title: Team Fortress 2

text: With the "Gold Rush Update" in April 2008, Valve had started to add fundamentals of character customization through unlockable weapons for each class, which continued in subsequent updates, most notably the "Sniper vs. Spy Update" in April 2009, which introduced unlockable cosmetic items into the game. Further updates expanded the number of weapons and cosmetics available, but also introduced monetization options, eventually allowing it to go free-to-play. To this end, "Team Fortress 2" is considered one of the first games to offer games as a service, a feature which would become more prevalent in the 2010s.


title: Team Fortress 2

text: Fans of "Team Fortress Classic" have made a total conversion mod of "Team Fortress 2" titled "Team Fortress 2 Classic", which seeks to marry gameplay elements and concepts from both entries alongside scrapped ideas from the sequel's development cycle and several entirely original additions.


title: Tom Hulce

text: Thomas Edward Hulce (; born December 6, 1953) is an American actor and theater producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Academy Award-winning film "Amadeus" (1984), as well as the roles of Larry "Pinto" Kroger in "Animal House" (1978), Larry Buckman in "Parenthood" (1989), and Quasimodo in Disney's animated film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996). Awards include an Emmy Award for "The Heidi Chronicles", a Tony Award for "Spring Awakening", an Oscar Award nomination for Best Actor for "Amadeus", and four Golden Globe nominations.


title: Tom Hulce

text: He retired from acting in the mid-1990s to focus on stage directing and producing. In 2007, he won the Tony Award for Best Musical as a lead producer of "Spring Awakening".


title: Tom Hulce

text: Thomas Edward Hulce was born on December 6, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan (some sources incorrectly cite his birthplace as Whitewater, Wisconsin). The youngest of four children, he was raised in Plymouth, Michigan. His mother, the former Joanna Winkleman, sang briefly with Phil Spitalny's "All-Girl Orchestra," and his father, Raymond Albert Hulce, worked for the Ford Motor Company. As a child, he wanted to be a singer, but he switched to acting after his voice changed in his teenage years. He left home at the age of 15 and attended Interlochen Arts Academy and the North Carolina School of the Arts, leaving a year before finishing his BFA. He graduated with a BA from Beloit College in Wisconsin.


title: Tom Hulce

text: Hulce debuted as an actor in 1975, playing opposite Anthony Hopkins in "Equus" on Broadway. Throughout the rest of the 1970s and the early 1980s, he worked primarily as a theater actor, taking occasional parts in movies. His first film role was in the James Dean-influenced film "September 30, 1955" in 1977. His next movie role was as freshman student Lawrence "Pinto" Kroger in the classic comedy "Animal House" (1978). In 1983, he played a gunshot victim in the television show "St. Elsewhere."


title: Tom Hulce

text: In the early 1980s, Hulce was chosen over intense competition (including David Bowie, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mark Hamill, and Kenneth Branagh) to play the role of Mozart in director Miloš Forman's film version of Peter Shaffer's play "Amadeus." In 1985, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, losing to his co-star, F. Murray Abraham. In his acceptance speech, Abraham paid tribute to his co-star, saying, "There's only one thing missing for me tonight, and that is to have Tom Hulce standing by my side."


title: Tom Hulce

text: In 1989, he received his second Best Actor Golden Globe Award nomination for a critically acclaimed performance as an intellectually-challenged garbage-collector in the 1988 movie "Dominick and Eugene." He played supporting roles in "Parenthood" (1989), "Fearless" (1993) and "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (1994). In 1988, he played the title part in the British–Dutch movie "Shadow Man," directed by the Polish director Piotr Andrejew.


title: Tom Hulce

text: In 1990, he was nominated for his first Emmy Award for his performance as the 1960s civil rights activist Michael Schwerner in the 1990 TV-movie "Murder in Mississippi." He starred as Joseph Stalin's projectionist in Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's 1991 film "The Inner Circle." In 1996, he won an Emmy Award for his role as a pediatrician in a television-movie version of the Wendy Wasserstein play "The Heidi Chronicles," starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Also that year, he was cast in Disney's animated film adaptation of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," providing the speaking and singing voice of the protagonist Quasimodo. Although Hulce largely retired from acting in the mid-1990s, he had bit parts in the movies "Stranger Than Fiction" (2006) and "Jumper" (2008).


title: Tom Hulce

text: Hulce remained active in theater throughout his entire acting career. In addition to "Equus," he appeared in Broadway productions of "A Memory of Two Mondays" and "A Few Good Men," for which he was a Tony Award nominee in 1990. In the mid-1980s, he appeared in two different productions of playwright Larry Kramer's early AIDS-era drama "The Normal Heart." In 1992, he starred in a Shakespeare Theatre Company production of "Hamlet." His regional theatre credits include "Eastern Standard" at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and "Nothing Sacred" at the Mark Taper Forum, both in 1988.


title: Tom Hulce

text: Among Hulce's major projects are the six-hour, two-evening stage adaptation of John Irving's "The Cider House Rules"; and "Talking Heads", a festival of Alan Bennett's one-man plays that won six Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, a special Outer Critics Circle Award, and a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play. He also headed "10 Million Miles", a musical project by Keith Bunin and Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Patty Griffin, that premiered in Spring 2007 at the Atlantic Theater Company.


title: Tom Hulce

text: Hulce was a lead producer of the Broadway hit "Spring Awakening", which won eight Tony Awards in 2007, including one for Best Musical. He is also a lead producer of the stage adaptation of the Green Day album "American Idiot". The musical had its world premiere in Berkeley, California, at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2009 and opened on Broadway in April 2010. In 2017 he began work as a producer on the musical "Ain't Too Proud", which received 11 Tony Award nominations in 2019. He also produced the 2004 movie "A Home at the End of the World", based upon Michael Cunningham's novel.


title: Tom Hulce

text: In 2008, Hulce identified as gay in an interview with "Seattle Gay News". In the same interview, he took the opportunity to debunk a rumor he married a woman (supposedly an Italian artist named Cecilia Ermini) and had a daughter named Anya with her: "That information – having a wife and child – is false. In the world of the Internet, there are many falsehoods. Anyone can write stuff on Wikipedia and it doesn't have to be true. I'm comfortable among the lists [of openly gay actors] although I stopped acting about 10 years ago."


title: Jay Sebring

text: Thomas John Kummer (October 10, 1933 – August 9, 1969), known professionally as Jay Sebring, was an American celebrity hair stylist, and the founder of the hairstyling corporation Sebring International. Sebring was murdered by members of the Manson Family along with his ex-girlfriend Sharon Tate.


title: Jay Sebring

text: Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Sebring was the son of an accountant, Bernard Kummer, and his wife, Margarette Gibb. He grew up with one brother and two sisters in a middle-class home in Detroit, Michigan.


title: Jay Sebring

text: After graduating from Detroit Catholic Central in 1951, Sebring served in the Navy for four years, and during this time he fought in the Korean War. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he adopted the name "Jay Sebring": Jay, after the first initial of his middle name, and Sebring after the famous Florida car race.


title: Jay Sebring

text: In Las Vegas, on his 27th birthday October 10, 1960, Sebring married model Bonnie Lee Marple, nicknamed Cami – a union which ended unofficially in August 1963.


title: Jay Sebring

text: In Los Angeles, he graduated from beauty school and opened a shop on Fairfax Avenue, designing and building it for less than $500. Kummer cut hair for 13 hours a day, sleeping in the back, but was challenged by mounting costs. He promptly "invented a whole new way of cutting men's hair". His innovations including shampooing men's hair before styling it, cutting their hair with scissors instead of clippers, and using blow dryers, which were popular in Europe but not well known in the United States. He used hairspray in an era when Brylcreem was the accepted hair product for men.


title: Jay Sebring

text: His breakthrough happened after meeting actress Barbara Luna at a party. She told Vic Damone, who liked him enough to fly him to Las Vegas for a trim. In turn, he introduced Kummer to Peter Lawford and Frank Sinatra. Kummer would rename himself after the Sebring International Raceway, after seeing images of it in a magazine.


title: Jay Sebring

text: In Los Angeles, his modish salon and his style of cutting hair proved popular. He taught his methods to others who then opened Jay Sebring Salon franchises; his styling techniques were still being taught 40 years after his death. In 1967 he opened the company Sebring International to franchise his salons and sell hair care products.


title: Jay Sebring

text: At a time when barbers charged $1 to $2 for a haircut, Sebring charged $50 and more. His hairstyling clients included Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen. He flew to Las Vegas every three weeks to cut the hair of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. At Kirk Douglas's request, Sebring did the hairstyling for the movie "Spartacus". He later designed The Doors' Jim Morrison's free-flowing style.


title: Jay Sebring

text: His business, Sebring International, was flourishing by the late 1960s, with profitable salons in West Hollywood, New York City and London. Sebring maintained a playboy lifestyle, with high-profile Hollywood personalities like Beatty among his closest associates.


title: Jay Sebring

text: Sebring assisted with launching the film career of Bruce Lee, after meeting him at the International Karate Championships in Long Beach in 1964. He introduced Lee to his producer friend Bill Dozier, who started Lee's career with "The Green Hornet".


title: Jay Sebring

text: Although not seeking an acting career himself, Sebring made a cameo appearance in the of the TV show "Batman", playing a character based on himself called Mr. Oceanbring. Sebring also appeared in a 1967 episode of "The Virginian" titled "The Strange Quest of Claire Bingham", playing a frontier barber. Sebring also appeared as himself on the January 28, 1963 episode of "To Tell the Truth". He received three of four possible votes.


title: Jay Sebring

text: Jay Sebring was one of the people profiled in the 1967 cult documentary, "Mondo Hollywood". Bobby Beausoleil, a future member of the notorious Manson Family, was also seen in it. Beausoleil was arrested for the murder of Gary Hinman two days before the Tate–LaBianca murders that took Sebring's life.


title: Jay Sebring

text: Sebring was introduced to Sharon Tate by journalist Joe Hyams in October 1964 and they began a relationship. Sebring bought the former home of Paul Bern, husband of Jean Harlow, on Easton Drive in Benedict Canyon, then owned by Sally Forrest.


title: Jay Sebring

text: Tate went to London in early 1966 to work on "The Fearless Vampire Killers" with film director Roman Polanski. They began a relationship, and Tate ended her relationship with Sebring, who travelled to London to meet Polanski. He befriended Polanski, while remaining a friend to Tate. Polanski would later comment that despite Sebring's lifestyle, he was a very lonely person, who regarded Tate and Polanski as his family.


title: Jay Sebring

text: In the summer of 1968, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate introduced Sebring to Polanski's friend Wojciech Frykowski and his girlfriend, Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger, who had recently moved to Los Angeles from New York state. Folger later invested in Sebring's hair-care products for men.


title: Jay Sebring

text: In early May 1969, Sebring opened a new salon at 629 Commercial Street in San Francisco, and a champagne reception followed. Guests included Abigail Folger and her mother, Ines, as well as Paul Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward.


title: Jay Sebring

text: On August 8, 1969, Sebring, Tate, Frykowski, and Folger went to El Coyote, a Mexican restaurant, together. After they returned to the Polanski residence on Cielo Drive, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins and Charles "Tex" Watson, members of the "Manson Family", entered the home. After coercing the four occupants of the house into the living room, they ordered them to lie face down on the floor. Sebring protested and asked the intruders to consider Tate's advanced pregnancy. Watson then shot Sebring, and kicked him several times in the face as he lay dying, breaking his nose and eye socket. He was then stabbed seven times and died from blood loss caused by his stab wounds. The group then murdered Frykowski, Folger, and Tate.


title: Jay Sebring

text: On Wednesday, August 13, funerals for Tate and Sebring took place the same day; the funerals were scheduled several hours apart (first for Tate and then Sebring) to allow mutual friends to attend both.


title: Jay Sebring

text: Sebring was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan. Steve McQueen gave the eulogy.


title: Jay Sebring

text: A feature-length documentary "Jay Sebring...Cutting to the Truth" was released in September 2020 by Shout! Factory. Directed and produced by Sebring's nephew Anthony DiMaria, the film has received widely positive reviews.


title: Jay Sebring

text: Emile Hirsch portrays Sebring in the 2019 film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", directed by Quentin Tarantino, which contains a revisionist interpretation of the Manson murders.


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius I ( ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two civil wars, and recognized the Catholic orthodoxy of Nicene Christians as the Roman Empire's state religion. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule the entire Roman Empire before its administration was permanently split between two separate courts (one western, the other eastern).


title: Theodosius I

text: Born in Hispania, Theodosius was the son of a high-ranking general, Theodosius the Elder, under whose guidance he rose through the ranks of the Roman Army. Theodosius held independent command in Moesia in 374, where he had some success against the invading Sarmatians. Not long afterwards, he was forced into retirement, and his father was executed under obscure circumstances. Theodosius soon regained his position following a series of intrigues and executions at the emperor Gratian's court. In 379, after the eastern Roman emperor Valens perished at the Battle of Adrianople against the Goths, Gratian appointed Theodosius as a successor with orders to take charge of the current military emergency. The new emperor's resources, and depleted armies, were not sufficient to drive the invaders out; in 382 the Goths were allowed to settle south of the Danube as autonomous allies of the Empire. In 386, Theodosius signed a treaty with the Sasanian Empire which partitioned the long-disputed Kingdom of Armenia and secured a durable peace between the two powers.


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius was a strong adherent of the Christian doctrine of consubstantiality and an opponent of Arianism. He convened a council of bishops at Constantinople in 381 which confirmed the former as orthodoxy and the latter as a heresy. Although Theodosius interfered little in the functioning of traditional pagan cults and appointed non-Christians to high offices, he failed to prevent or punish the damaging of several Hellenistic temples of classical antiquity, such as the Serapeum of Alexandria, by Christian zealots. During his earlier reign, Theodosius ruled the eastern provinces, while the west was overseen by the emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, whose sister he married. Theodosius sponsored several measures to improve his capital and main residence, Constantinople, most notably his expansion of the Forum Tauri, which became the biggest public square known in antiquity. Theodosius marched west twice, in 388 and 394, after both Gratian and Valentinian had been killed, to defeat the two pretenders, Magnus Maximus and Eugenius, that rose to replace them. Theodosius's final victory in September 394 made him master of the Empire; he died a few months later and was succeeded by his two sons, Arcadius in the eastern half of the empire and Honorius in the west.


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius was said to have been a diligent administrator, austere in his habits, merciful, and a devout Christian. For centuries after his death, Theodosius was regarded as a champion of Christian orthodoxy who decisively stamped out paganism. Modern scholars tend to see this as an interpretation of history by Christian writers more than an accurate representation of actual history. He is fairly credited with presiding over a revival in classical art that some historians have termed a "Theodosian renaissance". Although his pacification of the Goths secured peace for the Empire during his lifetime, their status as an autonomous entity within Roman borders caused problems for succeeding emperors. Theodosius has also received criticism for defending his own dynastic interests at the cost of two civil wars. His two sons proved weak and incapable rulers, and they presided over a period of foreign invasions and court intrigues which heavily weakened the Empire. The descendants of Theodosius ruled the Roman world for the next six decades, and the east–west division endured until the fall of the Western Empire in the late 5th century.


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius was born in Hispania on 11 January, probably in the year 347. His father, also called Theodosius, was a successful and high-ranking general ("magister equitum") under the western Roman emperor Valentinian I, and his mother was called Thermantia. The family appear to have been minor landed aristocrats in Hispania, although it is not clear if this social status went back several generations or if Theodosius the Elder was simply awarded land there for his military service. Their roots to Hispania were nevertheless probably long-standing, since various relatives of the future emperor Theodosius are likewise attested as Spanish, and Theodosius himself was ubiquitously associated in the ancient literary sources and panegyrics with the image of fellow Spanish-born emperor Trajan – though he never again visited the peninsula after becoming emperor.


title: Theodosius I

text: Very little is recorded of the upbringing of Theodosius. The 5th-century author Theodoret claimed the future emperor grew up and was educated in his Spanish homeland, but his testimony is unreliable. One modern historian instead thinks Theodosius must have grown up among the army, participating in his father's campaigns throughout the provinces, as was customary at the time for families with a tradition of military service. One source says he received a decent education and developed a particular interest in history, which Theodosius then valued as a guide to his own conduct throughout life.


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius is first attested accompanying his father to Britain on his expedition in 368–369 to suppress the "Great Conspiracy", a concerted Celtic and Germanic invasion of the island provinces. After probably serving in his father's staff on further campaigns, Theodosius received his first independent command by 374 when he was appointed the "dux" (commanding officer) of the province of Moesia Prima in the Danube. In the autumn of 374, he successfully repulsed an incursion of Sarmatians on his sector of the frontier and forced them into submission. Not long afterwards, however, under mysterious circumstances, Theodosius's father suddenly fell from imperial favor and was executed, and the future emperor felt compelled to retire to his estates in Hispania.


title: Theodosius I

text: Although these events are poorly documented, historians usually attribute this fall from grace to the machinations of a court faction led by Maximinus, a senior civilian official. According to another theory, the future emperor Theodosius lost his father, his military post, or both, in the purges of high officials that resulted from the accession of the 4-year-old emperor Valentinian II in November 375. Theodosius's period away from service in Hispania, during which he was said to have received threats from those responsible for his father's death, did not last long, however, as Maximinus, the probable culprit, was himself removed from power around April 376 and then executed. The emperor Gratian immediately began replacing Maximinus and his associates with relatives of Theodosius in key government positions, indicating the family's full rehabilitation, and by 377 Theodosius himself had regained his command against the Sarmatians.


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius's renewed term of office seems to have gone uneventfully, until news arrived that the eastern Roman emperor, Valens, had been killed at the Battle of Adrianople in August 378 against invading Goths. The disastrous defeat left much of Rome's military leadership dead, discredited, or barbarian in origin, to the result that Theodosius, notwithstanding his own modest record, became the establishment's choice to replace Valens and assume control of the crisis. With the begrudging consent of the western emperor Gratian, Theodosius was formally invested with the purple by a council of officials at Sirmium on 19 January 379.


title: Theodosius I

text: The immediate problem facing Theodosius upon his accession was how to check the bands of Goths that were laying waste to the Balkans, with an army that had been severely depleted of manpower following the debacle at Adrianople. The western emperor Gratian, who seems to have provided only little immediate assistance, surrendered to Theodosius control of the prefecture of Illyricum for the duration of the conflict, giving his new colleague full charge the war effort. Theodosius implemented stern and desperate recruiting measures, resorting to the conscription of farmers and miners. Punishments were instituted for harboring deserters and furnishing unfit recruits, and even self-mutilation did not exempt men from service. Theodosius also admitted large numbers of non-Roman auxiliaries into the army, even Gothic deserters from beyond the Danube. Some of these foreign recruits were exchanged with more reliable Roman garrison troops stationed in Egypt.


title: Theodosius I

text: Throughout the second half of 379, Theodosius and his generals, based at Thessalonica, won some minor victories over individual bands of raiders, but suffered at least one serious defeat in 380, which was blamed on the treachery of the new barbarian recruits. During the autumn of 380, a life-threatening illness, from which Theodosius recovered, prompted him to request baptism. Some obscure victories were recorded in official sources around this time, however, and, in November 380, the military situation was found to be sufficiently stable for Theodosius to move his court to Constantinople. There, the emperor enjoyed a propaganda victory when, in January 381, he received the visit and submission of a minor Gothic leader, Athanaric. By this point, however, Theodosius seems to have no longer believed that the Goths could be completely ejected from Roman territory. After Athanaric died that very same month, the emperor gave him a funeral with full honors, impressing his entourage and signaling to the enemy that the Empire was disposed to negotiate terms. During the campaigning season of 381, reinforcements from Gratian drove the Goths out of Macedonia and Thessaly into Thrace, while, in the latter sector, Theodosius or one of his generals repulsed an incursion by a group of Sciri and Huns across the Danube.


title: Theodosius I

text: Following negotiations which likely lasted at least several months, the Romans and Goths finally concluded a settlement on 3 October 382. In return for military service to Rome, the Goths were allowed to settle some tracts of Roman land south of the Danube. The terms were unusually favorable to the Goths, reflecting the fact that they were entrenched in Roman territory and had not been driven out. Namely, instead of fully submitting to Roman authority, they were allowed to remain autonomous under their own leaders, and thus remaining a strong, unified body. The Goths now settled within the Empire would largely fight for the Romans as a national contingent, as opposed to being fully integrated into the Roman forces.


title: Theodosius I

text: According to the "Chronicon Paschale", Theodosius celebrated his "quinquennalia" on 19 January 383 at Constantinople; on this occasion he raised his eldest son Arcadius to co-emperor ("augustus"). Sometime in 383, Gratian's wife Constantia died. Gratian remarried, wedding Laeta, whose father was a "consularis" of Roman Syria. Early 383 saw the acclamation of Magnus Maximus as emperor in Britain and the appointment of Themistius as "praefectus urbi" in Constantinople. On the 25 August 383, according to the "Consularia Constantinopolitana", Gratian was killed at Lugdunum (Lyon) by Andragathius, the "magister equitum" of the rebel emperor during the rebellion of Magnus Maximus . Constantia's body arrived in Constantinople on 12 September that year and was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles on 1 December. Gratian was deified as .


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius, unable to do much about Maximus due to ongoing military inadequacy, opened negotiations with the Persian emperor Shapur III () of the Sasanian Empire. According to the "Consularia Constantinopolitana", Theodosius received in Constantinople an embassy from them in 384.


title: Theodosius I

text: In an attempt to curb Maximus's ambitions, Theodosius appointed Flavius Neoterius as praetorian prefect of Italy. In the summer of 384, Theodosius met his co-emperor Valentinian II in northern Italy. Theodosius brokered a peace agreement between Valentinian and Magnus Maximus which endured for several years.


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius I was based in Constantinople, and according to Peter Heather, wanted, "for his own dynastic reasons (for his two sons each eventually to inherit half of the empire), refused to appoint a recognized counterpart in the west. As a result he was faced with rumbling discontent there, as well as dangerous usurpers, who found plentiful support among the bureaucrats and military officers who felt they were not getting a fair share of the imperial cake."


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius's second son Honorius was born on 9 December 384 and titled "nobilissimus puer" (or "nobilissimus iuvenis"). The death of Aelia Flaccilla, Theodosius's first wife and the mother of Arcadius, Honorius, and Pulcheria, occurred by 386. She died at Scotumis in Thrace and was buried at Constantinople, her funeral oration delivered by Gregory of Nyssa. A statue of her was dedicated in the Byzantine Senate. In 384 or 385, Theodosius's niece Serena was married to the "magister militum", Stilicho.


title: Theodosius I

text: In the beginning of 386, Theodosius's daughter Pulcheria also died. That summer, more Goths were defeated, and many were settled in Phrygia. According to the "Consularia Constantinopolitana", a Roman triumph over the Gothic Greuthungi was then celebrated at Constantinople. The same year, work began on the great triumphal column in the Forum of Theodosius in Constantinople, the Column of Theodosius. The "Consularia Constantinopolitana" records that on 19 January 387, Arcadius celebrated his "quinquennalia" in Constantinople. By the end of the month, there was an uprising or riot in Antioch (modern Antakya). The Roman–Persian Wars concluded with the signing of the Peace of Acilisene with Persia. By the terms of the agreement, the ancient Kingdom of Armenia was divided between the powers.


title: Theodosius I

text: By the end of the 380s, Theodosius and the court were in Milan and northern Italy had settled down to a period of prosperity. Peter Brown says gold was being made in Milan by those who owned land as well as by those who came with the court for government service. Great landowners took advantage of the court's need for food, "turning agrarian produce into gold", while repressing and misusing the poor who grew it and brought it in. According to Brown, modern scholars link the decline of the Roman empire to the avarice of the rich of this era. He quotes Paulinus of Milan as describing these men as creating a court where "everything was up for sale". In the late 380s, Ambrose, the bishop of Milan took the lead in opposing this, presenting the need for the rich to care for the poor as "a necessary consequence of the unity of all Christians". This led to a major development in the political culture of the day called the “advocacy revolution of the later Roman empire". This revolution had been fostered by the imperial government, and it encouraged appeals and denunciations of bad government from below. However, Brown adds that, "in the crucial area of taxation and the treatment of fiscal debtors, the late Roman state [of the 380s and 390s] remained impervious to Christianity".


title: Theodosius I

text: The peace with Magnus Maximus was broken in 387, and Valentinian escaped to the east with Justina, reaching Thessalonica (Thessaloniki) in summer or autumn 387 and appealing to Theodosius for aid; Valentinian II's sister Galla was then married to the eastern emperor at Thessalonica in late autumn. Theodosius may still have been in Thessalonica when he celebrated his "decennalia" on 19 January 388. Theodosius was consul for the second time in 388. Galla and Theodosius's first child, a son named Gratian, was born in 388 or 389. In summer 388, Theodosius recovered Italy from Magnus Maximus for Valentinian, and in June, the meeting of Christians deemed heretics was banned by Valentinian.


title: Theodosius I

text: The armies of Theodosius and Maximus fought at the Battle of Poetovio in 388, which saw Maximus defeated. On 28 August 388 Maximus was executed. Now the "de facto" ruler of the Western empire as well, Theodosius celebrated his victory in Rome on June 13, 389 and stayed in Milan until 391, installing his own loyalists in senior positions including the new "magister militum" of the West, the Frankish general Arbogast. According to the "Consularia Constantinopolitana", Arbogast killed Flavius Victor (), Magnus Maximus's young son and co-emperor, in Gaul in August/September that year. "Damnatio memoriae" was pronounced against them, and inscriptions naming them were erased.


title: Theodosius I

text: The Massacre of Thessalonica (Thessaloniki) in Greece was a massacre of local civilians by Roman troops. The best estimate of the date is April of 390. The massacre was most likely a response to an urban riot that led to the murder of a Roman official. What most scholars, such as philosopher Stanislav Doleźal, see as the most reliable of the sources is the "Historia ecclesiastica" written by Sozomen about 442; in it Sozomen supplies the identity of the murdered Roman official as Butheric, the commanding general of the field army in Illyricum (magister militum per Illyricum). According to Sozomen, a popular charioteer tried to rape a cup-bearer, (or possibly Butheric himself), and in response, Butheric arrested and jailed the charioteer. The populace demanded the chariot racer's release, and when Butheric refused, a general revolt rose up costing Butheric his life. Doležal says the name "Butheric" indicates he might have been a Goth, and that the general's ethnicity "could have been" a factor in the riot, but none of the early sources actually say so.


title: Theodosius I

text: There are no contemporaneous accounts. Church historians Sozomen, Theodoret the bishop of Cyrrhus, Socrates of Constantinople and Rufinus wrote the earliest accounts during the fifth century. These are moral accounts emphasizing imperial piety and ecclesial action rather than historical and political details. Further difficulty is created by these events moving into legend in art and literature almost immediately. Doležal explains that yet another problem is created by aspects of these accounts contradicting one another to the point of being mutually exclusive. Nonetheless, most classicists accept at least the basic account of the massacre, although they continue to dispute when it happened, who was responsible for it, what motivated it, and what impact it had on subsequent events.


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius was not in Thessalonica when the massacre occurred. The court was in Milan. Several scholars, such as historian G. W. Bowersock and authors Stephen Williams and Gerard Friell, think that Theodosius ordered the massacre in an excess of "volcanic anger". McLynn also puts all the blame on the Emperor as does the less dependable fifth century historian, Theodoret. Other scholars, such as historians Mark Hebblewhite and N. Q. King, do not agree. Peter Brown, points to the empire's established process of decision making, which required the emperor "to listen to his ministers" before acting. There is some indication in the sources Theodosius did listen to his counselors but received bad or misleading advice.


title: Theodosius I

text: J. F. Matthews argues that the Emperor first tried to punish the city by selective executions. Peter Brown concurs: "As it was, what was probably planned as a selective killing ... got out of hand". Doleźal says Sozomen is very specific in saying that in response to the riot, the soldiers made random arrests in the hippodrome to perform a few public executions as a demonstration of imperial disfavor, but the citizenry objected. Doleźal suggests, "The soldiers, realizing that they were surrounded by angry citizens, perhaps panicked ... and ...forcibly cleared the hippodrome at the cost of several thousands of lives of local inhabitants". McLynn says Theodosius was “unable to impose discipline upon the faraway troops" and covered that failure by taking responsibility for the massacre on himself, declaring he had given the order then countermanded it too late to stop it.


title: Theodosius I

text: Ambrose, the bishop of Milan and one of Theodosius' many counselors, was away from court. After being informed of events concerning Thessalonica, he wrote Theodosius a letter offering what McLynn calls a different way for the emperor to "save face" and restore his public image. Ambrose urges a semi-public demonstration of penitence, telling the emperor he will not give Theodosius communion until this is done. Wolf Liebeschuetz says "Theodosius duly complied and came to church without his imperial robes, until Christmas, when Ambrose openly admitted him to communion".


title: Theodosius I

text: Washburn says the image of the mitered prelate braced in the door of the cathedral in Milan blocking Theodosius from entering is a product of the imagination of Theodoret who wrote of the events of 390 "using his own ideology to fill the gaps in the historical record". Peter Brown also says there was no dramatic encounter at the church door. McLynn states that "the encounter at the church door has long been known as a pious fiction". Wolfe Liebeschuetz says Ambrose advocated a course of action which avoided the kind of public humiliation Theodoret describes, and that is the course Theodosius chose.


title: Theodosius I

text: According to the early twentieth century historian Henry Smith Williams, history's assessment of Theodosius' character has been stained by the massacre of Thessalonica for centuries. Williams describes Theodosius as a virtuous-minded, courageous man, who was vigorous in pursuit of any important goal, but through contrasting the "inhuman massacre of the people of Thessalonica" with "the generous pardon of the citizens of Antioch" after civil war, Williams also concludes Theodosius was "hasty and choleric". It is only modern scholarship that has begun disputing Theodosius' responsibility for those events.


title: Theodosius I

text: From the time Edward Gibbon wrote his "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire", Ambrose' action after the fact has been cited as an example of the church's dominance over the state in Antiquity. Alan Cameron says "the assumption is so widespread it would be superfluous to cite authorities. But there is not a shred of evidence for Ambrose exerting any such influence over Theodosius". Brown says Ambrose was just one among many advisors, and Cameron says there is no evidence Theodosius favored him above anyone else.


title: Theodosius I

text: By the time of the Thessalonican affair, Ambrose, an aristocrat and former governor, had been a bishop for 16 years, and during his episcopate, had seen the death of three emperors before Theodosius. These produced significant political storms, yet Ambrose held his place using what McLynn calls his "considerable qualities [and] considerable luck" to survive. Theodosius was in his 40s, had been emperor for 11 years, had temporarily settled the Gothic wars, and won a civil war. As a Latin speaking Nicene western leader of the Greek largely Arian East, Boniface Ramsey says he had already left an indelible mark on history.


title: Theodosius I

text: McLynn asserts that the relationship between Theodosius and Ambrose transformed into myth within a generation of their deaths. He also observes that the documents revealing the relationship between these two formidable men do not show the personal friendship the legends portray. Instead, those documents read more as negotiations between the institutions the men represent: the Roman state and the Italian Church.


title: Theodosius I

text: In 391, Theodosius left his trusted general Arbogast, who had served in the Balkans after Adrianople, to be "magister militum" for the Western emperor Valentinian II, while Theodosius attempted to rule the entire empire from Constantinople. On 15 May 392, Valentinian II died at Vienna in Gaul (Vienne), either by suicide or as part of a plot by Arbogast. Valentinian had quarrelled publicly with Arbogast, and was found hanged in his room. Arbogast announced that this had been a suicide. Stephen Williams asserts that Valentinian's death left Arbogast in "an untenable position". He had to carry on governing without the ability to issue edicts and rescripts from a legitimate acclaimed emperor. Arbogast was unable to assume the role of emperor himself because of his non-Roman background. Instead, on 22 August 392, Arbogast had Valentinian's master of correspondence, Eugenius, proclaimed emperor in the West at Lugdunum.


title: Theodosius I

text: At least two embassies went to Theodosius to explain events, one of them Christian in make-up, but they received ambivalent replies, and were sent home without achieving their goals. Theodosius raised his second son Honorius to emperor on 23 January 393, implying the illegality of Eugenius' rule. Williams and Friell say that by the spring of 393, the split was complete, and "in April Arbogast and Eugenius at last moved into Italy without resistance". Flavianus, the praetorian prefect of Italy whom Theodosius had appointed, defected to their side. Through early 394, both sides prepared for war.


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius gathered a large army, including the Goths whom he had settled in the eastern empire as "foederati", and Caucasian and Saracen auxiliaries, and marched against Eugenius. The battle began on 5 September 394, with Theodosius' full frontal assault on Eugenius's forces. Thousands of Goths died, and in Theodosius's camp, the loss of the day decreased morale. It is said by Theodoret that Theodosius was visited by two "heavenly riders all in white" who gave him courage.


title: Theodosius I

text: The next day, the extremely bloody battle began again and Theodosius's forces were aided by a natural phenomenon known as the Bora, which can produce hurricane-strength winds. The Bora blew directly against the forces of Eugenius and disrupted the line. Eugenius's camp was stormed; Eugenius was captured and soon after executed. According to Socrates Scholasticus, Theodosius defeated Eugenius at the Battle of the Frigidus (the Vipava) on 6 September 394. On 8 September, Arbogast killed himself. According to Socrates, on 1 January 395, Honorius arrived in Mediolanum and a victory celebration was held there. Zosimus records that, at the end of April 394, Theodosius's wife Galla had died while he was away at war.


title: Theodosius I

text: A number of Christian sources report that Eugenius cultivated the support of the pagan senators by promising to restore the altar of Victory and provide public funds for the maintenance of cults if they would support him and if he won the coming war against Theodosius. Cameron notes that the ultimate source for this is Ambrose's biographer Paulinus the Deacon, whom he argues fabricated the entire narrative and deserves no credence. Historian Michele Renee Salzman explains that "two newly relevant texts – John Chrysostom's Homily 6, "adversus Catharos" (PG 63: 491–492) and the "Consultationes Zacchei et Apollonii", re-dated to the 390s, reinforces the view that religion was not the key ideological element in the events at the time". According to Maijastina Kahlos, Finnish historian and Docent of Latin language and Roman literature at the University of Helsinki, the notion of pagan aristocrats united in a "heroic and cultured resistance" who rose up against the ruthless advance of Christianity in a final battle near Frigidus in 394 is a romantic myth.


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius suffered from a disease involving severe edema. He died in Mediolanum (Milan) on 17 January 395, and his body lay in state in the palace there for forty days. His funeral was held in the cathedral on 25 February. Bishop Ambrose delivered a panegyric titled "De obitu Theodosii" in the presence of Stilicho and Honorius in which Ambrose praised the suppression of paganism by Theodosius.


title: Theodosius I

text: On 8 November 395, his body was transferred to Constantinople, where according to the "Chronicon Paschale" he was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles. He was deified . He was interred in a porphyry sarcophagus that was described in the 10th century by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in his work "De Ceremoniis".


title: Theodosius I

text: According to art historian David Wright, art of the era around the year 400 reflects optimism amongst the traditional polytheists. This is likely connected to what Ine Jacobs calls a renaissance of classical styles of art in the Theodosian period (AD 379- 395) often referred to in modern scholarship as the "Theodosian renaissance". The "Forum Tauri" in Constantinople was renamed and redecorated as the Forum of Theodosius, including a column and a triumphal arch in his honour. The "missorium" of Theodosius, the city of Aprodisias' statue of the emperor, the base of the Obelisk of Theodosius, the columns of Theodosius and Arcadius, and the diptych of Probus were all commissioned by the court and reflect a similar renaissance of classicism.


title: Theodosius I

text: According to Armin Wirsching, two obelisks were shipped by the Romans from Karnak to Alexandria in 13/12 BC. In 357, Constantius II had one (that became known as the Lateran obelisk) shipped to Rome. Wirsching says the Romans had previously watched and learned from the Egyptians how to transport such large heavy objects, so they constructed "a special sea‐going version of the Nile vessels ... – a double‐ship with three hulls". In 390, Theodosius oversaw the removal of the other to Constantinople.Linda Safran says that relocating the obelisk was motivated by Theodosius' victory over "the tyrants" (most likely Maximus Magnus and his son Victor). It is now known as the obelisk of Theodosius and still stands in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, the long Roman circus that was, at one time, the centre of Constantinople's public life. Re-erecting the monolith was a challenge for the technology that had been honed in the construction of siege engines.


title: Theodosius I

text: The obelisk's white marble base is entirely covered with bas-reliefs documenting Theodosius' imperial household and the engineering feat of removing the obelisk to Constantinople. Theodosius and the imperial family are separated from the nobles among the spectators in the imperial box, with a cover over them as a mark of their status. From the perspective of style, it has served as "the key monument in identifying a so-called Theodosian court style, which is usually described as a "renaissance" of earlier Roman classicism".


title: Theodosius I

text: The Arian controversy, a dispute concerning the nature of the divine trinity, and its accompanying struggles for political influence, started in Alexandria before the reign of Constantine the Great between a presbyter, Arius of Alexandria, and his bishop, Alexander of Alexandria. When Alexander died, his successor, Athanasius, became the representative of orthodoxy.


title: Theodosius I

text: Arius asserted that God the Father created the Son. This meant the Son, though still seen as divine, was not equal to the Father, because he had a beginning, and was not eternal. Father and Son were, therefore, similar but not of the same essence. This Christology quickly spread through Egypt and Libya and the other Roman provinces. Bishops engaged in "wordy warfare," and the people divided into parties, sometimes demonstrating in the streets in support of one side or the other.


title: Theodosius I

text: Constantine had tried to settle the issues at the Council of Nicaea, but as Arnold Hugh Martin Jones states: "The rules laid down at Nicaea were not universally accepted". After the Nicene Creed was formulated in 325, many in the church reacted strongly against the word ""homoousios"" in the Creed, and therefore Councils at Ariminum (Rimini), Nike (southeast of Adrianople), and Constantinople, held in 359–60 by Emperor Constantius II, formulated creeds that were intended to replace or revise the Nicene Creed; in particular, to find alternatives for "homoousios." These councils are no longer regarded as Ecumenical Councils in the tradition of the Church; their creeds, which are at odds with the Nicene Creed, are known as Arian Creeds.


title: Theodosius I

text: During this time, Athanasius was at the center of the controversy and became the "champion of orthodoxy" after Alexander died. To Athanasius, Arius' interpretation of Jesus' nature (Homoiousian), that the Father and Son are similar but not identical in substance, could not explain how Jesus could accomplish the redemption of humankind which is the foundational principle of Christianity. "According to Athanasius, God had to become human so that humans could become divine ... That led him to conclude that the divine nature in Jesus was identical to that of the Father, and that Father and Son have the same substance" ("homoousios"). Athanasius' teaching was a major influence in the West, especially on Theodosius I.


title: Theodosius I

text: On 28 February 380, Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica, a decree addressed to the city of Constantinople, determining that only Christians who believed in the consubstantiality of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit could style themselves "catholic" and have their own places of worship officially recognized as "churches"; deviants were labeled heretics and described as "out of their minds and insane".


title: Theodosius I

text: Recent scholarship has tended to reject former views that the edict was a key step in establishing Christianity as the official religion of the Empire, since it was aimed exclusively at Constantinople and seems to have gone largely unnoticed by contemporaries outside the capital. For example, German ancient historian writes that the Edict of Thessalonica was neither anti-pagan nor antisemitic; it did not declare Christianity to be the official religion of the empire; and it gave no advantage to Christians over other faiths. It is clear from mandates issued in the years after 380 that Theodosius had made no requirement for pagans or Jews to convert to Christianity. Nonetheless, the edict is the first known secular Roman law to positively define a religious orthodoxy.


title: Theodosius I

text: According to Robinson Thornton, Theodosius began taking steps to repress Arianism immediately after his baptism in 380. On 26 November 380, two days after he had arrived in Constantinople, Theodosius expelled the Homoian bishop, Demophilus of Constantinople, and appointed Meletius patriarch of Antioch, and Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the Cappadocian Fathers from Cappadocia (today in Turkey), patriarch of Constantinople. Theodosius had just been baptized, by bishop Ascholius of Thessalonica, during a severe illness.


title: Theodosius I

text: In May 381, Theodosius summoned a new ecumenical council at Constantinople to repair the schism between East and West on the basis of Nicene orthodoxy. The council went on to define orthodoxy, including the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, as equal to the Father and 'proceeding' from Him. The council also "condemned the Apollonarian and Macedonian heresies, clarified jurisdictions of the bishops according to the civil boundaries of dioceses, and ruled that Constantinople was second in precedence to Rome."


title: Theodosius I

text: Theodosius seems to have adopted a cautious policy toward traditional non-Christian cults, reiterating his Christian predecessors' bans on animal sacrifice, divination, and apostasy, while allowing other pagan practices to be performed publicly and temples to remain open. He also voiced his support for the preservation of temple buildings, but nonetheless failed to prevent the damaging of many holy sites, images and objects of piety by Christian zealots, some including even his own officials. Theodosius also turned pagan holidays into workdays, but the festivals associated with them continued. A number of laws against paganism were issued towards the end of his reign, in 391 and 392, but historians have tended to downplay their practical effects and even the emperor's direct role in them. Modern scholars think there is little if any evidence Theodosius pursued an active and sustained policy against the traditional cults.


title: Theodosius I

text: There is evidence that Theodosius took care to prevent the empire's still substantial pagan population from feeling ill-disposed toward his rule. Following the death in 388 of his praetorian prefect, Cynegius, who had vandalized a number of pagan shrines in the eastern provinces, Theodosius replaced him with a moderate pagan who subsequently moved to protect the temples. During his first official tour of Italy (389–391), the emperor won over the influential pagan lobby in the Roman Senate by appointing its foremost members to important administrative posts. Theodosius also nominated the last pair of pagan consuls in Roman history (Tatianus and Symmachus) in 391.


title: Theodosius I

text: Contemporary archaeology has found that the area with the most destruction against temples by Christians took place in the territory around Constantinople in the diocese of Orientis (the East) under Theodosius' prefect, Maternus Cynegius, where archaeological digs have discovered several destroyed temples. Theodosius officially supported temple preservation, but Garth Fowden says Cynegius did not limit himself to Theodosius' official policy, but instead, commissioned temple destruction on a wide scale, even employing the military under his command for this purpose. Christopher Haas also says Cynegius oversaw temple closings, the prohibition of sacrifices, and the destruction of temples in Osrhoene, Carrhae, and Beroea.


title: Theodosius I

text: Earlier scholars believed Cynegius' actions were just part of a tide of violence against temples that continued throughout the 390s. However, recent archaeological discoveries have undermined this view. The archaeological evidence for the violent destruction of temples in the fourth and early fifth centuries around the entire Mediterranean is limited to a handful of sites. Temple destruction is attested to in 43 cases in the written sources, but only 4 of them were confirmed by archaeological evidence. Trombley and MacMullen say part of what creates this discrepancy are details in the historical sources that are commonly ambiguous and unclear. For example, Malalas claimed Constantine destroyed all the temples, then he said Theodosius did, then he said Constantine converted them all to churches. There is no evidence of any desire on the part of the emperor to institute a systematic destruction of temples anywhere in the Theodosian Code, and no evidence in the archaeological record that extensive temple destruction ever took place.


title: Theodosius I

text: According to "The Cambridge Ancient History", the Theodosian Law Code is a set of laws, originally dated from Constantine to Theodosius I, that were gathered together, organized by theme, and reissued throughout the empire between 389 and 391. Jill Harries and Ian S. Wood explain that, in their original forms, these laws were created by different emperors and governors to resolve the issues of a particular place at a particular time. They were not intended as general laws. Local politics and culture had produced divergent attitudes, and as a result, these laws present a series of conflicting opinions: for example, some laws called for the complete destruction of the temples and others for their preservation. French historian of Antiquity, , observes that "Ammianus Marcellinus" says this legal complexity produced corruption, forgery of rescripts, falsified appeals, and costly judicial delays.


title: Theodosius I

text: The Theodosian Law Code has long been one of the principal historical sources for the study of Late Antiquity. Gibbon described the Theodosian decrees, in his "Memoires", as a work of history rather than jurisprudence. Brown says the language of these laws is uniformly vehement, and penalties are harsh and frequently horrifying, leading some historians, such as Ramsay MacMullen, to see them as a 'declaration of war' on traditional religious practices. It is a common belief the laws marked a turning point in the decline of paganism.


title: Theodosius I

text: Yet, many contemporary scholars such as Lepelly, Brown and Cameron, question the use of the Code, a legal document, not an actual historical work, for understanding history. One of many problems with using the Theodosian Code as a record of history is described by archaeologists Luke Lavan and Michael Mulryan. They explain that the Code can be seen to document "Christian ambition" but not historic reality. The overtly violent fourth century that one would expect to find from taking the laws at face value is not supported by archaeological evidence from around the Mediterranean.


title: Theodosius I

text: The picture of Theodosius as "the most pious emperor", who presided over the end of paganism through the aggressive application of law and coercion – a view which R. Malcolm Errington says "has dominated the European historical tradition almost to this day" – was first written by Theodoret who, in Errington's view, had a habit of ignoring facts and cherry picking. In the centuries following his death, Theodosius gained a reputation as the champion of orthodoxy and the vanquisher of paganism, but modern historians see this as a later interpretation of history by Christian writers rather than actual history.


title: Theodosius I

text: An increase in the variety and abundance of sources has brought about the reinterpretation of religion of this era. According to Salzman: "Although the debate on the death of paganism continues, scholars ...by and large, concur that the once dominant notion of overt pagan-Christian religious conflict cannot fully explain the texts and artifacts or the social, religious, and political realities of Late Antique Rome".


title: Theodosius I

text: Scholars agree that Theodosius gathered copious legislation on religious subjects, and that he continued the practices of his predecessors, prohibiting sacrifices with the intent of divining the future in December of 380, issuing a decree against heretics on 10 January 381, and an edict against Manichaeism in May of that same year. Theodosius convened the First Council of Constantinople, the second ecumenical council after Constantine's First Council of Nicaea in 325; and the Constantinopolitan council which ended on 9 July. What is important about this, according to Errington, is how much this 'copious legislation' was applied and used, which would show how dependable it is as a reflection of actual history.


title: Theodosius I

text: Brown asserts that Christians still comprised a minority of the overall population, and local authorities were still mostly pagan and lax in imposing anti-pagan laws; even Christian bishops frequently obstructed their application. Harries and Wood say, "The contents of the Code provide details from the canvas but are an unreliable guide, in isolation, to the character of the picture as a whole". Previously undervalued similarities in language, society, religion, and the arts, as well as current archaeological research, indicate paganism slowly declined, and that it was not forcefully overthrown by Theodosius I in the fourth century.


title: Theodosius I

text: Maijastina Kahlos writes that the fourth century Roman empire contained a wide variety of religions, cults, sects, beliefs and practices and they all generally co-existed without incident. Coexistence did occasionally lead to violence, but such outbreaks were relatively infrequent and localized. Jan N. Bremmer says that "religious violence in Late Antiquity is mostly restricted to violent rhetoric: 'in Antiquity, not all religious violence was that religious, and not all religious violence was that violent'".


title: Theodosius I

text: The Christian church believed that victory over "false gods" had begun with Jesus and was completed through the conversion of Constantine; it was a victory that took place in heaven, rather than on earth, since Christians were only about 15–18% of the empire's population in the early 300s. Brown indicates that, as a result of this "triumphalism," paganism was seen as vanquished, and Salzman adds that judging by the sheer number of laws, heresy was a much higher priority than paganism for Christians in the fourth and fifth centuries.


title: Theodosius I

text: Lavan says Christian writers gave the narrative of victory high visibility, but that it does not necessarily correlate to actual conversion rates. There are many signs that a healthy paganism continued into the fifth century, and in some places, into the sixth and beyond. According to Brown, Christians objected to anything that called the triumphal narrative into question, and that included the mistreatment of non-Christians. Archaeology indicates that in most regions away from the imperial court, the end of paganism was both gradual and untraumatic. The "Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity" says that "Torture and murder were not the inevitable result of the rise of Christianity." Instead, there was fluidity in the boundaries between the communities and "coexistence with a competitive spirit." Brown says that "In most areas, polytheists were not molested, and, apart from a few ugly incidents of local violence, Jewish communities also enjoyed a century of stable, even privileged, existence."


title: Theodosius I

text: While conceding that Theodosius's reign may have been a watershed in the decline of the old religions, Cameron downplays the role of the emperor's 'copious legislation' as limited in effect, and writes that Theodosius did 'certainly not' ban paganism. In his 2020 biography of Theodosius, Mark Hebblewhite concludes that Theodosius never saw or advertised himself as a destroyer of the old cults; rather, the emperor's efforts to promote Christianity were cautious, 'targeted, tactical, and nuanced', and intended to prevent political instability and religious discord.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: GhostbustersII is a 1989 American supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts. It is the sequel to the 1984 film "Ghostbusters" and the second film in the "Ghostbusters" franchise. Set five years after the events of the first film, the Ghostbusters have been sued and put out of business after the destruction caused during their battle with the deity Gozer. When a new paranormal threat emerges, the Ghostbusters reunite to combat it and save the world.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: After the success of "Ghostbusters", Columbia Pictures wanted a sequel but struggled to overcome objections from the cast and crew. As with the first film, Aykroyd and Ramis collaborated on the script, which went through many variations. The pair wanted to convey a message about the consequences of negative human emotions in large cities. They settled on the idea of negative feelings creating a mass of supernatural slime beneath New York City that empowers malevolent spirits. With a budget of $30–40 million, filming took place between November 1988 and March 1989 in New York City and Los Angeles. Production was rushed compared to the original film's 13-month shooting schedule; large sections of the film were scrapped after poorly received test screenings. New scenes were written and filmed during re-shoots between March and April 1989, only two months before its release.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: "GhostbustersII" was released on June 16, 1989 to generally negative reviews. Critics responded unfavorably to what they perceived as largely a copy of the original and a softening of its cynical, dark humor to be more family-friendly, although the performances of Peter MacNicol and Rick Moranis were repeatedly singled out for praise. As the sequel to the then-highest-grossing comedy film of all time, "GhostbustersII" was expected to dominate the box office. Instead, the film earned $215.4 million during its theatrical run compared with the original's $282.2 million, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of the year. Columbia Pictures deemed it a financial and critical failure, effectively dissuading Murray from participating in a third "Ghostbusters" film. Its soundtrack single, "On Our Own" by Bobby Brown, was a success, spending 20 weeks on the United States music charts.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The film failed to replicate the cultural impact and following of "Ghostbusters". Although some critics retrospectively praised it, "GhostbustersII" is generally seen as a poor follow-up to "Ghostbusters" and responsible for stalling the franchise for decades. The film spawned a series of merchandise including video games, board games, comic books, music, toys, and haunted houses. Despite the relative failure of "Ghostbusters II", a second sequel was pursued through to the early 2010s. Following the 2016 series reboot, "Ghostbusters: Answer the Call", a sequel to "Ghostbusters II" titled "" was released in 2021.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Five years after saving New York City from destruction by the shape-shifting god Gozer, the Ghostbusters have been sued for the property damage incurred and barred from investigating the supernatural, forcing them out of business. Ray Stantz now owns an occult bookstore and works a side job alongside Winston Zeddemore as unpopular children's entertainers, Egon Spengler works in a laboratory experimenting with human emotions, and Peter Venkman hosts a television talk show about psychics.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Dana Barrett, Peter's ex-girlfriend, has an infant son named Oscar with her ex-husband and works at an art museum restoring artwork. She contacts the Ghostbusters after Oscar's baby stroller rolls, seemingly independently, into a busy intersection. At the museum, a painting of Vigo the Carpathian, a 16th-century European tyrant and powerful magician, comes to life and enslaves Dana's boss, Janosz Poha. Vigo orders Janosz to bring him a child to possess, allowing him to escape the confines of his painting and live again to conquer the world. Because of his infatuation with Dana, Janosz chooses Oscar.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Meanwhile, the Ghostbusters excavate the intersection where Oscar's stroller stopped and discover a river of slime running through the abandoned Beach Pneumatic Transit system. Ray obtains a sample but is attacked by the slime and accidentally breaks a pipe that falls onto a power line, causing a citywide blackout. The Ghostbusters are arrested and taken to court for the damage and for investigating the supernatural. Upon presentation as evidence, the slime sample responds physically to the judge's tirade against the Ghostbusters and then explodes, summoning the ghosts of the Scoleri brothers, whom he sentenced to death. The Ghostbusters capture the ghosts in exchange for a dismissal of the charges and the right to resume their business.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: One night, the slime invades Dana's apartment, attacking her and Oscar. She seeks refuge with Peter, and they rekindle their relationship. The Ghostbusters discover the slime reacts to emotions and suspect it has amassed from the negative emotions of New Yorkers. Determining Vigo and the slime are connected, Egon, Ray, and Winston investigate the river of slime, but they are pulled in. They emerge at the museum and begin fighting each other until Egon realizes the slime's negative energy is influencing them.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The Ghostbusters tell the mayor of their discoveries but are dismissed; his assistant Jack Hardemeyer has them committed to a psychiatric hospital to protect the mayor's political interests. A spirit appearing as Janosz kidnaps Oscar, and Dana pursues them into the museum, which is then covered with impenetrable slime. On New Year's Eve, the slime rises to the streets, causing widespread supernatural chaos. Discovering Hardemeyer's actions, the mayor fires him and has the Ghostbusters released.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Determining that a positive symbol will rally the citizens and weaken the slime, the Ghostbusters use slime charged with positive emotions to animate and pilot the Statue of Liberty through the streets filled with cheering citizens. At the museum, the slime barrier partially recedes due to the positive emotions and the Ghostbusters use the Statue's torch to break through the ceiling, stopping Vigo from possessing Oscar, then rappel through the ceiling and neutralize Janosz with positive slime. Vigo takes on physical form, immobilizes Dana and the Ghostbusters, and recaptures Oscar. The gathered crowds outside begin singing a chorus of "Auld Lang Syne", and their positivity weakens Vigo, sending him back to the painting and freeing the Ghostbusters. Vigo possesses Ray, but the Ghostbusters use their weapons to free him and defeat Vigo, his painting being replaced by their likenesses surrounding Oscar. Afterwards, the city lauds the Ghostbusters and the Statue of Liberty is returned to Liberty Island.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: As well as the main cast, "GhostbustersII" features Wilhelm von Homburg as Vigo the Carpathian (voiced by Max von Sydow). Several relatives of the cast and crew appear in the film; Murray's brother Brian Doyle-Murray plays the Ghostbusters' psychiatric doctor, Aykroyd's niece Karen Humber portrays a schoolchild, and director Ivan Reitman's children Jason and Catherine portray, respectively, the rude child at the opening birthday party and a girl that is part of Egon's experiments. Reitman cameos as a pedestrian. Judy Ovitz, wife of talent agent Michael Ovitz who represented many of the principal cast, appears as a woman in a restaurant who is slimed.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Mary Ellen Trainor appears as the host of a children's party, Cheech Marin plays a dock supervisor, and Philip Baker Hall portrays the city police chief. Bobby Brown (credited as Bobby Baresford Brown), who contributed to the film's soundtrack, cameos as a doorman. Ben Stein plays a public works official for the mayor, and Louise Troy appears as a woman wearing a possessed mink fur coat. Kevin Dunn and Chloe Webb appear as, respectively, Milton Angland and Elaine, guests on Venkman's television show.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: After the success of "Ghostbusters", a sequel was considered inevitable even though the film had been developed as a stand-alone project. The development of "GhostbustersII" was arduous, and the behind-the-scenes conflicts were given as much coverage in the press as the film. When David Puttnam became chairman of Columbia Pictures in June 1986, he was not interested in developing an expensive sequel, and favored smaller films such as the critically acclaimed war film "Hope and Glory" (1987) and the comedy film "Bloodhounds of Broadway" (1989) over big-budget blockbusters. He also greenlit several foreign-language films by European directors because he preferred making films for the "world market". "Ghostbusters" was part of former Columbia executive Frank Price's legacy, and Puttnam had no interest in furthering that legacy while building his own.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Reitman later said the delay in development was not Puttnam's fault; he said that executives above Puttnam at Columbia's New York branch had attempted to work around him, but could not get the production moving even after sidelining him. According to Reitman, the delay occurred because the main actors did not want to make a sequel for nearly three years; by the time they decided to go ahead, Murray was committed to his starring role in the Christmas comedy film "Scrooged" (1988). When Murray was finally ready, the script was not. As co-creators, Reitman, Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis all had control over the franchise, and their unanimous approval was required to proceed.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: In April 1987, Puttnam announced that "GhostbustersII" would go into production in November that year without having informed Reitman, who had not yet reviewed the unfinished script. Puttnam was removed from his job in September. This was in part because he had alienated Murray and his talent agent Michael Ovitz. Puttnam had publicly criticized Murray as "an actor who makes millions of dollars from Hollywood without giving back to his art. He's a taker". He also attacked expensive talent agency packages that provided scripts, directors, and stars; Ovitz also represented Aykroyd, Ramis, and Reitman.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Puttnam was replaced as Columbia president by Dawn Steel. When she took the job, her corporate bosses made it clear that getting the sequel into production was a priority. Columbia had experienced a long series of box-office failures since "Ghostbusters", and "GhostbustersII" was seen as the best way to reverse their fortunes. By November, filming was scheduled to begin in summer the following year. At the time, Murray reportedly wanted $10 million to star in the sequel and his co-stars demanded an equal amount.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The main obstacle was the disputes between the principal cast and crew that had arisen since "Ghostbusters". Ramis later said "there was a little air to clear" before they could work together. In March 1988, Ovitz arranged a private lunch for himself, Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis, Reitman, and Ovitz's colleague, CAA head of business affairs Ray Kurtzman, at Jimmy's, a celebrity restaurant in Beverly Hills, California. Concerns were raised such as whether the principals could still carry the sequel because Murray had been away from films for so long and Aykroyd had had a series of film failures. During the meeting, the group had fun and decided they could work together.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Months of negotiations followed with Reitman, Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis to negotiate a minimal salary in exchange for a percentage of the box office profits. The deal was reported to be 10% of the box office profits each; Reitman denied that the figure was that large but said, "it's a big one". This was to keep the budget low, aiming for approximately $30 million, whereas upfront salaries would have raised it closer to $50 million. After this, the film was rushed into production, with shooting scheduled for mid-1988 in anticipation of a mid-1989 release. Despite the five years it took to produce a sequel and its necessity for special effects, "GhostbustersII" had a shorter schedule than its predecessor's one-year turnaround. Michael C. Gross and producer Joe Medjuck returned for the sequel, each promoted to producer. Michael Chapman replaced László Kovács as cinematographer, and Bo Welch replaced John DeCuir as production designer.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Aykroyd described his first draft as "really too far out...too inaccessible". He wanted to avoid using New York City, set the film overseas, and provide a contrast to the first film's climax atop a skyscraper by including a subterranean threat. This draft followed Dana Barrett, who is kidnapped and taken to Scotland, where she discovers a fairy ring—a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms sometimes linked in folklore to fairies or witches—and an underground civilization. The Ghostbusters would have had to travel through an underground pneumatic tube over 2,000 miles long that would have taken three days to traverse. He eventually decided that retaining the New York setting would allow for continuity and would better fit the story he wanted to tell while allowing them to explore underground.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: As with "Ghostbusters", Aykroyd partnered with Ramis to refine the script. Early on, they decided "GhostbustersII" should reflect the five-year passage of time between the two films. Ramis suggested the story focus on a baby because he had previously developed a horror film concept centered on an infant who possessed adult agility and focus. This inspired him to create the character Oscar. Initially, the child was the son of Peter Venkman and Dana, who would have maintained their relationship in the intervening years. The child would have become possessed as a focal point of the film; Murray felt this created an imbalance in the story, placing too much emphasis on his and Dana's relationship with the child rather than the Ghostbusters and their character dynamics. Instead, they chose to have Peter's and Dana's relationship fail, allowing her to marry, have a child and be divorced by the events of "GhostbustersII". Ramis wanted to show that the Ghostbusters had not remained heroes after their victory in the previous film; he felt that would have been a less original approach.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The river of slime was conceived early in their collaboration. Ramis wanted the slime beneath New York to present a moral issue caused by the build-up of negative human emotions in large cities; he considered it a metaphor for urban decay and a call to deliver a human solution, though he said this was buried deeply in the script. The pair wanted negative emotions to have consequences and found humor in New York City having to be nice or face destruction, though at this point they did not know what form that destruction would take. Ramis said: "Comedically, it suggested, what if everyone in New York City had to be nice for forty-eight hours?" Aykroyd said they wanted to show negativity has to go somewhere, potentially into the person the emotion is directed towards. He felt this made the film more grounded compared with dealings with gods. He said: "Cities everywhere are dangerous. Life has become cheap. You can go to... see a movie and get machine-gunned on the street". The story evolved far from Ramis' and Aykroyd's efforts but retained the core notion of emotions and their impact. By May 1987, Aykroyd and Ramis had been working for over a year, and had completed the screenplay by March 1988.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: In the years since the release of the more adult-oriented "Ghostbusters", its animated spin-off television series "The Real Ghostbusters" had become popular with its target child audience. The team was tasked with balancing the needs of "Ghostbusters" fans and those of the cartoon's audience. According to Medjuck, the cartoon's success was influential in the return of Slimer for the sequel, and they aimed to avoid contradicting the cartoon where possible; he said although the Ghostbusters have been out of work for five years, they had to act as though the cartoon's events took place after the film.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: According to early reports, Puttnam intended to replace the principal cast with lower-salaried actors, in part because of his disdain for Murray. Puttnam denied this in a 1987 interview and said recasting had never been an option.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: "GhostbustersII" was to be the first sequel Reitman had directed, and he was worried about being able to surprise the audience without relying on elaborate special effects. He wanted to focus on character interaction, believing that was the original film's main draw. Ramis was apprehensive about returning to the franchise because of the overwhelming success of "Ghostbusters". Murray was also hesitant; he had left acting for four years following the release of the previous film. He described "Ghostbusters" success as a phenomenon that would forever be his biggest accomplishment and felt "radioactive" after the failure of his personal project "The Razor's Edge" (1984). He chose to avoid making films until he returned for "Scrooged". Murray was also dismissive of sequels in general, believing they exist only for "greed" or "business" reasons, the latter of which he said should carry a death sentence. He said he returned for the sequel because "working on the first "Ghostbusters" was the most fun any of us had".


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The character of Janosz Poha, portrayed by Peter MacNicol, was originally called Jason and serves as a straight man to the Ghostbusters. MacNicol said the role could be played by anyone so he opted to give Poha a backstory in which he is Carpathian. He developed the accent from his Czech friend and from observations at a Romanian tourist agency. MacNicol wanted to wear a black Beatles wig but the idea was rejected because many of the cast had dark hair. The character's accent was inspired by that of Meryl Streep in the film "Sophie's Choice" (1982). In the script, Poha is not described as having an accent but MacNicol impressed Reitman with it at his audition.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Max von Sydow provided the voice of Vigo; he completed his recordings in a single day. Von Homburg reportedly only learned his voice had been dubbed with von Sydow's while watching the premiere and stormed out shortly afterward. He later said his slurred voice, which was caused by a split lip, had been a hindrance in securing acting work. Eugene Levy was cast as Louis' cousin Sherman, an employee at the psychiatric ward where the Ghostbusters are imprisoned. The character was instrumental in their liberation but his scenes were cut.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Reitman began working on "GhostbustersII" almost immediately after directing the 1988 comedy film "Twins". Principal photography began in November 1988, in New York City. The budget was reported to be between $30 million and $40 million. Filming in New York lasted approximately two weeks and consisted mostly of exterior shoots.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The city authorities were supportive of the project and even granted the crew permission to film on the Manhattan's Second Avenue during a period in which access for forty city blocks was restricted because of the visit of Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union. Other locations include the Statue of Liberty and Firehouse, Hook & Ladder Company 8, the latter of which again served as the exterior of the Ghostbusters' headquarters. The updated Ghostbusters' business logo, which was gifted to the firehouse staff after filming, was hung on the outside of the building but eventually fell off.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House served as the exterior of the Manhattan Museum of Art, which housed the Vigo painting. The scene of Aykroyd, Ramis, and Hudson's characters emerging from a manhole covered in slime was filmed in front of the building. When he wrote the scene, Ramis expected the production to use a manhole, but the only available underground location was a telephone conduit. Space in the hole was limited, and the actors had to squeeze into it while covered in slime. Freezing temperatures combined with the liquid slime made the actors uncomfortable. The following day, they learned the cameras had been recording at the wrong speed and they would have to film the scene again. The scene of the Ghostbusters scanning the intersection where Oscar's possessed baby carriage is taken was filmed on First Avenue.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Filming had moved to Los Angeles by late December 1988. Fire Station No. 23 again served as the interior of the Ghostbusters' headquarters. Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills was used for the scene in which the Ghostbusters visit the mayor at Gracie Mansion. The scene in which the Ghostbusters dig a hole to find the river of slime was filmed in downtown Los Angeles. The scene in which a fur coat comes to life and runs away was filmed on a Los Angeles street; it was written for the original film but was not used and repurposed for "GhostbustersII". Filming concluded on March 7, 1989. Medjuck noted that characters are often seen smoking in "Ghostbusters" but a societal change in the intervening years meant this was no longer acceptable; "GhostbustersII" depicts fewer scenes including smoking.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Following test screenings, the principal crew realized there were numerous issues with the film. Reitman said that upon watching the test version he realized the final 25 minutes of the film "just died a horrible death", so he spent four days filming a new 25-minute ending to replace it. The test screenings identified that audiences liked the film but felt Vigo did not present a real challenge to the Ghostbusters and that their victory was too easy. Test audiences also thought Vigo, the slime, and the associated ghosts were not sufficiently connected. According to Gross, the audiences were not aware that the slime in the film could be charged by negative or positive emotions, so scenes were added to better explain this.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Extensive re-shoots were conducted throughout March and April 1989, only two months before the film's release; these included on-location filming in New York. "GhostbustersII" had been scheduled for release on the July 4th Independence Day holiday weekend but Reitman felt June 23 would work better. When they learned the superhero film "Batman" was also being released that day, they asked to move to the 16th. According to Gross, "Joe Medjuck and I were turning pale... it did not look possible... It was a real killer".


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Several new scenes were added to increase the sense of urgency and threat to the Ghostbusters, including the underground ghost train sequence and the associated severed-heads scare. A scene showing the Ghostbusters' developed photographs of Vigo bursting into flames, threatening to immolate them, was also added. Reitman wanted these scenes added because he thought his previous cut of the film focused too much on the relationship between Murray's and Weaver's characters. The ghost train scene was filmed at the Tunnel night club in New York. It was added to create a sense of an unseen force trying to keep the Ghostbusters away. Medjuck noted that the added scenes did not require extensive special effects. Cheech Marin's cameo as a dock supervisor was also added in this period.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The additional content replaced some scenes and subplots that were far into completion and contained finished special effects. Further shooting was done in Washington Square Park, which was used for the monster moving under the Washington Square Arch. The popularity of the film was evident at that time when thousands of people arrived after hearing "GhostbustersII" was being filmed there. They took part in filming, screaming on cue and running to escape the monster. The film's final battle with Vigo was reshot, and the way that Vigo left the painting to confront the Ghostbusters changed completely.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: One of the cut scenes included a subplot in which the Raymond Stantz character is possessed by Vigo following his inspection of the Vigo painting. Raymond erratically drives the Ectomobile until he is freed of Vigo's control by Winston. This explained Raymond's possession in the finale. Some of this footage was repurposed into a montage. There were also scenes of Louis Tully attempting to capture Slimer, which test audiences found intrusive, and Slimer was reduced to two appearances. Gross said they retained some Slimer scenes for children but that audiences generally had no reaction to the character, which was not what they had expected. Because the sequence in which Tully's cousin frees the Ghostbusters from the psychiatric hospital was removed, a scene showing a paranormal eclipse from the Mayor's office was added to explain the Mayor securing their release. Other removed scenes showed Ray and Egon experimenting with the slime, which explained how they learned to manipulate it to control the Statue of Liberty. A ghost was also removed from the sequence in which the slime causes ghosts to rise across New York because Reitman felt it was not creepy enough.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Ray Parker Jr. helped develop an updated version of his hit song "Ghostbusters", which was co-written and performed by hip hop group Run-DMC. Aiming to replicate the success of the original soundtrack, producer Peter Afterman wanted to hire Bobby Brown who had a recent succession of hit songs. To secure Brown's involvement, Afterman offered Brown's music label, MCA Records, the rights to the "Ghostbusters II" soundtrack. Brown agreed in exchange for a role in the film. Filming had nearly concluded at that time, but Reitman wrote Brown a cameo as the mayor's doorman. The resulting song, "On Our Own", was written by L.A. Reid, Babyface, and Daryl Simmons. The music video features appearances by Iman, Jane Curtin, Doug E. Fresh, Christopher Reeve, Malcolm Forbes, Rick Moranis, Donald Trump, and Marky and Joey Ramone.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Brown also worked alone to write and produce "We're Back". Other songs on the soundtrack include "Flip City" by Glenn Frey, "Spirit" by Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew, and "Love is a Cannibal" by Elton John. The song "Flesh 'n Blood" by composer Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo was written for the film but Elfman said he was disappointed that only four musical bars of it were used. He thought the small usage was an excuse to be able to release it on the soundtrack and said if he had known he would have pulled the song.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Randy Edelman was responsible for the film's . It was one of Edelman's first experiences working with a large scale orchestra. Although familiar with "Ghostbusters", he chose not to re-watch it for inspiration so the sequel would have a unique sound. Edelman believed the distinct personalities of the existing characters meant they rarely needed a musical accompaniment, and instead focused on scoring the supernatural and action setpieces to represent the menace and "dark nature of the evil Carpathian".


title: Ghostbusters II

text: As with his work on "Ghostbusters", Reitman had little interest in the technical side of his film. For the sequel, he employed special effects studio Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), giving them a rough outline of the plot and the freedom to do as they wanted. Columbia had previously helped Richard Edlund found special effects company "Boss Film Studios" for "Ghostbusters", but Reitman was reported to be unhappy with their work. Edlund's former ILM co-worker Dennis Muren served as the visual effects supervisor. Despite the film's intentionally rushed schedule, Muren wanted to work on the film because it would let him design new creatures. Muren admitted that his designs would not be as original as "Ghostbusters", and instead wanted to make them more flexible and "ghostly". The team was originally hired to provide 110 effects shots but this grew to 180.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: ILM was also working on special effects for other 1989 releases; "Back to the Future Part II", "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", and "The Abyss", but had the most difficulty with "GhostbustersII" because designs and concepts were constantly changing and new scenes were being added. ILM eventually refused to accept any further alterations. As the schedule tightened, ILM had nine teams working every day for four weeks to complete the expanded 180 shots, and had to outsource some of the extra work to Visual Concept Engineering, Available Light, Character Shop, and the uncredited Tippett Studio. Apogee Productions handled many of the effects for the reshoots.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Methocel, a vegetable-based gel, was used to create the slime. Food coloring was added; the colors included green (to match Slimer) and blue. Physical effects supervisor Chuck Gaspar mocked up differently colored batches and Reitman settled on pink. The film required approximately of slime. Four cement mixers were kept on-site to mix fresh batches daily because it deteriorated quickly. Mica dust and mineral oil were added for the river of slime; the dust added depth to the river while the oil created varying shapes on its surface.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The river of slime in the Van Horne Pneumatic Transit station was a miniature model with a plexiglass trough wide and long. It operated in a gravity pump and was fed from a large tank above it. After reaching the end of the river, the slime fell into another tank, from which it was fed back to the upper tank. Air injectors and puppeteered baffles were used to create bubbles and manipulate the slime to flow as though something was moving beneath the surface. Small slime tentacles were created using vinyl-covered sticks operated from below. The large tentacle was plastic and was filmed against a blue screen as it fell away from a stand-in's boot. The footage was then played in reverse so the tentacle would appear to be grabbing at Aykroyd. The Van Horne scene combined the miniature river, matte paintings of the station, and a practical set for stairs leading to a tunnel. The scene in which Aykroyd, Ramis, and Hudson fall into the river was considered one of the most difficult effects to achieve; the actors were filmed falling from the Van Horne set, which was composited with the miniature river. Hudson's character being dragged away by the slime's current was filmed against a blue screen so he would appear in the river; his motion in the river had to be animated by hand against the river's natural movements.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The returning Slimer ghost was re-developed to be more child-friendly like his popular "The Real Ghostbusters" incarnation. His face, which was controlled with wires and cables in "Ghostbusters", was now controlled by servo motors and had a pneumatic jaw. Bobby Porter was hired to wear the Slimer costume until the character was removed from the film entirely. A few weeks later, Slimer was reinserted but by this time, Porter was not available and was replaced by Robin Shelby.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The Scoleri Brother ghosts, Tony and Nunzio, were inspired by a pair of brothers who robbed Ramis' father's store. Creature designer Tim Lawrence was influenced by the musical comedy film "The Blues Brothers" (1980), which starred Aykroyd and featured two brothers, one of whom was tall and thin (Tony) and the other short and fat (Nunzio). The brothers were given a cartoonish design to counter the film's scary moments. Lawrence aimed to represent the characters' evil rather than their pre-death appearances. Camilla Henneman created most of Nunzio using spandex pouches filled with gelatinous materials to make him appear impossibly fat. The costume was worn by Lawrence. The impossibly thin Tony was designed as a life-size puppet but Muren thought this approach would impact the filming schedule. Tony was reworked as a costume that was worn by actor Jim Fye; it was given elongated appendages to appear unnaturally thin.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The ghosts' faces were articulated with motors and pneumatics created by mechanical animator Al Coulter and his team. Lawrence also developed an animation system to allow the masks to lip-sync dialog. Alongside early concepts of the ghosts walking and creating explosive ruptures with each step, most of these features were abandoned in the final film. Lawrence later said without those features the same effect could have been created with a one-third-scale puppet. The brothers' electric chairs were miniatures composited into footage of the seated, costumed actors. Distortion effects such as the ghosts being squeezed were created using completed effect shots that were rephotographed through mylar material that could be warped to affect the underlying image. For the scene in which Nunzio carries the prosecutor upside-down from the courtroom, a stuntwoman was hung upside down on a rail. Reitman wanted her to pass through the doorway while seeing above it. Gaspar's team created a passage made of foam above a door that resembled the iron grill. The foam was spring-loaded so that when the wire passed through, the set sprang back into place quickly; the effect was hidden behind a composite of Nunzio. Full-scale cutouts of the ghosts were used during filming to aid the actors. "Ghostbusters" storyboard artist Thom Enriquez storyboarded the scene; he found the process difficult because the limited schedule meant the courtroom was being built as he worked. He was also restricted by the budget, saying he "could use only fourteen chairs. I could also blow up four pillars and one wall of glass".


title: Ghostbusters II

text: The animated Statue of Liberty was conceived by Aykroyd, who liked the idea of taking a static image and making it move about, comparing it with seeing the Eiffel Tower moving or Victoria Falls flowing in reverse. The statue's role was originally written as a weapon for Vigo but this idea did not progress the narrative. The effect was a combination of a costume worn by Fye, miniatures, and larger-than-life-size elements like the statue's crown— which in reality was too small to let the Ghostbusters peer out. The crown was mounted on a gimbal, allowing it to be pivoted as though its wearer was walking. Reitman ordered the crown be tilted down further than the actors were expecting to elicit from them a genuine reaction of surprise. The upper body was modeled and filmed at night in a makeshift pool to show it emerging from the ocean. Fye also portrayed the ghost of a Central Park jogger.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: To portray the possessed Janosz illuminating a hallway with his eyes, MacNicol was filmed walking down a hallway, which was filmed again without lights and with Michael Chapman holding a light at the height of MacNicol's head, while panning it from side-to-side. Several takes were done to cover MacNicol's gaze. Animators added the beams emanating from Janosz, including particulate matter to enhance the realism. The "ghost nanny" version of Janosz that snatches Oscar from Venkman's apartment went through many variations. During development, it was conceived of as a two-headed dragon—an idea that was dismissed as unoriginal—billboard figures, animated gargoyles, a phantom taxi, and Santa Claus. A possessed item in the apartment was also considered; this idea inspired the possessed bathtub. MacNicol wore drag as the nanny for closeups and a puppet was used for wide shots. The ghost's extending arm was made from stretchable plastic tubing covered in fabric.


title: Ghostbusters II

text: Welch built the exterior walls and ledge of Venkman's apartment to scale; it was positioned in the air. The ledge was superimposed over a matte painting of the full building. The infant actor was secured in a rig that helped him to stand up before his abduction. The possessed bathtub started as a bubble-bath monster that would appear to have thousands of eyes in each bubble; it is destroyed when Dana drops her hairdryer into the bath. Reitman preferred the slime to be the monster. A silicone bath that could be easily bent was used; from below, Tom Floutz puppeteered a tentacle made of dielectric gel and reinforced with spandex and china silk, which was covered in slime. A fiberglass maw was inserted in front of a vacuum tube that sucked the material backward when activated, revealing a mouth. An animated tongue was added later.