Post Hekaton

     Celebrating one-hundred posts over forty-six months, the process of writing a blog has been informative and insightful because it requires an investigative expansion on seedling ideas. Presented is an incomplete list of the benefits of blogging or any writing process that practices research and presentation skills.      

1.) Research Is Not Everything. Source abundance or scarcity cannot dictate the topic of research. Writing themes are a conglomeration of interest, information, and education combined to draw conclusions that are succinct if not novel.

2.) Information is easier to digest when broken up with interesting facts and sides notes to keep
attention. As noticeable by a perusal of popular internet sites, the list format is an effective, marketable way to deliver memorable statistics to interested consumers. Prior to the impact of internet-market research and still encouraged in high school language classes, outline format is one of the best ways to organize information and predetermine presentation. The freedom and informality of a blog allows for unrelated connections, images, and splashes of personal insight.

3.) If original intentions change, adopt the purpose to align with the facts of presentation or abandon that topic completely. Flexibility is a useful skill whether occupationally, militarily, or in writing. As many fiction authors have commented, powerful characters can alter the original design of the story. Similarly, topical research and can the initial conclusion or even the topic altogether. Many of the posts on this blog were intended to focus on a single event or achievement, but the underlying motivation or symbolism of that event grew to overshadow history and became a metaphor for ideal virtues instead.

4.) Self-satisfaction and sense of achievement are more rewarding than public interest. Type A and Type B personalities are the two large groups people sort themselves into similar to introvert and extrovert. Motivation for writing must be internalized because wide viewership or viral public acceptance are not guaranteed. Desire to learn, focus, and discipline are necessary for the slow investment of writing.

5.) Write what you know but constantly learn new things - on every topic. The human brain is adaptive and capable of reason, memorization, and analysis which are enhanced through application and use and evaporate with stagnation. Constant inquiry and educational vigilance sharpens the minds prowess and capabilities like the muscles of the body and the skills of life.

6.) Short, information infused articles are different from the creative process of fictional short stories and less formal than research papers for history or science. Writing through the education system is viewed as a necessary, tasking chore. Writing in professional fields from journalism to science is necessary to retain position and earn income makes writing as fundamental to the career model as farming was to human history. Turning writing into a pastime or hobby carries the benefits of writing professionally to keep grammar and spelling skills sharp while gifting a connotation of enjoyment much as reading for pleasure enraptures millions of people each day.

As always, thank you for the many of you around the world for your support over nearly four years. One hundred posts have covered a wide variety of topics from feminism to cooking, Germany to South Africa, and imperialism to self reliance.
     Unfortunately, due to constrictions on free time with two hours of daily commute and being a newly married man, on my one-hundredth post I announce to all my readers around the world that by the end of the year, posts will no longer be bi-monthly. My attentions will be turned to focus on other writing interests, and while blogging has been informative, as the points above indicate, there are many other lessons to learn in life. When certain issues come to mind, they will be assimilated in the long list of topics already found on this blog since the initial and enduring purpose of Wyyes: microcosm is to clean my mind of things that have cluttered it for years.

Thank you all.


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Agatha Tyche

The Cat of Many Names

     With the largest latitude range of any predatory species in the world, Puma concolor is known to many peoples in many languages. The huge habitat range and variation has long enraptured the residents of the Americas from Chile to Canada, and the multitude of languages has given the American cat the most common names of any species in the world. The mountain lion, panther, American lion, puma had the respect of the Incan Empire, terrified American gold miners, and enraptured the Florida public merely two decades ago.
     Destruction of limited resources and habitats is associated with recent urban population and industry expansions. Habitats of many species have become sectionalized or completely isolated. The main concern of conservation are habitat and genetic variability retention. A prominent example of environmental preservation is the Florida panther. Although this species survives in diverse habitats, spatial reductions for agriculture, mining, and urban growth have severely impacted the population. Because of an increased mining industry in and around panther habitats, toxic chemicals, such as mercury, dangerously increased in blood samples of many panthers and further threatened health.
     Efforts to expand the Florida panther range into central Florida have met some success as long as new areas connect to older, established habitats. Poor evaluations on individual panther ranges, habitat requirements, and the number of panthers capable of migrating all negatively impacted the territorial predictions, but governmental land use designation is one of the largest enemies to the panther. Large-scale land protection is the simplest method of preserving the panther since heavily managing isolated populations is both expensive and difficult. Estimates on the panther’s population size involve radio-tracking and traditional footprint and feces methods.

     Other than habitat loss, disease is a major threat to the perseverance of the subspecies. For a full century the Florida panther population remained under 500 individuals and resulted in significant inbreeding with low rates of fecundity and high levels of heart disease. Sperm counts in Florida panthers were 95% malformed, the worst of any known species. The high levels of genetic similarity also threated the population from many types of pathogens. An outbreak of Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV) from 2002 to 2005 debilitated a majority of the population. Fecundity rates remain low in the Florida panther due to transmammary infections that kill newborn kittens.
     By the late 1980s the panther population faltered between 15 to 30 individuals. Large-scale public support brought 8 female panthers from eastern Texas  in 1995 that were introduced to Florida habitats to repopulate and decrease the severe level of inbreeding. As genetic variability rebounded, the population tripled. Genetic heterozygosity doubled but remains insufficient to recover the population if current rates of inbreeding continue. Inter-crossed individuals show higher litter success rates, little heart trouble, and increased sperm counts.
     Habitat protection is essential for the survival of the Florida panther. To increase the genetic variability and avoid extreme management of the subspecies, territorial expansion and habitat extensions are necessary. Although introduction of several Texan panthers in 1995 successfully boosted population numbers via reproduction and reduced phenotypic signs of heavy inbreeding depression, isolated populations remain at risk for diseases. Leukemia, immunodeficiency, and transmammary diseases all play determining roles in the newly diversified genome. While urban development and habitat destruction play a large factor in the existence of the Florida panther, genetic variability and disease susceptibility will determine their success in expanding the population size and range.
     Despite these ongoing difficulties, threats, and risks, the Florida population of Puma concolor has rebounded since its near extinction in the mid-1980s. Through determined conservation effort, widespread public support, and governmental recognition of habitat lands, the Florida panther has seen a resurgence in numbers and health. While the subspecies is still mired in the problems of small population numbers, two decades of intense efforts have secured the species for the enjoyment of the next generation.

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Agatha Tyche

Developing Insanity

     Edgar Allan Poe crafts the elements of fear, death, and madness to connect parallel themes in his stories. Although Poe’s stories contain limited variation, his works offer deep insight into his morbid writing style. Poe believed that fear was essential for the basic plot of a story because fear communicates emotion to the reader through tension and unfamiliarity. Although murder was seen as taboo in writings at the time, Poe did not limit his writing content for the moral preferences of the society of his age. The author used murder or the threat of death to bring forth fear’s vast power over the reader. As the narrator of each story drew closer to the time of executionary plans, the tension and fear of the one to be murdered grew exponentially, all while Poe brings the reader to sympathize with the narrator. Another common method of bringing fear into his writing was by strange sounds near the time of death. Typically, these sounds were the beating of a heart or the screech of some unknown door.
     Eyes emphasize an object of fear for the narrator in several of Poe’s tales. The speaker in the story is often fascinated with the eyes of another which eventually provokes the narrator’s fear. The most notable of these examples is the hated blue eyes of the old man in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and the cutting out of Pluto’s eye in “The Black Cat.” The body of many of Poe's stories has a deep undercurrent of fear which pervades each paragraph and progressively seeps into the reader’s consciousness.

     Through the stories, the narrator changes temperament from calm to angry, usually resulting in death. In “The Black Cat” a kind, gentle man in the beginning becomes an unrepentant murderer in the end.
     As fear manifests the emotions of the tales, death forms the substance and result of that fear. Poe emphasizes that death is inevitable and universal usually through the narrator's aside commentary to the reader. Another parallelism in these stories is that the narrator lives either alone or with a single companion who the narrator eventually kills. In “The Tale-Tell Heart” the narrator kills the old man whom he cares for, but while the murder is testified as being planned, the narrator seems to perform the method of suffocation without foresight. Similarly, the narrator’s wife who is murdered in “The Black Cat,” has an accidental death by the hands of the narrator, and her body is stowed behind the cellar wall. In “The Raven” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” the narrator lives by himself and performs the foul task of murder without worry of others’ notice.
     Poe attempts to give death a certain beauty and dismisses life shortly after to emphasize death’s destruction. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator shows extra concern before he actually murders, and the old man suspects nothing because the narrator is even kinder to the man than normal. As death approaches, the narrator’s mental condition falters to present Poe’s bloody, methodical murders.
     As Poe advances through his writing, the narrator, who once appeared fearful and angry, is increasingly presented as mad via vehement announcements, repeating details, repetitive habits, and the seeking of protection in enclosed rooms.
     The narrator gradually descends from debatable sanity to the maelstrom of madness. While presented as unstable in the beginning of most of the stories, the narrator slides downward in a spiral of insanity and quickly becomes believably mad. Both in “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator specifically claims his sanity in the narrative prologue and tells his story to prove it. Throughout the story, the narrator rejects his deteriorating state and protests that he is not mad and was fully aware of his actions while relying on the proof of his clever and cautious disposals of the victim. Although the narrator insists on his sanity, Poe presents contradictory evidence and reveals the true madness.
     The narrator interprets his behavior from his own opinion in “The Black Cat” by his fearful fascination with the cat’s seemingly supernatural abilities, but the narrator interprets his behavior from others’ opinions in “The Tell-Tale Heart” when protesting his insanity in the introduction of the story. The narrator in “The Black Cat” notices his own behavioral downgrade through the treatment of his wife and pets. However, the speaker accuses the police for mocking his agitation at the sound of the beating heart in “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

     Meticulous attention rivets the speaker to his victim’s emotions and the potential discovery of the body. Poe has the narrator plan ahead in “The Cask of Amontillado” by storing supplies in the cellar with which to murder his enemy and flawlessly execute the crime. The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” cleverly disposes of the body without blood or dust’s revealing the fate or location of the victim. Lastly, in “The Black Cat” the narrator disposes of the debris from the wall and repaints the wall to hide all recent disturbance.
     Poe’s most emphatic revelation of the narrator’s insanity comes from the character’s indistinguishability between the physical world and the world of the mind. The speaker cannot overcome the fact that his delirious imagination corrupts the data of the senses. The narrator constantly twitches uncomfortably with small, terrified movements while talking or mumbling to himself repetitiously.
     The speaker hears and sees nonexistent things which only assist in his appearing mad to the reader. The narrator believes that the cat, Pluto, is a witch in animal form in “The Black Cat,” and in “The Raven” the speaker believes the carrion bird is actually conversing with him. The loud beating of a dead man’s heart concludes that the speaker of “The Tell-Tale Heart” imagines unreal possibilities.
     Edgar Allan Poe has striking similarities in his work that link the topics of his tales together. Each story creates its own world of insanity while remaining united with reality enough to stir nightmarish fear within the reader.

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Agatha Tyche

Rhodes Hard Change

     Everything man has ever created has been from this earth. The value of our creations depends upon the skill of creation and the cost of the material which is dependent on its usefulness and scarcity. Through human history, gemstones have proven valuable for both reasons being difficult to find and procure and widely applicable. Of all the gems, diamonds capture the modern mind most severely, but the unbreakable, clear crystal's first use was to sharpen stone weapons to keep mankind alive.
     Diamond mining was underway in India by the 300s B.C. and were traded throughout the world for millenia. By the 1700s Indian mine production faltered and encouraged travelers to seek mines elsewhere - something never done before. By 1725 Brazil became the new producer of the world's diamonds and continued producing under 50,000 carats a year. By 1870 Brazil's production had plateaued at 200,000 carats annually. In 1866 a 21 carat diamond was discovered in a stream bed in South Africa and created a mining boom that continued through the last three centuries. In the first ten years after mining began in South Africa, global production doubled, and by 1882 more diamonds had entered the market than had existed for 2,000 years.
   An asthmatic teenager from England who traveled to South Africa for his health in  1871 and, leaving his brother's cotton farm, realized the potential from these new, enormously productive mines. Combining small mining rights he had purchased with a friend over the years, he established, De Beers Mining Company in 1880. By 1888 he had purchased Kimberly Central Diamond Mining Company for $25 million. A few years later De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd controlled 90% of global diamond production.

     With diamond production escalating faster than market demands, prices crashed, but Rhodes, a clever businessman, used his dominance of the production market to secure escalated sales prices through so release of stockpiled reserves. His production and reserve monopoly made this strategy successful in controlling the market and effectively established a vertical monopoly as Rockefeller achieved with oil production in America in the same period.
     Aside from his business accomplishments, Rhodes gained several political offices of the Cape Colony in South Africa. An extremely motivated imperialist, Rhodes pushed for northern expansion into the interior and created tension with native tribes, Boers, and other imperialist powers including Portugal, Germany, and Belguim. His press northward to control the mineral rights of Africa's interior was a significant motivator to the 1884 Berlin Conference, the "Scramble for Africa" that drew boundaries on African lands for European empires.
     A political businessman of extreme wealth, Rhodes used his effectively unlimited mineral rights to expand British influence northward, and he sought to establish a Red Line railroad from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt to connect the continents lands. Though unsuccessful with his imperialist goals, his other successes made him a made of wealth and renown. At his death in 1902 his will donated much of his money to established the Rhodes scholarship which allowed promising Germans, Americans, and British opportunity to study at Oxford University "regardless of race" effectively opening the scholarship to native Africans in the decades to follow.
     Buried in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) Rhodes's legacy has soured over the century. His De Beers mines have lost the absolute monopoly of the market, the British Empire has relinquished her African colonies, and his political history is now seen as oppressive and racist. None the less, Rhodes started from nothing and used his own skill, ingenuity, and opportunities to become one of the most successful businessmen in the late nineteenth century and a testament to the driving energy of the British Empire.


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Agatha Tyche

Word versus Word

     While conquering the world, Alexander’s army relied on the phalanx formations for military movement forcing each man to rely on the defense of the man beside him; despite the army’s reliance on each other, after the fall of the Persian Empire, Alexander’s leaders’ phalanx-alliance split and began to fall in on itself as the enemy beside became more deadly than the enemy ahead. An excellent, early example of this mounting distrust and unease is Alexander's suspicion and ultimate execution of his heretofore trusted general Philotas. Philotas’ alleged conspiracy demonstrates the conflicts Alexander faced after the fall of the Persian empire. The accounts of this event vary in their presentations in ancient sources which create various interpretations of the occurrence. Key surviving ancient records include those of Plutarch, Quintus Curius Rufus, and Arrian which mostly confirm the reliability of the event.
     Plutarch primarily focuses on Philotas’ character, but clearly describes the order in which the conspiracy was discovered. During his examination of the trial, Plutarch only mentions evidence that had been well established through Philotas’ mistress’s secret reports to Alexander, who endured Philotas’ insults in silence. The consequences of Philotas’ trial resulted in Parmenion’s execution. Alexander’s underhanded elimination of two very prominent officers instilled a previously unknown fear in his remaining commanders. A further catalyst for this fear was Alexander’s murder of Cleitus shortly after this incident.
     Since Quintus Curius Rufus focused mainly on the social and political portions of Alexander’s conquests, he provides a very descriptive analysis of the events surrounding Philotas’ trial. Like Plutarch, Rufus initiates the conspiracy plot with Dimnos’ confession to his homosexual lover. This key information is brought to Philotas’ attention but is rejected due to the unreliability of its source.1 Because of the delay in Alexander’s reception of the conspiratory information, he charged Philotas with treason. A secret meeting afterward confirmed Philotas’ guilt through a confession under torture. When brought on trial already in chains, Philotas unsuccessfully defended himself against hateful attacks by other generals and Alexander himself. Although Philotas was accused of treason and executed, none of the other conspirators ever named Philotas as being involved.2
     After concluding the guilt of Philotas and the others, the conspirators were stoned, Parmenion was assassinated, and Alexander Lyncestes was executed after three years of imprisonment.3 The quick verdict and sketchy evidence used in Philotas’ conviction later affected different conspirators’ approach to both assassinating and warning Alexander, notably in the example of the basileus paiges.
     Quintus Curius Rufus provides several reasons which motivated the mutinous plots against Alexander. While on trial Hegalochus, a conspirator with the paiges, shouted his desire to eliminate Alexander for the following: Alexander’s adoption of Persian mannerisms, his belittling of Philip II’s and the army’s contributions, the oppression Alexander enforced on the Macedonian victors of his conquest while allowing the losers a lighter yoke of burden, and Alexander’s demand of prokinesis. With the conquest of Persia complete, Alexander began acting like a master over slaves which free Macedonians naturally rejected.
     While Plutarch focuses on character and Quintus Curius Rufus studies social and political factors, Arrian preserves a militaristic viewpoint which minimizes his comments on Philotas’ trial but allows for a fuller analysis of the effects on the army as the conspiracies continued. Philotas had commanded a large portion of the Companion cavalry, but after his execution, Alexander no longer permitted any one general to control such a large portion of his troops and consequently split Philotas’ old squadrons between Hephastion and Cleitus the Black.
     The consistency throughout the sources of Alexander’s learning of the plot assists in its factuality; modern authors concur. Although the causes for the conspiracies mesh nicely in the ancient sources, a Macedonian social tradition that escapes ancient authors’ attention; Macedonian kings normally died by assassination or in battle. This bloody tradition helped motivate Alexander’s later paranoia about conspiracy.4 As Alexander went further east, the toils of the campaign increased while the rewards shrunk. The resulting rigors inflamed resentment in the army.
     Alexander changed several policies in the wake of Philotas’ trial. His paranoia began to express itself both through Philotas’ death as well as Parmenion’s, which was more for what might be done than any disloyal action previous to the assassination. This paranoid killing spree eventually eliminated all capable heirs to Alexander’s throne and terrified the remaining commanders into submission since outspokenness against Alexander meant risking his anger. Modern authors also agree with the ancients that Alexander’s mistrust of generals forced him to break military units further among commanders to minimize the impact a general would have in attempts to oust Alexander.
     Each ancient source contributes to the overall comprehension of Philotas’ trial through different author’s focuses on varied topics. Plutarch contributes significantly in understanding Philotas’ character and interaction with the other officers around him. While explaining the history leading up to the event with sufficient detail, Plutarch neglects the conflicts of the trial itself. Quintus Curius Rufus thoroughly explains each step progressively throughout the event but lacks any defined consequences other than the immediate. Arrian, the opposite of Quintus Curius Rufus, neatly generalizes the entire proceedings up to Philotas’ execution and carefully analyzes the results of the verdict both on the army as a whole as well as on Alexander himself. By neglecting even one of these sources in analyzing any event in Alexander’s life, key information is lost and bias in the authors’ focus is emphasized whether in reference to politics, military, or psychology.

     History is composed of the lives and actions of billions of people. Analysis of history should call upon multiple sources and different accounts wherever possible to make full use the lessons of the past have on the present.

1 Rufus and Plutarch concur on the order of events leading up to Philotas’ trial. Philotas rejected the information because it came from the brother of a male prostitute during a quarrel between lovers.
2 Alexander’s main accusation of Philotas was guilt through silence. Philotas knew of his condemnation before the verdict since he gave his defense in chains, and Alexander, while present for the accusations, left during Philotas’ defense, signifying a lack of an aquittal.
3 Since “Philip was safer in combat than in the theatre: often avoiding the hands of his enemies, he could not escape those of his own people,” Alexander attempted to protect himself from possible threats.
4 Because “Great men have often met their ends at the hands of insignificant agents or even for relatively minor causes,” Alexander can be justified for executing Philotas for negligence.

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Agatha Tyche

Thirst for Glory

     In The Illiad Achilles agrees to fight alongside Agnememnon's Greek coalition against Troy to obtain eternal fame, glory, immortality. In The Aeneid Achilles is met after centuries in the afterlife and confesses that if he had known how empty victories were after death, he would have lived as long as possible. Despite that advice, Horatio Nelson strong of body, mind, and heart still sought battlefield victory to earn a place in the annals of history and the admiration of their fellow British subjects.
     Born into an unremarkable but comfortable household, Horatio Nelson used family connections to join a British naval ship at twelve where he traveled to the Indian Ocean and the Arctic. After experience in the West Indies during the American Revolutionary War, he was promoted to lieutenant and later captain. His exploits were not unsuccessful but were unpopular because his enforcement of the Navigation Act hurt the incomes of other British captains involved in war smuggling with American merchants. At this rejection from fellow officers, Nelson's low morale led him to his wife who returned with him to England while wasting the time away between British involvement in the American and French Revolutions.
     Losing his right eye at Calvi in 1794 and his right arm at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797, Nelson captained the Agnememnon through the Mediterranean. At Cape St. Vincent, Nelson led an attack against a fleet of twenty-seven Spanish ships and alone fought off seven ships before his allies could reach the line.
One of the best examples of his genius and exploitation of his contemporaries's expectations, the Battle of the Nile in 1798 had Nelson's fleet decimate Napoleon's anchored ships and eliminated the French attempt to control the Suez Canal. A disaster for the French, Nelson's brilliant attack forced Napoleon to return to France without his army and without victory.
     From a social standpoint, Nelson's most controversial brash act came while stationed at Napels shortly after the Battle of the Nile where he met Emma, his soul-mate mistress. By 1801 they were living together and had a daughter, but Nelson never divorced his wife. Despite his personal life's scandal, one of his most famous audacious acts occurred at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. Putting a telescope to his blind eye, he announced that he could not see the order to retreat. Victory in the resulting battle from this bold move gained him enormous popularity with the British public but created some tension with his high command.
     After a long trans-Atlantic chase for the Spanish Armada, Nelson's fleet blockaded a large French-Spanish fleet at Cadiz, Spain. Under severe beratement by Napoleon and with the threat of losing command, the French Admiral Pierre Villeneuve sailed to meet Nelson. Outnumbered and with a weak wind, the British ships split into two columns and attacked the French-Spanish fleets head-on. Once the line broke, the British leads raked the enemy and divided the French column into three segments. The British had 27 ships but suffered no casualties against a combined French-Spanish navy of 33 ships that suffered seventeen captured and one sunk. Though Nelson lost his life in the battle, his reputation as a brilliant naval commander and the results of the Battle of Trafalgar secured British safety from a Napoleon invasion and gave them undisputed dominance of the sea for a full century.

     The legend of Admiral Nelson can never be separated from the Battle of Trafalgar. When news of the victory reached England on November 5, 1805, emotions mixed triumph with the loss of Nelson. Preserved in brandy, Nelson's body was returned to England where unprecedented, enormous crowds marched for his funeral. His body was laid to rest in an ebony sarcophagus originally commissioned by King Henry VIII three centuries earlier in St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
     Despite poor ongoing reports on the continent, the naval battle secured Britain from invasion and helped lead to Napoleon's defeat. The destruction of the alliance navy decimated Napoleon's confidence in his naval forces which led him to attempt to beat Britain economically with the continental system. This economic warfare led to tension with Spain and Russia and incited the Peninsular War which significantly contributed to Napoleon's defeat.
     Aside from giving his country security for the rest of the Napoleonic Wars, Nelson's victory at Trafalgar initiated the uncontested dominance of the British navy over oceanic traffic for over a century. This undisputed naval power enabled the blossoming of the great British Empire under Queen Victoria so that the sun could never set over the vast holdings. "England demands that every man should do his duty." That is exactly what Nelson did.

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Agatha Tyche

Crowning Achievement

     With the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the loss of Roman political and educational traditions during the Dark Ages, conflict ignited with every coronation, declaration, and decree whether between kingdoms, peoples, or tribes. During some of the darkest days of the Dark Ages, Charles Martel, a Mayor of the Palace for the Frankish Merovingian kings, fought off a Muslim invasion force that kept lands north of modern Spain from Islamic control. The grandson of Charles Martel, Charlemagne (Charles the Great) eventually held the legitimate title of king and sought an expanse in control of European lands. A great conqueror from a family of competent leaders, Charlemagne earned a reputation as a man of ambition and  strong character and as a man who sought to establish a new permanent empire.
     The legacy of Charlemagne extends into history, religion, politics, education, and the nearly every conflict between the great powers of Europe over the last twelve hundred years. His influence resulted from the power of his birth, ambition of his mind, strength of his will, and conviction of his heart, but his lasting appeal grew from his title of "emperor" and the unification of a huge swathe of Europe under his reign. While in Rome securing the power of pope from dissenters, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as emperor. The Frankish kings had long been defenders and protectors of the pope, the Bishop of Rome, while Byzantine emperors placed their forces in conflict against the burgeoning Islamic caliphates. With the Frankish king at hand and the Byzantine emperor unreachable and uninterested, Leo III strategized to create an emperor in Europe and a powerful friend to the papacy.
     Charlemagne's coronation during Christmas mass in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome in 800 A.D. changed the future of the world macroscopically. For centuries, European rulers justified their claims to the throne by heredity linked to Charlemagne. To strengthen this connection in the minds of subjects and contestants to the throne, several emperors chose Christmas Day for their coronation ceremonies. The day, the most important Christian day after Easter, also emphasized that the ruler had the favor of God indicating that to rebel against a him was to go against God. Though many Holy Roman Emperors sought coronation by the pope in Rome, Charlemagne's crowning emphasized his dominance throughout the region at the time.

     Charlemagne's influence led others to mirror his example and flaunt their power in a way reflective of the past and strengthen the claim to power by drawing similarities to Charlemagne. His grandson, Charles the Bald, was also crowned in Rome on Christmas Day, 875, but died two years later. Otto II was crowned emperor in 967, the last true emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
     Other than those two men with strong bonds to Charlemagne and significant influence on the course of history, the other coronations seem almost inconsequential, but of thousands of individuals crowned through European history, few could pretend the prestige of Charlemagne's might. In the year 1000 A.D. Stephen I became the first king of Hungary at his Christmas coronation. Henry III of the Holy Roman Empire was crowned in 1046, and William I, the Conqueror, was crowned King of England in Westminster Abby in 1066 just months after the Battle of Hastings. With the Crusades becoming increasingly important, Boudouin I was crowned king of Jerusalem in 1100, Roger II earned crowning as king of Sicily in 1130.
     All these coronations of kings and emperors occurred on Christmas Day, but many coronations could not wait until Christmas because the ruler had to solidify power claims immediately to ward off rivals. As history wore on and Charlemagne's direct impact became diluted, fewer Christmas coronations were attempted, but Charles II was crowned King of Scotland in 1651. That so many were able to link their power to Charlemagne and Christendom is a testament to the legacy of European kingship.
     While Christmas is traditionally a religious celebration, men never stop living. Natural disasters, battles, and significant political events have all occurred on Christmas Day, just another day in the year. Clovis, King of the Franks, baptized himself on Christmas in 498. This event linked the Frankish realm to Rome and secured Christianity in Europe as a legitimate force in post-Roman politics. Without this Charlemagne would not have been crowned in Rome by a pope.
     Christmas is a special time of year and has been celebrated as the birth of Christ since the fourth century. This day marks the anniversary of Charlemagne's, Otto the Great's, William the Conqueror's, and Emporer Hirohito's coronations, the 1717 flood Deltawerken, and the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachav as General Secretary of the U.S.S.R. Nearly every country and culture celebrates Christmas in some fashion from religious services, religious holidays, gift exchanges, and seasonal traditions. May you all enjoy your holiday whenever you celebrate it.

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Agatha Tyche