Ana has several distinct districts. The core of the city is the downtown area, which contains both retail and housing, as well as the Santa Ana Civic Center, which is a dense campus of administrative buildings for both the city and the county of Orange. The civic center is also home to the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse. Several historic homes dating from the late 1800s can be found as well, and their preservation is a key issue as development of the downtown area continues.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: North of downtown is the "Midtown" district along Main St., home to entertainment destinations such as the Bowers Museum, MainPlace Mall, and the Discovery Science Center.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Near the intersection of the Santa Ana Freeway and the Costa Mesa Freeway is the newly designated "Metro East" area, which the city council has envisioned as a secondary mixed-use development district. Currently the area is occupied by several office towers, but little retail or housing. Also on the east side of the city is the Santa Ana Zoo, notable for its collection of monkeys and species from South and Central America.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The southeast end of the city is part of the South Coast Metro area, which is shared with the city of Costa Mesa. South Coast Plaza, a major shopping center, is the primary destination of this area, which also contains several high-rise office and apartment buildings. Yokohama Tire Corporation's United States headquarters are located at 1 MacArthur Place in the South Coast Metro area of Santa Ana, and Banc of California's headquarters relocated from the neighboring city of Irvine.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana experiences a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSh), with hot, dry summers and mild winters with moderate rainfall. The summer months of June to September average a daytime high of and a nighttime low of . The winter months of December to March average a daytime high of and a nighttime low of . Rainfall averages about per year, most of which falls from November through April. There are an average of 36 days with measurable precipitation annually.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The record high temperature for Santa Ana was on June 14, 1917. The record low temperature was on December 31, 1918, and January 1, 1919. There are an average of 25.6 days with highs of or higher and an average of 0.2 days with lows of or lower.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The wettest "rain year" in Santa Ana was from July 1940 to June 1941 with , and the driest was from July 2017 to June 2018 with a mere . The most rainfall in one month was in February 1998. The most rainfall in 24 hours was on February 16, 1927.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The most common Hispanic ancestries in Santa Ana are Mexican, Salvadorian and Guatemalan. The most common European ancestries are German, Irish, English and Italian. By the late 1970s, African-American families began to move out of Santa Ana.<ref name="OCR 2011/03/10"></ref>


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The 2020 United States Census reported that Santa Ana had a population of 310,227. The racial makeup of Santa Ana was 8.5% Non-Hispanic White, 1.1% African American, 3.7% Native American, 12.3% Asian, 0.3% Pacific islander, 45.1% Other, 19.1% two or more races, and 76.7% Hispanic or Latino.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that Santa Ana had a population of 324,528. The population density was . The racial makeup of Santa Ana was 148,838 (45.9%) White (9.2% Non-Hispanic White), 4,856 (1.5%) African American, 3,260 (1.0%) Native American, 34,138 (10.5%) Asian, 976 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 120,789 (37.2%) from other races, and 11,671 (3.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 253,928 persons (78.2%).


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The census reported that 319,870 people (98.6% of the population) lived in households, 1,415 (0.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 3,243 (1.0%) were institutionalized.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: There were 73,174 households, out of which 41,181 (56.3%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 41,389 (56.6%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 11,808 (16.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 6,451 (8.8%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 4,933 (6.7%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 556 (0.8%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 9,254 households (12.6%) were made up of individuals, and 3,378 (4.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.37. There were 59,648 families (81.5% of all households); the average family size was 4.54.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The age distribution of the population was as follows: 99,678 people (30.7%) under the age of 18, 39,165 people (12.1%) aged 18 to 24, 102,399 people (31.6%) aged 25 to 44, 61,375 people (18.9%) aged 45 to 64, and 21,911 people (6.8%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.6 males.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: There were 76,896 dwelling units at an average density of , of which 34,756 (47.5%) were owner-occupied, and 38,418 (52.5%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.9%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.9%. 154,045 people (47.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied dwelling units and 165,825 people (51.1%) lived in rental dwelling units.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: During 20092013, Santa Ana had a median household income of $53,335, with 21.5% of the population living below the federal poverty line.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 337,977 people, 73,002 households, and 59,788 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,808.2/km (12,451.9/mi). There were 74,588 housing units at an average density of 1,061.1/km (2,748.0/mi). The racial makeup of the city was 42.73% White, 1.70% African American, 1.19% Native American, 8.81% Asian, 0.34% Pacific Islander, 40.64% from other races, and 4.58% from two or more races. 76.07% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: There were 73,002 households, out of which 53.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.6% were married couples living together, 13.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.1% were non-families. 12.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.55 and the average family size was 4.72.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 34.2% under the age of 18, 12.8% from 18 to 24, 34.1% from 25 to 44, 13.5% from 45 to 64, and 5.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 26 years. For every 100 females, there were 107.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 108.7 males.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The median income for a household from 2005 to 2009 was $54,521. The median income for a household in the city was $43,412, and the median income for a family was $41,050. Males had a median income of $23,342 versus $21,637 for females. The per capita income for the city was $12,152. 19.8% of the population and 16.1% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 24.1% of those under the age of 18 and 10.4% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana is the corporate headquarters of several companies, including Behr Paint, First American Corporation, Greenwood & Hall, Ingram Micro, SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union, STEC, TTM Technologies, Kern's, and Wahoo's Fish Taco. It also houses major regional headquarters for the Xerox corporation, Ultimate Software, and T-Mobile. Nonprofits based in Santa Ana include Open Doors.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: One of Santa Ana's most notable businesses is the Rickenbacker musical instrument company, whose electric guitars and bass guitars earned fame in the hands of many rock and roll legends.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Then Glenn L. Martin Company, a precursor to Lockheed Martin, was founded in Santa Ana in 1912 before merging with the Wright Company in 1916.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: In recent years, the nearby city of Irvine has outpaced Santa Ana in commercial growth, with the Irvine Business District located near John Wayne Airport. To compete with this, Santa Ana has approved commercial projects in the South Coast Metro area, as well as the "Metro East" development, located at the confluence of the Santa Ana Freeway and the Costa Mesa Freeway.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The Historic South Main Business District contains many older retail shops and other small businesses. It extends from downtown Santa Ana southwards on Main Street to the South Coast Metro area.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: There was a recession in the 2000s, and the expected year for return to peak employment for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana area was 2015. The pre-recession peak year was 2007. Due to the recession, 519,300 jobs were lost, a 9% decrease. According to the Employment Development Department, the unemployment rate for 2015 was 5 percent.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: According to the city's 2021 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Other large employers include Western Medical Center, TTM Technologies, MSC Software Corp, and Sterns Learning Inc.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The Bowers Museum is art and history museum started in the 1930s with a large collection of fine art and artifacts from around the world and several traveling exhibits each year.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana has several wall paintings and murals depicting local history, community events and cultural diversity in Orange County.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The Chiarini Fountain, designed and carved by Chiarini Marble & Stone, was donated by the Chiarini family in honor of George C. Chiarini and to recognize the artists who have helped make Downtown Santa Ana a creative center in Orange County.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Greenville, a former rural part of Santa Ana, has buildings over a century old, but industrial complexes have replaced the agricultural fields once surrounding the town.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana has a number of parks. The Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm amusement parks are located northwest of Santa Ana, several kilometers away. Beaches are located around 20 minutes to the south, accessible by the 55 freeway. Huntington Beach and Newport Beach as well as other coastal communities offer shopping, dining, boating, swimming and surfing.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana has highly competitive high school and collegiate sports teams playing at Santa Ana Stadium and the Santa Ana Unified School District Sports Complex Stadium.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The Dons of Santa Ana College are one of the most successful soccer teams in the state of California, and is a frequent top finisher, statewide. In 2008, the Dons clinched their fifteenth consecutive Orange Empire Conference title. The college is also known for its historically successful baseball teams, and for producing former Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels pitcher C. J. Wilson.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana utilizes a mayor-council form of government. The council consists of six members who are elected by the populace of the city. Each member serves for four years and can serve a total of three terms. A mayor pro tem is elected by the council members from within the council.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Like most majority-minority cities in the United States, Santa Ana is a stronghold of the Democratic Party. Despite the city's high percentage of Democrats, the city tends to vote conservatively on social issues, much like the rest of northern Orange County. It voted in favor of Proposition 8—California's amendment defining marriage in the state as a legal union between a man and a woman—by 61.9%, above the county's average of 57.7%. On Proposition 4, which would have amended the California Constitution to require minors to notify their parents before having an abortion, Santa Ana voted in favor of the measure by 62.0%, much higher than the county as a whole, which voted in favor of the measure by only 54.3%.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The Consulate-General of Mexico in Santa Ana is located on 828 North Broadway Street. The Consulate-General of El Salvador in Santa Ana is located in Suite 103 at 840 North Grand Avenue.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana Unified School District includes 37 K–5 elementary schools, nine 6–8 intermediate schools, eight 9–12 high schools, five special schools, and one charter school. Some elementary schools are: John Adams Elementary School, Manuel Esqueda Elementary School, Diamond Elementary School.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Santa Ana Unified School District's public high schools include Valley High School (Santa Ana), Middle College High School, Santa Ana High School, Saddleback High School, Century High School, newly opened Segerstrom Fundamental High School and Godinez Fundamental High School, and other public schools in the area, along with the Orange County School of the Arts in the midtown district.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The Roman Catholic Diocese operates Mater Dei High School. The Diocese also operates several K–8 schools in Santa Ana, including School of Our Lady, Saint Anne, Saint Barbara, and Saint Joseph. Immaculate Heart Of Mary And Our Lady Of the Pillar schools were closed in 2005 and merged into the School of Our Lady, which is located at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish. (See Roman Catholic Diocesan Schools in Santa Ana, California). In September 2005 the Orange County Campus of International School of Los Angeles (LILA) moved to Santa Ana. In July 2015 it moved back to Orange.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The city is also home to Santa Ana College, a two-year public community college, as well as California Coast University, and the Orange County branch of the Art Institute of California. Taft Law School, a correspondence law school, is also based in Santa Ana. Trinity Law School is a Christian, CBE-accredited law school that is the only California campus of the Trinity International University system of schools. Detective Training Institute is a correspondence/distance learning institution that offers private investigator diplomas and is approved to operate by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. Career Networks Institute College, a post-secondary occupational learning center for allied health, is also based in the city.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: A few freeways run through Santa Ana, connecting it to other areas in Orange County, the Greater Los Angeles Area, and beyond. The Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5) heads north to Los Angeles, and south towards Southern Orange County and San Diego. The Garden Grove Freeway (State Route 22) runs along near Santa Ana's northern border, connecting Long Beach to the west and the City of Orange to the east. The Costa Mesa Freeway (State Route 55) travels south to Costa Mesa; and then north to the Riverside Freeway (State Route 91), providing a connection to Riverside.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Santa Ana several times on weekdays with less frequent service on weekends. It operates its "Pacific Surfliner" between San Diego to the south and either Los Angeles or San Luis Obispo to the north (see Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center). Greyhound Lines is the largest bus transportation service in Santa Ana, and serves the continental United States and Canada. The bus lines Crucero, Intercalifornias, and others serve all points into Mexico.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: The Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center is also served by commuter rail trains of Metrolink: the Orange County Line (Oceanside to Union Station), and Inland Empire–Orange County Line (San Bernardino to Oceanside).


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Public transit bus service is available via the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) and is mainly focused on busses and freeways. A 4.15-mile OCTA light rail line running between Santa Ana and Garden Grove, the OC Streetcar, is currently under construction and planned to enter service in 2022.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: John Wayne Airport is located at 18601 Airport Way Santa Ana, CA 92707. The IATA code for the airport is SNA.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Electricity for the city is provided by Southern California Edison. The Southern California Gas Company provides natural gas service. Phone and cable television service is provided by AT&T.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: Law enforcement is provided by the Santa Ana Police Department from three stations throughout the city. The department includes five canine units, an 11-officer equestrian unit and a 37-member SWAT team. The city shares a helicopter with the cities of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach via the Airborne Law Enforcement (ABLE) program.


title: Santa Ana, California

text: In March 2012, the city disbanded its municipal fire department, which had provided fire protection for 128 years, and contracted with the Orange County Fire Authority.


title: Circe (novel)

text: Circe is a 2018 novel by American writer Madeline Miller. Set during the Greek Heroic Age, it is an adaptation of various Greek myths, most notably the "Odyssey", as told from the perspective of the witch Circe. The novel explores Circe's origin story and narrates Circe's encounters with mythological figures such as Hermes, the Minotaur, Jason, and Medea, and ultimately her romance with Odysseus and his son, Telemachus.


title: Circe (novel)

text: Circe is the divine daughter of the titan Helios and naiad Perse. Deemed unattractive and powerless from birth, Circe's early life is lonely until she falls in love with the mortal fisherman Glaucos. Devastated by his mortality, Circe discovers a way to make him a god: she transforms him into his 'true form' using the sap of magical flowers, grown in soil that was once soaked with the blood of the titan Kronos. Arrogant in his divinity, however, Glaucos rejects Circe in favor of the nymph Scylla. Circe's jealousy causes her to use the flowers' magic again, accidentally transforming Scylla into a bloodthirsty six-headed monster. Remorseful, Circe confesses her deeds to Helios, who realizes all of his children with Perse are witches capable of extracting power from herbs and draughts.


title: Circe (novel)

text: As punishment for admitting her witchcraft, Circe is banished by Zeus to eternal exile on the island of Aiaia. She uses the beginning of her exile to study and hone her witchcraft, tending gardens and experimenting with draughts. Over the centuries she spends on Aiaia, Circe interacts with many mythic figures. She receives visits from the Olympian god Hermes, whom she takes as a lover. She is once escorted off the island by the mortal Daedalus, at the request of Circe's sister and the Queen of Crete, Pasiphaë. During the brief visit to Crete, Circe helps her sister birth the Minotaur and uses her witchcraft to help tame the monster. Many years later, the hero Jason and his wife the witch Medea (Circe's niece) arrive on Aiaia after having stolen the Golden Fleece from Circe's brother Aeëtes, murdering Medea's brother Absyrtus in the process. Circe cleanses them of the crime and warns Medea of Jason's waning interest, but is rebuffed.


title: Circe (novel)

text: Circe enters a period of loneliness after her confrontation with Medea, and is excited to host a group of forlorn sailors who arrive one night on Aiaia in search of food and rest. However, once the sailors realize that Circe lives alone on the island with no men to protect her, the ship captain rapes her. Circe then uses her witchcraft to transform the men into pigs.


title: Circe (novel)

text: Circe bestows the same fate upon hundreds more sailors who come to her island over the coming years. One particular ship arrives led by the hero Odysseus, who charms Circe into sparing his crew and hosting them on her island over the winter. Odysseus and his crew ultimately stay on Aiaia for one year, during which a romance grows between Circe and Odysseus. After Odysseus leaves to continue his journey back to Ithaca, Circe gives birth to a son, Telegonus.


title: Circe (novel)

text: Raising the infant Telegonus, Circe quickly realizes that something is amiss and learns that the goddess Athena threatens her son. Circe casts a spell to protect the island while Telegonus grows. When the teenage Telegonus begs to leave the island to meet his father, Circe acquires the tail of the stingray god Trygon and begrudgingly sends her son off, armed with the tail atop a spear. When Telegonus meets his father, however, Odysseus attacks him and is accidentally killed by the poisoned spear. Guilty, Telegonus returns home with Odysseus' wife Penelope and son Telemachus.


title: Circe (novel)

text: Having lost her hero Odysseus, Athena visits Aiaia to offer her patronage to Telemachus, who refuses her. Telegonus accepts in his stead, and embarks on his own heroic journey. Forlorn by the loss of her son, Circe bargains with Helios to negotiate an end to her exile. With Telemachus' help, Circe uses the poison spear to turn Scylla to stone and collects more of the flowers she once used on Glaucos. Finding love with Telemachus, Circe uses the flowers' magic on herself with the intention of becoming mortal and living out her days traveling with Telemachus.


title: Circe (novel)

text: In a review for the "New York Times", Claire Messud describes Miller's "Circe" as "pleasurable," approving of its feminist themes and its "highly psychologized, redemptive and ultimately exculpatory account" of Circe's familiar tale. A "Washington Post" review by Ron Charles contextualizes Miller's novel within the Me Too movement and praises her reimagining of Circe's story as "harrowing and unexpected", casting a "feminist light" on timeless tales that "illuminates details we hadn’t noticed before." "The Guardian"s Aida Edemariam also praises Miller for finding novelty and "narrative propulsion" by anchoring her retelling around the "emotional life of a woman."


title: Circe (novel)

text: In 2018, "Circe" was named the Best Fantasy novel in the Goodreads Choice Awards, received the Red Tentacle Kitschie Award for best novel, and was an Athenaeum Literary Award winner. In 2019, the novel was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.


title: Circe (novel)

text: In 2019, HBO Max announced an upcoming 8-part miniseries dramatic adaptation of the novel, to be written and produced by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.


title: Cryogenics

text: The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cryogenic” by accepting a threshold of 120 K (or –153 °C) to distinguish these terms from the conventional refrigeration. This is a logical dividing line, since the normal boiling points of the so-called permanent gases (such as helium, hydrogen, neon, nitrogen, oxygen, and normal air) lie below 120K while the Freon refrigerants, hydrocarbons, and other common refrigerants have boiling points above 120K. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology considers the field of cryogenics as that involving temperatures below -153 Celsius (120K; -243.4 Fahrenheit)


title: Cryogenics

text: Discovery of superconducting materials with critical temperatures significantly above the boiling point of nitrogen has provided new interest in reliable, low cost methods of producing high temperature cryogenic refrigeration. The term "high temperature cryogenic" describes temperatures ranging from above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, , up to .


title: Cryogenics

text: Cryogenicists use the Kelvin or Rankine temperature scale, both of which measure from absolute zero, rather than more usual scales such as Celsius which measures from the freezing point of water at sea level or Fahrenheit which measures from the freezing point of a particular brine solution at sea level.


title: Cryogenics

text: Liquefied gases, such as liquid nitrogen and liquid helium, are used in many cryogenic applications. Liquid nitrogen is the most commonly used element in cryogenics and is legally purchasable around the world. Liquid helium is also commonly used and allows for the lowest attainable temperatures to be reached.


title: Cryogenics

text: These liquids may be stored in Dewar flasks, which are double-walled containers with a high vacuum between the walls to reduce heat transfer into the liquid. Typical laboratory Dewar flasks are spherical, made of glass and protected in a metal outer container. Dewar flasks for extremely cold liquids such as liquid helium have another double-walled container filled with liquid nitrogen. Dewar flasks are named after their inventor, James Dewar, the man who first liquefied hydrogen. Thermos bottles are smaller vacuum flasks fitted in a protective casing.


title: Cryogenics

text: Cryogenic barcode labels are used to mark Dewar flasks containing these liquids, and will not frost over down to −195 degrees Celsius.


title: Cryogenics

text: Cryogenic transfer pumps are the pumps used on LNG piers to transfer liquefied natural gas from LNG carriers to LNG storage tanks, as are cryogenic valves.


title: Cryogenics

text: The field of cryogenics advanced during World War II when scientists found that metals frozen to low temperatures showed more resistance to wear. Based on this theory of cryogenic hardening, the commercial cryogenic processing industry was founded in 1966 by Ed Busch. With a background in the heat treating industry, Busch founded a company in Detroit called CryoTech in 1966 which merged with 300 Below in 1999 to become the world's largest and oldest commercial cryogenic processing company. Busch originally experimented with the possibility of increasing the life of metal tools to anywhere between 200% and 400% of the original life expectancy using cryogenic tempering instead of heat treating. This evolved in the late 1990s into the treatment of other parts.


title: Cryogenics

text: Cryogens, such as liquid nitrogen, are further used for specialty chilling and freezing applications. Some chemical reactions, like those used to produce the active ingredients for the popular statin drugs, must occur at low temperatures of approximately . Special cryogenic chemical reactors are used to remove reaction heat and provide a low temperature environment. The freezing of foods and biotechnology products, like vaccines, requires nitrogen in blast freezing or immersion freezing systems. Certain soft or elastic materials become hard and brittle at very low temperatures, which makes cryogenic milling (cryomilling) an option for some materials that cannot easily be milled at higher temperatures.


title: Cryogenics

text: Cryogenic processing is not a substitute for heat treatment, but rather an extension of the heating–quenching–tempering cycle. Normally, when an item is quenched, the final temperature is ambient. The only reason for this is that most heat treaters do not have cooling equipment. There is nothing metallurgically significant about ambient temperature. The cryogenic process continues this action from ambient temperature down to .


title: Cryogenics

text: In most instances the cryogenic cycle is followed by a heat tempering procedure. As all alloys do not have the same chemical constituents, the tempering procedure varies according to the material's chemical composition, thermal history and/or a tool's particular service application.


title: Cryogenics

text: Another use of cryogenics is cryogenic fuels for rockets with liquid hydrogen as the most widely used example. Liquid oxygen (LOX) is even more widely used but as an oxidizer, not a fuel. NASA's workhorse Space Shuttle used cryogenic hydrogen/oxygen propellant as its primary means of getting into orbit. LOX is also widely used with RP-1 kerosene, a non-cryogenic hydrocarbon, such as in the rockets built for the Soviet space program by Sergei Korolev.


title: Cryogenics

text: Russian aircraft manufacturer Tupolev developed a version of its popular design Tu-154 with a cryogenic fuel system, known as the Tu-155. The plane uses a fuel referred to as liquefied natural gas or LNG, and made its first flight in 1989.


title: Cryogenics

text: Cryogenic cooling of devices and material is usually achieved via the use of liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, or a mechanical cryocooler (which uses high-pressure helium lines). Gifford-McMahon cryocoolers, pulse tube cryocoolers and Stirling cryocoolers are in wide use with selection based on required base temperature and cooling capacity. The most recent development in cryogenics is the use of magnets as regenerators as well as refrigerators. These devices work on the principle known as the magnetocaloric effect.


title: Cryogenics

text: For cryogenic temperature measurement down to 30 K, Pt100 sensors, a resistance temperature detector (RTD), are used. For temperatures lower than 30 K, it is necessary to use a silicon diode for accuracy.


title: Basilica

text: In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name to the architectural form of the basilica.


title: Basilica

text: Originally, a basilica was an ancient Roman public building, where courts were held, as well as serving other official and public functions. Basilicas are typically rectangular buildings with a central nave flanked by two or more longitudinal aisles, with the roof at two levels, being higher in the centre over the nave to admit a clerestory and lower over the side-aisles. An apse at one end, or less frequently at both ends or on the side, usually contained the raised tribunal occupied by the Roman magistrates. The basilica was centrally located in every Roman town, usually adjacent to the forum and often opposite a temple in imperial-era forums. Basilicas were also built in private residences and imperial palaces and were known as "palace basilicas".


title: Basilica

text: In late antiquity, church buildings were typically constructed either as martyria, or with a basilica's architectural plan. A number of monumental Christian basilicas were constructed during the latter reign of Constantine the Great. In the post Nicene period, basilicas became a standard model for Christian spaces for congregational worship throughout the Mediterranean and Europe. From the early 4th century, Christian basilicas, along with their associated catacombs, were used for burial of the dead.


title: Basilica

text: By extension, the name was applied to Christian churches which adopted the same basic plan and is used as an architectural term to describe such buildings. It continues to be used in an architectural sense to describe rectangular buildings with a central nave and aisles, and usually a raised platform at the end opposite the door. In Europe and the Americas, the basilica remained the most common architectural style for churches of all Christian denominations, though this building plan has become less dominant in buildings constructed since the late 20th century.


title: Basilica

text: The Latin word "basilica" derives from . The first known basilica—the Basilica Porcia in the Roman Forum—was constructed in 184 BC by Marcus Porcius Cato (the Elder). After the construction of Cato the Elder's basilica, the term came to be applied to any large covered hall, whether it was used for domestic purposes, was a commercial space, a military structure, or religious building.


title: Basilica

text: The plays of Plautus suggest that basilica buildings may have existed prior to Cato's building. The plays were composed between 210 and 184 BC and refer to a building that might be identified with the "Atrium Regium". Another early example is the basilica at Pompeii (late 2nd century BC). Inspiration may have come from prototypes like Athens's Stoa Basileios or the hypostyle hall on Delos, but the architectural form is most derived from the audience halls in the royal palaces of the Diadochi kingdoms of the Hellenistic period. These rooms were typically a high nave flanked by colonnades.


title: Basilica

text: These basilicas were rectangular, typically with central nave and aisles, usually with a slightly raised platform and an apse at each of the two ends, adorned with a statue perhaps of the emperor, while the entrances were from the long sides. The Roman "basilica" was a large public building where business or legal matters could be transacted. Although their form was variable, basilicas often contained interior colonnades that divided the space, giving aisles or arcaded spaces on one or both sides, with an apse at one end (or less often at each end), where the magistrates sat, often on a slightly raised dais. The central aisle the nave tended to be wider and taller than the flanking aisles, so that light could penetrate through the clerestory windows.


title: Basilica

text: In the late Republican era, basilicas were increasingly monumental; Julius Caesar replaced the Basilica Sempronia with his own Basilica Julia, dedicated in 46 BC, while the Basilica Aemilia was rebuilt around 54 BC in so spectacular a fashion that Pliny the Elder wrote that it was among the most beautiful buildings in the world (it was simultaneously renamed the "Basilica Paulli"). Thereafter until the 4th century AD, monumental basilicas were routinely constructed at Rome by both private citizens and the emperors. These basilicas were reception halls and grand spaces in which élite persons could impress guests and visitors, and could be attached to a large country "villa" or an urban "domus". They were simpler and smaller than were civic basilicas, and can be identified by inscriptions or their position in the archaeological context. Domitian constructed a basilica on the Palatine Hill for his imperial residential complex around 92 AD, and a palatine basilica was typical in imperial palaces throughout the imperial period.


title: Basilica

text: Long, rectangular basilicas with internal peristyle became a quintessential element of Roman urbanism, often forming the architectural background to the city forum and used for diverse purposes. Beginning with Cato in the early second century BC, politicians of the Roman Republic competed with one another by building basilicas bearing their names in the Forum Romanum, the centre of ancient Rome. Outside the city, basilicas symbolised the influence of Rome and became a ubiquitous fixture of Roman "coloniae" of the late Republic from c.100 BC. The earliest surviving basilica is the basilica of Pompeii, built 120 BC. Basilicas were the administrative and commercial centres of major Roman settlements: the "quintessential architectural expression of Roman administration". Adjoining it there were normally various offices and rooms housing the "curia" and a shrine for the tutela. Like Roman public baths, basilicas were commonly used as venues for the display of honorific statues and other sculptures, complementing the outdoor public spaces and thoroughfares.


title: Basilica

text: Beside the Basilica Porcia on the "Forum Romanum", the Basilica Aemilia was built in 179 BC, and the Basilica Sempronia in 169 BC. In the Republic two types of basilica were built across Italy in the mid-2nd to early 1st centuries BC: either they were nearly square as at Fanum Fortunae, designed by Vitruvius, and Cosa, with a 3:4 width-length ratio; or else they were more rectangular, as Pompeii's basilica, whose ratio is 3:7.


title: Basilica

text: The basilica at Ephesus is typical of the basilicas in the Roman East, which usually have a very elongated footprint and a ratio between 1:5 and 1:9, with open porticoes facing the "agora" (the Hellenic forum); this design was influenced by the existing tradition of long "stoae" in Hellenistic Asia. Provinces in the west lacked this tradition, and the basilicas the Romans commissioned there were more typically Italian, with the central nave divided from the side-aisles by an internal colonnade in regular proportions.


title: Basilica

text: Beginning with the Forum of Caesar () at the end of the Roman Republic, the centre of Rome was embellished with a series of imperial fora typified by a large open space surrounded by a peristyle, honorific statues of the imperial family (), and a basilica, often accompanied by other facilities like a temple, market halls and public libraries. In the imperial period, statues of the emperors with inscribed dedications were often installed near the basilicas' tribunals, as Vitruvius recommended. Examples of such dedicatory inscriptions are known from basilicas at Lucus Feroniae and Veleia in Italy and at Cuicul in Africa Proconsolaris, and inscriptions of all kinds were visible in and around basilicas.


title: Basilica

text: At Ephesus the basilica-"stoa" had two storeys and three aisles and extended the length of the civic "agora"'s north side, complete with colossal statues of the emperor Augustus and his imperial family.


title: Basilica

text: The remains of a large subterranean Neopythagorean basilica dating from the 1st century AD were found near the Porta Maggiore in Rome in 1917, and is known as the Porta Maggiore Basilica.


title: Basilica

text: After its destruction in 60 AD, Londinium (London) was endowed with its first forum and basilica under the Flavian dynasty. The basilica delimited the northern edge of the forum with typical nave, aisles, and a tribunal, but with an atypical semi-basement at the western side. Unlike in Gaul, basilica-forum complexes in Roman Britain did not usually include a temple; instead a shrine was usually inside the basilica itself. At Londinium however, there was probably no temple at all attached to the original basilica, but instead a contemporary temple was constructed nearby. Later, in 79 AD, an inscription commemorated the completion of the basilica at Verulamium (St Albans) under the governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola; by contrast the first basilica at Londinium was only . The smallest known basilica in Britain was built by the Silures at Caerwent and measured .


title: Basilica

text: When Londinium became a "colonia", the whole city was re-planned and a new great forum-basilica complex erected, larger than any in Britain. Londinium's basilica, more than long, was the largest north of the Alps and a similar length to the modern St Paul's Cathedral. Only the later basilica-forum complex at Treverorum was larger, while at Rome only the Basilica Ulpia exceeded London's in size. It probably had arcaded, rather than trabeate, aisles, and a double row of square offices on the northern side, serving as the administrative centre of the "colonia", and its size and splendour probably indicate an imperial decision to change the administrative capital of Britannia to Londinium from Camulodunum (Colchester), as all provincial capitals were designated "coloniae". In 300 Londinium's basilica was destroyed as a result of the rebellion led by the "Augustus" of the break-away Britannic Empire, Carausius. Remains of the great basilica and its arches were discovered during the construction of Leadenhall Market in the 1880s.


title: Basilica

text: At Corinth in the 1st century AD, a new basilica was constructed in on the east side of the forum. It was possibly inside the basilica that Paul the Apostle, according to the "Acts of the Apostles" ("Acts" 18:12–17) was investigated and found innocent by the Suffect Consul Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, the brother of Seneca the Younger, after charges were brought against him by members of the local Jewish diaspora. Modern tradition instead associates the incident with an open-air inscribed "bema" in the forum itself.


title: Basilica

text: The emperor Trajan constructed his own imperial forum in Rome accompanied by his Basilica Ulpia dedicated in 112. Trajan's Forum () was separated from the Temple of Trajan, the Ulpian Library, and his famous Column depicting the Dacian Wars by the Basilica. It was an especially grand example whose particular symmetrical arrangement with an apse at both ends was repeated in the provinces as a characteristic form. To improve the quality of the Roman concrete used in the Basilica Ulpia, volcanic scoria from the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius were imported which, though heavier, was stronger than the pumice available closer to Rome. The Bailica Ulpia is probably an early example of tie bars to restrain the lateral thrust of the barrel vault resting on a colonnade; both tie-bars and scoria were used in contemporary work at the Baths of Trajan and later the Hadrianic domed vault of the Pantheon.


title: Basilica

text: In early 123, the "augusta" and widow of the emperor Trajan, Pompeia Plotina died. Hadrian, successor to Trajan, deified her and had a basilica constructed in her honour in southern Gaul.


title: Basilica

text: The largest basilica built outside Rome was that built under the Antonine dynasty on the Byrsa hill in Carthage. The basilica was built together with a forum of enormous size and was contemporary with a great complex of public baths and a new aqueduct system running for , then the longest in the Roman Empire.


title: Basilica

text: The basilica at Leptis Magna, built by the Septimius Severus a century later in about 216 is a notable 3rd century AD example of the traditional type, most notable among the works influenced by the Basilica Ulpia. The basilica at Leptis was built mainly of limestone ashlar, but the apses at either end were only limestone in the outer sections and built largely of rubble masonry faced with brick, with a number of decorative panels in "opus reticulatum". The basilica stood in a new forum and was accompanied by a programme of Severan works at Leptis including "thermae", a new harbour, and a public fountain. At Volubilis, principal city of Mauretania Tingitana, a basilica modelled on Leptis Magna's was completed during the short reign of Macrinus.


title: Basilica

text: The aisled-hall plan of the basilica was adopted by a number of religious cults in late antiquity. At Sardis, a monumental basilica housed the city's synagogue, serving the local Jewish diaspora. New religions like Christianity required space for congregational worship, and the basilica was adapted by the early Church for worship. Because they were able to hold large number of people, basilicas were adopted for Christian liturgical use after Constantine the Great. The early churches of Rome were basilicas with an apisidal tribunal and used the same construction techniques of columns and timber roofing.


title: Basilica

text: At the start of the 4th century at Rome there was a change in burial and funerary practice, moving away from earlier preferences for inhumation in cemeteries popular from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD to the newer practice of burial in catacombs and inhumation inside Christian basilicas themselves. Conversely, new basilicas often were erected on the site of existing early Christian cemeteries and "martyria", related to the belief in Bodily Resurrection, and the cult of the sacred dead became monumentalised in basilica form. Traditional civic basilicas and "bouleuteria" declined in use with the weakening of the curial class () in the 4th and 5th centuries, while their structures were well suited to the requirements of congregational liturgies. The conversion of these types of buildings into Christian basilicas was also of symbolic significance, asserting the dominance of Christianity and supplanting the old political function of public space and the city-centre with an emphatic Christian social statement. Traditional monumental civic amenities like "gymnasia", "palaestrae", and "thermae" were also falling into disuse, and became favoured sites for the construction of new churches, including basilicas.


title: Basilica

text: Under Constantine, the basilica became the most prestigious style of church building, was "normative" for church buildings by the end of the 4th century, and were ubiquitous in western Asia, North Africa, and most of Europe by the close of the 7th century. Christians also continued to hold services in synagogues, houses, and gardens, and continued practising baptism in rivers, ponds, and Roman bathhouses.


title: Basilica

text: The development of Christian basilicas began even before Constantine's reign: a 3rd-century mud-brick house at Aqaba had become a Christian church and was rebuilt as a basilica. Within was a rectangular assembly hall with frescoes and at the east end an ambo, a cathedra, and an altar. Also within the church were a catecumenon (for catechumens), a baptistery, a diaconicon, and a prothesis: all features typical of later 4th century basilica churches. A Christian structure which included the prototype of the triumphal arch at the east end of later Constantinian basilicas. Known as the Megiddo church, it was built at Kefar 'Othnay in Palestine, possibly c. 230, for or by the Roman army stationed at Legio (later Lajjun). Its dedicatory inscriptions include the names of women who contributed to the building and were its major patrons, as well as men's names. A number of buildings previously believed to have been Constantinian or 4th century have been reassessed as dating to later periods, and certain examples of 4th century basilicas are not distributed throughout the Mediterranean world at all evenly. Christian basilicas and "martyria" attributable to the 4th century are rare on the Greek mainland and on the Cyclades, while the Christian basilicas of Egypt, Cyprus, Syria, Transjordan, Hispania, and Gaul are nearly all of later date. The basilica at Ephesus's "Magnesian Gate", the episcopal church at Laodicea on the Lycus, and two extramural churches at Sardis have all been considered 4th century constructions, but on weak evidence. Development of pottery chronologies for Late Antiquity had helped resolve questions of dating basilicas of the period.


title: Basilica

text: Three examples of a "basilica discoperta" or "hypaethral basilica" with no roof above the nave are inferred to have existed. The 6th century Anonymous pilgrim of Piacenza described a "a basilica built with a "quadriporticus", with the middle atrium uncovered" at Hebron, while at Pécs and near Salona two ruined 5th buildings of debated interpretation might have been either roofless basilica churches or simply courtyards with an exedra at the end. An old theory by Ejnar Dyggve that these were the architectural intermediary between the Christian "martyrium" and the classical "heröon" is no longer credited.


title: Basilica

text: The magnificence of early Christian basilicas reflected the patronage of the emperor and recalled his imperial palaces and reflected the royal associations of the basilica with the Hellenistic Kingdoms and even earlier monarchies like that of Pharaonic Egypt. Similarly, the name and association resounded with the Christian claims of the royalty of Christ – according to the "Acts of the Apostles" the earliest Christians had gathered at the royal "Stoa" of Solomon in Jerusalem to assert Jesus's royal heritage. For early Christians, the Bible supplied evidence that the First Temple and Solomon's palace were both hypostyle halls and somewhat resembled basilicas. Hypostyle synagogues, often built with apses in Palestine by the 6th century, share a common origin with the Christian basilicas in the civic basilicas and in the pre-Roman style of hypostyle halls in the Mediterranean Basin, particularly in Egypt, where pre-classical hypostyles continued to be built in the imperial period and were themselves converted into churches in the 6th century. Other influences on the evolution of Christian basilicas may have come from elements of domestic and palatial architecture during the pre-Constantinian period of Christianity, including the reception hall or () and the "atria" and "triclinia" of élite Roman dwellings. The versatility of the basilica form and its variability in size and ornament recommended itself to the early Christian Church: basilicas could be grandiose as the Basilica of Maxentius in the "Forum Romanum" or more practical like the so-called Basilica of Bahira in Bosra, while the "Basilica Constantiniana" on the Lateran Hill was of intermediate scale. This basilica, begun in 313, was the first imperial Christian basilica. Imperial basilicas were first constructed for the Christian Eucharist liturgy in the reign of Constantine.


title: Basilica

text: Basilica churches were not economically inactive. Like non-Christian or civic basilicas, basilica churches had a commercial function integral to their local trade routes and economies. Amphorae discovered at basilicas attest their economic uses and can reveal their position in wider networks of exchange. At Dion near Mount Olympus in Macedonia, now an Archaeological Park, the latter 5th century "Cemetery Basilica", a small church, was replete with potsherds from all over the Mediterranean, evidencing extensive economic activity took place there. Likewise at Maroni Petrera on Cyprus, the amphorae unearthed by archaeologists in the 5th century basilica church had been imported from North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, and the Aegean basin, as well as from neighbouring Asia Minor.


title: Basilica

text: According to Vegetius, writing c. 390, basilicas were convenient for drilling soldiers of the Late Roman army during inclement weather.


title: Basilica

text: The 4th century Basilica of Maxentius, begun by Maxentius between 306 and 312 and according to Aurelius Victor's "De Caesaribus" completed by Constantine I, was an innovation. Earlier basilicas had mostly had wooden roofs, but this basilica dispensed with timber trusses and used instead cross-vaults made from Roman bricks and concrete to create one of the ancient world's largest covered spaces: 80 m long, 25 m wide, and 35 m high. The vertices of the cross-vaults, the largest Roman examples, were 35 m. The vault was supported on marble monolithic columns 14.5 m tall. The foundations are as much as 8 m deep. The vault was supported by brick latticework ribs () forming lattice ribbing, an early form of rib vault, and distributing the load evenly across the vault's span. Similar brick ribs were employed at the Baths of Maxentius on the Palatine Hill, where they supported walls on top of the vault. Also known as the or , it chanced to be the last civic basilica built in Rome.


title: Basilica

text: Inside the basilica the central nave was accessed by five doors opening from an entrance hall on the eastern side and terminated in an apse at the western end. Another, shallower apse with niches for statues was added to the centre of the north wall in a second campaign of building, while the western apse housed a colossal acrolithic statue of the emperor Constantine enthroned. Fragments of this statue are now in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill, part of the Capitoline Museums. Opposite the northern apse on the southern wall, another monumental entrance was added and elaborated with a portico of porphyry columns. One of the remaining marble interior columns was removed in 1613 by Pope Paul V and set up as an honorific column outside Santa Maria Maggiore.


title: Basilica

text: In the early 4th century Eusebius used the word basilica () to refer to Christian churches; in subsequent centuries as before, the word basilica referred in Greek to the civic, non-ecclesiastical buildings, and only in rare exceptions to churches. Churches were nonetheless basilican in form, with an apse or tribunal at the end of a nave with two or more aisles typical. A narthex (sometimes with an exonarthex) or vestibule could be added to the entrance, together with an atrium, and the interior might have transepts, a pastophorion, and galleries, but the basic scheme with clerestory windows and a wooden truss roof remained the most typical church type until the 6th century. The nave would be kept clear for liturgical processions by the clergy, with the laity in the galleries and aisles to either side. The function of Christian churches was similar to that of the civic basilicas but very different from temples in contemporary Graeco-Roman polytheism: while pagan temples were entered mainly by priests and thus had their splendour visible from without, within Christian basilicas the main ornamentation was visible to the congregants admitted inside. Christian priests did not interact with attendees during the rituals which took place at determined intervals, whereas pagan priests were required to perform individuals' sacrifices in the more chaotic environment of the temple precinct, with the temple's facade as backdrop. In basilicas constructed for Christian uses, the interior was often decorated with frescoes, but these buildings' wooden roof often decayed and failed to preserve the fragile frescoes within. Thus was lost an important part of the early history of Christian art, which would have sought to communicate early Christian ideas to the mainly illiterate Late Antique society. On the exterior, basilica church complexes included cemeteries, baptisteries, and fonts which "defined ritual and liturgical access to the sacred", elevated the social status of the Church hierarchy, and which complemented the development of a Christian historical landscape; Constantine and his mother Helena were patrons of basilicas in important Christian sites in the Holy Land and Rome, and at Milan and Constantinople.


title: Basilica

text: Around 310, while still a self-proclaimed "augustus" unrecognised at Rome, Constantine began the construction of the "Basilica Constantiniana" or , as a reception hall for his imperial seat at Trier (), capital of Belgica Prima. On the exterior, Constantine's palatine basilica was plain and utilitarian, but inside was very grandly decorated.


title: Basilica

text: In the reign of Constantine I, a basilica was constructed for the Pope in the former barracks of the "Equites singulares Augusti", the cavalry arm of the Praetorian Guard. (Constantine had disbanded the Praetorian guard after his defeat of their emperor Maxentius and replaced them with another bodyguard, the "Scholae Palatinae".) In 313 Constantine began construction of the "Basilica Constantiniana" on the Lateran Hill. This basilica became Rome's cathedral church, known as St John Lateran, and was more richly decorated and larger than any previous Christian structure. However, because of its remote position from the "Forum Romanum" on the city's edge, it did not connect with the older imperial basilicas in the fora of Rome. Outside the basilica was the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, a rare example of an Antique statue that has never been underground.


title: Basilica

text: According to the "Liber Pontificalis", Constantine was also responsible for the rich interior decoration of the Lateran Baptistery constructed under Pope Sylvester I (r. 314–335), sited about . The Lateran Baptistery was the first monumental free-standing baptistery, and in subsequent centuries Christian basilica churches were often endowed with such baptisteries.


title: Basilica

text: At Cirta, a Christian basilica erected by Constantine was taken over by his opponents, the Donatists. After Constantine's failure to resolve the Donatist controversy by coercion between 317 and 321, he allowed the Donatists, who dominated Africa, to retain the basilica and constructed a new one for the Catholic Church.


title: Basilica

text: The original titular churches of Rome were those which had been private residences and which were donated to be converted to places of Christian worship. Above an originally 1st century AD villa and its later adjoining warehouse and Mithraeum, a large basilica church had been erected by 350, subsuming the earlier structures beneath it as a crypt. The basilica was the first church of San Clemente al Laterano. Similarly, at Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio, an entire ancient city block – a 2nd-century "insula" on the Caelian Hill – was buried beneath a 4th-century basilica. The site was already venerated as the "martyrium" of three early Christian burials beforehand, and part of the "insula" had been decorated in the style favoured by Christian communities frequenting the early Catacombs of Rome.


title: Basilica

text: By 350 in Serdica (Sofia, Bulgaria), a monumental basilica – the Church of Saint Sophia – was erected, covering earlier structures including a Christian chapel, an oratory, and a cemetery dated to c. 310. Other major basilica from this period, in this part of Europe, is the Great Basilica in Philippopolis (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) from the 4th century AD.


title: Basilica

text: In the late 4th century the dispute between Nicene and Arian Christianity came to head at "Mediolanum" (Milan), where Ambrose was bishop. At Easter in 386 the Arian party, preferred by the Theodosian dynasty, sought to wrest the use of the basilica from the Nicene partisan Ambrose. According to Augustine of Hippo, the dispute resulted in Ambrose organising an 'orthodox' sit-in at the basilica and arranged the miraculous invention and translation of martyrs, whose hidden remains had been revealed in a vision. During the sit-in, Augustine credits Ambrose with the introduction from the "eastern regions" of antiphonal chanting, to give heart to the orthodox congregation, though in fact music was likely part of Christian ritual since the time of the Pauline epistles. The arrival and reburial of the martyrs' uncorrupted remains in the basilica in time for the Easter celebrations was seen as powerful step towards divine approval.


title: Basilica

text: At Philippi, the market adjoining the 1st-century forum was demolished and replaced with a Christian basilica. Civic basilicas throughout Asia Minor became Christian places of worship; examples are known at Ephesus, Aspendos, and at Magnesia on the Maeander. The "Great Basilica" in Antioch of Pisidia is a rare securely dated 4th century Christian basilica and was the city's cathedral church. The mosaics of the floor credit Optimus, the bishop, with its dedication. Optimus was a contemporary of Basil of Caesarea and corresponded with him c. 377. Optimus was the city's delegate at the First Council of Constantinople in 381, so the 70 m-long single-apsed basilica near the city walls must have been constructed around that time. Pisidia had a number of Christian basilicas constructed in Late Antiquity, particularly in former "bouleuteria", as at Sagalassos, Selge, Pednelissus, while a civic basilica was converted for Christians' use in Cremna.


title: Basilica

text: At Chalcedon, opposite Constantinople on the Bosporus, the relics of Euphemia – a supposed Christian martyr of the Diocletianic Persecution – were housed in a "martyrium" accompanied by a basilica. The basilica already existed when Egeria passed through Chalcedon in 384, and in 436 Melania the Younger visited the church on her own journey to the Holy Land. From the description of Evagrius Scholasticus the church is identifiable as an aisled basilica attached to the "martyrium" and preceded by an "atrium". The Council of Chalcedon (8–31 October 451) was held in the basilica, which must have been large enough to accommodate the more than two hundred bishops that attneded its third session, together with their translators and servants; around 350 bishops attended the Council in all. In an ekphrasis in his eleventh sermon, Asterius of Amasea described an icon in the church depicting Euphemia's martyrdom. The church was restored under the patronage of the "patricia" and daughter of Olybrius"," Anicia Juliana. Pope Vigilius fled there from Constantinople during the Three-Chapter Controversy. The basilica, which lay outside the walls of Chalcedon, was destroyed by the Persians in the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 during one of the Sasanian occupations of the city in 615 and 626. The relics of Euphemia were reportedly translated to a new Church of St Euphemia in Constantinople in 680, though Cyril Mango argued the translation never took place. Subsequently, Asterius's sermon "On the Martyrdom of St Euphemia" was advanced as an argument for iconodulism at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.