Paganism is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism. This was either because they were rural and provincial relative to the Christian population, or because they were not milites Christi. Alternate terms in Christian texts for the same group were hellene and heathen. Ritual sacrifice was an integral part of ancient Graeco-Roman religion and was regarded as an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. Paganism was a pejorative and derogatory term for polytheism, implying its inferiority. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry". During and after the Middle Ages, the term paganism was applied to any unfamiliar religion, the term presumed a belief in false god. Most modern pagan religions existing today express a world view, pantheistic, polytheistic or animistic; the origin of the application of the term pagan to polytheism is debated. In the 19th century, paganism was adopted as a self-descriptor by members of various artistic groups inspired by the ancient world.

In the 20th century, it came to be applied as a self-descriptor by practitioners of Modern Paganism, Neopagan movements and Polytheistic reconstructionists. Modern pagan traditions incorporate beliefs or practices, such as nature worship, that are different from those in the largest world religions. Contemporary knowledge of old pagan religions comes from several sources, including anthropological field research records, the evidence of archaeological artifacts, the historical accounts of ancient writers regarding cultures known to Classical antiquity, it is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century, people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised. The notion of paganism, as it is understood today, was created by the early Christian Church, it was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition. As such, throughout history it was used in a derogatory sense; the term pagan is derived from Late Latin paganus, revived during the Renaissance.

Itself deriving from classical Latin pagus which meant'region delimited by markers', paganus had come to mean'of or relating to the countryside','country dweller','villager'. It is related to pangere and comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag-; the adoption of paganus by the Latin Christians as an all-embracing, pejorative term for polytheists represents an unforeseen and singularly long-lasting victory, within a religious group, of a word of Latin slang devoid of religious meaning. The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, in connection with the Latin church. Elsewhere, Hellene or gentile remained the word for pagan. Medieval writers assumed that paganus as a religious term was a result of the conversion patterns during the Christianization of Europe, where people in towns and cities were converted more than those in remote regions, where old ways lingered. However, this idea has multiple problems. First, the word's usage as a reference to non-Christians pre-dates that period in history. Second, paganism within the Roman Empire centred on cities.

The concept of an urban Christianity as opposed to a rural paganism would not have occurred to Romans during Early Christianity. Third, unlike words such as rusticitas, paganus had not yet acquired the meanings used to explain why it would have been applied to pagans. Paganus more acquired its meaning in Christian nomenclature via Roman military jargon. Early Christians saw themselves as Milites Christi. A good example of Christians still using paganus in a military context rather than religious is in Tertullian's De Corona Militis XI. V, where the Christian is referred to as paganus: Paganus acquired its religious connotations by the mid-4th century; as early as the 5th century, paganos was metaphorically used to denote persons outside the bounds of the Christian community. Following the sack of Rome by the Visigoths just over fifteen years after the Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I, murmurs began to spread that the old gods had taken greater care of the city than the Christian God.

In response, Augustine of Hippo wrote De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos. In it, he contrasted the fallen "city of Man" to the "city of God" of which all Christians were citizens. Hence, the foreign invaders were "not of the city" or "rural"; the term pagan is not attested in the English language until the 17th century. In addition to infidel and heretic, it was used as one of several pejorative Christian counterparts to gentile as used in Judaism, to kafir and mushrik as in Islam. In the Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire of the newly Christianizing Roman Empire, Koine Greek became associated with the traditional polytheistic religion of Ancient Greece, regarded as a foreign language in the west. By the latter half of the 4th century in the Greek-speaking Eastern Empire, pagans were—paradoxically—most called Hellenes; the word entirely ceased being used in a cultur

Latoya Joyner is the Assembly member for the 77th District of the New York State Assembly. She is a Democrat; the district includes portions of Claremont, Highbridge, Mount Eden and Morris Heights in The Bronx. Joyner was born and raised in The Bronx and graduated from the Richard R. Green High School for Teaching, she attended SUNY Stony Brook for her undergraduate degree and the University at Buffalo for law school. At Stony Brook, Joyner was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, she served as a member of the New York State Bar and with the New York City Criminal Court. She was a community liaison in the district office of former Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene, was a member of Bronx Community Board 4. Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson resigned from her seat after being elected to the New York City Council in 2013, following her resignation, the seat remained vacant for a year. Joyner entered the race to succeed her, in a four-way primary won the election, she would win the general election with nearly 95% of the vote.

Joyner was sworn in for her first term on January 1, 2015. She serves on the Subcommittee on Diversity in Law as its Chairwoman. New York State Assemblywoman Latoya Joyner official site

XII Corps is a corps of the Indian Army. It is one of the two corps in the Pune-based Southern Command. With two combat divisions on the order of battle of Southern Command and increasing operational importance of the desert sector, by January 1987, a Corps Headquarters was sanctioned. HQ 12 Corps was raised at Jodhpur under Lt Gen A K Chatterjee in February 1987, during the volatile days of Operation Trident, it consists of: 4th Armoured Brigade 34th Infantry Brigade 11th Infantry Division headquartered at Ahmedabad 12th Infantry Division headquartered at Jodhpur. Amongst 12th Division's units is the 140th Armoured Brigade, which has two regiments equipped with Arjun tanks. It's part of the southern command, not southwestern command as erroneously mentioned