Royal Library of the Netherlands
The Royal Library of the Netherlands is based in The Hague and was founded in 1798. The mission of the Royal Library of the Netherlands, as presented on the library's web site, is to provide "access to the knowledge and culture of the past and the present by providing high-quality services for research and cultural experience"; the initiative to found a national library was proposed by representative Albert Jan Verbeek on August 17 1798. The collection would be based on the confiscated book collection of William V; the library was founded as the Nationale Bibliotheek on November 8 of the same year, after a committee of representatives had advised the creation of a national library on the same day. The National Library was only open to members of the Representative Body. King Louis Bonaparte gave the national library its name of the Royal Library in 1806. Napoleon Bonaparte transferred the Royal Library to The Hague as property, while allowing the Imperial Library in Paris to expropriate publications from the Royal Library.
In 1815 King William I of the Netherlands confirmed the name of'Royal Library' by royal resolution. It has been known as the National Library of the Netherlands since 1982, when it opened new quarters; the institution became independent of the state in 1996, although it is financed by the Department of Education and Science. In 2004, the National Library of the Netherlands contained 3,300,000 items, equivalent to 67 kilometers of bookshelves. Most items in the collection are books. There are pieces of "grey literature", where the author, publisher, or date may not be apparent but the document has cultural or intellectual significance; the collection contains the entire literature of the Netherlands, from medieval manuscripts to modern scientific publications. For a publication to be accepted, it must be from a registered Dutch publisher; the collection is accessible for members. Any person aged 16 years or older can become a member. One day passes are available. Requests for material take 30 minutes.
The KB hosts several open access websites, including the "Memory of the Netherlands". List of libraries in the Netherlands European Library Nederlandse Centrale Catalogus Books in the Netherlands Media related to Koninklijke Bibliotheek at Wikimedia Commons Official website
Nika riots
The Nika riots, or Nika revolt, took place against Emperor Justinian I in Constantinople over the course of a week in 532 AD. They were the most violent riots in the city's history, with nearly half of Constantinople being burned or destroyed and tens of thousands of people killed; the ancient Roman and Byzantine empires had well-developed associations, known as demes, which supported the different factions under which competitors in certain sporting events took part. There were four major factional teams of chariot racing, differentiated by the colour of the uniform in which they competed; these were the Blues, the Greens, the Reds, the Whites, although by the Byzantine era the only teams with any influence were the Blues and Greens. Emperor Justinian I was a supporter of the Blues; the team associations had become a focus for various social and political issues for which the general Byzantine population lacked other forms of outlet. They combined aspects of street gangs and political parties, taking positions on current issues, notably theological problems or claimants to the throne.
They tried to affect the policy of the emperors by shouting political demands between races. The imperial forces and guards in the city could not keep order without the cooperation of the circus factions which were in turn backed by the aristocratic families of the city. In 531 some members of the Blues and Greens had been arrested for murder in connection with deaths that occurred during rioting after a recent chariot race. Limited riots were not unknown at chariot races, similar to the football hooliganism that erupts after association football matches in modern times; the murderers were to be hanged, most of them were. But on January 10, 532, two of them, a Blue and a Green and were taking refuge in the sanctuary of a church surrounded by an angry mob. Justinian was nervous: he was in the midst of negotiating with the Persians over peace in the east at the end of the Iberian War, there was enormous resentment over high taxes, now he faced a potential crisis in his city. Facing this, he declared that a chariot race would be held on January 13 and commuted the sentences to imprisonment.
The Blues and Greens responded by demanding. On January 13, 532, a tense and angry populace arrived at the Hippodrome for the races; the Hippodrome was next to the palace complex, thus Justinian could watch from the safety of his box in the palace and preside over the races. From the start, the crowd had been hurling insults at Justinian. By the end of the day, at race 22, the partisan chants had changed from "Blue" or "Green" to a unified Nίκα, the crowds broke out and began to assault the palace. For the next five days, the palace was under siege; the fires that started during the tumult resulted in the destruction of much of the city, including the city's foremost church, the Hagia Sophia. Some of the senators saw this as an opportunity to overthrow Justinian, as they were opposed to his new taxes and his lack of support for the nobility; the rioters, now armed and controlled by their allies in the Senate demanded that Justinian dismiss the prefect John the Cappadocian, responsible for tax collecting, the quaestor Tribonian, responsible for rewriting the legal code.
They declared a new emperor, a nephew of former Emperor Anastasius I. Justinian, in despair, considered fleeing, but his wife Theodora is said to have dissuaded him, saying, "Those who have worn the crown should never survive its loss. Never will I see the day when I am not saluted as empress." Although an escape route across the sea lay open for the emperor, Theodora insisted that she would stay in the city, quoting an ancient saying, "Royalty is a fine burial shroud," or " Purple makes a fine winding sheet."As Justinian rallied himself, he created a plan that involved Narses, a popular eunuch, as well as the generals Belisarius and Mundus. Carrying a bag of gold given to him by Justinian, the built eunuch entered the Hippodrome alone and unarmed, against a murderous mob that had killed hundreds. Narses went directly to the Blues' section, where he approached the important Blues and reminded them that Emperor Justinian supported them over the Greens, he reminded them that the man they were crowning, was a Green.
He distributed the gold. The Blue leaders spoke with each other and they spoke to their followers. In the middle of Hypatius's coronation, the Blues stormed out of the Hippodrome; the Greens sat. Imperial troops led by Belisarius and Mundus stormed into the Hippodrome, killing the remaining rebels. About thirty thousand rioters were killed. Justinian had Hypatius executed and exiled the senators who had supported the riot, he rebuilt Constantinople and the Hagia Sophia, was free to establish his rule. He was free to pursue his ultimate dream of a united Roman Empire. Count Belisarius by Robert Graves follows the career of the general Belisarius and recounts the build-up of tension and the riots in some detail. Theodora and the Emperor by Harold Lamb is a historical fiction novel that follows the events of the Nika riots using timelines and characters based on historical documents; the Female, A Novel Of Another Time by Paul Wellman depicts the life story of Empress Theodora, concluding with the Ni
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they compose the legislature of the United States; the composition of the House is established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The House is composed of Representatives who sit in congressional districts that are allocated to each of the 50 states on a basis of population as measured by the U. S. Census, with each district entitled to one representative. Since its inception in 1789, all Representatives have been directly elected; the total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435. As of the 2010 Census, the largest delegation is that of California, with fifty-three representatives. Seven states have only one representative: Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming; the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration.
In addition to this basic power, the House has certain exclusive powers, among them the power to initiate all bills related to revenue. The House meets in the south wing of the United States Capitol; the presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, elected by the members thereof. The Speaker and other floor leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conference, depending on whichever party has more voting members. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a unicameral body in which each state was represented, in which each state had a veto over most action. After eight years of a more limited confederal government under the Articles, numerous political leaders such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton initiated the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which received the Confederation Congress's sanction to "amend the Articles of Confederation". All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates; the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention.
Edmund Randolph's Virginia Plan called for a bicameral Congress: the lower house would be "of the people", elected directly by the people of the United States and representing public opinion, a more deliberative upper house, elected by the lower house, that would represent the individual states, would be less susceptible to variations of mass sentiment. The House is referred to as the lower house, with the Senate being the upper house, although the United States Constitution does not use that terminology. Both houses' approval is necessary for the passage of legislation; the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, favored the New Jersey Plan, which called for a unicameral Congress with equal representation for the states; the Convention reached the Connecticut Compromise or Great Compromise, under which one house of Congress would provide representation proportional to each state's population, whereas the other would provide equal representation amongst the states.
The Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4, 1789. The House began work on April 1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time. During the first half of the 19th century, the House was in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery; the North was much more populous than the South, therefore dominated the House of Representatives. However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery. One example of a provision supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, which began soon after several southern states attempted to secede from the Union; the war culminated in the abolition of slavery. All southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, therefore the Senate did not hold the balance of power between North and South during the war.
The years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Union's victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877; the Democratic Party and Republican Party each held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a dramatic increase in the power of the Speaker of the House; the rise of the Speaker's influence began in the 1890s, during the tenure of Republican Thomas Brackett Reed. "Czar Reed", as he was nicknamed, attempted to put into effect his view that "The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch." The leadership structure of the House developed during the same period, with the positions of Majority Leader and Minority Leader being created in 1899. While the Minority Leader
Gaius (jurist)
Gaius was a celebrated Roman jurist. Scholars know little of his personal life, it is impossible to discover his full name, Gaius or Caius being his personal name. As with his name it is difficult to ascertain the span of his life, but it is safe to assume he lived from AD 110 to at least AD 179, since he wrote on legislation passed within that time. From internal evidence in his works it may be gathered that he flourished in the reigns of the emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, his works were thus composed between the years 130 and 180. After his death, his writings were recognized as of great authority, the emperor Theodosius II named him in the Law of Citations, along with Papinian, Ulpian and Paulus, as one of the five jurists whose opinions were to be followed by judicial officers in deciding cases; the works of these jurists accordingly became most important sources of Roman law. Besides the Institutes, which are a complete exposition of the elements of Roman law, Gaius was the author of a treatise on the Edicts of the Magistrates, of Commentaries on the Twelve Tables, on the important Lex Papia Poppaea, several other works.
His interest in the antiquities of Roman law is apparent, for this reason his work is most valuable to the historian of early institutions. In the disputes between the two schools of Roman jurists he attached himself to that of the Sabinians, who were said to be followers of Ateius Capito, of whose life we have some account in the Annals of Tacitus, to advocate a strict adherence as far as possible to ancient rules, to resist innovation. Many quotations from the works of Gaius occur in the Digest, created by Tribonian at the direction of Justinian I, so acquired a permanent place in the system of Roman law; the Digest and the Institutes of Justinian are part of the Corpus Juris Civilis. For the greater part of the period of three centuries which elapsed between Gaius and Justinian, his Institutes had been the familiar textbook for all students of Roman law; the Institutes of Gaius, written about the year AD 161, was an introductory textbook of legal institutions divided into four books: the first treating of persons and the differences of the status they may occupy in the eye of the law.
Another circumstance which renders the work of Gaius more interesting to the historical student than that of Justinian, is that Gaius lived at a time when actions were tried by the system of formulae, or formal directions given by the praetor before whom the case first came, to the judex to whom he referred it. Without a knowledge of the terms of these formulae it is impossible to solve the most interesting question in the history of Roman law, show how the rigid rules peculiar to the ancient law of Rome were modified by what has been called the equitable jurisdiction of the praetors, made applicable to new conditions, brought into harmony with the notions and the needs of a more developed society, it is clear from evidence of Gaius that this result was obtained, not by an independent set of courts administering, as in England previous to the Judicature Acts, a system different from that of the ordinary courts, but by the manipulation of the formulae. In the time of Justinian the work was complete, the formulary system had disappeared.
The work was lost to modern scholars, until, in 1816, a palimpsest was discovered by B. G. Niebuhr in the chapter library of Verona, in which some of the works of St. Jerome were written over some earlier writings, which proved to be the lost work of Gaius; the greater part of the palimpsest has, been deciphered with the help of August von Bethmann-Hollweg, the text is now complete. More two sets of papyrus fragments have been found; the discovery of Gaius' work has thrown a flood of light on portions of the history of Roman law, most obscure. Much of the historical information given by Gaius is wanting in the compilations of Justinian, and, in particular, the account of the ancient forms of procedure in actions. In these forms can be traced "survivals" from the most primitive times, which provide the science of comparative law with valuable illustrations, which may explain the strange forms of legal procedure found in other early systems. There are several editions of the Institutes, beginning with the editio princeps of I.
F. L. Göschen; the author of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica recommends the English edition of Edward Poste published in 1885, which includes an English translation and copious commentary. Keubler, Francis de Zulueta, with an English translation and commentary. A comparison of the early forms of actions mentioned by Gaius with those used by other primitive societies will be found in Sir Henry Maine's Early Institutions, chapter 9. For further information see M. Glasson, Étude sur Gaius et sur le jus respondendi. "The law is what the people order and establish", Institutiones, 1.2.3. Law of Citations Roman law Legal history Ledlie, James Crawford. "GAIUS". In Macdonell, John. Great Jurists of the World. London: John Murray. Pp. 1–16. Retrieved 14 February 2019 – via Internet Archive. A collection of resources maintained by prof
Corpus Juris Civilis
The Corpus Juris Civilis is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor. It is sometimes referred to as the Code of Justinian, although this name belongs more properly to the part titled Codex Justinianus; the work as planned had three parts: the Code is a compilation, by selection and extraction, of imperial enactments to date. All three parts the textbook, were given force of law, they were intended to be, the sole source of law. Nonetheless, Justinian found himself having to enact further laws and today these are counted as a fourth part of the Corpus, the Novellae Constitutiones; the work was directed by an official in Justinian's court in Constantinople. His team was authorized to edit. How far they made amendments is not recorded and, in the main, cannot be known because most of the originals have not survived; the text was composed and distributed entirely in Latin, still the official language of the government of the Byzantine Empire in 529–534, whereas the prevalent language of merchants, farmers and other citizens was Greek.
By the early 7th century, the official government language had become Greek during the lengthy reign of Heraclius. The Corpus Juris Civilis was revised into Greek, when that became the predominant language of the Eastern Roman Empire, continued to form the basis of the empire's laws, the Basilika, through the 15th century; the Basilika in turn served as the basis for local legal codes in the Balkans during the following Ottoman period and formed the basis of the legal code of Modern Greece. In Western Europe the Corpus Juris Civilis was revived in the Middle Ages and was "received" or imitated as private law, its public law content was quarried for arguments by ecclesiastical authorities. This revived Roman law, in turn, became the foundation of law in all civil law jurisdictions; the provisions of the Corpus Juris Civilis influenced the canon law of the Catholic Church: it was said that ecclesia vivit lege romana – the church lives by Roman law. Its influence on common law legal systems has been much smaller, although some basic concepts from the Corpus have survived through Norman law – such as the contrast in the Institutes, between "law" and custom.
The Corpus continues to have a major influence on public international law. Its four parts thus constitute the foundation documents of the Western legal tradition. Justinian acceded to the imperial throne in Constantinople in 527. Six months after his accession, in order to reduce the great number of imperial constitutions and thus the number of court proceedings, Justinian arranged for the creation of a new collection of imperial constitutions; the commission in charge of the compilation process was explicitly authorized to leave out or change text and to delete what was obsolete or contradictory. Soon, in 529, the Codex was completed and was conferred the force of law in the whole empire, replacing all earlier constitutions and the Codex Theodosianus. A little more than a year after the enactment of the first edition of the Code, Justinian appointed a commission to compile the traditional jurists’ law in a new and contemporary codification: the ‘Digest or Pandects’; the traditional collection of jurists’ law, Justinian believed, was so extensive that it had become unmanageable, necessitating a new compilation.
The commission completed its work within three years, in 533. The commission surveyed the works of classical jurists who were assumed in Justinian’s time to have the authority to clarify law and whose works were still available. In total, there are excerpts from 38 jurists in the Digest; the "Codex" was the first part to be finished, on 7 April 529. It contained in Latin most of the existing imperial constitutiones, back to the time of Hadrian, it used both the Codex Theodosianus and the fourth-century collections embodied in the Codex Gregorianus and Codex Hermogenianus, which provided the model for division into books that were themselves divided into titles. These works had developed authoritative standing; this first edition is now lost. At least the second edition contained some of Justinian's own legislation, including some legislation in Greek, it is not known whether he intended there to be further editions, although he did envisage translation of Latin enactments into Greek. Numerous provisions served to secure the status of Christianity as the state religion of the empire, uniting Church and state, making anyone, not connected to the Christian church a non-citizen.
Note that in this regard the Christianity referred to is Chalcedonian Christianity as defined by the state church, which excluded a variety of other major Christian sects in existence at the time such as the Church of the East and Oriental Orthodoxy. The first law in the Codex requires all persons under the jurisdiction of the Empire to hold the Christian faith; this was aimed at heresies such as Nestorianism. This text bec
Justinian I
Justinian I, traditionally known as Justinian the Great and Saint Justinian the Great in the Eastern Orthodox Church, was the Eastern Roman emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the historical Roman Empire. Justinian's rule constitutes a distinct epoch in the history of the Later Roman empire, his reign is marked by the ambitious but only realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire"; because of his restoration activities, Justinian has sometimes been known as the "last Roman" in mid 20th century historiography. This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire, his general, swiftly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. Subsequently, Belisarius and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily and Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the Ostrogoths; the prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian peninsula, establishing the province of Spania.
These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire's annual revenue by over a million solidi. During his reign, Justinian subdued the Tzani, a people on the east coast of the Black Sea that had never been under Roman rule before, he engaged the Sasanian Empire in the east during Kavad I's reign, again during Khosrow I's. A still more resonant aspect of his legacy was the uniform rewriting of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis, still the basis of civil law in many modern states, his reign marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture, his building program yielded such masterpieces as the church of Hagia Sophia. Justinian was born in Tauresium, around 482. A native speaker of Latin, he came from a peasant family believed to have been of Illyro-Roman or Thraco-Roman origins; the cognomen Iustinianus, which he took is indicative of adoption by his uncle Justin. During his reign, he founded Justiniana Prima not far from his birthplace, which today is in South East Serbia.
His mother was the sister of Justin. Justin, in the imperial guard before he became emperor, adopted Justinian, brought him to Constantinople, ensured the boy's education; as a result, Justinian was well educated in jurisprudence and Roman history. Justinian served for some time with the Excubitors but the details of his early career are unknown. Chronicler John Malalas, who lived during the reign of Justinian, tells of his appearance that he was short, fair skinned, curly haired, round faced and handsome. Another contemporary chronicler, compares Justinian's appearance to that of tyrannical Emperor Domitian, although this is slander; when Emperor Anastasius died in 518, Justin was proclaimed the new emperor, with significant help from Justinian. During Justin's reign, Justinian was the emperor's close confidant. Justinian showed much ambition, it has been thought that he was functioning as virtual regent long before Justin made him associate emperor on 1 April 527, although there is no conclusive evidence of this.
As Justin became senile near the end of his reign, Justinian became the de facto ruler. Justinian was appointed consul in 521 and commander of the army of the east. Upon Justin's death on 1 August 527, Justinian became the sole sovereign; as a ruler, Justinian showed great energy. He was known as "the emperor" on account of his work habits, he seems to have been amiable and easy to approach. Around 525, he married Theodora, in Constantinople, she was by some twenty years his junior. In earlier times, Justinian could not have married her owing to her class, but his uncle, Emperor Justin I, had passed a law allowing intermarriage between social classes. Theodora would become influential in the politics of the Empire, emperors would follow Justinian's precedent in marrying outside the aristocratic class; the marriage caused a scandal, but Theodora would prove to be a shrewd judge of character and Justinian's greatest supporter. Other talented individuals included his legal adviser. Justinian's rule was not universally popular.
Justinian recovered. Theodora died in 548 at a young age of cancer. Justinian, who had always had a keen interest in theological matters and participated in debates on Christian doctrine, became more devoted to religion during the years of his life; when he died on 14 November 565, he left no children, though his wife Theodora had given birth to a stillborn son several years into his reign. He was succeeded by Justin II, the son of his sister Vigilantia and married to Sophia, the niece of Empress Theodora. Justinian's body was entombed in a specially built mausoleum in the Church of the
