title: Morality play

text: While these plays appear to self-reflexively refer to their dramatic form, it is only "Everyman" that explicitly describes itself as a moral play, both in its incipit ("Here begynneth a treatyse... in maner of a morall playe") and when a character, Messenger, states that this literary work will communicate "By fygure [of] a morall playe" (l. 3). However, one should not interpret these self-reflexive lines as simply moments that identify the genre of morality plays. Although the lines use the word "playe," scholarship remains unsure if "Everyman" was actually staged as a dramatic performance, or if the text was a literary work intended for reading. The 1901 modern revival of the play, staged by Willian Poem, is the earliest record of the play's production. Additionally, "Everyman" is a translation of the Dutch "Elckerlijc", and, therefore, is not originally an English literary work. Thus, due to the uncertainty regarding the play's status as a dramatic work, as well as the play's non-English origins, "Everyman"s self-reflective identification as a "morall playe" cannot confirm that the medieval moralities explicitly name themselves as a cohesive medieval morality genre.


title: Morality play

text: Morality plays typically contain a protagonist who represents humanity as a whole, or an average layperson, or a human faculty; supporting characters are personifications of abstract concepts, each aligned with either good or evil, virtue or vice.


title: Morality play

text: The clashes between the supporting characters often catalyze a process of experiential learning for the protagonist, and, as a result, provide audience members and/or readers with moral guidance, reminding them to meditate and think upon their relationship to God, as well as their social and/or religious community. Many, but not all, of the morality plays also encourage their audiences and/or readers to reflect upon the importance of penitential ritual.


title: Morality play

text: Several academics have written upon these common thematic characteristics. Considering the plays' investment in staging the audience's/reader's relationship to God, Eleanor Johnson writes that Wisdom and Mankind, among several other medieval literary works, dramatically stage acts of contemplation to encourage the "cultivation of self-conscious participation in God and of awareness of God's participation in man," while "creating literary experiences that initiate work of spiritual contemplation." Additionally, Julie Paulson explores the plays' investment in relating penitential ritual and community; she writes, "In the moralities, it is impossible to split an interior self from the exterior practices and institutions that define it [...] By dramatizing their protagonists' fall and recovery through penance, the plays suggest how the experience of penitential ritual shapes penitents' understandings of the social and moral concepts central to the formation of Christian subjects." It is worth noting that Paulson, in making these summative comments, focuses her analysis on "The Castle of Perseverance", the Macro plays, "Everyman", and several moralities from the sixteenth century, and thus does not aim to characterize all moralities in her commentary.


title: Morality play

text: Working to pinpoint a literary form that unites the moralities, the "Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms" offers this definition: "Morality plays are dramatized allegories, in which personified virtues, vices, diseases, and temptations struggle for the soul of Man." The same book defines allegory as "a story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. The principal technique of allegory is personification, whereby abstract qualities are given human shape [...] allegory involves a continuous parallel between two (or more) levels of meaning in a story." While the "Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms" uses the words "allegory" and "personification" in tandem with one another, the link between the two terms is a point of debate among scholars. Walter Melion and Bart M. Ramakers indicate that literary personifications are the building blocks for creating allegory: arguing for "personification as a mode of allegorical signification," Melion and Ramakers state, "As narrative, dramatic, or pictorial characters [personifications] develop a distinct reality," specifically, a reality that connects the literal and metaphorical interpretations of an allegory. However, Michael Silk insists that there is a fundamental difference between personification and allegory, as the representational figures within literary works are personifications that retain allegorical qualities. Additionally, Silk notes that "Various medievalists correctly insist that in antiquity and the Middle Ages the connection [between allegory and personification] is not made," indirectly complicating the notion that morality plays are "allegorical" constructions employing personified concepts.


title: Morality play

text: While an allegorical literary form implies that literal and metaphorical elements must "continuously parallel" one another, these plays do not always allegorically parallel theological qualities/concepts and concrete action, but rather humanize abstract concepts—thereby emphasizing characters as personifications, but not allegorical constructions. For example, examining the character Mercy in "Mankind", Pamela King notes, "Mercy the character begs God for the quality he represents, which is, strictly speaking, allegorical nonsense; he stands more for the human aegis by which mercy may be obtained, than for the quality itself." Similarly, Eleanor Johnson explains Mercy's humanity, implying his status as a personified concept: "Mercy suffers, Mercy trembles, Mercy is vulnerable; this is not an untouchable, impregnable Mercy [...] but rather a strikingly vulnerable and human one". Additionally, scholars complicate the notion that morality plays allegorically parallel the audience with the dramatic characters, indicating that the moralities actually incorporate the audience into the dramatic community. For example, writing on "The Castle of Perseverance", Andrea Louise Young argues that the implied staging of the play (which includes the positioning of characters, as well as the placement of scaffolds and banners) encourages audience members to actively engage with the drama in a physical manner: "In moving around the play space, spectators can change the meaning of the drama for themselves and the other spectators." Young notes that the play invites audience members to enter the dramatic space and consequently position themselves through both "their eyes and their bodies," through where they choose to look and move in relation to the staged characters. King, Johnson, and Young indirectly show, without explicitly stating so, how the morality plays are not simply allegorical constructions, but rather fluid forms of personification that blur the distinctions between literal and metaphorical elements, characters and audience members/readers.


title: Morality play

text: Still, scholarship generally adopts the literary labels "allegory", "personification", and "personification allegory" to explain the morality plays' formal depiction of the relationship between the abstract realm of concepts and everyday circumstances of human life. Pamela King notes the "broadly allegorical" form unifying the moralities. King suggests that the plays employ an allegorical framework of personification to metaphorically parallel, and conceptually separate, "the ephemeral and imperfect world of everyday existence" from an abstract "eternal reality". While King indicates that the plays show the dramatic action to merely parallel and imitate eternal, abstract concepts, Julie Paulson argues that the moralities use personification allegory to reunite the concrete and the abstract. Paulson writes, "in giving a word such as 'wisdom' or 'mankind' a body and a voice, personification allegory instead returns us to the lived experiences and particular circumstances that give those words their meanings". Additionally, Paulson underscores that plays such as "The Castle of Perseverance" and "Everyman" employ protagonists that personify humankind in an allegorical parallel to the audiences and readers of the play. As one can see, different authors employ the literary terms "allegory" and "personification" to argue various conclusions about the plays' separation or unification of abstract and concrete realities.


title: Morality play

text: In early English dramas Justice was personified as an entity which exercised "theological virtue or grace, and was concerned with the divine pronouncement of judgment on man". However, as time progressed, more moralities began to emerge; it is during this transitional period where one begins to see Justice begin to assume more and more the qualities of a judge. The Justice in "Respublica" begins to concern himself with administering justice on "the criminal element", rather than with the divine pronouncement on a generic representative of mankind. This is the first instance where one may observe a direct divergence from the theological virtues and concerns that were previously exerted by Justice in the morality plays of the fifteenth century. The Justice in "Respublica" is personified as a "civil force rather than a theological one". An evolution of sorts takes place within the morals and agendas of Justice: he begins to don the Judicial Robe of prosecutor and executioner.


title: Morality play

text: Another change envelops in the character of Justice during the sixteenth century in morality plays; Equity replaces Justice and assumes the judiciary duties previously performed by Justice. This changing of rulers, or preceding justices, is done when Equity declares that his brother Justice has been banished from the country and that he (Equity) will from now on take on the duties of the former monarch, Justice. This change of ruling heads is portrayed in the morality play, "Liberality and Prodigality", where Equity serves Virtue in the detection, arrest, and punishment of Prodigality for the robbery and murder of Tenacity, a yeoman in the country of Middlesex. Virtue states,


title: Morality play

text: The meta phases that Justice undergoes during the sixteenth century in morality plays, from "Justice" to "Equity" further illustrates the evolution of Justice; not only did Justice change from a "theological abstraction to a civil servant", but he experienced a corporeal change as well.


title: Morality play

text: One may readily observe the evolutionary progression of Justice as portrayed in the plays of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. One encounters Justice in the early-fifteenth-century moralities as a performer playing the role of a theological virtue or grace, and then one sees him develop to a more serious figure, occupying the position of an arbiter of justice during the sixteenth century. It is a journey of discovery and great change on which Justice welcomes one to embark as one leafs through the pages of morality plays.


title: Morality play

text: All of the morality plays, especially the Macro plays, show not only a mastery of language but also a light-hearted delight therein.


title: Morality play

text: All of the plays are written in some sort of end-rhymed verse, but with much variation, not only between the plays but in individual plays as well. Often verse is used to contrast the personalities of good and evil characters. For example, in "Wisdom" the characters Wysdom and Anima speak in "dignified, regular rhythm, almost always with four stresses" and the rhyme scheme ABABBCBC whereas "Lucifer prefers a tripping measure with two to five stress and only two rhymes." Other characters speak like Wisdom when under his influence and like Lucifer when under his. This system of contrastive verse is further refined in "Mankind" (Ramsay cxxxix). This is not the only use of variation in meter. For example, even without having to contrast with a good character's manner of talking, when Mankind ascends to World's scaffold in "The Castle of Perseverance", Mundus, Voluptas, and Stultitia briefly switch from a four stress line to a faster and more excited two stress line (ll. 610-646), before returning to the four stress line after a scene change.


title: Morality play

text: Alliteration is put to wonderful effect in "The Castle of Perseverance". It appears in every stanza of more than four lines, though this is not evenly distributed, with later debate scenes employing less alliteration and the characters World, Belial, Flesh, and the seven sins alliterating nearly all of their lines, a habit the character Mankind learns from them. This is not to imply that alliteration is purely the mark of an evil character, for the bad angel alliterates very little and the neutral flag bearers who provide a summary of events at the beginning of the play script make extensive use of alliteration. At many points this is for ornamental effect: Michael R. Kelley places this in the context of a flamboyant style originating in Franco-Burgundian culture. But that is not all the playwright does with the effect. Clare Wright argues convincingly that alliteration among other formal structures encourages the actors to perform with a "devilish corporeal register." She uses Belyal's first speech as an example:Now I sytte, Satanas, in my sad synne, (Now sit I, Satan, steadfast in my sin,)


title: Morality play

text: Bothe the bak and the buttoke brestyth al on brenne, (Both the back and the buttocks burst burning unbound,)


title: Morality play

text: In this speech, many of the alliterated phonemes are "aggressively plosive" and the /tʃ/ of "I champe and I chafe, I choke on my chynne" "requires the speaker to part his lips and bare his teeth, bringing them together in an expression that resembles the clenched-tooth grimace of the devil in contemporary iconography."


title: Morality play

text: While mostly written in Middle English, some of the plays employ Latin and French to wonderful effect, both thematically significant and just plain humorous. Latin, of course, as the language of the Roman Catholic Church, was naturally important for the sort of religious discourse these plays engaged in. That does not mean that the playwrights were unwilling to play with Latin. For example, in "Mankind", the character Mercy has a highly latinizing manner of speech: in terms of vocabulary and meticulously tidy versification and sentence structure, all of which culminates in what one scholar calls "inkhorn and churchily pedagogical." (Johnson 172). Mercy ends his first speech saying "I besech yow hertyly, have this premedytacyon" (l. 44), ending with a cumbersome Latin loanword. The first vice character on stage, Mischief, immediately picks up on Mercy's excessive latinisms and continues with this end rhyme in order to mock Mercy's ornate speech:I beseche yow hertyly, leve yowr calcacyon.


title: Morality play

text: Shortly thereafter Mischief fully switches to a nonsense mixture of Latin and English to continue mocking Mercy's latinizing, as well as to mangle Mercy's earlier reference to the parable of the wheat and tares: "Corn servit bredibus, chaffe horsibus, straw fyrybusque" (l. 57, translated: Corn serves bread, chaff horses, straw fires). The result of this is not only to show that the formal structures of Latin are nothing more than formal structures that can be spoofed and misused, but also to create a tone shift from stuffy seriousness to an amusement that "is central to the contemplative logic of the play" by showing how even Latin can be "dragged from the reaches of the church and into the mess of everyday life." There are many such examples of amusing nonsense Latin throughout the play.


title: Morality play

text: In what is possibly most memorable of the vices' use of puns to twist good into bad, at one point in "Mankind" belt out a vibrant ditty on defecation that concludes, in a clear echo of 'holy holy holy,' with "Hoylyke, holyke, holyke! Holyke, holyke, holyke!", quite possibly a pun on 'hole-lick' or 'hole-leak'. Because of how this spoofs liturgical call-and-response worship as well as Nought's invitation, "Now I prey all the yemandry that ys here / To synge wyth us wyth a mery chere" (ll. 333-4), this is likely a moment of audience participation to highlight their own "susceptibilities to seduction by frivolity."


title: Morality play

text: Finally, a peculiar trait that one will likely notice while reading these plays is the tendency of characters to describe in speech the actions they are (presumably) simultaneously performing as a way of verbally encoding stage directions. For example, in "Mankind", the character Mankind says, "Thys earth wyth my spade I shall assay to delffe" (l. 328); this line, meaning, "This earth with my spade I will attempt to dig," appears to serve as a stage direction for Mankind's actor to literally dig. Besides simple actions, the same thing occurs in slapstick comedy or action scenes: when Mankind fights the vice-characters Nowadays, New Guise, and Nought, Mankind threatens to hit them with his shovel, saying, "Go and do yowr labur! Gode lett yow never the! / Or wyth my spade I shall yow dynge, by the Holy Trinyté!" (ll. 377-376); in response, New Guise says, "Alas, my jewellys! I shall be schent of my wyff!" (l. 381), directly indicating that Mankind has hit him as or right after he was threatening. This is not a trait restricted in the period to morality plays: a reason for the existence of this trait suggested by one scholar while discussing the Chester plays is that "A spectator who could see the action without hearing the lines would not have a significantly different experience from someone who could hear them."


title: Morality play

text: What binds morality plays together as a genre are the strong family resemblances between them. These resemblances are most strong in regard to personification allegory as a literary form. The plays also resemble each other in regard to thematic content. They feature other common characteristics that are not necessarily common to all texts within the genre. Particularly notable thematic commonalities include: the transitoriness of life in relation to the afterlife, the importance of divine mercy, the use of misprision by vice characters, and the inevitable cycle of sin and penitence found in the Macro plays and Henry Medwall's "Nature" (c. 1495). The emphasis on death in these plays underscores how to live a good life; in the medieval moralities and Medwall's "Nature" in particular, virtue characters encourage the generic human protagonist to secure a good afterlife by performing good deeds, practicing penitence, or asking for divine mercy before their death.


title: Morality play

text: John Watkins also suggests that the principal vices in medieval morality plays, avarice, pride, extortion, and ambition, throw anxieties over class mobility into relief. Fifteenth-century plays like "Occupation and Idleness" and later morality plays (commonly considered Tudor interludes, like John Skelton's "Magnyfycence") portray class-mobility positively. Whether for or against class mobility, morality plays engage with the subject. Other, smaller commonalities include audience participation, elaborate costuming, the virtue of labour, and the governance of the body/passions by the soul/reason in the service of Catholic virtue, money management, or the proper methods of governing a state.


title: Morality play

text: The cohesion of the medieval morality play genre in particular is questionable as their family resemblances are loose in some instances. Despite being treated as the archetypal morality play, "Everyman"s plot has little in common with the other plays in the genre. That said, "Everyman"s straightforward focus on death, uninterested in the cycle of sin and penitence found in the Macro plays, resembles the "Pride of Life". These two plays are less like the Macro plays than Medwall's "Nature", which is not traditionally considered as a medieval morality play. Scholars such as Katherine Little, who claims that "Everyman" is not a medieval morality play, continue to pull at the genre's incohesive threading.


title: Morality play

text: There are points of distinction in morality plays, beginning with "Everyman", which can generally be attributed to humanism. According to Thomas Betteridge and Greg Walker, the majority of English dramas were religious in some form. However, plays are increasingly divorced from religion, and in particular, the staging of God and priests. While drama continued to contain religious themes, it was less and less often the case that religion was expressed directly. Betteridge and Walker also note that morality plays began to focus on the importance of education, specifically in regard to classical literature.


title: Morality play

text: In Medwall's "Nature", the opening speech prompts readings of Ovid and Aristotle. However, a strong focus on education can be found in "Occupation and Idleness" as well, which stages an errant schoolboy being taught to respect and learn from his teacher -- this play is roughly contemporaneous with the Macro plays, suggesting that humanist trends are traceable in the morality play much earlier than "Everyman". There is also a general, continuous increase in the individuation and complexity of characters. In "Nature", a prostitute is given a regular name rather than the name of a concept. In "Everyman", Everyman's mercantile language suggests a generic protagonist that represents a much smaller generic portion of humanity, '"every merchant," in juxtaposition to Mankind's earlier, full representation of all humanity. In Skelton's "Magnyfycence", Magnificence and the vices that corrupt him represent a particular person, King Henry VIII, and his court 'minions' who were expelled for their poor behaviour.


title: Morality play

text: Scholars have long noted that the medieval morality plays were written after the creation of Arundel's Constitutions in 1407, whereby the Archbishop Thomas Arundel and his legislation sought to limit the preaching and teaching of religious matters, and outlawed any biblical translations into the vernacular. His Constitutions were written in explicit response to the threat of Lollardy. Since the morality plays do contain aspects of religious doctrine, such as the importance of penance and the salvation of the soul, scholars have questioned how it is that morality plays, in both the play-text and play form, continued to thrive throughout the fifteenth century. While scholars have not arrived at a satisfying conclusion, they nonetheless agree the morality plays were not seriously affected by the Constitutions, which suggests that either Arundel's Constitutions, the divide between Lollardy and orthodoxy, or the role that morality plays themselves played in society, continue to be somewhat misunderstood.


title: Morality play

text: The recent trend in scholarship of the period in which morality plays were written is to admit the great degree of continuity between late medieval and Renaissance cultures of Europe. Nevertheless, although morality plays reach their apogee in the sixteenth century, religious drama of this sort and in general all but disappeared thereafter. The cause of this change can be traced to both changes in religious sensibilities related to the Protestant Reformation and more broadly changes in theatre as an industry in England.


title: Morality play

text: Mid-Tudor Protestants continued writing religious plays that were recognizably different from their Catholic predecessors. For example, whereas earlier plays emphasize the importance of sacraments, plays by Protestants emphasize justification by faith alone, and even cast vice characters as Catholic.


title: Morality play

text: The relationship between theatricality and doctrine was also found more troubled by Protestants. Earlier plays were criticized for their embellishments to biblical material, to which Protestant religious drama tried to adhere more closely. However, in many ways they were formally quite similar to their predecessors in ways that sat beside the tendencies they wished to resist, thus challenging any attempts by scholars to place the development of theater in the period in an evolutionary model.


title: Morality play

text: With the opening of permanent and professional playhouses that were producing plays full time in the late sixteenth century, drama became "unmistakably an integral and compromised part of that same commercial culture" which earlier religious drama had criticized, and therefor "it could no longer seriously be maintained that it was primarily a pious activity." Thus, by the start of the seventeenth century a play like Everyman would be regarded "as at best a waste of time and at worst a sinful, 'popish' excess." However, this change "had the positive effect of creating the space for the artistic and commercial speculation of the public stage as it emerged at the end of the Tudor period." It is in this space that the now better-known William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe would do their work.


title: Morality play

text: The outward purpose of all morality plays is to instruct listeners on the means of receiving redemption: a purpose that some plays adhere to relatively consistently, while others delight so extensively in their vices that broad entertainment establishes itself as an equally dominant "raison d'etre". However, morality plays after the Protestant Reformation are of a distinctly different didacticism than the morality plays before the Reformation.


title: Morality play

text: Whereas the didactic elements pre-Reformation morality plays usually reinforced the practices or doctrines of medieval Catholicism (often focusing on sacraments like penance), the post-Reformation morality plays—when they concerned themselves with religious doctrine, rather than more secular concerns about education or good living (as with John Redford's "Play of Wit and Science") -- sometimes worked to destroy Catholic credibility and demonise the Catholic Church. Although many post-Reformation morality plays were often like their predecessors in that they also were concerned with the salvation of its audience (and in their tendency to allow playful depictions of vice to eclipse those concerns), they differed in that they believed that the theology promoted by pre-Reformation plays was antithetical to salvation. Thus, a major shift in focus, from concern for the individual's moral behaviour to concern for the individual's theological practices, occurred with the post-Reformation morality plays. The wave of Protestantism which fuelled the content of these plays dictated that more attention should be given to warning people against the Catholic Church than of their sinful nature. The means of redemption, according to the philosophy embedded in post-Reformation morality plays, is dependent upon the audience understanding the truthfulness of Protestant theology and verses and also the deceptiveness and wickedness of Catholic theology, whose best example is the secular play of Calderón.


title: Morality play

text: The Vices in post-Reformation morality plays are sometimes depicted as being Catholic. At times this depiction is achieved through their physical appearance. For example, Vices in post-Reformation morality plays could be dressed as cardinals, friars, monks, or the pope. Other times, the Vice comes out and states he is a Catholic, or elucidates that he is Catholic by swearing a Catholic pledge. To deceive the victim of post-Reformation morality plays, the Vice typically assumes a new name to disguise what actual Vice he is.


title: Linguiça

text: Linguiça or lingüiça () calabresa is Calabrian chili-seasoned smoke-cured pork sausage seasoned with garlic and paprika, popular in Portugal, Brazil, Lusophone countries, and the U.S. state of Hawaii, created by Calabrian immigrants in the Bixiga district of São Paulo in Brazil inspired by the sausage of Calabria. It is often used as a topping for pizzas.


title: Linguiça

text: "Linguiça", like many other sausages, is generally served as part of a meal, typically accompanied by rice, beans, and other pork products. "Feijoada", for example, is a traditional Portuguese and Brazilian dish (considered Brazil national dish), also common in Angola, that incorporates "linguiça" with beans, ham hocks, and other foods.


title: Linguiça

text: In Brazil, one variant is especially popular: the "linguiça calabresa" or simply "calabresa", prepared originally with Calabrese pepper (nowadays with South American pepper) by Italian immigrants, and particularly used in pizzas as a spicy sausage. Its popularity compares with pepperoni in the United States. It is common to differentiate the "linguiça calabresa" from its counterpart "linguiça portuguesa", prepared from the original Portuguese recipe, and also served in pizzas as mild sausage, generally with egg slices.


title: Linguiça

text: Outside of Portugal and Brazil, "linguiça" is also popular in Goa, Macau, and other former Portuguese colonial possessions. In these regions, it is typically sliced before being grilled or braised, often with a light-bodied beer. It is also popular in California, Rhode Island, and southern Massachusetts. In Hawaii, McDonald's restaurants serve breakfasts featuring "linguiça". Hawaiian "linguiça", also known as Portuguese sausage, is usually smoked using banana leaves.


title: Linguiça

text: "Linguiça" is also used in "francesinha", a traditional Portuguese dish, from Porto. The "linguiça" is incorporated in its sauce, giving it a distinct flavor.


title: Linguiça

text: "Linguiça" is a popular dish in Mangalore among the Catholic community. Mangalorean "linguiça" is spicier than Portuguese "linguiça", and is more closely related to Goan "chouriço". It is strongly flavored with red chillies, peppercorns, turmeric, and salt. It is typically prepared by half-frying onions, adding sugar and vinegar to the meat, and cooking over a low flame, preferably wood fire.


title: Mytilene

text: Mytilene (; ; ) is the capital of the Greek island of Lesbos, and its port. It is also the capital and administrative center of the North Aegean Region, and hosts the headquarters of the University of the Aegean. It was founded in the 11th century BC.


title: Mytilene

text: Mytilene is one of the two municipalities on the island of Lesbos, created in 2019; the other is West Lesbos. Mytilene is built on the southeast edge of the island. It is the seat of a metropolitan bishop of the Eastern Orthodox Church.


title: Mytilene

text: As an ancient city, lying off the east coast, Mytilene was initially confined to a small island just offshore that later was joined to Lesbos, creating a north and south harbor. The early harbors of Mytilene were linked during ancient times by a channel 700 m long and 30 m wide. The Roman writer Longus speaks of white stone bridges linking the two sides. The Greek word εὔριπος "eúripos" is a commonly-used term when referring to a strait. The strait allowed ancient warships called triremes, with three tiers of rowers or more. The boats that passed were ca. 6 m wide plus oars and had depth of 2 m.


title: Mytilene

text: The areas of the city that were densely populated connected the two bodies of land with marble bridges. They usually followed a curved line. The strait begins at the old market called Apano Skala. It was also close to Metropolis Street and ended at the Southern Harbor. One could argue that the channel transversed what is now called Ermou Street. Over time the strait began to collect silt and earth. There was also human intervention for the protection of the Castle of Mytilene. The strait eventually filled with earth.


title: Mytilene

text: Mytilene contested successfully with Mithymna in the north of the island for the leadership of the island in the seventh century BC and became the centre of the island's prosperous eastern hinterland. Her most famous citizens were the poets Sappho and Alcaeus and the statesman Pittacus (one of the Seven Sages of Greece). The city was famed for its great output of electrum coins struck from the late sixth through mid-fourth centuries BC.


title: Mytilene

text: The Mytilenean revolt against Athens in 428 BC was overcome by an Athenian expeditionary force. The Athenian public assembly voted to massacre all the men of the city and to sell the women and children into slavery but the next day in the Mytilenian Debate changed its mind. A fast trireme sailed the in less than a day and brought the decision to cancel the general massacre, but a thousand citizens were executed for taking part in the rebellion.


title: Mytilene

text: Aristotle lived on Mytilene for two years, 337–335 BC, with his friend and successor, Theophrastus (a native of the island), after being the tutor to Alexander, son of King Philip II of Macedon.


title: Mytilene

text: The Romans, among whom was a young Julius Caesar, successfully defeated Mytilene in 81 BC at the Siege of Mytilene. Although Mytilene supported the losing side in most of the great wars of the first century BC, her statesmen succeeded in convincing Rome of her support of the new ruler of the Mediterranean and the city flourished in Roman times.


title: Mytilene

text: In AD 56, Luke the Evangelist, Paul the Apostle and their companions stopped there briefly on the return trip of Paul's third missionary journey (), having sailed from Assos (about away). From Mytilene they continued towards Chios ().


title: Mytilene

text: The novel "Daphnis and Chloe" by Longus, is set in the country around it and opens with a description of the city.


title: Mytilene

text: Scholar and historian Zacharias Rhetor, also known as Zacharias of Mytilene was from Mytilene and lived from 465 to around 536. He was made Bishop of Mytilene and may have been a Chalcedonian Christian. He either died or was deposed between 536 and 553.


title: Mytilene

text: The city of Mytilene was also home to 9th century Byzantine saints who were brothers, Archbishop George, Symeon Stylites, and David the Monk. The Church of St. Symeon, Mytilene venerates one of the three brothers.


title: Mytilene

text: Catching the eye of the Empress Zoë Porphyrogenita, Constantine IX Monomachos was exiled to Mytilene on the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV the Paphlagonian. The death of Michael IV and the overthrow of Michael V in 1042 led to Constantine being recalled from his place of exile and appointed as a judge in Greece.


title: Mytilene

text: Lesbos and Mytilene had an established Jewish population since ancient times. In 1170, Benjamin of Tudela found ten small Jewish communities on the island.


title: Mytilene

text: In the Middle Ages, it was part of the Byzantine Empire and was occupied for some time by the Seljuqs under Tzachas in 1085. In 1198, the Republic of Venice obtained the right to commerce from the city's port.


title: Mytilene

text: In the 13th century, it was captured by the Emperor of Nicaea, Theodore I Laskaris. In 1335, the Byzantines, with the help of Ottoman forces, reconquered the island, then property of the Genoese nobleman Domenico Cattaneo. In 1355, emperor John V Palaiologos gave it to the Genoese adventurer Francesco Gattilusio, who married the emperor's sister, Maria. They renovated the fortress in 1373, and it remained in Genoese hands until 1462, when it was besieged and captured by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror.


title: Mytilene

text: As part of the wider Great Turkish War, the Battle of Mytilene took place off the coast of Mytilene in 1690 when Venetian sailing ships attacked Ottoman and Barbary flagships. Resulting in a victory for the Venetians.


title: Mytilene

text: Mytilene along with the rest of Lesbos remained under Ottoman control until the First Balkan War in 1912, when in November it became part of the Kingdom of Greece.


title: Mytilene

text: Mytilene is located in the southeastern part of the island, north and east of the Bay of Gera. It has a land area of and a population of 36,196 inhabitants (2001). With a population density of 336.8/km it is by far the most densely populated municipal unit in Lesbos. The next largest towns in the municipal unit are Vareiá (pop. 1,254), Pámfila (1,247), Mória (1,207), and Loutrá (1,118). The Greek National Road 36 connects Mytilene with Kalloni. Farmlands surround Mytilene, the mountains cover the west and to the north. The airport is located a few kilometres south of town.


title: Mytilene

text: The province of Mytilene () was one of the provinces of the Lesbos Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipal units Mytilene, Agiasos, Evergetoulas, Gera, Loutropoli Thermis, Mantamados and Polichnitos. It was abolished in 2006.


title: Mytilene

text: Mytilene has a port with ferries to the nearby islands of Lemnos and Chios and Ayvalık and at times Dikili in Turkey. The port also serves the mainland cities of Piraeus, Athens and Thessaloniki. One ship, named during the 2001 IAAF games in Edmonton "Aeolus Kenteris", after Kostas Kenteris, used to serve this city (his hometown) with 6-hour routes from Athens and Thessaloniki. The main port serving Mytilene on the Greek mainland is Piraeus.


title: Mytilene

text: The city exports also sardines harvested from the Bay of Kalloni, olive oil, ladotyri cheese and woodwork.


title: Mytilene

text: The town of Mytilene has a large number of neoclassical buildings, public and private houses. Some of them are the building of the Lesbos Prefecture, the old City Hall, the Experimental Lyceum and various mansions and hotels all over the town.


title: Mytilene

text: Archaeological investigations at Mytilene began in the late 19th century when Robert Koldewey (later excavator of Babylon) and a group of German colleagues spent many months on the island preparing plans of the visible remains at various ancient sites like Mytilene. Significant excavations, however, do not seem to have started until after the First World War when in the mid-1920s Evangelides uncovered much of the famous theatre (according to Plutarch it was the inspiration for Pompey's theatre in Rome in 55 BC, the first permanent stone theatre in Rome) on the hill on the western side of town. Subsequent work in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s by various members of the Archaeological Service revealed more of the theatre, including a Roman conversion to a gladiatorial arena. Salvage excavations carried out by the Archaeological Service in many areas of the city have revealed sites going back to the Early Bronze Age although most have been much later (Hellenistic and Roman). Particularly significant is a large stoa over a hundred metres long recently dug on the North Harbour of the city. It is clear from various remains in different parts of the city that Mytilene was indeed laid out on a grid plan as the Roman architect Vitruvius had written.


title: Mytilene

text: Archaeological excavations carried out between 1984 and 1994 in the Castle of Mytilene by the University of British Columbia and directed by Caroline and Hector Williams revealed a previously unknown sanctuary of Demeter and Kore of late classical/Hellenistic date and the burial chapel of the Gattelusi, the medieval Genoese family that ruled the northern Aegean from the mid-14th to mid-15th centuries of our era. The Demeter sanctuary included five altars for sacrifices to Demeter and Kore and later also to Cybele, the great mother goddess of Anatolia. Among the discoveries were thousands of oil lamps, terracotta figurines, loom weights and other dedications to the goddesses. Numerous animal bones, especially of piglets, also appeared. The Chapel of St. John served as the church of the castle and as a burial place for the Gattelusi family and its dependents. Although conversion to a mosque after the Ottoman capture of the city in 1462 resulted in the destruction of many graves, some remained. The great earthquake of February 1867 damaged the building beyond repair and it was demolished; the Ottomans built a new mosque over the ruins to replace it later in the 19th century.


title: Mytilene

text: Other excavations done jointly with the 20th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities near the North Harbour of the city uncovered a multiperiod site with remains extending from a late Ottoman cemetery (including a "vampire" burial, a middle aged man with spikes through his neck, middle and ankles) to a substantial Roman building constructed around a colonnaded courtyard (probably a tavern/brothel in its final phase in the mid-4th century AD) to remains of Hellenistic structures and debris from different Hellenistic manufacturing processes (pottery, figurines, cloth making and dyeing, bronze and iron working) to archaic and classical levels with rich collections of Aeolic grey wares. A section of the late classical city wall runs across the site which was close to the channel that divided the mainland from the off shore island part of the city. Considerable remains of the two moles that protected the large North Harbour of the city are still visible just below or just breaking the surface of the sea; it functioned as the commercial harbour of the ancient city although today it is a quiet place where a few small fishing boats are moored.


title: Mytilene

text: The city has two excellent archaeological museums, one by the south harbour in an old mansion and the other two hundred metres further north in a large new purpose built structure. The former contains the rich Bronze Age remains from Thermi, a site north of Mytilene dug by the British in the 1930s as well as extensive pottery and figurine displays; the former coach house accommodates ancient inscriptions, architectural pieces, and coins. The latter museum is especially rich in mosaics and sculpture, including the famous late Roman mosaic floor from the "House of Menander" with scenes from plays by that Athenian 4th-century BC playwright. There are also mosaics and finds from other Roman mansions excavated by the Greek Archaeological Service under the direction of the archeologist Aglaia Archontidou-Argyri.


title: Mytilene

text: There are 15 primary schools in Mytilene, along with seven lyceums, and eight gymnasiums. There are six university schools with 3671 undergraduates, the largest in the University of the Aegean. Here also is the Headquarters, the Central Library and the Research Committee of Aegean University. The University of Aegean is housed in privately owned buildings, in rented buildings located in the city centre and in modern buildings on the University Hill.


title: Mytilene

text: By 2015, the city of Mytilene had become a primary entry point for refugees and migrants who seek to pass through Greece to resettle elsewhere in Europe. In 2015, over half a million people arrived in Lesbos. The number of individuals coming through Lesbos has dwindled since the signing of the EU-Turkey deal which restricted the number of refugees that could legally resettle in Europe. , seventy to eighty refugees were still arriving in Greece daily despite the deal and "many of them on Lesbos", according to Daniel Esdras, the chief of the International Organization for Migration.


title: Mytilene

text: In the past the city hosted consulates from different European countries. Currently hosts consulates from the following countries:


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The Suwałki Gap, also known as the Suwałki corridor (), is a sparsely populated area immediately southwest of the border between Lithuania and Poland, between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast. Named after the Polish town of Suwałki, this choke point has become of great strategic and military importance since Poland and the Baltic states joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The border between Poland and Lithuania was formed after the Suwałki Agreement of 1920; but it carried little importance in the interwar period as at the time, the Polish lands stretched farther northeast, while during the Cold War, Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union and communist Poland belonged to the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact alliance. The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact created borders that cut through the shortest land route between Kaliningrad (Russian territory isolated from the mainland) and Belarus (Russia's ally). As the Baltic states and Poland eventually joined NATO, this narrow border stretch between Poland and Lithuania became a vulnerability for the military bloc because, if a hypothetical military conflict were to erupt between Russia and Belarus on one side and NATO on the other, the capture of the -long strip of land between Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus would likely jeopardise NATO's attempts to defend the Baltic states. NATO's fears about the Suwałki Gap intensified after 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and launched the war in Donbas, and further increased after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. These worries prompted the alliance to increase its military presence in the area, and an arms race was triggered by these events.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Both Russia and the European Union countries also saw great interest in civilian uses of the gap. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Russia attempted to negotiate an extraterritorial corridor to connect its exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast with Grodno in Belarus, but Poland, Lithuania and the EU did not consent. Movement of goods through the gap was disrupted in summer 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Lithuania and the European Union introduced transit restrictions on Russian vehicles as part of their sanctions. The Via Baltica road, a vital link connecting Finland and the Baltic states with the rest of the European Union, goes through the area and, as of November 2022, is under construction in Poland as expressway S61.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The Suwałki Gap is a sparsely populated region in the north-eastern corner of Poland, in Podlaskie Voivodeship. This hilly area, one of the coldest in Poland, is located on the western margins of the East European Plain. It is crossed by numerous river valleys and deep lakes (such as Hańcza and Wigry), and its vast swathes are covered by thick forests (including the Augustów Primeval Forest) and marshes, such as those in the Biebrza National Park. To its west lies another lake district known as Masuria. The area is relatively poorly developed - there is little industry besides forestry-related facilities, the road network is sparse and the nearest large airport is located several hundred kilometres away; only two major roads (with at least one lane in each direction) and one rail line link Poland with Lithuania. The area is home to some ethnic minorities, particularly Ukrainians, Lithuanians (close to the border with Lithuania) and Russians, but the Russians are not very numerous on the Polish side.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Poland and Lithuania both gained independence in the aftermath of World War I and started to fight in order to establish control over as much terrain as they could militarily hold. While Lithuania claimed majority-Polish Suwałki and Vilnius, it ultimately failed to control both. Suwałki was agreed to be part of Poland as a result of the Suwałki Agreement, while Vilnius was captured by Poland in a false flag operation known as Żeligowski's mutiny. In the interwar period, the Suwałki region was a protrusion of Poland into surrounding Lithuania and East Prussia (part of Germany), rather than a gap, and played little strategic importance.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Following World War II, the vicinity of Königsberg (renamed Kaliningrad shortly after the war) was incorporated as part of the Russian SFSR, part of the Soviet Union, and became a closed area for most of the Soviet era; Lithuania became a Union republic within the USSR, while Poland came under the Soviet sphere of influence and joined the Warsaw Pact. Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Poland's only eastern and northern neighbour was the USSR, thus, as in the interwar period, the region mattered little in military terms. This changed after 1991, when Kaliningrad Oblast became a semi-exclave of Russia, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, both of which are neighbours with Belarus but neither borders the "mainland" part of Russia. Kaliningrad Oblast's neighbours both entered the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but at the same time, only of Polish territory separates two areas of the rival Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and the Union State, both of which include Russia and Belarus. The former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves claims to have come up with the name "Suwałki Gap" before his meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, then serving as the defence minister of Germany, in April 2015 to highlight the vulnerability of the area for the Baltic states.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The first time a special corridor between Kaliningrad and Belarus (planned to go via Poland) was discussed was during a 1990 meeting between Yuri Shemonov, a senior official in Kaliningrad Oblast, and Nikolai Ryzhkov and Mikhail Gorbachev, Premier and President of the Soviet Union, respectively. While Ryzhkov was supportive of the idea, Gorbachev vetoed the proposal, urging the other two men to "stop spreading panic".


title: Suwałki Gap

text: After the Soviet Union fell apart, Kaliningrad was cut off from Russia, thus the Russians sought to secure a land transit route from the exclave to mainland Russia through Belarus. After some initial preparations, including signing a treaty which obliged Poland and Russia to open a border crossing near Gołdap, the Russian government announced their intention to build a special "communication corridor" between the checkpoint and Grodno in Belarus, justifying the decision by the region's close economic ties with the country. Russia, which communicated the idea to the Polish side in 1994, additionally sought to bypass Lithuania, with which it had strained diplomatic relations. Initially, the idea sparked little interest, but extensive discussions came in 1996, when Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia, declared he would negotiate with the Polish side to seek permission to build a motorway, citing high transit costs via Lithuania.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The top Polish government officials rejected the proposal. Among the main reasons was the fact that among Poles, the proposal sounded too much like the German request for an extraterritorial link through the Polish Corridor just prior to its 1939 invasion of Poland, and was thus seen as toxic. This feeling was amplified by the persistent usage of the word "corridor" among Russian officials. Aleksander Kwaśniewski, then-president of Poland, sounded concerns about the environmental impact of the investment, while some politicians from the then-ruling coalition (SLD-PSL) argued that the corridor would cause a deterioration of diplomatic relations between Poland and Lithuania. There have been reports that Suwałki Voivodeship started talks about the corridor to alleviate its economic problems and even signed an agreement with Grodno Region authorities to promote its construction via a border crossing in Lipszczany, but , then-voivode of Suwałki who was seen by the media as supportive of the idea, denied having ever endorsed the proposal, and no proof for that (such as plans or cost estimates) was found in an internal party investigation. When GDDKiA, the Polish agency responsible for the maintenance of main roads, updated its plans for the expressway network in 1996, the proposed link was nowhere to be found.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The topic returned in 2001–2002 when Poland and Lithuania were negotiating accession to the European Union. Russian citizens in Kaliningrad were facing the prospect of having to use passports and apply for visas to cross the border of the new EU member states, which sparked outrage in the Russian press. Therefore, Russia suggested that the European Commission grant a right to a 12-hour free transit for the citizens of the oblast through special corridors in Poland and Lithuania, but this proposal was rejected. Another proposal, with sealed trains, also failed to gain traction; it was ultimately agreed to introduce special permits for Russian citizens travelling to/from Kaliningrad Oblast for transit through Lithuania (but not Poland), known as Facilitated Rail Transit Document (FRTD) and a Facilitated Transit Document (FTD) for rail and road trips, respectively.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Kaliningrad Oblast has since been generally supplied by freight trains transiting through Lithuania. However, on 17 June 2022, in retaliation for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania started blocking supplies of sanctioned items to the enclave via road or rail, citing EU's sanction guidance. That guidance was then clarified in a way that exempted rail traffic from the restrictions so long as the volume of deliveries remained within prior consumption volumes, but then Šiaulių bankas, the bank servicing the transit payments, announced it would refuse to accept ruble payments from 15 August and any payments from Russian entities from 1 September. Transit remains possible via payments to other banks but, in September 2022, was expected to become more burdensome as payments for each freight service will be processed separately to comply with Lithuanian anti-fraud regulator's guidance.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: A strategic communication artery, known in the international E-road network as E67 or as "Via Baltica" (expressway S61 on the Polish side and A5 highway on the Lithuanian part)"," passes through the Suwałki Gap. It is part of the North Sea-Baltic Corridor (previously the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor), one of the core routes of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) that connects Finland and the Baltic states with the rest of Europe. As of November 2022, the Polish expressway is completed or under active construction; the opening of most of the yet-unopened segments is expected by 2023, and the road is planned to be finished by 2025. On the Lithuanian side, the construction of A5 highway to the border is in early stages, with the design contracts awarded in 2020–2021. The section of the motorway close to the Suwałki Gap is expected to be completed by late 2025.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The Suwałki Gap also serves as an important constraint on civilian airspace since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Due to the sanctions against Russia and Belarus, the closure of civilian airspace by Belarus, and then retaliatory sanctions by Russia, the only feasible way for civilian planes to fly from the Baltic states or Finland south is through the Suwałki Gap. It is also the route for the only high voltage line (the LitPol Link) and the only railway (single-track, non-electrified) linking the Baltic states with the rest of the European Union. The rail line only reaches Kaunas, as Lithuania and Poland operate different track gauges - the Baltic states generally use the Russian gauge, while the vast majority of Polish rolling stock is adapted to the standard gauge. The Gas Interconnection Poland–Lithuania, the only terrestrial link between the Baltic and Finnish natural gas pipeline system and that of the rest of the European Union (the reason it was recognised as a Project of Common Interest by EU authorities), was opened on 1 May 2022.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Long before the Suwałki Gap became of concern to NATO, several army battles or operations occurred on the terrain. For example, during Napoleon's war in Russia, part of his army, which crossed into the country from the Duchy of Warsaw, used the Suwałki Gap as a launching pad for the invasion and, by the beginning of 1813, when the remnants of his army retreated, it crossed the gap from Kaunas towards Warsaw. Both battles of the Masurian Lakes during World War I passed or were directly waged on the territory. During the invasion of Poland, which started World War II, most of the action skirted the area, while in 1944, the Red Army simply advanced into East Prussia and no major battle occurred in the area.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Poland and Lithuania joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999 and 2004, respectively. On the one hand, this meant that the Kaliningrad exclave was surrounded by NATO states, but on the other, this created a choke point for the military alliance as all troops supplied by land must pass through the Suwałki Gap. In the event of its capture, the Baltic states would be surrounded by Russia, Russian-controlled territories, and Belarus, a Russian ally. Even if Belarus or Russia are not physically present in the corridor, it is narrow enough for the short-range rockets stationed in either country to target any military supplies coming through the corridor, while alternative routes of delivery, i.e. by sea or air, are also threatened by the anti-air and anti-ship missiles stationed in Kaliningrad Oblast. Due to its strategic importance for NATO and the Baltic states, it has been described as one of NATO's hot spots, its "Achilles' heel" and dubbed the modern version of the Fulda Gap.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Initially, this vulnerability was of relatively little concern as, throughout most of the 1990s, Russia was stuck in a deep depression, which necessitated large-scale cuts to the country's military budget. Even though the army was of significant size, it was poorly equipped and had low military capabilities. Additionally, Russia–NATO relations were more cordial then, as Russia was not openly hostile to NATO, which was affirmed while signing the 1997 Founding Act, and it was thought that Russia would eventually become a pacifist democracy, decreasing its military and nuclear presence. NATO's commitment not to build any permanent bases beyond the Oder river therefore seemed reasonable.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The qualitative and quantitative improvement in armaments started with the rule of Vladimir Putin. For instance, short-range () Iskander missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, were installed in 2018. Additional installations were deployed in late 2010s, including more area denial weapons, such as K-300P Bastion-P and P-800 Oniks anti-ship missiles and S-400 anti-air missiles.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: In general, the importance of the corridor among the Western nations is said to have been initially underestimated due to the fact that Western countries sought to normalise relations with Russia. Most of NATO's activities therefore concentrated on drills and exercises rather than deterrence. The shift in policy occurred gradually after Russia's aggression in Ukraine, which started in 2014. After the 2014 Wales summit and then the 2016 Warsaw summit, NATO members agreed on more military presence in the eastern member states of the Alliance, which came to fruition as the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence. In 2018, the Polish side proposed to station a permanent armoured division in the Bydgoszcz-Toruń area (dubbed "Fort Trump") with up to US$2 billion in financial support, but NATO did not agree to it as it was afraid it would potentially run afoul of the 1997 Founding Act, which, among other things, constrains NATO's ability to build permanent bases next to the Suwałki Gap.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: While the permanent military base ultimately did not appear, the military situation around the region has been steadily escalating, and deterrence tactics seem only to have increased the concentration of firepower on both sides. Several military drills, including Zapad 2017, Zapad 2021 and the Union Resolve 2022 exercises in Belarus and Kaliningrad Oblast and others that were unexpected, and NATO's 2017 Iron Wolf exercises in Lithuania as well as the some of the annual Operation Saber Strike operations, occurred in areas close to the Suwałki Gap.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The Russian forces did not leave Belarus after the 2022 exercises and invaded Ukraine from the north in February and March that year. As the war on NATO's eastern border unraveled, NATO dispatched more troops to its eastern flank, though its representatives said it would not establish permanent presence on its eastern borders. The situation around the area further intensified following Lithuania's declaration on banning the transit of sanctioned goods through its territory. As the security situation rapidly worsened, the Lithuanian and Icelandic ministers of foreign affairs said that Russia had effectively repudiated the 1997 agreement, which was also indirectly suggested by Mircea Geoană, NATO's Deputy Secretary General.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: As of spring 2022, units closest to the Suwałki Gap that belong to NATO or to its member states included:


title: Suwałki Gap

text: In June 2022, Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, pledged more weapons and troops to the Baltic States, augmenting NATO's presence to a brigade in each of the Baltic states and Poland (3,000-5,000 troops in each country), while the NATO Response Force will be increased to 300,000 troops.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Kaliningrad Oblast is a very heavily militarised area subordinate to the command of the Western Military District. Until the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Western MD hosted the best equipment and army forces at Russian disposal. In 1997–2010, the whole oblast was organised as a special region under a unified command of all forces dispatched there. Kaliningrad is the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet and the headquarters of the 11th Army Corps (Russian Navy), which has ample air defence capabilities and whose divisions have undergone extensive modernisation in the late 2010s. According to Konrad Muzyka, who authored a detailed study on the district's forces, the units stationed in Kaliningrad permit medium-intensity combat in the area without support from the Russian mainland. The town of Gusev, in the eastern part of the "oblast", just from the Vištytis tripoint, hosts the 79th Motor Rifle Brigade (BMP-2s and 2S19 Msta self-propelled howitzers) and the 11th Tank Regiment (90 tanks, of which most are T-72B1s at least 23 are the more recent T-72B3s). Missile units are stationed on the Chernyakhovsk air base (Iskander missile launchers), while the majority of air defence units (Smerch and BM-27 Uragan multiple rocket launchers) are located in the vicinity of Kaliningrad. Kaliningrad also hosts capabilities to conduct electronic warfare, in which the Russian forces have both inherited much experience from the Soviet times and earned it during hybrid warfare operations such as in Donbas.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Russia has not officially confirmed whether it has nuclear warheads in the exclave, but Iskander missiles are known to be capable of carrying such weapons. In 2018, the Federation of American Scientists published photos showing a weapons storage facility northwest of Kaliningrad being upgraded in a way that enables nuclear weapons storage. In addition to that, Arvydas Anušauskas, the Lithuanian minister of defence, claimed that Russia already has these in the exclave.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Belarus's military command, while formally independent as a military command of a sovereign state, has organisationally aligned itself with the Russian command and is in many respects wholly or substantially dependent on Russian defence institutions and contractors, while persistent underinvestment in its own military and deepening ties with its eastern neighbour left the military with low offensive capabilities, with the only feasible role being that of support of the main Russian forces. For instance, the countries share the air defence system, including its command. There are relatively few units on the Belarusian side - the headquarters of the Western Operational Command (one of the two in Belarus) as well as the 6th Mechanised Brigade is in Grodno (S-300 anti-air missiles), while air operations may be conducted from the military air base in Lida. They have received some Russian reinforcements ahead of Zapad-2021 exercises, including more S-300 missiles in Grodno, and in early 2022, when S-400 missiles were installed in Gomel Region. In May 2022, Alexander Lukashenko announced that he had bought Iskanders and S-400 missiles from the Russians.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: There is broad consensus among Western military think tanks that any hypothetical attack on NATO would involve an attempt to capture the Suwałki Gap and therefore to surround the Baltic states. The reasons for the hypothetical attack are seen not to be primarily the occupation of the three former Soviet republics by Russia but to sow distrust in NATO's capabilities, to discredit the military alliance and to assert Russia's position as one of the major military powers. A possible scenario for such a move was voiced by , a retired Russian colonel and state TV pundit, who suggested that the Russians could take over the Suwałki Gap as well as the Swedish island of Gotland while jamming NATO's radio signals, in order to establish effective military control over all possible supply routes to the Baltic states.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Despite the fact that the Polish side of the Suwałki Gap is shorter, it is unlikely to be used as the area of main concentration of these forces, according to these experts. A 2019 Russian paper indicated that the potential attack cutting off the Baltic states from NATO could be held north of the Suwałki Gap, in south-western Lithuania, due to better efficiencies for the Russian forces; the same route was assumed in Zapad 2017 and Zapad 2021 military exercises. This is also an area of attack deemed more favourable by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) papers, as the terrain is flatter and less forested and thus easier for heavier troops. Faustyna Klocek was one of the few proposing that the attack would lie over Polish territory. A minority of analysts, including CNA's Michael Kofman, argue that the Suwałki Gap's importance has been overestimated, comparing the gap to a "MacGuffin" (by itself unimportant but what he argues could be part of a frontline stretching for hundreds of kilometres) and arguing that previous analyses, which were necessarily limited, relied on a simplified view of the Russian military and did not sufficiently analyse its doctrine as a whole.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: During the migrant crisis on the eastern border of NATO and EU, there were concerns voiced by NATO and Ukrainian intelligence officials that Belarus would send migrants to the Suwałki Gap in order to destabilise the area, which in turn would give a pretext for Russia to introduce "peacekeeping" troops. The Polish government's fear that Russia could potentially open up a migrant route via Kalinigrad Oblast culminated in a decision to build a fence on the border with the exclave, similar to the one Poland erected on the Belarusian border the previous year.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Some of the initial assessments were grim about the prospect of the Baltic states. In 2016, the RAND Corporation ran simulations that suggested that with the NATO forces available at the time and despite less military presence in the area than in the Soviet times, an unexpected attack would have Russian troops enter or approach Riga and Tallinn in 36–60 hours from the moment of the invasion. The think tank attributed the swift advance to the tactical advantage in the region, easier logistics for Russian troops, better maneuverability and an advantage in heavy equipment on Russia's side. In general, the Russian Armed Forces, according to NATO's expectations, will try to overwhelm the Baltic states, cut off its only land route to the rest of NATO and force a "fait accompli" situation before the Alliance's reinforcements are able to come by land (air reinforcements are much more expensive and are vulnerable to surface-to-air strikes), only to face a dilemma between surrendering the area to the invader and directly confronting Russian troops, potentially escalating the war to a nuclear conflict. Ben Hodges, a retired US Army general who served as a high-ranking NATO commander and who co-authored a paper published by the CEPA on the defence of the Suwałki Gap, said in 2018 that the Suwałki Gap was an area where "many (of) NATO's [...] weaknesses converge[d]". Following major setbacks in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, Hodges revised his opinion towards a more positive tone, saying that NATO was much better prepared and could hold control over the area in case of an attack, particularly since Sweden and Finland would, in his opinion, likely help NATO despite not being members of the alliance. An Estonian MP estimated that Finland's membership in NATO, for which the accession protocol was signed in 2022, would make the security situation of the Baltic states more tenable thanks to an alternative corridor lying through the waters of the Gulf of Finland, which could be enforced using the relatively robust Finnish Navy. It was also suggested that Swedish accession to NATO would finally grant NATO some strategic depth in the area and otherwise facilitate the defence of the Baltic states.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: There appears to be strong support for Russia's invasion of the area among the Russians. A March 2022 survey by a Ukrainian pollster, which was concealing its identity while soliciting answers and which was asking questions using the Russian government-preferred rhetoric, reported that a large majority of Russians could support an invasion of another country should the "special military operation", as Russia officially calls the invasion of Ukraine, succeed, and that the most support for that invasion (three-quarters of those who did not abstain from an answer, and almost half of all respondents) would be against Poland, followed by the Baltic states.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: While the Suwałki Gap is a choke point, military analysts suggest that the fact that the region has abundant thick forests, streams and lakes means that the landscape facilitates defence against an invading force. Additionally, the soil in the area makes it very hard to operate under rainy conditions as off-road areas or roads without a hard surface become impassable mud. The Center for European Policy Analysis paper points out that the hilly and more forested terrain of the Polish part of the Suwałki Gap favours actions on the defensive side, such as ambushes and holding entrenched positions; at the same time, low density of roads that are largely not designed for carrying heavy cargo means that the few that remain available for the military may be easily blocked. The natural defences largely eliminate the need for additional military fortifications, and some of them, such as the one in Bakałarzewo, have been converted to private museums. On the other hand, this also means that once Russia is in possession of the corridor, which could happen if NATO reinforcements arrive late, it will be very hard to eject the Russians from the area. These reports say that the conditions are unfavourable for heavy equipment, particularly in bad weather, though John R. Deni of the Strategic Studies Institute argued the terrain was generally fine for a tank offensive.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The current Polish military doctrine under Mariusz Błaszczak, the Polish Minister of Defence (MoD), is to concentrate the units close to the Russian and Belarusian borders in order to wage a defensive campaign in a similar way to the one Poland was conducting in September 1939. There were two war games made to verify the scenario. In the first one, made in 2019, the US Marine Corps War College modelled a hypothetical scenario of World War III. The other one, codenamed -20, was conducted by the Polish War Studies Academy on MoD's request in 2020. Most of its assumptions remain confidential, but it is known that they include units with yet-to-be-delivered upgraded equipment that try to endure 22 days of defence against an invading force and, similarly to the American model, the military activities start in the Suwałki Gap and Poland tries to defend Eastern Poland at all cost. Both results were catastrophic: in the American simulation, Polish units would incur about 60,000 casualties in the first day of war, and NATO and Russia would fare a battle that would prove very bloody to both sides, losing about half of the participating forces within 72 hours. Zima-20's results, which are interpreted with some dose of caution, showed that by day 4 of the invasion, the Russians already advanced to the Vistula river and fighting in Warsaw was underway, while by day 5, the Polish ports were rendered unusable for reinforcements or occupied, the Navy and the Air Force were obliterated despite NATO's assistance, while the Polish units dispatched close to the border could lose as much as 60-80% of personnel and materiel.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Very few locals are expected to endorse an invasion, in contrast to what happened in Crimea in 2014, as the influence of the Russians in the area is not significant; that said, Daniel Michalski's survey found that the region's local population is inadequately prepared for a hypothetical military conflict and that the area has next to no civilians immediately ready to engage in combat. Regional tensions are such that some tourists are afraid to go there, though Andrzej Sęk and retired Col. Kazimierz Kuczyński say that such fears are likely unfounded as Russia's resources are being expended in Ukraine. Additionally, the Russians may want to use the historic tensions between Poland and Lithuania to set them against each other.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: NATO's military doctrine assumes that its member states would have to hold the invasion for as long as NATO needs to send reinforcements to the attacked states, and in the meantime, NATO would operate on the terrain using tripwire forces dispatched in the area. There is no consensus, however, about the right kind of forces and their mode of deployment near the Suwałki Gap that would best fit the doctrine, though the predominant thought goes that that at least some forces or money to improve infrastructure should be sent to Poland.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Among the analysts that took into account the Suwałki Gap vulnerability in their reports or opinion pieces, the majority argued that some form of permanent US military presence in Poland should exist, and most of the reports agreed that the NATO (or American) units should be as mobile as practically possible. The Warsaw Institute argued that while it would be costly to maintain, the military base proposed by Poland in 2018 would be an effective deterrent for Russia and would ensure quick dispatches of US forces to the Suwałki Gap if needed. Hunzeker and Lanoszka say that fears over the bottleneck are exaggerated, as they also argue is the case of Russian war against NATO, conclude that nothing should constrain the Alliance from attacking Kaliningrad Oblast or Belarus if the latter engages in the conflict, too. They advocate for a permanent presence of US military but with units dispersed all over Poland instead of one big military base, and crafted in a way that avoids as much Russian rebuke as possible. Another report, by the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), also suggested a permanent presence of one brigade of NATO troops in each of the Baltic states. Hodges "et al.", writing for CEPA, in principle supported an increased permanent presence of US forces (including a divisional headquarters) but also said that NATO forces must be more mobile so that Russian troops have no chance to avoid the tripwire units. The report also recommended that more effort should be put into improving transport capabilities and reducing red tape between NATO's member states, noting that defending the Suwałki Gap is a much different challenge from that of the Cold War-era Fulda Gap. John R. Deni of the SSI echoed CEPA paper's arguments and argued that since Russia deployed a large contingent of Russian troops together with modern arms in Belarus just prior to the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, NATO should disregard the 1997 Founding Act and start a dramatic increase of armaments and troop numbers near the Suwałki Gap and in the Baltic states.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: Some experts argued the opposite, i.e. that increased NATO presence may be detrimental for NATO. Nikolai Sokov of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, writing for the conservative outlet "The National Interest", criticised the recommendations for ramping up military presence, arguing that Russia and NATO should learn to live with their own vulnerabilities in order to prevent an arms race. Some people, including Dmitri Trenin of Carnegie Moscow Center, said this had already been happening due to NATO's increased presence in the area. James J. Coyle of the Atlantic Council similarly argued that the West should not escalate by sending more troops to the immediate vicinity of the Suwałki Gap, but instead rely on efficient logistics in case of war. Viljar Veebel and Zdzisław Śliwa, on the other hand, proposed that NATO should either deploy as many troops as it can while not paying attention to Russia's complaints about that or attempt to convince them (by escalating elsewhere, for example) not to reinforce their troops near the Suwałki Gap using means other than deterrence.


title: Suwałki Gap

text: The Suwałki Gap, while of relatively recent interest, has already gained some interest in literature. A fictitious account of a Russia–NATO war, where one of the war theatres is near the Suwałki Gap, was written in 2016 by Richard Shirreff, a retired British general who served for three years as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Shirreff writes in the story, which is set in 2017, that Russia could easily overwhelm the Baltic states while Western government officials struggled to find an adequate response. A crime fiction novel called "Suwalki Gap," authored by René Antoine Fayette in German, was published in 2017.


title: Junkanoo

text: Junkanoo is a street parade with music, dance, and costumes with origin in many islands across the English speaking Caribbean every Boxing Day (26 December) and New Year's Day (1 January). These cultural parades are predominantly showcased in the Bahamas where the music is also mainstreamed, and competition results are hotly contested, There are also Junkanoo parades in Miami in June and Key West in October, where local black populations have their roots in the Caribbean. In addition to being a culture dance for Afro-North Carolinians and the Garifuna people, this type of dancing is also performed in The Bahamas on Independence day and other historical holidays.


title: Junkanoo

text: The festival may have originated several centuries ago, when enslaved descendants of Africans on plantations in The Bahamas celebrated holidays granted around Christmas time with dance, music, and costumes. After emancipation the tradition continued and junkanoo evolved from simple origins to a formal, organised parade with intricate costumes, themed music and official prizes within various categories.


title: Junkanoo

text: The origin of the word "junkanoo" is disputed. Theories include that it is named after a folk hero named John Canoe or that it is derived from the French "gens inconnus" (unknown people), as masks are worn by the revelers. Douglas Chambers, professor of African studies at the University of Southern Mississippi, suggests a possible Igbo origin from the Igbo yam deity "Njoku Ji" referencing festivities in time for the new yam festival. Chambers also suggests a link with the Igbo "okonko" masking tradition of southern Igboland, which feature horned maskers and other masked characters in similar style to jonkonnu masks.


title: Junkanoo

text: Similarities with the Yoruba Egungun festivals have also been identified. However, an Akan origin is more likely because the celebration of the Fancy Dress Festivals/Masquerades are the same Christmas week (December 25–January 1) in the Central and Western Regions of Ghana and also John Canoe was in fact an existing Ahanta king and hero that ruled Axim, Ghana, before 1720, the same year the John Canoe festival was created in the Caribbean. As Jeroen Dewulf pointed out, the term may have had a religious dimension, relating to the Akan deity Nyankompong, who was known in eighteenth-century English sources as John Company.


title: Junkanoo

text: According to Edward Long, an 18th-century Jamaican slave owner/historian, the John Canoe festival was created in Jamaica and the Caribbean by enslaved Akans who backed the man known as John Canoe. Canoe, an Ahanta from Axim, Ghana, was an ally soldier for the Germans, until one day he turned his back on them for his Ahanta people and sided with Nzima and troops in order to take the area from the Germans and other Europeans. The news of his victory reached Jamaica and he has been celebrated ever since that Christmas of 1708 when he first defeated Prussic forces for Axim. Twenty years later his stronghold was broken by neighbouring Fante forces aided by the military might of the British.


title: Junkanoo

text: Ahanta, Nzima and Fante captives were taken to Jamaica as prisoners of war. The festival itself included motifs from battles typical of Akan fashion. The many war masks and war dance formations of Ahanta people became part of this celebration the world over, especially in the Caribbean. The elaborate masks and attire resemble Akan battledress with charms, referred to as a "Batakari".


title: Junkanoo

text: Djékanou is a town in central Ivory Coast. right in the middle of the Akan population of that country. It is a sub-prefecture of and the seat of Djékanou Department in Bélier Region, Lacs District. Djékanou is also a commune.


title: Junkanoo

text: Many of the colonies Jonkonnu was prominent, The Bahamas, Jamaica, (as Jankunu), Virginia celebrated Jonkonnu.


title: Junkanoo

text: Historian Stephen Nissenbaum described the festival as it was performed in 19th-century North Carolina:


title: Junkanoo

text: Essentially, it involved a band of black men—generally young—who dressed themselves in ornate and often bizarre costumes. Each band was led by a man who was variously dressed in animal horns, elaborate rags, female disguise, whiteface (and wearing a gentleman's wig!), or simply his "Sunday-go-to-meeting-suit." Accompanied by music, the band marched along the roads from plantation to plantation, town to town, accosting whites along the way and sometimes even entering their houses. In the process the men performed elaborate and (to white observers) grotesque dances that were probably of African origin. And in return for this performance they always demanded money (the leader generally carried "a small bowl or tin cup" for this purpose), though whiskey was an acceptable substitute.


title: Junkanoo

text: The Junkanoo parade has featured in movies including the James Bond film "Thunderball" (erroneously described as a local Mardi Gras-type festival), "After the Sunset", and "Jaws The Revenge", as well as in the season one episode "Calderone's Return (Part II)" of the 1984 television series "Miami Vice", taking place on the fictitious island of St. Andrews.


title: Junkanoo

text: A song titled “Junkanoo Holiday (Fallin’-Flyin’)” appears on Kenny Loggins’ 1979 album "Keep The Fire". The song was written by Loggins. This song immediately follows the hit song "This Is It" on the album. “This Is It” has a fade ending that segues into “Junkanoo Holiday (Fallin’-Flyin’)”, omitting a complete break between the two songs.


title: Junkanoo

text: In the thirteenth episode of the television show "", "", the contestants danced at a Junkanoo parade, learned about its history and competed to make the best dish for the Junkanoo King.


title: Dragon's breath (ammunition)

text: Dragon's breath is a special type of incendiary-effect round for 12 gauge () shotguns. Dragon's breath consists primarily of magnesium pellets/shards. When the round is fired, sparks and flames can shoot out to about 100 feet (30 meters), although, some sources claim it extends to 300 feet (91 meters). Dragon's breath is normally chambered in 12-gauge ″ () shot shells. The rounds are safe to fire out of an improved cylinder bore as well as a modified choke barrel, common on many shotguns.


title: Dragon's breath (ammunition)

text: While its combat or tactical usage remains undocumented, the visual effect it produces is impressive and entertaining, similar to that of a short-ranged flamethrower or fireworks. Some enthusiasts claim that the rounds are often used as a distress signal, similar to a "very short" duration emergency flare gun. The safety aspects of the ammunition are disputed, as the magnesium shards burn at approximately , which is more than enough to light a person, or house, on fire.


title: Dragon's breath (ammunition)

text: Compared to mass-produced shotgun ammunition, the pyrotechnic shell is somewhat expensive, costing $3 USD per .410 gauge shell and upwards depending on caliber and load. Due to the shells being low-pressure charged rounds, they are not suited for use in a semi-automatic shotgun: They do not produce enough recoil energy to cycle the automated action, causing the mechanism to fail to cycle.


title: Dragon's breath (ammunition)

text: The sale of Dragon's breath rounds is illegal in several states (Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, and New York) and shipping may be restricted in other locations and cities due to their inherent fire hazard.


title: Halal snack pack

text: A halal snack pack (HSP) is a fast food dish, popular in Australia, which consists of halal-certified doner kebab meat (lamb, chicken, or beef) and chips. It also includes different kinds of sauces, usually chilli, garlic, and barbecue, whilst yoghurt or yoghurt sauce, cheese, jalapeño peppers and tabbouleh are common additions. The snack pack is traditionally served in a styrofoam container, and has been described as a staple takeaway dish of kebab shops in Australia.


title: Halal snack pack

text: Some Australian restaurant menus refer to the dish as a "snack pack", "snack box" or "mixed plate". The name of the dish was chosen by the Macquarie Dictionary as the "People's Choice Word of the Year" for 2016.


title: Halal snack pack

text: The halal snack pack originated in Australia as a culinary fusion of Middle-Eastern and European cuisines. According to some, snack packs date back at least to the 1980s. They have since become a quintessential Australian dish. However, variations or similar dishes exist in other countries; examples include "doner meat and chips" in the United Kingdom, ""döner teller"" ("doner plate") in Germany, ""kapsalon"" ("barbershop") in the Netherlands and Belgium, ""kebabtallrik"" ("kebab plate") in Sweden, "gyro fries" in the United States, and ""kebab ranskalaisilla"" ('kebab with French fries') in Finland. In Adelaide, South Australia, the dish is known as an "AB". Meanwhile in Perth, Western Australia the term "meat box" is commonly used.


title: Halal snack pack

text: In late 2015, following the creation of the Facebook group, Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society, a subculture formed around the dish, it has been known to bring cultures together. This led to wide coverage of the dish in the media, as well as a notable reference by Senator Sam Dastyari in Australian Parliament during a debate about halal certification which is credited for much of the increase in attention paid to this dish.


title: Halal snack pack

text: Health concerns have been raised about the refined carbohydrate content of halal snack packs. Excess refined carbohydrates can cause obesity and heart disease, as well as cerebrovascular, metabolic and renal conditions and complications.


title: Halal snack pack

text: The Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society is a Facebook group established in December 2015 that is dedicated to the halal snack pack. After its establishment, the group had 16,000 members sign on in its first month, and had almost 90,000 members in April 2016. The site encourages users to post reviews of halal snack packs they consume at various restaurants and kebab shops throughout Australia. The reviews sometimes include images of the dish, and are typically based upon the criteria of meat, chips and sauce quality, halal signage, packaging, price and the greeting diners receive, all of which are based upon a scale of 1–10. As of March 2016, the site refers to the "standard" price of a halal snack pack as AUD $10.


title: Halal snack pack

text: One of the goals of the group is to identify the potential for the world's best halal snack pack. The Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society also raises funds to support the Australian Relief Organisation, an organisation that assists underprivileged people to attain cataract surgery and assists orphanages with matters regarding water supplies.


title: Halal snack pack

text: The group has Muslim and non-Muslim members, who refer to one another as "brothers and sisters". Users on the site have been derided by other users at times for putting tomato sauce or salad on the dish, which the site discourages, referring to such users as "haram dingos". The site also states that such users who add tomato sauce or salad may be banned from the group.


title: Halal snack pack

text: The former Australian Labor Party Senator Sam Dastyari is a member of the Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society, and has publicly stated support for halal products and certification.


title: Halal snack pack

text: Some kebab shops and restaurants have realised significantly increased sales after being reviewed on the group's Facebook page. For example, Metro One in the inner west area of Sydney had revenue increases of over 75% after being featured on the site as making one of the best halal snack packs in the city.


title: Halal snack pack

text: In July 2016, then Labor Senator Sam Dastyari invited the One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson out for a halal snack pack after she won a Senate seat in the 2016 Australian federal election. She rejected his proposal, saying, “It’s not happening, not interested in halal, thank you”. Hanson then elaborated, stating, “I’m not interested in it. I don’t believe in halal certification,” and went on to claim that “98 percent of Australians” opposed it. In response, several Australian restaurants created a Pauline Hanson-inspired halal snack pack. There has also been a GoFundMe campaign to turn Hanson's former fish and chip shop into a pop-up halal snack pack stand.


title: Halal snack pack

text: The "AB" dish in Adelaide is gyros meat topped with chips, tomato sauce, chilli sauce, barbecue sauce, and garlic sauce. The dish is sometimes served with alcoholic beverages. Two restaurants in Adelaide claim they invented the dish: the North Adelaide Burger Bar (also known as the Red & White) between 1969 and 1972, and the Blue & White in 1989. The "AB" may be placed at the centre of the table and shared.


title: Member of Congress

text: A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalent term within a parliamentary system of government.


title: Member of Congress

text: In referring to an individual lawmaker in their capacity of serving in the United States Congress, a bicameral legislature, the term "Member of Congress" is used less often than other terms in the United States. This is because in the United States the word "Congress" is used as a descriptive term for the collective body of legislators, from both houses of its bicameral federal legislature: the Senate and the House of Representatives. For this reason, and in order to distinguish who is a member of which house, a member of the Senate is typically referred to as Senator (followed by from ), and a member of the House of Representatives is usually referred to as Congressman or Congresswoman (followed by from the district of ), or Representative ( from the district of ). Although senators are members of Congress, they are not normally referred to or addressed as "Congressmen" or "Congresswomen" or "Congresspeople".


title: Member of Congress

text: Members of Congress in both houses are elected by direct popular vote. Senators are elected via a statewide vote and representatives by votes in each congressional district. Congressional districts are apportioned to the states, once every ten years, based on population figures from the most recent nationwide census. Each of the 435 members of the House of Representatives is elected to serve a two-year term representing the people of their district. Each state, regardless of its size, has at least one representative. Each of the 100 members of the Senate is elected to serve a six-year term representing the people of their state. Each state, regardless of its size, has two senators. Senatorial terms are staggered, so every two years approximately one-third of the Senate is up for election. Each staggered group of one-third of the senators is called a 'class'. No state has both its senators in the same class.


title: Member of Congress

text: The United States Congress was created in Article I of the Constitution, which laid out the limitations and powers of Congress. Article I grants Congress legislative power, lists the enumerated powers and allows Congress to make laws that are necessary and proper to carry out the enumerated powers. It specifies the election and composition of the House of Representatives, and the election and composition of the Senate, and the qualifications necessary to serve in each chamber.


title: Member of Congress

text: The Seventeenth Amendment changed how senators were elected. Originally, senators were elected by state legislatures. The Seventeenth Amendment changed this to senators being elected directly by popular vote.


title: Member of Congress

text: Controversy surrounds the question of whether the federal government or any other governmental entity has the right to regulate how many times representatives and senators can hold office.


title: Taurean Prince

text: Taurean Waller-Prince (born March 22, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Baylor Bears. He was drafted by the Utah Jazz with the 12th pick in the 2016 NBA draft but was traded to the Atlanta Hawks where he played for three seasons before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets in the 2019 off-season. In January 2021, he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.


title: Taurean Prince

text: Prince played three seasons of high school basketball under head coach Jim Weaver at Earl Warren High School in San Antonio, Texas. As a senior, he led the team to the state semifinals. He originally chose to play college basketball with the LIU-Brooklyn Blackbirds, but switched to Baylor due to a coaching change within the former program.


title: Taurean Prince

text: Prince played 24 games off the bench in his freshman season. He finished the year averaging 3.7 points and 2.2 rebounds in 6.4 minutes per game. In the spring prior to his sophomore season, Prince was on the Big 12 Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll. After averaging 6.2 points and 2.8 rebounds in 14.2 minutes per game and appearing in all 38 of Baylor's games, he won the Big 12 Sixth Man Award and earned all-conference honors. Entering his fourth season, Fran Fraschilla labeled him as a strong candidate for Big 12 Player of the Year in 2015–16.


title: Taurean Prince

text: On June 23, 2016, Prince was selected by the Utah Jazz with the 12th overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft. His rights were later traded to the Atlanta Hawks on July 7 in a three-team deal also involving the Indiana Pacers the Jazz received George Hill and the Pacers received Jeff Teague . On July 15, he signed his rookie scale contract with the Hawks. On March 11, 2017, he had a then season-best 17 points in a 107–90 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. On April 6, he scored a career-high 20 points in a 123–116 win over the Boston Celtics. With 11 points in Game 4 of the Hawks' first-round playoff series against the Washington Wizards, Prince became the first Hawks rookie to reach double-figures in his first four playoff games since Pete Maravich did it in five straight in 1971. During his rookie season, Prince had multiple assignments with the Long Island Nets of the NBA Development League, pursuant to the flexible assignment rule.


title: Taurean Prince

text: On December 12, 2017, Prince scored a career-high 24 points in a 123–114 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Three days later, he made a career-high five 3-pointers and had 17 points in a 96–94 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. On December 29, he had a career-high 30 points and 10 rebounds in a 111–98 loss to the Toronto Raptors. Prince matched a career high with five 3-pointers and extended his career-high streak of games with at least one 3-pointer to 17. On February 2, 2018, he set a new career high with 31 points in a 119–110 loss to the Boston Celtics. On March 11, he set a new career high with 38 points in a 129–122 loss to the Chicago Bulls. Six days later, he had another 38-point effort in a 122–117 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. On April 8, he made seven of eight 3-pointers to score 33 points in a 112–106 win over the Celtics.


title: Taurean Prince

text: On October 19, in just the second game of the season, Prince scored a season-high 28 points against the Grizzlies. On January 13, 2019, against the Bucks, Prince returned to action after missing 18 games with a left ankle sprain.


title: Taurean Prince

text: On July 6, 2019, Prince, along with a 2021 second-round pick, was traded to the Brooklyn Nets for Allen Crabbe, the draft rights to Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and a protected 2020 first round pick.


title: Taurean Prince

text: On January 14, 2021, Prince and center Jarrett Allen were traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a multi-player, four-team deal with the Houston Rockets and Indiana Pacers that sent James Harden to Brooklyn. On April 27, he underwent a successful left ankle arthroscopic surgery after missing three games with left ankle soreness.


title: Taurean Prince

text: On August 3, 2021, Prince, along with a 2022 second round pick and cash considerations, was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Ricky Rubio. On June 30, 2022, Prince signed a two-year, $16 million contract extension with the Timberwolves.