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Roman emperor
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Not to be confused with Holy Roman Emperor.
For the ruler of the Roman Kingdom in the archaic period, see Kings of Rome. For the dual chief magistrates during the Roman Republic, see Roman consul. For the Roman emperors, see List of Roman emperors.
Emperor of
the Roman Empire
Imperial
Vexillum of the Emperor
First to reign
Augustus
16 January 27 BC – 19 August AD 14
Details
Style
Imperator, Augustus, Caesar, Princeps, Dominus Noster, Autokrator or Basileus (depending on period)
First monarch
Augustus
Last monarch
Theodosius I (Unified or Classical),
Julius Nepos (Western),
Constantine XI (Eastern)
Formation
16 January 27 BC
Abolition
17 January 395 AD (Unified or Classical),
22 June 480 AD (Western),
29 May 1453 AD (Eastern)
Appointer
Roman Military and/or Roman Senate (traditionally)
Pretender(s)
none
The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period (starting in 27 BC). The emperors used a variety of different titles throughout history. Often when a given Roman is described as becoming "emperor" in English, it reflects his taking of the title Augustus or Caesar. Another title often used was imperator, originally a military honorific. Early Emperors also used the title princeps (first citizen). Emperors frequently amassed republican titles, notably Princeps senatus, Consul and Pontifex Maximus.
The legitimacy of an emperor's rule depended on his control of the army and recognition by the Senate; an emperor would normally be proclaimed by his troops, or invested with imperial titles by the Senate, or both. The first emperors reigned alone; later emperors would sometimes rule with co-Emperors and divide administration of the Empire between them.
The Romans considered the office of emperor to be distinct from that of a king. The first emperor, Augustus, resolutely refused recognition as a monarch.[1] Although Augustus could claim that his power was authentically republican, his successor, Tiberius, could not convincingly make the same claim.[2] Nonetheless, for the first three hundred years of Roman Emperors, from Augustus until Diocletian, a great effort was made to emphasize that the Emperors were the leaders of a Republic.
From Diocletian onwards, emperors ruled in an openly monarchic style[3] and did not preserve the nominal principle of a republic, but the contrast with "kings" was maintained: although the imperial succession was generally hereditary, it was only hereditary if there was a suitable candidate acceptable to the army and the bureaucracy,[4] so the principle of automatic inheritance was not adopted. Elements of the Republican institutional framework (senate, consuls, and magistrates) were preserved until the very end of the Western Empire.
The Eastern (Byzantine) emperors ultimately adopted the title of "Basileus" (βασιλεύς), which had meant king in Greek, but became a title reserved solely for the Roman Emperor and the ruler of the Sasanian Empire. Other kings were then referred to as rēgas.[5]
In addition to their pontifical office, some emperors were given divine status after death. With the eventual hegemony of Christianity, the emperor came to be seen as God's chosen ruler, as well as a special protector and leader of the Christian Church on Earth, although in practice an emperor's authority on Church matters was subject to challenge.
The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late 5th century. Romulus Augustulus is often considered to be the last emperor of the west after his forced abdication in 476, although Julius Nepos maintained a claim to the title until his death in 480. Meanwhile, in the east, emperors continued to rule from Constantinople ("New Rome"); these are referred to in modern scholarship as "Byzantine emperor" but they used no such title and called themselves "Emperor of the Romans" (βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων). Constantine XI Palaiologos was the last Byzantine Roman Emperor in Constantinople, dying in the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453.
Due to the cultural rupture of the Turkish conquest, most western historians treat Constantine XI as the last meaningful claimant to the title Roman Emperor, although from 1453 Ottoman rulers were titled "Caesar of Rome" (Turkish: Kayser-i Rum)[6] until the Ottoman Empire ended in 1922. A Byzantine group of claimant Roman Emperors existed in the Empire of Trebizond until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1461. In western Europe the title of Roman Emperor was revived by Germanic rulers, the "Holy Roman Emperors", in 800, and was used until 1806.
Contents
[hide]
1 Background and first Roman emperor
2 Classical period
2.1 Imperator
2.2 Princeps
2.3 Evolution in Late Antiquity
3 Titles and positions
3.1 Powers
4 Lineages and epochs
4.1 Principate
4.2 Crisis of the Third Century
4.3 Dominate
4.4 Late empire
5 Post-classical assertions to the title
5.1 Survival of the Roman Empire in the East
5.2 Last Roman emperor
5.3 New Western lineage
6 See also
7 References
8 Sources
9 Further reading
10 External links
Background and first Roman emperor[edit]
Statue of Augustus, c. 30 BC–20 BC; this statue is located in the Louvre
Modern historians conventionally regard Augustus as the first Emperor whereas Julius Caesar is considered the last dictator of the Roman Republic, a view having its origins in the Roman writers Plutarch, Tacitus and Cassius Dio.[7] However, the majority of Roman writers, including Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius and Appian, as well as most of the ordinary people of the Empire, thought of Julius Caesar as the first Emperor.[8]
At the end of the Roman Republic no new, and certainly no single, title indicated the individual who held supreme power. Insofar as emperor could be seen as the English translation of imperator, then Julius Caesar had been an emperor, like several Roman generals before him. Instead, by the end of the civil wars in which Julius Caesar had led his armies, it became clear that there was certainly no consensus to return to the old-style monarchy, but that the period when several officials, bestowed with equal power by the senate, would fight one another had come to an end.
Julius Caesar, and then Augustus after him, accumulated offices and titles of the highest importance in the Republic, making the power attached to those offices permanent, and preventing anyone with similar aspirations from accumulating or maintaining power for themselves. However, Julius Caesar, unlike those after him, did so without the Senate's vote and approval.[citation needed]
Julius Caesar held the Republican offices of consul four times and dictator five times, was appointed dictator in perpetuity (dictator perpetuo) in 45 BC and had been "pontifex maximus" for a long period. He gained these positions by senatorial consent. By the time of his assassination, he was the most powerful man in the Roman world.
In his will, Caesar appointed his adopted son Octavian as his heir. On Caesar's death, Octavian inherited his adoptive father's property and lineage, the loyalty of most of his allies and – again through a formal process of senatorial consent – an increasing number of the titles and offices that had accrued to Caesar. A decade after Caesar's death, Octavian's victory over his erstwhile ally Mark Antony at Actium put an end to any effective opposition and confirmed Octavian's supremacy.
In 27 BC, Octavian appeared before the Senate and offered to retire from active politics and government; the Senate not only requested he remain, but increased his powers and made them lifelong, awarding him the title of Augustus (the elevated or divine one, somewhat less than a god but approaching divinity). Augustus stayed in office until his death; the sheer breadth of his superior powers as princeps and permanent imperator of Rome's armies guaranteed the peaceful continuation of what nominally remained a republic. His "restoration" of powers to the Senate and the people of Rome was a demonstration of his auctoritas and pious respect for tradition.
Some later historians such as Tacitus would say that even at Augustus' death, the true restoration of the Republic might have been possible. Instead, Augustus actively prepared his adopted son Tiberius to be his successor and pleaded his case to the Senate for inheritance on merit. The Senate disputed the issue but eventually confirmed Tiberius as princeps. Once in power, Tiberius took considerable pains to observe the forms and day-to-day substance of republican government.
Classical period[edit]
Ancient Rome
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
ancient Rome
Periods
Roman Kingdom
753–509 BC
Roman Republic
509–27 BC
Roman Empire
27 BC – AD 395
Principate
Dominate
Western
AD 395–476
Eastern
AD 395–1453
Empire of Trebizond
AD 1204 – 1461
Timeline
Roman Constitution
Constitution of the Kingdom
Constitution of the Republic
Constitution of the Empire
Constitution of the Late Empire
Senate
Legislative assemblies
Executive magistrates
Ordinary magistrates
Consul
Praetor
Quaestor
Promagistrate
Aedile
Tribune
Censor
Governor
Extraordinary magistrates
Dictator
Magister equitum
Consular tribune
Rex
Triumviri
Decemviri
Titles and honours
Emperor
Legatus
Dux
Officium
Praefectus
Vicarius
Vigintisexviri
Lictor
Magister militum
Imperator
Princeps senatus
Pontifex maximus
Augustus
Caesar
Tetrarch
Precedent and law
Roman law
Ius
Imperium
Mos maiorum
Collegiality
Auctoritas
Roman citizenship
Cursus honorum
Senatus consultum
Senatus consultum ultimum
Assemblies
Centuriate
Curiate
Plebeian
Tribal
Other countries
Atlas
v
t
e
Rome had no single constitutional office, title or rank exactly equivalent to the English title "Roman emperor". Romans of the Imperial era used several titles to denote their emperors, and all were associated with the pre-Imperial, Republican era.
The emperor's legal authority derived from an extraordinary concentration of individual powers and offices that were extant in the Republic rather than from a new political office; emperors were regularly elected to the offices of consul and censor. Among their permanent privileges were the traditional Republican title of princeps senatus (leader of the Senate) and the religious office of pontifex maximus (chief priest of the College of Pontiffs). Every emperor held the latter office and title until Gratian surrendered it in AD 382 to Pope Siricius; it eventually became an auxiliary honor of the Bishop of Rome.
These titles and offices conferred great personal prestige (dignitas) but the basis of an emperor's powers derived from his auctoritas: this assumed his greater powers of command (imperium maius) and tribunician power (tribunicia potestas) as personal qualities, separate from his public office. As a result, he formally outranked provincial governors and ordinary magistrates. He had the right to enact or revoke sentences of capital punishment, was owed the obedience of private citizens (privati) and by the terms of the ius auxiliandi could save any plebeian from any patrician magistrate's decision. He could veto any act or proposal of any magistrate, including the tribunes of the people (ius intercedendi or ius intercessionis). His person was held to be sacrosanct.
Roman magistrates on official business were expected to wear the form of toga associated with their office; different togas were worn by different ranks; senior magistrates had the right to togas bordered with purple. A triumphal imperator of the Republic had the right to wear the toga picta (of solid purple, richly embroidered) for the duration of the triumphal rite. During the Late Republic, the most powerful had this right extended. Pompey and Caesar are both thought to have worn the triumphal toga and other triumphal dress at public functions. Later emperors were distinguished by wearing togae purpurae, purple togas; hence the phrase "to don the purple" for the assumption of imperial dignity.
The titles customarily associated with the imperial dignity are imperator ("commander"), which emphasizes the emperor's military supremacy and is the source of the English word emperor; Caesar, which was originally a name but came to be used for the designated heir (as Nobilissimus Caesar, "Most Noble Caesar") and was retained upon accession. The ruling emperor's title was the descriptive Augustus ("majestic" or "venerable", which had tinges of the divine), which was adopted upon accession. In Greek, these three titles were rendered as autokratōr ("Αὐτοκράτωρ"), kaisar ("Καίσαρ"), and augoustos ("Αὔγουστος") or sebastos ("Σεβαστός") respectively. In Diocletian's Tetrarchy, the traditional seniorities were maintained: "Augustus" was reserved for the two senior emperors and "Caesar" for the two junior emperors – each delegated a share of power and responsibility but each an emperor-in-waiting, should anything befall his senior.
As princeps senatus (lit., "first man of the senate"), the emperor could receive foreign embassies to Rome; some emperors (such as Tiberius) are known to have delegated this task to the Senate. In modern terms these early emperors would tend to be identified as chiefs of state. The office of princeps senatus, however, was not a magistracy and did not entail imperium. At some points in the Empire's history, the emperor's power was nominal; powerful praetorian prefects, masters of the soldiers and on a few occasions, other members of the Imperial household including Imperial mothers and grandmothers were the true source of power.
Imperator[edit]
Main article: Imperator
The title imperator dates back to the Roman Republic, when a victorious commander could be hailed as imperator in the field by his troops. The Senate could then award or withhold the extraordinary honour of a triumph; the triumphal commander retained the title until the end of his magistracy.[9] In Roman tradition, the first triumph was that of Romulus, but the first attested recipient of the title imperator in a triumphal context is Aemilius Paulus in 189 BC.[9] It was a title held with great pride: Pompey was hailed imperator more than once, as was Sulla, but it was Julius Caesar who first used it permanently – according to Dio, this was a singular and excessive form of flattery granted by the Senate, passed to Caesar's adopted heir along with his name and virtually synonymous with it.[10]
In 38 BC Agrippa refused a triumph for his victories under Octavian's command, and this precedent established the rule that the princeps should assume both the salutation and title of imperator. It seems that from then on Octavian (later the first emperor Augustus) used imperator as a first name (praenomen): Imperator Caesar not Caesar imperator. From this the title came to denote the supreme power and was commonly used in that sense. Otho was the first to imitate Augustus, but only with Vespasian did imperator (emperor) become the official title by which the ruler of the Roman Empire was known.
Princeps[edit]
The word princeps (plural principes), meaning "first", was a republican term used to denote the leading citizen(s) of the state. It was a purely honorific title with no attached duties or powers. It was the title most preferred by Caesar Augustus as its use implies only primacy, as opposed to another of his titles, imperator, which implies dominance. Princeps, because of its republican connotation, was most commonly used to refer to the emperor in Latin (although the emperor's actual constitutional position was essentially "pontifex maximus with tribunician power and imperium superseding all others") as it was in keeping with the façade of the restored Republic; the Greek word basileus ("king") was modified to be synonymous with emperor (and primarily came into favour after the reign of Heraclius) as the Greeks had no republican sensibility and openly viewed the emperor as a monarch.
In the era of Diocletian and beyond, princeps fell into disuse and was replaced with dominus ("lord");[11] later emperors used the formula Imperator Caesar NN. Pius Felix (Invictus) Augustus: NN representing the individual's personal name; Pius Felix meaning "Pious and Blest"; and Invictus meaning "undefeated". The use of princeps and dominus broadly symbolise the differences in the empire's government, giving rise to the era designations "Principate" and "Dominate".
Evolution in Late Antiquity[edit]
In 293, following the Crisis of the Third Century which had severely damaged Imperial administration, Emperor Diocletian enacted sweeping reforms that washed away many of the vestiges and façades of republicanism which had characterized the Augustan order in favor of a more frank autocracy. As a result, historians distinguish the Augustan period as the principate and the period from Diocletian to the 7th century reforms of Emperor Heraclius as the dominate (from the Latin for "lord".)
Reaching back to the oldest traditions of job-sharing in the republic, however, Diocletian established at the top of this new structure the Tetrarchy ("rule of four") in an attempt to provide for smoother succession and greater continuity of government. Under the Tetrarchy, Diocletian set in place a system of co-emperors, styled "Augustus", and junior emperors, styled "Caesar". When a co-emperor retired (as Diocletian and his co-emperor Maximian did in 305) or died, a junior "Caesar" would succeed him and the co-emperors would appoint new Caesars as needed.
The four members of the Imperial college (as historians call the arrangement) shared military and administrative challenges by each being assigned specific geographic areas of the empire. From this innovation, often but not consistently repeated over the next 187 years, comes the notion of an east-west partition of the empire that became popular with historians long after the practice had stopped. The two halves of empire, while often run as de facto separate entities day-to-day, were always considered and seen, legally and politically, as separate administrative divisions of a single, insoluble imperium by the Romans of the time.
The final period of co-emperorship began in 395, when Emperor Theodosius I's sons Arcadius and Honorius succeeded as co-emperors. Eighty-five years later, following Germanic migrations which had reduced the empire's effective control across Brittania, Gaul and Hispania and a series of military coup d'état which drove Emperor Nepos out of Italy, the idea of dividing the position of emperor was formally abolished by Emperor Zeno (480).
The Roman Empire survived in the east until 1453, but the marginalization of the former heartland of Italy to the empire[clarification needed] had a profound cultural impact on the empire and the position of emperor. In 620, the official language was changed from Latin to Greek. The Greek-speaking inhabitants were Romaioi (Ῥωμαῖοι), and were still considered Romans by themselves and the populations of Eastern Europe, the Near East, India, and China. But many in Western Europe began to refer to the political entity as the "Greek Empire". The evolution of the church in the no-longer imperial city of Rome and the church in the now supreme Constantinople began to follow divergent paths, culminating in the schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faiths. The position of emperor was increasingly influenced by Near Eastern concepts of kingship. Starting with Emperor Heraclius, Roman emperors styled themselves "King of Kings" (from the imperial Persian Shahanshah) from 627 and "Basileus" (from the title used by Alexander the Great) from 629. The later period of the empire is today called the Byzantine Empire as a matter of scholarly convention.[citation needed]
Titles and positions[edit]
Although these are the most common offices, titles, and positions, not all Roman emperors used them, nor were all of them used at the same time in history. The consular and censorial offices especially were not an integral part of the Imperial dignity, and were usually held by persons other than the reigning emperor.
Augustus: (also "Αὔγουστος" or "Σεβαστός"), "Majestic" or "Venerable"; an honorific cognomen exclusive to the emperor
Autokrator: (Αὐτοκράτωρ, Autokratōr), (lit. "Self-ruler"); Greek title equivalent to imperator or commander-in-chief
Basileus: (Βασιλεύς), Greek for king, popularly used in the east to refer to the emperor; a formal title of the Roman emperor beginning with Heraclius
Caesar: (also "Καίσαρ"), "Caesar"; initially the cognomen of Julius Caesar, it was transformed into a title; an honorific name later used to identify an emperor-designate
Censor: a Republican office held jointly by two former consuls every five years for the purpose of conducting the lustrum that determined the role of citizens; the censor could audit all other magistrates and all state finances
Consul: the highest magistracy of the Roman Republic with a one-year term and one coequal officeholder; the consul was the head of state within Rome. The last emperor to be bestowed the title by the Senate was Constans II, who was also the last emperor to visit Rome.
Dominus ("Lord" or "Master"): an honorific title mainly associated with the Dominate
Dominus Noster ("Our Lord"): an honorific title; the praenomen of later emperors.[citation needed]
Imperator ("Commander" or "Commander-in-Chief"): a victory title taken on accession to the purple and after a major military victory
Imperator Destinatus ("Destined to be Emperor"): heir apparent, used by Septimius Severus for Caracalla
Invictus ("Unconquered"), an honorific title.
Nobilissimus: (Nωβελίσσιμος, Nōbelissimos), ("Most Noble"), one of the highest imperial titles held by the emperor
Pater Patriae ("Father of the Fatherland"): an honorific title
Perpetuus ("Universal"): an honorific title of later emperors
Pius Felix ("Pious and Blessed"): an honorific title
Pontifex Maximus ("Supreme Pontiff" or "Chief Priest"): in the Republican era, the Pontifex Maximus was the head of the College of Pontiffs, the religious body that oversaw the ancestral public religion of the Romans; Julius Caesar had become Pontifex Maximus before he was elected consul, and the precedent set by his heir Augustus in consolidating supreme authority through this religious office was in general followed by his successors until the empire came under Christian rule
Princeps ("First Citizen" or "Leading Citizen"): an honorific title denoting the status of the emperor as first among equals, associated mainly with the Principate
Princeps Iuventutis: ("Prince of Youth"), an honorific title awarded to a presumptive emperor-designate
Princeps Senatus: ("First Man of the Senate"), a Republican office with a five-year term
Sebastos: (Σεβαστός), ("Venerable"); the Greek rendition of the imperial title Augustus
Sebastokrator: (Σεβαστοκράτωρ, Sebastokratōr), ("Venerable Ruler); a senior court title from the compound words "sebastos" ("venerable", the Greek equivalent of the Latin Augustus) and "kratōr" ("ruler", the same element as is found in "autokratōr", "emperor")
Tribunicia Potestas: ("Tribunician Power"); the powers of a tribune of the people, including sacrosanctity and inviolability of his person, and the veto over any decision by any other magistrate, assembly, or the Senate (the emperor could not be a "tribune" because a tribune was a plebeian by definition, therefore the emperor had all the powers of a tribune without actually being one)
Powers[edit]
When Augustus established the Princeps, he turned down supreme authority in exchange for a collection of various powers and offices, which in itself was a demonstration of his auctoritas ("authority"). As holding princeps senatus, the emperor declared the opening and closure of each Senate session, declared the Senate's agenda, imposed rules and regulation for the Senate to follow, and met with foreign ambassadors in the name of the Senate. Being pontifex maximus made the emperor the chief administrator of religious affairs, granting him the power to conduct all religious ceremonies, consecrate temples, control the Roman calendar (adding or removing days as needed), appoint the vestal virgins and some flamens, lead the Collegium Pontificum, and summarize the dogma of the Roman religion.
While these powers granted the emperor a great deal of personal pride and influence, they did not include legal authority. In 23 BC, Augustus gave the emperorship its legal power. The first was Tribunicia Potestas, or the powers of the tribune of the plebs without actually holding the office (which would have been impossible, since a tribune was by definition a plebeian, whereas Augustus, although born into a plebeian family, had become a patrician when he was adopted into the gens Julia). This endowed the emperor with inviolability (sacrosanctity) of his person, and the ability to pardon any civilian for any act, criminal or otherwise. By holding the powers of the tribune, the emperor could prosecute anyone who interfered with the performance of his duties. The emperor's tribuneship granted him the right to convene the Senate at his will and lay proposals before it, as well as the ability to veto any act or proposal by any magistrate, including the actual tribune of the plebeians. Also, as holder of the tribune's power, the emperor would convoke the Council of the People, lay legislation before it, and served as the council's president. But his tribuneship only granted him power within Rome itself. He would need another power to veto the act of governors and that of the consuls while in the provinces.
To solve this problem, Augustus managed to have the emperor be given the right to hold two types of imperium. The first being consular imperium while he was in Rome, and imperium maius outside of Rome. While inside the walls of Rome, the reigning consuls and the emperor held equal authority, each being able to veto each other's proposals and acts, with the emperor holding all of the consul's powers. But outside of Rome, the emperor outranked the consuls and could veto them without the same effects on himself. Imperium Maius also granted the emperor authority over all the provincial governors, making him the ultimate authority in provincial matters and gave him the supreme command of all of Rome's legions. With Imperium Maius, the emperor was also granted the power to appoint governors of imperial provinces without the interference of the Senate. Also, Imperium Maius granted the emperor the right to veto the governors of the provinces and even the reigning consul while in the provinces.
Lineages and epochs[edit]
Principate[edit]
Main article: Roman Emperor (Principate)
The nature of the imperial office and the Principate was established under Julius Caesar's heir and posthumously adopted son, Caesar Augustus, and his own heirs, the descendants of his wife Livia from her first marriage to a scion of the distinguished Claudian clan. This Julio-Claudian dynasty came to an end when the Emperor Nero – a great-great-grandson of Augustus through his daughter and of Livia through her son – was deposed in 68.
Nero was followed by a succession of usurpers throughout 69, commonly called the "Year of the Four Emperors". The last of these, Vespasian, established his own Flavian dynasty. Nerva, who replaced the last Flavian emperor, Vespasian's son Domitian, in 96, was elderly and childless, and chose therefore to adopt an heir, Trajan, from outside his family. When Trajan acceded to the purple he chose to follow his predecessor's example, adopting Hadrian as his own heir, and the practice then became the customary manner of imperial succession for the next century, producing the "Five Good Emperors" and the Empire's period of greatest stability.
The last of the Good Emperors, Marcus Aurelius, chose his natural son Commodus as his successor rather than adopting an heir. Commodus's misrule led to his murder on 31 December 192, following which a brief period of instability quickly gave way to Septimius Severus, who established the Severan dynasty which, except for an interruption in 217–218 when Macrinus was emperor, held the purple until 235.
Crisis of the Third Century[edit]
Main article: Roman Emperor (Crisis of the Third Century)
The accession of Maximinus Thrax marks both the close and the opening of an era. It was one of the last attempts by the increasingly impotent Roman Senate to influence the succession. Yet it was the second time that a man had achieved the purple while owing his advancement purely to his military career; both Vespasian and Septimius Severus had come from noble or middle-class families, while Thrax was born a commoner. He never visited the city of Rome during his reign, which marks the beginning of a series of "barracks emperors" who came from the army. Between 235 and 285 over a dozen emperors achieved the purple, but only Valerian and Carus managed to secure their own sons' succession to the throne; both dynasties died out within two generations.
Dominate[edit]
Main article: Roman Emperor (Dominate)
The accession on 20 November 284, of Diocletian, the lower-class, Greek-speaking Dalmatian commander of Carus's and Numerian's household cavalry (protectores domestici), marked major innovations in Rome's government and constitutional theory. Diocletian, a traditionalist and religious conservative, attempted to secure efficient, stable government and a peaceful succession with the establishment of the Tetrarchy. The empire was divided into East and West, each ruled by an Augustus assisted by a Caesar as emperor-in-waiting. These divisions were further subdivided into new or reformed provinces, administered by a complex, hierarchic bureaucracy of unprecedented size and scope. Diocletian's own court was based at Nicomedia. His co-Augustus, Maximian, was based at Mediolanum (modern Milan). Their courts were peripatetic, and Imperial progressions through the provinces made much use of the impressive, theatrical adventus, or "Imperial arrival" ceremony, which employed an elaborate choreography of etiquette to emphasise the emperor's elevation above other mortals. Hyperinflation of imperial honours and titles served to distinguish the Augusti from their Caesares, and Diocletian, as senior Augustus, from his colleague Maximian. The senior Augustus in particular was made a separate and unique being, accessible only through those closest to him. The overall unity of the Empire still required the highest investiture of power and status in one man.[12]
The Tetrarchy ultimately degenerated into civil war, but the eventual victor, Constantine the Great, restored Diocletian's division of Empire into East and West. He kept the East for himself and founded his city of Constantinople as its new capital. Constantine's own dynasty was also soon swallowed up in civil war and court intrigue until it was replaced, briefly, by Julian the Apostate's general Jovian and then, more permanently, by Valentinian I and the dynasty he founded in 364. Though a soldier from a low middle-class background, Valentinian was made emperor by a conclave of senior generals and civil officials.
Late empire[edit]
Main article: Roman Emperor (Late Empire)
Theodosius I acceded to the purple in the East in 379 and in the West in 394. He outlawed paganism and made Christianity the Empire's official religion. He was the last emperor to rule over a united Roman Empire; the distribution of the East to his son Arcadius and the West to his son Honorius after his death in 395 represented a permanent division.
In the West, the office of emperor soon degenerated into being little more than a puppet of a succession of Germanic tribal kings, until finally the Heruli Odoacer simply overthrew the child-emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476, shipped the imperial regalia to the Emperor Zeno in Constantinople and became King of Italy. Though during his own lifetime Odoacer maintained the legal fiction that he was actually ruling Italy as the viceroy of Zeno, historians mark 476 as the traditional date of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. Large parts of Italy (Sicily, the south part of the peninsula, Ravenna, Venice etc.), however, remained under actual imperial rule from Constantinople for centuries, with imperial control slipping or becoming nominal only as late as the 11th century. In the East, the Empire continued until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Although known as the Byzantine Empire by contemporary historians, the Empire was simply known as the Roman Empire to its citizens and neighboring countries.
Post-classical assertions to the title[edit]
Survival of the Roman Empire in the East[edit]
Imaginary portrait of Constantine XI, the last Roman emperor of the Eastern Roman empire (until 1453).
The line of Roman emperors in the Eastern Roman Empire continued unbroken at Constantinople until the capture of Constantinople in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade. In the wake of this action, four lines of Emperors emerged, each claiming to be the legal successor: the Empire of Thessalonica, evolving from the Despotate of Epirus, which was reduced to impotence when its founder Theodore Komnenos Doukas was defeated, captured and blinded by the Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Asen III;[13] the Latin Empire, which came to an end when the Empire of Nicaea recovered Constantinople in 1261; the Empire of Trebizond, whose importance declined over the 13th century, and whose claims were simply ignored;[14] and the Empire of Nicaea, whose claims based on kinship with the previous emperors, control of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and possession of Constantinople through military prowess, prevailed. The successors of the emperors of Nicaea continued until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 under Constantine XI Palaiologos.
These emperors eventually normalized the imperial dignity into the modern conception of an emperor, incorporated it into the constitutions of the state, and adopted the aforementioned title Basileus kai autokratōr Rhomaiōn ("Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans"). They had also ceased to use Latin as the language of state after Emperor Heraclius (d. 641 AD). Historians have customarily treated the state of these later Eastern emperors under the name "Byzantine Empire". It is important to note, however, that the adjective Byzantine, although historically used by Eastern Roman authors in a metonymic sense, was never an official term.
Last Roman emperor[edit]
Main article: Constantine XI Palaiologos
Constantine XI Palaiologos was the last reigning Roman emperor. A member of the Palaiologos dynasty, he ruled the remnant of the Eastern Roman Empire from 1449 until his death in 1453 defending its capital Constantinople.
He was born in Mystra[15] as the eighth of ten children of Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš, the daughter of the Serbian prince Constantine Dragaš of Kumanovo. He spent most of his childhood in Constantinople under the supervision of his parents. During the absence of his older brother in Italy, Constantine was regent in Constantinople from 1437–40.
Before the beginning of the siege, Mehmed the Conqueror made an offer to Constantine XI. In exchange for the surrender of Constantinople, the emperor's life would be spared and he would continue to rule in Mystra. Constantine refused this offer. Instead he led the defense of the city and took an active part in the fighting along the land walls. At the same time, he used his diplomatic skills to maintain the necessary unity between the Genovese, Venetian, and Byzantine troops. As the city fell on May 29, 1453, Constantine is said to have remarked: "The city is fallen but I am alive." Realizing that the end had come, he reportedly discarded his purple cloak and led his remaining soldiers into a final charge, in which he was killed. With his death, Roman imperial succession came to an end, almost 1500 years after Augustus.
After the fall of Constantinople, Thomas Palaiologos, brother of Constantine XI, was elected emperor and tried to organize the remaining forces. His rule came to an end after the fall of the last major Byzantine city, Corinth. He then moved in Italy and continued to be recognized as Eastern emperor by the Christian powers.
His son Andreas Palaiologos continued claims on the Byzantine throne until he sold the title to Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the grandparents of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
New Western lineage[edit]
Charles V was the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire to receive a papal coronation (until abdication in 1556).
The concept of the Roman Empire was renewed in the West with the coronation of the king of the Franks, Charlemagne (Charles the Great), as Roman emperor by the Pope on Christmas Day, 800. This coronation had its roots in the decline of influence of the Pope in the affairs of the Byzantine Empire at the same time the Byzantine Empire declined in influence over politics in the West. The Pope saw no advantage to be derived from working with the Byzantine Empire, but as George Ostrogorsky points out, "an alliance with the famous conqueror of the Lombards, on the other hand ... promised much".[16]
The immediate response of the Eastern Roman Emperor was not welcoming. "At that time it was axiomatic that there could be only one Empire as there could be only one church", writes Ostrogorsky. "The coronation of Charles the Great violated all traditional ideas and struck a hard blow at Byzantine interests, for hitherto Byzantium, the new Rome, had unquestionably been regarded as the sole Empire which had taken over the inheritance of the old Roman imperium. Conscious of its imperial rights, Byzantium could only consider the elevation of Charles the Great to be an act of usurpation."[17]
Nikephoros I chose to ignore Charlemagne's claim to the imperial title, clearly recognizing the implications of this act. According to Ostrogorsky, "he even went so far as to refuse the Patriarch Nicephorus permission to dispatch the customary synodica to the Pope."[18] Meanwhile, Charlemagne's power steadily increased: he subdued Istria and several Dalmatian cities during the reign of Irene, and his son Pepin brought Venice under Western hegemony, despite a successful counter-attack by the Byzantine fleet. Unable to counter this encroachment on Byzantine territory, Nikephoros' successor Michael I Rangabe capitulated; in return for the restoration of the captured territories, Michael sent Byzantine delegates to Aachen in 812 who recognized Charlemagne as Basileus.[19] Michael did not recognize him as Basileus of the Romans, however, which was a title that he reserved for himself.[20]
This line of Roman emperors was actually generally Germanic rather than Roman, but maintained their Roman-ness as a matter of principle. These emperors used a variety of titles (most frequently "Imperator Augustus") before finally settling on Imperator Romanus Electus ("Elected Roman Emperor"). Historians customarily assign them the title "Holy Roman Emperor", which has a basis in actual historical usage, and treat their "Holy Roman Empire" as a separate institution. To Latin Catholics of the time, the Pope was the temporal authority as well as spiritual authority, and as Bishop of Rome he was recognized as having the power to anoint or crown a new Roman emperor. The last man to be crowned by the pope (although in Bologna, not Rome) was Charles V. All his successors bore only a title of "Elected Roman Emperor".
This line of Emperors lasted until 1806 when Francis II dissolved the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. Despite the existence of later potentates styling themselves "emperor", such as the Napoleons, the Habsburg Emperors of Austria, and the Hohenzollern heads of the German Reich, this marked the end of the Western Empire. Although there is a living heir, Karl von Habsburg, to the Habsburg dynasty, as well as a Pope and pretenders to the positions of the electors, and although all the medieval coronation regalia are still preserved in Austria, the legal abolition of all aristocratic prerogatives of the former electors and the imposition of republican constitutions in Germany and Austria render quite remote any potential for a revival of the Holy Roman Empire.
For rulers of Italy after Romulus "Augustulus" and Julius Nepos, see list of barbarian kings.
For the Roman emperors who ruled in the East after The Fall in the West, see List of Byzantine emperors.
For emperors of the Holy Roman Empire in the West, see Holy Roman Emperor.
See also[edit]
Byzantine Emperor
Imperator
Imperial cult
Interregnum
Justitium
King of Rome
Roman dictator
Roman Emperors family tree; also Julio-Claudian family tree and Severan dynasty family tree
Roman usurper
Lists:
List of Imperial Victory Titles
List of Roman emperors
List of Roman usurpers
List of condemned Roman emperors
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Galinsky 2005, pp. 13–14
Jump up ^ Alston 1998, p. 39
Jump up ^ Williams 1997, p. 147
Jump up ^ Heather 2005, p. 28
Jump up ^ Kazhdan 1991, p. 264
Jump up ^ İlber Ortaylı, "Büyük Constantin ve İstanbul", Milliyet, 28 May 2011.
Jump up ^ Barnes 2009, pp. 278–279
Jump up ^ Barnes 2009, pp. 279–282
^ Jump up to: a b The Oxford Classical Dictionary, entry 'Imperator', Third Edition, Oxford University Press, 1996.
Jump up ^ Cassius Dio, 43.44.2.
Jump up ^ Goldsworth 2010, p. 443
Jump up ^ Rees 2004, pp. 46–56, 60
Jump up ^ Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 387
Jump up ^ On the imperial claims of the Grand Komnenos and international response to them, see N. Oikonomides, "The Chancery of the Grand Komnenoi; Imperial Tradition and Political Reality", Archeion Pontou, 35 (1979), pp. 299–332
Jump up ^ Constantine XI Palaeologus (1449–53) Fall of Constantinople "Ealo h Polis"
Jump up ^ Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 164
Jump up ^ Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 164f
Jump up ^ Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 175
Jump up ^ Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 176
Jump up ^ Eichmann, Eduard (1942). Die Kaiserkrönung im Abendland: ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des kirchlichen Rechte, der Liturgie und der Kirchenpolitik. Echter-Verlag. p. 33.
Sources[edit]
Alston, Richard (1998). Aspects of Roman history, AD 14–117. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-13237-4. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
Barnes, Timothy (2009). "The first Emperor: the view of late antiquity". In Griffin, Miriam. A Companion to Julius Caesar. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-0845-7.
Galinsky, Karl (2005). The Cambridge companion to the Age of Augustus. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-80796-8. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
Goldsworth, Adrian (2010). How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300164268.
Heather, Peter (2005). The Fall of the Roman Empire. ISBN 978-0-330-49136-5. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
Ostrogorsky, George (1957). History of the Byzantine State. Translated by Hussey, Joan. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Rees, Roger (2004). Diocletian and the Tetrarchy. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-1661-9.
Williams, Stephen (1997) [1985]. Diocletian and the Roman recovery. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-91827-5. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
Further reading[edit]
Scarre, Chris. Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome. London: Thames & Hudson, October 1, 1995. ISBN 0-500-05077-5. (hardcover)
External links[edit]
De Imperatoribus Romanis
Rulers of Rome
"Decadence, Rome and Romania, and the Emperors Who Weren't", by Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D.
UNRV.com
The Roman Law Library
List of Greatest Roman Emperors
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In the Time of the Butterflies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the novel. For the film, see In the Time of the Butterflies (film).
In the Time of the Butterflies
First edition
Author
Julia Alvarez
Original title
In the Time of the Butterflies
Translator
Rolando Costa Picazo
Country
United States
Language
English and Spanish language
Genre
Nonfiction Novel
Publisher
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Publication date
1994 (English)
2001 (Spanish)
Media type
Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages
344 pp (first edition, hardback) 427 pp (paperback/Spanish)
ISBN
978-1-56512-038-9 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC
30319222
Dewey Decimal
813/.54 20
LC Class
PS3551.L845 I5 1994
In the Time of the Butterflies is a historical novel by Julia Alvarez, relating an account of the Mirabal sisters during the time of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. The book is written in the first and third person, by and about the Mirabal sisters. First published in 1994, the story was adapted into a feature film in 2001.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Characters
3 Reception
4 Connection to historical events
5 References
Plot[edit]
This is the story of the four Mirabal sisters during the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. At school, one of the sisters, Minerva, meets a girl, Sinita, who later became one of her best friends. Sinita eventually confided in Minerva the truth about Trujillo - that their "glorious" leader was a killer. The sisters make a political commitment to overthrow the Trujillo regime. They are harassed, persecuted, and imprisoned, all while their family suffers retaliation from the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).
As vengeance for their political activities, Trujillo orders three of the sisters be killed on Puerto Plata Road, with their driver ear Rufino, while returning from visiting their husbands in jail. The women and driver are beaten to death and later their vehicle and bodies are dumped off a cliff in order to make their deaths look like an accident.
Characters[edit]
Minerva: The third Mirabal sister, and certainly the most headstrong. She is focused on law school, and succeeds in completing it as an adult, although Trujillo withholds her degree as revenge. She has a brief romance with the revolutionary leader "Lio" before she meets Manolo in law school (also a revolutionary), and marries him. She has two children, a daughter Minou and a son Manolito.
Dedé: Dede is the second Mirabal sister. She is not as certain about the revolution as her sisters, and feels weaker because of that fact. She has mixed feelings about joining the revolution, so she doesn't. She uses her husband, Jaimito, as the reason she doesn't officially join. He doesn't want her involved in the revolution, and the conflict almost destroys their marriage. She is constantly worrying about her sisters, telling them they'll be killed. She has children, all boys, Enrique, Rafael, and David. In the end she is the only survivor of her four sisters.
María Teresa: The youngest of the four Mirabal sisters, she is very materialistic. She marries Leandro and has one daughter, named Jacqueline. She joined the revolution while she is living with her sister Minerva. She joined because she wanted to feel worthy of Leandro.
Patria: The oldest of the Mirabal sisters, she is very religious. While looking for her calling from God, she instead finds her husband, Pedrito, whom she marries at age 16. Her faith wavers intensely as a young woman. She takes the miscarriage of her third child as God's punishment towards her, which drives her further into a religious depression. She later regains her faith on a pilgrimage to Higuey that she takes with her mother and sisters. She has three children: Nelson, Noris, and Raul Ernesto. She is also a revolutionary, starting a Christian revolutionary group and merging it with her sister Minerva's revolutionary group.
Trujillo: Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, also known as "El Jefe" ("the Chief"), the main antagonist of the novel. He is the self-appointed dictator of the Dominican Republic. A harsh ruler, he demands complete obedience of everyone and commits many cruel and unjust acts against his people, such as imprisonment without trial, confiscating land and possessions, and torture. Though married, he has many affairs with young girls who he keeps in houses around the country. He is also identified as a rapist. As his regime falls apart, he becomes even more vicious and cruel, and eventually has the Mirabal sisters (all except for Dede) killed, when they become too much of an opposition to his decaying power.
Mamá: Mother to the Mirabal girls, and married to Papa. She takes care of the girls and is always worried about them.
Papá: Father to the Mirabal girls, and married to Mama. He heads the family store.
Pedrito González: A farmer. He married Patria Mirabal when she was 16, on February 24, 1947. He and his wife eventually join the revolution, along with their son, Nelson. He is later imprisoned, along with his brothers-in-law, Leandro and Manolo, for participating in the revolution. He and Patria have three children: Nelson, Noris, and Raulito.
Fela: A worker for the Mirabal family who claims to be a fortune teller. After the girls die, she claims to be possessed by them. Minou goes to Fela for a time to "talk" to her mother after her death.
Minou: One of Minerva's children, Minou was born around 1956. Like her mother, she is strong-willed and independent.
Don Manuel: Trujillo's right-hand man. Manuel is very "tall and dapper" (page 110). He is a corrupt politician, like many of Trujillo's cronies. Manuel does many of Trujillo's odd jobs, such as delivering messages and threats for him.
Virgilio: Virgilio Morales, nicknamed "Lio". He is a revolutionary, but unlike most, he is not underground. He speaks out publicly against the government, which is considered suicide. Lio was forced into hiding because of his actions against the government. He was very close to Minerva before he fled the country. He asked her to flee with him but Minerva did not get the letter in time because Minerva's father hid the letters from her.
Jaimito: Jaimito is Dede's husband and cousin. Jaimito and Dede live on his farm after they are married. He is opposed to his wife's family's involvement in the revolution, and forbids her to join. When he and Dede were first married he was kind, but over the years he and Dede drift apart. He cares deeply for his boys.
Sinita: Minerva's good friend, whom she met at Inmaculada Catholic School for Girls. She later goes to Santo Domingo and becomes a revolutionary, just like Minerva. All the men in Sinita's' family were killed by Trujillo, the last when she was a young girl, anchoring her deep-seated hatred of Trujillo.
Rufino de la Cruz: The Mirabals' driver whenever they rented a car to go over the mountains to visit their husbands in prison, he was very loyal to the "butterflies", and they trusted him wholeheartedly. He has a wife and one child. He was murdered along with the Mirabal girls.
Reception[edit]
The book was nominated for the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award.[1]
The Port Washington School District in Port Washington, NY banned this book because it has a detailed diagram depicting how to construct a bomb. "We believe that the purpose of education is to expose students to all areas of reality so that we can make our own judgments. Isn't that why we are able to read Romeo and Juliet without committing suicide, or The Lord of the Flies without being violent? We should not ban a powerful piece of literature just because of a diagram." stated a New York Times opinion piece written by two Schreiber High School students where the book was banned.[2]
In the Time of the Butterflies is a selection of The Big Read, the National Endowment for the Arts' community-wide reading program, and of "Readers Round Table"(Algonquin).
Connection to historical events[edit]
The idea behind In the Time of the Butterflies originated in the 1960s when author Julia Alvarez was in the Dominican Republic. The Mirabal sisters had been murdered just three months after her father got involved with the underground against Trujillo.[3]
References[edit]
Jump up ^ New York Times, January 23, 1995
Jump up ^ https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/15/nyregion/l-students-weigh-in-on-banned-book-604577.html?scp=4&sq=In%20The%20Time%20of%20the%20Butterflies&st=cse
Jump up ^ "Articles about & Interviews with Julia Alvarez". juliaalvarez.com. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
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Dewclaw
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the web-comic characters of the same last name, see Kevin and Kell.
Letter "D" in the image indicates the dewclaw on this dog's front paw. Letter "E" is the carpal pad.
A dog's dewclaw does not make contact with the ground while the dog is standing. This older dog's dewclaw is rounded from use while running, but it has grown a little long.
This younger, active dog's dewclaw always makes contact while running, so it wears down naturally to its proper length, as do its other nails.
Unusual double dewclaws on rear leg of dog
A dewclaw is a digit – vestigial in some animals – on the foot of many mammals, birds, and reptiles (including some extinct orders, like certain theropods). It commonly grows high on the leg such that in digitigrade species, when the animal is standing, it does not make contact with the ground. On dogs a dewclaw is on the inside of the leg, positioned analogously to a human thumb.[1]
Contents
[hide]
1 Dogs
1.1 Rear dewclaws
1.2 Dewclaw removal
1.3 Dewclaws and locomotion
2 Cats
3 Hoofed animals
4 References
5 External links
Dogs[edit]
Dogs almost always have dewclaws on the inside of the front legs and occasionally also on the hind legs.[2] Unlike front dewclaws, rear dewclaws tend to have little bone or muscle structure in most breeds. It is normal, although not biologically necessary, that certain breeds will have more than one dewclaw on the same paw. At least one of these dewclaws will be poorly connected to the leg, and in this case it is often surgically removed[citation needed]. When a dog has extra dewclaws in addition to the usual one on each front leg, the dog is said to be double dewclawed. There is some debate about whether a dewclaw helps dogs to gain traction when they run because in some dogs, the dewclaw makes contact when they are running and the nail on the dewclaw often wears down in the same way that the nails on their other toes do, from contact with the ground. In many dogs the dewclaws never contact the ground. In this case, the dewclaw's nail never wears away, and it is often trimmed to maintain it at a safe length.
The dewclaws are not dead appendages. They can be used to lightly grip bones and other items that dogs hold with the paws. In some dogs these claws may not appear to be connected to the leg at all except by a flap of skin; in such dogs the claws do not have a use for gripping as the claw can easily fold or turn.[3]
Rear dewclaws[edit]
Canids have four claws on the rear feet,[4] although some domestic dog breeds or individuals have an additional claw- or more rarely, two, as is the case with the beauceron. A more technical term for these additional digits on the rear legs is hind-limb-specific preaxial polydactyly.[5] Several genetic mechanisms can cause rear dewclaws; they involve the LMBR1 gene and related parts of the genome.[5] Rear dewclaws often have no phalanx bones and are attached by skin only.[6]
Dewclaw removal[edit]
There is some debate as to whether dewclaws should be surgically removed.[7][8] The argument for removal states that dewclaws are a weak digit, barely attached to the leg, and thus they can rip partway off or easily catch on something and break, which can be painful and prone to infection. Dewclaw removal is most easily performed when the dog is young, around 2–5 days of age. It can also be performed on older dogs if necessary though the surgery may be more difficult then. The surgery is fairly straightforward and may be done with local anesthetics if the digit is not well connected to the leg. Many dogs can't resist licking the surgery site in the weeks following the procedure, so an Elizabethan collar or bitterant may be used to curtail this behavior, thus preventing infection.
Some pups are commonly sold by breeders "dew clawed," that is with the dewclaws removed (as by a veterinarian) for perceived health and safety reasons. A few breed standards also call for it.
Dewclaws and locomotion[edit]
Based on stop-action photographs, veterinarian M. Christine Zink of Johns Hopkins University believes that the entire front foot, including the dewclaws, contacts the ground while running. During running, the dewclaw digs into the ground preventing twisting or torque on the rest of the leg. Several tendons connect the front dewclaw to muscles in the lower leg, further demonstrating the front dewclaws' functionality. There are indications that dogs without dewclaws have more foot injuries and are more prone to arthritis. Zink recommends "for working dogs it is best for the dewclaws not to be amputated. If the dewclaw does suffer a traumatic injury, the problem can be dealt with at that time, including amputation if needed."[1]
Cats[edit]
Members of the cat family – including domestic cats[9] and wild cats like the lion[10] – have dewclaws. Generally a dewclaw grows on the inside of each front leg but not on either hind leg.[11]
The dewclaw on some cats is not vestigial. Wild felids use the dewclaw in hunting, where it provides an additional claw with which to catch and hold prey.[10]
Hoofed animals[edit]
Cloven hoofs of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), with dewclaws
Hoofed animals walk on the tips of special toes, the hoofs. Cloven-hoofed animals walk on a central pair of hoofs, but many also have an outer pair of dewclaws on each foot. These are somewhat farther up the leg than the main hoofs, and similar in structure to them.[12] In some species (such as cattle) the dewclaws are much smaller than the hoofs and never touch the ground. In others (such as pigs and many deer), they are only a little smaller than the hoofs, and may reach the ground in soft conditions or when jumping. Some hoofed animals (such as giraffes and modern horses) have no dewclaws. Video evidence suggests some animals use dewclaws in grooming or scratching themselves or to have better grasp during mating.
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b Zink, M. Christine. "Form Follows Function – A New Perspective on an Old Adage" (PDF). Penn Vet Working Dog Center. p. 11. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
Jump up ^ Rice, Dan (2008). The Complete Book of Dog Breeding (2 ed.). Barron's Educational Series. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-7641-3887-4.
Jump up ^ Hoskins, Johnny D. (2001). Veterinary Pediatrics: Dogs and Cats from Birth to Six Months (3 ed.). Saunders. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-7216-7665-4.
Jump up ^ Macdonald, D. (1984). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File. p. 56. ISBN 0-87196-871-1.
^ Jump up to: a b Park, K; Kang, J; Subedi, Kp; Ha, Jh; Park, C (Aug 2008). "Canine Polydactyl Mutations With Heterogeneous Origin in the Conserved Intronic Sequence of LMBR1" (Free full text). Genetics. 179 (4): 2163–72. doi:10.1534/genetics.108.087114. ISSN 0016-6731. PMC 2516088  . PMID 18689889.
Jump up ^ Hosgood, Giselle (1998). Small Animal Paediatric Medicine and Surgery. Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-7506-3599-8.
Jump up ^ Lotz, Kristina N. "The Dewclaws Debate – Keep Them or Lose Them?". iheartdogs.com. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
Jump up ^ "Dog Dew Claw Removal". vetinfo.com. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
Jump up ^ "Clipping a Cat's Claws (Toenails)". Pet Health Topics. Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine. 22 July 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2013. Cats have a nail on the inner side of each foot called the dew claw. Remember to trim these as they are not worn down when the cat scratches and can grow in a circle, growing into the foot.
^ Jump up to: a b "Physiology". Lion ALERT. Retrieved 2 November 2013. Lions have four claws on their back feet but five on the front where the dew claw is found. This acts like a thumb and is used to hold down prey while the jaws rip away the meat from bone. Set well back from the other claws the dew claw does not appear in the print.
Jump up ^ Bircher, Steve (5 November 2011), Tiger Tales (PDF), National Tiger Sanctuary, archived from the original (PDF) on 3 November 2013
Jump up ^ Perich, Shawn; Furman, Michael (2003). Whitetail Hunting: Top-notch Strategies for Hunting North America's Most Popular Big-Game Animal. Creative Publishing international. pp. 8, 9. ISBN 978-1-58923-129-0.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dewclaws.
Another look at Dewclaws
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dewclaw&oldid=832190100"
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